So my neighbor brought me a bug this afternoon and it’s not even my birthday! Thank you Julia. You made my day! 🐝🐛🦋🦗🐞
(Trichocnemis spiculatus) The Ponderous Borer or Western Pine Sawyer
Last year, I had someone from Orcas, Island, WA submit a fabulous video of one of these with footage of it ovipositing! Check out this link to watch more here ~ https://www.facebook.com/joysmurf/videos/10155670480191451/
I photographed these tiny, delicate eggs this morning using my macro lens attachment and my iPhone camera. Yesterday evening (July 30, 2019), I picked a leaf from my plum tree because I saw something odd. Not these eggs because they were far too small to see without magnification. Instead, I saw fuzzy white particles that sure looked to me like pest insects had taken up residence. I’m sharing the eggs in this post first. I believe they’re lacewing eggs. Lacewings are beneficial in the garden and voracious predators of small, soft-bodied insects. Check back tomorrow for Part 2 where I’ll share the rest of my discovery with some video of what else I found on those leaves.
Read more about lacewings here https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/beneficial/lacewing-insect-eggs-larvae.htm
Sin City has a new attraction. It’s not the Radio City Rockettes, but they have lots of legs. It’s not a new Cirque du Soleil group, but they can jump and fly through the air with the greatest of ease. This is one animal show that even Siegfried and Roy can’t tame. In fact, most folks (unless you’re an entomologist) would prefer to miss this show when visiting Sin City. Chances are, you are going to get a front row seat whether you want it or not.
The grasshoppers are Las Vegas’ latest and greatest performers. This is NOT the name of a new hip hop, jazz, or rock band either. But there are thousands already performing and more showing up to audition every day. The “invasion” is not the name of a new dance. It’s not the grand opening of a new luxury hotel, but rather the new theme for the whole city. Grasshopper season!
This, in fact, reminds me of the crickets that invaded Highland Park Mall in Austin, TX long ago when I worked in the men’s shirts and ties department at Foleys. We had at least a 4 inch layer of crickets that made their way into the first set of entry doors. They had literally piled up on top of one another. Some had gone past the 2nd set of doors and were now in the plastic packaged shirts and the lucite display cubicles. When you tried to pick them out, they squirted out this horribly staining and smelly vomit or fecal matter that made the entire problem so much worse. When mall maintenance workers came around to suck all those crickets in the entry doors up with a vacuum, creating a horrible odor of vacuumed crickets, that did it for me. I didn’t show up for my shift ever again. No notice either. I just couldn’t handle it. (Kinda funny in hindsight that I eventually became a master’s-degreed entomologist). Check out this link to see I’m not exaggerating here one bit! https://www.dallasnews.com/news/from-the-archives/2018/08/14/invaded-crickets-dallasites-battled-swarms-clogged-clocks-plowed-doors
Now I live on San Juan Island. A small, somewhat delightful (unless it’s summertime and the height of a gazillion tourists descending up on us) rural community, accessible by small airplanes or ferry. Last year we had some residents getting pretty worked up by our invasion of praying mantises. I fielded some questions about how they might eat up our hummingbirds. Comments about them ranged from “they’re horribly invasive” to “they’re going to eat all our pollinators.” I smiled and tried to explain as politely as I could how there are only 3 officially documented cases of hummingbirds being captured and eaten by mantises in the United States since the 1800’s, and those were Chinese Mantids, not the smaller European Mantid that is making it’s way west. https://sanjuanislander.com/news-articles/environment-science-whales/environment/28146/revenge-of-the-mantids
As far as pollinators getting eaten by mantids, well, that happens. Everything in nature gets eaten by something. Native species of robber flies and dragonflies eat our cute little bees. So do native spiders and birds. Yes, mantids eat lots of things. Like grasshoppers. That’s why they were introduced to North America in the first place. Which brings me to how I’d like to hand out vintage agricultural reports from the 1930’s and 40’s to some of these panicked individuals and ask them if they’d like to have a few praying mantids on the island or a 6 inch deep layer of grasshoppers! It can happen!
As for those reveling grasshoppers in Sin City…let’s hope what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!
More reading:
https://livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/pests_02.html https://www.historynet.com/1874-the-year-of-the-locust.htm https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/Article-View/Article/575751/in-1937-colorado-guard-used-flamethrowers-and-explosives-against-plague-of-locu/
It was breezy earlier this afternoon when I spotted this beauty feeding on my daisies. This is a Neophasia menapia – or the Pine White Butterfly. I’ve been worried since we’ve put up deer fencing that the butterflies wouldn’t be able to find their way through the fence into my flower garden, but I shouldn’t have worried. The butterflies ever-so-gracefully float over the top.
I’m sure the butterflies and other pollinators appreciate that my daisies aren’t headless amputees this year, courtesy of our resident deer who now can only gaze at them. It’s hard to understand why the deer would even want to eat those flowers because they’re kind of stinky. To my nose, they smell a bit of cat urine. Lots of insects seem to like those sorts of smells though. These daisies can stay outside. I won’t be displaying them in a vase on my dining table.
The Pine White Butterfly larvae feed on Ponderosa Pine and Douglas fir. Adults emerge typically between the months of July and October. Look for little green eggs on the needles of pines and firs sometime beginning in October. The eggs will overwinter and hatch sometime in June the following summer, coinciding with the emergence of new foliage on the trees. Larvae typically only feed on old needles, but can become a “pest” when they feed on the new needles and/or population levels are high and the tree is repeatedly defoliated. Natural controls help keep caterpillar populations balanced. Larvae pupate in late July for about 15-20 days before emerging as adults to begin a new cycle.
Would you like to read more? Check out the links I’ve added below.
https://bugguide.net/node/view/69083
https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5347775.pdf
http://web.forestry.ubc.ca/fetch21/FRST308/lab5/neophasia_menapia/pine.html
I’ve seen some pretty fascinating insects over the years, but using this clip on macro lens https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LG651ZD/ref=sspa_dk_detail_3?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B07LG651ZD my husband bought me to use with my iPhone has opened up a whole new world. Last night we went down to our garden and while he was busy picking lettuce and tomatoes, I wandered around inspecting leaves and flowers with my new “eye.” I saw aliens! 👽
While I can’t tell you the exact names of all of these creatures, I can tell you that 7 pm must be dinnertime for some of them…like these micro beetles all over my flowering parsley. https://youtu.be/9_NRtS1HJTg
One of my favorites was this ladybug larva. I’ve been seeing several different species of ladybugs in the garden. This larva is probably Coccinella septempunctata or the Seven Spotted Lady Bug. A voracious predator, ladybug adults and larvae love to eat aphids. Curiously, while I saw plenty of aphids in my garden, I also saw some strangely mutant ones, so keep reading and scroll down for photos.
The normal, healthy aphids look like this one. Isn’t she sort of cute watching over all her little babies on the leaf!
The strange aphids I noticed when I was picking peas. I am not 100% certain, but I believe this is a pea aphid that has been infected with fungi. After doing a bit of reading about these fungal pathogens, I believe it could possibly be (Pandora neoaphidis), an aphid specific entomopathogenic fungus that acts as a biocontrol for aphid populations. The taxonomy and ecological roles of fungi is beyond the scope of my knowledge and experience, so if you decide to read more about this, I suggest googling “Pandora neoaphidis” with “biocontrol.” One interesting bit I did note in my reading was that certain native ladybugs won’t eat aphids that are infected with the fungi, but that the non-native Asian ladybird beetle, Harmonia axyridis eats aphids indiscriminately, fungal infected ones too! Since I was eating peas while I was picking, I’m glad I stopped before popping the pea with these in my mouth. While I’m not entirely opposed to eating insects, I imagine my taste to be a bit more like the native lady bugs.
The next image is of the weirdest looking creature yet. This is another aphid, but instead of entomopathogenic fungi, it is the victim of a parasitic wasp that has injected it with eggs that will hatch, consume the remainder of the aphid body, then eat their way out. Here’s a link to another photo I found online of this stranger-than-strange occurrence in nature. http://www.aphotofauna.com/hymenoptera_wasp_praon_mummified_aphid_22-09-14.html
I love finding strange and unusual things when I’m out and about. This definitely can be categorized as one of those moments when the microfauna is weirdly charismatic. And in a parking lot no less. I came upon this European Ground Beetle larva after visiting my husband at his office. We’d gone out for a nice lunch and upon our return, I discovered we weren’t the only ones having lunch. This fellow could give those people who enter contests to eat the most hotdogs some serious competition!
I found this Sunday morning, July 7, 2019 as I walked near my home on San Juan Island. It seemed to have been stunned by a car and was upside down in the dirt road. This dragonfly is classified as a Skimmer in the family Libellulidae. They are found Spring through Summer in vegetated areas near ponds, bogs, and wetlands. Adults of this species will eat most any soft-bodied flying insect, including mosquitoes, flies, mayflies, ant and termite alates (dispersing winged reproductives), moths and butterflies.
I found this weird little creature stuck to a leaf on a rose bush by the picket fence in front of the San Juan County Land Bank office on Monday, June 24, 2019 when I walked down Argyle and rounded the corner onto Caines (does anyone on the island actually use street names? Where the heck is Caines, right?)
Brought it home because I couldn’t resist the mystery of figuring out what it might be. What on earth are those spiny things at the end? Is it some sort of pest insect?
After taking a few photos, I did what drives my husband crazy sometimes. I left the leaf with this little spiny-ended thing on the table, in a cup, without a lid. Yep. Just like when I left the really fat deer tick I had on my desk. The one that laid eggs…that hatched when I wasn’t paying attention. This is when it’s really handy to have sticky tape nearby, otherwise you have to vacuum every 10 minutes for about a month to finally sleep at night without feeling like things are crawling all over you and burrowing into your skin. This link should take you to my facebook page post about “Big Bertha.” https://www.facebook.com/buggingyoufromSJI/posts/2375866245969416
This morning, after my cat got me up with incessant meowing right in my ear, I sat down at the table with a cup of coffee. Millhouse (the cat) isn’t supposed to be on the table, but when my husband isn’t around, anything goes! He was staring something down that was m.o.v.i.n.g! Fortunately, I reacted faster than he did. I tipped over the little medicine cup I’d put the leaf in to thwart this little creature’s attempt at a fast getaway.
Carefully sliding a piece of paper under the cup, I could see it looked like a ladybug. Ladybugs come in different colors, with different spots, and there are quite a few species one could encounter on San Juan Island. This beetle goes by an assortment of names. It’s often referred to as the Multi-colored Asian Lady Beetle or sometimes the Halloween Beetle because in some places they show up in large numbers at Halloween! 🎃😱
This beetle’s scientific name is Harmonia axyridis (The Asian-spotted Ladybird Beetle). It was imported to the United States as early as 1916 to help control pests as a biocontrol agent. While “Miss Harmonia” eats aphids, thrips, and scale insects (and manages these pests fantastically in soybean crops), she isn’t native and these pest insects aren’t all she eats. Asian-spotted Ladybird Beetles also eat native coccinellid beetles (native lady bugs) and even butterfly eggs. In the winter, she can bring her friends and invade your home. When handled, the ladybird beetles can excrete a stinky defensive chemical from their leg joints. This makes removal of large numbers of them from inside homes somewhat problematic. You don’t want to have them discharging this awful odor that will linger….all…winter!
Another unfortunate consequence of importing these beetles is their love of wine grapes. 🍇 🍷 Asian-spotted ladybirds will eat grapes and then the grapes end up contaminated with an awful smell lingering on them. While I personally don’t drink wine, I know lots of people do and they’d be very unhappy if it tasted like essence of ladybug…a twist on a new aromatic bitter perhaps!
Did I squish her? Nope. I put her in the tree near our bird feeder. It’s possible she will become part of the food chain. While not all birds eat these beetles, some do. Insects and arachnids like robber flies, dragonflies, ants, various ground beetles, and cellar spiders also eat them.
If you see them, should you squish them? That’s up to you and how confident you are that you’ve identified it correctly. I wouldn’t want to mistake a helpful native ladybug as an invader. I recommend that instead of buying ladybird beetles at the garden store to release in your garden you establish native habitat to attract and support native species of ladybugs.
As I looked a bit more into the literature about Harmonia axyridis, I was intrigued with the publication of some research about the biochemistry of the liquid they secrete. It has been found to have strong antimicrobial action against strains of bacteria that are pathogenic to humans. This fluid has even been examined for its action against malaria. Perhaps these beetles don’t belong in the garden, but in your medicine cabinet instead.
References and further reading
I brought this guy home long enough to get him to do his trick for you and then took him back outside so he could go on his way. Please be assured that he came to no harm and he even left this little rhyme for you to enjoy!
Clickety-clack, I’m jump up Jack! Turn me over and I’ll flip right back.
I walked down the road last Tuesday (April 9, 2019) with my husband. It was late afternoon and although it rained a bit earlier that morning, the sun was peeking out. The wind wasn’t blowing, but it was soon to be a Blistery Spring day!
If you know any entomologists, you’ll understand rule #1 about going on ANY walk is to take a collection jar and a camera. Last week, I failed to do this and missed an opportunity to identify and document this very cool bumble bee mimicking fly (genus Laphria ~ a bee-like robber fly). This time I made certain to take my phone. Sure enough, at the bottom of the hill, I see a black beetle crawling about on the chip-sealed road. Fortunately, I refrained from my very bad habit of grabbing things with my bare hands. This is one beetle you do NOT want to pick up! It was a BLISTER BEETLE.
Lucky me! I came home with some great photos and some video footage instead of a dermatological eruption that would have landed me in the doctor’s office. I left the beetle in the road to continue whatever it was doing.
Back at home, I used my reference books to compare the photos and video I took of the beetle and narrowed down an ID to the genus Meloe. I would need more help figure out the species. I sent some photos off to Merrill Peterson at WSU with the suggestion that it might be a male Meloe niger. Merrill wrote back that he thought it was M. strigulosus, but hard to confirm with only a photo. He agreed it was indeed a male.
Meloe strigulosus (male)
You might ask how one goes about determining whether a particular beetle is male or female. Often, as in this case, the male antennal segments are larger or varied in shape from the female. This beetle’s antennae had a distinctive kinked platform on their fifth segment. I would learn later that this kinked part enables them to grasp the antennae of the female during mating.
Meloe strigulosus photo by Cynthia Brast April 9, 2019 Three Corner Lake Road San Juan Island, WA
kink in antennal segment of M. strigulosus (male)
Merrill also sent me a link to what I will refer to as the Blister Beetle bible. Published in 1970, this research was compiled by the legendary systematics entomologist, John D. Pinto, currently professor emeritus at U.C. Riverside with Richard B. Selander. Hopeful, I sent off my photos in an email to Dr. Pinto and felt really privileged when I got an almost immediate response.
According to Dr. Pinto, the specimen I photographed was indeed a male Meloe strigulosus. If you’re interested, you can read “The bionomics of blister beetles of the genus Meloe and a classification of the New World species”by linking here https://archive.org/details/bionomicsofblist42pint Aside from the wealth of information published in this book, I love the artistic rendering of the female beetle on the cover.
Illustration from Pinto and Selander’s “The bionomics of blister beetles of the genus Meloe and a classification of the New World species.”
According to Dr. Pinto, there are 22 species of Meloidae in North America. They are named Blister Beetles because they release a toxic terpenoid blistering agent called cantharadin when they are threatened or handled. Sometimes people call them “Oil Beetles” because it’s oily. You can find the chemical profile of cantharadin here ~ https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/cantharidin#section=Drug-Indication
Curiously, this toxic secretion has been utilized to treat various medical conditions. Among these was the topical application of the “oil” to treat rheumatism or to remove warts and lesions of Molluscum contagiosum, a contagious, viral infection of the skin (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/molluscum-contagiosum/symptoms-causes/syc-20375226). Cantharidin is also famously known for its use as an aphrodisiac (Spanish Fly). This substance was historically used as a treatment for hydrophobia (rabies). Male beetles were preserved in honey, mixed with other equally toxic ingredients then administered in an attempt to cure the patient. Maybe dying from cantharadin poisoning was less traumatic than dying of rabies.
Blister beetles are economically important because they contaminate alfalfa hay and they are highly toxic to livestock, especially horses. There are instances where a horse has died from ingesting just ONE beetle. According to this Colorado State Extension publication (https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/insects/blister-beetles-in-forage-crops-5-524/), just the release of cantharadin oil from the beetle can contaminate the hay. Although reports of cantharadin poisoning in livestock are rare in the West, here’s one case where someone’s goat became very sick from ingesting hay contaminated with cantharidin ~ https://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/news/uc-davis-veterinarians-discover-blister-beetle-toxicity-goat
Another interesting fact about these beetles is that the larvae are phoretic parasites of solitary bees and grasshopper egg pods. The first instar larvae, called triungulins” crawl onto flowers to await a visiting bee, then hitch a ride back to the nest where they will consume the pollen, nectar, and even the bee larvae. Check out this link from National Geographic to view some extraordinary images of bees covered with blister beetle larvae ~ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/09/bees-blister-beetles-evolution-parasites-pheromones-news/
This was the first blister beetle I’ve seen on San Juan Island, but I do know of one other sighting by San Juan County Land Bank steward, Doug. M. from April of 2016. I sent the photo of Doug’s beetle to Dr. Pinto as well and this was his reply, “Very likely M. niger – tho the photo is a little fuzzy for positive ID.” Doug’s photo of the “likely” M. niger below.
Meloe niger Mount Ben, San Juan Island, WA, April 2016 Photo by Doug. M. San Juan County Land Bank
If you’d like to read more about the particular species of blister beetle I found, I’m including the taxonomic key and geographic distribution data from Dr. Pinto’s book below.
Meloe (Meloe) strigulosus Mannerheim
Direct Key To The New World Subgenera of Meloe
Key to New World Subgenera of Meloe Pinto and Selander, 1970
Direct Key to the New World Subgenera of Meloe page 104 Pinto and Selander, 1970
Key to Groups
Key to Groups Bionomics of Blister Beetles Pinto and Selander, 1970
Key to Groups Bionomics of Blister Beetles Pinto and Selander, 1970
Geographic distribution
Geographic Distribution of Meloe strigulosus Pinto and Selander, 1970
Larval Key Meloe strigulosus
Larval key Meloe strigulosus Pinto and Selander, 1970
Larval key for M. strigulosus Pinto and Selander 1970
Antennal illustrations for male Meloe strigulosus, Figure 125 a. Dorsal view of segments V-VII, and b. Posterior view of segments V-VII
Male antennae M. strigulosus Pinto and Selander, 1970
Antennal illustrations for female Meloe strigulosus, Figure 140
Female Antennae M. strigulosus Pinto and Selander, 1970
References
Bittell, J. 2018. Sex, Lies, and Grappling Hooks: How Parasitic Beetles Trick Bees. Animals Weird and Wild. National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/09/bees-blister-beetles-evolution-parasites-pheromones-news/
Hafernik, John and Saul-Gershenz, Leslie. 2000. Beetle larvae cooperate to mimic bees. Nature. 405. 35-6. 10.1038/35011129.
Kinney, K.K., F.B. Peairs and A.M. Swinker. 2010. Blister Beetles in Forage Crops. Colorado State University Extension Publication 5.524. https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/insects/blister-beetles-in-forage-crops-5-524/
Mayo Clinic. Mulluscum contagiosum. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/molluscum-contagiosum/symptoms-causes/syc-20375226(accessed on Apr. 16, 2019)
National Center for Biotechnology Information. PubChem Database. Cantharidin, CID=5944, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/5944 (accessed on Apr. 16, 2019)
Peterson, M. A. 2018. Pacific Northwest insects. https://www.amazon.com/Pacific-Northwest-Insects-Merrill-Peterson/dp/0914516183
Pinto, J.D. and R.B. Selander. 1970. The bionomics of blister beetles of the genus Meloe and a classification of the New World species. Illinois Biological Monographs 42: 1-222. https://archive.org/details/bionomicsofblist42pint
Piuser, J. 2017. UC Davis Veterinarians Discover Blister Beetle Toxicity in Goat. U.C. Davis Veterinary Medicine. https://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/news/uc-davis-veterinarians-discover-blister-beetle-toxicity-goat
Quinn, M. Blister Beetles of Texas. Texas Beetle Resources. http://texasento.net/TXMeloidae.html#Meloe (accessed on Apr. 16, 2019)
Plant Science from Cell Biology to Ecosystems
Passionately Advocating For the Six (and Eight) Legged Macro Fauna in the San Juan Islands.
Cultivating compassion for all creatures great and small
Bringing glory to Earth's small and neglected creatures.
of the Pacific Northwest: Interactions with the wild things--Live life outdoors!
Adventures of a Recreational Naturalist
Biodiversity, taxonomy, and ecology of beetles living in deadwood
Arthropod Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution
Bugging You From San Juan Island 