Uuendused kaardid ja ohjeldamine protsendid on tehtud minu varasem postitus. Siin on kaart 4. tuld SE Arizona, theMonument fire. See üks on ainult 10% 17% 15% 27% contained and is burning in the southern end of the Huachuca Mountains into Mexico. I also just received the sad news that the home of Noel McFarland has been claimed by the fire. Noel is a well known and respected entomologist who has made a massive impact in the moth field. While I don’t have the full details (and I don’t believe anyone has been injured by this blaze); it is likely that his landmark collection of hundreds of thousands of Lepidoptera has been lost. I wish Noel the best of luck, and can only hope the loss was not total.
Nagu juuli läheneb Ma oleks ootan Pacific Coast koosolekul Lepidopterists’ Ühiskond. Sel aastal toimub Prescott Arizona, kohta 2 tundi põhja Phoenix. Ja praeguse seisuga on see üks väheseid kohti Arizonas mitte põleb. Olen kindel, et olete kõik kuulnud praegu suurtest tulekahjudest, kuid siin on värskendus veidi bioloogilisest vaatenurgast. Kõige tähtsam on, et me kõik peaksime olema tänulikud, et tuletõrjujad riskivad nende metsatulekahjudega võitlemisel oma eluga.
Mingil põhjusel ei saanud ma linkida otse InciWebi saidilt interaktiivsetele kaartidele, kuid palun järgige edasiseks uurimiseks linke. Kuigi Google Mapsis on nende tulekahjude kohta häid interaktiivseid kaarte, nad on paar päeva vanad. Allpool on ekraanipildid kaartidest, mis on väiksemad kui 12 tundi vanad.
Tulekahju 1: Kõige suurem, Wallow Fire on 20% 29% sisaldas, inimese põhjustatud ja on põlenud juba üle 15 päeva. Lootsin minna Greeri ja Alpine linna peale koguma, kuid mõlemal on tuli kiiresti tungimas. The White Mountains region of Arizona is a fascinating blend zone between southern desert species and Rocky Mountain ones – the rare moth I was hoping to find here, Alexicles aspersa, will likely evade me yet again this year.
Olen teada juba mõnda aega, et mardikad jm Pöörab ümber aeg-ajalt on selgroogsed nende menu, aga ma ei tea, kui suur on looma võiksid nad alistama! Isegi siis, kui veider mantis haarab koolibri suuruse vahe ei ole nii olulised, on toodud allpool. This impressive video was published recently in the free onlinejournal Zookeys.
Here is one of the figures from the paper, illustrating more beetles feeding on multiple species of Amphibians!
Gil Wizen, Avital Gasith (2011). Predation of amphibians by carabid beetles of the genus Epomis found in the central coastal plain of IsraelZookeys, 100, 181-191 : DOI:10.3897/zookeys.100.1526
Whoops, it’s almost Tuesday! Above isSchinia ligeae(Noctuidae) resting on its host plantXylorhiza tortifolia, theMojave Aster. I photographed this about three weeks ago outside the town ofBig Pine, California. The asters were thick in the valleys below the snow capped Sierra, and the moths were abundant. Somehow these medium-sizedSchiniaget away with being conspicuous and lazy, you don’t even need a net to collect them. Just walk up and tip them into a jar – I guess the pressure to evolve a more cryptic or evasive behavior is lacking.
Speaking of conspicuously lazy, I have been gone for much of May and hence the lull in blogging. Now that the weddings and spring field season are over, I’ll be back at the desk and back to blogging!
Järgmised kolm nädalat on minu kolleegid California Teaduste Akadeemia arahnoloogialaborist Filipiinidel! (ei, ei ole üldse armukade…) Reis on osa CAS Hearsti ekspeditsioonist, a massive effort spanning all of our research departments to survey the deep seas, shallow seas and terrestrial environment of Luzon. dr. Charles Griswold brought two of his PhD students – Hannah Wood and Natalia Chousou Polydouri – to help collect spiders and insects. Particularly, I’m looking forward to the Lepidoptera that Natalia will be bringing back! (I gave her a quick course on field collecting moths). Sadly I’m not there to photograph and collect this diversity myself; but we can all watch enviously as the teams post updates on their progress over the next monthon the expedition blog. There are already lots of great entries and images from the aquatic people – stay tuned for the insects.
Kes oskab mulle allpool öelda, mis viga on? See pole mitte ainult ilmne fotoprobleem, kuid artikli autor teeb mõned loogilised hüpped oma eelduse toetamiseks. Kes oskab öelda, millised on tema loogikavead? I won’t link to the entire article quite yet because a well known Lepidopterist has already commented – so resist googling the article for the easy answer.
Selle nädala uus veebikasv on suurepärane ressurss Põhja-Ameerika mekopterid. dr. Norm Penny on koostanud illustreeritud juhendi kõigi Põhja-Ameerika liikide kohta koos habituse ja suguelundite kujutistega. Kuigi mitte väga mitmekesine, Mecoptera osutuvad mõistatuslikuks ja põnevaks rühmaks. Võtke hetk saidiga tutvumiseks ja oma isendite tuvastamiseks!
Nagu paljude teiste linnade loomad, Mission Blue Butterfly (Plebeiji icarioides missionensis) on üks, mis on tõsiselt ohus. See väike sinine elu pisikesi killud elupaiga kõrval mitme miljoni dollari areng ja selle ümbruses San Francisco Bay. A century ago this butterfly was already starting to decline, with hundreds of acres of beautiful seaside morphing into sprawl. Today the coastal sage scrub has nearly vanished and what little remains is infested with invasive plants and animals.
The Mission Blue was one of the first animals listed on the Endangered Species Act, acchieving offical protection in 1976. Efforts over the last few years have focused onrestoring the habitat and the bluewithin it – with limited success. Enne 2009 the last blue seen within the city limits was on Twin Peaks in 1997 (and possibly the 1970’s before that). Today the SF Recreation and Parks Department along with Bay Nature has somewhat re-established the Mission Blue on Twin Peaks from healthier populations in the Marin Headlands and San Bruno Mountain (the only other locations the butterfly is known from). I believe last year they had around 30 individuals flying on Twin Peaks. This year the numbers are down, but on Friday I found three females ovipositing on lupine – while these females were probably transplanted a few weeks ago, it is hope for the future. Unfortunately the only males I saw were up in the Marin Headlands – and hopefully males were seen on Twin Peaks this year (pending 2011 data).
Not surprisingly, it turns out that reintroducing a species is a complicated game. The Mission Blue utilizes three host lupine species, Lupinus albifrons, formosus andvariicolor. Yet maintaining these native species amongst the invasives requires radical measures including heavily applications of herbicides (against fennel, pampas grass and french broom – but including 136 other invasive plants (Marin Flora)). It is unknown what effect the herbicides have on developing larvae (ainult 17% successfrom egg to caterpillar) or what it does to native ant populations that tend the caterpillars of the blue. Without native ants the caterpillars are much more likely to be predated, but even native ants are falling to the invading hoards of Argentine ants. And yet another key player is a newly found fungus that is killing lupine plants – devastating butterfly numbers in 2010.
If you compare this subspecies to other members within theicarioidescomplex there is a striking difference in abundance. Plebejus i. moroensisfrom the central coast is an incredibly abundant butterfly within good habitat. It is highly restricted, but not facing nearly the difficulties the Mission Blue is. I hold out hope for one of our last San Francisco blues – ifthe invasive species can be controlled – it won’t go the way of theXerces.
Sorry for the weird downtime over the last two days – the Southern Fried Network has been experiencing wonderful growth that has severely taxed our servers. This high traffic happened to correspond with a move of our physical servers the host was undertaking. The result was corrupted files that ended with our account placed on suspension.
Problem fixed! Pages back up, account upgraded, things should be running faster than ever. I’m still having problems resolving my pages – you might notice some 404 errors until I figure out what’s going on with those…
Everyone is familiar with the famousdeath’s head hawkmoth, but I think it’s a shame we have popularized such a grim character. Above is a much more cheery Neotropical Arctiinae from French Guiana that looks like it’s sporting a clown face. Sadly this isn’t my photograph, but you should take a moment to exploreLes Lépidoptéristes de Francewebsite. Their photos from their annual expeditions makes me jealous!
