Nature Snippets

Good afternoon. An earlier video version failed to launch.  Those interested in the video can view it here. 

We are currently immersed in a biodiversity crisis. Extinction is  happening at an alarming rate. While none of us expects to return to a  time where passenger pigeons nested in trees over saber-toothed tiger  dens, we can slow extinction rates and even improve biological diversity  where we live and work. To bring back birds for example, we need to  start at the base of the food web by planting the plants and trees that  support diverse invertebrate communities. The “bugs” in turn support  birds and other insectivores.  Vickie Hird’s book “Rebugging the Planet”  advocates this approach, and Saint Michael’s College students in their  Biology Senior Seminar learned directly from the author how these  approaches can be applied on campus and beyond. Please enjoy this  presentation, the Q&A that follows, and by all means visit our  spectacular campus and enjoy four miles of Natural Area Trails linked from this site.

Winter flying moths show up in November and sometimes later.  This essay describes their unusual lack of flight abilities and the alternative ways that they disperse.  I also explore insect collections and the scientific value of collecting specimens and how entomologists are trained. For good measure, I explain how these particular moths earned the moniker "flunker moths".

There are many caddisfly species feeding under the ice in our ponds, streams, and wetlands. Most aquatic insect growth happens in winter when the stream bed food supply is at its peak. The base of the stream food web is not provided by plants growing in the stream but instead drops in in the form of falling leaves. You might expect the peak to therefore happen in fall, but the leaves must first soak and steep. This process leaches out the chemicals that protected the leaves from herbivores during their productive lives. Next, fungi and bacteria colonize the leaves after which time, the leaves are edible to insects. But most of us notice aquatic insects including caddisflies, when they emerge as winged adults. One caddisfly in particular emerges in winter and is the subject of this first podcast of 2023. Welcome to season three and thanks for listening.

Western conifer seed bugs are among the many insect visitors that may make your home theirs for the winter. They seek hibernation spots in fall and even the best kept homes provides all sorts of prime real estate for six-legged critters. We tend to see them coming or going in fall and spring, but moving decoration boxes from attic or basement tends to wake sleeping guests at this time of year. So you may see a stray box elder bug, lady beetle, or even a Western conifer seed bug scrambling along your window sill in mid winter. None of the mini visitors I mentioned are cause for alarm and you will certainly be safe from seed bugs .... unless you happen to be a conifer seed. But conifer seed bugs are not pantry pests and so even your pine nuts will be safe.  If you find a stray insect or several, a glass and an envelope is all you need to turn them loose.  And if a much larger count disrupts your happy home, a quick pass with the long tube on your vacuum is a more than viable alternative to chemical warfare.  Besides, after death by insecticide, you'll still have to suck up the remains. All of that said, I would make an exception for bed bugs; if you are unlucky enough to host these particularly unwelcome guests, it is time to call in the professionals. 

Duckweed can entirely coat summer ponds, but have you ever wondered what happens to them in winter when the ponds ice over? This episode gets into exactly where duckweeds go when the snow flies, and how they make it back from their wintering grounds.

What can each of us do to reduce eutrophication and harmful algal blooms? Reducing runoff from our properties, neighborhoods, and campuses is an excellent first step. And picking up after your pet does no harm either. Reducing water flow from properties can reduce soil erosion and movement of phosphorus to our favorite water bodies. Simply redirecting your downspouts to the lawn instead of the driveway can be a good first step that also has the advantage of reducing ice buildup in winter. Episode image is cropped from a photo uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by Dave Huth from Allegany County, NY, USA

Perhaps in your childhood, you may have made paper doilies? Folded paper with delicately cut holes that when unfolded revealed a symmetrical pattern? Imagine for moment that your skill level at this particular pass time was so great, that you could produce a spectacular piece of art in miniature - perhaps as small as a quarter inch long. If you have such fine motor skills, then you are well on your way to making your own fake lace bug. Real lace bugs are fantastically ornate true bugs (Hemiptera) in the family Tingidae. In retrospect, and on hearing my own audio as I edited out my "em"s and pauses, "Tingidae" sounds like something I made up; or perhaps mispronounced because I grew up in Athlone, where "th" is rarely pronounced. But Tingidae is a very real family of insects so small as to be easily overlooked. But if your azaleas are looking a little shabby this year, it is possible that lace bugs are the culprits. Rather than reaching for a toxic spray, grab a clip on macro lens for your cellphone camera, you may be rewarded with a view of a spectacular little fellow traveler. Episode art is from Wikimedia Commons uploaded by Louisa Howard of Dartmouth College.

For several years, Saint Michael's college students have used trail cameras to answer interesting research questions and to get amazing photographs of mammals right on campus in the process. So I thought I'd share some of my experiences in setting these up to get the best results. Click here for a sample of the photographs we get on cameras on campus. Episode art was photographed by student researchers at St. Michael's College. 

Many of our garden plants have "perfect" unblemished leaves lacking any evidence of nibbles taken by hungry herbivores, or dwelling places of leaf miners and other native insects. This artificial state of perfection is because many of our garden plants are from other continents and our native insects have zero chance of eking out a living from their foliage. But native plants have co-evolved with a diverse community of insects that live in and on them and in turn form essential links in the food web that feeds native birds and mammals. Hackberry nipple galls are formed by tiny insects that emerge as adults in fall and are valuable foodstuff for migrating birds. And the hackberry trees do not seem even slightly the worse for the wear.

Who doesn't love a daddy long legs? But which one do you really love? The cellar spiders that some people call "daddy long legs", or the larger cranefly that may well crash into your porch lights, or what I call "daddy long legs": the spider-like harvestmen common in shaded woods, gardens, or sometimes in your house.  These amazing arachnids are the subjects of an urban legend regarding venom toxicity.  In reality these familiar organisms are beneficial in your garden and should be granted the space and respect that fellow travelers deserve.