Washington...

3/25/07

Just wanted to post a few pics of a little someone we saw at the farm yesterday..














Steven

Où étiez-vous le mercredi passé ?

("Where were you last Wednesday")
Steven and I decided to do some last-minute insect collecting on Wed. March 21. It was late by the time we made it to Washington and finally managed to get setup. We kind of figured that it would be too early in the season to catch anything good, but we were in for a surprise. Steven was collecting fiery searchers, and from the time the bulbs warmed up, until the time we unplugged, we were catching searchers! We could have continued to catch them, but we figured we had enough for one outing. We also saw a male luna moth, and some sort of longhorn beetle. Looks like it could turn out to be a great year for insects!

Michael

Wednesday night in Washington

3/21/07

    Michael and I took a last-minute trip to the farm on Wed night. They were heading back to Florida the next day, and I wanted to get some collecting time in before he left.
    It was getting dark and we were in such a rush that I broke one of my 18" Blacklight bulbs while loading the car. I think it was about 9:00 before we made it out of the driveway.
    Now, this is the month of March, and neither of us expected to see much of anything. In my haste I forgot the clips I use to attach the sheet to the poles and forgot containers! We arrived rather late and scrambled to setup in the dark. We lit one black light and my MV rig and pretty soon we had company. We quickly found many C. scrutator, a few C. calidum, two giant water bugs and a big luna moth. We also had tons of June beetles and a fly that seemed to be a wasp mimic.
    We had a great time (despite feeling like crud the next day at work) and plan to do this again soon. It looks like it will be a good collecting year.

Steven

This weekend

This weekend we went to the zoo in Alexandria. On the way there I stopped by "the Chevron" to take a look in the corral. Didn't see a thing in there at all. Will have to wait a few months I guess.

Yesterday we went to the farm. We saw a few butterflies, some dragonflies, a Belostoma and a few caterpillars. The main point of interest was that the tigers were in full flight.


Steven

**Update: 3/14/07 **
I saw my first "June Beetle" last night

Check this out...

Check this out... I wondered if this was possible:

Dynastes hercules MALE x Dynastes granti FEMALE HYBRID

http://www.interinsects.com/assets/s2dmain.html?http://www.interinsects.com/50060498b80a9a706/index.html


Steven

Here's Lookin' at You...

Eyed click beetle (Alaus oculatus) found today at the zoo.

Not the most cooperative individual, but always worth photographing.

-James

Please, more spring...

2/11/07

We ventured out to "The Farm" yesterday. It was very cold and there was not much at all moving about. We did see a Leopard Frog and a few diving beetles, but that was about it.











Although, not an indication of spring, I was surprised by this hatchling today:










(Megaphasma denticrus)

Let's all go collecting soon.....

Steven

Spring anyone?

Steven and I hung out at the zoo today for a while, mostly discussing potential future plans for this spring. It's been a long winter, and while I enjoy winter birding quite a bit, I'm ready for warmer months. Not so much for the warmer weather, but for the critters it brings out. Yes, that's right; bugs, spiders, reptiles and frogs! I was out in my yard just a minute ago collecting a new female L. mactans, and I noticed this gal hanging out on the side of our trailer:

Yup, that's right, a cranefly! Hopefully cooler things (not temperatures) are on their way to emerging! Until next time....

-James

Latrodectus geometricus....the Holy Grail

Saturday (27 Jan 07), Larry Allain and I braved the stormy conditions here in Acadiana to collect brown widows (L. geometricus) on Ambassador Caffery Pkwy. in Lafayette. The purpose of this excursion was to supply Jayme (Necaise) with specimens for a genetic anaylsis/scientific publication in a medical journal with three others. We first checked the brick columns in front of the Super Target, but did not find any webs. We were not to be disapponted however; for when we moved down in front of Stage, we hit the jackpot! In all, we collected 13 (12 females, 1 male) widows. I couldn't help but keep two females for myself naturally..... It is generally thought that the presence of these widows is due to importation on plants from either Florida or Texas; most likely the former. Genetic analyses of these specimens should yield the answer to this. I have yet to do any investigating at places such as Home Depot or Lowe's, which have plant nurseries, where the spiders could be brought in. I suspect however, that such research could produce the answer. Maybe I could wrangle Steven Barney out into the field next time....

Also of note were the presence of both Plexippus paykulli and Phidippus audax jumping spiders in "purse-like webs" located inside of the widows' webs! After talking this over with Zack last night, this seems typical in Latrodectus spiders. It is not yet fully understood what (if any) purpose(s) this serves. Impressively, we found one widow that had captured and apparently consumed a large female Rabidosa rabidosa wolf spider.

Included are a few pictures taken by Larry throughout the morning.

-James

1) cellar spider, Crossopriza lyoni 2) female Phidippus audax

re: widow updates

Nothing new on any geometricus, but I did get the collecting package in from Jayme yesterday. I plan on going to collect tomorrow. I've been working in Cameron Parish the last couple of days, and will be today also.

-James

Widow updates...

James,

Any Brown Widow updates? I know Jayme was researching them too.


Steven
"Laissez Les scarabées Roulez"

smokin' gun by Larry Allain

NEW OLD BOOKS!!!

Dr. Bobby Keeland had to get rid of some old books that he and his wife no longer had room for. Bob, being a botanist, figured these publications would be well valued by someone who is into bugs and things. Thanks Bob! What he gave to me are: How To Know The Spiders (Kaston 1953), How To Know The Insects (Jaques 1947), How To Know The Protozoa (Jahn 1949), How To Know The Immature Insects (Chu 1949) & How To Know The Beetles (Jacues 1951). The drawings in these are remarkably accurate...as they should have been long before all this digital macro stuff! What I'll do is scan some images when I get a chance so that y'all can see 'em!

-James

Brown Widows Erupt in Lafayette!!!

As I have already communicated to Zack, while shopping for women's clothing (which is always an awesome time...), I discovered numerous active brown widow (Latrodectus geometricus) webs in the crevices outside Target and other micsellaneous stores in that strip-mall complex over on the 4000 block of Ambassador Caffery Pkwy. in south Lafayette! Albeit, this was some months ago...I've just been extremely busy and haven't been posting/communicating with y'all as much as I'd love to. I've been doing a tremendous amount of field work (mostly bird/plant-related projects) in coastal Cameron Parish. While there, I have noted the exlosion of Southern widows there now. It seems now, more than ever I can recall, that L. mactans could be termed ubiquitous in the cheniers! I mean, under almost every available bit of cover, whether it's storm wrack or otherwise, there's usually a widow present. Zack and I (as well as Vicky Bayless) have discussed this, and find it intruiging. My personal thoughts are these:

1) perhaps a great percentage of the widows' natural predators (i.e. ground-wasps, etc.) were wiped out with the storm surge related to hurricane Rita.

2) (my wife actually suggested this) many an older structures already harboring widows were demolished and disseminated, and now these spiders and their kin (not a joke based on the book, Zack...) are more obviously distributed.

3) BOTH?

Comments, questions, answers?

-James

The rare Red River Shoveler...

This is Test!!!

This is a test.

*Note: Travis wrote the above, rather short, sentence...*
*Note: Steven wrote the above, rather short, sentence...*
*Note: The above sentence was made out of cypress...*
*Note: See... I told you so . .Its a rocket ship! NOT a time-machine.



















Singed: I LOVE THE CYPRESS!

9-8 - 9-10, 2006 - Bugmuda Triangle Bugstravaganza

This space left blank (for now) so that others can recount their experiences....

Steven

Red River WMA - 8/19/06

Travis, Emma and I ventured back to Red River WMA. It was a "hot one". The only other human we saw was someone on a four-wheeler that sped by us. What we did not find were any more dung beetles. We hit the same exact spot; even saw the left-over piles of fish scales that had been bung piles two weeks before. It seemed like the otters had moved to another spot. We did try a few more areas but still didn't find any.
What we did see was three snakes, a flock of wild turkeys, a rabbit, five millipedes (which Emma picked up) and the back end of a wild boar.


Steven

Red River WMA - 8/6/06 - Roller Hunt - Pt. 1

Part One: It's how you get there...

One of the long-awaited trips that I had planned to take this year happened yesterday. I picked Travis up at about 10:30 and we headed out. Stopped by Wal-mart but after a quick tour of the parking lot we decided it was much too busy for our needs and we went to Home Depot instead. Trav was looking for a medium sized shovel and we found one. He tried to have it sharpened but that didn't work out too well.
We took the Lebeau exit and headed toward the metropolis of Palmetto, LA. We stopped at a station, who knows where (I think Simmesport), and loaded up on gas, drinks and snacks. This was the last real stop before heading to nowhere.
There were lots of high bridges to cross, and lots of levee driving. In many spots you could actually, or at least almost, see the horizon without it ending in trees. At some point we passed by the road to the Angola Ferry.












Travis skillfully directed me to the entrance of the WMA where we filled out happy little cards about who we were and what we were doing. From this point it was all gravel and dirt, no more pavement. Some of the roads seemed to go on forever.













We traveled to the camp area where Travis has stayed before. I flipped a board and found some reptile eggs. Travis found a tiger beetle: virginica. We walked down to the river from there between clumps of horse-tail. Most of the bank had anti-erosion plates installed.





...continued in part 2

Steven

Red River WMA - 8/6/06 - Roller Hunt - Pt. 2

Part Two: Laissez Les scarabées Roulez

So, we drove a bit more (like, tons more) and got to some lake drainage thing (pic below) that I'll name when I look at the map again or Travis posts it.










After a short walk along the water I found the first "deposit" and under it was my first Canthon. Travis went off to talk to the mysterious humans in the woods. He found out that they were exploding dynamite for testing and we had proof of that soon after. Not too far along the trail Travis spotted two otters swimming and I saw my first actual "rolling" (pic below). We found 11 total.











This shot was not far from the bridge we walked from. Further down this road we hit "millipede alley" and found 9 or 10 Narceus americanus crossing the road.












Shot a pic of this nice field......










...and this nice serpent.











It turned out to be a very nice trip.

Steven