Morgan Jackson

You Must Bee Joking

 Cool Science, Insects, Taxonomy  19 Responses »
Dec 172012
 

Sheldon & Leonard from Big Bang Theory

Sheldon: Which bees are the best kissers? 

Leonard: What? I don’t know…

Sheldon: Euglossa1. Bazinga.

Not only is that a pretty bad joke (even by sitcom standards), but it’s also the scientific name of a newly described orchid bee. Let me introduce you to Euglossa bazinga Nemésio & Ferrari:

Euglossa bazinga Nemésio & Ferrari 2012 Orchid bee

Euglossa bazinga Nemésio & Ferrari 2012

Found in the Brazilian Cerrado and other dry, open savannahs, this species was differentiated from the similar Euglossa ignita. According to the authors, Euglossa bazinga is the smallest species in the subgenus Euglossa (Glossura), but it possesses the longest tongue relative to it’s body size. Many taxonomists would perhaps see this as a good character to derive a name from (gigaglossa springs to mind, or perhaps microsomamegaglossa2 for the verbose), so how did Nemésio & Ferrari settle on Euglossa bazinga?

Etymology: The specific epithet honors the clever, funny, captivating “nerd” character Sheldon Cooper, brilliantly portrayed by the North American actor James Joseph “Jim” Parsons on the CBS TV show “The Big Bang Theory”. Sheldon Cooper’s favorite comic word “bazinga”, used by him when tricking somebody, was here chosen to represent the character. Euglossa bazinga sp. n. has tricked us for some time due to its similarity to E. ignita, which eventually led us to use “bazinga”. Sheldon Cooper has also an asteroid named after him (246247 Sheldoncooper).

–  Nemésio & Ferrari, 2012

I think this may be a first for a Celebronym, with the species named after a catchphrase rather than the actual character or celebrity! What’s next, a beetle with enlarged fore tarsi named “ayyyyy” after The Fonz? As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t mind these Celebronyms personally, especially when they serve to draw attention to a very special habitat such as the Brazilian Cerrado.

No matter what your stance on Celebronyms, the joke may be on the authors of this new species; Sheldon Cooper is allergic to bees! Bazinga.


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NEMÉSIO A. & FERRARI R.R. (2012). Euglossa (Glossura) bazinga sp. n. (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Apinae, Apini, Euglossina), a new orchid bee from western Brazil, and designation of a lectotype for Euglossa (Glossura) ignita Smith, 1874, Zootaxa, 3590  63-72. Other: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:E9C0A568-8BBC-4E1D-8F05-C7FA1966B0D3
_______________

  1. Euglossa  – Greek – “eu” = good, well; “glossa” = tongue; Euglossa = “well-tongued”, in reference to their very long mouthparts. ↩
  2. “little body, big tongue” ↩

Heeeeere’s Johnny!

 Biology, Insects, Natural History  11 Responses »
Dec 162012
 

The response to the jewel beetle field guide has been incredible thus far, with nearly 900 people requesting more than 1300 copies in less than 2 weeks! With all this attention to beetles around here lately, I figured I’d post a little reminder about which insect order still rules these parts.

Sarcophagidae flesh flies emerging from the abdomen of a Buprestis consularis beetle

Proof that 2 parasitic heads are more gruesome than 1. Parasitic flesh/satellite flies (Sarcophagidae) forever entombed as they attempt a late emergence from the abdomen of a captured Buprestis consularis jewel beetle. Photo by Adam Jewiss-Gaines.

We came across this little tragedy while examining and photographing specimens for the field guide, and Adam Jewiss-Gaines did a great job of bringing their sorry plight to life (so to speak) in this image-stacked photo.

I tried to track down what species (or even subfamily) these flies may be, but I couldn’t find any record (in my admittedly quick search) of sarcophagids using Buprestidae as hosts. According to the Manual of Nearctic Diptera Vol. 2, these little guys likely belong to the subfamily Miltogramminae (based on their seemingly bare arista), which are commonly known as satellite flies for their habit of orbiting ground nesting bees and wasps and kleptoparasitizing their collected prey, but I’m unsure whether they will parasitize free-living beetles. If they are in fact members of the Sarcophaginae (some of whom do have bare arista), perhaps these individuals are members of the genus Sarcophaga, species of which have been reared from beetles and various other insects.

Without being able to examine the rest of their bodies, I may never know what these flies are, but I find it fascinating that they matured and began their escape only to be killed and preserved within our collection!

While we’re talking about flesh flies, I want to call your attention to some absolutely amazing Scanning Electron Micrographs of male sarcophagid genitalia taken by my friend Dave Cheung. Not only are the genitalia bizarre and the micrographs beautiful, but Dave has worked his magic and made them both zoomable and rotatable, creating pseudo-3D models! Check them out — I guarantee they’ll blow your mind!

UPDATE Dec. 17, 2012: Never mind about this being a free-living beetle! I double checked the specimen label, and this beetle was actually collected from a Cerceris fumipennis colony in Highland Hammock State Park, Florida, which almost certainly makes these Miltogramminae satellite flies.

Information regarding Sarcophagidae biology was taken from SarcoWeb, a website created and maintained by Dr. Thomas Pape which is dedicated to the study of flesh fly taxonomy.

Midnight Meteors

 Astrophotography, Photography  7 Responses »
Dec 152012
 

I ventured out to Guelph Lake Thursday evening to observe and try to photograph this year’s Geminid meteor shower. For about an hour, from 12:30-1:30 AM, I sat on top of the dam and watched as more than 50 pieces of ancient asteroid burned up in Earth’s atmosphere. It was one of the most spectacular meteor showers I’ve witnessed, and was well worth bundling up and staying out late!

While just witnessing this year’s Geminid Meteor shower was exciting, I was finally able to capture a few pieces of the doomed asteroid on camera.

Geminid meteor - Facing North - Guelph Lake 2012

Geminid meteor – Northern Sky – Guelph Lake 2012

Geminid Meteor over Guelph Lake - Facing East - 2012

Faint Geminid Meteor (just to the left of centre, parallel to the Big Dipper) over Guelph Lake – East – 2012

Guelph Lake is a mere 5 minutes outside of the city of Guelph, and as you can see in the second photo, there is plenty of light pollution affecting our view of the sky (that big yellow glow is the Greater Toronto Area off in the distance). Luckily there are some places that still enjoy dark night skies, but for the most part they require some dedication and travel to get to.

Phil Plait (aka @BadAstronomer) has some beautiful photos of the Geminids shared by his readers over at his blog Bad Astronomy.

Stars over Guelph Lake - Geminids 2012

Stars over Guelph Lake, with only clouds to fill the earthly sky.

Photos captured with a Nikon D700 & Nikkor 18-70mm lens  (F3.5, 20 secs, ISO 500, Tripod).

Field Guide to the Jewel Beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) of Northeastern North America

 Entomology, Insects, Publication  84 Responses »
Dec 062012
 

Following the accidental introduction of Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis) in the mid 1990’s, and its subsequent detection in the Detroit, MI/Windsor, ON area in 2002, jewel beetles (Buprestidae) have become front page news in many communities in eastern North America. As federal, provincial, state and municipal governments initiate jewel beetle monitoring projects to track the expanding range of Emerald Ash Borer, many other species are captured as by-catch, which has subsequently lead to an increased interest in these bold and beautiful beetles.

Luckily, North American buprestid taxonomists have been working diligently with these charismatic & economically important beetles for decades, and have described and classified nearly all the eastern North American fauna. With a solid taxonomic base to build upon and an increasing demand for accessible identification resources, a partnership was formed between the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the University of Guelph Insect Collection and the Invasive Species Centre to create a user-friendly resource for jewel beetle identification. Today, I’m happy to announce the imminent publication of a Field Guide to the Jewel Beetles of Northeastern North America!

Cover of Field Guide to the Jewel Beetles of Northeastern North America

Cover photo of Buprestis rufipes by Ted MacRae

Map of use for the Field Guide to Jewel Beetles

Green – Guide considered comprehensive; Yellow – Majority of fauna included in guide, may require additional resources; Red – Guide not representative of local fauna, be sure to consult additional resources.

This 411 page field guide (6×9″) covers the 164 jewel beetle species known from northeastern North America, and also includes 2 identification keys to the 23 genera in the region: one a technical key adapted from previously published works, and the other a “field key”, designed for use with a hand lens or digital camera and which uses characters that are more easily observed. In addition, we’ve included a short section on collecting, preparing and storing jewel beetles, as well as an illustrated tutorial on how to dissect male genitalia. Fully labelled morphological maps and a glossary of terms that may be found in the primary literature are provided to help non-specialists use both this field guide, and also any other buprestid literature they may need to consult.

Each species in the guide is fully illustrated with high magnification colour photos of the dorsal & ventral habitus, head and male genitalia (plus additional colour morphs or variations where possible), and a review of taxonomic synonyms, ESC & ESA approved common names, and all known larval host plants is provided in addition to thorough morphological diagnoses, characters useful for differentiating similar species, and notes on species abundance, habitat preference and economic importance. On top of all this, we’ve also included a number of other tools and resources to help with species-level identification in the absence of keys. Take a look at the Emerald Ash Borer page to see what to expect throughout:

View Original on Prezi

So how can you get your copy? The Field Guide to the Jewel Beetles of Northeastern North America is now available by calling 1-800-442-2342 UPDATE: Sorry, hard copies are all sold out. PDFs are available here. The CFIA is making this field guide completely FREE. Yes — totally, 100% FREE, including international shipping. This book won’t be available through traditional or online bookstores, so we need your help in spreading the word about it. If you know researchers/naturalists/citizen scientists who may find this field guide useful, please let them know how they can get copies of their own, because we’d love to see the book in the hands of anyone with an interest in natural history and entomology!

If you have any questions about the field guide, please don’t hesitate to ask, either in the comments below or via email, and my co-authors and I hope you enjoy using it as much as we enjoyed creating it!

Example page from Generic Identification Key for Jewel Beetles

Sample key to genera page. All characters used in the key are illustrated with either high magnification photographs or simple illustrations.

Trachys generic spread from Field Guide to Jewel Beetles

Trachys generic page from Field Guide to Jewel Beetles featuring original artwork by scientific illustrator/artist Glendon Mellow.

Buprestis striata species field guide page

Buprestis striata field guide page showing colour variations.

Black Fly Day

 Cool Science  3 Responses »
Nov 232012
 
Simulium sp from Ecuador Black fly Simuliidae

Simulium sp. from Ecuador (Simuliidae) feasting on my blood. Ironically, being bitten by this hungry little lady was more fun than fighting hungry crowds at the mall would be today…

You can thank black fly expert Dr. Douglas Currie of the Royal Ontario Museum for this awesome pun:

Related, Doug will be hosting a special Curators’ Corner meet & greet at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto from 11:00-4:00 tomorrow (Nov. 24, 2012), where he’ll be talking about Arctic biodiversity, black flies and climate change. Check it out if you happen to be in the area, I’m sure it’ll be a bloody good time!

UPDATE: Behold the power of social media! After tweeting back and forth with Doug Currie & Chris Buddle about #BlackFlyDay, one of the tweets was picked up by Tom Allen, DJ for CBC Radio 2’s afternoon radio show SHIFT, who then scheduled a portion of his afternoon playlist around Black Flies! I’m not sure whether today’s episode will be archived (I’ll embed it here if I find it later), but you can listen live to hear Tom Allen discussing #BlackFlyDay at about 5:20 EST (2:20 PST) on CBC Radio 2 (here’s the West Coast broadcast online for those not living in Vancouver).

‘Tis The Season to Fund Science!

 Biology, Cool Science, Science Communication  23 Responses »
Nov 232012
 

Today is Black Friday in North America, a day where all manner of consumer goods go on sale to jump start the holiday gift-giving buying season, and people go crazy trying to grab their share of the deals. Instead of fighting the crowds for a slightly cheaper sweater or another widescreen TV, why not stay at home and fund some exciting arthropod science this year?

Joseph Parker is planning an expedition to Peru in search of tiny little rove beetles (Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae) that live within ant colonies. I met Joe at the Entomological Society of America meeting last week, and he wears his passion for beetles on his sleeve (and his Twitter handle – @Pselaphinae). While Joe spends most of his time as a post-doc at Columbia University studying the mechanisms that drive insect size, he’s been working on the taxonomy & phylogeny of pselaphine beetles as a “hobby” for several years, and I think it’s about time Joe gets the chance to leave the lab and play in the dirt looking for beetles!

It’s not all about Joe though, because he’d like to repay your donation with anything from a sincere “Thank You”, to his services IDing insects, and even the opportunity to name a new species! Even though Joe has reached his financial goals, every dollar raised above his goal will go towards DNA sequencing costs, meaning there’s always room to help — believe me, DNA don’t come cheap! You can follow along with Joe’s progress & trip to Peru on his Facebook page.

If sneaky beetles living on the forest floor aren’t your thing, perhaps you’d rather help researchers in Spain study arthropod diversity high up in the canopy of a protected forest that’s under threat from human activity? Jorge Mederos is a biologist (and crane fly enthusiast) with the Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona who loves to get up high in the forest canopy, a place he calls “the nearby cosmos”. Just as we’re discovering new things about the cosmos light years away, the biology of the forest canopy is poorly understood, even though it’s only metres above our heads. Jorge’s work revolves around Collserola Park, a large protected forest on the edge of Barcelona, which is under growing pressure from human activity and urban development. Jorge needs your help to purchase weather monitoring equipment and lab supplies that will allow him to understand what life is like for insects living out of our reach.

Jorge is also on Twitter (@jmedeCCF) and will be acknowledging those of you who help fund his project in the scientific papers he publishes. Jorge still needs help to reach his funding target, and time is quickly running out on his project, so don’t delay in helping him reach for the sky!

So there you have it, two exciting scientific projects which need a little help from you this holiday season! Remember, sweaters go out of fashion and electronics are outdated before you get home, but scientific papers & species names last forever. 😉

The Job Can Be Yours, But You Have To Apply

 Academia, Life as a Grad Student  16 Responses »
Oct 162012
 

This afternoon the Natural History Museum in London, UK posted a pair of permanent curatorships at their insect collection, one for the Coleoptera collection, and the other for the Odonata and Small Orders collection. Seeing how rarely these types of jobs open up, there has been considerable buzz on Twitter, with many awesome people exclaiming how great it’d be to get a job like that at one of the premiere insect collections on the planet, but too bad they don’t have all the qualifications so they wouldn’t stand a chance and thus won’t be applying.

This is something I’ve seen far too frequently during my time in academia: people selling themselves, their work and their qualifications short, and not bothering to apply for positions they find interesting because they see invisible barriers they assume will prevent them from getting the job. I’ve seen undergrads do it, I’ve seen MSc students do it, I’ve seen PhD students do it, and I’ve seen Post-docs do it, so I figured I’d write down my observations & thoughts on what holds people back from applying for jobs, and why it shouldn’t. Continue reading »

Thoughts on #SciStuChat & a Storify of tonight’s event

 Entomology, Science Communication  18 Responses »
Oct 122012
 

I just got finished talking about insects with a swarm of high school students, educators and other entomologists, and I’m jacked up!

What an absolutely incredible hour of lightning-round outreach! The students were asking great questions, and more importantly, appeared to be thinking about the answers they received and responding with follow-up questions or comments. I’m guessing that there was about a 7:1 ratio of students to entomologists, and the stream of questions, answers, comments and observations was going so fast I could hardly keep up. I personally answered questions about diversity, fly behaviour, mosquito-vectored diseases, taxonomy, morphology, physiology, how I got interested in entomology and a whole bunch more, and I was typing as fast as my stubby little fingers could go!

What makes #SciStuChat so important in my mind is the way in which students are encouraged to meet, talk and ask questions with real, working scientists. I would have killed to have an opportunity like this when I was growing up, and I’m more than happy to provide an hour of my time to help connect with the next generation of potential scientists and perhaps turn them into future colleagues!

If you’d like to check out (or better yet join in) #SciStuChat, it’s held on the second Thursday of every month throughout the school year with a new main topic each month. Until then, check out what we were talking about tonight, and consider joining in next month! Continue reading »

Entomology in the Digital Classroom – #SciStuChat

 Entomology, Science Communication, ScienceShare  20 Responses »
Oct 102012
 

A few weeks ago I was invited to help out with a cool project connecting high school students with working scientists via Twitter called SciStuChat. The program, started by high school science teacher Adam Taylor, encourages students and other inquisitive minds to talk about science, ask questions and get to know their friendly online-neighbourhood scientist!

I tuned in to September’s chat which centred on sharks and marine biology, and it seemed like fun for both the students and the scientists who participated. It turns out that October’s theme will be Insects, so when Adam (@2footgiraffe) invited me to help out, I jumped at the opportunity!

I know there are a lot of entomologists on Twitter who really enjoy outreach and spreading the good word about bugs, so I hope that some of you might be interested in joining the discussion. The chat will be taking place this Thursday, October 11 starting at 8pm CST (9pm EST or 6pm PST), and I think it’s scheduled for about an hour or so. All you need to do is log on to Twitter, follow the hashtag (#SciStuChat), and start interacting with curious minds! There is such a diverse field of entomologists on Twitter that I’m confident that we can answer and engage with any questions people may have regarding insects.

Finally, don’t worry if you’re not on Twitter, I’ll round up all the discussions and post them here later in the week so you can see how it went, although this as good a reason as ever to sign up for Twitter if you’ve been thinking about doing so!

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