New Fly is Salmon Buffet

Biologists knew that when the Yolo Bypass flood corridor between Sacramento and Davis floods, the juvenile chinook salmon "grew like gangbusters," but they didn't know why, until they discovered that the fish were feasting on midges. After taking these small flies to an expert, he realized that the flies were a new species that lies dormant in the soil until flooding occurs. (News source.)

Rediscovered Fly

A strange little Drosophila fly that lives on Caribbean crabs has been rediscovered after 40 years. Of course, no one was actually looking for them until a recent expedition... (News source.)

Ecosystem Changed by Beetle

From the Eurekalert:

"The mesquite girdler Oncideres rhodosticta may only be 13mm long, but it has a big role in shaping the landscape. Research carried out by Benjamin Duval and Walter Whitford at New Mexico State University has revealed that the beetle is speeding up the degradation of grasslands in the Chihuahua desert..."
"The mesquite girdler does this by regulating the growth of the mesquite shrub, ensuring their offspring have a plentiful supply of food. The beetles chew girdles around the older stems of the shrub, which forces the plant to regrow new stems the following year. The new stems supply the beetle larvae with food, but the mesquite shrub takes more nutrients from the soil for its increased growth, leaving less for the other plant species such as grasses.
"Up to 150 years ago, the North Chihuahuan Desert was completely covered in grassland. The picture today is very different – dunes and mesquite shrubs cover much of the landscape."

Butterflies Remember

Turns out that a butterfly can remember training (shock-associated smells) it went through as a butterfly. (News source.)

Weird Ant

The Crazy Raspberry Ant is turning up in Texas, and scientists are trying to determine where it came from. The genus appears to be Paratrechina, but the species is not certain and may be undescribed. (News source.)

A New Wetapunga from New Zealand?

80 scientists just finished a blitz survey of the Otari-Wilton's Bush reserve in Wellington, New Zealand. As part of this 24 hours blitz collected, counted and found over 1300 species, among them a cave living wetapunga.

The researchers speculate that the cave "weta" may be a new species, even genus of the group.

Wetapunga's are the heaviest insects known in the world, weighing upwards of 2 1/2 ounces and over 3.5 inches long. These large wingless crickets once lived throughout New Zealand, and are now reduced to small populations primarily on Little Barrier Island.

If this is a true new species, or even genus, then it is an important geographic find for conservation. Regardless of the taxonomic classification though, the find is key to conservation protection of the native animals of New Zealand and elsewhere.

UK Beetle Population Rediscovered

The UK press has been celebrating the rediscovery of the short-necked oil beetle, Meloe brevicollis, in south Devon. From the Independent:

"About 40 individuals have since been identified on grassland between Bolt Head and Bolt Tail in Devon. The last time there was a confirmed sighting was at Chailey Common in East Sussex 59 years ago.
"The natural habitats of the short-necked oil beetle, Meloe brevicollis, have been affected by the spread of intensive agriculture since the Second World War. However, the site in Devon is on a steep slope down to the sea, so it has avoided the sort of agricultural intensification affecting neighbouring land.
"This has allowed the beetle to complete its complicated life-cycle, which involves a period of parasitism inside a bee's nest during the beetle's larval stage." ...

"Adult oil beetles live for about three months and are slow-moving and flightless. Their main defence is to exude a toxic oily secretion when they feel threatened.
"Females lay up to 1,000 eggs in a burrow they dig in soft or sandy soil. When the young hatch in spring, they climb up vegetation and lie in wait on flowers for a passing mining bee to take the young beetle back to the bee's nest, where the beetle changes into a maggot-like larva that devours the bee's egg and stores of pollen."

What seems to be glossed over in the various news articles, however, is that this is the rediscovery of a population, not the species itself. This beetle is found elsewhere in Europe (and Russia). Blister beetles are nice large species, and it is certainly noteworthy that a UK native has reappeared, but be aware that the media is focused on the sensational, not the factual, aspects of this rediscovery.

New Genus of Centipede from Australia

A new genus of centipedes has been described from Western Australia. This new genus is Pilbarascutigera and is described in the paper “A new genus of scutigerid centipeds (Chilopoda) from Western Australia, with new characters for morphological phylogenetics of Scutigeromorpha” by G.D. Edgecombe and L. Barrow within Zootaxa 1409: 23-50 (2007)

The new genus is described based on collected specimens since 2000 by the Department of Environment and Conservation of Western Australia, Biota Environmental Sciences and the Australian Museum from the Pilbara region of Australia.

Morphological differences serve as the basis for the new Pilbara regions genus.

This species has a taxonomic breakout as follows:

Order: Scutigeromorpha
Family: Scutigeridae
Subfamily: Thereuoneminae
Genus: Pilbarascutigera
Species: Incola

Description:

Length: Up to 31 mm in males, 28 mm in femalesColor: Orange brown with yellowish sections

Giant Wetas Reintroduced to NZ Mainland

From the Scoop:

"On Sunday 11 February, volunteers, trustees, iwi representatives and invited dignitaries will watch as up to 100 Cook Strait giant weta (Deinacrida rugosa) are released back into the wild at Wellington’s award-winning Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. This will be the first attempt to re-establish this species on the mainland since they became extinct here over a century ago.
"At around 70mm long, and weighing up to 27g, these mouse-sized insects are one of the world’s heaviest insects and, for many, the stuff of nightmares. But appearances can be deceiving. Deinacrida rugosa are gentle giants - herbivores far less ferocious than the smaller tree weta we find in our garages, gardens and gumboots!
"The weta will be collected on Matiu/Somes Island and released into two different habitat areas at the world-first wildlife sanctuary, where they will be safe from the rats and stoats that lead to their extinction on all but a few offshore islands. This is the first of four planned transfers – up to 450 weta will be transferred in total over four years. The source populations will all be from Matiu/Somes and Mana Islands. Giant weta will be the 15th native species transferred into the safety of the Sanctuary, and the first invertebrate released." ...
"Twenty of the weta will be fitted with radio transmitters so Sanctuary staff can monitor their movements. This is the first time transmitters have been used to track weta as part of a species transfer."

[Full news posted to StrangeArk archive.]