PUERTO PRINCESA CITY—Scientists have discovered a new species of beetle that dwells in the mountain rivers of Southern Palawan and said the find indicated that the Philippines was the world’s “center of diversity” for beetles.
Dr. Henrick Freitag and and Dr. Michael Balke of the Senckenberg Museum of Zoology Dresden and the Bavarian State Collections of Zoology in Munich described the new specie of the Spider Water Beetles (Ancyronyx) as having “extremely long legs, often accompanied by an eye-catching cross-like elytral color pattern, so that they remind of spiders.”
The discovery was disclosed in a news release posted on October 18 by EurekAlert!, an online global news service operated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing science around the world.
According to the two German scientists, the presence of the beetles in undisturbed mountain rivers of Palawan indicated that the river system was in good biological health and strengthened the reputation of Palawan as an important area of biodiversity.
“The new discoveries from the Philippines lead to the assumption that the region is the actual diversity center of the genus. By now, 10 of the 18 described species are known solely from the Philippines, of which most are endemic to the country or even to single islands,” Freitag said in the statement published online.
The new beetle specie was discovered in a research undertaken early last year in cooperation with the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development and the De La Salle University Manila, the EurekAlert! report said.
Aqua Palawana
The activity that led to the discovery of the new beetle was part of the foreign-funded research program Aqua Palawana that had been exploring the unique freshwater biodiversity of the Philippines and the biosphere reserve of Palawan for more than a decade, the report added.
Other new species of plants and animals, particularly a white orchid and a mountain shrew, have been reported in recent years after scientists surveyed portions of the newly proclaimed Mt. Mantalingahan Protected Landscape, Palawan’s longest mountain range.
By Redempto D. Anda
Inquirer Southern Luzon
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/80291/new-species-of-beetle-discovered-in-palawan
Showing posts with label beetles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beetles. Show all posts
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
50 Years of Cereal Leaf Beetle Management Research
ScienceDaily (Oct. 17, 2011) — A new, open-access article in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management provides a review of cereal leaf beetle biology, past and present management practices, and current research being conducted.
Cereal leaf beetle, Oulema melanopus L., is an introduced insect pest of small grains first recorded in the United States in the early 1960s. Since its introduction from Europe or Asia into Michigan, cereal leaf beetle has rapidly spread and can now be found in most states. Cereal leaf beetle feeds on numerous species of grasses and is considered a major pest of oats, barley, and wheat.
Although several studies have investigated cereal leaf beetle biology and population dynamics, numerous gaps remain in understanding the mechanisms that influence its spread and distribution, which makes predicting pest outbreaks difficult. Because of the difficulty in predicting when and where pest outbreaks will occur many growers in the southeast apply insecticides on a calendar basis rather than using a threshold-based integrated pest management approach.
A future challenge will be to develop new information and procedures that will encourage growers to reevaluate the way they are approaching spring-time insect control in wheat, and consider adoption of the integrated pest management approach.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111017133806.htm
Cereal leaf beetle, Oulema melanopus L., is an introduced insect pest of small grains first recorded in the United States in the early 1960s. Since its introduction from Europe or Asia into Michigan, cereal leaf beetle has rapidly spread and can now be found in most states. Cereal leaf beetle feeds on numerous species of grasses and is considered a major pest of oats, barley, and wheat.
Although several studies have investigated cereal leaf beetle biology and population dynamics, numerous gaps remain in understanding the mechanisms that influence its spread and distribution, which makes predicting pest outbreaks difficult. Because of the difficulty in predicting when and where pest outbreaks will occur many growers in the southeast apply insecticides on a calendar basis rather than using a threshold-based integrated pest management approach.
A future challenge will be to develop new information and procedures that will encourage growers to reevaluate the way they are approaching spring-time insect control in wheat, and consider adoption of the integrated pest management approach.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111017133806.htm
Monday, October 10, 2011
Keystone XL firm moved endangered beetles before pipeline's approval
TransCanada has already moved endangered burying beetles in anticipation of the US government green-lighting its Keystone XL tar sands pipeline from Alberta to Texas
A Canadian company that is waiting for a federal permit to build an oil pipeline through the High Plains has used a technicality in U.S. environmental regulations to begin removing an endangered species—the black and orange American burying beetle—from the proposed route.
A spokesman for Alberta-based TransCanada said the company has done nothing wrong. The beetles were removed as part of TransCanada's "commitment to protecting the environment and endangered species along the Keystone XL route," Shawn Howard told InsideClimate News. According to Howard, the beetle is the only endangered species identified along the pipeline's proposed route from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
But pipeline opponents say that by moving beetles from the Nebraska sandhills and mowing miles of grass where the insects once lived, TransCanada has illegally begun construction on the project. Because the pipeline would cross an international border, the U.S. State Department is in charge of the permitting process. The agency is expected to make its decision by the end of the year.
On Wednesday three environmental groups filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Omaha against the State Department and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asking that the beetle removal work be stopped.
Noah Greenwald, the endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the suit was filed under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA makes it clear that "when you're in the process of considering a project, you can't do any work before you have a permit," Greenwald said. "By already doing work on the pipeline route, [TransCanada is] essentially bullying the process."
The Center for Biological Diversity filed the lawsuit with Friends of the Earth and the Western Nebraska Resources Council.
Howard said TransCanada hasn't done any construction. "We have moved beetles and mowed some grass to assure the protection of the American Burying Beetle," he said in an email to InsideClimate News. "Mowing – not construction. And before any work was done, we received permission from the landowners to conduct these surveys."
Read on...
A Canadian company that is waiting for a federal permit to build an oil pipeline through the High Plains has used a technicality in U.S. environmental regulations to begin removing an endangered species—the black and orange American burying beetle—from the proposed route.
A spokesman for Alberta-based TransCanada said the company has done nothing wrong. The beetles were removed as part of TransCanada's "commitment to protecting the environment and endangered species along the Keystone XL route," Shawn Howard told InsideClimate News. According to Howard, the beetle is the only endangered species identified along the pipeline's proposed route from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
But pipeline opponents say that by moving beetles from the Nebraska sandhills and mowing miles of grass where the insects once lived, TransCanada has illegally begun construction on the project. Because the pipeline would cross an international border, the U.S. State Department is in charge of the permitting process. The agency is expected to make its decision by the end of the year.
On Wednesday three environmental groups filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Omaha against the State Department and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asking that the beetle removal work be stopped.
Noah Greenwald, the endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the suit was filed under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA makes it clear that "when you're in the process of considering a project, you can't do any work before you have a permit," Greenwald said. "By already doing work on the pipeline route, [TransCanada is] essentially bullying the process."
The Center for Biological Diversity filed the lawsuit with Friends of the Earth and the Western Nebraska Resources Council.
Howard said TransCanada hasn't done any construction. "We have moved beetles and mowed some grass to assure the protection of the American Burying Beetle," he said in an email to InsideClimate News. "Mowing – not construction. And before any work was done, we received permission from the landowners to conduct these surveys."
Read on...
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Living Species of Aquatic Beetle Found in 20-Million-Year-Old Sediments
ScienceDaily (Oct. 6, 2011) — A study of an Early Miocene fossil from southern Siberia performed by an international team of researchers, from the National Museum in Prague, Voronezh State University and the Museum of Natural History in London, led to the surprising find that the fossil belongs to a species of aquatic beetles which is still alive today and widely distributed in Eurasia.
The study was published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.
The fossil beetle discovered in the 16-23 million years old sediments of the Irtysh River in southern Siberia belongs to the modern species Helophorus sibiricus, a member of the water scavenger beetles (Hydrophiloidea), which is at present widely distributed in Eurasia and reaches even North America.
The species was originally described in 1860 by the Russian entomologist Victor Motschulsky based on specimens collected at Lake Baikal. It is aquatic and inhabits various kinds of standing waters, predominantly the grassy temporary pools. Larvae are unknown so far, but are supposed to be terrestrial and predaceous, preying on various invertebrates, as in most other species of the genus.
The Siberian fossil provides new data for the long-lasting debate among scientists about the average duration of an insect species. It was originally estimated to be ca. 2-3 million years based on the available fossil record, but slowly accumulating data begin to show that such an estimate is an oversimplification of the problem. Recently, evolutionary trees dated using molecular clocks suggested that some insect species are rather young, originating during the Ice Ages, but others may have been able to survive the last 10-20 million years until today. The long-living species had to survive the massive changes of the Earth's climate during the last millions of years -- how they managed to do so is another question for scientists to address.
A large missing piece for the acceptance of long-living insects as a general phenomenon and for understanding the reasons for survival of the particular species is the scarcity of the fossils of such species. The reasons seem to be rather straightforward -- the majority of the fossils bear too few details to allow a detailed comparison with living species, whose taxonomy is often based on the shape of male genitalia and other details. That is why the fossil discovered by the Czech-Russian-British team is so important: it bears enough details to allow its detailed comparison with the living species. Although the genitalia are not preserved in the fossil, the scientists were lucky that Helophorus beetles bear species-specific granulation on the pronotum which was readily seen on the fossil and allowed its reliable identification.
A life-style associated with an environment which remains stable over time, such as rotten wood, has been suggested as one of the possible ways in which long-living species may have survived from the past. The discovery of a long-living species of an aquatic beetle may indicate that temporary pools in which Helophorus sibiricus is mainly living today may be another example of such a stable environment -- it is really not difficult to imagine that the conditions in a pool created in a modern grassland from the melting snow are very similar to those one would have found in such a pool 20 million years ago.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111006094825.htm
The study was published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.
The fossil beetle discovered in the 16-23 million years old sediments of the Irtysh River in southern Siberia belongs to the modern species Helophorus sibiricus, a member of the water scavenger beetles (Hydrophiloidea), which is at present widely distributed in Eurasia and reaches even North America.
The species was originally described in 1860 by the Russian entomologist Victor Motschulsky based on specimens collected at Lake Baikal. It is aquatic and inhabits various kinds of standing waters, predominantly the grassy temporary pools. Larvae are unknown so far, but are supposed to be terrestrial and predaceous, preying on various invertebrates, as in most other species of the genus.
The Siberian fossil provides new data for the long-lasting debate among scientists about the average duration of an insect species. It was originally estimated to be ca. 2-3 million years based on the available fossil record, but slowly accumulating data begin to show that such an estimate is an oversimplification of the problem. Recently, evolutionary trees dated using molecular clocks suggested that some insect species are rather young, originating during the Ice Ages, but others may have been able to survive the last 10-20 million years until today. The long-living species had to survive the massive changes of the Earth's climate during the last millions of years -- how they managed to do so is another question for scientists to address.
A large missing piece for the acceptance of long-living insects as a general phenomenon and for understanding the reasons for survival of the particular species is the scarcity of the fossils of such species. The reasons seem to be rather straightforward -- the majority of the fossils bear too few details to allow a detailed comparison with living species, whose taxonomy is often based on the shape of male genitalia and other details. That is why the fossil discovered by the Czech-Russian-British team is so important: it bears enough details to allow its detailed comparison with the living species. Although the genitalia are not preserved in the fossil, the scientists were lucky that Helophorus beetles bear species-specific granulation on the pronotum which was readily seen on the fossil and allowed its reliable identification.
A life-style associated with an environment which remains stable over time, such as rotten wood, has been suggested as one of the possible ways in which long-living species may have survived from the past. The discovery of a long-living species of an aquatic beetle may indicate that temporary pools in which Helophorus sibiricus is mainly living today may be another example of such a stable environment -- it is really not difficult to imagine that the conditions in a pool created in a modern grassland from the melting snow are very similar to those one would have found in such a pool 20 million years ago.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111006094825.htm
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Prey eats the hunter as beetle larvae turn tables on toads
In role reversal, carnivorous ground beetle stalks its amphibian prey, says Tel Aviv University researcher
September 2011. Ground beetles can immobilize and devour amphibian prey many times their size. Now Gil Wizen, a graduate student of Tel Aviv University's Department of Zoology, has discovered that they have an additional advantage - the larvae of these beetles, like their fully grown adult counterparts, have a unique method for luring and feeding off amphibians.
Wizen's research revealed that, like the sirens who lured Ulysses' sailors to their demise, larvae have a lethal method for attracting the attention of amphibians - tricking the toads into thinking they will be tasty prey.
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/beetle-larvae.html
In a dry country like Israel, amphibian species are already being threatened with extinction. Greater understanding of the larvae's habits and their impact on the amphibian population will have significant impact towards an accurate environmental risk assessment, says Wizen.
Reversing the role of predator and prey
The project was set in motion when toad specimens were brought to Wizen's lab for observation. Discovering that some of the specimens had larvae attached to their bodies, the researchers noted over time that the larvae spent their entire life cycle feeding off the toads.
Adult beetles attack frogs
Adult beetles, Wizen says, ambush and then paralyze the amphibians by making a small incision into their back, perhaps severing the spinal cord or cutting a muscle so they cannot jump away. The beetles then consume and kill the amphibian. But the researchers wanted to know how this David-and-Goliath feat was accomplished, and collected more information on the larvae themselves and how they first attracted the amphibians' attention.
Larvae attach themselves when toads try to eat them
Amphibians hunt based on their prey's movement, Wizen explains. Larvae, immobile on the ground, attract the amphibian's attention by performing a sequence of movements, including opening their jaws and moving their antennae side to side, almost like a dance. When the amphibian tries to grab the larvae with its tongue, however, the larvae jumps and attaches itself to the amphibian with its jaws.
"It's really a predator-prey role reversal - the insect actually draws in its potential predator instead of avoiding it," says Wizen. "It's quite a unique phenomenon."
An unbeatable opponent
Although they are many times the larvae's size, the amphibians don't stand a chance, says Wizen. Researchers did observe some instances where the amphibian was quicker and managed to ingest the larvae, but success didn't last - in every case, the amphibian ended up regurgitating the larvae, which then attached itself to the amphibian's mouth.
Once the larvae has attached, the amphibian's diagnosis is grim. If the larvae are in the first stage of development, they will feed off the amphibian's body fluids like an exoparasite, and eventually, when they need to moult into its next developmental stage, they will fall off the amphibian's body, leaving a nasty scar.
But in the second or third stages of development, Wizen explains, the larvae begin to chew on the amphibians themselves, leaving behind nothing but bones.
The research was recently published in PLoS ONE.
September 2011. Ground beetles can immobilize and devour amphibian prey many times their size. Now Gil Wizen, a graduate student of Tel Aviv University's Department of Zoology, has discovered that they have an additional advantage - the larvae of these beetles, like their fully grown adult counterparts, have a unique method for luring and feeding off amphibians.
Wizen's research revealed that, like the sirens who lured Ulysses' sailors to their demise, larvae have a lethal method for attracting the attention of amphibians - tricking the toads into thinking they will be tasty prey.
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/beetle-larvae.html
In a dry country like Israel, amphibian species are already being threatened with extinction. Greater understanding of the larvae's habits and their impact on the amphibian population will have significant impact towards an accurate environmental risk assessment, says Wizen.
Reversing the role of predator and prey
The project was set in motion when toad specimens were brought to Wizen's lab for observation. Discovering that some of the specimens had larvae attached to their bodies, the researchers noted over time that the larvae spent their entire life cycle feeding off the toads.
Adult beetles attack frogs
Adult beetles, Wizen says, ambush and then paralyze the amphibians by making a small incision into their back, perhaps severing the spinal cord or cutting a muscle so they cannot jump away. The beetles then consume and kill the amphibian. But the researchers wanted to know how this David-and-Goliath feat was accomplished, and collected more information on the larvae themselves and how they first attracted the amphibians' attention.
Larvae attach themselves when toads try to eat them
Amphibians hunt based on their prey's movement, Wizen explains. Larvae, immobile on the ground, attract the amphibian's attention by performing a sequence of movements, including opening their jaws and moving their antennae side to side, almost like a dance. When the amphibian tries to grab the larvae with its tongue, however, the larvae jumps and attaches itself to the amphibian with its jaws.
"It's really a predator-prey role reversal - the insect actually draws in its potential predator instead of avoiding it," says Wizen. "It's quite a unique phenomenon."
An unbeatable opponent
Although they are many times the larvae's size, the amphibians don't stand a chance, says Wizen. Researchers did observe some instances where the amphibian was quicker and managed to ingest the larvae, but success didn't last - in every case, the amphibian ended up regurgitating the larvae, which then attached itself to the amphibian's mouth.
Once the larvae has attached, the amphibian's diagnosis is grim. If the larvae are in the first stage of development, they will feed off the amphibian's body fluids like an exoparasite, and eventually, when they need to moult into its next developmental stage, they will fall off the amphibian's body, leaving a nasty scar.
But in the second or third stages of development, Wizen explains, the larvae begin to chew on the amphibians themselves, leaving behind nothing but bones.
The research was recently published in PLoS ONE.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Two new species of 'leaping' beetles discovered in New Caledonia
 |
| Arsipoda geographica and Arsipoda rostrata are the two new beetle species discovered in New Caledonia. Credit: Jesús Gómez-Zurita |
Only five species of these so-called 'flea' beetles, out of a global total of 60, had been found to date in New Caledonia, in the western Pacific. A three-year study has now enabled Spanish researchers to discover two new herbivorous beetles – Arsipoda geographica and Arsipoda rostrata. These new beetles hold a secret – they feed on plants that the scientists have still not found on the archipelago.
"The study, financed by the National Geographic, went some way beyond merely classifying species, and investigated the ecology of these herbivorous insects with a prodigious leaping capacity, which they use to avoid their predators", Jesús Gómez-Zurita, lead author of the study and a researcher at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF) who is passionate about New Caledonia and collected hundreds of beetles in order to study them, tells SINC.
The researchers, from Spain and New Caledonia, used previously-developed molecular tools in order to classify the DNA sequences of the animals' diet, in particular chloroplast DNA (which is exclusive to plants). The team used plant matter remains found in the digestive tract of the insects at the time they were killed in order to extract their DNA at the same time.
According to the study, which has been published in the Journal of Natural History, this technique made it possible to discover that one of the new species, Arsipoda geographica, which measures three millimetres, feeds on a tropical plant in the mountains (Myrsinaceae), while Arsipoda isola, which is the same size, feeds on another plant (Ericaceae) in the southern jungles of the island.
"The strangest thing is that the DNA sequences of the plants are from botanical species that have still not been found on the archipelago. This provides indirect evidence of the existence of an enigmatic botanical diversity, which should be more than expected on an island with a wealth of lush vegetation", says the researcher, who has been studying beetles for 20 years.
The study, which is the first in this research line focusing on the Chrysomelidae family (known as 'leaf beetles' because they feed primarily on plants), made it possible to collect more than 2,000 beetle samples on the island of Grande Terre, compare them with other species, and carry out a phylogenetic analysis. So far, three new species have been found, two of which are described here.
New Caledonia, a still unknown territory
"The interest in New Caledonia has recently been renewed as a result of the discovery that the archipelago may have remained completely submerged over a lengthy period up until the Oligocene (more than 23.5 million years ago), when it emerged again, which would mean its fauna and flora originated much more recently than had previously been speculated", explains Gómez-Zurita.
The numerous insects and beetles on the archipelago, are great number of which are endemic, "are the great unknowns of this biota", says the biologist. "This study of their diversity and similarities without any doubt holds the keys to understanding the evolution of life in this part of the world", he adds.
The isolation of New Caledonia in the western Pacific, which became separated from Australia 70 million years ago, has led to "the evolution of some very unusual biotas that have not had any contact with the rest of the world for enormous period of time", the scientist explains.
###
References:
Gómez-Zurita, J., Cardoso, A., Jurado-Rivera, J.A., Jolivet, P., Cazères, S. Mille, C. 2010. "Discovery of new species of New Caledonian Arsipoda Erichson, 1842 (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) and insights on their ecology and evolution using DNA markers" Journal of Natural History 44(41-42): 2557-2579, 2010.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-01/f-sf-tns011811.php
Two new species of 'leaping' beetles discovered in New Caledonia
|
| Arsipoda geographica and Arsipoda rostrata are the two new beetle species discovered in New Caledonia. Credit: Jesús Gómez-Zurita |
Only five species of these so-called 'flea' beetles, out of a global total of 60, had been found to date in New Caledonia, in the western Pacific. A three-year study has now enabled Spanish researchers to discover two new herbivorous beetles – Arsipoda geographica and Arsipoda rostrata. These new beetles hold a secret – they feed on plants that the scientists have still not found on the archipelago.
"The study, financed by the National Geographic, went some way beyond merely classifying species, and investigated the ecology of these herbivorous insects with a prodigious leaping capacity, which they use to avoid their predators", Jesús Gómez-Zurita, lead author of the study and a researcher at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF) who is passionate about New Caledonia and collected hundreds of beetles in order to study them, tells SINC.
The researchers, from Spain and New Caledonia, used previously-developed molecular tools in order to classify the DNA sequences of the animals' diet, in particular chloroplast DNA (which is exclusive to plants). The team used plant matter remains found in the digestive tract of the insects at the time they were killed in order to extract their DNA at the same time.
According to the study, which has been published in the Journal of Natural History, this technique made it possible to discover that one of the new species, Arsipoda geographica, which measures three millimetres, feeds on a tropical plant in the mountains (Myrsinaceae), while Arsipoda isola, which is the same size, feeds on another plant (Ericaceae) in the southern jungles of the island.
"The strangest thing is that the DNA sequences of the plants are from botanical species that have still not been found on the archipelago. This provides indirect evidence of the existence of an enigmatic botanical diversity, which should be more than expected on an island with a wealth of lush vegetation", says the researcher, who has been studying beetles for 20 years.
The study, which is the first in this research line focusing on the Chrysomelidae family (known as 'leaf beetles' because they feed primarily on plants), made it possible to collect more than 2,000 beetle samples on the island of Grande Terre, compare them with other species, and carry out a phylogenetic analysis. So far, three new species have been found, two of which are described here.
New Caledonia, a still unknown territory
"The interest in New Caledonia has recently been renewed as a result of the discovery that the archipelago may have remained completely submerged over a lengthy period up until the Oligocene (more than 23.5 million years ago), when it emerged again, which would mean its fauna and flora originated much more recently than had previously been speculated", explains Gómez-Zurita.
The numerous insects and beetles on the archipelago, are great number of which are endemic, "are the great unknowns of this biota", says the biologist. "This study of their diversity and similarities without any doubt holds the keys to understanding the evolution of life in this part of the world", he adds.
The isolation of New Caledonia in the western Pacific, which became separated from Australia 70 million years ago, has led to "the evolution of some very unusual biotas that have not had any contact with the rest of the world for enormous period of time", the scientist explains.
###
References:
Gómez-Zurita, J., Cardoso, A., Jurado-Rivera, J.A., Jolivet, P., Cazères, S. Mille, C. 2010. "Discovery of new species of New Caledonian Arsipoda Erichson, 1842 (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) and insights on their ecology and evolution using DNA markers" Journal of Natural History 44(41-42): 2557-2579, 2010.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-01/f-sf-tns011811.php
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Beetle named after Herefordshire wildlife consultant
Friday, 14 January 2011
A new type of beetle has been named after the Herefordshire wildlife consultant who discovered it, while on a trip to Africa.
Will Watson, from Docklow, discovered the water beetle on a trip to northern Mozambique.
It took a year and a half for international experts to agree it was a new type, and to give it the name Haliplus watsoni.
Will Watson says it's a rare thing for a species to be named after the finder:
"I only know of a couple of people who've found new species, and I don't know anyone who's had something named after them."
Parasite bite
The water beetle was discovered in a floodplain pool on the Manda Wilderness Community Game Reserve in the Great Rift Valley.
The reserve covers 130,000 hectares; just over half the size of Herefordshire, but has only a fraction of its population.
The new beetle is very small, measuring only 2.7 mm long - the size of a full stop in a newspaper.
The discovery came at some cost to Will Watson - on the expedition he was bitten by a microscopic parasite, and became ill when he returned to Herefordshire:
"Unfortunately I picked up a parasite on the side of the lake… I got a little swelling on my base of my foot that itched a bit, and I didn't think any more of it, and about three months later I started getting other symptoms, and I got diagnosed… it was the first time they'd seen it in Leominster, certainly."
He told BBC Hereford & Worcester that having the beetle named after him made all the pain and illness worthwhile.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/herefordandworcester/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_9360000/9360701.stm
A new type of beetle has been named after the Herefordshire wildlife consultant who discovered it, while on a trip to Africa.
Will Watson, from Docklow, discovered the water beetle on a trip to northern Mozambique.
It took a year and a half for international experts to agree it was a new type, and to give it the name Haliplus watsoni.
Will Watson says it's a rare thing for a species to be named after the finder:
"I only know of a couple of people who've found new species, and I don't know anyone who's had something named after them."
Parasite bite
The water beetle was discovered in a floodplain pool on the Manda Wilderness Community Game Reserve in the Great Rift Valley.
The reserve covers 130,000 hectares; just over half the size of Herefordshire, but has only a fraction of its population.
The new beetle is very small, measuring only 2.7 mm long - the size of a full stop in a newspaper.
The discovery came at some cost to Will Watson - on the expedition he was bitten by a microscopic parasite, and became ill when he returned to Herefordshire:
"Unfortunately I picked up a parasite on the side of the lake… I got a little swelling on my base of my foot that itched a bit, and I didn't think any more of it, and about three months later I started getting other symptoms, and I got diagnosed… it was the first time they'd seen it in Leominster, certainly."
He told BBC Hereford & Worcester that having the beetle named after him made all the pain and illness worthwhile.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/herefordandworcester/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_9360000/9360701.stm
Beetle named after Herefordshire wildlife consultant
Friday, 14 January 2011
A new type of beetle has been named after the Herefordshire wildlife consultant who discovered it, while on a trip to Africa.
Will Watson, from Docklow, discovered the water beetle on a trip to northern Mozambique.
It took a year and a half for international experts to agree it was a new type, and to give it the name Haliplus watsoni.
Will Watson says it's a rare thing for a species to be named after the finder:
"I only know of a couple of people who've found new species, and I don't know anyone who's had something named after them."
Parasite bite
The water beetle was discovered in a floodplain pool on the Manda Wilderness Community Game Reserve in the Great Rift Valley.
The reserve covers 130,000 hectares; just over half the size of Herefordshire, but has only a fraction of its population.
The new beetle is very small, measuring only 2.7 mm long - the size of a full stop in a newspaper.
The discovery came at some cost to Will Watson - on the expedition he was bitten by a microscopic parasite, and became ill when he returned to Herefordshire:
"Unfortunately I picked up a parasite on the side of the lake… I got a little swelling on my base of my foot that itched a bit, and I didn't think any more of it, and about three months later I started getting other symptoms, and I got diagnosed… it was the first time they'd seen it in Leominster, certainly."
He told BBC Hereford & Worcester that having the beetle named after him made all the pain and illness worthwhile.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/herefordandworcester/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_9360000/9360701.stm
A new type of beetle has been named after the Herefordshire wildlife consultant who discovered it, while on a trip to Africa.
Will Watson, from Docklow, discovered the water beetle on a trip to northern Mozambique.
It took a year and a half for international experts to agree it was a new type, and to give it the name Haliplus watsoni.
Will Watson says it's a rare thing for a species to be named after the finder:
"I only know of a couple of people who've found new species, and I don't know anyone who's had something named after them."
Parasite bite
The water beetle was discovered in a floodplain pool on the Manda Wilderness Community Game Reserve in the Great Rift Valley.
The reserve covers 130,000 hectares; just over half the size of Herefordshire, but has only a fraction of its population.
The new beetle is very small, measuring only 2.7 mm long - the size of a full stop in a newspaper.
The discovery came at some cost to Will Watson - on the expedition he was bitten by a microscopic parasite, and became ill when he returned to Herefordshire:
"Unfortunately I picked up a parasite on the side of the lake… I got a little swelling on my base of my foot that itched a bit, and I didn't think any more of it, and about three months later I started getting other symptoms, and I got diagnosed… it was the first time they'd seen it in Leominster, certainly."
He told BBC Hereford & Worcester that having the beetle named after him made all the pain and illness worthwhile.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/herefordandworcester/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_9360000/9360701.stm
Monday, January 10, 2011
Bugging the bugs to save threatened species
Published Date: 10 January 2011
By John von Radowitz
Scientists involved in a conservation project have been bugging the homes of stag beetle larvae.
Tiny microphones are being used to eavesdrop on the white grubs that live in buried rotting wood. The larvae make rasping sounds known as "stridulation", which experts believe are used as a form of communication.
Listening to the larvae is one new technique being tried out to get a better idea of stag beetle numbers.
The stag beetle, Lucanus cervus, can reach a length of several centimetres. Well known for the dramatic "antlers" sported by males, it was once common but is now classified as "nationally scarce" in the UK.
Attempts to conserve it have been hampered by the lack of reliable population monitoring.
Scientists are also experimenting with ginger to lure flying beetles into aerial traps to be counted. They discovered adult stag beetles find ginger irresistible. It contains large amounts of alpha copaene, a chemical known to attract insects that live in dead and decaying wood.
The mini-microphones provide a means of detecting and tracking larvae without damaging their underground habitats.
They are being used alongside sensors that detect chemicals emitted by the grubs.
The team found stag beetle larvae stridulation patterns are very different from those of other insect species.
"Stridulation is likely to be a form of communication between larvae," said study leader Dr Deborah Harvey, from Royal Holloway, University of London. "It increases if larvae are handled or placed in solitary confinement."
The new technique could help conserve other rare species, she said, adding: "Acoustic detection of insects as a sampling method is very underused, but we believe it could have great potential in detecting larvae in the field."
http://news.scotsman.com/news/Bugging-the-bugs-to-save.6684903.jp
By John von Radowitz
Scientists involved in a conservation project have been bugging the homes of stag beetle larvae.
Tiny microphones are being used to eavesdrop on the white grubs that live in buried rotting wood. The larvae make rasping sounds known as "stridulation", which experts believe are used as a form of communication.
Listening to the larvae is one new technique being tried out to get a better idea of stag beetle numbers.
The stag beetle, Lucanus cervus, can reach a length of several centimetres. Well known for the dramatic "antlers" sported by males, it was once common but is now classified as "nationally scarce" in the UK.
Attempts to conserve it have been hampered by the lack of reliable population monitoring.
Scientists are also experimenting with ginger to lure flying beetles into aerial traps to be counted. They discovered adult stag beetles find ginger irresistible. It contains large amounts of alpha copaene, a chemical known to attract insects that live in dead and decaying wood.
The mini-microphones provide a means of detecting and tracking larvae without damaging their underground habitats.
They are being used alongside sensors that detect chemicals emitted by the grubs.
The team found stag beetle larvae stridulation patterns are very different from those of other insect species.
"Stridulation is likely to be a form of communication between larvae," said study leader Dr Deborah Harvey, from Royal Holloway, University of London. "It increases if larvae are handled or placed in solitary confinement."
The new technique could help conserve other rare species, she said, adding: "Acoustic detection of insects as a sampling method is very underused, but we believe it could have great potential in detecting larvae in the field."
http://news.scotsman.com/news/Bugging-the-bugs-to-save.6684903.jp
Bugging the bugs to save threatened species
Published Date: 10 January 2011
By John von Radowitz
Scientists involved in a conservation project have been bugging the homes of stag beetle larvae.
Tiny microphones are being used to eavesdrop on the white grubs that live in buried rotting wood. The larvae make rasping sounds known as "stridulation", which experts believe are used as a form of communication.
Listening to the larvae is one new technique being tried out to get a better idea of stag beetle numbers.
The stag beetle, Lucanus cervus, can reach a length of several centimetres. Well known for the dramatic "antlers" sported by males, it was once common but is now classified as "nationally scarce" in the UK.
Attempts to conserve it have been hampered by the lack of reliable population monitoring.
Scientists are also experimenting with ginger to lure flying beetles into aerial traps to be counted. They discovered adult stag beetles find ginger irresistible. It contains large amounts of alpha copaene, a chemical known to attract insects that live in dead and decaying wood.
The mini-microphones provide a means of detecting and tracking larvae without damaging their underground habitats.
They are being used alongside sensors that detect chemicals emitted by the grubs.
The team found stag beetle larvae stridulation patterns are very different from those of other insect species.
"Stridulation is likely to be a form of communication between larvae," said study leader Dr Deborah Harvey, from Royal Holloway, University of London. "It increases if larvae are handled or placed in solitary confinement."
The new technique could help conserve other rare species, she said, adding: "Acoustic detection of insects as a sampling method is very underused, but we believe it could have great potential in detecting larvae in the field."
http://news.scotsman.com/news/Bugging-the-bugs-to-save.6684903.jp
By John von Radowitz
Scientists involved in a conservation project have been bugging the homes of stag beetle larvae.
Tiny microphones are being used to eavesdrop on the white grubs that live in buried rotting wood. The larvae make rasping sounds known as "stridulation", which experts believe are used as a form of communication.
Listening to the larvae is one new technique being tried out to get a better idea of stag beetle numbers.
The stag beetle, Lucanus cervus, can reach a length of several centimetres. Well known for the dramatic "antlers" sported by males, it was once common but is now classified as "nationally scarce" in the UK.
Attempts to conserve it have been hampered by the lack of reliable population monitoring.
Scientists are also experimenting with ginger to lure flying beetles into aerial traps to be counted. They discovered adult stag beetles find ginger irresistible. It contains large amounts of alpha copaene, a chemical known to attract insects that live in dead and decaying wood.
The mini-microphones provide a means of detecting and tracking larvae without damaging their underground habitats.
They are being used alongside sensors that detect chemicals emitted by the grubs.
The team found stag beetle larvae stridulation patterns are very different from those of other insect species.
"Stridulation is likely to be a form of communication between larvae," said study leader Dr Deborah Harvey, from Royal Holloway, University of London. "It increases if larvae are handled or placed in solitary confinement."
The new technique could help conserve other rare species, she said, adding: "Acoustic detection of insects as a sampling method is very underused, but we believe it could have great potential in detecting larvae in the field."
http://news.scotsman.com/news/Bugging-the-bugs-to-save.6684903.jp
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Forest Near Mount Rushmore Suffers Beetle Attack
by Charles Michael Ray
October 6, 2010 from SDPB
The Black Hills of South Dakota are turning brown. Thousands of acres of pine trees in the central part of the hills have been killed by mountain pine beetles, and Mount Rushmore National Memorial is near the center of the epidemic. National Park officials are taking drastic measures to help the forest around Rushmore survive the onslaught. The monument is now in the middle of the biggest thinning operation in its history.
The normally tranquil forest around the monument is being shattered by the sound of chainsaws. Crews of loggers are cutting a lot of pine trees.
"It's a matter of controlling the exponential growth of this pine beetle," says Bruce Weisman, the National Park ranger leading the fight against the insects. "We've seen this explosion and it's coming over the ridgeline directly at us right now."
Crews are cutting down trees below the four faces and feeding them into huge wood chippers. Weisman says to save this forest from destruction, the smaller overgrown pine trees on 500 acres of the park must come down. He says this is about more than beetles. Bug-killed trees are prone to burn, and one lightning strike could start a major wildfire.
"Our fuel loads would be so tremendous that [a] catastrophic firestorm would sweep right over the top of the memorial and it would be a catastrophic loss of all facilities," he says.
The idea is that thinning out the trees will make the forest healthier. But critics like Brian Brademeyer with the group Friends of the Norbeck say the beetle problem is being overblown to give big timber companies access to adjacent public lands.
"This whole beetle hysteria that dead trees are more fire-prone than green trees, it's all self-serving, logging institution-building. They should just stay in their offices," Brademeyer says.
While some environmentalists are critical of the National Park Service for going too far, other locals say government officials aren't doing enough.
"It's almost like waiting until the horse goes out and then you shut the barn door," says Jack Bradt, who has helped run a wilderness outfitter in the Black Hills since 1977.
Fresh from an afternoon of work on his dude ranch, a bead of sweat lines the brim of Bradt's straw cowboy hat, and his pearl-snap Western shirt is dusty and frayed.
"Essentially everything that I have worked all of my life for is in potential danger because of the situation that ... we've got going here," he says.
Bradt says the thinning now under way at Rushmore should have happened on a wider scale years ago. But the pine beetles and the wildfires that threaten Bradt's livelihood may be linked to climate change: Beetle populations are normally kept in check by very cold winters, and it's believed warmer winters have allowed them to expand.
Millions of acres across the western United States and up into the Canadian Rockies are now infested. Dan Licht, a biologist with the National Park Service, says even with mitigation efforts at places like Rushmore, there is a good deal of uncertainty over what will happen next.
"If climate change does indeed warm up the area, we have warmer winters, the pine beetle infestations could become even worse, and even with our best efforts and our best treatments, we could still have a pine beetle infestation," Licht says.
Logging is not pretty. Big machines are ripping up the forest floor. But park officials in South Dakota stress the urgency. They say to do nothing would increase the risk of a much bigger disaster. For now, the future of the forest around Rushmore hinges on what the beetles do next.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130053576
October 6, 2010 from SDPB
The Black Hills of South Dakota are turning brown. Thousands of acres of pine trees in the central part of the hills have been killed by mountain pine beetles, and Mount Rushmore National Memorial is near the center of the epidemic. National Park officials are taking drastic measures to help the forest around Rushmore survive the onslaught. The monument is now in the middle of the biggest thinning operation in its history.
The normally tranquil forest around the monument is being shattered by the sound of chainsaws. Crews of loggers are cutting a lot of pine trees.
"It's a matter of controlling the exponential growth of this pine beetle," says Bruce Weisman, the National Park ranger leading the fight against the insects. "We've seen this explosion and it's coming over the ridgeline directly at us right now."
Crews are cutting down trees below the four faces and feeding them into huge wood chippers. Weisman says to save this forest from destruction, the smaller overgrown pine trees on 500 acres of the park must come down. He says this is about more than beetles. Bug-killed trees are prone to burn, and one lightning strike could start a major wildfire.
"Our fuel loads would be so tremendous that [a] catastrophic firestorm would sweep right over the top of the memorial and it would be a catastrophic loss of all facilities," he says.
The idea is that thinning out the trees will make the forest healthier. But critics like Brian Brademeyer with the group Friends of the Norbeck say the beetle problem is being overblown to give big timber companies access to adjacent public lands.
"This whole beetle hysteria that dead trees are more fire-prone than green trees, it's all self-serving, logging institution-building. They should just stay in their offices," Brademeyer says.
While some environmentalists are critical of the National Park Service for going too far, other locals say government officials aren't doing enough.
"It's almost like waiting until the horse goes out and then you shut the barn door," says Jack Bradt, who has helped run a wilderness outfitter in the Black Hills since 1977.
Fresh from an afternoon of work on his dude ranch, a bead of sweat lines the brim of Bradt's straw cowboy hat, and his pearl-snap Western shirt is dusty and frayed.
"Essentially everything that I have worked all of my life for is in potential danger because of the situation that ... we've got going here," he says.
Bradt says the thinning now under way at Rushmore should have happened on a wider scale years ago. But the pine beetles and the wildfires that threaten Bradt's livelihood may be linked to climate change: Beetle populations are normally kept in check by very cold winters, and it's believed warmer winters have allowed them to expand.
Millions of acres across the western United States and up into the Canadian Rockies are now infested. Dan Licht, a biologist with the National Park Service, says even with mitigation efforts at places like Rushmore, there is a good deal of uncertainty over what will happen next.
"If climate change does indeed warm up the area, we have warmer winters, the pine beetle infestations could become even worse, and even with our best efforts and our best treatments, we could still have a pine beetle infestation," Licht says.
Logging is not pretty. Big machines are ripping up the forest floor. But park officials in South Dakota stress the urgency. They say to do nothing would increase the risk of a much bigger disaster. For now, the future of the forest around Rushmore hinges on what the beetles do next.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130053576
Forest Near Mount Rushmore Suffers Beetle Attack
by Charles Michael Ray
October 6, 2010 from SDPB
The Black Hills of South Dakota are turning brown. Thousands of acres of pine trees in the central part of the hills have been killed by mountain pine beetles, and Mount Rushmore National Memorial is near the center of the epidemic. National Park officials are taking drastic measures to help the forest around Rushmore survive the onslaught. The monument is now in the middle of the biggest thinning operation in its history.
The normally tranquil forest around the monument is being shattered by the sound of chainsaws. Crews of loggers are cutting a lot of pine trees.
"It's a matter of controlling the exponential growth of this pine beetle," says Bruce Weisman, the National Park ranger leading the fight against the insects. "We've seen this explosion and it's coming over the ridgeline directly at us right now."
Crews are cutting down trees below the four faces and feeding them into huge wood chippers. Weisman says to save this forest from destruction, the smaller overgrown pine trees on 500 acres of the park must come down. He says this is about more than beetles. Bug-killed trees are prone to burn, and one lightning strike could start a major wildfire.
"Our fuel loads would be so tremendous that [a] catastrophic firestorm would sweep right over the top of the memorial and it would be a catastrophic loss of all facilities," he says.
The idea is that thinning out the trees will make the forest healthier. But critics like Brian Brademeyer with the group Friends of the Norbeck say the beetle problem is being overblown to give big timber companies access to adjacent public lands.
"This whole beetle hysteria that dead trees are more fire-prone than green trees, it's all self-serving, logging institution-building. They should just stay in their offices," Brademeyer says.
While some environmentalists are critical of the National Park Service for going too far, other locals say government officials aren't doing enough.
"It's almost like waiting until the horse goes out and then you shut the barn door," says Jack Bradt, who has helped run a wilderness outfitter in the Black Hills since 1977.
Fresh from an afternoon of work on his dude ranch, a bead of sweat lines the brim of Bradt's straw cowboy hat, and his pearl-snap Western shirt is dusty and frayed.
"Essentially everything that I have worked all of my life for is in potential danger because of the situation that ... we've got going here," he says.
Bradt says the thinning now under way at Rushmore should have happened on a wider scale years ago. But the pine beetles and the wildfires that threaten Bradt's livelihood may be linked to climate change: Beetle populations are normally kept in check by very cold winters, and it's believed warmer winters have allowed them to expand.
Millions of acres across the western United States and up into the Canadian Rockies are now infested. Dan Licht, a biologist with the National Park Service, says even with mitigation efforts at places like Rushmore, there is a good deal of uncertainty over what will happen next.
"If climate change does indeed warm up the area, we have warmer winters, the pine beetle infestations could become even worse, and even with our best efforts and our best treatments, we could still have a pine beetle infestation," Licht says.
Logging is not pretty. Big machines are ripping up the forest floor. But park officials in South Dakota stress the urgency. They say to do nothing would increase the risk of a much bigger disaster. For now, the future of the forest around Rushmore hinges on what the beetles do next.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130053576
October 6, 2010 from SDPB
The Black Hills of South Dakota are turning brown. Thousands of acres of pine trees in the central part of the hills have been killed by mountain pine beetles, and Mount Rushmore National Memorial is near the center of the epidemic. National Park officials are taking drastic measures to help the forest around Rushmore survive the onslaught. The monument is now in the middle of the biggest thinning operation in its history.
The normally tranquil forest around the monument is being shattered by the sound of chainsaws. Crews of loggers are cutting a lot of pine trees.
"It's a matter of controlling the exponential growth of this pine beetle," says Bruce Weisman, the National Park ranger leading the fight against the insects. "We've seen this explosion and it's coming over the ridgeline directly at us right now."
Crews are cutting down trees below the four faces and feeding them into huge wood chippers. Weisman says to save this forest from destruction, the smaller overgrown pine trees on 500 acres of the park must come down. He says this is about more than beetles. Bug-killed trees are prone to burn, and one lightning strike could start a major wildfire.
"Our fuel loads would be so tremendous that [a] catastrophic firestorm would sweep right over the top of the memorial and it would be a catastrophic loss of all facilities," he says.
The idea is that thinning out the trees will make the forest healthier. But critics like Brian Brademeyer with the group Friends of the Norbeck say the beetle problem is being overblown to give big timber companies access to adjacent public lands.
"This whole beetle hysteria that dead trees are more fire-prone than green trees, it's all self-serving, logging institution-building. They should just stay in their offices," Brademeyer says.
While some environmentalists are critical of the National Park Service for going too far, other locals say government officials aren't doing enough.
"It's almost like waiting until the horse goes out and then you shut the barn door," says Jack Bradt, who has helped run a wilderness outfitter in the Black Hills since 1977.
Fresh from an afternoon of work on his dude ranch, a bead of sweat lines the brim of Bradt's straw cowboy hat, and his pearl-snap Western shirt is dusty and frayed.
"Essentially everything that I have worked all of my life for is in potential danger because of the situation that ... we've got going here," he says.
Bradt says the thinning now under way at Rushmore should have happened on a wider scale years ago. But the pine beetles and the wildfires that threaten Bradt's livelihood may be linked to climate change: Beetle populations are normally kept in check by very cold winters, and it's believed warmer winters have allowed them to expand.
Millions of acres across the western United States and up into the Canadian Rockies are now infested. Dan Licht, a biologist with the National Park Service, says even with mitigation efforts at places like Rushmore, there is a good deal of uncertainty over what will happen next.
"If climate change does indeed warm up the area, we have warmer winters, the pine beetle infestations could become even worse, and even with our best efforts and our best treatments, we could still have a pine beetle infestation," Licht says.
Logging is not pretty. Big machines are ripping up the forest floor. But park officials in South Dakota stress the urgency. They say to do nothing would increase the risk of a much bigger disaster. For now, the future of the forest around Rushmore hinges on what the beetles do next.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130053576
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Birmingham woman names endangered British species
Aug 31 2010 by Sophie Cross, Birmingham Mail
A NATURE-loving Birmingham woman has won the chance to give an endangered British species a common name to help save it from extinction.
Lisa Bassett, from Sutton Coldfield, came up with the name “Witches’ whiskers” for a type of lichen when she entered a “Name a Species” competition organised by Natural England.
The organism, renowned for its medicinal qualities, is one of ten endangered species of native lichens, beetles, bees, jellyfish and shrimps now enjoying new titles after previously only being listed in Latin.
It is hoped the common names will help the public become more familiar with species the country is in danger of losing.
Lisa’s lichen was previously only known by its Latin name, Usnea florida.
Describing how she came up with the name, Lisa said: “The lichen looks hairy, and the witches who would have been making the plant into medicines – at least in the stories – would have been warty and whiskery.” The competition’s overall winner was Josh Clare from Market Drayton, who named a larvae-eating beetle found only in Windsor Great Park “Queen’s executioner”.
Natural England say 430 species have become extinct in England over the last 200 years.
Chief scientist Dr Tom Tew said: “The continued decline of biodiversity in England is a seriously worrying issue as every species matters – from the newly-named sea piglet to the more familiar hedgehog.
“Biodiversity is the foundation of our own existence and we cannot afford to take it for granted, which is why we are getting the issue out from under the microscope and into the limelight.”
All ten species will be on display at an exhibition in Oxford’s Museum of Natural History.
Other winning names included “Skeetle”, a beetle that escapes predators using natural “jet skis”; “Mab’s lantern”, a rare four-spotted beetle; “St John’s jellyfish”, a tiny 1cm jellyfish in the shape of a Maltese cross and “Scabious cuckoo bee”, which lays its eggs in the nests of other bees.
http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2010/08/31/birmingham-woman-names-endangered-british-species-97319-27167390/
A NATURE-loving Birmingham woman has won the chance to give an endangered British species a common name to help save it from extinction.
Lisa Bassett, from Sutton Coldfield, came up with the name “Witches’ whiskers” for a type of lichen when she entered a “Name a Species” competition organised by Natural England.
The organism, renowned for its medicinal qualities, is one of ten endangered species of native lichens, beetles, bees, jellyfish and shrimps now enjoying new titles after previously only being listed in Latin.
It is hoped the common names will help the public become more familiar with species the country is in danger of losing.
Lisa’s lichen was previously only known by its Latin name, Usnea florida.
Describing how she came up with the name, Lisa said: “The lichen looks hairy, and the witches who would have been making the plant into medicines – at least in the stories – would have been warty and whiskery.” The competition’s overall winner was Josh Clare from Market Drayton, who named a larvae-eating beetle found only in Windsor Great Park “Queen’s executioner”.
Natural England say 430 species have become extinct in England over the last 200 years.
Chief scientist Dr Tom Tew said: “The continued decline of biodiversity in England is a seriously worrying issue as every species matters – from the newly-named sea piglet to the more familiar hedgehog.
“Biodiversity is the foundation of our own existence and we cannot afford to take it for granted, which is why we are getting the issue out from under the microscope and into the limelight.”
All ten species will be on display at an exhibition in Oxford’s Museum of Natural History.
Other winning names included “Skeetle”, a beetle that escapes predators using natural “jet skis”; “Mab’s lantern”, a rare four-spotted beetle; “St John’s jellyfish”, a tiny 1cm jellyfish in the shape of a Maltese cross and “Scabious cuckoo bee”, which lays its eggs in the nests of other bees.
http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2010/08/31/birmingham-woman-names-endangered-british-species-97319-27167390/
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Beetles Use Sex And Subterfuge To Infiltrate Bee Nests
In what researchers say is a “remarkable mode of host-finding,” newborn blister beetle larvae of the species Meloe franciscanus mimic female bees as part of a three-step strategy to infiltrate and parasitize the bee’s nest. Blister beetles pull off their charade much the same way human performers create Chinese parade dragons, with individuals working cooperatively to form the illusion of a single animal. It was the first reported instance of parasitic larvae cooperating to mimic female host species, report San Francisco State University scientists.
Upon hatching from their sandy burrow, hundreds of these dark-orange beetle larvae, called triungulins, find their way to the tip of the nearest plant stem, where they form wriggling masses, or aggregations, that roughly resemble and likely smell like female Habropoda pallida bees, says lead author Dr. John Hafernik, who with co-author Leslie Saul-Gershenz documented this behavior during the springs of 1992 and 1999 from the California State University Desert Studies Center.
According to the researchers, once the triungulin mass successfully lures a male bee into pseudocopulation, the larvae use pincher-like limbs to attach themselves to the underside of the duped bee. The male then deposits the larvae on to female bees during further mating attempts, a process called venereal transmission. “By first attaching to a male bee, triungulins have access to multiple females and, subsequently, the multiple nests of each female,” says Saul-Gershenz.
Female bees then unwittingly transport these larvae back to their nests while provisioning them with pollen and nectar for their own eggs. “Once inside, the larvae parasitize the nest,” says Hafernik, chair of SF State’s Biology Department. “The provisions that would have produced a bee produce a beetle instead. Bee eggs already in the nest cell are likely eaten by the larvae as well.” Hafernik adds that “while cooperative behavior is common among highly social insects, such as bees and ants, it has never been reported in blister beetles. What’s more, until now, no other insect has been known to use cooperative behavior to mimic other species.”
The researchers believe the aggregations lure males into copulation through a combination of visual and olfactory cues. They noted that triungulin masses position themselves on vegetation much like female bees—perched on the top of a plant stem—and males approach and land on masses and females in the same way. To test for the possibility of olfactory cues, the researchers placed model aggregations near live aggregations that were formed or in the process of forming. “The male bees ignored the models completely but hovered or tried to land on groups of triungulins even before they were formed into a bee-like mass,” says Saul-Gershenz, who is currently studying the chemical cues. “The triungulins are likely emitting a bee-like pheromone to attract males, and another chemical cue to form aggregations.”
During their field survey, the researchers observed the life cycle of 22 masses, noting 98 instances of bees hovering within a few centimeters of a triungulin aggregation and nine instances where bees landed on aggregations. Researchers have long known that many blister beetle species parasitize bee nests, but never made the connection between triungulin aggregations—first reported in 1895—and nest finding.
Aggressive mimicry is not new, but has only been associated with individuals of a species. The Ophrys orchid mimics the appearance and scent of female bees to attract pollinators to its flower, and female bolas spiders attract prey by mimicking the female sex pheromone of the armyworm. Dr. Ronald McGinley of the Smithsonian Institution’s Department of Entomology says the findings raise “exciting questions” for future research. “How do newborn beetle larvae coordinate a collective pilgrimage to individual grass stems? And why is this particular bee species attracted to ‘larval clumps’? Is the attraction visual, chemical or both? We can look forward to these researchers revealing some of these answers in future work.”
http://wildlifenews.co.uk
Upon hatching from their sandy burrow, hundreds of these dark-orange beetle larvae, called triungulins, find their way to the tip of the nearest plant stem, where they form wriggling masses, or aggregations, that roughly resemble and likely smell like female Habropoda pallida bees, says lead author Dr. John Hafernik, who with co-author Leslie Saul-Gershenz documented this behavior during the springs of 1992 and 1999 from the California State University Desert Studies Center.
According to the researchers, once the triungulin mass successfully lures a male bee into pseudocopulation, the larvae use pincher-like limbs to attach themselves to the underside of the duped bee. The male then deposits the larvae on to female bees during further mating attempts, a process called venereal transmission. “By first attaching to a male bee, triungulins have access to multiple females and, subsequently, the multiple nests of each female,” says Saul-Gershenz.
Female bees then unwittingly transport these larvae back to their nests while provisioning them with pollen and nectar for their own eggs. “Once inside, the larvae parasitize the nest,” says Hafernik, chair of SF State’s Biology Department. “The provisions that would have produced a bee produce a beetle instead. Bee eggs already in the nest cell are likely eaten by the larvae as well.” Hafernik adds that “while cooperative behavior is common among highly social insects, such as bees and ants, it has never been reported in blister beetles. What’s more, until now, no other insect has been known to use cooperative behavior to mimic other species.”
The researchers believe the aggregations lure males into copulation through a combination of visual and olfactory cues. They noted that triungulin masses position themselves on vegetation much like female bees—perched on the top of a plant stem—and males approach and land on masses and females in the same way. To test for the possibility of olfactory cues, the researchers placed model aggregations near live aggregations that were formed or in the process of forming. “The male bees ignored the models completely but hovered or tried to land on groups of triungulins even before they were formed into a bee-like mass,” says Saul-Gershenz, who is currently studying the chemical cues. “The triungulins are likely emitting a bee-like pheromone to attract males, and another chemical cue to form aggregations.”
During their field survey, the researchers observed the life cycle of 22 masses, noting 98 instances of bees hovering within a few centimeters of a triungulin aggregation and nine instances where bees landed on aggregations. Researchers have long known that many blister beetle species parasitize bee nests, but never made the connection between triungulin aggregations—first reported in 1895—and nest finding.
Aggressive mimicry is not new, but has only been associated with individuals of a species. The Ophrys orchid mimics the appearance and scent of female bees to attract pollinators to its flower, and female bolas spiders attract prey by mimicking the female sex pheromone of the armyworm. Dr. Ronald McGinley of the Smithsonian Institution’s Department of Entomology says the findings raise “exciting questions” for future research. “How do newborn beetle larvae coordinate a collective pilgrimage to individual grass stems? And why is this particular bee species attracted to ‘larval clumps’? Is the attraction visual, chemical or both? We can look forward to these researchers revealing some of these answers in future work.”
http://wildlifenews.co.uk
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Giant beetle was shot down by Victorian insect collector
RIGHT: Goliath beetles belong to the scarab family and are one of the largest insects on Earth, growing up to 4.5 inches long and weighing as much as 3.5 ounces. Photo: PAA beetle the size of a bird was shot out of sky by a Victorian insect collector, museum experts discovered.
Published: 2:46AM GMT
11 Mar 2010
The Goliath beetle, from Africa, is housed at London's Natural History Museum.
Staff at the museum became puzzled by small circular holes in the giant bug's tough carapace.
But it was only when cameras started rolling for a BBC documentary on the museum that the mystery was solved.
Forensic scientist Heather Bonney confirmed the beetle had been shot.
Her investigation identified entry and exit wounds, and X-rays revealed a shotgun pellet still inside the the body.
The positioning of the wounds showed the beetle was in flight when it was bagged, but the pellets hit the creature's back and not its underside.
Experts think it must have been performing one of the high aerobatic displays that make Goliath beetles notoriously difficult to catch.
Beetle curator Max Barclay said: ''Our collections are full of mysteries and every year scientists are discovering more about them and using them as evidence to help understand the world around us.
''The number of new discoveries just waiting to be made in these collections is astronomical, and every one of the museum's 70 million specimens has a story to tell.''
Goliath beetles belong to the scarab family and are one of the largest insects on Earth, growing up to 4.5 inches long and weighing as much as 3.5 ounces.
The Natural History Museum specimen is 3.9 inches long and described as being about the size of ''a large sparrow or small blackbird''.
The first episode of the six part documentary Museum of Life will be shown on BBC2 on Thursday, March 18.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7418926/Giant-beetle-was-shot-down-by-Victorian-insect-collector.html
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Rare beetles found at Blakeney National Nature Reserve
RIGHT: A rare type of Rove Beetle has
been spotted at Blakeney Point
been spotted at Blakeney Point
Two species of beetle that are new to Norfolk have been discovered as part of 187 different beetle varieties found at Blakeney National Nature Reserve.
Nine experts found a Rove and a Fungus Beetle as part of a survey on "small, but important wildlife".
They also found 41 lichen species, 24 types of spider and five types of ant.
"We are indebted to these wonderful volunteers," said Stuart Warrington, National Trust nature conservation advisor.
"Without them we just would not know how important Blakeney Point is for insects and other invertebrates," he added.
The full names for the new Norfolk beetles are the Red Data Book Rove Beetle called Phytosus nigriventris and a nationally scarce Fungus Beetle called Leiodes ciliaris.
The survey, which took place in September 2009, also unveiled a Sap Beetle Nitidula carnaria, which had not been recorded in Norfolk since the 19th Century, and the Clown Beetle Gnathoncus nanus with only its second appearance in recent history.
Nationally rare ant species Myrmica specioides were also discovered.
Successful summer
The survey rounded off a successful summer for wildlife at Blakeney Point, famously known for its seals, as its breeding birds had a good season with the Sandwich Tern colony growing to 3100 pairs, up from 2400 pairs in 2008.
Other highlights were the 86 pairs of Little Terns that nested on the Point's shingle beaches and produced 52 fledglings and 13 pairs of Ringed Plover, which raised 12 chicks.
"The success of the terns depends on a whole range of factors including a supply of small fish, good weather and tides, and not too much disturbance," said David Wood, National Trust head warden at Blakeney.
"Last summer's successes were thanks to good conditions, the hard work of staff and volunteers and the understanding and support of visitors and the local community," he added.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/norfolk/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_8516000/8516903.stm
(Submitted by Lindsay Selby)
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Rare wildlife found at Purbeck firing range
1:00pm Thursday 31st December 2009
By James Tourgout
A LIVE firing range in Purbeck is home to some of the rarest pond life in the country.
Ponds on Ministry of Defence land on the Lulworth firing ranges at Povington contain a caddis larva never before recorded in Dorset and a number of nationally scarce insects and plants.
They include the small red damselfly, the Downy Emerald dragonfly, the threatened medicinal leech, pilwort rare aquatic fern and rare beetles.
The 11 ponds were investigated as part of the Purbeck Important Ponds Project and feature high on the list of the best of the area’s ponds.
Rachel Janes, who is Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Purbeck pond project co-ordinator, said: “The exciting thing about these ponds is that, while they do not have a vast range of species because they are naturally acidic, many of the species that they do have are rare and certainly special to this kind of habitat.
“These ponds are extremely important nationally.”
Dorset Wildlife Trust led the project with funding by Biffa Waste Services’ Biffaward, the Environment Agency and the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
It identified the best of Purbeck’s ponds with the help of landowners, including the MoD.
The ponds remained undisturbed because of their location in a live firing area and are free of agricultural chemicals or introduced species such as fish. Stuart Otway, head of Natural Environment for Defence Estates, said management of defence estate land presented an enormous challenge because of its size and diversity.
“It is vital that we provide the right facilities needed to train and prepare our service personnel, in particular for current operations in Afghanistan,” he said. “But we must also balance that requirement with sensible stewardship of the estate.”
Oliver Howells, natural environment advisor for Defence Estates said: “The ponds across Lulworth ranges receive no active management and the survey has shown how pristine these ponds are because they’ve not been drained or modified.
“The fact they’ve never been stocked with fish is also very important.”
http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/4826090.Rare_wildlife_found_at_Purbeck_firing_range/
(Submitted by Mark North)
By James Tourgout
A LIVE firing range in Purbeck is home to some of the rarest pond life in the country.
Ponds on Ministry of Defence land on the Lulworth firing ranges at Povington contain a caddis larva never before recorded in Dorset and a number of nationally scarce insects and plants.
They include the small red damselfly, the Downy Emerald dragonfly, the threatened medicinal leech, pilwort rare aquatic fern and rare beetles.
The 11 ponds were investigated as part of the Purbeck Important Ponds Project and feature high on the list of the best of the area’s ponds.
Rachel Janes, who is Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Purbeck pond project co-ordinator, said: “The exciting thing about these ponds is that, while they do not have a vast range of species because they are naturally acidic, many of the species that they do have are rare and certainly special to this kind of habitat.
“These ponds are extremely important nationally.”
Dorset Wildlife Trust led the project with funding by Biffa Waste Services’ Biffaward, the Environment Agency and the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
It identified the best of Purbeck’s ponds with the help of landowners, including the MoD.
The ponds remained undisturbed because of their location in a live firing area and are free of agricultural chemicals or introduced species such as fish. Stuart Otway, head of Natural Environment for Defence Estates, said management of defence estate land presented an enormous challenge because of its size and diversity.
“It is vital that we provide the right facilities needed to train and prepare our service personnel, in particular for current operations in Afghanistan,” he said. “But we must also balance that requirement with sensible stewardship of the estate.”
Oliver Howells, natural environment advisor for Defence Estates said: “The ponds across Lulworth ranges receive no active management and the survey has shown how pristine these ponds are because they’ve not been drained or modified.
“The fact they’ve never been stocked with fish is also very important.”
http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/4826090.Rare_wildlife_found_at_Purbeck_firing_range/
(Submitted by Mark North)
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