Arthro-Pod

  In February's final episode, Mike is hosting solo! Tune in to join him and his graduate student, Logan Stenger, as they dive in to water mites and talk about Logan's work! Questions? Comments? Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_PodshowFollow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36 Get the show through Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcatching app!If you can spare a moment, we appreciate when you subscribe to the show on those apps or when you take time to leave a review! Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!  

On today's episode of Arthro-Pod, the gang meets up with a returning guest! Dr. Ainsley Seago was first featured in Arthro-Pod Episode number 8, way back in 2015, and we're so glad she agreed to come and talk to us about her life as the associate curator for the Section of Invertebrate Zoology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, PA. Tune in to hear about this unique career path, a discussion on why beetles are the most superior insect order, and why museums are important! Show notes:  https://carnegiemnh.org/research/ainsley-e-seago-ph-d/ https://twitter.com/americanbeetles https://beetlesink.tumblr.com/Questions? Comments? Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_PodshowFollow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36 Get the show through Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcatching app!If you can spare a moment, we appreciate when you subscribe to the show on those apps or when you take time to leave a review! Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!  

  Insects are extremely diverse. Part of that diversity is apparent in the ways that they consume their preferred food. Today, inspired by an anonymous listener question, the Arthro-Pod gang goes over the different types of insect mouths and how they help insects to begin the process of digestion. Then join them as they traverse the three "guts" of insects and end up on the other side of the anus with insect frass. It's an episode with lots of colorful descriptions and turns of phrase, that's for sure. Insect mouths come in different shapes and perform different jobs but they contain the same parts across most of the board; a labrum, the mandibles, maxillae, the hypopharnyx, and the labium Chewing mouths are the most common of all mouths, found on predators and herbivores such as this grasshopper Chewing-lapping mouthparts can chew pollen and help with lapping up honey and nectar Siphoning mouthparts are unique, they have been modified to curl up and unfurl and help slurp up nectar Piercing-sucking mouthparts can be used to suck juices from plants, or as this wheel bug would do, to suck the juices from prey Sponging mouthparts are found on many flies, they use these to acquire liquid food Show notes https://genent.cals.ncsu.edu/bug-bytes/digestive-system/ https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~rider/Pentatomoidea/Teaching%20Structure/Lecture%20Notes/Week%2011a%20Digestive%20System.pdf Some of Jody's favorite bug poo Drywood termite frass is quite distinct Tomato hornworm frass is often compared to the shape of a hand grenade Here a tortoise shell beetle uses frass as a defensive shield Questions? Comments?  Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_PodshowFollow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36 Get the show through Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcatching app!If you can spare a moment, we appreciate when you subscribe to the show on those apps or when you take time to leave a review! Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!   This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

 Welcome to the 2023 season of Arthro-Pod! In today's episode, we meet up with Dr. JoVonn Hill of Mississippi State and the Mississippi Entomological Museum to have our final word on Rocky Mountain locust. We've heard about their historical destruction, we've covered the biology of what happened on the plains all those years ago, and now we want to hear about the current era of research on this insect. Plus, JoVonn shares his story of how he got into entomology, how to become an orthopterist, and how the outreach mission of the Mississippi Entomological Museum works. Tune in! Show notes Check out the MSU Department here Learn more about the Mississippi Entomological Museum at this link Here's just a taste of JoVonn's work with grasshoppers in the Southeast! Check out all the cool things that Mississippi Bug Blues does for outreach Find JoVonn on Twitter @JoVonnH  Questions? Comments?  Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_PodshowFollow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36 Get the show through Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcatching app!If you can spare a moment, we appreciate when you subscribe to the show on those apps or when you take time to leave a review! Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!   This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

  Welcome back to Arthro-Pod bug lovers! Today, we are finishing the year out with part of our book club, focused on "Locust" by Jeffrey Lockwood.  In part one, we talked about some of the historical sources and reactions to locust plagues. In part two, we'll be talking more about what locusts are, how they happen, and the mysterious demise of the rocky mountain locust. Join us, won't you? Questions? Comments?  Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_PodshowFollow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36 Get the show through Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcatching app!If you can spare a moment, we appreciate when you subscribe to the show on those apps or when you take time to leave a review! Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!   This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

 Welcome back to Arthro-Pod bug lovers! Today, we are trying something new. As we conclude 2022, we decided to have a "book club" type approach to our next two episodes. One book that has been on our mind when considering a book club was "Locust" by Jeffrey Lockwood, of the University of Wyoming. We hope you will pick up the book or check it out from your local library and join us on an entomological history journey that concludes with an extinction cold case being solved in the chilly glaciers of Yellowstone National Park. Then, let us know what you think by tagging us on Twitter, @arthro_podshow or one of the hosts (@bugmanjon, @jodybugsmeUNL, @mskvarla36). But, for today, tune in and hear what we think! Check out "Locust" by Jeffrey Lockwood and let us know what you think! Show Notes Mental Floss article on Rocky mountain locust Latter Day Saints article on the pest Early Lockwood newspaper article on the topic The locust swarm of the late 1870s was devastating to white settlers taking over areas in the mid-plains of the United States Questions? Comments?  Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_PodshowFollow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36 Get the show through Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcatching app!If you can spare a moment, we appreciate when you subscribe to the show on those apps or when you take time to leave a review! Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!   This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Today's episode is a special treat as we invite our very own, Michael Skvarla to swap his host hat for a guest's chair. For years, Jody has wanted to pick Mike's brain about deer keds, a topic both she and Jonathan know little about. Luckily, over the past few years, Mike has become something on an expert on the topic. Tune in to learn all about these ectoparasitic, wingless, and interesting flies and how they live, thrive, and survive (plus a little about when people run into them). It's us! Talking about deer keds!  Also wanted to give a big shoutout to Jody for winning an award for excellence in Extension for her efforts in Nebraska and around the country. We're very proud of her and her commitment to science communication and we hope you will drop her a note of congratulations!Show Notes  CONTENT WARNING: DEAD ANIMALS. All photographs by Michael Skvarla unless otherwise noted.  European deer ked (Lipoptena cervi). Mammal-feeding deer keds emerge with wings but shed them after landing on a host. Photo by Erika Machtinger, Penn State University.   European deer ked on a white-tailed deer. This ked has shed it's wings. The abdomen has expanded after it took a blood meal.  European deer ked on a white-tailed deer. European deer keds on the muzzle of an elk. This photo was not staged, the keds were just very abundant. Michael and Penn State Vector Ecology Lab personnel searching for deer keds on a white-tailed deer at deer processors across Pennsylvania. Photos by Erika Matchinger and Michael Skvarla, Penn State University.   We searched through literal piles of deer.    The easiest way to find deer keds on host is to part the hair in sequence like you're sifting through papers in a file folder. We found that the best way to do that quickly was using a louse comb. Fine forceps are then used to grab the ked before it "swims" back into the hair. Pennsylvania elk at the PA Game Commission elk check station. Deer keds will land on any cervid, including deer and elk. Elk season in Pennsylvania is earlier than deer rifle season, so gave us an opportunity to collect deer keds a few weeks earlier than usual. Neotropical deer keds on a white-tailed deer harvested in Tennessee. Similar to European deer keds in Pennsylvania, some deer in Tennessee were loaded with keds while others were comparatively clean. Example of a PA Parasite Hunters collection kit that was sent to hunters to collect ticks and deer keds from deer they harvested. To test if deer keds responded to common insect repellents such as DEET, we marked off sections on a sock, applied the repellent, put the sock over an arm, and allowed keds to freely climb from an arena up the sock. At the end of 5 minutes we scored if they crossed the repellent or not.   Questions? Comments?  Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_PodshowFollow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36 Get the show through Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcatching app!If you can spare a moment, we appreciate when you subscribe to the show on those apps or when you take time to leave a review! Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!   This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Howdy bug lovers! Today's show is inspired by a listener request to talk about the different graduate entomology programs you can find here in the United States. We didn't want to rank programs necessarily, so we decided to talk about what we think is most important to think about when you are choosing a school to call home for a master's or doctoral degree. Tune in to hear about how each of us ended up in our graduate programs, what to look for in a potential mentor, some of the pitfalls of grad school, and maybe some advice on how to stay sane while you study your favorite insects! Show NotesThere are rankings online that are aimed to help you see which entomology departments are the “best” though but question if the data used to create these ranking is applicable to you and your success as a graduate student. Does a program with many faculty or high level of federal funding necessarily have a good graduate experience?·         https://www.collegefactual.com/majors/biological-biomedical-sciences/zoology/entomology/rankings/top-ranked/·         https://www.collegeraptor.com/Majors/Details/26.0702/Level/Masters-degree/State/All/Entomology/·         https://www.universities.com/programs/entomology-degrees You can check out this link from the Entomological Society of America for a fairly exhaustive list of possible grad school programs in entomology  Questions? Comments?  Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_PodshowFollow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36 Get the show through Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcatching app!If you can spare a moment, we appreciate when you subscribe to the show on those apps or when you take time to leave a review! Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!   This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 T

  Welcome back to Arthro-Pod! Today's show features Dr. Krystal Hans of Purdue University. Dr. Hans is a forensic entomologist and she guides the gang through wriggly and wonderful world of using bugs to solve crime. Tune in to learn about how to get into forensics, how evidence is collected, and in what order the insects would colonize your body! Larval Chrysomya rufifaces, photo by Andrew Meeds Show Notes You can find Dr. Hans online in these spaces Lab website: https://ag.purdue.edu/department/entm/hans-lab/index.html Consulting Website: https://hansforensics.com Tik Tok: Forensic Entomology Instagram: hans_forensic_entomology Twitter: @KrystalHansLearn more about forensic entomology at these sitesNorth American Forensic Entomology Association Texas A&M forensic entomology write upEntomology Today articleAdult Chrysomya rufifaces, Photo by Andrew Meeds Questions? Comments?  Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_PodshowFollow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36 Get the show through Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcatching app!If you can spare a moment, we appreciate when you subscribe to the show on those apps or when you take time to leave a review! Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!   This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

  Today on Arthro-Pod, the gang meets up with Dr. Rick Vetter of UC Riverside to bring you buckets of info on the brown recluse spider. This species of arachnid seems to inspire the most fear of all our eight legged friends. Tune in to hear all about their biology, why they seem to do well living in our homes, and some facts about their venom and bite. Maybe after hearing what we have to say, you'll see these spiders in a slightly different light!The "face" of a brown recluse spider, Jody Green Nebraska Extension If you have an interest in learning more about brown recluse spiders, we highly encourage you to buy and read Rick's book which can be found at these links: Cornell Press Kindle  Bookshop.orgThe famous "fiddle" on the top of a brown recluse spider. Lisa Ames, University of Georgia, Bugwood.org  Show notes Rick Vetter's websiteThe known range of brown recluse spider establishment.  Brown recluse spiders on a glue board trap, Jody Green Nebraska Extension Questions? Comments?  Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_PodshowFollow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36 Get the show through Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcatching app!If you can spare a moment, we appreciate when you subscribe to the show on those apps or when you take time to leave a review! Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!   This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0