You may have noticed the Weekly Flypaper has been missing the past two weekends. I have a good reason for missing one, and a not so good reason for missing the other…
First, the good reason. I took part in the Rouge Park BioBlitz in Toronto, and along with 230+ other naturalists, taxonomists and volunteers, we scoured Rouge Park (soon to be Canada’s first urban National Park) for all signs of life, trying to identify as much as possible in 24 hours. Although the numbers are still coming in, the official species count is already nearing 1,300 species, all sighted or caught in 24 hours (and more than 800 of those were identified within the first 24 hours too)! That is an absolutely amazing number, and sets the bar very high for future BioBlitzes! The Guelph crew had a great time, and I think we contributed almost 100 insect species identifications, including 60+ flies. Lots more came home with us, and we’ll be getting names on them in the near future to be added to the list. The arthropod coordinator, Antonia Guidotti of the Royal Ontario Museum has posted an awesome synopsis of the BioBlitz over at the ROM Blog.
The other reason? I was lazy last weekend and didn’t get around to doing it. Oops.
So with 3 weeks worth of links, and major holidays upcoming in Canada & the USA, I suggest you grab a cold drink, find a comfy spot, and clear your schedule, because the Bugosphere has been busy! Continue reading »
I’m applying for a student fee waiver for this summer’s BugShot Insect Photography Workshop, and spent today putting together my image portfolio. After some ruthless culling and extra time spent with edits, I’ve arrived at 10 photos which I feel best represent my insect photography. Going through my photo library was an enlightening experience, and I’m quite happy with the progress I’ve made since my first attempts at macrophotography 5 years ago. Of course there’s still plenty of room for improvement (hence my hopeful application to learn from the masters), and there are a number of different techniques and ideas I want to play around with, so I don’t see myself running out of subjects or projects anytime soon!
Click the images to view at a larger size (650px long edge).
Long-legged fly (Dolichipodidae) from Ontario
Treehopper (Membracidae) from Ontario
Clusia lateralis, a druid fly (Clusiidae) from Ontario
Dance fly (Empididae) from Ontario
Halictid bee from Ontario
Formica sp. (Formicidae) with aphids from Ontario
Rainieria sp. stilt-legged fly (Micropezidae) from Costa Rica
Spider illuminated from beneath in Ontario
Urophora affinis fruit fly (Tephritidae) from Ontario
This has been a very busy week for insect news & science, and there are a ton of great things to keep you busy reading all weekend. First though, I need to get something a little broader but incredibly important off my chest.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s War on Environmental Science
I don’t normally wade into discussing politics because 1) I don’t follow it as closely as perhaps I should and, 2) it can be a pretty controversial topic which can get messy in a hurry. I don’t want to weigh this week’s flypaper down too much, but I feel compelled to share a number of deeply concerning developments in the Canadian government’s recent cuts to environmental research.
I’m incredibly proud to call Canada my home & native land, but am utterly ashamed of these “cost saving” measures being rapidly pushed through by the Conservative government. These short-sighted cuts will have long-lasting environmental ramifications well beyond the tenure of any political party’s leadership, will tarnish Canada’s reputation as an environmentally-friendly nation, and will hamper our ability to attract new minds to our universities, industries and governments. I have no doubt that in 10-15 years we will look back on this government and wonder “O Canada, what have you done?”
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OK, that’s enough doom and gloom for one week. Now onto some bug links!
General Entomology
What would you classify angels as? If you said winged humans, you’re wrong. Clearly they’re insects. And in case you’re interested, the Taxonomy Fail Index for such a gaff is 122.3!
The spring edition of Fly Times, the biannual newsletter for the North American Dipterists Society, is out and absolutely full of interesting information. Everything from cheap ideas for high-quality specimen photography to research updates, and even a technique for reconstituting eye colour patterns in dead & dried flies! I look forward to this newsletter every spring and fall, and my only disappointment with this edition is I have to wait another 6 months until the next!
The entomologists I know, including me of course, aren’t exactly the most fashion-conscious people out there (seriously, it can be pretty bad). But even I think these insect-repellent high fashions are attractive, especially as a great way to raise awareness about malaria!
What’s upside down and fuzzy all over? This great photo of a bee fly by Ted MacRae! Also cool, the photo was identified by bee fly aficionado and recent University of Guelph PhD graduate Joel Kits. I <3 the internet for cool connections like this!
Everyone knows about the red hourglass identifying female black widow spiders, but the males are pretty spectacular in their own right! Check out the pedipalp photo by Alex Webb.
Yesterday, UK photographer Paul Bunyard (@wildaboutimages) ran into a massive mating swarm of chironomid midges (family Chironomidae) while travelling through the Norfolk countryside, and shared some amazing images on Twitter (reproduced here with his permission).
Photo copyright Paul Bunyard & reproduced with his permission
I went down to an inland dune habitat in Southwestern Ontario yesterday with my lab mates to do some collecting. For the most part insects were pretty scarce to come by, except for the biting flies, which were out in abundance.
Chrysops cuclux making sure I will taste just right
Thankfully this was the only deer fly (family Tabanidae) that I had the misfortune of waiting on. I initially went to brush it off, but when I noticed it was oriented in such a way that I could snag a photo, I bit the bullet and allowed it to continue while I contorted my camera around to document another happy customer.
It's true; the first cut is the deepest
Unlike mosquitoes, who’s mouthparts act like a hypodermic needle to stealthily imbibe your blood, deer flies cut and slice the skin, causing bloodshed which they then lap up. Much like a skinned knee is usually more painful than the prick of a phlebotomist, a bite from a deer fly will rarely go unnoticed, and in this case, make it all the more difficult to photograph whilst squirming!
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If you’re curious, here’s a shot of my arm this morning, about 18 hours after the bite occurred. There was a swollen welt about 1″ in diameter that was quite firm and which occasionally had a strange tingling sensation, yet wasn’t itchy. Things seem to be back to normal 36 hours after the bite, with only a small firm area directly below the bite.
Chrysops cuclux bite after 18hrs, with black fly bites for comparison
I come across a large number of interesting blog posts, news articles, scientific papers and various other types of media every week, which I try and share through Twitter on a regular basis. Since I know not everyone has been bitten by the Twitter bug yet1, I figured I’d start a weekly round up of links to some of the stories I find interesting, important or just plain entertaining.
True to form, most of these links will be insect related, but I have broad interests, so some other topics are sure to turn up from time to time2. The internet is full of talented people, and I hope you enjoy their work as much as I have.
The Edmonton Journal has a great biography of Dr. George Ball, a beetle taxonomist at the University of Alberta who has impacted the careers of dozens of top entomologists across North America.
While not EAB, Chrysobothris vivida looks quite similar on first glance. The Field Museum shows off the holotype and label data, helping to explain the role that natural history collections play in day to day science.
Although written by a marine ecologist and discussing a paper about plant taxonomists, this post on the Sea Monster Blog is one of the most best stories about the role of taxonomy and the decrease in taxonomists being hired and funded. A must read for anyone who depends on biology in their day-to-day lives (that means you).
I don’t know who started it, but the #InsectSongs suggested by Twitter users this week was an afternoon of hilarity. Check out some of my favourites, and then see which ones Bug Girl selected.
Finally, enjoy this fun stop-motion video detailing the everyday lives of insects.
2- Ed Yong, and Bora Zivkovic do extensive weekly link round-ups covering a very broad spectrum of science writing if you need something else to read this weekend!
#InsectSongs is where cheesy Saturday afternoon music anthology commercials meet entomology, with countless creative song titles scrolling down the screen. I’ve Storified some of my favourites here (grouped by taxonomic order of course), but be sure to check out the full list of Bugboard 100 hit titles!
Insect nerds are a creative lot and they put their hivemind to work coming up with some amazingly Punny #InsectSongs!
Urophora affinis, a fruit fly in the family Tephritidae, was introduced to Ontario in the 1970’s as a biological control agent for invasive European knapweeds. When the researchers went back to check on the population a few years later, they were unable to find the species again, and concluded that the population failed to become established (at least in Ontario, a similar introduction in British Columbia did survive).
Fast forward to 2008 when Adam Brunke (a beetle specialist, ironically) collected a specimen in his parent’s backyard, nearly 200 kilometers away from the original introduction site! Clearly Urophora affinis had not only survived, but had even managed to expand it’s range across a large portion of central Ontario, a story which I reported in my paper on Ontario Tephritidae last spring.
Later on in the summer, I accompanied Adam and Steve Paiero (of tongue parasite fame) out to Northumberland County (much closer to the original introduction site) where they were conducting a survey, and happened to find a thriving population of Urophoa affinis in a nice sunny clearing. Nearly every composite flower had an individual or two on top feeding and/or mating, and we collected a long series to place in the University of Guelph Insect Collection. I also walked away with a number of nice photos documenting the species in a new location.
It just goes to show that a species can find a way to survive and prosper, even if they go unnoticed by us!
