Natural History » Biodiversity in Focus Blog

Tuesday Tunes – Mississippi Bo Weevil Blues – Charley Patton

Entomology, Fun Stuff, Natural History, Pop Culture, Tuesday Tunes No Responses »

Oct 182011

When it comes to insect pests, few have been so devastating yet controlled and managed as the Boll Weevil (Anthonomus grandis). An introduced pest of US cotton in the early 20th century, the Boll Weevil has largely been eradicated thanks to a massive effort by the USDA (which might explain why there are only 4 photos of this beetle on BugGuide).

It’s not often that a major insect pest is praised, yet in Enterprise, Alabama, they’ve erected a statue in its honour! Why? Because it so devastated the local cotton plantations that farmers switched to peanut farms, where they found great commercial success! Enterprise, AL is definitely on my dream roadtrip schedule now!

View Larger Map

Of course, Boll Weevils aren’t the only entomologically related statues in the US; Mormon crickets (Anabrus simplex) were also immortalized, sort of. In this case, it was their demise by California Gull which is being remembered, but still, an insect-related statue is an insect-related statue!

As you may have noticed, I didn’t get around to answering last week’s photo challenge; imagine that… There are still plenty of points up for grabs and not many guesses, so why not take a stab at what it might be. Hopefully I’ll get time to post the full story next week, but given my track record with sticking to schedules, best not hold your breath!

This song is available on iTunes – Mississippi Boll Weevil Blues – Complete Recordings, CD A

Bye Bye Bird Louse

Biology, Entomology, Natural History, Taxonomy 3 Responses »

Oct 032011

Remember that last ID challenge I put to you? The one at the end of August which I’m only now getting around to answering? Ya, that one.

With the best turn out of commenters willing to wager on their IDs, I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to award those hard earned points. But no fear, that day is finally here!

It seems that Hippoboscidae have a face that more than it’s mother can love, as everyone correctly guessed the right family! I can’t say I blame the enthusiasm surrounding this fly, as their morphological adaptations for living on birds are pretty amazing!

Dorso-ventrally flattened to slide in amongst the feathers, plenty of thick setae on the thorax and abdomen which I assume are used for getting nestled in for the long haul, and trifurcated tarsal claws to hold onto their feathered hosts. Although I enjoy a morning bird watching from time to time, I’m not exactly a bird wrangler, so how did I come by this spectacular specimen? It seems my wife was putting out the bird vibes back in August while we were out hiking through Mono Cliffs Provincial Park (which is a fantastic hike by the way, definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area), and this fly latched on while we walked back to the parking lot.

Renee wasn’t all too impressed with her little hitchhiker, but I was ecstatic! I quickly scooped it off and put in my camera bag for a few snaps, all the while expecting it to get away. With these photos in hand, I threw it in my bag anticipating another opportunity to shoot it when I got home, but I guess all this excitement was too much, as it didn’t survive the car ride. Oh well, it found a good resting place in the Guelph Insect Collection, and also gave me a chance to identify it back in the lab.

Of course, that would prove more difficult than I had imagined, and I’m still not 100% confident in my final identification. The genus ID was relatively easy using the Manual of Nearctic Diptera, and I quickly had it keyed to the genus Icosta. That’s where the “fun” began however, as I tracked down the authoritative paper on Icosta taxonomy and biology published in 1969 by T.C. Maa of the Bishops Museum. Although the keys were well written and relatively well illustrated for a 1969 key, the characters needed for identification were anything but simple! I eventually ended up at Icosta ardeae (Macquart), although from what I could tell it was Icosta ardeae ardeae, a subspecies recorded from much of the Old World, ranging from the UK, down to South Africa and as far east as the Philippines and Australia! The other subspecies, Icosta ardeae botaurinorum, is listed as being known from North America, including Ontario, but the abdominal setae and wing shape illustrated just didn’t fit. Both species are known to choose herons as their preferred host, with I. a. botaurinorum breeding almost solely on American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus), which could very well have been lurking in the pond near the parking lot.

So what’s the deal; is it I. a. ardeae, or I. a. botaurinorum? I’m not a big believer in the idea of subspecies, so I’m happy simply calling it Icosta ardeae, but it speaks volumes about our understanding of the taxonomy of the family. Often found on birds (one of the best studied groups on earth), you would assume these flies would be as well studied and well collected as their avian counterparts, and yet I can’t get a definitive ID on one found 30 minutes from Toronto! Without any further taxonomic work since Maa’s 1969 revision, and with Maa leaving numerous species unnamed in his paper, simply calling them Icosta sp. “S” or sp. “N”, Icosta seems like a great project for someone interested in fly and bird taxonomy, and I could see a cool phylogenetic comparison between hippoboscid species and their avian hosts!

With that suggestion for the future, lets finish off the past and allocate some BioPoints! Chris scores a cool 15 points (3 for family, 4 for subfamily, 2 for being the first to answer and 6 for the review of hippoboscid larval biology), Laurie Knight picks up 8 (3 for family, 2 for picking a related species, and 3 for sharing her awesome photos of hippoboscid’s with mallophagan lice attached), Miles scores 3 points for his family ID, and Matt grabs 5 points (3 for family plus 2 for providing the morphological characters he used).

Thanks for playing once again everyone, and watch for more ID challenges in the near future (I mean it this time, I swear…)

All notes on taxonomy and biology of these flies was found in:

Maa, T.C. 1969. Revision of Icosta (=Lynchia Auctt.) with erection of a related genus Phthona. Pacific Insects Monograph 20: pg. 25-203.

CJAI No. 16 – The Fireflies of Ontario

Entomology, Guest Blog, Life as a Grad Student, Natural History, Publication 7 Responses »

Aug 262011

Today’s guest post is by Stephen Luk, the lead author of Fireflies of Ontario (Coleoptera: Lampyridae), which was recently published in the Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification. Stephen is an M.Sc. candidate at the University of Guelph as part of the Insect Systematics Lab, and while his main research is now focusing on Sphaeroceridae taxonomy, he has maintained a keen interest in the remaining Insecta. Stephen is a frequent contributor to BugGuide.net, and an avid nature photographer.

Lampyridae - Lampyrinae - Photinus obscurellus (m) - Stephen Luk Firefly

Photinus obscurellus by Stephen Luk

Over the moist meadows where stargazers behold the star-studded sky, insect enthusiasts can admire the summer scintillations of fireflies. Their neon glows spark fond childhood memories: of fields lit by symphonic displays; of brilliant twinkling in a jar set among the grass or over a book. But the fireflies of lore and poetry are truthfully poorly understood. They are often difficult to identify both in the field and in the laboratory. The shape and colour of a species can vary bewilderingly, and only an informed observer is capable of confidently identifying species amid the dazzling nocturnal orchestration. This is said of adults, and scarcely of immature stages, the knowledge of which is mostly sparse to absent.

Thankfully, the confusion is subsiding with the advent of novel identification tools. “The Fireflies of Ontario (Coleoptera: Lampyridae)”, published in the Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification, features an updated list of Ontario fireflies as well as a comprehensive and user-friendly key to adult fireflies in Canada east of Ontario. Users will discover a practical platform upon which to illuminate the fascinating lives of fireflies. This resource arrived just as these wonderful beetles mesmerized the public with their seasonal light shows. Fireflies were certainly well represented this summer in southwestern Ontario — I observed nearly a dozen species upon a few occasions here in Guelph.

Behind the scenes with fireflies

I became acquainted with fireflies as an undergraduate student, and was appalled that creatures so familiar were so harrowing to identify. Thus, I assembled obscure literature, meticulously determined specimens and wrestled long with species in the genus Photinus (remarkably similar species in this region). I amalgamated and redesigned keys while gladly illustrating them with pinned specimens, but disapproved the paucity of suitable live images, and have since embarked on a quest to rectify this personally. The product was defended and published fourteen months later, rendering Ontario’s adult fireflies identifiable. I have since accumulated additional images, and was even privileged to dispense some expertise through the CBC.

Steve’s CBC Radio Interview

Steve was also interviewed for an article in the London Free Press

Luk, S., Marshall, S., & Branham, M. (2011). The Fireflies of Ontario (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification DOI: 10.3752/cjai.2011.16 OPEN ACCESS

Catching up with a Challenge

Bug of the Day, Fun Stuff, Insects, Natural History 6 Responses »

Aug 102011

You may remember I offered an ID challenge a ~~few days~~ ~~weeks~~ month ago (where did that month go?), so I figured I’d best tally some points. What was that bug-eyed beast staring out from the screen?

This deceiving photo may at first glance remind you of a praying mantis (order Mantodea), but is in fact the face of an insect in a totally different order; the Neuroptera. As Miles correctly deduced, this is Dicromantispa interrupta, a member of the mantisfly family (Mantispidae).

One of four species of mantisfly found in Canada, Dicromantispa interrupta is restricted to southern Ontario and Quebec in Canada (this specimen was brought back from Turkey Point Provincial Park in Norfolk County, Ontario during a recent survey), but occurs all the way down to Florida and southern Mexico and as far west as Minnesota. As can be guessed by the large eyes and raptorial front legs, adults are predatory on other insects, while larvae are parasitic in juvenile spiders. The mantisfly larvae are mobile and enter a spider’s egg sac as it’s being spun (or possibly find their way into completed egg sacs), where they await the hatching of spiderlings. Once the spiderling has hatched, the mantisfly larva will wrap itself around the pedicel (waist) of the spider until it’s next molt, at which point it will enter the book lungs and continue its development, eventually pupating and emerging from the egg sac as an adult!

There is another closely related species found in the extreme south of Ontario, and which Chris Borkent alluded to; Dicromantispa sayi. Although very similar in appearance, D. interrupta can be recognized by the brown markings at the tip of the wings and about 1/3 of the way from the tips (D. sayi has no such markings with the wing entirely clear other than the leading edge) .

Dicromantispa interrupta mantisfly lateral

Dicromantispa interrupta (staged)

As for BioPoints, I’m giving 2 to Peter Coffey for participating and hazarding a guess on the order; Miles walks away with 15 for the correct order, family, genus and species; and Chris gets 5 for taking a chance on the other sympatric species! Thanks for playing, and I’ll try to do challenges more frequently to allow everyone a chance at getting to the magic number of 200, so be sure to check back for other opportunities!

Cannings, R., & Cannings, S. (2006). The Mantispidae (Insecta: Neuroptera) of Canada, with notes on morphology, ecology, and distribution The Canadian Entomologist, 138 (4), 531-544 DOI: 10.4039/n06-806

T.G.I.Formicidae – Formica with Aphids

Blogosphere, Insects, Natural History, TGIFormicidae 7 Responses »

Jul 012011

T.G.I.Formicidae is a new occasional feature here on the blog, and this inaugural edition features some collusion between Alex Wild, Ted MacRae and myself. Alex normally features beetles on Fridays, and Ted and I thought it might be fun to continue the trend, with Ted blogging flies today while I cover ants to complete the triad of major insect groups! Make sure to check out their blogs to see what fantastic Friday finds they have to share!

In a last minute rush to produce some ant photos to compliment the fine photographs of Ted’s and Alex’s, I ran back to the Dairy Bush on the University of Guelph campus with hopes of finding some interesting ants to shoot. Luckily for me, I happened across what I believe are ~~Camponotus~~ Formica ants tending to masses of aphids. Ant mutualism with aphids was one of the first insect interactions I can remember learning about in my intro entomology courses, and I can’t resist watching and photographing these tiny ranchers whenever I come across them!

Honey Bee Don’t Care!

Fun Stuff, Natural History, Nature, Tongue in Cheek 1 Response »

Jun 292011

About lowly human parking laws at least!

Honey Bee Don't Care!

Yep, a honey bee swarm decided that this parking sign in our department’s parking lot was as good a place as any to settle down for the evening. Lucky for them, the parking authority goes home at 5…

Honey bees on parking sign with text saying Subject to Tow Away

We're going to need a smaller truck!

One of the offenders

Tuesday Tunes – Pollinator – Miki Litvak

Biology, Insects, Natural History, Pop Culture, Tuesday Tunes 4 Responses »

Jun 212011

It’s National Pollinator Week in the US, and although Canada doesn’t have their own celebration of insect-facilitated sex, that doesn’t mean I can’t promote some sexy fly pollinators! Honey bees and their hymenopteran brethren get most of the credit for pollination, but flies are likely just as powerful pollinators, only underappreciated and understudied thus far. Some of the world’s most vital crops (i.e. chocolate) depend on flies for pollination (in this case a biting midge of the family Ceratopogonidae), while countless other plants find themselves in a veritable orgy of Diptera deliveries. Some of the more striking of these include the Syrphidae, conveniently known as flower flies for their propensity to visit flowers for pollen and nectar.

Parhelophilus laetus

Toxomerus geminatus

Toxomerus marginatus

While these 3 species are pollinators of compound flowers (like the ones in the last photo being visited by Toxomerus marginatus), some flower flies are specialists on plants which were typically thought to be wind pollinated, such as grasses.

Platycheirus sp.

With around 900 species of Syrphidae in North America (and more than 6000 species around the world), not to mention the countless other fly families which visit flowers, there are plenty of flies available to act as plant escorts. You might say that fly pollinators do a little dance of love on behalf of the flowers. I can imagine these fast-flying flower phallus’ bumping and grinding to something a little like this…

The next time you stop to smell the flowers, don’t forget what it is you’re smelling, the sultry perfume of a flower looking for a little fly action!

This song is available on iTunes – Pollinator (Gary Beck Remix) – Global Underground – Tom Novy

If you’d like some more insect sexiness, check out Bug Girl’s excellent, innuendo filled explanation of pollination!

Hidden Treasures

Cool Science, Entomology, Natural History, Publication 6 Responses »

Jun 082011

With new identification aids, entomological collections begin to give up all manner of hidden treasures. The “Miscellaneous” drawers are no longer out of reach, and determining the species found in your own backyard (sometimes literally) can result in surprising finds.

Rhagoletis meigenii

Rhagoletis meigenii is an introduced species from Europe which infests fruits of European barberry (Barberis vulgaris) as larvae. This species had previously been recorded in North America as early as 1986, but after examining specimens from the Lyman Entomological Museum and here at the University of Guelph Insect Collection, I found specimens collected as early as 1956 in Montreal, Quebec and 1977 in Oakville, Ontario! This indicates that it had made it’s way to North America much earlier than previously thought, and either spread extremely rapidly across eastern North America, or had multiple introduction events! Luckily this species isn’t of economic concern (European barberry fruits are eaten and used in jams in Europe, but the plant harbours wheat rust and is considered noxious in North America), but it indicates how easily a non-native species can slip into a new area unnoticed by scientists and society.

Urophora affinis

Not all fruit flies enter North America “illegally” though. All three species of Urophora found in Ontario are native to Europe, but were intentionally introduced to help control unwanted, invasive knapweed species. Two of the species introduced became established and quickly spread through southern Ontario (Urophora cardui and Urophora quadrifasciata) while one species didn’t appear to survive. Urophora affinis was experimentally introduced in western Canada where it seemed to thrive, but after release in the early 1980’s at a research plot in Hastings County it failed to be found the next few years, leading the researcher to assume the population hadn’t survived the winter. But, a fly collected 250 km away and more than 20 years later in Simcoe County made it through the curatorial stream, and low-and-behold it was Urophora affinis! Apparently this species did in fact survive the winter, and managed to spread at low population density across central Ontario.

Rhagoletotrypeta rohweri

Finding flies thought to be gone is unfortunately not as unlikely as it may seem. Rhagoletotrypeta rohweri is a rarely collected species that hadn’t been seen since 1962. Or at least it hadn’t been thought to have been seen since then! The University of Guelph Insect Collection actually has 4 specimens collected between 1978 and 1985 around Point Pelee National Park. Hopefully this is evidence that this species is still clinging to existence in small pockets of eastern North America!

Rhagoletis chionanthi

To round out some of the important species uncovered during this study, here’s Rhagoletis chionanthi. This species had previously only been recorded from North Carolina and Florida, making it’s presence in Ontario a significant expansion of its natural range! Of course this also begs the question as to what it’s using for a larval habitat; the only recorded host plant for R. chionanthi is Chionanthus virginicus (see what they did there, naming the species after its host? Crafty taxonomists…), a plant species which hasn’t been recorded from Canada yet! So what may be happening here? Has the plant expanded it’s range into Canada, bringing it’s pest with it? Or does Rhagoletis chionanthi have multiple hosts? Of course, the apple maggot fly, Rhagoletis pomonella, actually underwent a host-shift from hawthorn to apples when the latter were cultivated in North America, so perhaps Rhagoletis chionanthi has undergone a similar host-shift which we aren’t aware of!

Of course none of these records would have been possible without the entomological collections housed at universities or under provincial or federal care. At a time when taxonomy and natural history collections are devastatingly under funded (or threatened with military take-over), their intrinsic value is made clear through faunistic studies such as this. Who knows what other treasures are awaiting discovery in entomological collections, both large and small? New species await description, rare species make surprise appearances, and the dynamics between species and geography are unfolding with every study!

Queen of the Sun – Movie Review

Biology, Entomology, Natural History, Nature, Pop Culture, Review 4 Responses »

Jun 012011

We’ve heard it repeated in the media before, with varying degrees of alarmism; honey bees are disappearing, and society better repent before we follow them. Termed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in North America, the number of bee colonies which are dying or exiting en mass (swarming) leaving beekeeper’s hives empty has garnered a great deal of attention in the past few years. Of course there’s plenty of evidence that honey bee populations have been in decline for decades and CCD isn’t really a new phenomenon, but sometimes facts just get in the way of a good story, don’ t they?

That’s the way I felt after watching the new documentary Queen of the Sun: What Are The Bees Telling Us? – the production team didn’t want to weigh the audience down with actual evidence for theories proposed by featured beekeepers or even some of the “experts”. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the film, I did, I just left feeling that so much more could have been done to educate the audience.

The movie starts off with endless acres of almond trees in California and the bees trucked in from around the USA tasked with pollinating this giant monoculture. From here the film gathers the opinions of some of the most eccentric beekeepers I’ve seen (which is saying something, trust me) on why the bees are disappearing, with some input from “experts”. It was the beekeepers which make this movie worth a watch, and while each and every one of them personifies bees more than I’d like (damn my scientific objectivity), and there is a lot of Gaiaism and Druid religious undertones, meeting and watching these beekeepers work was a lot of fun. Whether it was the bee historian/Yogi who tickles his bees with his impressive mustache or the rooftop apiculturists in London, UK & Brooklyn, New York (where in the former city beekeeping is legal and the latter illegal), the filmmakers found some very interesting people who shared a passion for their hobby/trade.

The majority of the theories on what is causing the decline of the bees comes from the beekeepers with notes thrown in from the chosen “experts”. I’m using the term “expert” loosely, mainly because there were virtually no credentials or explanation about what made each person an “expert” on the topic. Some I recognized, like May Berenbaum from University of Illinois or Scott Black of the Xerces Society and trusted their opinions because of my knowledge of their work. Others, I have no clue why they were consulted; a physicist discussing genetically-modified plants transferring modified bacteria genomes to bees, without mention of why a physicist would be involved with this research or what institute she was associated with? Providing further credentials and background for each expert would allow the audience to make an informed decision on the information provided to them.

Overall, Queen of the Sun was an entertaining movie with some beautiful photography and fantastic people. If you’re looking for a movie which celebrates individuality and passion for apiculture, then this is your movie. If you’re looking for a scientific nature documentary, stick to David Attenborough and the BBC!

When Trees Weep

Entomology, Insects, Natural History, Photography 7 Responses »

May 112011

A few days ago I was walking through the University of Guelph Arboretum taking some down time and trying to get back into the photography groove when I noticed a peculiar sight…

Tree weeping sap covered in insects

The trees were weeping, and dozens of flies were lapping up the sweet, sweet tears! Since there were several of these patches on two nearby trees (my tree bark ID skills are severely lacking, I’m a leaf man) and the wet marks were 4 to 10 feet off the ground, I felt it was a safe guess that it wasn’t a territorial marking (unless the UofG men’s basketball team was having a summer camp…), and last I checked I wasn’t in Fangorn Forest, so I did a little detective work to discover the story behind the sadness.

Closer inspection revealed these curious holes:

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker holes drilled into tree bark

My first thought was to scan for long-horned beetles (Cerambycidae) or perhaps metallic jewel beetles (Buprestidae), but after seeing nothing but flies and wasps, I took a closer look and noticed that the holes only pierced the bark, and not the xylem (aka sapwood). It dawned on me that what I was looking at was a tricky, sticky lure set by a bird I’d seen plenty of times before in the Arb; the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius). This crafty woodpecker will cause superficial injuries to a tree, and then sit back while the sap flows free. The bird will then return to the tree and pick off the insects which are feeding on the sap, as well as some of the sap itself! Clever bird…

Pretty cool biology, so I took the opportunity to see what sort of insects were at risk of becoming an early spring brunch for the hungry sapsucker.

I observed a few butterflies when I first approached the trees, but they quickly flitted away, not to return while I was there. I’m by no means a Leper (i.e. a Lepidopterist), but I think they may have been Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta, Nymphalidae), which are one of the earlier butterfly species to be found in Southern Ontario.

There were a number of hymenopterans taking advantage of the Saturday afternoon bounty including many Ichneuomoid wasps and this fuzzy female:

Andrenid bee eating tree sap Andrenidae

This andrenid bee (Andrenidae) seemed quite content to sit and lap up the sugary sap running down the tree bark, not caring when I moved in and out trying to get a decent photograph of it’s amazing hairdo.

Tenthridinidae wasp eating tree sap with a calliphoridae and muscidae fly

While the bee was busy enjoying a solitary meal, this sawfly (Dolerus unicolor, Tenthredinidae) was more than happy to share the sap with a couple of calyptrate flies (a blowfly [Calliphoridae] on the right and what I believe to be a Muscidae at the top). In fact, the calyptrates made up the vast majority of the insects visiting the tree, in some places packed so tightly you couldn’t see the tree for the flies!

Blow fly Calliphoridae sponging up tree sap

The sponge-like mouthparts found in many calyptrates are well demonstrated in this blowfly (Calliphoridae, possibly subfamily Chrysomyinae). You can see the maxillary palpi sticking straight ahead as the membranous labrum and associated sclerites mop up any residual tree sap on the bark.

Scathophaga sp. Scathophagidae

Another, lesser known calyptrate family was also making an appearance; the Scathophagidae. I could make out what looked to be two species of scathophagid, including this Scathophaga sp. perched nearby awaiting its turn at the sugar shack.

Tachinidae fly on tree drinking tree sap

Not everything went according to plan on this outing however, as I made a major n00b move – I forgot to pack specimen vials! While normally I’d have a dozen or so snap-top vials in my camera bag in case I ran into something which needed to be examined at a later date and added to the University of Guelph Insect Collection, after transferring my photo equipment into my new camera bag (courtesy of the best wife ever), I neglected to throw in the vials! The first rule of entomology (besides “ALWAYS talk about entomology”) is to collect the damn specimen, and as luck would have it, I came across a fly which I instantly wanted to collect (pictured above & below).

Tachinidae with tree sap fly

This Tachinidae caught my eye right away, and after several attempts, I managed to get a couple of decent images. Unfortunately, tachinid flies are one of the most diverse groups of animals on the planet, and the specimen would be vital in identifying it to the genus or subfamily level on my own. A lesson learned, and needless to say I threw a couple of vials in my bag as soon as I got home!

After getting my fill of photos and not having any means to collect some specimens, I decided to pull back and let nature take it’s course. While I never saw the sapsucker, I certainly appreciated the opportunity it created, allowing me to photograph a great diversity of flies and wasps!

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