What will a "Beetle Bris" look like?

You're invited!

Come find out at 8pm on Friday.

Ox Beetle: Joselito el Cinco

I happened upon a little --well not so little in the bug world, I suppose-- ox bettle while we made our last stop of the trip at Lake Annie. Some would say it was love at first sight. Well, maybe love for me; indifference, or perhaps even fear (from the giant hominid looming over head), for my little beetle friend. Not long after, I noticed that he walked with a bit of a limp. He was not using his front left leg for whatever reason.

He was promptly given a suitable name: Joselito el Cinco.

I managed to sneak him home to Yale in a little test tube. TSA nor x-rays managed to stop the little bugger.

Ox beetles (Strategus aloeus) are a species of rhinoceros beetle native to the United States, Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America. The males can occur in two different morphs: major and minor. While minors look rather similar to females, majors have three large horns extending from their thorax which they use for territory defense.

Look at them horns!

 The beetles are popular pets as they require minimal care and are easy to handle. While the larvae feed on the roots of plants, adults eat just about anything from rotting wood and leaves in the wild to apples and bananas in captivity.

In addition to territory defense, ox beetles also use their horns as an effective digging tools. The beetles often dig burrows--some extending up to several feet into the substrate-- that they reside in while not foraging or searching for mates.

I took in much of what I learned to construct a proper home for Joselito. I snatched an unused plastic storage box in my suite. I then proceeded to fill it with dirt from Old Campus using a dust pan-- a sight that surely won me cool points with the freshmen.

I quickly brought the enclosure back up to my room and placed Joselito in it. After observing him for a while I decided to lean in and take a closer look. I quickly noticed an odd smell.

Wait a second....it's manure!

I had unknowingly filled the box with manure and brought it up to my room like some excrement feind! I ran downstairs and emptied the box before proceeding to find actual dirt. After subjecting myself to another round of the dirt collecting spectacle--because after all why not double the amount of people who watch you with a degree of awe as you frantically shovel dirt using a household cleaning supply-- I completed the encolure with some banana slices and a little cardboard shelter.

Joselito now spends his days lounging in his new home. He has already made several burrows, much to my excitement.

A bit hard to see, but there are several burrow entrances in the substrate already.
(highlighted)

Watch him dig:

Joselito!!!

Panoramas from the FL Trip

I downloaded this neat app for the ipad that allows me to take 360-degree panoramas while down in Florida. Gave it some use down there.

Here are the flat versions of what I took. If I can figure out a way to upload the 360-degree version, I'll put those up as well.

Outside the Ranch office:

Road in fields of ranch:

 Pizza dinner at the Ranch:

Early morning at the Archbold Biological Station:

Getting ready for collecting near the Archbold Station:

Lake Annie: 

Assortment of Random Arthropod Links 2

Hello everyone!

I bring to you the second installment of random arthropod links I found on the internet, but didn't want to devote individual posts because a) I'm too lazy and b) no one wants to read all those posts and c) I spam the blog too much already. Here we go!

1. 10 Incredibly Strong Insects
Watch this video that shows how insanely strong some insects are. I feel so weak now!

2. FLY London
While walking to Starbucks on Chapel Street this morning (no class, what up!), I noticed behind a storefront window that there was a shoebox next to an image of a pretty fly. Here's what I saw this morning:

I say, good for the company for choosing Diptera as their logo, but man! That is hardly a Dipteran. What kind of abdomen do they think that is? And what kind of fly only has 2 pairs of legs? And those antennae?  It's like a freaking Dermapteran flipped upside down. Unacceptable.

In any case, FLY London is a shoe company. They make shoes, and use the "contemporary" slang use of the word "fly" (As in, Baby Bash's song, "Sugar sugar how you get so fly? etc.) for lots of advertising reasons, such as "How fly is your window?" What that question means... I cannot answer.

3. NYTimes article: "Beetles' Affinity for Dung May Keep Them Cool"
NYTimes reports that, when dung beetles in South Africa overheat, they move over to their dung balls, which are supposedly full of liquid and nutriment. There, they touch their head with their front legs and also use their mouth parts to touch their backs. Researchers suppose that they regurgitate the cool liquids. Beetles that were wearing "cooling boots" on the their legs were much less likely to climb on the dung balls when the ambient temperature was very high.

4. History of Spider as Symbol for Halloween
I tried to find some history of the spider taking on a Halloween symbol, but all I could find were some sources that talked about how spiders are scary. This link is the closest to legitimate I could find... it drops the phrase "natural creepiness." Not okay!

5. Spider Game!!
Play with a spider! Make it move, give it insects to feed... a great play for any and all spider enthusiasts!

6. Best Bug Halloween Costume
Is, sadly, misrepresentative of how awesome bugs are. It's a "bed bug" that fills with blood before your very eyes. :(

And, finally, you just can't make these things up:

7. "Bed Bug Detector Finds Bugs Through Farts"
I am not going to bother commenting on this. Just read it.

Happy Hurricane Day Off and See you Tomorrow! (Or tonight if you decide to come to my Beetle Bris... =])

-Chelsea

Remote controlled beetles.  Remote. Controlled. Beetles.  This should clearly be a class project.

For a while now, lots of researchers have been trying to create flying robots that emulate beetle flight, but the robots can't fly for more than a few minutes on their batteries, because they're not efficient enough.  Finally, some researchers at UC Berkeley decided to stick a microcontroller on a beetle and take advantage of the fact that they've been becoming more efficient over millions of years.  They actually used a variety of different beetles, ranging in size from 2 cm to 20 cm.  During the pupal stage, nerve and muscle stimulators, a microcontroller, and a battery are attached to the beetle.  When it becomes an adult, the researchers were able to remotely cause it to take off, turn in flight, and land.  Apparently, they're also doing similar experiments with moths, flies, and dragonflies.
You can watch the videos that have been posted, or read the paper.

Are you excited yet?

T-minus 36 hours!!!!!! (give or take a few. And also depending on when you read this.)

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately...), we're probably going to get to Florida about a month too late to see the "double-headed bugs," or lovebugs (Plecia nearctica), which form huge mating swarms twice a year in late spring and late summer. They can be stuck together for as long as several days during and after mating, even when they're flying around. Their swarms can get so big that they're considered a huge pest, especially when people drive through the swarms. Lovebug body chemistry is not conducive to being cleaned off of car paint (the trick, I have read, is to use wet dryer sheets).

Lovebugs weren't always found in Florida. Actually, because they appeared in the U.S. so suddenly, some brilliant person decided to spread the rumor that the pesty lovebugs were actually the escapees of a genetic experiment gone wrong, accidentally released by naive University of Florida students. However, their sudden introduction to the U.S. can be explained instead by a steady migration around the Gulf of Mexico. Lovebugs were present in Mississippi and Louisiana in 1940, and then expanded their range by about 20 miles per year, until they reached southern Florida in 1975, according to a study by Lawrent Buschman.

The one with the tiny head is the male. Sorry guys. We always knew you had smaller brains.

Unfortunately, these would probably be hard to pin.

One thing you don't have to worry about in Florida: being stung by the bullet ant (Paraponera clavata). The farthest north you'll find the bullet ant is Nicaragua or Honduras, so we've managed to dodge that bullet (so punny).  Apparently the sting of the bullet ant is actually about equal to being shot. This ant is also known as "hormiga veinticuatro" because its sting is followed by 24 hours of pain. It has a 4+ rating on the Schmidt Sting Pain Index (a scale of 1 to 4...yes this is a real scale). Apparently some crazy entomologist from Arizona decided to rate all of the stings of the Hymenoptera by testing them on himself. He didn't just put a numerical rating on the stings, though; he also described them with explicit, almost whimsical phrases. The sting of the sweat bee (family Halictidae) is "light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm." How enjoyable! Not surprising that it clocks in with a measly rating of 1. The yellow jacket (genuses Vespula and Dolichovespula) packs a heftier blow, with a rated-2 sting that is "hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine WC Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue." Ouch. But none come close to our enemy the bullet ant, which causes "pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch rusty nail in your heel." I'm not sure what gives this guy the authority to talk about fire-walking with 3-inch (not 2-inch, mind you. This is REAL pain) rusty nails in his heels, but I'm going to trust him. If you want to read more of Schmidt's descriptions, here's a cool article.

Look at the size of that stinger...

On an entirely unrelated note: you know how they always say you know you're fluent in a language when you start dreaming in it? I've never had a dream in another language (we'll ignore the random Spanglish that sometimes crops up), but I have had really cool dreams about bugs. Last night, I caught a really awesome mantis with red wings (why did it have to be a dream?). My kill jar wasn't charged, though, so I had to tell to my brother to pour ethyl acetate into the jar while I was holding the mantis. He poured way too much into the jar, but I couldn't do anything about it because my hands were full of mantis, so I just ended up drowning the thing in ethyl acetate. Rather unfortunate.

I also think I ate some mealy bugs in my dream...yum?

Basically, my point is: SO EXCITED FOR FLORIDA. LET'S CATCH SOME AWESOME STUFF.

Insect Collectors Extraordinare go to the Bronx Zoo!!!

A group of three insect collecting fiends bravely ventured to a land far far away called "the Bronx" this past Saturday. Their quest was to find all the insects and insect-themed attractions the Bronx Zoo had to offer (as well as see all the other really awesome but not as insect-y animals).

                     David "Beard" Kellner              Peter " Creepy" Flynn         Elizabeth "Sorority Squat" Schyling

            

                                                                             Their mug shots


The crew was a little overwhelmed on where to start this insect adventure....

The Bronx Zoo is huge!!

The first place the crew encountered insects was the "jungleworld" exhibit, and ENCOUNTER INSECTS THEY DID! This exhibit focused on animals in the rainforest and since insects account for much of the species diversity in a rainforest this exhibit focused on a variety of insect species. The lighting was dim in jungleworld so there are not pictures from this part of the adventure. Jungleworld had a lot of stick insects, which belong to the Phasmatodea order. One cool example was the huge Eurycantha calcarata  (the thorny devil stick insect), sometimes referred to as the "giant spiny stick insect". This species is endemic to the New Guinean rainforest, and resembles rotten wood. Females are usually about 6 inches long with a large abdomen.

Eurycantha calcarata

Not David with a thorny devil stick insect on his head

The next stop was the Congo Gorilla Forest! In this exhibit there were many different kinds of beetles for David, Peter, and Elizabeth to gawk at. They got so excited about beetles, since they are by far the most diverse group of insect -- as J.B.S Haldane once said, the Creator must have an "inordinate fondness for beetles!" They took a picture with a beautiful collection of pinned beetles.

Sorority Squatting Next to the Beetle Collection 

Charlie's Angels  Beetle Style (except David didn't get the memo)

Next was possibly the most fun part of the entire trip - the BUG CAROUSEL!!!!!!!! While most of the participants were under age 5, we were not ashamed because we did it in the name of SCIENCE.  Peter scared many of the children with his wild enthusiasm for hexapods.

                    

Peter chose an orthopteran as his steed, while David chose a mantodean, and Elizabeth chose a coleopteran. These matched their personalities well (SPIRIT ANIMALZ).






Question: Is this an arthropod or a chordate?  (Answer - this is a tapir, which is a chordate. Nice try.)

Then the dynamic trio decided to hit up the butterfly garden - a lepidopterist's paradise.  We brought our nets and kill jars, but the zoo staff seemed to frown upon this. The faunal diversity was astounding - there was even a gigantic luna moth.


The resemblance is uncanny.

David examines a butterfly (black swallowtail - Papilio polyxenes ?)

David spent hours to get this perfect shot of a butterfly with a semi-unfurled proboscis (modified mandibles and maxilla, evolved for sucking). Perhaps it had just been sipping nectar from a plant, or perhaps it was about to. The wings are blurry because it flew away just as the photo was taken.

Nice Hat, Elizabeth!

Elizabeth shows she is champion chewer - we knew it! She also uses her expert insect observation as we left the butterfly garden.


The expert adventurers left the Zoo feeling a sense of accomplishment for all that they had done and learned.

THE END!


Written by: David, Peter, and Elizabeth

Real photos of insects in southern Ghana

To follow Kara's blog post, I must say that I totally concur: we should go to Africa.

I spent Summer 2011 in the southern region of Ghana in West Africa. I was there during the raining season, so there were bugs galore. But that was when I had plans for a future in global health. If I had only known I'd be taking this course, I could have had some awesome arthropods to add to my collection. Still, I managed to take some pictures of bugs I had never seen while I was there. Help me identify some of these bugs?

This I know is a tsetse fly. It landed on a fellow NGO researcher's arm. When this happened, a rural Ghanaians slapped his arm really hard! It seemed completely out of nowhere, until we saw the specimen, which landed atop his research notebook.  The tsetse fly is known for causing sleeping sickness in humans. 

Really cool Odonatan. Spotted randomly.

Sweet true bug (? Hemipteran?) I found climbing a wall.

THE COOLEST BUG I SAW. I have not a clue what kind of bug it might be. Some sort of Coleopteran? It's on cement here. I saw quite a lot of them.

Totally a Decapoda. They curled up when they were scared. 

Now, let's go to southern Ghana so I can take you to all the places I spotted these terrestrial arthropods, and we can have some fun times identifying, studying, and collecting them. My contributing thoughts to Yale's presidential search are summed up with one question: who will sponsor exotic weekend trips to Africa for our lab? Not you? How about you? No? Next.

We Should Go to Africa

My dad is currently in Africa doing AIDS research and has been sending me pictures of insects that he sees around.  He hasn't been there for long and has already sent me a bunch of pictures (so clearly the arthropods are everywhere over there). So I think we should to Africa in Thanksgiving break- Marta is always talking about how much money she has to spend, so I'm sure it's feasible.  Look at all the cool stuff we would catch:

African Locust:

Worker Termites coming out of their hill:

Dung Beetle Rolling its Dung:

We'd also get to see other non-arthropod (less cool) organisms like this:

Spider vs Katydid, Who Wins?

My family recently sent me this series of pictures and movie, which caught on film the amazing ability of spiders to catch their prey.  The first picture shows a katydid ignorantly wandering along the window frame to its eventual doom.  The second picture shows how when the katydid tried to take off and fly away, it was ensnared in the massive spider web built in the corner of the window. The video shows the spider's reaction to its prey.  It begins by jumping on top of it. I am fairly certain that it then employs the bite first method, most likely because the katydid is so large and would probably get away if the spider tried to wrap it first.  I think that the spider bit the prey (although you can't see it clearly in the video) because the katydid is slowly subdued and stops struggling.  This huge katydid should keep the spider happy and full for a long time... quite the feast. 

Shout out to my brother for catching this on film for me!