Two Nicrophorus Beetle Species Plus . . .

Roundneck Sexton Beetle (Nicrophorus orbicollis)

Above is the roundneck sexton beetle that I photographed after capture (it was, of course, released after the photo session). You can see that the area after the head, called the thorax, but before the body, which is called the abdomen, is pure black. These beetles are attracted to moth lights, which is where I always find them. Sexton beetles are named after the people who look after a church and churchyard, and used to be gravediggers.

Tomentose Burying Beetle (Nicrophorus tomentosus)

Above is Jody's photo of a tomentose burying beetle. The thorax, between head and body, is covered with luxurious gold hair. That is how you can tell the two species apart. But there is one other behavior that tells them apart. The roundneck buries dead animals that it finds, and then feeds on them. The tomentose (also called the gold-necked carrion) digs a hole under the animal and covers the animal with leaf litter. Both species have antennae with orange-tipped clubs. They smell the bodies of the dead with those clubs, which are olfactory organs. 

Each of these beetles are in the family Silphidae which are carrion beetles. Carrion is "the decaying flesh of dead animals." Without carrion beetles, vultures, and other decomposers, we would be in a heap of trouble with dead animals piled a mile high.

All this is simply background to what fascinated Jody and I, though.  Look at my photograph of another roundneck beetle, and see if you notice a hitchhiker or two:

If you don't see them there, you will see them on Jody's tomentose: 

The little bugs on the beetles are Carrion Beetle Mites (Genus Poecilochirus). The mites are not doing a thing to the beetles except hitchhiking. This is called phoresis (one creature attaches itself to another solely to travel). The mites lay their eggs in dead animals, but they are tiny and the beetles can get them where they need to go quickly. The best, or biggest, example of phoresis  is a person riding a horse to go from one point to another. Another note about mites: they have eight legs, like spiders. But they are not spiders. They also are not insects.

Jody made a video of the beetle and mites. It may seem gruesome, but try to stick with it. The mites are not eating the beetle. They are, though, probably telling the beetle to get with it and take them to a carcass quick!

References:

• Bugguide: Species Nicrophorus tomentosus - Tomentose Burying Beetle
• Bugguide: Species Nicrophorus orbicollis - Roundneck Sexton Beetle
• iNaturalist: Carrion Beetle Mites
• National Park Service: A Symbiotic Relationship - Carrion Beetles and Mites
• Wikipedia: Phoresis

Nature Notes at Rambling Woods 2

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Photo Sunday: One, Two, Three and Four

American Thintail Fly (Meliscaeva cinctella)
Northern Amber Bumble Bee (Bombus borealis)
(August 2, 2016)

I am always looking for two or more species together using one plant. The photo above was a very special shot of a bumble bee that is rare on my land and two syrphid flies that I barely ever see.  The thistle plant was growing next to the house, hence the white background. 

But even more exciting for me was the day I went to Jody's garden and photographed a tortoise beetle with a fairy bee. The Vermont bee specialist was so excited that he came to visit Jody and her garden and we learned a lot more about bees that day. Fairy bees are very rare everywhere. Tortoise beetles are not that rare but are uncommon and difficult to find. I'll be writing more about that bee and the consequences of finding it very soon.

Clavate Tortoise Beetle (Plagiometriona clavata)
Fairy bee (subgenus Perdita)

My number justification?

One of one species

Two of one species

One plant

Four species

Photo Sunday
Number

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Thankful Thursday: New Office, Old Friends

Amelia came to school Sunday and helped put my new office together. I have been moved, thank goodness, so now I'm not so isolated and am in the middle of the action. I no longer have a classroom; just an office. But this office is mine, unlike last year. No sharing. No copier machine. Nobody else's stuff. Only my stuff. Plus, I found my complete set of Sir Cumference books that I have not seen for four years! I finished unpacking and arranging things on Wednesday. 😎

Jody, Amelia, Anna and I spent one virtual night last week trolling Twitter and sharing hedgehog pics. I decided I had to have a hedgehog village. So Jody surprised me with a starter home and two companions for the hedgehog.  💖  

My hedgehog starter home.

My hedgehog companions.

Unfortunately, the dinosaurs from last year's fossil class escaped. . .

Oh, nooo!

Not to worry; all are happy and well. I'm going to ask some kids to make a backdrop and forest floor for the cubby where these are being showcased.

These are the things I am so thankful for this week. 

I am blessed.

Click for more Thankfulness

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Awww Monday: 2020

I found this video that iPhone made me reviewing 2020. My husband had died only six months before and I was in complete lockdown alone. The internet saved me — most of us — and my children and I talked all day long, cooked together, had challenges together, gossiped, watch parties, played games, and shared everything together. Here you will see only my son, the only man in the video. You'll see my house, my road, my animals, Lucy and me kissing, my bugs, me shooting bugs with JF, my virtual schoolroom, a student for Halloween, cats visiting my virtual classroom, my cooking fails. It brought tears to my eyes.  Because school starts tomorrow and I have so much cooking, planning, writing, and photo editing to do, I was going to pass on today's post. But once I found this video, I had to share. iPhone chose all the images and the music.  Thank you for watching.

Click for more AWWW

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Feline Friday: Confession

August 12, 2020

Dearest Jody,

We had a near catastrophe this morning. But you would not understand because I have not told all the truth to you. You brought me four swallowtail larvae: two late instars, a tiny first instar, and one in the middle. I never told you that the tiny one and the one huge one disappeared. Amelia and I searched and searched but could not find them in the enclosure or in the house (I have had caterpillars run on me before, especially Monarchs). You went to a lot of trouble for these little guys and are so deeply invested that I did not want to disappoint you. 

I continued the search over the next few days for a  chrysalis, hoping the big one ran away and pupated under a table, or in a dark corner somewhere. It did. I found it today. I went into the kitchen to make breakfast (which seldom happens) and Nelly the Naughty Cat was leaping about the windows trying to catch a bug. It was your butterfly! He had to have pupated yesterday because he was totally dry and ready to leave.

And it's a boy! 

But I couldn't get a camera and save the butterfly, too.

I had to yell at Nelly, which brought Lucy racing down to the kitchen to help me. Lucy is a great cat wrangler and loves the times that they are naughty. Nelly ran into the basement. I went for the camera, which was charging, because I lost that spare battery, so I had to reload the battery. By that time, Nelly had returned to slaughter the butterfly. But one word to Lucy and Nelly was in the basement again. I took the photos. I got him on my finger to pose a bit. But I had to release him because he was beating his wings on the window and destroying his scales. 

You have never met Nelly in real life before. Here she is this morning trying to take the lens cover off of the camera. She has her sweet moments. But she is a killer and I am grateful for her mousing capabilities. 

All other larvae (except the tiny one) are accounted for (1 infant, 1 last instar, 1 chrysalis). Three to go. 

Forgive me, Jody. 😇  I try.

December 10, 2020

Dearest Jody,

I found the chrysalis. That caterpillar crawled 20 feet across the kitchen and up a post  and under a cast iron skillet hanging there.

Forgive me?

If not? Here is the photo I took of your Tiger this summer . . . 

He is well-behaved.

More Felines here!

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Flashback Friday: Swallowtail Videos

August, 2018

Black Swallowtail - Hodges#4159 (Papilio polyxenes)

For the past few years, JF and I have been raising butterflies (and occasionally moths and ladybugs) that she finds in her garden. Five years ago, we had a lot of Black Swallowtail caterpillars that JF collected and I raised. These are my first ever iPhone videos. I was thrilled with the results at that time. We have a lot of great memories that were funny, embarrassing, and sad with these caterpillars. There was much caterpillar misbehavior! There were runaways, cats trying to steal them away, and reluctant eclosers (not a real word).  I love watching "the cats" actually chewing up the parsley. The butterflies are excellent pollinators. This species loves parsley, dill, and plants from the carrot family. 

I hope you all have joyous memories today. 

Here is a female black swallowtail butterfly:

And here is a male that JF held while photographing it:

You can easily see the sexual dimorphism shown here.

Have a peaceful weekend!

Click for more Flashback

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Nature Notes: Buzz Pollination

Last week, I spent a lot of time watching two species of bumble bees on the few blossoms of Rosa rugosa that were left. They seemed to be in a frenzy inside the blossom. In the past when I have seen this, it looked like they were rolling in the pollen in ecstasy, much like our dogs roll happily in vile things in the woods. But on this day, I saw that their high speed movement had deceived me. They seem to be gathering pollen, but in greater quantities than they would individually need.

R. rugosa does not have nectar so it may not be particularly enticing to insects. It is self-pollinating, but it needs cross-pollination by insects to set fruit, which are the rose hips with which we are familiar. Rugosa is also called the beach rose. It is not native, but is extensively used to prevent erosion on beaches and dunes in the eastern United States. It creates many nostalgic memories for those of us who grew up on the Atlantic shoreline or visiting it often.

Pollen is the sperm of flowers. It is on the anthers. The anthers may have the pollen on the outside, easily available to insects, or it may be trapped inside the anther. Bumbles eat pollen as adults, but most importantly, they feed it to the bee larvae in the hive. Rose pollen is highly favored by bees because it's rich in nutrients. But the pollen in R. rugosa is trapped inside the anthers, so the bumbles need to get that pollen outside of the anthers so they can collect it for the baby bees. 

Rugosa, as a genus, can be pollinated in one of or more of three different ways and all three methods can be used with R. rugosa:

1. Automatic or insect-mediated selfing within one flower (autogamy) 

2. Pollen transfer from flower to flower on the same plant (geitenogamy)

3. Cross-pollination (xenogamy) results when pollen is transferred from the anthers of one plant to the stigmas of the flowers of another.

When you see a bumble inside a blossom, making a loud buzz sound, perhaps even "rolling around," it is collecting the pollen from inside the anthers. The bee (only female bumbles can collect pollen) uses her flight muscles — not to fly, but to vibrate her entire body, and the vibrations release the pollen. While her body vibrates rapidly, creating that buzzing, she bites the tip of the anther to release the pollen. After the release, the bee collects it in the sacks on her legs. This entire process is called buzz pollination.

Because the activity in my videos, below, happens so fast, I have added this slide show of still photos of the activity at one R. rugosa blossom.

Buzz pollination is also required for tomatoes, potatoes, and blueberries (all New World foods). And honeybees cannot do it, only our native bumble bees can. JF says that she also sees this activity on mullein and hydrangea.

In the videos below, that I made as part of my practice of making nature videos, you will see Common Eastern Bumble Bees (Bombus impatiens) and one Tricolored Bumble Bee (Bombus ternarius) buzz collecting pollen from R. rugosa. The tricolored bee has the orange band. Unfortunately, I deleted the sound. The buzzing is much louder than you normally hear, and it reminded me of angry bees. But they were not angry, they were simply in "overdrive."

The bees, though different species, did not seem to mind sharing a blossom with others. One bumble here or there would run off (especially the Common Eastern Bumble). On the other hand, it also did not look as if they enjoyed each other's company. Sometimes there was a slight tussle when another bee entered the flower. Sometimes there was not.

References:

1. Kevan, PG; "Pollination in Roses", University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada (pdf file)
2. NOBANIS – Invasive Alien Species Fact Sheet Rosa rugosa  (pdf file)
3. Deep Look: This Vibrating Bumblebee Unlocks a Flower's Hidden Treasure (PBS video)
4. Buzz Pollination (Wikipedia article)

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Flashback Friday: Bug Buddies

In January, 2021, I was still in lockdown and teaching remotely at home. We can all remember the things we did to pass the time . . .

Sound UP! Thank you.

Have a marvelous weekend.

I'm back in school today, so I won't be able to blog hop until tonight. 

😭

Click to see more
Flashback Friday

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Happy Tuesday: Honey Bees

This is a Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera). I average about one observation a season, which is fine with me. In fact, I see them so infrequently that I usually can't identify them. Last night, JF and I were texting about this bee and her bee observation from yesterday, that I now suspect is also a honey bee. Mine is feral; hers may be domestic.

Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)

To be clear, Apis mellifera is now considered by many entomologists to be invasive. The primary problem with them is that they spread disease. and perhaps parasites, to our native bumble bees. We have been advised by bee experts in Vermont to use maple instead of honey for sweetening. Of course, being the nation's largest producer of maple, that is easy for me. I myself have gallons of maple syrup from my trees. Honey bees can also displace our native bumbles and give them overwhelming competition for food. Native bumbles do not produce honey in quantities for humans; they can also be used by commercial pollenating companies.

I was very happy to receive identification confirmation overnight at iNaturalist. Everyone is invited to contribute iNaturalist. It is the biggest community scientist project around, and it's for flora and fauna. There is a poorly developed app for your phone (the link is for iPhone and Android). There is also an app called Seek for people, like one of my daughters, are beginning naturalists. The Android version is here. To many of you gardeners; you are perfect candidates for contributing to science.

Have a marvelous week!

Click and see more happiness!

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Nature Friday: Got Japanese Beetles?

I do not garden. I love them but I don't do the work. So when I see Japanese beetles, I don't get upset. I actually love photographing them. They are lovely and peaceful. They run away from bumble bees in flowers, co-exist with other flower flies in flowers, and they help each other when one falls off a plant. Click on this photo to see it large and perhaps you'll see why I photograph them: the glorious metallic colors, the furry tiger stripes, the forked antennae, and the textured elytra. 

Japanese Beetle (Popillia japonica)

My buggy research friend JF, however, is a gardener. She hates them. When she described to me what they do, I could understand why the contempt. The gardeners among you can understand, also. JF told me how you cannot get rid of them. But then she also mentioned winsome flies and asked me if I had seen any fly eggs on my JBs (Japanese beetles). JF sent me an article from Maine about winsome flies helping to control JBs without chemicals.

JF and I had one problem though: was the fly here? Our winters are severe in the northeast corner of Vermont. Many times, it's -30°F (-35°C) with wind chills much lower. Many insects cannot successfully overwinter here. My task was to photograph as many JBs as possible to find any winsome fly eggs. And I found them! So now we know winsome flies are here. You don't even have to find the actual fly, which is very small. You only need to see the white dots. Not the white dots that naturally run around the body of the beetle. Look at the front end, around the head, where they are usually laid by the fly.

Winsome fly eggs (Istocheta aldrichi)

The winsome fly was brought to North America purposefully in 1922 to parasitize JBs. It hasn't worked out that well because the fly's lifecycle has to coincide with the beetle lifecycle. It coincides here where I live, which is why I have the white eggs on the JBs. But in New Jersey? No. The fly has finally reached Vermont, Québec, and Ontario. It does not seem to be harmful to other parts of our environment. 

 

Range map of winsome fly

If you live in the areas shown on the map, and manually pluck the beetles from your garden, this advice from Maine may help you: 

• If you can, put in some plants that JBs avoid. Replace them with plants that are nectar-rich for the winsome fly adults and other JB predators.
• If you can, eliminate those plants that JBs most love.
• Encourage winsome flies by letting infected JBs free and only drowning the un-infected ones. The eggs can hatch only on beetles that are alive and then they can grow up to parasitize more beetles (see articles for lifecycle details).

Here are the references you may want to read:

1. Maine.gov: "The Fly that Attacks Japanese Beetles"
2. Laidback Gardener: "Plants Japanese Beetles Tend to Avoid"
3. Laidback Gardener: "The Fly that Attacks Japanese Beetles"

Maine says that by doing these things, ". . . you’ll find the number of beetles can drop significantly in just a few years. Many gardeners in areas where the winsome fly is well established say they can now garden much like they used to before JBs appeared, since the few remaining ones do little damage."

I hope you have a gardenful weekend!

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Thankful for Another Long-horned Bee

I have been grateful for the weather this week that allowed the arthropods to be out in greater numbers. Yesterday, I posted about a new butterfly, for me, a lifer: the Delaware Skipper. It has not been previously documented in Orleans County. I have eight other skippers species, though, that regularly fly here. But yesterday! I got a long-horned bee. They have beautiful eyes and the males have magnificent antennae. They are very small, as you can see here with her on the top of a black-eyed susan. This is a native, solitary bee. They are all ground nesters, too. In looking through my archives, my memories, I found this bee in 2016 but never reported it. Here is yesterday's beauty:

Long-horned Bee (ssp. Melissodes ) 

Thankful Thursday

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