- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Monarch butterflies seem to be as scarce as hen's teeth around here.
And since hens have no teeth, that's pretty scarce.
And then it happened.
A late in-star monarch caterpillar appeared on our milkweed in our Vacaville pollinator-predator garden on the very last day of July.
We watched it munch the wilting milkweed leaves in the triple-digit temperature.
For one day.
The next day, Aug. 1, it vanished, never to be seen again. Did it pupate? Did the California scrub jays get it?
The scrub jays nesting in our cherry laurel hedges are prime suspects. They devour everything in the garden, from honey bees, longhorned bees and dragonflies to assorted butterflies, lygus bugs and praying mantises. Happy meals. If they eat a monarch caterpillar, that makes for an unhappy meal, the vomiting kind. It's about the naturally occurring toxins (cardiac glycosides) in the milkweed that the 'cats ingest that serve as predatory protection. That's why scientists say "I bet you'll eat only one."
Just one. The one we were watching?
"Known bird predators include brown thrashers, grackles, robins, cardinals, sparrows, scrub jays and pinyon jays," Wikipedia says, but notes that "Several species of birds have acquired methods that allow them to ingest monarchs without experiencing the ill effects associated with the cardiac glycosides (cardenolides). The black-backed oriole is able to eat the monarch through an exaptation of its feeding behavior that gives it the ability to identify cardenolides by taste and reject them. The black-headed grosbeak, though, has developed an insensitivity to secondary plant poisons that allows it to ingest monarchs without vomiting. As a result, these orioles and grosbeaks periodically have high levels of cardenolides in their bodies, and they are forced to go on periods of reduced monarch consumption. This cycle effectively reduces potential predation of monarchs by 50% and indicates that monarch aposematism has a legitimate purpose. The black-headed grosbeak has also evolved resistance mutations in the molecular target of the heart poisons, the sodium pump. The specific mutations that evolved in one of the grosbeak's four copies of the sodium pump gene are the same as those found in some rodents that have also evolved to resist cardiac glycosides."
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Did you know that California has a state insect? It does.
Is it the honey bee? No.
Is it the lady beetle (ladybug)? No.
Bumble bee? No.
It's the California dogface butterfly (Zerene eurydice), an insect found only in California.
The state Legislature designated it as the state insect in 1972. The butterfly is nicknamed "dogface" in reference to the silhouette of what resembles a poodle head on the wings of the male. The female is mostly solid yellow except for a single black spot on its upper wings.
Most people have never seen it in the wild. But if you've visited the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis, home of a global collection of 8 million insect specimens, you know that its logo is the California dogface butterfly.
And on Thursday, Aug. 8 those attending the Vacaville Museum Guild's Annual Children's Party (sold out) will see specimens from the Bohart Museum, as well as macro images of the butterfly, the work of talented Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas of Davis.
Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator of the Bohart, has donated a drawer of the specimens for visitors to see. They can also pose in a cutout of the Bohart Museum's California dogface butterfly banner. And thumb through a 35-page children's book, "The Story of the Dogface Butterfly," written by UC Davis doctoral alumna Fran Keller, a professor at Folsom Lake College and a Bohart Museum research scientist. The book includes images by Kareofelas and Keller. Laine Bauer, then a UC Davis student, contributed the illustrations.
The book, published in 2013, tells the untold story of the California dogface butterfly, and how schoolchildren became involved in convincing the State Legislature to select the colorful butterfly as the state insect. Fourth grade students of Betty Harding and Shirley Klein, Dailey Elementary School, Fresno, advocated it as the state insect. The teachers and students enlisted the help of State Assemblyman Kenneth L. Maddy, who authored AB 1834. On July 28, 1972, Governor Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law, designating the California dogface butterfly the official "State Insect of California." (Read more on how the butterfly became the state insect under the Ronald Reagan administration.)
The most prevalent habitat of the California dogface butterfly is the 40-acre Shutamul Bear River Preserve near Auburn, on a Placer Land Trust conservation site; Kareofelas serves as a docent on the Placer Land Trust tours. (See virtual tour on YouTube). The butterfly is there because its larval host plant, false indigo (Amorpha californica), is there.
Are there dogface butterflies in Vacaville? Yes. The butterfly's breeding grounds include Gates Canyon. (See UC Davis emeritus professor Art Shapiro's website.)
As mentioned, few people see the butterfly in the wild. However, its image graces a first-class U.S. stamp and California driver licenses. It's also depicted on the California State Fair monorail.
Butterfly Poster and Book. The Vacaville Museum Guild's Children's Party (see what's on tap) also will spotlight a Bohart Museum poster by Kareofelas-Keller that depicts the male and female butterfly. (Both the poster and the book are available for sale in the Bohart gift shop; net proceeds benefit the insect museum's education, outreach and research programs.)
The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, also houses a petting zoo (featuring stick insects, Madagascar hissing cockroaches and tarantulas) and a insect-themed gift shop, stocked with books, posters, t-shirts, hoodies, jewelry and collecting equipment. Director of the insect museum is Professor Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and associate dean, Agricultural Sciences, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
The Bohart is open for walk-in visitors on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 4:30 p.m. through Aug. 27. It will be closed to the public Sept. 1-22.
The next open house is set for 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 28. The theme is "Museum ABC's: Arthropods, Bohart and Collecting." All open houses are free and family friendly. Parking is also free. For more information, contact bmuseum@ucdavis.edu or access the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu.
Links:
- Golden Year for the California Dogface Butterfly (Bug Squad post, Feb. 4, 2022)
- Rob on the Road, KVIE, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (First aired July 7, 2017)
- Capital Public Radio Piece on Dogface Butterfly (featuring Greg Kareofelas)
- Pacific Land Trust website (PLT maintains a conservation site in Auburn that's the home of the California dogface butterfly)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's nicknamed "the sunflower bee" for good reason.
It forages on sunflowers.
We recently spotted a longhorned bee, Svastra obliqua, also called "the sunflower bee," on Gaillardia, aka blanket flower, a member of the sunflower family, Asteracease.
Asteraceae is comprised of more than 32,000 known species of flowering plants. And Svastra? Fourteen different species occur in North America and seven in California, according to the UC Berkeley Urban Bee Lab, which provides this description:
"Overall they are medium to large, with stout bodies, gray hair on their thorax, and irregular striping on their abdomen. Females can be distinguished by their scopae, which are located on their hind legs. They additionally are larger compared to males and have dark faces. Males have yellow markings on the bottom section of their faces and are typically more elongate in body size. Both male and female bees have long antennae. Svastra sp. look very similar to Melissodes without using a microscope. However, Svastra sp. will have longer antennae than both Anthophora and Diadasia so the difference is more noticeable."
Those long antennae...those eyes...those mesmerizing eyes...
You can read more about California's native bees in California Bees and Blooms: a Guide for Gardeners and Naturalists, a book authored by the University of California team of Gordon Frankie, Robbin Thorp, Rollin Coville and Barbara Ertter. All are affiliated with UC Berkeley. Thorp, who received his doctorate in entomology from UC Berkeley, was a member of the UC Davis entomology faculty for 30 years, from 1964-1994. He achieved emeritus status in 1994 but continued his research, teaching and public service until a few weeks before his death on June 7, 2019.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Those attending the Bohart Museum of Entomology's recent Moth Night learned all about silkworms, moths, cocoons and textiles at a display staffed by Michael "Mike" Pitcairn, a retired senior environmental scientist/supervisor with the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Mulberry silk production originated in China at least 5000 years ago. Folklore indicates that the wife of a Chinese emperor watched a cocoon fall from a mulberry tree into her teacup. She reportedly watched the cocoon unravel, revealing a long delicate thread. She collected thousands of the threads and made a robe for the emperor.
Biology Professor Richard Peigler of University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, donated the items to the Bohart Museum in 2020, said UC Davis Distinguished Professor Emerita Lynn Kimsey, former director of the Bohart. "What's cool about it is," she said, "is that the silk pieces were made from silk produced by multiple silk moth species, not just the one we think of commercially."
The mulberry moth is the primary producer of silk. Tussah is the most well known of the wild silks.
Peigler has worked extensively with wild silk moths, studying their phylogeny, taxonomy and biology. His donations comprise the Wild Silks collection at the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida.
"Wild silk is not nearly as luxurious as domestic silk found in today's clothing industry," the McGuire Center website relates. "This is raw, rough, and textured silk which feels almost paper-like to the human touch. This silk is harvested from the cocoons of various silk moths that encounter little to no human interaction. The practice of producing silk – termed sericulture, stretches back 5 millennia, and astonishingly, is a craft performed to this very day."
They included a woman's chaddar (head covering and shawl) and tablecloths.
Eri Silk (Samia ricini). Displayed was a woman's chaddar of 100 percent eri silk (Samia ricini), handwoven in Assam, India, and of naturally colored yarn. The brocade was done in traditional Assamese motifs. Women in rural villages in Northeast India wear these traditional shawls in winter. Peigler bought the chaddar for $47 from a seller in India in 2019.
Tussah Silk (Antheraea pernyi). Displayed was an antique tablecloth of tussah silk, handwoven in China in the 1920s or 1930s. The tablecloth, hand-reeled and in the natural beige color, is hand-embroidered with mulberry silk (Bombx mori). China has exported thousands of tablecloths and handkerchiefs made of tussah silk (called "pongee" or "Shantng silk") to the United States and the United Kingdom. Peigler purchased this tablecloth in April 2019 from an internet seller in Mount Dora, Fla., for $35.
Also of interest was a sample of tussah silk fabric in a pattern called "Honeycomb," mimicking the hexagonal cells in a bee colony. "The yarns were machine spun and the fabric was machine woven," said Peigler, who purchased the fabric from Oriental Silk Import Co. in Los Angeles for $32.95 per yard. There are several species of tussah silk moths (family Saturniidae) in China, India, Japan, Africa and North America.
Mulberry Silk (Bombx mori). Displayed was a tablecloth created in the early 1900s in China. "It was spun, woven and embroidered by hand," Peigler related.
The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946, is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. It also includes a live petting zoo and an insect-themed gift shop. Director of the museum is Professor Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair of UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and associate dean, Agricultural Sciences, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
The Bohart Museum is open to walk-in visitors on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 4:30 p.m. through Aug. 27. It will be closed to the public Sept. 1-22.
The next open house is set for 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 28. The theme is "Museum ABC's: Arthropods, Bohart and Collecting." All open houses are free and family friendly. Parking is also free. For more information, contact bmuseum@ucdavis.edu or access the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Meanwhile, here's another look at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's 2024 Moth Night, which drew widespread interest.
No one knows exactly how many moth events took place across the nation during National Moth Week, just as no one can predict how many species of moths and other night-flying insects will come to your porch light at night, or to your blacklighting display (UV light illuminating a hanging white sheet).
"Scientists estimate there are at minimum 150,000 moth species, and some believe that there could be over 500,000! Moths have been found that are small as a pinhead and as large as an adult-human's hand," according to NationalToday.com. "But of course, it's the incredibly complicated wing colors and patterns that make them especially dazzling."
A New Jersey non-profit organization, Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission, launched the national event in 2012. The organization is dedicated to the conservation and promotion of the local environment.
The Bohart Museum's global collection of 8 million insects includes some 825,454 specimens of moths and butterflies, including 618,750 moths, ranging in size from the huge Atlas moths (10-inch wingspan) to the extremely tiny (4 mm wingspan) leafminer moths, says Jeff Smith, curator of the Lepidoptera collection. He and Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas showed dozens of moth specimens and answered questions.
What moths were drawn to the blacklighting display? (See list on Bug Squad blog). Retired UC Davis staff associate John "Moth Man" De Benedictus and his colleagues set up the blacklighting display. UC Davis doctoral student Iris Quayle fielded questions about the differences between moths and butterflies (See Bug Squad blog).
In today's blog, we share images of
- Moth-er Volkmar Heinrich, UC Davis associate professor of biomedical engineering
- Moth-ers UC Davis doctoral candidate Peter Coggan and his father, Pete Coggan of Minnesota (See Bug Squad blog)
- UC Davis student Kaitai Liu who showed stick insects and Madagascar hissing cockroaches from the live petting zoo
- UC Davis graduate student Riley Hoffman and fellow Bohart volunteer Barbara Heinsch, who staffed the family arts-and-crafts table.
Light Pollution. The Coggans answered many questions about light pollution. "Most organisms have come to rely on nighttime darkness for knowing when to reproduce, preparing for the winter, and moving around their environment," commented UC Davis doctoral student Peter Coggan. "The Industrial Revolution Artificial Light At Night (ALAN) has become a major conservation issue, disorienting and confusing countless species, often resulting in death. ALAN often kills or displaces organisms like bats, moths, and fireflies, making our nights less bio- diverse and more mosquito filled."
"Not only does it alter animal behavior but ALAN also has been linked to many human health issues like depression, obesity, and cancer," he said. "Although not widely known, ALAN is one of the easiest environmental crises to solve. Raising awareness and getting communities to reduce their light usage can solve the issue overnight and bring back the animals of darkness and the stars back to them."
The Bohart Museum's Moth Night also featured a display of various silk textile and cocoons, donated to the museum by Professor Richard Peigler of the University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio. Bohart associate Mike Pitcairn, retired senior environmental scientist and supervisor, California Department of Food and Agriculture's Biological Control Program, staffed the table. (See more in upcoming Bug Squad blog.)
The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946, is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. Director of the insect museum is Professor Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair of UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and associate dean, Agricultural Sciences, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
The open houses are free and family friendly. The next open house is on Saturday, Sept. 28 from 1 to 4 p.m. The theme: "Museum ABC's: Arthropods, Bohart and Collecting." Access the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu or email bmuseum@ucdavis.edu for more information.