Nouvelles
Do you have a good taxonomic knowledge of Canadian arthropods? Are you an awesome, champion collector? Do you want an excuse to spend a few days geeking out over lovely terrain and catching lovely wildlife? Well, the Biological Survey of Canada, the Royal BC Museum and the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative want you to join them in a BioBlitz of the Peace Region, June 22-26!
If this sounds like your cup of tea, then read the full invitation here. Sign up by June 15!
Who knows? Maybe you will find something completely unexpected (like this ridiculous mite!)!
PRAYING MANTIS Sterling silver, copper, 14K & 18K gold 18.5″l x 12″w x 9.5″h
We have featured the wonderful metalwork of Canadian artist Elizabeth Goluch before, in this awesome interview by Crystal Ernst. Now Ben Proudfoot of Breakwater Studios has produced this wonderful video featuring Elizabeth, her inspiration and work. If you are fascinated by insects aesthetically, or have a love for metalwork and sculpture, this is a great introduction to the artistic process!
[vimeo 125539638 w=560 h=315]
Lady Bug from Breakwater Studios Ltd. on Vimeo.
BUMBLEBEE Sterling silver, 14K & 18K gold 7″l x 7″w x 4″h
Living in Western Canada is pretty sweet. Especially here on the coast, we have a plethora of awesome insects that only occur in this region. I am trying to savour these insects while I can, as this fall I am moving to Toronto.
The snakeflies (Raphidioptera) are awesome animals, with a delightfully elongate prothorax and long bladelike ovipositors. These insects are fairly common in the early spring in a Garry Oak meadow not far from my mother’s house, so whenever I am in the vicinity at the right time I keep an eye out for them.
The most common snakeflies in BC are members of the genus Agulla.
What I had not noticed about these insects is how the pronotum wraps around ventrally, like a shield. Also look at the awesome ornamentation on the thorax!
The larvae of snakeflies are difficult to find, but if you flip over enough rocks or logs, you may just find one!
In fact, flipping over logs is exactly how I found this next western treasure…A tiger beetle that may just shatter your image of tiger beetles forever.
This is Omus dejeani, often referred to by its awesome common name, the greater night-stalking tiger beetle. This is a tiger that could easily be mistaken at a glance for a carabine, if not for the shape of the thorax. This is not a slender, bright, iridescent speedster, but rather a hulking, powerful night terror.
Yes, make no mistake, this is a tiger through and through. The mandibles tell the tale. Bugguide has this to say about the origin of the generic name Omus: Probably from Greek omos (ωμος)- « raw, crude » or « savage, fierce, cruel »
Regardless of the name, this beetle is a truly impressive beast, though I rarely encounter it. I wonder if it could be because of the introduction of the two similarly-sized invasive carabines Carabus granulatus and Carabus nemoralis.
Anyhow, regardless of where you live, get out and enjoy what your region has to offer. Insect season is in full swing, and life is short. This summer I will keep flipping logs to savour the western specialties!
Log flipping also brought me an encounter with another western treasure: the rough skinned newt (Taricha granulosa). Who doesn’t love a newt!
The Editor’s pick from the Feburary issue of The Canadian Entomologist is Crowdsourcing for large-scale mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) sampling by Elin C. Maki and Lee W. Cohnstaedt. In this blog Lee Cohnstaedt reveals more about the research.
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“We were inspired to carry out this study to find out the origin and historical geographic spread of the disease vector mosquito species Culex tarsalis and Aedes vexans. By collecting throughout the entire mosquito habitat range, we generated a snap-shot in time of the distribution of mosquito genes. However, collecting mosquitoes throughout the continental United States was not feasible for one lab. Therefore we used social networking and crowdsourcing to solicit specimens from public health officials, mosquito control experts, and citizen scientists. The response was incredible.
Image courtesy of Sarah Edwards.
We hope a lasting impact of this project beyond advancing public health safety for humans and food security for agriculture, is demonstrating the importance and unique capabilities of the public health and mosquito control infrastructure in the United States. These agencies continually face budget cuts because their importance is undervalued. In addition to their public health roles, they contribute substantially to research which is an underappreciated role at improving public safety. This large-scale project would not be possible without the agencies volunteering their time, energy, and expertise. These agencies and individuals contributed to an unprecedented mosquito collection on a continental scale and we feel the North American Mosquito Project will continue to ask big questions with the help of network contributors in the future.
This research will lead to the mosquitos being used for three projects: First, the mosquito samples will be processed for population genetic and phylogenetic analysis to determine mosquito migration currently and historical spread. Second, the movement data from the genetics will be used to parameterize mathematical models to predict the spread of mosquito-borne exotic or emerging pathogens. This will improve public health safety and food security an important role of the agencies that contributed mosquitoes. Third, specific genes unique to certain populations (private alleles) will be examined to understand their role in range expansion.
Entomologists are very friendly people and we were amazed at how kind and helpful people were throughout the project. At least 25% of the network consisted of people we never contacted; other contributors contacted them and asked them to help. Similarly, some individuals collected from huge areas or contacted people to cover entire regions of the country. It makes us proud to be a part of the community and hopefully we can return the generosity with useful information.”
—-By Aaron Hall—-
A typical adult damselfly. Note the spiked legs, which are held in a basket shape to help catch prey while flying.
Dragonflies are charismatic insects, and most of us can probably remember chasing them or watching their acrobatic flights when we were children. But what most of us didn’t realize when we were kids, is that dragonflies spend the majority of their lives as toothy, alien-looking predators living underwater before they become adults. Depending on the species, they can live in the water for several weeks up to several years.
A typical larval dragonfly, which feeds on other aquatic animals – and even other dragonflies!
By living part of their lives in water, and part on land/in the air, dragonflies represent an interesting conservation challenge. Historically, conservation science has focused on single habitats, such as lakes, streams, forests or grasslands. Little attention has focused on incorporating multiple habitat types, such as those required by dragonflies, into conservation, potentially leaving species like dragonflies in danger.
In the Waubaushene area of Georgian Bay (Lake Huron), recreational boating is very common. These boats create waves that can dislodge both adult and larval dragonflies, affecting their ability to find food and avoid predators. The overall number of boats, the speed of these boats, and how close they are to coastal wetlands are the most important factors that determine how impactful boat-generated waves are on dragonflies. My colleagues and I at the University of Toronto investigated how much influence these recreational boats have, relative to more natural processes, on dragonfly communities in Georgian Bay.
A Google Earth image of an area in Georgian Bay. Note the many waves created by boats as they travel through this region.
Taking the lead on this project, I counted dragonflies from 17 islands in Waubaushene. The coastal wetlands around these islands are inhabited by dragonflies. The islands studied in this project were selected to represent a range of influence from boats in the area, determined by their distance and orientation to marked boating channels and area marinas.
Aaron Hall counting adult dragonflies at one of the islands in Waubaushene.
The results show that boats do have an influence on dragonfly communities, providing a link between recreational boating and dragonfly communities. This research provides important insights that can be applied to the protection and conservation of dragonflies, and suggests that some very simple changes in boater behaviour could have big implications. For example, if boats travel slower or further away from dragonfly habitats, they would have less impact. These two factors might be simple to change. In areas where boats mostly stay within marked boating channels, if these channels were moved or adjusted so they are as far away from dragonfly habitats as possible, impacts would be minimized. Additionally, speed limits could be set in these channels to reduce the size of waves created by boats. These simple measures could have a positive impact on dragonflies, which are a critical component in the aquatic and terrestrial foodwebs of this region.
Want to know more? This research is published in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity. You can also follow me on Twitter @aarohall.
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