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.

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

Bonus pics!

Here are a bunch of old pics previously in the deleted Gallery; I have also added a carabid pic from this winter and a long-lost pic of the ironclad

Pholcid

Hoplia

Very likely Calathus

Pillbug and small ironclad (from “winter beetle hunting” post)

Staring contest continues

News:

Scudderia mexicana deformed-wing male (pictured above) is still doing fine. Yesterday the rosebushes were pruned and nearby resident female(s) have moved elsewhere. The male simply relocated itself to a taller bush next door.

Night walks have been unremarkable; surprisingly, the katydids seem very lethargic even in the darkest hours, although they do wave their antennae near-constantly once the sun sets. The deformed male often assumes an odd nighttime position in which it sits on a tall stem with head down and two front legs slightly in the air; perhaps this is a mate-searching behavior because scarabs have been known to use the same posture. I also did see a few small carabids (mostly Tanystoma maculicolle) and a pillbug with abnormally large yellow splotches, but the carabs failed to perform interesting behaviors.

No more coccinellid posts for a while; their aphids are all gone

Winter bug-hunting

As much as I like complaining, I do get tired eventually.

Here is a somewhat pleasant (mis)adventure from several years ago







(Some background: here in arid CA it is never cold enough to snow, although temperatures can drop precariously close on wintery nights; we thus even have katydids year-round)



On the first weekend of Jan 2015 I decided to stop biting my nails over a perceived lack of interesting invertebrates and dig through some forest logs with a large chisel.

It worked, ...somewhat. The logs were almost completely empty of woodborers but I located a wrinkled and surprisingly small ironclad (approx. 1 cm) under a rock.

I put it in a small box with three small pillbugs but it often feigned death for hours when disturbed.




Later I found a few interesting pancake-shaped woodlice in another wooded area. I misidentified them as Trachelipus rathkii after miscounting their lungs.

the animals later turned out to be Porcellio dilatatus

Sometime later I also took home a small (approx. 1 cm) red-anteriored carabid (Calathus ruficollis) for breeding experiments. I failed to find any conspecifics but kept it anyways.

This pic makes the front end unnaturally non-glossy and the legs too red

Unfortunately, arthropods are delicate organisms (despite their resilience). After living with some Zophobas adults for a while, the carabid broke several of its legs mysteriously; I had to relocate it to a small cup of forest woodchips. It lived for a long time in this pathetic state and quietly died in the summer. The Porcellio did well with the pillbugs and later I added some shimmery gray Porcellionides, but due to an under-ventilation error several pillbugs and all Porcellio perished (pillbugs need more fresh air than the others, so presumably they died first and then released poisonous vapors). The small ironclad simply went limp a number of days after capture; in hindsight it probably could not tolerate the moisture desired by the woodlice in its box.

(in reality the Porcellionides were not orange, it is just bad lighting)