The Sam Wells Bug Page

Odonteus obesus

2012-03-07T19:35:00.003-08:00

Odonteus obesus is one of the two species of geotrupid scarabs most likely to be found in the Sierra Nevada (of California). It is about a centimeter long, is nearly black, and sports (in males) a prominent horn on its head. This individual is a female with little cephalic armature.

It came to a light last June at an elevation of about 5,000 feet near Shaver Lake (Dinkey Creek Campground) above Fresno. These compact scarabs are always fun to find.

The habitat was mixed Jeffrey pine, incense cedar and Douglas fir.

New Army Pass

2012-02-29T19:02:00.000-08:00

Hiking the trail over New Army Pass (From Inyo County, California) is a high country adventure worth making. The pass itself is right on the boundary between Inyo and Tulare Counties. From the Inyo County side (take the road SW from Lone Pine up into the parking area) the trail passes through Cottonwood Lakes – a cluster of high elevation lakes that feed from snow melt near timber line (over 10,000 feet). We spent three days in this magnificent country two years ago (in July) and had a wonderful time. There are a number of foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana) groves which are uncommon anywhere else on the eastern side of the Sierra. This picture is of one of the Cottonwood Lakes just east of New Army Pass.

Even in the summer there can be a morning frost on the ground at this elevation. The plants are all well adapted to grow and bloom in this harsh environment. This second picture is of rock fringe (Epilobium obcordatum) that we found holding to a rock face just below the pass. This is a cold and windy holdout, and there were pockets of snow not far away. It is a remarkable plant in a remarkable place.

Here are the three of us (me, Michael, Spencer) a bit travel-weary but happy among the foxtails. You can almost see how spectacular the air is

Scaphinotus ventricosus and S. striatopunctatus

2012-02-20T15:32:00.000-08:00

The snail-eating ground beetles (genus Scaphinotus) are a diverse group in California (see my post for May 21 of last year for a note on S. subtilis). We have several in the Sierra, several more along the coast and a handful in other places. A month ago we were camping near Watsonville (in Santa Cruz County) and I found a small meadow near the campground with a few boards that had been left lying on the ground. I turned some of them over and found two different species, S. ventricosus (the smaller one below at around 13mm long).

and S. striatopunctatus (the larger one in the second picture at around 18mm long).

They were of noticeably different sizes at least in this particular place. Some of this may be a partitioning of their habitat (because of an immediate sympatry). The size range of both species normally overlap quite a bit (at least in museum series). Here, however, they were easy to tell apart based on size alone.

Ellychnia megista

2012-02-06T19:27:00.000-08:00

There is a subdued grandeur in a redwood forest. Animal sounds are often muffled and seemingly distant. The forest floor is covered with deep green ferns and other shade-loving plants. One doesn’t expect to see large numbers of insects, especially in the winter months. Of course, the California coast is not completely dormant this time of year and a patient observer will still discover a few creatures finding their way around. So it was that we came across this attractive firefly in the Forest of Nicene Marks State Park (in Santa Cruz County) a couple of weeks ago.

The Forest of Nicene Marks State Park is primarily a second-growth redwood forest. It was logged extensively last century but the owners decided to protect the area in subsequent years and gave the park to the State of California. It is a fairly large area (as state parks go) and there are a number of nice trails. During our visit, we discovered a side trail with few hikers along Aptos Creek where there were remains of old growth redwoods. It was cool but not cold and a few stoneflies could be seen flying above the water as they moved into illuminating pockets of sunbeams. I took a short detour to an area of old redwood stumps and was trying to get my mind around the age of the erstwhile giants, when this firelfly landed on one of the dead logs.

It is a species of Ellychnia (E. megista to be precise) that does not have lumenescent organs – a light-less firefly if you will. There are several species in the the US. The more commonly seen E. californica occurs throughout California. It has been known for over a hundred years. On the other hand, E. megista is restricted to the coastal area and was described fairly recently (in 1970) by Ken Fender. The Type locality is Santa Cruz County. Who knows, it may have lived in the same forest. It is most easily recognized by the parallel-sided black band running down the center of the pronotum.

Pleocoma tularensis

2012-01-24T16:03:00.000-08:00

Well it finally happened. After three years of searching, I finally found a rain beetle. I’m guessing that it is Pleocoma tularensis, but with the superficial (shall we say “stormy”) nature of rain beetle taxonomy, it might end up being P. fimbriata. In A.C. Davis’s revision, the two species are very difficult to distinguish. Linsley’s key to species resorts to geography to tell them apart. To complicate things, I found this individual in Fresno County fairly close to the point where the distributions of the two species meet. When this group is better understood, I expect that P. tularensis will be a subspecies of P. fimbriata (as Davis originally proposed). For those of you new to rain beetles, they are fairly large scarab-like beetles (family Pleocomidae at the moment). This one is well over an inch (30 mm) long.

Rain has come quite late this season. We normally have a good storm in November (maybe earlier). And it is this first storm that brings out the beetles (at least in many of the species). The first storm this season came this last weekend (in the middle of January). It starting on Friday afternoon and so I hurried home from work the same day, grabbed a bite to eat and drove up to Bretz Mill Campground about an hour above Fresno. I chose the place because the area combines grassy areas with mixed forest and riparian habitats. And it is also between 3,000 and 4,000 feet – a good elevation for rain beetles.

I put up two lights in the rain and waited a couple of hours without success. Maybe I should have left the lights on longer. Not wanting the rain to ruin my lights, I put them away and crawled into the back of the truck to sleep. By 6:00 the next morning I was wide awake and decided to drive home. Fortunately, I passed by a small community along the way with lights on and stopped to see what I might find. I found this individual crawling along the ground below one of the lights. (Both pictures are staged.) It was 6:40 AM, not much above freezing, with small patches of snow about, and with not another insect in sight. What a great way to catch beetles – and such an impressive one at that.

Rhagium inquisitor

2012-01-21T07:52:00.000-08:00

The ribbed pine borer Rhagium inquisitor (Linnaeus) is a longhorn beetle that occurs around the world in the Northern Hemisphere. The larvae usually live a couple of years under the bark of dead pines. After pupating in the summer, adults emerge in the fall and overwinter inside a frass wall beneath the bark.

These appropriately named beetles have interested insect physiologists for a number of years because of their ability to withstand harsh sub-zero winters above ground (albeit somehat protected inder an inch of bark). They have a combination of anti-freeze compounds in their blood that enables them to avoid ice crystal formation at temperatures below -16 degrees C. Here are a couple of the frass wall hybernacula that I found last week near Watsonville, California.

We were visiting the beach and I found a couple of the beetles on a dead Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) just a mile or so from the coast. It can be seen in the habitat shot off to the right.

The Middle Fork of the Tule River

2012-01-09T17:30:00.000-08:00

The Middle Fork of the Tule River runs through Wishon Campground east of Porterville, California. It is a nice place to enjoy the Sierras in the winter. The campground’s elevation is just under 4,000 feet, which means that winter campers will often wake up with frost on the ground (as we did last month) although it will quickly disappear. The forest is quite diverse with valley (Quercus lobata) and canyon (Q. chrysolepis) oaks intermixed with California incense cedar (Calocedrus decurrens), white fir (Abies concolor) and ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa). There are also giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) just up the trail in Mountain Home State Forest. The giant tree next to Spencer is the largest canyon oak I’ve ever seen. It’s near the bank of the Middle Fork of the Tule River maybe a mile above Wishon campground (you’ll come to a fork in the trail and will want to take the lower path leading down to the river). There’s a large hole at the base big enough for a grown man to sleep in and cook dinner on a stove.

But what surprised me most on our hike (along the trail just north of the campground) was the small groves of California nutmeg (Torreya californica) that grow like inconspicuous understory shrubs. In fact, at first, I passed several and wondered at their large flat needles, trying to figure out what sort of fir it could be. I didn’t realize that California nutmegs occurred so far south. As I was to learn later, this is probably the southern-most distribution of the species. Although I bet a few may creep over into Kern County if somebody were to make an effort to find them there.

This last picture is of a waterfall along the trail maybe two miles above the campground. It’s a nice place to relax and there’s a great swimming hole just below. I think I’ll be coming back for a swim when it’s warmer.

Polyphylla decemlineata

2011-12-24T06:10:00.000-08:00

The ten-lined june beetle (Polyphylla decemlineata) is one of the most attractive pests in the Western US. It emerges towards the end of June / early July here in Fresno at which time it begins showing up at porch lights.

It's the unseen larvae (feeding as grubs on roots) that cause the damage, and they are known to feed on a variety of plants. In a suburban neighborhood (were I live) it isn't really possible to know who's yard they are coming from and so controlling them can be a challenge. If you have unhealthy grass (or grassy areas) you might want to treat it. The adults aren't a problem and birds love to eat them, and keep their numbers down for the most part. In rural areas they can be a problem in peak years.

Oncopeltus fasciatus

2011-12-20T18:30:00.000-08:00

Oncopeltus fasciatus, the milkweed bug, is a wide-ranging lygaeid bug that feeds on several milkweed species (and dogbane) througout North America (although not commonly in the Rocky Mountains or the Pacific Northwest). It can be fairly abundant and chances are, you’ve seen one before. They share the same host plant as monarch butterfly larvae and milkweed beetles.

In California, they can be found every month of the year. I found these individuals just south of King’s Canyon National Park in September this year (at about 3,500 feet).

The habitat was mixed pine / oak forest.

Ampedus occidentalis

2011-12-08T15:17:00.001-08:00

Ampedus occidentalis is a medium-sized click beetle (about a centimeter long) that lives much of its life in the decaying wood of fallen pines. I found this one under the bark of a dead ponderosa pine several miles east of Jackson, California a couple of weeks ago.

There are several species of Ampedus that have this general color pattern - of the black body with pale (almost orange) wing covers. Many of the species have a black spot at the end of the body. In A. occidentalis, the black spots normally do not touch the sides of the wing covers.

The grove of trees where I found it was a mixed conifer forest of ponderosa pine, white fir and incense cedar (with the occasional oak as well) in El Dorado County at about 4,300’ elevation.

Platycerus virescens

2011-11-24T07:21:00.001-08:00

Here's a Thanksgiving beetle somebody might enjoy. It isn't officially the Thanksgiving beetle (which doesn't exist as far as I know), It's actually called the oak stag beetle (Platycerus virescens) but I found it a couple of weeks ago around Thanksgiving time. It isn't a stag beetle of the same proportions as its Asian relatives that can be ten times bigger (or more). Platycerus virescens is only about a centimeter long, but the male still bears a fine set of mandibles and it clearly a lucanid belonging to the Sacred Order of the Lamellate Antennae (christened SOLA by my scarab-collecting colleagues).

Perhaps more appropriately though, I found this individual within a block or two of where the first Thanksgiving was celebrated near Williamsberg, Virginia. I was visiting my son Spencer, who is working on his doctorate in Colonial History at William and Mary, and as I was driving towards town I stopped to have a look in some old fallen timber. This is where I found the beetle and this historical marker.

It surprised me that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in Virginia and not in New England - and in 1619, not later with the Pilgrims. Since I'm not a historian, I'll leave it others to explain my (and probably others') confusion on this. I should also mention, that mid-November is not a good time to be walking around the forests near Williamsburg. I was stopped by a gentleman dressed in hunting gear and notified that it wasn't safe to be about. In fact I was looking for beetles on the opening day of muzzle-loader season. Here's a picture of scenic Lake Matoaka near campus, and the habitat typical of P. virescens.

The American Alligator

2011-11-19T17:35:00.001-08:00

About six years ago, Erik, Michael and I received an offer we couldn't refuse. Floyd Williams, a park naturalist with North Carolina State Parks, asked if we would like to take a canoe trip out into the swamp of Merchant's Millpond - a cypress-wooded backwater in Eastern North Carolina. I had been working with Floyd for a number of months identifying beetles from the park and he wanted to show us an area we couldn't get to by hiking.

We found a number of Donacia beetles on the pond lilies. We also saw several water moccasins swimming across the water. This was a new experience for me. I knew this particular species was fond of water but I had only seen snakes before on dry land. Watching its movement on water was at first fascinating and then a little disconcerting - especially when one swam right past our canoe. Floyd picked up the creature with his paddle for a closer look as if this was the natural thing to do.

After an hour or two, we came to the far end of the park and clambered out of our canoes near the largest cypress I had ever seen. It was well over 6 feet in diameter and must have been many hundreds of years old. There were also water moccasins all around the trunk. We didn't stay too long. It really wasn't very safe. On the way back, Floyd's wife spotted what we hoped we might see: an American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis). She pointed to an area covered with duckweed and it took me several moments to finally see the giant reptile. Only the top of its back and head were visible.

We were several yards away from it and I asked Floyd how close we could safely get to it. He suggested that fifteen feet would probably be a good distance and so I got out my camera and told Erik and Michael to paddle to within 15 feet. What I didn't account for was how effective the two of them were at paddling. They indeed stopped at 15 feet but then the canoe's momentum carried us several more feet forward. Sensing this, I hurried and instructed them to paddle the other way while I took a couple of pictures. Fortunately, the alligator was not in a mood to bother us and we managed our retreat without incident. It was quite a rush. I think we got to within seven or eight feet of the animal.

Stenomorpha lecontella

2011-11-03T21:19:00.000-07:00

Stenomorpha lecontella is a medium-sized darkling beetle that can be locally common here in the Central Valley of California in the spring. It likes to eat the fresh soft tissues of several plant species when they are just seedlings - as you can see from this picture.

Most individuals are only half an inch long and don't move very fast. Beginning entomology students sometimes have a hard time telling the difference between darkling beetles (especially ones like Stenomorpha) and ground beetles. One very easy way to tell them apart is to watch them in their natural habitat. Darkling beetles move a lot slower and some species will stick their back end in the air when disturbed.

Kathy and I found a large population around a small pond just outside of Fresno on a nature trail. There were painted cement walls and a central display board telling of the many interesting creatures that lived in the area. There were several local species of vertebrates listed but the darkling beetles were a little misrepresented. They were called "stinky head-stander beetles". Now I've been studying beetles for quite a few years (make that decades) but that's the first time I've heard of such a creature as a head-stander beetle. I think the name Stenomorpha lecontella has a nicer ring to it.

Yosemite's Tame Coyotes

2011-10-29T14:31:00.000-07:00

There are a couple of tame coyotes in Yosemite National Park these days. Kathy and I came across a pair a couple of weeks ago as we were driving north along Highway 41 about 30 minutes north of the park's southern entrance. I've learned that it pays when travelling in national parks to pull over immediately when confronted with a traffic jam (something I've learned from my friend Steve). People are often stopped to take pictures or just to look at some interesting natural phenomenon. This time it turned out to be a big dog (two actually): Canis latrans, commonly known as the coyote.

I've seen a number of coyotes in my life and when I saw this one, I was impressed by its size. For a second I wanted to believe that it might just be a small wolf. Maybe California introduced a pack of wolves, I thought. But the longer I watched the creatures, the more I realized that this wasn't likely. These two animals seemed almost tame. They made no attempt to leave the line of clicking cameras and seemed to be all but asking for hand-outs.

After spending a lovely day in Yosemite Valley, we returned and found the same animals on the same stretch of road as before. At this point I was certain that we were looking at tame coyotes. More cars were stopped and tourists were taking pictures. The thought went through my mind that this animal is known to be the bane of ranchers. People are willing to pay money for their pelts. But you have to admit that they're attractive animals and make for a nice show. Yosemite could do worse.

California Sister

2011-10-17T07:19:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Kathy and I spent a day hiking (and biking) around Yosemite Valley. It was a great time to visit the park. The heavy traffic of the summer months was gone, and although there were still many visitors, it wasn't crowded. I don't normally go out of my way to visit national parks because it isn't possible to collect insects without a permit (and permits are usually not worth the trouble getting). But Yosemite Valley can't be avoided indefinitely - especially if you live only a couple of hours away.

This California sister (Adelpha californica) flew by right as we were leaving the Yosemite Visitor's Center. It was circling around the entranceway and I waited for it to land so I could take a picture. Unfortunately, people kept disturbing it each time it landed. I was a little disappointed by how many people didn't even notice it - such a striking insect, and so close. Finally, however, it landed on a manzanita bush nearby and then proceeded to pose for me while I carefully approached it. It is a really beautiful insect. It gets its name for the black and white pattern that is reminiscent of a nun's habit and can be distinguished from other similarly-colored butterflies by the orange/red spots being separated from the wing margin. It feeds on oaks.

The valley itself was cool most of the day with occasional clouds. It had rained earlier in the week and there was a dusting of snow on top of Half Dome. The leaves will be turning soon, I expect. It was hard to leave such a spot - claimed by many to be the most beautiful place on earth.

Latrodectus geometricus

2011-10-09T12:28:00.000-07:00

It's grape harvesting time in the Central Valley - actually, it's just coming to an end. It's a couple of weeks behind schedule because of the cooler and wetter spring but the bugs have eventually caught up with the season. Last week while going through several bunches of grapes, a colleague of mine stumbled onto this attractive relative of the black widow spider - the brown widow, Latrodectus geometricus.

This spider is not known for its nasty bight, although it can and, if provoked, will. What is striking is the pretty pattern on its back. It is actually not originally from the US. Having come from Africa some time ago, it seems to prefer the subtropical regions of the US - particularly Southern California. One message from all of this: maybe wear gloves if your in the vineyard.

Pseudanostirus pudicus

2011-09-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

Here's a click beetle that tends to fairly local in the Rocky Mountains. It can be common in Utah but it is often poorly represented in collections outside the area. It looks similar to the more widespread P. propola but lacks the bold elytral markings. They tend to be more diffuse in P. pudicus.

I found this one at about 6,000 feet up American Fork Canyon (Utah County, Utah) a month ago just as the sun was setting. It was resting on stream-side vegetataion when I discovered it. I've seen it at elevations as high as 8,000 - 9,000 feet.

Tragosoma pilosicornis

2011-09-19T18:17:00.000-07:00

Tragosoma pilosicornis is small as far as prionid longhorn beetles go. It's a substantial insect, however, by other criteria. This individual is about an inch long but like other bycids, when it extends its antennae, it seems much bigger. This one came bumbling in to my blacklight a week ago just below Sequoia National Park in Tulare County, California (at about 4,700 feet). The main trees in the vicinity were ponderosa pine and incense cedar.

This species is not nearly as common as T. depsarium which also occurs in California (and much of the West and across the Northern Hemisphere). It is also quite a bit less hairy than its more common relative and has very noticeable pitting on the anterior half of the wing covers.

This is the first time I've seen T. pilosicornis alive. The habitat shot is a morning view after Michael and I pulled ourselves out of our sleeping bags.

Cosmosalia chrysocoma

2011-09-03T17:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a Rocky Mountain longhorn beetle, Cosmosalia chrysocoma. It's one of those variable lepturines with a fairly wide distribution (throughout Canada and in much of the Western US) but with populations that can look unique. It can often be found on flowers. I found this one on a thistle bud.

Some of individuals are much darker (with the black base color showing through the elytral pubescence). I have also seen specimens that almost look gold. I found this one just before dusk up American Fork Canyon (in the same place as the giant ladybird beetle of my last post).

The habitat is spare scrub oak and sagebrush with Douglas fir and boxelder along the canyon floor. It's always a good day when you find bycids about.

Anatis lecontei

2011-08-30T16:55:00.000-07:00

We have a handful of giant lady bird beetles in the US. Most of them (four) belong to the genus Anatis. And what's really nice about them is that they're native. Somewhere around half of our lady beetle fauna is introduced - having come aboard on (mostly) misguided efforts to control plant pests (such as aphids and scales). Many of them are competing (sometimes out-competing) our native species.

This species, Anatis lecontei, is fairly common in the certain places of the Rocky Mountains. I found this one up American Fork Canyon (Utah) a couple of weeks ago. It's hard to to get a good sense of scale but it is about 4 to 5 times bigger than your common lady bug. The shadow also obscures a black band that encircles the elytra. It's a handsome creature. The habitat shot is up Tibble Fork Canyon.

Twelve-Spotted Skimmer

2011-08-20T18:18:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of a beautiful dragonfly - literally and taxonomically. It's common name is the twelve-spotted skimmer. It's scientific name is Libellula pulchella - or the beautiful little dragonfly. It isn't uncommon but it does catch the eye wherever it occurs - which is throughout most of the continental United States. It is only absent from much of Nevada and smaller areas of the SW.

I found this one a couple of weeks ago protecting its territory which consisted of an area on a large pond located near the border of Wasatch County and Utah County a few mile up Utah Canyon. I'm not sure the pond even has a name.

It is pretty much an extension of the Provo River and can be reached by crossing the bridge at Wildwood. But be careful, The famous Heber Creeper (train) is often chugging along the tracks (q.v.). You don't want to be on the bridge when it is passing. Jon and I had a close call.

Black Petaltail

2011-08-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

The black petaltail dragonfly (Tanypteryx hageni) is one of only a handful of species in the family Petaluridae. This is an ancient group of dragonflies which makes them truly ancient since dragonflies themselves have a long history in the fossil record. There are only two species of this family in North America. One is eastern the other is western.

I saw this individual a couple of weeks ago just above Wishon Reservoir in eastern Fresno County (California) at an elevation of about 6,700 feet. This is near the highest point known for the species (as recorded in Sidney Dunkle's useful book Dragonflies through Binoculars). It is also further south than the known range which is the general area of the northwest.

We (Spencer, Michael and his friend Zack, and I) were camping along Little Rancheria Creek when we saw it. It was a very scenic spot surrounded by 100 foot (and higher) red firs. The place just felt primeval and was a perfect spot for such an antediluvian creature.

Cliff Lake California

2011-07-27T14:41:00.001-07:00

Spencer, Michael, Zack (Michael's friend) and I spent a couple of days last week in the high country northeast of Fresno (California). We started from the Cliff Lake trailhead just northwest of Courtright Reservoir (elevation just over 8,100 feet) and climbed about 1,300 feet to Cliff Lake. July is a great time to be backpacking at this elevation. The trail was nice and the temperature couldn't have been better. The one drawback (and it was a big one) was the relentless cloud of mosquitoes that never went away.

This has been a wet year and a lot of snow has accumulated in these mountains. There were several snowpacks still dotting the meadows that we walked through. In some places, the trail had been transformed into a small stream and we were forced to walk along the side. With all this water there were also a lot of snowmelt pools. And in these pools there were mosquito larvae (wigglers) by the thousands (by the millions). At first we thought they would disappear as we got higher. We were wrong. Even though the first sight of Cliff Lake was a welcome reprieve to sore legs, it turned out to be just as mosquito - infested as many other places on the trail. We ended up covering ourselves with repellent and covering our faces with articles of clothing in order to keep our sanity.

We somehow managed to set up a small camp and enjoy the evening (after the mosquitoes went to sleep) but by the next morning we were ready to get away from the torment. Later in the day we drove to Wishon Reservoir and jumped in the cool water. It felt great on our many festering wounds.

I don't mean to make this sound too bleak. Cliff Lake is a beautiful place. Hopefully these pictures will make you want to make the trip. I just advise that you do so at another time than July in a wet year. The hike itself is four to five miles long (one way) and not all that difficult.

Cucujus clavipes

2011-07-20T17:39:00.000-07:00

Cucujus clavipes is the largest flat bark beetle (Family Cucujidae) in North America. This may not seem like much since most other species in the family (and related groups) are normally not much more than a quarter of an inch long. Cucujus clavipes, by contrast, commonly comes in at over half an inch. It is also striking in its bright reddish color.

It lives under the bark of dead trees and feeds on other insects. I have seen it in a number of US states (north, south, east and west) but it seems to be most abundant in the coniferous forests of the Western US. This individual was found about 40 miles northeast of Fresno (California) under the bark of fallen Douglas fir at about 6,000 feet.

Metrius contractus

2011-07-09T07:27:00.000-07:00

Just over three months ago I was spending the night by a neglected dirt road north of Auberry, California (Fresno County). Before nodding off to sleep, I took a walk with my flashlight and came across this black ground beetle - Metrius contractus - wandering in search of something to eat (I suppose).

It was crawling up this large rock covered with lichens and browning moss. It is a squatty thing, not so typical of other ground beetles and just over a centimeter long. Its shape reminded me of the snail-eating carabids in the genus Dicaelus but this resemblance is superficial. In fact the beetle belongs to the primitive ground beetle subfamily Paussinae, a group that is much more diverse in the tropics. Many species are associated with ants in some way. This species may as well although I am unfamiliar with any work confirming this.

The habitat picture is from the spot where I found it, but on the following day.

Xylocrius agassizi

2011-06-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

Over Father's Day weekend (last week) we decided to celebrate and go camping at Dinkey Creek (at about 5,000 feet and just east of Shaver Lake in Fresno County, California). The campground had just been open the week before. This is quite late in the year but the heavy rains and snow had required the delay. Not long after setting up the tent we took a short walk down to Dinkey Creek by the famous bridge. It was there on a large granite boulder that I saw this impressive longhorn beetle, Xylocrius agassizi.

With antennae poised, it is a bit over an inch long and the black body is heavily punctate and covered with black hair. If you look close you can see that the 3rd and 4th segments of the antennae are roughly equal in length and are more rounded at the end than the later segments. These are diagnostic characters of the species.

It is sometimes referred to (unofficially) as the gooseberry borer because it feeds on Ribes, although I've never seen it recognized as a pest. It probably takes a couple of years to complete its life cycle and is not all that frequently encountered. This particular individual is hardly tarnished at all and seems to have just recently emerged. It's quite an attractive insect in its bold black simplicity. The habitat shot is from Dinkey Creek where I found the beetle but from two years ago when the water was much lower.

Prionus californicus

2011-06-18T17:29:00.000-07:00

Over 30 years ago I hung out my first blackight trap to attract night flying insects. It was in the early summer along the Wasatch Front of the Rocky Mountains and I really didn't know what to expect. I hung it out behind our barn and after I had watched it for some time with nothing more than midges and water boatmen coming in I left for the house. Then several minutes later my brother came in quite excited and said that there was a big beetle on the sheet. I ran out to see for myself and found the largest beetle I could imagine. It was Prionus californicus and it was almost 2 inches long.

Since then, I've discovered that this insect isn't uncommon at all. In fact in some places it can be a pest of fruit trees. It is a Western species occuring from Colorado to the West Coast. In the North it occurs in southern Canada and ranges south into northern Mexico.

These pictures are of an individual that landed just outside my office west of Fresno this week. I'm not sure where it came from - maybe somebody's apple orchard. Finding it was like finding an old friend.

Omus californicus

2011-06-07T17:36:00.000-07:00

The California night-stalking tiger beetle Omus californicus intermedius occurs sporadically through the Sierra Nevada of California. It can be fairly common if you find the right place. Fortunately for us, we found such a place this last weekend a few miles south of Shaver Lake (in Fresno County). Because of the many rains this year and cool temperatures, the area (at an elevation of about 5,000 feet) was still moist (almost wet) and the California dogwoods were still in "bloom". The beetles themselves were under pieces of wood or logs or just under fallen leaves. Jon found the first one. The habitat shot is of Michael in a prime spot.

Finding Omus is always a thrill for me. Having lived in a number of states where I've seen and collected a number of impressive "tigers" I've often rued the fact that Omus was so restricted to the West Coast. Now that I'm living in California I find that they're not all that hard to find after all, at least if you're persistent. Even so, they're an impressive insect. Their mandibles are certainly capable of drawing blood if you gave them the chance.

I've collected them at elevations ranging from 5,000 feet to 8,000 in the Sierra Nevada above Fresno. I know Dennis Haines has found them at lower elevations further south. He tells me that there may be subspecific (or even specific) differences between some of these populations, but further work is needed (which Dennis is currently doing). In the mean time keep your eyes open for them (or any Omus) and let us know if you find some.

Sierran Treefrog

2011-05-31T16:51:00.000-07:00

On the same trip that I found the Scaphinotus ground beetle (see previous post) I came upon a stream less than a mile further up the hill. I was a bit surprised that there was as much water as there was. For even though this is the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, this particular drainage is fairly low - just the back side of Table Mountain, a low elevation plateau.

I was even more surprised to hear many frog calls and went in for a closer look. I spent several minutes (it seemed a lot longer) looking for the creatures but couldn't find a single one and as I approached the water their calling stopped. How hard could it be to find a frog when I knew there had to be several of them there?

Finally I spotted a little movement in the water and there they were - perfectly quiet and holding on to small rocks in the slight current. I'm not a frog expert by any means so I had to dig out the field guide for an identification. I think it fits pretty well with the description of the Sierran treefrog Pseudacris sierra. It's quite an attractive animal and a bit unusual in that for a treefrog it was obviously adapted here for life on the ground. Of course, the Sierra foothills are quite dry most of the year so this makes sense. I'm not really certain though that the stream even runs all year. I may go back in September and take a look.

Scaphinotus subtilis

2011-05-21T05:46:00.000-07:00

Snail eating ground beetles are some of the most fascinating insects around. They have a rounded body with a narrow head and prothorax that gives them a fairly sleek appearance. I'll be honest though, I've never learned just how this particular morphology benefits them. I invite anybody reading this post to inform me if they happen to know. Part of the uncertainty is why the wide abdomen is mostly filled with air.

This beetle (Scaphinotus subtilis) is the most common snail eating carabid around Fresno. It has fairly smooth wing covers and is a bit smaller than some of the other Scaphinotus but it is still an impressive creature.

I found this one on the back side of Table Mountain (northeast of Fresno) in February. It was under the logs seen here along with several isopods and various other edaphic creatures.

Limonius crotchii

2011-05-10T16:53:00.000-07:00

This is the first individual of Limonius crotchii that I have ever seen alive. It is not a very commonly seen insect. Jon and I came across it a couple of weeks ago just north of Lake Isabella along the North Fork of the Kern River (just into Tulare County, California). The orange elytra are quite striking and are a lot brighter than in preserved specimens.

It isn't all that big - just about a half inch long (over a centimeter) and it does look similar to other black and orange elaterids. Species of Ampedus can often look similar and even have the double sutures on the prosternum (on the underside of the pronotum). Even the front of the head in L. crotchii looks more like Ampedus than some other Limonius.

A good way to distinguish this beetle, though, is to look at the base of the front legs which are nearly completely closed (meaning they are surrounded by the hypomera). If this sounds all too complex, you can simply take my word for it (fortunately I'm only wrong less than half the time :).

It has been a wet year in many parts of California and the North Fork was very high. We saw several brave river rats floating rapidly along in bright red rafts. The habitat shot is just off the road from the river near an unmarked camping area where we stayed.

Paracotalpa ursina

2011-04-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

Unofficially this attractive beetle has been called the little bear beetle. Officially it is Paracotalpa ursina - which literally means the little bear Paracotalpa. And the bear is easy enough to imagine with the long setae (hair) and the plump body. The beetle belongs to the family Scarabaeidae - notice the fan-like antennae. It is a bit over half an inch long but seems bigger, especially as it climbs up grass stems and topples them over with its weight.

Jon and Michael found a population of the beetles last week in a city park here in Fresno and I went out yesterday to see them myself. There is something about a scarab in flight - with its elevated wing covers, low buzzing and erratic flight - that gets my beetle juices flowing. Museum specimens of this insect tend to be dull reddish brown. Live specimens have a much deeper red color. They're a sight to behold. Sadly, there were several along the park trail that had been smashed.

The place where the beetles were flying is not all that remarkable. It's maybe a quarter of a mile from the San Joaquin River and is just a fenced-off area with tall grass and a few other plant species. But that's often how you find interesting insects. They don't always live in the places we would consider ideal. And a grassy path in a park seems to be just fine for these brightly colored bruins.

Eleodes gigantea

2011-04-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

Eleodes gigantea is a big black darkling beetle common throughout California in dry areas. It gets to be about an inch long and is really the epitome of the so-called "stink beetle". There are several species of Eleodes throughout the Western US and Mexico but E. gigantea is certainly one of the biggest. It is also one of the most - how should I describe it - expressive. Once it gets bothered, it sticks its rear end into the air, threatening to give off a foul odor, if anybody gets too close.

Last November, Michael decided he wanted to do a science fair project on these insects. He wanted to see if they had evolved their defense response as a protection more from aerial predators than from terrestrial ones. He made silhouettes of a predatory bird and another one the same size of a fox. Then Michael, Jon and I took a trip out past Coalinga (southwest of Fresno) to find the creatures. We spent 2 days driving around mountain roads and ended up finding several individuals that Michael exposed to the two silhouettes.

Michael thought that the beetles would go into defensive mode quicker when exposed to the fox. After all there are a lot of terestrial predators around - including a lot of non-native cats and dogs. But the beetles were much quicker to respond to the bird. It was a fun project and leaves open a lot of questions that somebody doing more than a high school science fair project might want to tackle.

In any event, the canyon was nice. Not too many insects were out (it was November) but the cool weather didn't seem to bother the beetles.

Hypera brunneipennis

2011-04-08T17:27:00.001-07:00

This time of year alfalfa can really be hit hard by weevils. Here in the Central Valley we have to deal with the Egyptian alfalfa weevil (Hypera brunneipennis). These pictures are from about a week ago on a plot that has had a heavy infestation the last few years. As you can see the feeding damage can be significant.This first picture is of a mature larva - the stage that does most of the damage. Smaller larvae don't eat nearly as much as the larger ones. This particular individual is about a quarter of an inch long.

It surprises me how much of a problem these weevils have become. They are really not that hard to control if you disrupt their life cycle with an early cutting. This only needs to be done once (on the year's first growth) because the insect only goes through a single generation a year. Here in the Central Valley, a cutting around the middle of March would kill most of the population. A good pyrethroid will do a good job too if you decide to wait and make the first cutting with a more mature crop.

The Second picture is of the cocoon. When the larva gets as big as it is going to get, it will find a secluded place on the plant (sometimes on the ground) and encircle itself with a silky protective covering. You can see that it isn't as tightly constructed as the cocoons of other insects but it does the job at keeping most predators and parasitoids away.

This last picture is the mature adult - no doubt out looking for a mate

Epilachna abrupta

2011-03-31T14:20:00.000-07:00

Plant-feeding ladybird beetles are not something that many people know about. We have a couple of species in the United States (the Mexican bean beetle and the squash beetle) but they are usually not associated with ladybirds in most people's mind. In the tropics, however, there are a lot more species and many of them are quite large. These pictures are of Epilachna abrupta a species that I believe feeds on the same solanaceous plant it is resting on here. I have no idea which species it is (I'm not much of a botanist) but the leaves are nearly a foot long. The plant itself is over 6 feet tall and fairly stout spines project from the midrib (visible in the second picture). These beetles are nearly half an inch long.

I found them by the side of the road while climbing up (east) into the cloud forest out of San Jose, Costa Rica last May. A soft rain was falling but the couple of mating pairs that I found seemed not to be bothered underneath the large green leaves.

The color pattern of the species is variable. Robert Gordon's revision of the species of the Western Hemisphere illustrates both this form and one with a dark band across the middle of the elytra. Too bad there weren't any larvae around. I expect that they would be quite impressive. The Epilachna larvae that I have seen are covered with branching spines. The landscape shot is from the same cloud forest.

Stolas lebasii

2011-03-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Ted MaCrae's post (beetlesinthebush.wordpress.com) on February 25 (and Lech Borowiec's excellent cassidine interactive manual) I have been able to place a name on this beautiful tortoise beetle I ran across last spring in Costa Rica. It is Stolas lebasii. I have seen it a few times in Central America in forested areas and it always manages to make me stop and marvel at its deep metallic green color and bright spots.

For a leaf beetle it is quite large, almost half an inch long. When you look at a live one in its natural habitat it always seems much bigger. I found this individual on a forested path in the Wilson Botanical Area near the Panamanian border. As you can see there were a lot of bromeliads and other epiphytes hanging from moss-covered trees along the trail. Various tree ferns were also abundant.

It was a quiet damp place with the distant warbling of tropical birds and the occasional buzzing of forest insects. In such a place one could spend years and still not see every species that lives there. For travelers to southern Costa Rica wishing to see monkeys, sloths and various tropical birds all together in a package, the Osa Peninsula may be a better place to visit. If, however, one wishes to see the inspiring diversity of a montane forest, the Wilson Botanical Area is hard to beat.

Brown-Throated Sloth

2011-03-08T15:23:00.000-08:00

The brown-throated sloth (Bradypus variegatus) is one of the most unusual creatures I have ever seen. It is a 3-toed sloth that occurs from Honduras south into the Amazon rain forest. Steve, Michael and I ran into a couple of them last spring while visiting the Osa Peninsula in southern Costa Rica. We were not expecting to see one - in fact we had insects and birds on the mind instead. Fortunately Steve has sharp eyes and we got a great look at this one pictured. It looks like it's playing peek-a-boo.

My search image for insects and birds relies primarily on movement (unless I'm looking for something at close range). I expect that this might be the case for other predators as well (yes I suspect that all entomologists are predators in some sense). That's why sloths can be so hard to see. They hardly move at all. All this individual did during a period of maybe 20 minutes was raise and lower one of its arms. They must be pretty common, though, in certain parts of Central America if we could come across two in less than 12 hours. This individual was right by the main road on the peninsula. And I must say that the road is ideal for seeing wildlife. It isn't paved and is only two lanes wide with forest canopy extending over the top for much of its length. Patient photographers and birders can often be seen off to the side waiting for a good shot or siting.

The down-side of the peninsula is that its hard to find reasonably priced lodging. We ended up hoping to find a side road where we could put out a small tent, but without any luck. In the end we had to pay much more than we could really afford at an ecolodge (several hundred dollars for one night). But the scenery was impressive and the beach was just a bit of a hike away.

Fossil Insects

2011-02-28T17:29:00.000-08:00

Over the Christmas break, we had the chance to visit Kathy's sister Linda, her husband Sam (Maestas), and their family. Sam is an amateur paleontologist of the sort that has turned his hobby into his livelihood. He's been telling me for years of his digs and of the interesting dinosaurs and mammals that he has worked with. Growing up in northwestern Colorado he had the opportunity as a teenager to attend a paleontology class given by a local scientist, Les Robinet. Sam was so captivated that he began doing research on his own and volunteered to help with the gentleman in his own digs.

The two became quite close through the years and when Les got too old to manage his small museum and ranch (where many of his fossils were from) he sold them to Sam (my brother-in-law). Since then Sam has worked with a number of scientists and has become very adept at preparing the fossils and has a list of museums around the world that he works with.

Knowing all this, I was a bit surprised when Sam told to me recently that he also had a few fossil insects that had come from a Chinese shipment that he had arranged to prepare. Over the holidays, he invited me over to see a few of his recent pieces that were still in his home. He had a fossil mantis (I think) and a strange fly, although see for yourself. It has strange antennae for a fly. The truth is, I'm not sure what it is. The dragonfly (or damselfly) is also from China. Apparently they're all taken from a level dating back to about 50 million years (to the early Cenozoic Era).

You may run into some of Sam's work in museums around the country. Some of them are also available for sale. You can check out his site on eBay (or you can email Linda directly for more information (lindamaestas@q.com). Somebody who works with insect fossils should get in touch with him.

Jerusalem Crickets

2011-02-19T15:23:00.000-08:00

Jerusalem crickets are often imagined to be Near Eastern insects (John the Baptist is often assumed to have eaten the things) but they are not (and he didn't). They only occur in the western half of the United states and through Central America. But if diversity counts as preference (a ridiculous concept for sure) than their favorite place to live must be California. Of the 28 species listed by David Weissman (in his fascinating chapter on their communication and reproductive behavior in Laurence Field's book, The Biology of Wetas, King Crickets, and Their Allies) 19 are from California.

I'm going to call these two crickets Stenopelmatus nigrocapitatus (the dark headed Jerusalem cricket) although I have only a little confidence that this is true. This species is known from Fresno County where I found the second cricket (the first image was from just north of there in Mariposa County). The difficulty is that I don't have a recording of their nuptial drumbeats on which their taxonomy depends. Of course these insects don't beat on drums. In fact they don't even have the typical grasshopper ears (on their side) or washboard sounding mechanism (for rubbing their wings and legs together). But they do drum nonetheless - with their abdomens against the ground. They are also very good at picking up the drumming sound of other Jerusalem crickets with their forelegs.

I found the Mariposa cricket at dusk along the Merced River below Yosemite last November. With flashlight in hand, Jon, Bailey and I had just finished setting up camp and had taken our flashlights to go looking for whatever we might find. It wasn't long before we found the crickets hopping along the dirt road. It's a lot nicer to see these remarkable insects alive than in collections, where they are usually shriveled up and unidentifiable when left on pins. The second picture is of an individual I found three weeks ago along the San Joaquin River north of Fresno. Both insects are about an inch long.

The habitat shot is along the Merced River the day after I found the cricket. It had rained all night and the next day was mostly cloudy. I slept dismally inside the cab of my truck (in which I don't fit horizontally) so that the boys could stay dry in the covered bed. The next day was beautiful nonetheless. November is, after all, a bit of an unpredictable month in these parts. On the one hand it is the end of the year and most living things are asleep or dormant. On the other hand, the rains have begun and grass is starting to grow - a prelude to spring. One sort of takes one's pick on the prevailing mood. And the Merced River somehow knows all of this and tends to speak for itself. By lunchtime I think it was in a good mood.

Phloeodes diabolicus

2011-02-10T20:37:00.000-08:00

Ironclad beetles are the tanks of the insect world. They are famous (or infamous) for walking away after being stepped on. There are even reports of species being run over by cars without apparent harm. To an entomologist, they are notorious for the challenge of getting an insect pin through their thick skin (cuticle). What usually happens is the first attempt bends the pin. The second attempt bruises the thumb and forefinger to the bone. And then with a combination of anger and grit (and with two hands gripping the shaft) the pin is forced through the reinforced exoskeleton. With luck it has gone through straight and without popping the legs off on the other side. Very often it doesn't - as verified by any number of oddly pinned specimens stuck to the bottom of unit trays in the museums of the world.

These images are of our most common ironclad beetle in the Central Valley - the diabolical ironclad beetle. How the species got its name is a mystery to me. Perhaps the shiny golden setae on a dark black background in many of the individuals reminded the author (LeConte) of fire and brimstone. Whatever the reason, it is a name (and a species) not easily forgotten.

These images were taken a couple of weeks ago near the King's River outside of Sanger (California). I found a grove of old oaks with one fallen individual cut into bathtub-sized sections. The beetles were congregated under the thick loose bark. They are about three quarters of an inch long and feign death when disturbed - making them easier to photograph. Some of the individuals are completely black and all of them have small velvety black sections on their back. The golden white setae on the shoulders and elytral apex are also very striking - especially under magnification. In the past, entomologists have thought these color differences represented different species. This is hard to maintain when individuals of both patterns are found in the same place (even on the same log as I found here). A full study of this group of ironclad beetles has recently been done by Ian Foley and Mike Ivie (at Montana State University, and published in Zootaxa, 2008). They document a geographical change in this pattern (a cline) and have confirmed that the variability represents only one species.

The habitat shot is along Byrd Slough where I found the little devils.

Aneides lugubris

2011-01-26T16:32:00.000-08:00

The arboreal salamander (Aneides lugubris) is normally a pale creature occuring in the coastal mountains of of the Western US. The first two images here are of the juvenile stage that is quite darker than the adults. In fact when I found this one, it was hard to distinguish from the fungal growth pattern of the log it was on.

I found it at Big Sur Campground a year ago last month. We were camping in a grove of magnificent coastal redwoods. Early in the morning, while the family was still sleeping, I quietly left the campground and followed a small trail up the hill west of camp. It's easy to be completely quiet when the forest floor is covered with fallen redwood leaves in all stages of decay. It's like walking on a carpet with a two-inch pad beneath.

At first light there was still a mist in the redwood canopy and a scent of moist humus in the air. At different places along the trail there were old logs scattered in the understory. They were damp. And when fallen timber remains moist year round, as it happens in this shaded forest, it becomes an open invitation for all kinds of creatures. If a mature coastal tree is home to many kinds of animals and epiphytic plants, a fallen one in decay becomes a veritable hotel for forest creatures.

Sometimes these logs are just too big for me to move. Other times it's quite easy to find out what might be hiding underneath. With this log I happened to get lucky. There turned out to be an attractive amphibian wiling away the cool December morning just waiting for me to take its picture. It's quite an impressive creature for sure. Here is a habitat shot above the forested area where I found it.

Later in my wonderings, I came across another salamader (the third salamaner picture). I'm guessing it is the Santa Lucia Mountains slender salamander (Batrachoseps luciae) but somebody better with amphibians had better be the last word on this id. It doesn't match my field guide as well as I would like - but then again, Mother Nature doesn't always listen to field guides.

Boreus coloradensis

2011-01-17T15:07:00.000-08:00

There aren't many insects out and about during the last week of the year - at least not in North America. A little later on you can find small black stoneflies on the snow near mountain streams. A few spiders or midges might also be out. With persistence you might even find a wingless cankerworm or two but December is not known as the best time of the year to look for bugs. Of course you can easily find over-wintering beetles, caterpillars and bugs under rocks and logs but as far as active insects go, your chances are limited. Unless, that is, you're lucky enough to find a scorpionfly. Not any scorpionfly, mind you, but a small black scorpionfly that shows up on the snow much like a tiny piece of dislodged bark or a perhaps a chipped piece of stone. We happened to be just lucky enough a few weeks ago to find some.

These first two images are of small (3-5 mm long) snow scorpionflies of the family Boreidae. They don't look much like other scorpionflies that have colorful wings and lighter-colored bodies but the long rostrum is a bit of a giveaway. The first picture is of a female with her long ovipositor. The second picture is of a male. Erik, Michael and I found these over Christmas break in Rock Canyon above Provo (Utah). It was a bit of an overcast day but once we got into the canyon, the air cleared out and the snow was beautiful. Finding the boreids was a real bonus.

There aren't that many scorpionflies around to begin with - just over 500 species worldwide. Of these only about 30 belong to the family Boreidae, or the snow scorpionflies. Norm Penny is the leading authority on these remarkable insects. His world catalogue indicates that the only species known from Utah is B. coloradensis - so that's what I'm calling these individuals, at least for now. I was a bit surprised to discover that the little creatures can jump. They can't project themselves as far as fleas (which seem to be relatives of the Mecoptera) but they did manage to jump several inches when I approached them. That's a long jump for a creature with legs that are not much bigger than the commas on this page. And to imagine that all this activity (limited though it may be) is managed on a blanket of ice crystals.

I was surprised to find that John Acorn also has a nice image of another species (I think) on the last page of the American Entomologist (Winter 2010). I'm guessing that he found it in Canada but you'll have to ask him.

Macropogon testaceipennis

2011-01-04T17:52:00.000-08:00

Here's a beetle you don't see every day. It doesn't have a common name. In fact the family it belongs to doesn't even have a common name that many people recognize. To the scientific community this insect is known as Macropogon testaceipennis and it belongs to the family Artematopodidae. It is known primarily from the Sierra Nevada of California.

Let me put this in a little more perspective. Many common insects are known, at the species level, by a non-Latin name. The monarch butterfly comes readily to mind as does the Japanese beetle or the common green darner (a dragonfly). Many insect watchers are also familiar with the fiery searcher (a big metallic green ground beetle) or the green June beetle (a flighty scarab that likes orchards and comes to lights). Most insects, however, don't have a common name but the family they belong to does. Some examples of family group names are: lady bird beetles (family Coccinellidae), stink bugs (Pentatomidae), click beetles (Elateridae). This works, even though many of us don't recognize individual species in these groups, because we do recognize the overall category - and we have seen species that belong to these families.

But some families don't have these kinds of names. These families tend to be poorly known and have fewer species. The family Artematopodidae is one of these families. I took this picture last June above Dinkey Creek Campground (in Fresno County, California) at an elevation around 7,000 feet. I recognized the obscure beetle at the family level right away but it took me several months to figure out what species it was. The pale coloring on the "shoulders" (the elytral humeral angles) was the troubling part. It wasn't until last month while going through the California State Collection of Arthropods that I noticed a unit tray containing specimens ranging in color from completely pale elytra to completely dark elytra with several individuals having the abbreviated coloring like in this image.

I have no idea what kind of sedge it was on but the area where I found it is a spare rocky riparian landscape with scattered junipers and manzanita. To the few locals who know about it, this is the place called Granite Pools. It's not real easy to get to but hardy hikers manage just fine. The pools are great for swimming once the heavy spring run-off is over. In June when I took this picture there was too much water and swimming wasn't possible yet. If you look close you can see a faint rainbow formed in the cold mountain spray above the tumbling creek.

Lacon sparsa

2010-12-18T07:31:00.000-08:00

Lacon sparsa is a broad black click beetle about half an inch long that lives under the bark of dead trees. I found this individual over the Thanksgiving weekend under the bark of a dead gray pine on Los Gatos Creek in western Fresno County (west of Coalinga). There wasn't much out except for lark sparrows lower down the canyon, yellow-billed magpies and darkling beetles along the road.

Lacon sparsa is easily recognizable with its predominantly black scales overlying its black body. There are a few scattered white scales intermixed but not nearly enough to confuse it with L. rorulenta which also has coppery scales (see my previous post for November 4). It's an attractive clicker.

If November isn't the most productive month to be collecting in this part of California. Los Gatos Creek isn't very productive for another reason: it's fenced almost it's entire length. There are a few places to get out and look around - even a few new campgrounds being put in - but overall, Warthon Canyon to the south is better for finding insects.

That said, the scenery is still nice - open pine oak woodland. You just have to enjoy it on the other side of a fence.

Agabus grisseipennis

2010-12-11T12:43:00.000-08:00

Three weeks ago, in the middle of November, we had a warm spell in Fresno and the thermometer rose to the high 70's. I took a walk outside to enjoy the day and was surprised by a singular raindrop as I passed a large puddle by the road. The sky was clear and yet I was certain that something had fallen from above into the water. As I stopped to see what was going on, another drop landed on the puddle but this time I could tell that it wasn't water. It was a beetle.

To be more precise, it was a diving beetle (Agabus grisseipennis) a fairly common diving beetle of the Western US. It was obviously taking advantage of the warm day but I was curious about the temporary pool. Why would the predatory beetles be landing in a temporary puddle in November. Obviously this was no place to complete a life cycle.

Then I noticed the dragonflies - lots of them. They were variegated meadowhawks and at one point I noticed ten mating pairs in copula bobbing up and down over the water - the females dropping eggs when the pair got close enough to the puddle. Some dragonflies species are known to drop eggs in temporary ponds or by the side of streams in moist soil. The eggs can survive out of water for quite some time until water returns and covers them up and they hatch.

Then I noticed a backswimmer (a true bug of the genus Notonecta) drop into the water, and I started to figure out what was going on. Both the diving beetle and the backswimmer are predators and I suspected that they were attracted by the dragonflies - and the chance of eating their eggs.

The picture of the backswimmer is a bit out of focus but it is unusual enough that I'm posting it anyway. Backswimmers live almost all of their lives underwater with their bottom (ventral) side up. When they swim, they kick their legs somewhat like a human swimmer doing the backstroke - hence their name. I have been around ponds and puddles for about 30 years watching insects and this is the first time I ever remember seeing a backswimmer resting on top of the water with its backside up. I even found one individual resting beside the puddle on moist soil in the same position. It seemed that these insects were behaving in a peculiar way because of an opportunity - a warm autumn dragonfly fest.

These sorts of entomological spectacles have to be appreciated when you come across them. You may never see the likes of them again. Sadly, they often happen and nobody notices. I saw a couple of people pass the puddle and not notice a single insect. I left for a couple of hours and when I returned the buzz of activity was over. All I saw was a lone backswimmer resting on the muddy bottom - backside down.

Hoary Skimmer

2010-11-23T15:37:00.000-08:00

This picture of a hoary skimmer (Libellula nodisticta) was lucky in a couple of ways. Most lucky of all was that we even found it. Hoary skimmers are not commonly encountered dragonflies. Kathy Biggs considers it "sporadic" and "sparse" (see her Dragonflies of California).

We came across this individual near Lone Pine, California (in Inyo County) last August as we drove by a small slow-moving stream. Michael and I decided it was worth stopping to see. We were glad we did. The hoary skimmer was triangulating back and forth among the tall cattails and I managed to get close enough for the picture. One never has the appropriate wading boots available at times like this but I managed to get the picture with a bit of lucky maneuvering.

The area around Lone Pine is famous in old westerns. Several movies were filmed in the area. If you stop to eat in one of the local restaurants, you'll see old pictures of celebrities all along the walls. Here's a shot of some of the local landscape.

Dead-Leaf Typophyllum

2010-11-11T20:45:00.000-08:00

One of the pleasures of visiting tropical America is the discovery of its impressive number of grasshoppers, walking sticks and katydids. Some of these insects reach enormous proportions. A number of years ago while hiking with my friend Mark into the back-country of Honduras (around Mount Botaderos) I nearly smashed a walking stick that was nearly the size of a baton. It was so perfectly camouflaged on a tree that I failed to notice it just inches from my hand. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera with me.

It's not at all uncommon to come upon grasshoppers that are twice the size of the big ones we see in the states. But that said, it is the katydids that really outdo themselves. Earlier this year (in May) I took a trip to Costa Rica with my friend Steve and son Michael. We spent one night at the Wilson Botanical Gardens (southwest of San Vito, near the Panamanian border) and had the privileged of exploring the many trails that wind through various elevations of native forest. Among the many fascinating creatures we saw, this dead-leaf katydid was one of the most impressive. It belongs to the genus Typophyllum and may be the recognized species T. mortuifolium (literally the dead-leaf Typophyllum) but since our knowledge of this group in Central America is so limited, I have no way to confirm this.

The katydid is about two inches long (excluding the antennae) and the mimicry is truly remarkable - even down to the necrotic spots on the wings that look like areas of fungal growth. I found it at night not long after the sun went down near the visitor lodge. The picture of the tropical sunset is from the back porch right after a chestnut-mandibled toucan went squawking through the upper canopy of the Cecropia trees. If you ever make it to Costa Rica, this is a great place to see - but you'll want to spend at least a couple of days there. The facilities are nice and the staff are very accommodating.

Lacon rorulenta

2010-11-04T19:08:00.000-07:00

Lacon rorulenta is a beautiful coppery-colored click beetle of the northwestern parts of the United States. The beetle itself is only about half an inch long and it's real color is black. It is the thick flat hairs covering its body that give it it's attractive color. Some of these hairs are coppery and others are black. They lay flat over the beetle's body somewhat like shingles so that the entire insect looks brightly colored. I found this individual a couple of weeks ago in the Dinkey Lakes Wilderness of Fresno County. This is a bit south of its known distribution but the fact that I was high in the Sierra doesn't make this too unusual. (Many northern species are known to work their way south at higher elevations.)

I was hiking early in the morning from Lake Nelson. The ground above 8,700 feet was frozen and a few small piles of snow were still on the ground from the recent storms that had passed over the Central Valley several days before. There is a rich forest of red firs along the trail at this elevation and it was under the bark of one of these fallen trees that I found the click beetle. Red fir has a thick furrowed bark that doesn't come off until the tree has been dead for well over a year. This picture is of the small red fir grove where I found the beetle.

Overall, it was 10 miles to and from Lake Nelson from the Cliff Lake trailhead near Courtright Reservoir. But the hike was well worth it. As the sun was coming up over the hills to the east, the lake reflected several shades of soft morning blue light with a thin layer of frost on the shore and mist coming from the water. It was a grand sight.

Lytta funerea

2010-10-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

Lytta funerea is a blister beetle known from the San Joaquin Valley in California. These pictures are from a small population I found on September 4th (of this year) just below Millerton Dam (north of Fresno). They were all on a few tarweed plants near Lost Lake.

Lytta funerea is a pretty black species with a small orange spot on the top of the head (vaguely discernible in one of the pictures). Caution is required, however, in identifying black blister beetles in the Western US. There are several species that are black and have a small orange spot on the head. Lytta funerea is different from these in having nearly straight mandibles. It is also the only one of these species lacking clear pads on the tarsi (the segments making up the "feet").

The habitat around Lost Lake in September is dry. Dragonflies and wasps are out and about but not many other things are. Lytta beetles are known to parasitize bees of the family Anthophoridae. A young beetle larva, once it has emerged from the egg, is very active and finds its way to a flower. When a bee arrives to feed, the small larva (called a triungulin) quickly crawls aboard and is carried back to the bee's nest where it begins to feed on the developing brood. As the larval beetle grows it turns into a sluggish grub and will eventually isolate itself to pupate. These beetles were all glossy black and seemed to have recently emerged.

Here's a habitat shot with tarweed and oaks near where the beetles were seen.

Amphicyrta dentipes

2010-10-16T18:06:00.000-07:00

I spent a few hours last weekend up in the Sierra foothills above Fresno a day or two after our first rains of the season. It was cool, refreshing and quiet. It's always nice to get above the valley air as well. At one stop just a couple of miles southeast of Bretz Mill Campground (a bit south of Shaver Lake in Fresno County) I came across this pill beetle under a partially cut log near Big Creek. It is Amphicyrta dentipes and quite large - at least for a pill beetle (about a centimeter long). Most pill

beetles feed on mosses but Amphicyrta doesn't fit this pattern so much. I found A. dentipes partially buried in the riparian litter of dead twigs and dark soil. The other Amphicyrta species in California (the brassier looking A. chrysomelina) is known to feed on lilies and other vegetables and can sometimes be a pest (although I doubt very much that you'll ever find an insecticide label with a pill beetle listed on it).

The habitat along Big Creek is a bit unusual for a mid-elevation Sierra stream (at about 3,000 feet). It flows fairly slowly and has sandy banks in several places. I also found several ground beetles in the same area (including the impressive Pterostichus lama).

A bit further up the road I came upon a wild apple tree at dusk with ripe fruit. It was a very pleasant surprise and not something I see very often – especially in California where we have no native apples larger than a crab apple. I sampled a few of the less-wormy fruit. They're not as bitter as crab apples but not so sweet as fruit-stand varieties (like Red Delicious for example). They're also smaller but I enjoyed them much more than I've enjoyed apples in years. I kept thinking of Thoreau's essay on wild apples.

“But it is remarkable that the wild apple, which I praise as so spirited and racy when eaten in the fields or woods, being brought into the house, has frequently a harsh and crabbed taste. The Saunterer’s Apple not even the saunterer can eat in the house... for there you miss the November air, which is the sauce it is to be eaten with.”

And indeed Thoreau is right. I brought a small bag full home with me and nobody liked them at all. But I’m secretly saving the seeds anyway.

References:

Johnson, Paul. Project Byrrhus (www.sdstate.edu/ps/Severin-McDaniel/project-byrrhus/index.cfm). Accessed October 12, 2010.

Thoreau, H.D. Wild Apples; in Henry David Thoreau, Collected Essays and Poems. The Library of America, Second Edition, 2001.

Two Meadowhawks

2010-09-28T06:18:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, Jon Quist and I made our way to the small and secluded Fish Creek drainage just north of Kerckhoff Lake in Madera County (California). There is no easy access to the creek and it's narrow valley - only a difficult dirt road and dusty trails lined with cow patties. Gray pines and oak trees provided shade but the grass was sere and the day was warm. Kerckhoff Lake, after all, is still pretty much a valley lake though nestled in the foothills above Fresno - with an elevation of just under 1,000 feet above sea level.

But Fish Creek itself was full of water and near the lake it was backed-up with cattails and blackberries growing along the margin. There were also a lot of dragonflies flying about - including two kinds of meadowhawks: the striped meadowhawk (Sympetrum pallipes) and the variegated meadowhawk (Sympetrum corruptum). Both are late summer/fall species with attractive red markings along the thorax and abdomen. They are medium-sized dragonflies and quite striking.

The two species are fairly easy to tell apart - at least the males are. Striped meadowhawks have distinct stripes on the side of the thorax and the dorsal side of the abdomen is predominantly red. Variegated meadowhawks on the other hand may have stripes on the side of the thorax but they also have a more distinct spot at the base of the stripes. More noticeable is that the abdomen is ringed with red, white and gray markings. The forewing also has a pale reddish pink color in some individuals.

We found the striped meadowhawks mating and laying eggs by the stream. They go about things a bit different than most other dragonflies that drop their eggs directly into the water. The meadowhawks remained in copula with both male and female "bouncing" up and down above the moist grass near the creek, with the female dropping eggs into the grass. The timing is quite appropriate as the fall rains are due in just a month or two and the stream bank should be at least a few inches higher than it currently is - flooding the area where the eggs are resting.

The variegated meadowhawk is known to be a migratory species making its way from Mexico north into the US in the spring. Individuals in the US are also known to fly north into Canada in the spring. I'm not sure where these individuals from Madera County will go but more than likely, they'll complete their life-cycle right here in Central California where we only get a few light frosts each year.

The picture of Jon wading in the water is a habitat shot where both species were flying.

Bittacus chlorostigma

2010-06-29T16:37:00.000-07:00

Hanging flies are unusual insects that often get overlooked. They aren't really flies at all. In fact they don't even look like flies. They are about an inch long and thin, and look a bit like large crane flies but they have four very obvious wings. Flies, of course (including crane flies), only have two wings.

Hanging flies are members of the Mecoptera, an order of insects commonly known as scorpion flies. This name is derived from certain species (in the genus Panorpa) where the males bear what looks like a stinger at the end of the abdomen. Hanging flies, however, do not have this threatening terminus and very often go undetected by even well-informed naturalists. This is unfortunate. They are fascinating insects to watch.

One easy way to tell them apart from crane flies or even damsel flies is to look at the head. Hanging flies (like most other mecopterans) have a pointed head. This picture is of Bittacus chlorostigma that I took earlier this year (in April) along the Merced River in California. It is a fairly common insect (if you know what to look for) in the spring throughout the open oak woodlands of the Sierra Nevada foothills. I have found them most commonly when the California poppies are in full bloom. This particular individual was out when a redbud was flowering a few feet away. The yellow spots (stigmata) at the end of the wings are very diagnostic, even if you can't get a good look at the head.

Hanging flies are best known for their unusual mating ritual where the males capture a prey item (usually a fly or small moth), hang from a small branch (or long blade of grass) with their forelegs, and then release a pheromone that attracts females. This is unusual among insects that use pheromones in that it is the male and not the female that sends the signal. Once a female finds the gift and accepts it, the insects couple. If the gift is too small the female looks elsewhere.

Most of the research that has been done on this interesting behavior comes from the Eastern and Midwestern species of Bittacus. The common California species (B. chlorostigma) is largely un-represented in these kinds of studies. A paper published in 1977 suggested that it was a nocturnal species because so little was known about it. This is certainly not true. I saw a pair exchanging gifts in April of last year above Pine Flat Reservoir. It was mid-morning and the pair was very approachable (unfortunately, I didn't have a good camera with me at the time). Some enterprising student might take this species on as a research project. They shouldn't be hard to find and they are quite attractive.

Hoplia Beetles

2010-06-10T15:35:00.000-07:00

There's a reddish brown beetle about the size of a large lady bug that you may have noticed on your roses or other flowers in the spring. Here in the Central Valley it shows up toward the end of April or the beginning of May and enjoys resting on velvety petals. If there are a lot of them, the flowers will end up with large areas of feeding damage, but this usually isn't the case. These insects only come out for a single generation a year and their first thought has nothing to do with eating, they are looking for mates.

These interesting insects are called Hoplia beetles. Their name is italicized because it is a generic Latin name – no American species in the genus Hoplia have common names. We have several species in the US and all of them can be recognized by the single large claw at the end of their hind legs. Other beetles have two claws (or occasionally none).

This is a picture of a mating pair of Hoplia dispar, on a blackberry blossom. It’s a common species in California. It is different from other Hoplia species in the shape of the fine white ornamental scales, which are strongly elliptical to almost round. Most other species have more elongate scales or no scales at all.

This side image of also of H. dispar. If you look closely, you can see that some of the scales are partially blue. This is an unusual color for insects but for some reason Hoplia beetles are sometimes colored this way. One very striking beetle is Hoplia caerulea from Spain that has its entire body covered with these pale blue scales (it’s worth doing an image search to see). It looks like a morpho butterfly version of a scarab.

So don’t be too alarmed if you find these beetles on your house plants. You can pick them off by hand and dispose of them if they become a problem. They do have the general appearance of Japanese beetles (though less colorful) but don’t do nearly the damage. One species (Hoplia philanthus) from Europe is known to be a pest in turf and pastures and may require a more aggressive control program. Here in the US, however, our species are much less of a problem.

This last image is Hoplia mucorea which is common in the mid-Atlantic states in the spring. It is less common than H. dispar but can be found in forested areas just as the leaves are starting to break out – around the time of the dogwood blooms. Watch for a small insect flying a foot or two above the forest floor. If you’re jogging or walking fast, you may miss them. They have a ponderous flight pattern because they only use one pair of wings to fly. The other wings (actually the forewings) are only wing covers (called elytra) and are held upright and out of the way of the flying wings. This makes for a slower flight, and in fact, you can often catch up with them and grab them with your hand. Don’t worry, they don’t bite. The worst the will do is give you a stout tickle you as they try and burrow between your fingers. Take a close look, they’re quite interesting and they’re out because it’s spring.

California Condors up Close

2010-05-17T19:35:00.000-07:00

Twenty Five years ago, I sat at a museum table and read the sad story of North America's largest bird, the California condor. It was doomed for extinction, or so I imagined and many beleived. The few remaining wild birds had no chance to survive given the environmental hazards that confronted them. The last condors were being taken into a captive breeding program in hopes of saving the species but I had no confidence that this would work. My memory of this has remained clear all these years because of the inevitable loss I felt at that time.

I have followed the story of the condor ever since and have been alternately hopeful and doubtful that the impressive bird would ultimately survive. This changed for me two weeks ago when my friend Steve and I took a couple of days to travel along the coastal highway south of Monterey, California. We knew that the birds were spotted occasionally in the area and hoped to see one, but we were also realistically aware of our slim chances. Our tentative hope changed suddenly, however, when we stopped at one of the many pull-offs to look for marine mammals (we did see harbor seals, sea otters and sea lions throughout the day). Steve glanced up and spotted a pair of the magnificent birds soaring overhead. We watched them for maybe a minute before they disappeared behind the hills of the Santa Lucia Range.

This was quite a thrill, but, as it turned out, we were to see several more at much closer range. A few miles south of Big Sur, we noticed several vultures (turkey vultures at first) swirling around a point just off the road. As we got closer it became obvious that several of them had white patches in the wrong place to be turkey vultures. We hurriedly pulled-off the road for a better look and watched for several minutes as a group of about eight condors flew back and forth near the cliffs where we stood. My attempts to photograph them met with mixed success and then the birds moved on. We walked north around a turn in the road and saw a couple resting on a ledge some distance away. Then we got particularly lucky. There was a heavy flapping sound and a group of five landed on a rocky ledge less than 30 feet below us. Then two other birds landed just a few yards away from them. It was truly a magnificent moment for me. The birds I never expected to see were now right in front of me. We could clearly see their wing tags and even the unique color patterns of their heads. They seemed to be posing for a picture and so I obliged them. Then to put a final touch to the moment, a peregrine falcon soared by, just above their perch, and several hundred feet below a raft of sea lions rolled over to take in more sun.

Cardiophorus aeneus

2010-04-08T17:30:00.001-07:00

Here is a picture of a small click beetle (just under a centimeter long) that you don't see very often. It's Cardiophorus aeneus, a Western species that shows up infrequently in collections. I came across a population a couple of weeks ago just west of Kerman (Fresno County) California in the tall grass of an alkali meadow. I was actually out looking for another species and just happened to find it. It's pretty distinctive as far as Cardiophorus goes. It has a metallic bronze luster to it although this is hard to see through the thick gray matte of setae. The elytra are also a bit uneven on top, bearing a few broad elevated areas. this is different than most related species where the elytra are fairly flat, or at least evenly convex. It's a nice find.

Cabbage Aphids on Wild Mustard

2010-03-11T18:36:00.000-08:00

Right now there is a lot of wild mustard in bloom around the Central Valley. It's a pretty plant but it's also a bit of a nuisance for anybody growing cabbage, collards, bok choi, or other cole crops. It's a nuisance not so much because it's hard to get rid of. The bigger problem is that it's a great over-wintering host for cabbage aphids.

I recently found one plant with over a thousand aphids on it. This image will give you an idea of what to look for. Compare this with what you can expect on your cabbage plants if you don't take care of the problem. Cabbage aphids are not just another aphid species that can be treated with the standard aphicides. They're a lot harder to get rid of than say green peach aphids or melon aphids. It's definitely worthwhile taking precautions to avoid this kind of damage. This is particularly true for growers that have their cole crops in the ground early.

This is the time of year when the aphids can jump from wild mustard to your crops. Some of the worst damage can happen early in the year before the aphids' natural enemies become effective. So enjoy the pretty yellow flowers - but preferably at a distance (and down-wind) from your farm.

Gibbifer guatemalae

2010-02-06T09:46:00.001-08:00

Here are a few images I took this morning after playing around with the lighting on my camera set-up. I'm much happier with these images than I am with earlier images that I have taken with virtually the same equipment. I use a Sony Cyber-shot camera with a built-in macro lens (which cost me about $350). I have intentionally wanted a smaller and less expensive camera because when I am in the field, my equipment can get bumped around a bit in my backpack. So I have been motivated to figure out how to take reasonably good images of small insects with the same camera.

Some time ago I created a lighted platform to take pictures of pinned specimens. It is a 4-inch bottom of a 5-gallon plastic bucket (the top part cut away) with a circular hole cut out of the bottom through which I take pictures. Around the inside of the modified bucket I have secured small shelving lights (halogen lamps). I place this bottom-side up (with the hole now on top) and place the specimens to be photographed inside the lighted bucket on a white foam base.

This has been OK but the problem has been that the lighting contrast was too great between the bright white background and the specimens. These pictures are different in that I placed a black cloth around the specimens to damped the contrast. I think the coloring of these images is much better.

The Gibbifer specimen is from Honduras. It is an erotylid beetle that is just under an inch long - quite impressive. Central America is famous for its impressive erotylid beetles. The Phymaphora male has one of its antenna knocked off. The female image has both still attached. They are only about 3 mm long and were found in North Carolina near the Eno River feeding on a small fungus under the bark of a dead tree (in the middle of the winter). Phymaphora is an endomychid genus.

Haliplus eremicus

2010-01-24T08:26:00.000-08:00

Here's an image of Haliplus eremicus. It is a crawling water beetle that is endemic to the Southwest and occurs only (so far as we know) in Clark County, Nevada. It is of particular interest to me because it is the first insect that I described. I named it H. eremicus because the name reflects a dry desert habitat, where it occurs. This species should be listed as a species of concern on state and national lists. As is well known, water habitats in the southwestern US are under constant pressure to supply urban demands - in this case to Los Angeles and outlying areas. It's hard to tell from this image but in live individuals, the color is more of a cinnamon, or even a salmon, color. It is really quite attractive for a small insect.

South Fork of the Merced River

2009-12-31T16:48:00.000-08:00

We had an extra day during the week of Thanksgiving and decided to take a hike along the South Fork of the Merced River. The river itself is designated a Wild & Scenic River and there is a trail some three to four miles from Highway 140 to the old mining site of Hite Cove. The trailhead starts some 20-plus miles northeast of Mariposa (and a few miles west of the Yosemite National Park entrance) in Mariposa County, California.

November is a good time of the year to make the hike if you want to have the trail to yourself. The wildflowers that draw most visitors won’t be out for another few months. The scenery is nice nonetheless. Long terraces of moss-covered stones line the river and are reflected from the limpid slow-moving river.

Because the sun is low in the sky this time of year, Gimasol Ridge (to the north) kept the canyon shaded and cool in many paces while the bright sun also warmed us up in other places. The few autumn colors were clothed in a diffuse November light that made for a beautiful day.

There weren’t many insects out so late in the year but we did find a few things. Most notable were the several lady bird beetles (Hippodamia convergens) that had congregated en masse on the pines and other plants near the metal ruins just down-stream from Hite Cove.

Apparently Hite Cove was a mining settlement. It was named after John Hite who discovered gold here. There was once a small settlement - including a post office – during the late Nineteenth Century. There are still a few large processing tanks with fittings still attached, along the trail. In a few places you can still see old stone walls and even an old house.

Tarantula Crossing

2009-11-11T16:07:00.000-08:00

Two years ago when I first moved to California, I took a detour through the San Rafael Mountains east of Santa Ynez. Much to my surprise, I came upon this warning sign with a spider on it. Where I come from there are no such things as Tarantula Crossing warning signs and I was intrigued. I have known of other animal notable enough to be sign worthy. Cows and sheep come readily to mind. And occasionally you see a sign of a pedestrian walking a dog. On Maui I once saw a Nene Crossing sign and had to check a dictionary to be sure of what I was seeing (the nene is the Hawaiian duck). In Germany, in the Palatinate, I recently saw a sign with the large black longhorn beetle (Cerambyx cerdo) featured. I guess there must be a lot of these signs around the world. Maybe somebody should make a field guide of them.

I haven’t yet made it back to the San Rafael Mountains to see the massive tarantula migration but I did discover another one just a couple of weeks ago. I was just north of Auberry (California) a couple of days after a good rain storm and almost ran over one of the impressive arachnids (Aphonopelma sp.) as I came around a bend in the road. I asked around a bit and discovered that I had jut missed the big annual event – or rather I was seeing the very end of it. After the first good rain of the year (and in California that means the first good rain after the hot and dry summer) the spiders move out of the lower drainage areas to higher ground. Locals often gather them up by the buckets-full, as they cross the road, and sell them to pet stores. I think the area needs a few more Tarantula Crossing signs.

Puncture Vine Weevil

2009-10-04T12:10:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of pictures of the puncture vine weevils (Microlarinus lareynii) I found on a healthy puncture vine (Tribulus terrestris) in the Central Valley near Fresno, California this last week. They were most easily seen by turning the plant over and looking closely on the ground just beneath the sprawling plant. I've been watching them fairly closely for several days. Two weeks ago when I first noticed them, the goatheads (or the thorn-covered seeds) looked healthy and were beginning to harden to the point of becoming very annoying. A few days ago I looked again and noticed that many of them were being hollowed-out by the growing puncture vine weevils. The
picture of the mature larva is a bit staged. I had
to remove it from the hole (seen below it) in order
to take the picture.

The weevils were introduced to the United States
over 40 years ago to control this weed. But, since
the weed is still a problem, the weevils have been
pretty much ignored. This is too bad. The weevils
are effective in at least reducing the puncture vine
problem; and, importantly, they haven't jumped
onto other useful plants. Many of our intoroduced biological control organisms have done just that.

Spider Mites

2009-08-15T09:28:00.000-07:00

We are in the middle of mite season right now in the Central Valley. These small animals - smaller than a pinhead - are causing all kinds of damage to vegetables and fruit / nut trees alike. Like spiders - to which they are related - they make webs. In fact the webbing is one of the ways that you can spot them. Here's a couple of pictures of what the mites and the webs look like. But be warned, if you wait until the mites are this far along, you may not be able to control them. Even the best products will fail if there are too many mites around. The webbing, when it becomes too extensive intercepts whatever spray is directed their way and the mites wait beneath until the danger of being poisoned is past.

The first picture is of mite damage to almonds. I found in the same orchard a couple of trees that had lost all of their leaves because of the mites. The second picture is of grapes. The poor vineyard looked like it had been torched. If you live in an area with mites, it really pays to watch closely for the first signs of the mites. Around Fresno, we're watching through most of July. This year things got really bad about the third week of the month, but in varies depending on place and no two years are exactly alike.

Danosoma

2009-08-09T10:23:00.001-07:00

Species of the click beetle genus Danosoma can be easily misplaced in the genus Lacon. Both genera contain species with colorful scales and look similar in their general appearance. The reason why they are placed in a different group is because Danosoma lack a defining seta at the base of the tarsal claws. This can be confusing to locate (since there are other setae on the tarsae) and becuase the claws are small (at least they are if there is not adequate magnification) so be careful wih your id's.

Here are pictures of the two American species D. obtectus and D. brevicornis. They both have a diagnostic groove down the middle of the pronotum but D. brevicornis also has a couple of round impressions(on each side of the groove). Danosoma obtectus is a bit narrower and lacks the impressions.

Geographically, D. brevicornis occurs in the northern parts of the US and into Canada (essentially coast to coast), whereas, D. obtectus occurs in the Northeast US and adjacent areas in Canada.

Cysteodemus

2009-07-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

One of the most unusual blister beetle genera in the United States is Cysteodemus. It occurs in the desserts of the Southwest. There are only two species, C. armatus and C. wislizeni and both look like inflated and highly sculptured versions of what your more typical blister beetle looks like. Werner, Ens and Parker (in the Meloidae of Arizona (Technical Bulletin 175 (1966) of the University of Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station)) write that they sometimes look "more like a Christmas ornament than an insect when ... seen on its food plant". Their inflated appearance certainly makes them look bigger than they really are (even though they're only half an inch long). Underneath the inflated wing-covers there is mostly air and the flight wings are missing.

The two species are fairly easy to tell apart. Cysteodemus armatus is black and has a more sculptured back. Cysteodemus wislizeni is metallic purple or bluish and has a finer and a more pitted sculpturing on the back. The best place to find these fascinating beetles is in the deserts of Arizona, California and New Mexico at night with a flashlight, where they crawl along the sand. One beetle enthusiast claims that they have a glow about them if spotted with a UV flashlight.

Swimming Pools on No-Name Creek

2009-07-18T11:12:00.000-07:00

About an hour northeast of Fresno, Caifornia, up past Shaver Lake and then above Dinkey Creek Campground is a stream that has no name on any map that I have seen. The thin blue line that marks its position is apparent enough, but even the Dinkey Creek Quadrangle map doesn't condescend to give it a name. This is a bit odd because it is known by a lot more people than many of the bigger streams in the area. I don't mean to imply that it is a well known stream. It isn't. But any summer weekend there will be a handful of hikers doffing t-shirts and jumping into one of the many refreshing pools. It's a great place for a swim. This picture is of one of my favorite pools. Occasionally I get up the nerve to jump in from the 10-15 feet edge off to the right. There are lot of other pools with swimming, sliding and diving opportunities depending on your level of interest.

We learned about the place from some friends while camping near Dinkey Creek last year and decided to check it out. The road (10S36) heads north from Camp Fresno less than a mile east of the Dinkey Creek bridge (on the road to Courtright Reservoir). It's a dirt road that climbs over a thousand feet to a dead-end a few miles up the mountain. About a mile after you pass Reese Creek (and maybe two miles after you pass a gated road to the east) you come to a bank of earth across the road that prevents you from driving any further. Park here and then walk less than half a mile along this road to where it ends. This is the point of the pink line on the map.

The road/trail ends below an incline. If you climb to the top, you can see the stream a few hundred feet down a steep canyon. It's tempting to descend from this point - and in fact, this is what we did last year with a handful of young teenagers. It took us a while to get to the stream because of the steep rock face. This descent is not for faint hearts. I should also mention that there are no trails down to the stream. You have the option to go down here or take the longer rout.

This year we followed the longer rout (the pink line on the map) and went around the rocky area. It is still a tiring hike through pines and over boulders but it is doable for anyone who doesn't mind fairly steep climbs or descents. Anyway, the hike only makes you eager to jump into the pools when you get there. You won't want to leave. (But don't go without sunscreen if you have light skin. The sun shines bright at 7,000 feet.). This last picture is of the rocky descent from across the canyon to the north (looking south). You can see a couple of the minor pools at the bottom of the canyon.

Onion Thrips

2009-07-15T18:31:00.000-07:00

The onion thrips (Thrips tabaci) has had a very productive season so far here in the Central Valley. Thousands - make that hundreds of thousands - of onions have little pieces of chlorophyl missing were the minute insects have chewed, sawed, and slurped the energy producing tissues from their stems. What makes the damage so disturbing is that the culprits (no bigger than a small comma) are hardly ever seen. In fact a farmer might get most of the way through a crop without even a hint that they have been guests in his field. When he does notice, it's often too late and the damage is done. The onions are smaller than they should be and often don't make the grade.

So here's a bit of advice for next year: start watching out for the litte critters when your onions are at the four or five leaf stage. That's the point when middle leaves are pushing up adjacent to one another. This is the hiding place that thrips prefer. It's also the place you can look to see if you have a developing problem. Just peel the leaves apart gently, look down into the fleshy tissue close to the developing bulb and look for tiny yellow bits of movement. If you don't see anything, try another plant. If you do find them, ask a local extension entomologist what product to use to control them. Make sure you add an adjuvant to spread the spray solution. Onions have a healthy wax layer and if you apply just a watery mix, it often fails to get down into the tight places where the thrips hide. You may need a couple of applications. They can be tough to control. If you see little black bugs around, leave them alone. They're pirate bugs eating the thrips.

The Eyed Click Beetles of the United States and Canada (Coleoptera: Elateridae)

2009-07-04T12:34:00.000-07:00

The eyed click beetle (Alaus oculatus) is probably the most well known click beetle in North America. It is a fairly large insect (usually longer than an inch) and quite attractive - even arresting. The large eye spots on the pronotum are enough to stop most anybody who might happen upon one of these insects. Of course the eye spots are not true eyes. Eyes, after all, don't occur on the pronota (or any of the thoracic segments) of insects. But it's hard not to think that the impressive insect is looking at you when you happen upon them in the woods.

What is less well known is that the eyed click beetle per se is just one of six related species of click beetles with similar eye spots that occur in the United States. Three of them (A. oculatus, A. myops, and A. melanops also occur in Canada). One of them occurs only at the tip of Florida (A. patricius). In fact it is very likely that if you come upon one of these attractive insects, you will be looking at one of the other five species. Following are a few pictures that I hope will help you figure out which species are which. For a full treatment of the species see Sonia Casari's excellent treatment of the genus Alaus (Systematics and Phylogenetic Analysis of Alaus Eschscholtz, 1829 (Coleoptera: Elateridae) in Revta. Bras. Ent. (1996) 40(2): 249-298).

By far the most common species in the Rocky mountains and west is A. melanops. The only exceptions

to this are in Arizona and New Mexico where two other species also occur. Alaus zunianus (occuring only in Arizona) and A. lusciosus (which occurs from Arizona east to Texas and north to Kansas). The best way to tell the difference between A. zunianus and A. melanops is the amount of white on the pronotum. In A. melanops, there is much less white. The eye spots are surrounded by black. In A. zunianus, the eye spots are adjacent to a lot of white. To separate A. zunianus from A. lusciosus it is best to look at the position of the eye spot relative to the middle of the pronotum. In A. zunianus, each eye spot is as close to the center as it is to the side. In a A. lusciosus each eye spot is closer to the side. Alaus melanops can also be separated from A. lusciosus by the width of the white lateral band on the pronotum. This band is wide and connects to the outer edge of the eye spots in A. lusciosus much like it is in A. zunianus.

If you find an eyed click beetle east of the Rocky mountains there are primarily three species you need to be able to tell apart. The easiest to recognize is A. myops which has much smaller eye spots than than the other species. In fact the eye spots of this species are often much more elongate than in either A. oculatus or A. lusciosus.

The ranges of both A. myops and A. oculatus overlap extensively (both occur in all states east of the Great Plaines and north into Canada). The range of A. lusciosus, on the other hand, only overlaps with these two species in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Nonetheless, where there is overlap, A. lusciosus is commonly misidentified with its better known congener, A. oculatus. The best way to tell these two species apart is to look closely at the base of the elytra (that is the wing covers behind the pronotum where the eye spots are located). If the space between the elytral lines (called striae) are convex than the species is A. oculatus. If the space is nearly flat it is A. lusciosus. Hopefully you can see this is the picture details of both species.

The only other species in the United States is A. patricius which occurs in the south of Florida. It has even smaller eye spots than A. myops but the more important character is that the eye spots in A. patricius are not surrounded by a white band as they are in A. myops (and the other four species).

Of course, there are always individual beetles that don't always fit neatly into the expected patterns. If you have a specimen that you aren't sure of and you need an acurate identification, your best bet is to contact a click beetle taxonomist or maybe take a visit to your state's land grant university and talk with the insect curator on staff. Good luck.

Golofa pizarro

2009-06-27T09:27:00.000-07:00

On the same trip that we found the Megasoma (q.v.) we decided to check out Cusuco National Park (Parque Nacional Cusuco). It is just west of San Pedro Sula on the north coast of Honduras near the Guatemala border. The road to the park goes north from the town of Cofradia. National Parks in Honduras are not always well marked and the road through Cofradia is often rutted and not always intuitive. Once you get through town, you will gain elevation and eventually make it into pine forest. The occasional clearings reveal an extensive montane forest - often shrouded in mist.

We eventually came to the town of Buenos Aires (which doesn't show up on the map) and drove right through it - missing the road to the park. After backtracking, we asked for directions and were directed to an inconspicuous dirt side road that wound through a few rural houses and wound up again to the forest. It was getting dark by this time so we pulled off to the side of the road and set up our light. Since there were only a few things flying at the time, we pitched our tents and went to bed.

A couple of hours later, I stumbled out of the tent to check the light and was startled by the low buzzing sound of insects flying over the light and around the overhanging pine boughs. Then a large beetle hit my head and I instinctively reached out to grab it. It turned out to be one of the remarkable scarabs of Middle America Golofa pizarro. There were several at the light and around the car - among other things. I took this picture of a giant silkmoth (genus Rothschildia) that was resting on the forest floor near the light. You can get an idea of the size by the pine needles it is resting on. They are over six inches long.

The next day we made it to the park and found several students, including a visiting scientist from Great Britain, working on faunal studies. There is a lot of interest in birds, mammals and other vertebrates there and an increasing interest in insects. One student was looking at dung beetles. The director of the park took us to a forested area where they had seen a quetzal the day before. We weren't so lucky. Cusuco is certainly one of the gems of Honduras.

Megasoma elaphas

2009-06-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of a large male elephant beetle, Megasoma elaphas, that I collected a couple of years ago in Honduras. It was quite the memorable experience. We were below Pico Bonito just a few miles north of La Ceiba (in August) collecting at night with a small blacklight hooked up to our rental car. We had parked in an area where the forest comes up to the road and had been seeing a few scarabs and moths attracted to the light. Maybe an hour after it was dark, we heard a droning buzz not far away and made a few light remarks about how we wished it might be Megasoma. Then the sound went away and a giant tropical cockroach (Blaberus giganteus) flew onto the sheet. We were impressed by the size of the creature and attempted several times to throw it back ino the forest. Each time we did, it just flew back to the light. The picture is of the impressive roach on our rental vehicle's tire.

Then some minutes later my friend happened to shine his flashlight on the ground between the feet of my son. Amid his excitement he managed to persuade us not to move an inch. There in the dirt was a magnificant male elephant beetle. The picture is of the beetle in my friends hand minutes later. One doesn't always get so lucky. It's a thrill when it happens. It is one magnificant creature.

Mealy Plum Aphid

2009-06-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

The mealy plum aphid (Hyalopterus pruni) is out in numbers in Central Valley right now. I don't mean that it is necessarily a problem all across the valley, but where it tends to hang out, it's that time of the year when it is covering various trees of the genus Prunus (such as apricots, plums, etc.) by the tens of thousands - and that is just for a single (albeit heavily infested) tree. We can thank Europe for the insect.

The picture on the right is a cluster of the aphids on French prunes. The picture below is of the whitened leaf margins that are the diagnostic sign of the pests. The aphids tend to hang out on the bottom side of leaves and are less visible. The whitened leaves and the vast amounts of honeydew on the bottom leaves are easier to see.

If you have a problem with these aphids you shouldn't panic. They're pretty easy to kill with any aphicide that's labelled for fruit trees. Or you can just let them alone for a bit (they hardly ever carry diseases) and let their natural enemies clean them up.

The Blue Dasher

2009-06-08T14:42:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I was lucky to get this picture of a blue dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis) feeding on a planthopper. We had a couple of thunderstorms during the previous week - which is quite unusual in the Central Valley this late in the year. The dragonflies, however (along with the rest of us) were quite happy for the rain.

I had been beating a few willows in a backwater area near Lost Lake (just below Millerton Reservoir in Fresno County) looking for beetles and had scared up several planthoppers from their resting place (you can see one of them in the second picture). They're apparently quite tasty to the blue dashers, which are known to feed on small insects. You can see a few uneaten parts of one in the mouth of the pictured dasher. It was so intent on finishing its meal that it let me get close enough for the candid shot.

A New Blog About Bugs

2009-06-06T08:46:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The Sam Wells Entomology Page. This picture is of me collecting insects just below Long's Peak in the Colorado Rockies. In the posts to come I hope to provide useful, perhaps entertaining, and, if possible, meaningful posts about insects. I am not a professional photographer or essayist but hopefully some of the insects you'll see and learn about here will be worth your visit. I also hope that they'll motivate you to get out and discover them for yourself. I have been enjoying these small creatures all of my life. They have taken me to many places around the world. They have a remarkable ability to enrich any life that takes the time to look at them in any detail. Enjoy.