Sierra Nevada Insects!

We are really racking up the insects in CA! They take longer to process and ID so we have not been posting as many. So here are several of our insects that we have gotten in the Sierra Nevada's .

Like most things the smaller these guys are the more amazing they are when you get to see their detail.

Thread wasted wasp, Sphecid family Ammophola sp in honor of our good friend Hook who studies this family in Trinidad. This is guy is from California but still a very beautiful insect.

Lace wings!!! These are always beautiful! Different species than we have in Texas but looks very similar! This is a Green Lacewing (Pseudomallada sp., prob. perfectus)

Ant lions (Myrmeleon sp., prob. either rusticus or timidus) look similar to damselflies but are very different. Their nymphs are not aquatic like damselflies. Their nymphs are actually found in the little funnels in the sand on the beach or any other sand or fine soil that you walk through. They use them as little pit fall traps to catch other insects and eat them. They are a wild looking little creature as a larva!

However they become a very beautiful adult insect! They look similar to damselflies but you know they are not because you can see the relatively large antennae. Damselflies have antennae, they are just very small and hard to see with the naked eye!

Downy Leather-winged Beetle or Soldier Beetle (Podabrus pruinosus) seems to be everywhere we go! He still looks much more beautiful when you get to see him up close and with a lot of light!

Western tent caterpillars (Malacosoma californicum) can be VERY abundant! In fact John came in from outside and about 20 of these moths came in the trailer with him. Yikes we are still pulling these guys out. In fact their was one in the shower this AM.

 

I love the way the antennae look on these guys, almost like little horns.

  

In the morning we found these cool eggs from the Western Tent Caterpillar laying on the table. 

Blue Milkweed Beetle (Chrysochus cabaltinus) are a stunning beetle. I swiped this little guy out of the air as he was flying by. They eat milkweed as their name implies but unlike Monarchs do not get toxins from the plant. They actually will cut a piece of the leaf and let the sap (containing the most of the toxins) run out before they proceed eating the plant. The female however will place a protective coating of her feces around the eggs which contains a rather high concentration of the toxin.

There are a lot more pictures on flickr just click on any of the pictures and you should be able to scroll through the rest of the photos if you would like. We have a lot more to ID and process but this is a start!

Kendra and John
- posted from ipad during the international bug expedition 2012

First day of collecting!

First day of collecting, Rivernook Campground, Kernville, CA. Sequoia National Forest, 9th of June 2012.


The night we got into Sequoia National Forest we decided to black light. Which was great! We got some pretty common, but very cool insects! They will for sure have an appearance in the Peterson guide. We spent most of the morning on Saturday the 9th, photographing our catch from backlighting the night before and the early afternoon reorganizing everything from the past three days of discovering our trailer.

Here is our final photography set up!

We are very pleased. The dogs get the bed in the back, both kennels fit and Repede can hide all the squeak toys from Kava in his kennel. Our camera gear including high speed can be set up in the corner and if we need to do anything with microphot (for the small stuff that requires a microscope objective) we can set that up at the table. We have it covered! Below are some of the photos we took. The Ten-lined June Beetles are amazing, if you don't think they are amazing than there is no help for you in the insect world!

Our first camp site that we will be staying at for an extended period was a good find for insects. It is nestled between the Kern River which is very large and a small stream that has lots of riffles and pools. We have lots of vegetation all around us, desert willow, cottonwoods and several oak species as well as many other small bushes and shrubs. We have several mountain peaks all around us. We are also close to a large lake, Lake Isabella. We will hit this later on and see what we can find.

We also decided to run up to the trail of 100 giants as the sun was going down. Below are some picks of the Giant Sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum). It was incredible to see them for the first time. You kind of have a sense of overwhelming insignificance.

Kendra and John
- posted from ipad during the international bug expedition 2012

The trailer Gods are testing us!

June 8th 2012 Start in Flagstaff, AZ end in Kernville, CA in Sequoia National Forest.

E.O. Wilson said " There is no greater high than discovery." I am pretty sure he was talking about nature, but this sure applies to discovering your travel trailer as well. I can honestly say that we have had some pretty major adrenalin rushes the past few days.

Day three of our bug adventure, all we want to do is get somewhere where we can stop driving this trailer and just collect bugs! This trailer hauling business is not for sissy's. Since Arizona does not have day light savings time, and it was light out at 4AM (preparing us for the 24 or so hours of light in Alaska), we decided to leave early so we can get to Sequoia National Forest at a decent time and get organized, relax a bit and black light for insects. We get up early to start putting the trailer together and find that one of our tires resembles a mountain range; there were rather large peaks and valleys in it! NOT GOOD! At this point the trailer Gods are testing us! The up side is we got to change a flat in the comfort of our one day rental dirt pad home. Luckily it was 5 AM and not many people were up. We got our massive red bumper jack off the side of our truck (yes, we do use this, it does not just look cool!) and found it very easy to change the tire. We were happy to do this at a RV park and not on the side of an interstate with semi's flying by taking our lives into their hands with every gust of wind.

The mechanic in Flagstaff said that our tire was separating on the inside which would cause it to sway, he also noticed our tires were from 2005. Despite the fact that the other three tires still looked good, since most of its life the trailer sits in a lot with Texas heat beating on it allowing dry rot and other devastating things to take their toll, we decided we deserved new tires. We got 5 new tires and 2 new rims. Yes 2 rims, one was bent (a result of the tire separation) and we wanted two full spares in case something happens on the Alaskan highway! We now have 4 of the best trailer tires you can buy and 2 full spares. With our luck so far, I am sure something will necessitate their usage.

Ok, not leaving by 7 AM we left at 10AM. We took the opportunity to hit the grocery store across the street and fill up on drinks and misc. supplies. We got on the road only to discover that we were driving in some major wind. Let's just say the hitchhikers we saw were having a difficult time staying upright. We think the trailer control has greatly improved, but hard to tell since we are basically driving a huge flat kite through the Sierra Nevada's today. We again, will not arrive at our camp site until late, but at least we can start playing in nature again and just relax a bit. We still plan on black lighting at night and I am sure we will have some really cool bug pictures to post!

We are staying near Lake Isabella on the southern most part of Sequoia National Forest just north of Kernville! So far it is beautiful! We can not wait to explore. There is also a Kernville brewery that I know we will visit although we could use something a little harder than beer at this point in the trip!

California and the Mojave Desert are beautiful! We saw some Joshua Trees but did not get pics of them! Hopefully we see them tomorrow and can get some pics they are a mazing!

Kendra and John
- posted from ipad during the international bug expedition 2012