As atualizações dos mapas e de contenção porcentagens foram feitas ao meu post anterior. Aqui está um mapa do quarto fogo queimando em SE Arizona, o Monument fire. Este é apenas 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.
Como julho se aproxima eu estar a olhar para a frente para a reunião Pacific Coast das Lepidopterists’ Sociedade. Este ano terá lugar em Prescott Arizona, sobre 2 horas ao norte de Phoenix. E neste momento é um dos poucos lugares no Arizona não em chamas. Tenho certeza de que todos vocês já ouviram falar dos grandes incêndios agora, mas aqui está uma atualização de um ponto de vista ligeiramente biológico. Mais importante ainda, todos devemos estar gratos pelos bombeiros que arriscam as suas vidas para combater estes incêndios florestais..
Por algum motivo, não consegui vincular os mapas interativos diretamente do site InciWeb, mas siga os links para explorar mais. Embora existam bons mapas interativos desses incêndios no Google Maps, eles têm alguns dias. Abaixo estão capturas de tela de mapas com menos de 12 horas atrás.
Fogo 1: O maior, O Fogo Wallow é 20% 29% contido, causado pelo homem e está queimando há mais de 15 dias. Eu esperava ir coletar pela cidade de Greer e Alpine, mas ambos têm fogo invadindo rapidamente. A região das Montanhas Brancas do Arizona é uma fascinante zona de mistura entre espécies do deserto do sul e das Montanhas Rochosas. – a mariposa rara que eu esperava encontrar aqui, Alexicles polvilhado, provavelmente me escapará mais uma vez este ano.
Conheço há algum tempo que besouros e outros inverte ocasionalmente têm vertebrados em seu cardápio, mas eu realmente não sabia o quão grande de um animal que poderiam subjugar! Mesmo quando o mantis estranho pega um beija-flor a diferença de tamanho não é tão importante como é mostrado abaixo. Este vídeo impressionante foi publicado recentemente no online gratuito revista ZooKeys.
Aqui está uma das figuras do papel, ilustrando mais insetos que se alimentam de várias espécies de anfíbios!
Gil Wise, Avital Gasith (2011). Predação de anfíbios por coleópteros Carabidae do gênero Epomis encontrados na planície costeira central do Israel 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, o Mojave Aster. I photographed this about three weeks ago outside the town ofBig Pine, Califórnia. 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!
Para as próximas três semanas os meus colegas do laboratório Arachnology na Academia de Ciências da Califórnia estão nas Filipinas! (não, não inveja a todos…) A viagem é parte da expedição CAS Hearst, 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.
Quem pode me dizer o que está errado abaixo? Não é apenas o problema foto óbvio, mas o autor do artigo tem alguns saltos lógicos para sustentar sua premissa. Quem pode me dizer o que suas falácias lógicas são? 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!
Como tantos outros animais urbanos, A Borboleta Azul Missão (Plebejus icarioides missionensis) é aquele que está em grave perigo. Este pequeno vidas azuis em pequenos fragmentos de habitat ao longo de milhões de desenvolvimento dólar e em torno da Baía de São Francisco. 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).
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 (only17% 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!
