Updates to the maps and containment percentages have been made to my earlier post. Here is a map of the 4th fire burning in SE Arizona, de Monument fire. This one is only10% 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.
In juli benadert ik zijn om vooruit te kijken naar de bijeenkomst van de lepidopterists Pacific Coast’ Samenleving. Dit jaar vindt het evenement plaats in Prescott Arizona, over 2 uur ten noorden van Phoenix. En vanaf dit moment is het een van de weinige plekken in Arizona niet in vuur en vlam. Ik weet zeker dat je al gehoord van de enorme bosbranden op dit ogenblik, maar hier is een update van een iets biologisch standpunt. Belangrijker moeten we allemaal dankbaar voor de brandweerlieden zijn hun leven riskeren om deze bosbranden vechten.
Om een of andere reden kon ik niet direct te koppelen aan de interactieve kaarten van de InciWeb website, maar volg de links om verder te verkennen. Hoewel er goede interactieve plattegronden van deze branden op Google Maps, ze enkele dagen oud. Hieronder zijn screen-captures van de kaarten minder dan 12 uur oud.
Brand 1: De grootste, De Wallow Fire is 20% 29% bevatte, mens veroorzaakt en heeft gebrand in 15 dagen. Ik had gehoopt om te gaan verzamelen rond de stad Greer en Alpine, maar beide hebben het vuur snel oprukkende. De Witte Bergen regio Arizona is een fascinerende mix zone tussen de zuidelijke soorten woestijn en Rocky Mountain degenen – de zeldzame mot ik hoopte te vinden hier, Alexikels aspersa, zal waarschijnlijk ontwijken me toch ook dit jaar weer.
Ik weet al een tijdje dat kevers en andere inverts af en toe gewervelde dieren op hun menu, maar ik heb niet echt weten hoe groot van een dier dat ze konden bedwingen! Zelfs wanneer de oneven sprinkhaan grijpt een kolibrie het verschil in grootte niet zo belangrijk zoals hieronder weergegeven. Dit indrukwekkende video werd onlangs gepubliceerd in de gratis online journal zookeys.
Hier is een van de cijfers van het papier, illustreert meer kevers voeden met meerdere soorten amfibieën!
Gil Phoenix, Avital Gasith (2011). Predatie van amfibieën door loopkevers van het geslacht Epomis gevonden in de centrale kustvlakte van Israël zookeys, 100, 181-191 : DOI:10.3897/zookeys.100.1526
Whoops, it’s almost Tuesday! Above isSchinia ligeae(Noctuidae) resting on its host plantXylorhiza tortifolia, de Mojave Aster. I photographed this about three weeks ago outside the town ofBig Pine, Californië. 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!
For the next three weeks my colleagues from the Arachnology lab at the California Academy of Sciences are in the Philippines! (no, not jealous at all…) The trip is part of the CAS Hearst expedition, 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.
Wie kan mij vertellen wat er mis is hieronder? Niet alleen is het voor de hand liggende foto probleem, maar de auteur van het artikel vergt enige logische sprongen om zijn stelling te ondersteunen. Wie kan mij vertellen wat zijn logische drogredenen zijn? 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.
New to the web this week is an excellent resource on theMecoptera of North America. Dr. Norm Penny has put together an illustrated guide to all the North American species with habitus and genitalia images. While not very diverse, the Mecoptera prove to be an enigmatic and fascinating group. Take a moment to explore the site and identify your specimens!
Like so many other urban animals, the Mission Blue Butterfly (Plebejus icarioides missionensis) is one that is gravely imperiled. This small blue lives in tiny fragments of habitat alongside multi-million dollar development in and around the 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. Before 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).
Niet verrassend, 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 (alleen 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…
Iedereen is bekend met de beroemde doodskop hawkmoth, maar ik denk dat het een schande hebben we zo'n grimmige karakter gepopulariseerd. Boven is een veel meer vrolijke Neotropische Arctiinae uit Frans-Guyana, dat eruit ziet alsof het is sportief een clown gezicht. Helaas is dit niet mijn foto, maar je moet even de tijd om te verkennen Lepidopterists van Frankrijkwebsite. Hun foto's van hun jaarlijkse expedities maakt me jaloers!
