Spring pachy triage commences

Okay I'm still extremely depressed but I'm playing a game of Ultraviolet Grasslands with my friends and the cool art and worldbuilding we've been making have been good for my mental health. Sometimes I even feel like a real person.

Anyways, I found Pachybrachis hepaticus in the swimming pool on Valentine's, which is pretty weird, as they're not normally known to emerge so early (only 2 record on iNat, both from Mexico, and none on Bugguide). Happened straight after the unusually bad CA drought was ended by abrupt rains too.

Threw it in a bag with some lettuce, which it did eat, but every time I allowed it to bask in even mild sun it got restless (it seemed to be male and was presumably mateseeking) so I released it. Was always calm in the shade though, maybe it's like those butterflies/wasps that crave direct sunlight and go inert on overcast days. Haven't seen any other Cryptocephalinae emerge this year yet, they seem to only really get going in mid to late spring (have I told you I'm on a cryptocephaline conservation investigation? I'm too tired/depressed to reread my old posts), but the fact that even a widespread taxon like hepat seems like it might be getting phenology shifts from climate change weather is concerning. I keep seeing research papers talking about how widespreadness and synanthropy don't necessarily protect insect species from conservational danger in this day and age, and they weren't just talking about that one extinct locust either.

I can't be bothered to give my usual round of generic updates because they're boring as shit anyways but the gist is that everything is going as usual for most of my specimens and that the Sphaerocarpos died again. In other news I've continuing to grow tentacles everywhere into the local native plant and gardening and ento and museum-institution groups, largely in hope of gaining backdoor access to maybe a fancy science machine to finally investigate those super cool complex ecological dynamics I've been craving. No luck on the complex dynamics there yet, though I did persuade one of the gardening collectives to leave some unmulched spots for the burrowing bees and the more mulch-hating sorts of native flora.

Also, going to post a short story I wrote later. I'm too tired to do it right now.

please save me I don't want to die

Today's round of boring updates:
- I rehydrated a Xanthoria parietina specimen I had in dry storage. It was dead, because it did not become greenish after hydration. That was my last one.

- I did recently take a sample from the unidentified sunburst lichen pictured above, it was from my own city so it presumably doesn't need salt spray like X. parietina does. The unidentified was growing on painted wood, so it can probably grow on other unnatural nutrientless substrates too, like plastic. To decrease the risk that a heterospecific lichen would grow in my culture and make it easier to peel off the wood, I only took the part that was already loose and hanging in the air.

- Cuscuta subinclusa doing well. Nothing interesting has happened.

- Shortly after I posted my last post all the sealed Cryptocephalus sanguinicollis unsealed their cases when I misted them heavily by accident (light misting did nothing). This did not appear to harm them, and now all 4 are eating petals again. I should also mention C. sanguinicollis larvae are prone to destroying (likely eating) each other's cases, seemingly mistaking them for food. This seems to be why the 7 larvae I had went down to 5; the missing larvae left behind cases with big holes in them, and holes in cryptocephaline cases interfere with proper moisture homeostasis and can kill larvae that way. I should note that 2 of the 4 recently had massive holes made in their cases but then managed to successfully fix them without dying; this is because at the 4-5 millimeter stage larvae are relatively hardy compared to newly hatched ones, and because I kept them all lightly damp after noticing the holes so they wouldn't desiccate while trying to patch them. Weirdly enough the holes are not patched immediately, instead they wait a few days before doing so. Also, behavioral notes: larvae kept dry with water-containing food e.g. petals or larvae kept lightly damp well ventilated are lethargic, which seems to be a sign of health. Larvae that are too wet run around energetically a lot and try to circle/climb walls.

- I don't know if I mentioned it before, but the round-leaved Huntington wort died from mold and depression-induced plant neglect. A few ramets of the unknown pincerwort survived and have grown well on wood-rich soil. Evidently this is a case of the fundamental niche being wider than the realized niche, because in the Huntington the pincerworts only lived high up on trees, with various tropical-looking mosses monopolizing the ground.

- More telegraphweed/Datura seeds added to NHMLA. I also brought and planted some Datura seeds at the Junior High native garden.

title text

 A while back I saved a wild E. acuticauda female that had only one and a half intact legs left, unlike young healthy members of the species it spends much of its time sleeping and doesn't do the unpleasant-looking "pace around in circles and/or back/forth in a corner" thingy, it utilizes the entire cage. Anyways, it laid some eggs, I hatched the eggs and reared the worms to medium size, threw all 30+ worms in NHMLA yesterday, fingers crossed yeah. E. carbonaria did start doing the pacing thing, I'm going to release the latter back into its habitat.

Also threw some locally wild collected telegraphweed and devil's trumpets in there too, NHMLA has only small amounts of Datura and no preexisting Heterotheca as far as I know.




Down to 4 C. sanguinicollis larvae. For a long time I had 5 but recently I sent the fifth one flying by accident and lost it (I do not expect to refind it). 2 still feeding last time I checked, other 2 are sealed. During their summer dormancy they all simply plugged the cases with their heads, but this time the sealed ones have actually cemented the cases shut with excrement. It should be noted that the sealing coincided with a sudden drop in weather from 80-something fahrenheits to 70-somethings, it seems that chronic exposure to artificial light at night doesn't affect their dormancy circadian rhythms too badly.

Also, acquaintance gave me a piece of my Cuscuta subinclusa clone back, it's curled 4 stems around some strawberry plants but is a little confused because it thinks it's tightly wrapped around its victim (in actuality part of it is touching the strawberry hairs but not the stem the hairs are growing out of). It'll likely succeed in penetrating the host anyways, given that during the penetration process the dodder inflates like one of those blood pressure cuffs they give you for medical checkups.

No noteworthy Asterella californica news, I only have 2 apical notches and both of them are getting etiolated (although not pale) and growing upward instead of touching the sand. They do that when air humidity is sufficiently high.



Sudden wild orbweaver dieoff this year. To reduce the chances of this being a statistically insignificant phenomenon, I corresponded with some relatively trusted acquaintances, who noted the same. Pretty sure due to starvation, because there's anomalously low flying insect density around my house (even invasive flying insects are usually sparse). One Neoscona crucifera I've been feeding with false widows and drowned swimming pool insects has remained plump, although it's run away somewhere to where I can't find it a few days ago (I may have upset it during a certain unsuccessful feeding session attempt) and might therefore starve like the rest of them. It deflated severely whenever I didn't feed it.

I should also note that ground-dwelling urban detritivores have not suffered the same fate as the frequent fliers; for one, Gryllodes sigillatus still comes out in droves every night the way it usually does. Also, while insect density in my area seems often naturally low (especially in arid wilderness), the orbweaver/flier dieoff seems unusually severe.



Anyways that's all for today's soporific updates, have fun I guess.

blugh

 Using the last of my mental health to note that I brought the pot beetle grubs out of their dormancy a week or so ago by spraying them and then partially closing the lid for several days (thus ensuring their cup was lightly damp for the duration of those days). They are now ravenously eating petals again.

Apparently merely spraying the animals is insufficient for them to exit dormancy, even if the spraying is very intense, because it seems that dormancy only ceases when there is a prolonged exposure to humidity.

Also, no detectable "long COVID" symptoms so far. Yay?

I have been mistreated by the hospital

 Not posting details here, sorry! I will however note that it is a pretty big-name hospital.

I am home now. Was actually getting sicker as a direct result of the hospital's actions impeding my recovery.

I have COVID-19 now

 I don't want to reveal too many personal details in public, but long story short, I was absolutely fastidious about sanitation protocols, I wore masks long after everyone else stopped, I frequently didn't leave my house for weeks at a time. But no amount of caution can save you if you're being forced to eat off poorly washed plates (with rice grains and sauce still on them) at shitty restaurants just not to starve [note that this sentence is potentially misleading but is factually true - I eat well, for lack of a better phrase.]

I don't live in a bloody slum. So why do I live like I'm in one when I'm in one of the most well-off cities in the nation?

Apparently C. sanguinicollis larvae have a summer dormancy

 

Which makes sense, considering that it's when all the sage scrub plants dry up in the heat.

Abnormal photoperiods from indoors lighting and abnormally generous moisture regimes also did not break the dormancy, misting causes them to walk around in annoyance but eventually they retract and stop moving again. With that being said, the grubs do consume small amounts of food despite the dormancy.

Some have voluntarily refused both food and water for as long as 5 days, possibly even longer.

Got a cool video

 

Nooooooooo!

 I have recently had to, umm, let's euphemistically call it a forced vacation. Had to temporarily give my bugs to an aforementioned entomological acquaintance. Cryptocephalus sanguinicollis was unharmed afterwards (indeed, the grubs more than doubled in size in the two weeks I was away and are now very roughly a third of the size of an adult specimen), but the probable Haplodesmidae and Macrosternodesmidae suffered heavy mortality, and now the only live millipedes I have left are a few of the haplodesmid-shaped ones. I think he overwatered them to death despite my warnings, cause when I came back the dirt was all soggy and glistening (my impression is that they probably died of humidity-related causes instead of drowning). He also reports that his Pachybrachis bivittatus all died from excess sun exposure, with no surviving eggs. Additionally, the Huntington worts (which I also left to him) are significantly moldier than before, though still bright green. It's possible the mold's only growing on the dead parts of the worts, I'm not sure. I'm not exactly mad at him, cause everyone makes mistakes, he has a busy schedule, and I'm a pretty forgiving person, but, well, ouch.

Asterella was unharmed because I left it completely dried out for the duration of my absence, and since it can do the poikilohydric resurrection plant thingy it was fine afterwards. Other plants I didn't mention are all fine, and the Eleodes carbonaria is doing fine too.



In other news, my current dodder is Cuscuta californica var. californica, according to the key. Also confirmed the one that died is indeed the subinclusa I provisionally thought it was, but the only surviving fragment is at that acquaintance's house.

I also scooped up some ostracods (maybe they're tiny conchostracans; probably not but I can't tell the difference) from an ornamental waterfall fountain that various birds visit. Looks like that implausible-sounding adage about birds dispersing fish eggs and crustaceans via wet feathers/legs is true, after all. I have no inherent interest in ostracod husbandry but they might be useful for some sort of restoration project later on in some unforeseen future.

Plymouth Elementary update

I've checked up on some of the wood I've moved in there, and added some additional wood. I didn't see any specimens underneath the logs despite my efforts to provide a damp microclimate protected from insolation*, but at night the usual largebodied invasive urban bugs (Armadillidium, etc.) show up to stroll around on it. They've already eaten all the splitgill fruiting bodies, apparently. Guess I'm not gonna attract any fungus beetles any time soon.

Not sure about how the native termites that came with one of the logs are doing because lizards/mammals keep shitting on/around that one and I can't be bothered to get my hands dirty. Also, Xylocopa and other native bees were in the area but showed no interest in using the wood either.







*In soggy and cold European countries where a lot of saproxylic organism research is conducted sun exposure is important for many threatened taxa, but what little research literature I could find on stuff in Mediterranean climates suggests the opposite is true where I live. It sounds intuitive (too hot + no water = all the bugs die of thirst) but that doesn't explain why weirdo hyperthermophile insects don't seem to be interested. I mean, there's Psocodea in the garden that can live their entire lives in dead marcescent leaves crisping in the sun, "magically" summoning liquid water from vapors in the air or something like that. How are things like those refusing to eat my log? I don't get it.

asterello aster jello

 

Don't mind me, I'm just posting a pic for my personal records (note 2 self: Deukmejian sample).

Also, I don't feel like checking to see whether I posted about it before but I have the annual-looking Santa Fe Dam dodder in culture again. Sadly my portion of the Cuscuta subinclusa (perennial species) is still dead (unless there's a dormant endophytic nub I'm unaware of), and I'm hoping the acquaintance I gave a piece of that C. subinclusa clone to manages to get it to put on enough biomass that he can safely give me some of it back; right now his portion is also ailing and I'd rather he not return any pieces to me yet, for fear of them dying in transit.