Blueberries in the Sky

Early every spring, a group of leaf-cutter or mason bees in the family Megachilidae are actively flying about much of North America. They belong in the genus Osmia and go by a number of names. The species O. ribifloris is called the blueberry bee which is appropriate given its size and color! Females in this genus like to nest in narrow holes or tubes. Most commonly this means hollow twigs, but they will use a variety of things with the appropriate sized hole, including empty snail shells and old dirt dauber nests like you can see below. They don't excavate their own nest, but rather find pre-existing nesting holes. A female might inspect several potential nests before settling in.

Blueberry females then visit flowers like redbuds to gather pollen and nectar. They make many trips to complete a pollen/nectar provision mass for their larva.

Once a provision mass is complete, she will back into the hole and lays an egg on top of the pollen. She then creates a partition of "mud", which also serves as the back of the next cell. 

This process continues until she has filled the cavity. Female-destined eggs are laid in the back of the nest, and male eggs towards the front. 

Once she finishes with the nest, she plugs the entrance to the tube.  

They may end up with several completed nest holes before they are done.

A group of wasps in the family Sapygidae (no official common name, but sometimes referred to as Club-horned Wasps) are also actively flying at this time looking to parasitize the blueberry bees.

By the summer, the blueberry bee larva (if unparasitized) has consumed all of its provisions and pupates. The adult matures in the fall inside its cocoon and doesn't emerge until the following spring when the whole process starts over.

Urban Coyote

There is a small pack of coyotes running around at the field station where I work in downtown Austin, Texas. They are occasionally taking down a lone deer and move around the entire 82 acre facility. I setup some cameras in areas where I could tell they were actively moving about and have been successful in getting a few images. They are beautiful animals who have really adapted to live among humans. In addition to coyotes, I've gotten numerous raccoons, armadillos, opossums, red fox, white-tailed deer and even a porcupine!

BugShot 2011: Improve your insect photography with John Abbott, Thomas Shahan, and Alex Wild

I am pleased to announce BugShot, a first-of-a-kind weekend workshop for arthropod photography. The event is a photography course and weekend retreat scheduled for Labor Day Weekend 2011 (September 2-5) at the Shaw Nature Reserve outside of St. Louis, Missouri. We have chosen a long weekend and a central location to make the event as accessible as possible and have limited enrollment to 35 to keep the participant/instructor ratio manageable.

Depending on how the event unfolds, we may make BugShot an annual event similar to the famous Ant & Bee Courses, with rotating instructors and locations.

[download announcement] | [register online]

Who should attend?

• Entomologists who aspire to improve their photographic skills for work or pleasure
• Photographers who wish to learn arthropod- specific techniques
• Naturalists & gardeners who enjoy the little things outdoors
• Bug bloggers & bugguide.netters who’d like to spice up their online imagery
• Anyone looking for an excuse to hang out at the beautiful Shaw Nature Reserve for a long weekend

Attendees are assumed to have an understanding of simple camera functions, including shutter speed & aperture, and should be able to operate the basic functions of their equipment. The course is geared towards SLR equipment, but most topics will also be applicable to digicams that offer manual control of important functions.

We are offering up to three registration fee waivers to current students, please email (alwild [at] myrmecos.net) for details.

Who are the instructors?

We have arranged an instructor list that spans a diversity of photographic styles.

• John Abbott, of Texas, loves to photograph insects, especially in action
• Thomas Shahan, of Oklahoma, is a master of close-up arthropod portraiture
• Alex Wild, of Illinois, is an ant photographer extraordinaire

What will you learn at BugShot?

• Macro-& microphotography equipment
• Digital asset management & workflow
• Composition
• Lighting & flash
• Working with live insects
• Special techniques: focus-stacking, time-lapse & video
• Field sessions in prairie, woodland & aquatic habitats
• Evening photo-sharing presentations
• and more!

click to register for BugShot 2011

New Texas Spiketail Dragonfly

I just described a new species of dragonfly in the genus Cordulegaster. The common name for this family of dragonflies is Spiketails because the females typically have long ovipositors making it look like they have a spiked tail. The formal description of the species should be in print in a couple of months, but here are some pictures. It seems to have a strong association with Pitcher Plant bogs and is now known in five counties in Texas and just over the border in western Louisiana. I will be describing the larva soon. This species probably remained undiscovered because of its very early flight season (March-April) and restricted habitat of pitcher plant bogs. I'm hoping to learn more about its natural history this spring.


Male perched on a dead pitcher plant.


Male.


Female

Larva.


Exuviae or shed skin.

Bugs in the House

I had the opportunity today to visit an apartment complex here in Austin that is infested with bed bugs. These are very difficult to get rid of and this is a very heavy infestation. Your mom really meant it when she said, "Don't let the bed bugs bite!"


There were many simply crawling on the walls.


Others were of course hiding out in the folds of the mattress.


The dark stains in the two images above  are dried blood and fecal material from the bugs. You can seem some in the fold of this mattress (same ones photographed above).


They like to get in tight spaces. Above you can see where they get between the slats of this bed. Below are closeups of the activity. Notice the dried fecal pellets and all the eggs (elongated white structures).