Volume VI, no. 2, Summer 1999Table of Contents
David Osborne tells all -
David Osborne
David Osborne Tells AllI am a collector. My field experience is limited, but the more time I spend outdoors observing and collecting, the more I wonder at the incredible diversity of life right here in our own Ohio forests. What has particularly struck me over the few years that I’ve been collecting is that to the untrained eye and ear our rich forests appear to be rather empty. Often I walk through a forest and never see a cerambycid, scarab, or cicindelid. In my early collecting days, I became somewhat distraught with the slim pickings, while conjuring delectable images of myself in New Guinea, net in hand, randomly swinging to and fro, snagging beetles the size of tennis balls. Perhaps people travel to exotic places to collect because they don’t have the patience for the hunt required in temperate forests. Luckily for me, I resolved to dig a little deeper to learn the habits and preferences of my prey. Cerambycids being my particular weakness, I studied their behavior and life histories more thoroughly, and a moment of pure satisfaction came the first time I actually saw one on an actual dead tree, right where it was supposed to be. I immediately snatched it and soon immortalized it on a stainless steel pedestal. As I have increased my knowledge of cerambycids and their habitat preferences, I have become aware of my responsibility as a collector and naturalist. I don’t know if it’s merely the guilt I feel when taking the life of an innocent creature whose only requests are a few nibbles of Hydrangea pollen and an ephemeral tango with another willing beast of opposite sex, or that there really is something inherently wrong with killing every cerambycid my eyes fall upon. We entomologists are both scientists and naturalists, and as such, we understand the inherent wrong when loggers clearcut old-growth forests, or when hunters poach a species to near extinction. But we often overlook our own seemingly insignificant activities, which can have real environmental consequences. It seems strange that many of us spend energy attempting to show the general public that insects are not merely an annoyance, to be brushed away or squashed, and yet many of us feel justified in ignoring our own sound advice, and toss everything we see into the jar. Collecting is a responsibility that we as naturalists are in a unique position to understand. Perhaps this is why when I see twenty of one species sitting on a blooming plant, I hesitate a little before the impulse to sweep my net over the lot of them. Perhaps it is this hesitation that separates me from the ruthless poacher, or the conscience-free clearcutter. Realizing that we all have a responsibility to protect the environment and being humble enough to admit that we cannot fully know the ecological ramifications of our seemingly innocuous activities will help to ensure that these resources will be safe for generations to come. - David Osborne 1999 Reintroduction of the American Burying BeetleThe American Burying Beetle recovery team is at it again. On 19 May, Dave Horn, Foster Purrington and I installed 39 pitfall traps baited with putrid chicken in four linear transects; one was on the site of 1998 ABB release and 3 about 1/2 mile away in different directions. The night was cool (47 degrees F) and the next morning traps held many Nicrophorus orbicollis and Necrophila americana but no ABB. Ten days later, the traps were rebaited and checked the next morning after a warmer night (63 degrees F); N. orbicollis and N. americana again dominated, with no ABB. On 9 June, 20 pairs and 16 single female ABB were received from Arkansas. All were healthy save one 3-legged female and one dead female partially consumed by her room-mate. Each beetle was tagged, and all were transported to the release site. All releases were in a recently mowed field near bordering woods. For each release we removed a one-foot dia. surface plug of turf, troweled out a small depression for a quail carcass, and released a beetle pair or a single female thereon. Beetles quickly moved beneath the carcasses (perhaps to avoid air temperatures near 100 degrees F!). Each plug was replaced and the installation covered with poultry netting and wired-down bucket. On 23 June 1999, Dick Maxey, Dan Digman and I baited the existing 39 pitfall traps and installed 30 more in 3 transects in a nearby state forest. We also carefully exhumed 5 of the quail carcasses to assess the success of the ABB released on 9 June. Without being too intrusive, we observed that Pair # 5 had well buried the quail and had a brood in excess of a dozen early 3rd instar larvae. Another had a ABB male (#3) and 2 dead late 2nd instar (ABB?) larvae. ABB had absconded from the other three carcasses, and maggots and Necrophila americana were present on these. On 24 June, Dave Horn, David Osborne and I returned to the trapping sites to check the pitfalls for absconded ABB or any offspring of ABB released in 1998. We found no ABB although N. orbicollis was abundant with N. tomentosus in low numbers. We carefully lifted the turf plugs at the release site to further determine the success rate. Seven quail had been successfully buried and had good broods on them, with at least 54+ third instar ABB larvae. Four other quail showed signs of burial and preparation with no ABB adults or larvae. Seventeen quail were unburied and had maggots. (Most of these were the quail upon which single female ABB had been placed.) One carcass had been usurped by N. orbicollis. One of the single ABB females brooded on a quail with a male that had left the female with which he had been paired. On 25 June, Dave Horn and David Osborne returned to check the traps for ABB but none were captured in this round of 138 trap- nights. Traps were capped to prevent any captures until the next trapping interval. Sometime before 30 July, the Oklahoma Biological Survey will send 7 more pairs of ABB from Fort Chaffee, Arkansas for release at our southeastern Ohio site. About 60 days later we plan further trapping to demonstrate our success, we hope. - George Keeney Purple Loosestrife Biocontrol Success on the Killdeer PlainsAfter several seasons of rearing Purple Loosestrife (PLS) on the roof of Parking Garage K, and generating populations of the biocontrol agent Galerucella calmariensis (Chrysomelidae) on this weed, Dave Horn and I decided in June 1998 to move our potted infested weeds to the center of a big patch of PLS at ODNR's Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area in Wyandot County. This spring, on May 11, I visited the release site to find a scene of great destruction, the shoots of PLS about eight inches tall, scarred and twisted from severe feeding by the newly emerged adult beetles which covered the shoots by the hundreds and thousands, their eggs encrusting stems and leaves of PLS plants in a 100 yard swath around the release epicenter. On June 23 Dave and I visited the Plains again. In the general release area, PLS plants were destroyed almost to the ground. A few feeble flowering spikes were evident. At press time, we plan an imminent re-visit to evaluate our very auspicious beetle PLS biocontrol situation in the field. Another beetle element of the insect guild dining on PLS at Killdeer Plains manifested itself this spring, a cryptocephaline Chrysomelidae that Shawn Clark generously identified for us as Pachybrachis calcaratus. We also noted numerous leaf mines on PLS that turned out to be created by larvae of a colorful tiny moth that is as yet undescribed, a microlepidopteran in Momphidae, known as Mompha #27 to Terry Harrison at the University of Illinois, who plans to monograph the North American momphids. Our discovery newly identifies a host plant for Mompha #27. Also, Steve Passoa determined a second microlepidopteran on PLS from Killdeer as Aristotelia elegantella, a leaf-tier in terminal shoots. From our observations at the Plains it appears that a native Midwestern guild of PLS herbivores is assembling itself, to assist the imported European G. calmariensis beetles. We hope to continue PLS biocontrol in Ohio by providing potted beetle-infested PLS plants, and we invite inquiries. - Foster F. Purrington Collecting in the "Sky Islands"Biologists have labeled the Chiricahua Mountains the "sky islands" due to their unique flora and fauna. Among these are countless insects, which explode in numbers once the monsoons sweep across south-eastern Arizona. I had the pleasure of spending 14 weeks in the oak pine juniper forest at the Southwestern Research Station (SWRS), where hundreds of researchers, birders, naturalists, and collectors flock to experience the diversity and beauty of this mountain range. Although I was there to study Mexican Jays, my collecting eye was attuned to any six legged creature, especially beetles. Arriving in mid March, there was little activity, but by mid May the nights were warm enough for a decent blacklight catch. Though the blacklight beetles were not yet spectacular in appearance, the traps yielded Carabidae (which I am sure Foster Purrington will be happy to identify), Elateridae, Cucujidae, Cerambycidae, and Scarabaeidae (Phyllophaga, Serica and Diplotaxis spp.). Once mid June rolled around, afternoon clouds began to build, which meant the monsoons were on their way. Along with the herpetologists and entomologists, I participated in daily rain dances to bring out our fauna of interest. The monsoons typically begin in July, but we got lucky and received some decent afternoon downpours with impressive lightning. Immediately after a rain I noticed a greater insect abundance at my blacklight, including Nicrophorus mexicanus and Xyloryctes jamaicensis (which occurs in Ohio). I also collected N. mexicanus off rotten liver, pitfall style. Another researcher stumbled across a cow corpse in the field, on which I found a Thanatophilus species. I was excited and pleased with the beetles I had collected, but I still had yet to recover the one bug I didn’t want to leave Arizona without: Plusiotis gloriosa (Scarabaeidae), a lime green, Phyllophaga-sized scarab with gold striped elytra. In the meantime, I planned an afternoon trip to Skeleton Canyon, the neighbor of Cave Creek Canyon where the SWRS was nestled. Accompanied by some enthusiastic ornithologists, my goal was to collect dung beetles at the mouth of the canyon. Armed with long forceps in 100+ degree temperatures, we hit the cow pies. We found a direct correlation between the presence of dung beetles and the distance of the cows to the pies - not exactly a profound scientific discovery. Needless to say, we followed the moos. I left the canyon with about nine species of Coleoptera, five of which were scarabs (including two Canthon spp., and Onthophagus gazella). As June ended, my stay in the Chiricahuas was ending as well, and I had yet to collect Plusiotis gloriosa! Two weeks before, while chasing a flock of jays, I had been teased by finding an elytron of the elusive scarab, so I knew they were there. Although common after the monsoons are in full force, they remain elusive in the dry forest. On my very last night I pessimistically turned on my blacklight, and began to pack my bags. Heading to the trap before I went to bed, I inspected the contents of the sheet, and there is was, my Holy Grail: Plusiotis gloriosa!! Now I could go home. - Adrienne Smith |