Holiday update

zzzzzzzzz

The Bagrada hilaris female has now spent more than two months in captivity! Outdoors it would almost certainly have been dead of age by now. Despite the tarsus loss (and another tarsus ceasing to function, though still physically attached) it is nevertheless quite vigorous when warm. It has, however, suddenly ceased to move on several occasions while halfway in the act of scrubbing its legs (see pic); said legs then dangle awkwardly in the air for considerable periods before it stands up normally again. I have never seen anything even vaguely similar in an arthropod; only Cotinis mutabilis comes close (feeding mutabilis always fall asleep on top of their meals sooner or later; if gently tapped they may slowly lick a few times before continuing to sleep). I speculate that the hemipteran may simply be too cold and unable to perform any non-feeding behavior without becoming metabolically sedated by the temperature. In any case, its newfound inability to climb walls has greatly increased the ease of maintenance, since the jar lid is now permanently off and thus discourages mold growth.

The Pomacea diffusa specimen has survived temperatures slightly below 65F° and continues to survive. It shows little interest in hiding or investigating the plastic plant I put in its jar for psychological enrichment purposes; it has also ceased to feed entirely or almost entirely, having evidently entered full-power overwintering mode. I may offer it a cave; perhaps it will be deemed more suitable than the counterfeit angiosperm?

Physciella chloantha coughs up several surprises ( + bonus algae)

The acetone vaporized today, and I busied myself with hydrating the P. chloantha sample via mist bottle. It turned an unusually dark shade of green (compare to my earlier samples, which were much paler in greenness after wetting; perhaps the acetone dissolved some unknown secondary metabolites (no such metabolites have ever been detected in chloantha)? A while later, I saw a whitish round microarthropod strolling about on the sample surface. How did it survive 30+ minutes of immersion in pure acetone the other day? In addition to its usefulness as a lichen metabolite dissolver, acetone is used in entomological killing jars! Furthermore, the Eucalyptus bark the lichens were attached to smelled faintly moldy as soon as they became damp, quite alarmingly. I had only collected them days ago, and kept them dry all that time!

I have pulled out some lichen thalli and am attempting to keep them on plastic to isolate them from the mold and arthropods, but several turned brown within hours (death via mechanical injury?).



Here are microscope pics of some bonus green algae (and possibly some barely visible lichen threadlets) I pulled off a parking lot tree. The lichenologist thought the former were Lepraria/Leprocaulon lichens until seeing algal cells swim around during hydration.

More lichens, part 2

After a painfully long wait, I finally managed to acquire an additional Physciella chloantha chunk yesterday! It has been soaked in acetone for disinfection purposes. To further decrease my chances of growing mold, I will be hydrating it less often (one 12-hr period every 3 or 4 days).

Here are some other synanthropic lichen specimens located in "my" yard; they are currently waiting for the lichenologist's ID. Interestingly, the black palm tree dots are largely restricted to areas of injured bark carved into a pattern by some dumb vandal long ago; furthermore, they do not change color when wet (the gray palm dots and probably also persimmon dots turn green like chloantha in the rain).

gray dots from persimmon

black palm dots

gray palm dots

Introducing Pomacea! (also, small Bagrada update)

This is my Pomacea diffusa specimen! The store labeled it as "bridgesii", which is known to be an incorrect ID. I've run it through a key and it has the characteristic 90-degree-ish shell suture.

I involuntarily acquired the watersnail last month after an unfortunate series of events involving an irresponsible buyer and subsequent month-long fasting session for it. So far, its physical health appears to have improved since I began rehabilitation efforts; a crackly pale growth ring (presumably from the fasting period) I saw on it has been followed by some more normal-looking deposits of shell. However, it appears to have become somewhat dormant in the current cold weather; it refuses to ingest whole vegetables and will sporadically eat somewhat large quantities of algal wafer (which contain few algae and lots of green food coloring + starch). This also makes it quite a boring specimen, as it spends all its time sleeping, feeding, or travelling aimlessly. I doubt it will become less boring during the spring though, except for sleeping less and eating more.

I am rather concerned for its future safety and psychological health, though. While outdoor air temperatures here never get cold enough to kill all the cold-intolerant bugs, they are cold enough to induce in me constant sneezing (and are also below the reported thermal tolerances of diffusa). The situation indoors is of course somewhat better, but in the past it has nearly approached below 65 deg Fahrenheit (the danger zone). My deceased flightless Cotinis mutabilis male (rest in peace) was not harmed by them, but water is usually colder than the surrounding air. I am also stuck with a relatively small jar for housing it, since my juvenile koi specimens would likely harass or outcompete it to death if I threw it in their tank; this means there are no dark hiding areas for it. I am not sure if Pomacea absolutely require hiding areas to prevent stress, like carabids/tenebrionids, but it often drops to the bottom of its jar (a defensive maneuver) if I turn on excessively bright lights at night.

The Bagrada hilaris female (which is just as boring despite its large appetite) just lost a tarsus, by the way. I suspect I may have pinned its leg under the lid, but my memories only recall having said leg near said lid. In any case I have provided it with a dead leaf to sit on, since it is no longer capable of walking up plastic walls and cannot reach vertical sleeping areas, which it prefers.

Bagrada hilaris drinks the last of my defrosted broccoli

Can you believe it singlehandedly exhausted my entire supply of stored brassicaceans in just a month?

More lichens, part 1

What we had previously thought was Phaeophyscia hirsuta is actually Physciella chloantha! All my old commentary about hirsuta still applies though, except that chloantha is definitely not under conservational danger. The lichenologist I sent my samples to has declared that chloantha is rarely collected from California; mine is the first ever record from Los Angeles County and also highly unusual for being on an eucalyptus tree! Clearly lichens are just as scientifically unpopular as bugs; how else could a popular park filled with tons of chloantha escape researcher attention?

By the way, the chloantha samples I kept for cultivation purposes all developed moldy smells, despite the thalli appearing quite healthy; I had to throw them out. The wild yellow tree lichens suffered a similar fate, except that I was unable to throw out the tree. Even the lichenless tree parts smell terrible when moistened; how is a living branch growing mold?

Here are some microscope pics of chloantha the lichenologist sent me and gave permission to use; as mentioned before, gray thalli are dry and turn green seconds after hydration.

Fun misadventures with the Brassicaceae

In addition to the four caterpillars mentioned previously and shown above, I also later found a brown cutworm-shaped one in a different brassicacean bag and caught two starving Bagrada hilaris females to accompany all of the caterpillars. Unfortunately, the second female ran off and died one day when I was replacing their food; the first one is still doing well today and has apparently become somewhat habituated to my presence. At least I gave the deceased one a few extra meals before it died...? Sigh.

On October 14, two parasitoid wasp larvae emerged, finished off their hosts' green corpses by eating from the outside in, and then began vigorously silking the floor.

the parasitoids appear to be conspecifics too

The next day, I was quite dismayed to find that #1 had developed brown spots. Note the tiny hemipteran near it; I strongly suspect it is an anthocorid and thus carnivorous. I threw the true bug outdoors and trashed the unfortunate larva.

#2 and freshly emerged #3 were fine. #4 emerged later in the day.

Several more days later, they continued drooling silk without pupating. I was getting slightly worried, as they had somehow drooled a whole ring around the cup edge despite being seemingly incapable of  voluntary locomotion. Fortunately, all of them finally turned into wasp pupae after I put a large quantity of paper inside to serve as silk anchor points.

Several days later after that, the brown caterpillar was motionless. I thought the decaying broccoli gases had killed it, but another wasp larva exited the corpse.

brown larva, before demise

Unfortunately, I could not rear any of the wasps correctly. The green caterpillar parasitoids failed to eclose from their pupae properly, and I fed them to vertebrates out of pity. The syrphid(?) puparium produced a correctly shaped wasp though. It died before I saw it; perhaps it was too entangled in the others’ silk?

adults (note odd abdomen)

I almost ingest some extra protein

lepidopteran x4

Several days ago I was washing some brassicacean foliage for dinner. To save time, let us just skip to the conclusion (see above/below):

syrphid(?) x1

(there was also a tiny black hemispherical beetle, likely coccinellid; I dumped it into the yard though.)


The caterpillars have window-fed from several brassicacean leaves and have visibly enlarged already. I am currently transitioning them to defrosted broccoli (which is also brassicacean), as you can see in the picture. They spend large quantities of effort tying down the leaves with silk and then sleep for long periods under them; actual feeding occupies a relatively small portion of the day. Rather amusingly, they appear incapable of recognizing conspecifics as harmless and thus engage in long panicky headbashing contests whenever one manages to make contact with another.

The syrphid(?) maggot has ingested at least two aphids, but it appears to be even more torpid than its herbivorous counterparts. It appears to have occupied a largely stationary position soon after aphid one! Despite said position being next to a whole budful of aphids it did not seem to have even attacked any until I manually woke it up for #2 (the rest of the poor aphids, though completely oblivious to the threat, were at this point quite alarmed that their hibiscus bud was wilting; I released them back into the garden).

Hopefully I will be able to rear all five to adulthood, since there is a chance they may be newly imported species.

A yellow lichen has died

This one turned crumbly before falling off its tree:

Its orange neighbors (see my featured post) seem fine though.

EDIT: all members of its morphospecies have apparently vanished from areas where I have been watering the branches, but one thallus I kept dry as an experimental control appears fine.

Placatory feeding: an overview

Cotinis mutabilis being placated

Welcome to part 1 of the Advanced Entomological Techniques series! More may or may not be coming soon.



Introduction

Unlike many vertebrates, insects and other arthropods often fail to react strongly or at all when they perceive danger. This can result in surreal scenarios; aphids can often be seen right next to sleeping coccinellids, and may even attempt to climb onto their shells! Furthermore, even normally wary taxa may calm down instantly after encountering food, and then become quite oblivious. This is often useful during photography, as feeding specimens generally cease to move.



Chart legends

Placatability:

H = highly placatable; specimens lose nearly all fear when they are fed

OH = often highly placatable; specimens lose nearly all fear when successfully fed, but sometimes may refuse food

S = somewhat placatable; specimens will refuse food when extremely alarmed, and lose some/most fear after successful feeding

F = placatable when force-fed; alarmed specimens will ignore food if they can flee; if they cannot flee, they will feed and calm down. Note that some highly placatable taxa refuse food only when force-fed, and some highly non-placatable taxa always accept it when force-fed.

R = rarely placatable; specimens normally do not accept food when alarmed. However, slightly moribund specimens may sometimes feed (note that heavily moribund insects usually refuse all food, even if normally highly placatable)

N = not placatable


Primary tasting organs:

These elicit strong feeding responses when the insect contacts a food source with them, if it is not sufficiently frightened. Note that many insects are poor at locating food and will only notice it if their primary tasting organs accidentally collide with a food source.

A = antennae

P = palps

L = legs




Placation chart, arranged by taxon

Note that I am unfamiliar with the behaviors of certain taxa, and these may be excluded or contain less accurate ratings. I have based this on local species; your results may vary. Morphologically anomalous species are excluded for convenience. Assume only adults/adultlike young are being discussed, unless otherwise indicated.


ORDER Coleoptera
- Tenebrionidae (adults/larvae): S or OH, A, P
- Elateridae: H, A?, P?
- Carabidae: OH, P; nocturnal spp. may eat in daylight
- Coccinellidae (all): OH, sometimes F, either or both A, P
- Scarabaeidae, Melolonthinae: R, P
- Scarabaeidae, Cotinis mutabilis: OH, P
- Chrysomelidae (adults/larvae): R?
- Melyridae, Collops quadrimaculatus(?): H?, P, A?
- Staphylinidae: R?

ORDER Hymenoptera
OH, A, P, sometimes S, F

ORDER Lepidoptera
- Larvae: either OH or S; primary taste-organs unclear but around mouthparts
- Adult moths, if not mouthless: H, A?, L
- Adult butterflies: OH if F, A? L

ORDER Hemiptera
- Hoppers: N
- Aphids: OH?
- Heteropterans: R, L, A?; however sometimes herbivorous spp. attempt to probe skin

ORDER Zygentoma
- Synanthropic silverfishes: R, A? P?

ORDER Embiidina
S, A?, P? Adult males cease feeding after eating the final molt.

ORDER Blattodea
- Roaches: am unfamiliar, but based on reliable reports from others: OH (at least some), A, P
- Termites: apparently N

ORDER Orthoptera
Highly variable between species; possibilities include OH when F, N, A?, P

ORDER Diptera
- "Classic" (large-eye) flies: OH when F, L
- Gnat/mosquito/midge-shaped: H when F, L, P
- Crane flies: OH when F, P
- "Classic" maggots: OH? Apparently almost completely fearless.

ORDER Neuroptera
- Green lacewings: H when F, P, A?

ORDER Araneae
Salticidae: S? Some species appear completely fearless, H for these
Other free-living spiders: possibly S/R
Obligate web-hunting spiders: N, but Gasteracantha and several others known to OH even when webless

ORDER Isopoda
S/R, A

Diaperis season ends

The Diaperis rufipes fungus has increased the thickness of its unchewed dorsal areas quite rapidly over the past few days. Unfortunately, I saw what appears to be a small vertebrate dropping sitting on top of it! Why do vertebrates always insist on defecating on all the best places?

Diaperis success

A brief reintroduction

Diaperis rufipes is a relatively small and severely understudied fungus tenebrionid, roughly the size, shape, and color of a stereotypical coccinellid beetle. Because it is preferentially nocturnal and its hosts' fruiting bodies are often quite distant from each other, its populations appear highly localized, clustered, and cryptic (probably why it is both understudied and very common near good hosts). Those of you who have been reading the old Splendid Unknowns (before spambot issues put it on perma-lockdown) may be familiar with it from two summers ago; it swarmed in vast numbers on a squishy polypore, eventually fleeing en masse once the host sufficiently rotted (a few did stay behind longer, though). Unfortunately, at the time my phone camera was even worse than it is now and I could not effectively document any science on them. The current fruiting is from the same tree, and I am scrambling to maximize science absorption before it dies again.




So what actually happened tonight?

I found two Diaperis rufipes specimens! Just as well, because the fungal fruitbody probably has not much longer to live (we appear to be in the stage when most of the beetles have fled). In an effort to photograph them, I accidentally launched the first one some distance off its host! D. rufipes appears to clamp tightly onto objects as a major defense mechanism (unlike classic tenebrionids such as Zophobas/Eleodes, which often accidentally fall off tall objects). Ironically, its other two major defenses are deliberately falling off tall objects and producing repellent secretions which smell exactly like those of Zophobas! Fortunately the second beetle was successfully prodded off the fungus and posed well while I fumbled angrily with the lighting.

Bonus video: when flipped, it will spread its elytra and flight wings in an attempt to right itself ("tenebrionids are flightless" is not a completely true statement)

Fun minor observation

Recently even flies have not been visiting the fungus much, but I've noticed that its unchewed meat is pale each morning and slowly darkens during the day; compare this pic with the one in the previous post:

Diaperis rufipes returns

The puffy shelf fungus is back! I found a Diaperis rufipes specimen last night. It cooperated quite nicely for the photoshoot, but my phone camera insisted on all sorts of nonsense (in several instances its AI firmly insisted that kitchen paper was in fact red!) so I don't have any pics worth sharing. At least my small-insect photographs are no longer blurry! In the meantime enjoy some closeups of the fungi and a visiting fly; I plan to do a live or semi-live timelapse video soon.

(the droplets are jelly secretions, not water)

giant lauxaniid, apparently

I find some gray lichens

Update: these are not Phaeophyscia hirsuta.

Some time ago the local park had been specially redesigned for the recent California water conservation program; earlier this month I went there and saw a sign mentioning that the vegetation and sidewalks were carefully arranged to neutralize the "heat island" effect of cities. I saw several lichens during my walk; these were mainly yellow and orange dots on some areas of aboveground concrete/roots and tons of gray foliose thalli on tree trunks (especially the bases).  I was quite thrilled to see further evidence of the "lichen sparsity in urbanized southern CA is caused mainly by heatstroke" hypothesis.



I captured some of the ubiquitous gray thalli (all others were in positions which could easily have been contaminated with vertebrate secretions) and was informed that they were probably Phaeophyscia hirsuta in a mostly hairless phase. Researchgate and JSTOR informed me that P. hirsuta was:

- a facultative nitrophile (it voraciously eats nutrients from car exhaust)
- adapted to xerothermic environments
- apparently an obligate shade-loving species
- also capable of growing on mosses (this probably means that captive specimens can colonize glass/plastic)
- calcium-preferring (fortunately all my water is hard water)

Based on my field observations, it probably makes its xerothermic adaptations compatible with its sunburn intolerance by growing in shaded places with hot air (lawn sprinklers were often nearby, though; one website I visited did say that it was capable of facultatively colonizing mesic areas).



Perhaps even stranger than its fear of sunscorch, however, is its conservation status. Currently it is listed as "globally vulnerable" on iNaturalist. I was initially quite alarmed at this, having taken precautions to only collect hyperabundant weedy species. However, the iNat status seems to be erroneous; all recently published P. hirsuta literature I found agreed that it was common/widespread in CA (phew!) To complicate matters, it is apparently in severe Canadian danger though: https://www.pnwfungi.org/index.php/pnwfungi/article/view/1266



I am keeping my samples in a manner consistent with the above-listed ecological preferences, with a hydration schedule of 12 hrs every two days, and have propped them up on a boiled stick to increase ventilation. Unfortunately the thallus surface is quite hydrophobic and thus has been constantly causing scheduling errors. Hydrophobicity in a lichen implies that the species in question may be vulnerable to excessive water absorption, which interferes with the physics of carbon dioxide capture and thus photosynthesis; however, in captivity the water repellence makes it difficult to water the thalli without violently soaking them. I really need to get a non-moldy mist bottle so I can stop using the tap!

Here are some pics (click to zoom, as always); it took me large amounts of effort to make the photographed colors accurate, and I even ruined several (not shown) samples by accident in the process.

dry (beautiful ivory colors!)

freshly soaked (it greens instantly!)

Unfortunately, more testing is needed. The specimens shown have not visibly grown yet, and I have not fertilized them yet (normal liquid fertilizers are probably a suitable replacement for noxious car gases, though). I have also discovered several dark maculations on some of the thalli, which might be parasitic fungi; they may be scientifically interesting and/or dangerous to the culture. Stay tuned for further updates!













Postscript: bonus research papers

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00333715 (Pure acetone can also be used for disinfecting dry lichens non-fatally, which is useful; however it may wash away antibiotics created by the lichen. Fortunately P. hirsuta has no known secondary metabolites)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2710189/ (Hydrophobicity and pollution tolerance are linked)

Lichens are invertebrates too

Squamulea subsoluta

Introduction

Lichens are well known for their bright colors, fungus-autotroph symbiosis, and ecosystemic value.

Despite their importance, information on "natural" lichen cultivation appears quite sparse. In laboratory dishes, lichen fungi often behave abnormally by failing to capture algae and forming fluffy networks resembling bread mold instead; resynthesis of behaviorally normal specimens has proven difficult. On the other hand, many websites intended for a general audience give poor advice ("lichens cannot last long in harsh sunlight" is easily refuted by the xerophytic yellow Squamulea on my old diving board!), and I have never seen anyone blog about their lichen gardens.

Candelaria pacifica(?)

The "heat islands" hypothesis

Although many species are well known as microhabitat specialists which quickly vanish from even slightly polluted areas, synanthropic lichens do exist. These are naturally more well suited to being captive specimens, since synanthropes are usually adaptable and highly generalistic. I was quite pleased to accidentally encounter the following research paper while half-heartedly foraging in a bibliography:

A simple outdoor culturing system for the foliose macrolichens Xanthoria parietina (L.) Th. Fr. and Parmelia sulcata Taylor

This strongly suggested that most synanthropic lichens could be easily grown as long as they did not succumb to brick poisoning or overwatering-induced rot. Unfortunately, I soon realized that synanthropic lichens seemed not very abundant here in southern California despite many non-poisonous surfaces being available. I became even more confused after a recent trip to the European rainforest, since their cities were covered in thick yellow and minty green coats of assorted species sitting happily next to small cigarette heaps.

My suspicions about CA semidesert aridity  being responsible were somewhat confirmed by an old lichenological bulletin I found after further fruitless searches; most notably, it stated that several microhabitat specialists here grow like weeds in soggy New Zealand!

CALS Bulletin, Summer 2003 (see first article, "urban lichens" section)

Naturally, this suggests a hypothesis: can improving hydration to local synanthropic lichens increase their abundance and biodiversity? I have started watering the pathetic dot and flake colonies in my yard [Update: I am no longer watering them], being careful to:

water only when shade appears, because they lower their defenses during photosynthesis

keep watered specimens wet for extended periods of time, because rapidly going in and out of dormancy harms photosynthetic efficiency

not keep them permanently wet, because dry periods are still important for many species (it facilitates normal morphological development and presumably discourages rot)

So far things have not been going well for them, because I get too excited whenever a cloud covers the sun; often it passes by quickly and I end up inducing fungal sunburn. The captive and wild local vertebrates are also occasionally contaminating most of the clusters with fecal dusts, which may prove useful as fertilizer but are very hazardous (they should dissipate quickly enough for me to not stop visiting the clusters, but I do not dare to bring any specimens indoors).

On a more pleasant note, today I have found more support for my hypothesis.

Collema experiences a massive growth boost when under unnaturally frequent hydration, although it is still slow:

Rapid ex situ culture of N-fixing soil lichens and biocrusts is enhanced by complementarity

in Mediterranean climates (like southern CA), lack of hydration caused by city-induced temperature increase can indeed be a population growth limiter more important than pollution: 

Lichens as ecological indicators in urban areas: beyond the effects of pollutants

Minor entowalk update

I have been quite busy lately, but I finally went on another entowalk in the public garden; the foliage is weedy and quite lush now, but the milkweed had only several(?) dozen unclustered Oncopeltus adults and an adult monarch.

Syrphids (mostly ubiquitous taxa like Allograpta obliqua and Toxomerus marginatus) and coccinellids are still not uncommon though; however, it seems a few Hippodamia have now been accompanying Cycloneda sanguinea.

Slime update

Unfortunately, the spring rains have stopped; I suppose I will have to wait until next year for wild plasmodia and fresh precipitation to appear.

How to catch really large protists

Introduction

The "plasmodial slime molds" (Myxomycetes or Myxogastria) are a diverse group of protists; many species are macroscopic(!) during considerable portions of their life cycles. The large yellow slime Physarum polycephalum is used as a laboratory model organism and is consequently well-studied and widely cultured (it is even commercially available), but many other species appear to be quite understudied in certain areas.

I have recently taken an interest in cultivation of large non-polycephalum myxomycetes. Oddly, this seems to be rarely attempted by anyone (especially non-researchers), despite the fact that many large species are aesthetically attractive and apparently photographed quite regularly by macrophotography hobbyists.



Analysis and current progress

According to this:

Order Physarales has phaneroplasmodia, which are typically large, colorful and conspicuous

Order Stemonitales has aphanoplasmodia, which are macroscopic but also typically transparent and cryptic until shortly before fruiting

Order Trichiales has trichiaceous plasmodia, which share morphological features with both of the above-listed

Order Echinosteliales has protoplasmodia, which are microscopic

Order Liceales was not mentioned; however, in another research article it was stated that the order contained both protoplasmodial and phaneroplasmodial species.


iNaturalist (unlike Bugguide) suffers from severe misidentification plagues; however, it is nevertheless useful for rough estimates. Within California, the most commonly observed species on its website include:

Fuligo septica (Physarales), a massive, ubiquitous yellow synanthrope, often mulch-associated

Lycogala epidendrum (Liceales), which forms puffy reddish fruiting bodies that darken to brown. It is probably large enough to have phanero- and not protoplasmodia; however, it seems largely restricted to rotted forest wood (I am currently unable to access forests due to various reasons, including severe dung contamination)

Enteridium/Reticularia lycoperdon (Liceales): round, white, large; according to this British paper, it is also found on rotting wood but is at least somewhat synanthropic.


Current slime-collection efforts have focused largely on F. septica due to its highly synanthropic behavior and conspicuous plasmodia. Despite the presence of intermittent rains for several weeks (Fuligo requires copious moisture for its large plasmodia, and I live in a semidesert), I have failed to detect any plasmodia in various small mulched flowerbeds. Perhaps the local public garden may be a more suitable area for exploring, as several iNaturalist Fuligo observations were located there.

2019 desperate spring tipulid-chase

resting male

and female

Over the past few weeks, the annual swarm of giant brown tipulids has been (and still is) active in my yard; on the other hand, the Vanessa public garden swarms have nearly disappeared. Having finally armed myself with a red flashlight (most insects are unable or nearly unable to see it) and a somewhat decent slow-motion camera, I was quite impatient to collect some footage for the entomology outreach campaign.

I was rather startled to see the following thing one afternoon:

it was quite a surreal scene; swarm specimens would also occasionally cease their careful vegetation-colliding and literally bounce across the ground in a ridiculous, majestic fashion.



I wasted quite some time trying to film them.



After finally managing to align the phone camera with the fast-flying dipterans, I realized that the videos were still too blurred to be of much use for public campaigns; still, under slow motion the animals' seemingly senseless bumbling revealed a fascinating phenomenon.

From the beginning I had suspected that they were using their vast array of legs as pseudo-antennae; though they flied quite erratically when in the fenceside weed patch, they moved with a sense of purpose, as if carefully palpating the plants for suitability. Furthermore, they often also bounced against fences in an even more chaotic fashion, but did so even in the absence of lamps (contrary to popular belief, nocturnal insects' lamp bouncing is a highly abnormal stress-behavior). Upon video slowing, the tipulid flight patterns certainly appeared to support my antennation hypothesis:

(for some reason, ground bouncing usually occurred in straight lines or arcs, unlike wall bouncing)







Further attempts at flight video capture were wholly unsuccessful, although I did manage to capture several other things.

male and tenerally pale (I think) female

(unfortunately a planned timelapse on mating dynamics failed hilariously; during most of the filming period no additional males came, and after taking a long break I arrived just in time to see the female fly over the fence while still copulating)


Several other tipulomorph species were present, but these were not very abundant and I was barely able to observe any behaviors from them. EDIT: A while after the Large Brown swarming ceased, the first morphospecies became abundant for a few weeks. I have also seen wulpiana bouncing briefly on grass.

mottled sp. sitting on web

Nephrotoma wulpiana, a bright orange tipulid

3/4 minor news

Vanessa adult activity has resumed due to sunny weather, but only non-large aggregations (a handful per nectaring area) were visible. I was surprised to find that annabella were mixed in with the cardui:

cardui

annabella

Milkweed hemipterans were still sparsely distributed but I saw a single large cluster on a pod (perhaps the pod was unhealthy and the resulting loss of defense chems made it more palatable than the others?)

Also finally managed to photograph + identify one of the massive non-katydid hoppers:

Schistocerca nitens

Ento-walk large post!

2/25: Bland pics

The small Sphaeralcea hemipterans have not done anything too interesting, though I did see an adult and nymph excitedly running up and down the stems for some reason I couldn't determine. I was able to find few other interesting arthropods in the public garden despite seeing many freshly and heavily chewed leaves as well as large diurnal predators; any advice?

large diurnal predator

Interestingly, several nearby honeybees were displaying an intriguing behavior; they would happily pollinate Sphaeralcea flowers that were open, but would attempt to nectar-rob closed flowers and shove themselves inside of partially closed flowers. Even more interestingly, I later saw an entire foraging party apparently nectar-robbing a bushful of dead dried Salvia flowers. Befitting for a highly adaptable synanthrope, I guess.

hard-working but certainly not honest

Here are a few other random pics I took, by the way

Halictus tripartitus

Mecaphesa trying to ambush hover flies

2/26: Not all locusts have jaws

I was rather surprised to see hilariously large Vanessa cardui swarms in the European flowers section; it seems the recent few weeks of rain here have triggered a migration. The butterflies were evidently rather famished, too; they frantically stuffed their tongues into anything that had petals, including fancy-looking cultivars which even the honeybees refused to touch. I think I once read somewhere in a technical book that Vanessa spend 90-something percent of their time nectaring, because many flowers give meals sparingly to encourage pollination. Unfortunately, my phone refused to photograph the whole swarm, so here are a few individuals:

2/26 (cont.) and 2/27: Fun with the milkweed crew (and more)

I found a small party of milkweed hemipterans on a bunch of sickly-looking plants in the herbs section! Unfortunately, all hemipteran species had sparse populations despite plentiful seeds; perhaps only two or three adult Oncopeltus and a single adult Lygaeus were around, with a few large nymphs present. A few Aphis nerii clusters were also around but they were busy getting themselves killed.

Cycloneda sanguinea

(can you find the aphid?)

The Tagetes lemmonii bush nearby was also quite biodiverse (its passionfruity scent was excellent too);

yellowish inchworms were abundant

Erynnis tristis, far handsomer than the overdressed Vanessa

these wingwiggling flies were common too; learning their sign language might be interesting

3/7: A few more bland but interesting pics

I found my first iridoviral blue pillbug today! It wasn't very blue, though. My phone camera made it look more vibrant that it actually was; here is a heavily edited pic showing realistic colors.

Also, I have finally managed to get a non-blurry pic of this large bumblebee; although it visits several unrelated species of flower, it appears to be quite selective about its dining options (I have never seen it outside the public garden) and is extremely wary + restless.

Bombus melanopygus