Ars Insectica

Hi! I'm Reby and I love insects, both alive and dead. For now I'm blogging about my vulture culture/insect pinning hobby. See the FAQ for advice, info and sourcing details.

[arsinsectica]

HOWDY! I’ve returned after many years of inactivity to let you all know I’ve finally got my own place to live and I intend to get back on the insect blogging/collecting horse ASAP! Stay tuned!

[bajinsetan]

@badgerofshambles what the hell is it.

[badgerofshambles]

Oh wow holy shit. So I think that’s actually the invasive Spotted Lanternfly. Are you in [redacted hometown] right now? Have you seen any others so far this year? I think I heard about these showing up last year but never saw them myself.

More info: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=87s1KYtPgWY

Also if you’ve got time please report it here. The department of agriculture is trying to stay on top of this, so that we don’t have another stinkbug situation on our hands

[bajinsetan]

holy shit. Yeah i’ve seen some in spider webs around our hometown. I’ve never seen them before but I”ve seen at least two in our hometown this past couple months. I will report it!

[arsinsectica]

Reblogging here (after like a year of radio silence, lol) to put the word out about the spotted lantern fly. If you see them, report them! They’re mostly in eastern PA right now but are expanding. The frost should slow them down soon but keep your eyes open next spring and summer.

[badgerofshambles]

Hung my new solitary bee home on a dead limb of the dogwood our front. Not sure if it will work (most solitary bees need 6inch holes in order to pupate; these are maybe 4 or 5) but we’ll see who shows up 🐝

[rhamphotheca]

Ant Mills (Ant Death Spirals)

An ant mill is an observed phenomenon in which a group of army ants (or similar species) separated from the main foraging party lose the pheromone track and begin to follow one another, forming a continuously rotating circle. The ants will eventually die of exhaustion. This has been reproduced in laboratories and the behaviour has also been produced in ant colony simulations. 

This phenomenon is a side effect of the self-organizing structure of ant colonies. Each ant follows the ant in front of it, and this will work until something goes wrong and an ant mill forms. An ant mill was first described by William Beebe in 1921 who observed a mill 1,200 feet (365 m) in circumference. It took each ant 2.5 hours to make one revolution. Similar phenomena have been noted in processionary caterpillars and fish. (via: Wikipedia)

see videos: http://io9.com/5895435/how-to-create-an-ant-spiral-of-death

[glumshoe]

Uh, guys? You know how I said I probably wouldn’t get video of my new assistant because they’re nocturnal and skittish?

Yeah, no, she perked up as soon as I tossed a cricket in and ate it happily.

[glumshoe]

@bogleech you’ve owned amblypygids before, right? I just got my first one yesterday and I’m a little bit infatuated with her (I’ve named her The Specimen). Nothing like a miniature nightmare monster that you can keep in your own home and handle if you need to.

[badgerofshambles]

Oh my goodness I’m so jealous 😍

[tragedyseries]

[awesomevines]

College biology in a nutshell..

[siersath]

accurate as fuck

[nonbinary-entomologist]

Composia credula moths are so pretty with all their polka dots.

[arsinsectica]

#TBT to that time where I found a really odd specimen of a Red-Spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax; more on bugguide here) in my back yard.

      These are some old, old pictures (like, 2011ish; the french tip you see on my pinkie there is from my senior prom). I was doing some yard work in the back yard one day when I heard a sort of rustling-paper noise. I turned to see what it was and there was this pitiful thing, trying to get off the ground. He wasn’t having much success at it, so I brought him onto the porch and gave him a little bit of soda (it was the best nectar substitute I had available at the time; clearly not something I would do now, given the choice). He perked up a little and was able to get airborne enough to fly into the woods, but not before I snapped some really nice pictures of him.

      I’m not really sure what happened to his wing. When I was about 13 I worked in a butterfly house and a few times I saw failed molts, but usually those result in both shrunken and wrinkled wings. I’d love to hear other people’s theories on what happened here. My guess is something genetic and/or environmental; it actually reminds me of congenital limb reduction as seen in humans. The complete mechanism behind it isn’t known, but clr in humans is known to correlate with certain chemical and environmental exposures such as smoking, viral infection and teratogenic drug use during pregnancy.  

      Aside: I ended up losing the camera I took these with about four months later on a hiking trip through West Virginia. I miss it a lot. It was just a basic point-and-shoot but it had a really nice macro setting. I would need a pretty serious macro lens to make my newer Rebel match up in terms of macro quality.

[bone-lust]

I’M GETTING LOTS OF BIRD PROCESSING QUESTIONS AGAIN SO TIME AGAIN FOR THIS POST - MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY ACT INFO: There always seems to be a few people that want to argue with me that laws like this are stupid. As long as humans dominate this planet there has to be laws that protect the other living things sharing the planet with us. Dead or alive, is irrelevant. If the way to opt-out of these laws were to say “I found it dead.” What would be keeping poachers from doing the same? Nothing.

Bone/Taxidermy Collectors & Artists Please Be Aware: #migratorybirdtreatyact The Migratory Bird Treaty Act - At the time the MBTA was created in 1918, birds were being quickly killed off and some are now extinct. Because of hunters, those using their feathers in their clothing/hats, & from people collecting mass quantities of birds/eggs/nests for their natural history collections.

Most birds protected by the MBTA are very common every day birds many of us sees outside here in the US. They are not often endangered. That’s a misconception about the MBTA that many don’t understand. But at the time it was created when those same species were in critical decline nearing extinction. With taxidermy & natural history collecting and such being a huge trend again I’m glad the MBTA is still in effect. Otherwise it could all easily happen all over again. In summary - if you find a dead bird find out exactly what species it is and see if it is MBTA protected.

For Protected Species: You can not legally have the bones, feathers, talon or any other part of the body without special permits that the general public can not get. You also can not have the nest or eggs. Over 800 species of birds are protected. You can be fined and do jail time for having these illegal items. If you make jewelry/art from them and sell them there is an even higher fine. I see so much illegal bird jewelry being sold on Etsy alone. Be careful. Even if you did not make it you can still get in trouble just for having it! I know people who have had federal agents come to their homes to inspect/confiscate their collections so this is very real. Stay safe with your collections and creations!

[arsinsectica]

I tell my campers every summer that they're not to pick up any feathers they find on the camp grounds. Then we usually have a discussion about the MBAT and how birds like the passenger pigeon went extinct.

[zoo-logic]

The Zoological Society of London has today announced the incredibly exciting news that they have successfully eliminated the lethal chytrid fungus from a wild amphibian population for the first time. Tadpoles of the Mallorcan midwife toad (Alytes muletensis), a fascinating and unique species that until a few decades ago was believed to be extinct, were collected from all infected ponds on the island and kept in a laboratory for a week. Whilst there, they were bathed daily in a treatment solution containing an antifungal known as itraconazole, before being returned to the wild. In the meantime, the environment surrounding each pond was sprayed liberally with a chemical disinfectant, including gravel, rocks and plants where the toads would spend time after they metamorphosed and left the water. Early results show that the combined treatment of both tadpoles and environment successfully eliminated chytridiomycosis from local populations, and that the effects can carry over to tadpoles in subsequent years without the need for repeat treatments. Using these methods, researchers are coming close to eradicating chytrid fungus from the entire island of Mallorca and therefore eliminating the lethal threat it poses to this extraordinary amphibian. Ref: Bosch J. et al., 2015. Successful elimination of a lethal wildlife infectious disease in nature. Biology Letters 11: 20150874 [link]

[speciesofleastconcern]

Wow this is huge–not sure about disinfecting the ecosystem tho, sounds made up to me

[badgerofshambles]

yeeeeeaaaah I don’t know about this.

So, I spent the last four years of my life at a university in Virginia doing undergrad research with a B. dendrobatidis expert (not naming names; you can figure it out pretty easily just from that info if you’re really interested). He’s been in the field probably since ‘the beginning’  (the Panamanian Golden Frog dieoff, the R. muscosa breakthrough in Colorado, etc) and has never been a strong advocate for throwing chemicals or any foreign substance into an environment in order to control Bd outbreaks. We know that certain beneficial bacteria can out-compete Bd for space on amphibian skin, and that some amphibians simply don’t get Bd (or, get it and then manage to live with it as more of a mutuality than a pathogen; lookin’ at you, African Clawed frogs). I am very understanding of the author’s very apparent frustration over the lack of an implementable probiotic strategy (MAYBE if we could get consistent funding we’d have a satisfactory answer by now), but microbial ecology is a brand-spankin’ new field and it’s going to take a long time to pin down the mechanisms of what makes for a stable, transmissible probiotic community (and even if that’s a realistic goal for all species of concern). The amphibian arks and frozen zoos are our best bet for maintaining amphibian biodiversity until we get this fixed. It’s not a great solution, no, but neither is opening a can of worms in exchange for quick results.

Now, I understand the desperation of the situation; everyone freaked out pretty good about the presence of Bd in Madagascar earlier this year, self included. But we also know that there are non-amphibian hosts for Bd, and personally (again, biased as heck) I don’t think that part of the equation has been studied enough for us to spray down the environment, treat the amphibians and call it a day. The downstream march is always there. The pet trade is always there, legal or not. This is a system with too many moving parts, and throwing something so static as an antifungal at it is not a long-term solution.

This also doesn’t consider the capability of many other pathogenic fungi to develop resistance to antifungal compounds over time ; long-term-low-dose usage of any chemical agent against an organism tends to lead to resistance, and there’s no reason to think that Bd is any different in that respect from  Candida or Aspergillus. In a similar vein: what’s the ‘bycatch’ here? What other organisms -maybe pathogenic, maybe not- will we be killing along with Bd, and what impact will that have on the rest of the ecosystem?

If this works for Mallorca, I’m thrilled; and I’ve no doubt that this lab has done their homework in spades to make this publication possible. My concern is that this will turn the tide towards chemical amelioration of wildlife disease, and I will call it in the air right here, right now: that will not end well.

tl;dnr: fund probiotics, dammit

(Other herps/micro people- feel free to sound off/correct/etc. This is something we all need to talk about, both in field and out. )

[did-you-know]

SO high-res, in fact, that Tumblr cannot handle them. You should see how detailed these eyes are in full resolution. Super cool.

Flickr page     USGS BIML

[followtheundertow]

@adventures-in-zookeeping

[adventures-in-zookeeping-deacti]

Stop enabling me

[executionerbarbie]

this moth is a fucking biohacker and if thats not the coolest shit you’ve ever heard get the fuck out of my face 

[libutron]

Peacock Jewel Moth - Dysphania numana

The tropical genus Dysphania includes some of the largest and most colorful moths of all the Geometridae. Dysphania numana is one of the largest moths for the family, reaching a wingspan of up to 8 cms. Whilst being somewhat variable, they are generally dark blue with clear areas in the wings, and an irregular row of orange spots around the outer edge of each hind wing. The body is banded in dark blue and orange.

This species can be found in Australia and also in Indonesia.

It is indeed one of the most beautiful moths I’ve ever seen.

References: [1] - [2]

Photo credit: [Top: ©Jon Clark | Locality: Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia, 2010] - [Bottom: ©Craig Nieminski | Locality: Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, 2010]

[6-as-above-so-below-9-deactivat]

Project Noah Fun Fact: Spiders of the Portia genus are considered the most intelligent spider of its’ kind. They have hunting tactics as versatile and adaptable as a lion’s. Their tactics can be improvised by trial and error against unfamiliar prey or in unfamiliar situations, and then remembered as a new approach. They are also known for hunting web spiders larger than themselves by climbing on their webs or luring them by plucking the web. They also mimic debris for camouflage. Portia spiders evolved to be intelligent to hunt other agile spiders. Portia spider spotted in Bau, Malaysia by PN member PhilipChen: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/25923023

[clusterpod-deactivated20171128]

Cicacda, possibly Pauropsalta sp..

Cicadas have modified sections of their exoskeleton, called tympanum. Unlike the striation causing vibration and thus noise in insects like crickets, Cicadas flex muscles causing these tympanum to buckle in and out, creating their characteristic clicking noise.

[buggirl]

I love these pom pom butt moths I found in the Amazon.  Family Crambidae.  Possibly Diaphania sp? 

[arsinsectica]

It's like a sphinx moth and a skipper had a baby, I love it!