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bugs

February 25, 2019 by wpengine

The Manticore

manticore specimen next to a dime for scale
Figure 1.  Adult male Manticora imperator, dorsal view (photo credit: V. Verdecia).

The Manticore.  In ancient Persia, a scary, man-eating monster with the head of a man, the body of a lion, and the tail and sting of a scorpion. In nature, one of the most spectacular of God’s favorite creatures, beetles (there are more beetle species than anything else living today).  The genus Manticora (“the one who devours men”) consists of 15 known species confined to the southern portions of Africa, mostly to the oldest geologic portions of that region, and mostly to open desert and dry savannah habitats. They are relatively primitive, flightless, predatory black tiger beetles of enormous size.  The males of some species are particularly spectacular, with huge asymmetrical mandibles, reaching the extreme in Manticora imperator, with a toothed left mandible and a larger right mandible bent like a sickle (Figures 1-2).  Mandibles in both sexes are used to attack prey, and, in males, also to combat other males and to clasp the female during copulation.

Figure 2.  Close-up of mandibles and maw of male M. imperator (photo credit: V. Verdecia).

A recent donation gives Carnegie Museum of Natural History one of the best collections of these beetles in the world, nearly a thousand specimens, including all the species and subspecies.  This includes many of the types (specimens designated to represent the species when an author names a new animal or plant).  Long series of many of them (Figure 3) allows analysis of variation and distribution, addressing conservation issues, and has great potential for exhibit purposes.  Some of the species are now threatened, not by collecting, but by construction and development over their very limited habitats and ranges.

Figure 3.  Typical drawer from CMNH collection with several Manticora species (photo credit: V. Verdecia).

The larvae (Figure 4) look and behave more like tiger beetle larvae from other parts of the world, except that they are enormous.  They dig a vertical burrow up to a meter in depth, depending on substrate, which they can drop down into when disturbed.  The larval head is like a big armored plug with jaws attached.  In attack mode, they block the burrow entrance with the head (making the hole difficult to see) and wait.  There is also a large hook toward the rear on the larva’s back which makes it difficult for anything to dislodge it from the burrow. If something edible gets within striking distance, the larva throws its forebody out, grabs with its large jaws, and drags the prey into the burrow.

Figure 4.  Larva of M. mygaloides, antero-lateral view (photo credit: V. Verdecia).

Adults hibernate underground in a large chamber at the end of a tunnel that can be as much as a meter and a half in length.  Most are active from October to March after the summer rains, but they can wait a long time if necessary, until the unpredictable, erratic summer rains come. Activity is in the daytime, and they do not hesitate to attack other large armored beetles, or invertebrates that are larger than the attacker.  You have perhaps seen giant millipedes the size of a bratwurst in various insect zoos? There is a filmed instance of a Manticora finishing off and eating a 10-12 inch millipede, though the beginning of the event was missed, and it is possible the millipede was already injured. These are probably not the normal preferred prey of these aggressive beetles (the millipedes, that is, not the bratwursts, which are not known to occur in the wild).  But it still seems like quite a feat for an animal only about 20% the size of its dinner.

Bob Davidson is Collection Manager of Invertebrate Zoology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: beetles, Bob Davidson, bugs, insects, Invertebrate Zoology

February 25, 2019 by wpengine

Bugs on Bugs on Bugs…on Birds

Big fleas have little fleas

Upon their backs to bite ‘em;

And little fleas have lesser fleas

And so, ad infinitum.

-Ogden Nash

Flat flies, louse flies, keds. The distinctive members of the fly family Hippoboscidae go by many names. All are obligate blood feeders found on mammals or birds and have a flattened body shape suitable for sliding in between the feathers and fur of their hosts. Their life history is as strange as their appearance, I assure you. While the vast majority of flies and other insects lay numerous eggs to reproduce, female hippoboscids prefer a more mammalian strategy. A single fertilized egg hatches within the female, and the developing larva is nourished within the mother through specialized “milk” glands until it is fully grown. The hugely swollen female then gives birth to a mature larva which immediately pupates, and later emerges as a winged adult hungry for a blood meal.

Hippoboscids are frequently encountered at the banding station at Powdermill Nature Reserve. Last year, most of the birds that were processed here were checked for these parasites, which were collected. Not much is known about these flies on songbirds as most of the research conducted deals with raptors. While identifying the flies under a microscope, we discovered these flies were often carrying some smaller bugs with them on their abdomens. These hitchhikers were bird lice and avian skin mites (see photos).

fly with white circle drawn around bird lice on abdomen
Dorsal view of a hippoboscid fly with several bird lice hitching a ride on its abdomen.

 

fly with white circle drawn around mites
Ventral view of a hippoboscid fly carrying several female avian skin mites (Epidermoptidae), each surrounded by a cluster of white eggs.

Both of these small parasites are wingless and poor dispersers, but can conveniently get from bird to bird by riding on the hippoboscid flies, a strategy called phoresy. In the case of the skin mites, the females actually require a hippoboscid to reproduce. They attach themselves to the body of the fly and lay their eggs all around them in a clump. To add to the craziness, sometimes the mites attach to the lice which attach to the fly, which you find on birds. So there you have it. Bugs on bugs on bugs… on birds!

Andrea Kautz is a Research Entomologist at Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Powdermill Nature Reserve. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Andrea Kautz, avian research, Birds, bugs, Powdermill Nature Reserve

September 6, 2018 by wpengine

Illustrating the Head of an Inchworm (caterpillar of Lepidoptera: Geometridae)

by Jane Hyland

scientific illustration of an inchworm

Teamwork between scientists studying insects (entomologists) and illustrators is an important part of museum-based scientific research.  This important collaborative aspect between the scientist and the illustrator is instrumental in identifying and clarifying important characteristics of the specimen for identification purposes. Scientific illustration allows observers to see and study certain tiny features that are barely visible under the microscope, but which the scientist is familiar.

By studying and illustrating distinctive morphological features of specimens, the illustrator can choose to emphasize or ignore entirely different characters, increasing the visibility of important structures for accurate identification. For example, the placement of tiny sensory hairs (setae) on the head of this common moth caterpillar (inchworm) may be emphasized by the illustrator as important for identifying this species.

Jane Hyland is a Scientific Preparator at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: bugs, Invertebrate Zoology, Lepidoptera

August 29, 2018 by wpengine

Oh MAN(tis)!

by Catherine Giles

Picture it: A crisp, early evening in late spring. The virtually cloudless sky cascades in a brilliant azure backdrop against your humble abode.

You’ve just arrived home from a long, exhausting day of work, yet your mind is still racing:

I need to remember that meeting on Tuesday, answer those important emails, what even is Windows 10?, did I put gas in the car?, what was that notification from my mother in law?

You are definitely ready to unwind and relax for the day!

You sling your bags over a shoulder and balance your keys in one hand. You sigh wearily as you slide the key into the lock and, glancing over at the front window, notice a tiny, greenish-brown praying mantis staring back at you inquisitively, like the one pictured below.

praying mantis
A young praying mantis stalks her prey.

Huh. That’s funny.

You, entomologist that you are, had found an ootheca, the foamy pouch in which mantises lay their eggs, last week, and decided to try and rear them on your own, giving them a better chance of survival for eventual release into the wild. Early this morning, you’d taken the ootheca out of a humid jar, and arranged it carefully into a brand new aerated container, mimicking seasonal outdoor changes.

ootheca
An ootheca, found outdoors. Photo credit: Jim Fetzner.

How weird that you should see a singular mantis on your window, let alone one this tiny. It probably got in through an open screen or something. You make a mental note to send your landlord a work order.

You unlock and open the door to find another tiny praying mantis on your end table. Whoa! Definitely need to check the screens.

But there’s another mantis on your ceiling. And another on the couch. Two by the sink. Three all over the Taco Bell wrappers in the trash.

Slowly, with growing horror (and excitement!) you realize the mesh on your brand new aerated container is too large to contain minute mantises, and they’ve escaped to the refuge of your apartment.

You spend the next hour and 45 minutes frantically running around, grabbing handfuls of jumping mantises, throwing them into a (sealed) container, using a broom to pick the ones off the ceiling and praying to the old gods and the new, you can catch them all.

It’s a full-on Pokehunt, and you’re all out of potions and revives.

Nearly 200 thumb-nail sized, jumping, running, scuttling, adorable baby mantises play havoc on your heart strings (and your apartment) and you just have to take care of them. Knowing that mantises like to eat live food, and knowing they’ve gone a full day without it, you decide it’s time to get them some grub.

With all rambunctious insects fully secured, you race to Petco to grab their last container of crickets before closing, pulling Indie 500 stunts (you didn’t get gas earlier, by the way) along Route 8 to make sure your precious mantises have enough food for the day.

two praying mantises
Two praying mantises practice The Titanic for their peers.

 

You bought about 30 Acheta domesticus, a common house cricket, in a small container. They’re nearly three times the size of your mantises! What a hearty snack these will be. Trying to be a good mantis Momma, you empty the crickets into the enclosure.

But you’re new at this. Caterpillars you can rear easily, with the right host plant. You’ve had a dog before for goodness sake, this should be easy.

A. domesticus, though, will eat meat. Meat the approximate size and shape of a baby praying mantis.

Oh no.

You wrangle the crickets away from their mantis midnight snack and call it a day. The next day, you’ll get some flightless fruit flies and rear the mantises with less tragic incidents for several more weeks.

A praying mantis enjoying a refreshing flightless fruitfly.
A praying mantis enjoying a refreshing flightless fruitfly.

Eventually, the spring chill warms to light summer breezes, and you’re able to release the mantises into the wilds of your home garden. All in all, you’ve learned a tremendous lesson, and earned a great campfire story, when it comes to rearing and caring for praying mantises.

mantises in their enclosure

Catherine Giles is the Curatorial Assistant of Invertebrate Zoology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences working at the museum. 

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: biodiversity, bugs, ecology, entomology, Invertebrate Zoology

July 17, 2017 by wpengine

Scorpion Bombs

a bunch of scorpians crowling out of broken pot

Can you imagine having a jar full of scorpions dropped on you?

Scholars suspect that a small desert kingdom used ceramic bombs filled with venomous insects or scorpions to ward off the Roman Empire roughly 1,800 years ago in present day Iraq.

Learn more about poisons in history or the venom of scorpions in The Power of Poison, open through September 4 at Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: bugs, Invertebrate Zoology

August 22, 2016 by wpengine

These specimens on display at Carnegie Museum of Natural History

display of bumblebees

These specimens on display at Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh were not collected by museum scientists.

Local insect entusiasts Robert and Tressa Surdick who lived in Bethel Park, a suburb of Pittsburgh, spent their lives collecting insects from all over Western Pennsylvania. Bob visited the museum as a teen to examine the entomology collections.

When Bob passed away in 2012, he donated his collection of more than 100,000 beautifully prepared insects, including the bumblebees shown above.

A portion of his collection is now displayed near the landing of the Grand Staircase, where it catches the attention of young bug lovers each day.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: bees, bugs, insects, Pittsburgh

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