Monarch Migration Threatened

Migration starts as an egg - Linda Bower

Linda Bower dropped off some of her 300+ monarch eggs and caterpillars for adoption.  Raising them appears easy relative to the teenagers who pupated from our house years ago.  In this case it just needs a steady supply of milkweed and removing the frass (insect poop) from the container at regular intervals.  On second thought, our little Frick and Frack below are not that far different from a newborn.

Frick, Frack and frass- REK

Why bother raising monarchs aside from curiosity and abiding interest in nature?  The fact that you are reading this blog suggests that you probably aware of the crisis that monarchs face.  In the last 20 years the monarch population has declined by 90%.  Their summer breeding grounds have decreased by 165 million acres.  The latest news this week:

"The Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Food Safety as co-lead petitioners joined by the Xerces Society and renowned monarch scientist Dr. Lincoln Brower filed a legal petition today to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking Endangered Species Act protection for monarch butterflies."

Many experts feel that the monarch is not threatened with extinction as it would survive in small numbers in Mexico and our border states.  What would likely disappear is the famous annual migration.  They depend upon milkweed to reproduce 3-4 times along the migration route, and it is rapidly disappearing.  A common "weed" in and along agricultural fields, it has virtually disappeared over many square miles of the migration, the victim of Roundup ready crops.  Meanwhile, the remaining land is being urbanization, neighborhoods, golf courses and rural homes with 10 acre lots, all mowed and weeded.

While looking for some large scale answers, you can start to help the migration in your own small way.

1. Plant milkweed in your garden, land, ditches and roadsides.  The time to plant is in the fall as the seeds have to cold stratify (freeze and thaw) to germinate.
2. Avoid the use of insecticides on flowers where butterflies obtain nectar.
3. Consider raising Monarch butterflies.  There is a high mortality in nature on their journey from egg and caterpillar to adulthood, much of which can be avoided by home rearing.

Soon we will be describing methods to help you support the Monarch population. 

Pandora Sphinx Moth

  Photo by Drew Albert

Drew Albert of our Master Naturalist chapter found this beauty hanging out in a tower of the National Weather Service where he works.  This was a restricted area and it wasn't wearing an ID, but he turned a blind eye and a camera onto the trespasser.

This is a Pandora or Pandorus sphinx moth, Eumorpha pandorus.  It seems appropriate that it was hanging out at the airport as it resembles a stealth bomber that is painted in jungle camo, like Mother Nature had been watching too many Rambo movies that day.  They fly predominately at dusk on green to brown wings that can span 4.5 inches.  Their wing shape looks a lot like the somewhat smaller hog sphinx moth.

Hog sphinx, Darapsa myron - Chris Barnhart

  Janice Stiefel

The larvae are just as impressive as the adult.  They grow up to 4 inches long by feeding on grape species (Vitis) as well as Virginia creeper.  There is considerable variation in the colors of their various instars.  The last instar climbs down to the ground and burrows into the loose soil.  There it will pupate in the fall, forming the cocoon that will be its home until it emerges next year as a beautiful moth.

  Fifth instar - gkmarsh

The caterpillars will go through five molts, called instars.  Early instars have a horn like most sphinx moths, for example the familiar tomato horn worm.  Unlike their cousins, the Pandora's horn has a cute little curl.  This disappears in the fourth instar, replaced by a little eye mark.

Early instar - Erik Blosser

 Head tuck - Janice Stiefel*

Like many other caterpillars, their prolegs have special hooks which allow them to feed upside down, clinging to the underside of a leaf to hide from predators.  At times they will tuck their two front segments into the third, giving the otherwise some what pointed head a blunt appearance.  When they are threatened they use a vulture-like defense, vomiting up a sticky substance.

Pandora sphinx with parasites and wasp emerging - Jo Ann Poe-McGavin

It doesn't always turn out well for caterpillars.  In addition to their contributions to the food chain for birds, insects and even snakes, there are various parasites that utilize them as a nursery for their young.  The specimen above is still alive, but just barely.  It was infested by the eggs of a parasitic wasp whose young have just pupated and emerged.  The parasites preserve all the caterpillar's vital functions until the last minute to maintain their food source.  You can see a little wasp at the bottom, presumably newly emerged from the pupa.
 
 *  The late Jan Stiefel had submitted 779 photographs to Bugguide.net and over 129 Door County, Wisconsin moth records, which are documented with the state. She had served as editor of the "Wisconsin Entomological Society Newsletter" since 1999.

There is more information at the  uwm.edu/ website.

Volcano Cam

Photo - University of Iceland, Armann Hoskuldsson

This is not what you expect on a Missouri Master Naturalist page, but a few of you have asked about our recent trip to Iceland.  This question runs the risk of forcing a 30 minute presentation on you.  You can relax for now.

Bardabunga volcano has been in the news the last few days for an eruption that is occurring essentially under its crowning glacier, creating the risk of flooding from the melting glacier.  Then today, it burst out of its icy sheath, thus far not a massive eruption but colorful none the less.  Live Science describes it spewing forth lava nearly 200 feet (60 meters) into the air.

This is located in the south central part of the country, not where we went nor is it a roadside sight.  Because of the volcanic studies that are ongoing in Iceland, we have a lot more information on this active volcano.  They haven't so far developed a way for you to feel the heat on your computer, but you can watch it 24 hours a day at here or from closer up at this link.

Lots more details are at Live Science.

Bats on Radar

Grey Bat - Wikimedia

Bats on radar - click to enlarge

Drew Albert of our Master Naturalist chapter has been involved in discovering a new and previously unknown colony of grey bats.  And he did it from work at the National Weather Service.  As reported on KSMU, forecasters at the National Weather Service Office in Springfield noticed a mysterious radar signal over Dallas county every evening beginning in June of last year.  This lasted all summer, and then recurred again this year.

Being a naturalist, he thought biologically of birds and bats as they are known to show up on radar in some circumstances.  "We made some assumptions initially.  We do know that National Weather Service radar can pick up what we call biological scatterers, and that can include birds, insects and of course bats, and it was assumed they were bats just because of the time of day," he told KSMU.

High-flying Mexican free-tail bats show up on Texas radar because of their large numbers and high flight patterns.  Missouri bats fly lower and in smaller numbers, under the radar.  He explained these signals were much closer to the ground, showing up on radar because of our weather conditions.

"During the evening, the beam does get bent downward a little bit towards the ground as what meteorologists call a night time temperature emergence sets up, and that inversion sets up as the ground cools, so the beam does get bent downward just a little bit, and also the beam will spread out with distance from the radar, too."

The echoes were 20 to 30 miles from the radar.  What do you do in our modern technological world to find the answers.  Facebook!  They sent out the following posting.

"We think there might be bats flying out of these two locations in Dallas County... and near Windyville.  Notice the two echo radar sampling something near these two locations.   Radar has been sampling this over the last several evenings.  We suspected it is bats... but wanted to see if any local Dallas County folks could confirm that.  Let us know if you have information.  Thanks!

After they posted their findings on social media, they were connected with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC).  The signals were found to be coming from an endangered species, gray bats emerging at night to eat insects.  Tony Elliot, a bat biologist with MDC was excited to discover a colony of the grey bats that wasn't known.  There are only three main hibernation caves for gray bats known in Missouri, "but in the summer they disperse to a larger number of what are called maternity and bachelor caves. "

Missouri grey bat in a cave - MDC

There are an estimated 700,000 gray bats in Missouri, so how can they possibly be endangered?  The answer is that they are clustered in only a few populations which all huddle together over the winter.  Like humans who are pushed together in large numbers, the bats' close proximity to one another increases the risk of the spread of an infectious disease.  In this case, the disease is White Nose Syndrome that has killed over 5 million bats in the US.

An additional risk to the bat population is us.  Humans have used caves over hundreds of thousands of years, first for shelter, and now as an interesting place to explore.  In addition to the risk of spreading disease, we disturb their summer "nests" causing the young who are just "hanging around" to drop to the ground.  Further more, in their winter hibernation they have just enough energy stored to make it until spring.  Waking up and moving around because of human activity requires the use of stored energy and they may run out fuel before their spring wake-up occurs.

Needless to say, the site is being protected by the local landowner in conjunction with the MDC.  Like any other endangered species, the location is confidential to protect it from the curious public, i.e. you and me.

Meanwhile, Drew Albert's Master Naturalist juices are still flowing.  "My loose plan is to maybe more systematically follow these signatures with time to see maybe how the populations are shifting around, how things are changing with time." Who knows, he may even find another populations of bats.  Citizen Science strikes again!

Learn more about radar's use in monitoring bird, bats and insects in this Youtube video and this from Science Magazine. 
Bats of Missouri discussed here.

Bumelia Borer

The star of this year's Insectorama at the Springfield Conservation Nature Center was undoubtedly the bumelia borer, a magnificent longhorn beetle found by Kim Banner in her garden.  Almost everyone had never seen one before, an insect you would be unlikely to forget.

Adult beetle, green color form - Photograph by Ted C. MacRae

While common names of insects can be confusing, it is unlikely that many of us will use the bumelia borer's official title, Plinthocoelium suaveolens suaveolens.  (Say that 10 times and you will still forget it.)  It has several color forms ranging from bright blue through irridescent green to bronze.  Its femora are consistently reddish-orange with black tibia.  At 1.5 inches in length, it is hard to miss.

Larva of Bumelia borer - Photograph by Ted C. MacRae

Its larvae develop in the trunks and roots of gum bumelia, water tupelo and mulberry.  In Missouri it has been associated with gum bumelia, (aka gum bully or woolly buckthorn), a plant adapted to xeric (dry) glades typical of southwest Missouri.  The adults are active from May through summer where they feed on the sap of host plants and hickory.

Rhea Blackthorne

Sandra McKennon-Volk

 

Dr. Tom Riley shared this additional information:

" Males will sit head-down at the base of the trees, waiting for females to emerge. They also come to the flowers. In a good year they can be quite abundant with 5-6 beetles on each flowering tree. Once you take a swing at them they put out a really low vapor-pressure alarm pheromone and suddenly, like in the rest of the genus, all the beetles in the area disappear. The beetles either live or continue to emerge for a long time. We collected them from July until October."

"Make my day!"  Head on photograph by Dr. Tom Riley

They are found across the southern U.S. from Florida and Georgia west to New Mexico and Arizona.  None of us had ever seen this creature of the glades and it was a lucky find especially in an urban garden.  A good idea of how hard these are to find when you are searching for them is documented in this long Beetles in the Bush post.  There are several lessons for us neophytes.

1. You have to know your host plants, looking at every one to find a specimen... maybe.
2. When you find a specimen, catch it in case you don't find another one.  The second one you can try to photograph in the wild.
3. Sometimes you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince.

Beetles in the Bush has dramatic closeup pictures and information on how he gets his pictures.

Hercules Beetle

Hercules at Insectorama- REK

A nose for beetles - REK

The Insectorama last Friday at the Springfield Conservation Nature Center was a success as usual.  One of our crew, Adam Lakey, was particularly "bugged" at the end.  After showing the kids and parents a shiny eastern Hercules beetle, he put it on his nose and wore it for close to an hour.  There is no better way to get the attention of kids.

Chris and friend - REK

The eastern Hercules beetle, Dynastes tityus, is said to be North America’s largest, most written about, and most photographed beetle.*  Most pictures are of males because of the dramatic horns which the females lack.  This beetle was certainly eye-catching, even to a seasoned biologist who has seen lots of them close up.  The picture is payback for the hundreds of similar pictures he has taken of kids with insects.

Female Hercules beetle finally gets some respect - REK

D. tityus is a creature of the forest, closely connected to the life and death of trees.  They are generally found from June to August when they are actively reproducing.  Eggs are laid in the summer and the grubs (larvae) live in the rotting heartwood of logs, depending on other insects and fungi to prepare their nursery over several years.  Pupation occurs in late summer with adults hibernating in pupal cells in decaying logs.  The finding of exceptionally large larvae suggests that some live two years before pupation.

Larva - M.J. Raupp

Buck's latest MN pin

One of the most interesting features of their life cycle is the males which battle for mating rights.  They will lock horns to contest mating sites, occasionally so preoccupied that a third guy sneaks in to set up house and watch the fight.  Science Friday explains this phenomena, using an Asian relative with a similar habit.

Adult Hercules beetles feed by scraping away tender bark to create flowing sap.  They are easy to keep as pets and available commercially, although I am not a fan of this practice which frequently results in a monoclonal population rather than natural breeding that produces a healthier, genetically diverse population.  If you are fortunate enough to catch one in the wild, you can keep it in captivity for a while, but then consider releasing it to multiply and continue its role in the food chain.**

Photo by Dr. Tom Riley

*    See the article from Beetles in the Bush.
**  See Bug of the Week for instructions.

Road Hog

Answer to "What is it?"

Driving down our lane, I encountered an obstruction.  A three foot timber rattlesnake was basking in the 85 degree heat and showed no inclination to move.  When I got out of the truck and approached, it assumed a defensive position rather than escaping into the thickets on either side of the road.

Defensive coil - Click to enlarge

If you click on the picture above, you will notice that its head is tucked, even hidden directly below the rattling tail.  The rattle serves as a warning to those of us who know (or should know) better than to pick up a snake.  It is likely that this developed as a way to lure a curious animal such as a rat that is then dinner, a technique called caudal luring.  Having its head right by the rattling tail allows it to strike the target quickly as well as expose its least vulnerable part while protecting its head.  Another example of caudal luring is the bright yellow tail of a young copperhead, although one study suggested that tail color didn't affect the success in pygmy rattlesnakes. 

Young copperhead - note yellow tail lure

The problem now was it was hogging the road between the two wheel paths.  I was afraid if I tried to straddle it with the truck it would try to escape and be run over.  It had now settled down, still coiled but with its tail upright and motionless.  I tried pushing it to the side with a long stick (let me emphasize long) and merely succeeded in annoying it as seen in this video.

I finally used a long watering tool as a modified snake hook and lifted it to the side and it slithered off in annoyance.  This rattler was smaller than the ones we occasionally see in the same area of the road so I suspect that they have been breeding successfully on the glade.  As long as they stay there and not at the garage and house, we will peacefully coexist.