Bioblitz 2011!

 I've been out Bioblitzing the last few days, which has been awesome. Okay, Bioblitzing really isn't a verb, but it should be! A Bioblitz is a short event to document biodiversity.

This particular Bioblitz was to find Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, and ants) at Great Basin National Park. In addition to the scientific focus, the Bioblitz had a strong outreach/education component. Ranger Robb led an afternoon kids' hike to a harvester ant mound and explained it. The kids thought it was absolutely fascinating!

 In the evening graduate students studying Hymenoptera gave a campfire talk. They talked about their projects. Then they entertained the crowd by changing the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" to "Head, Thorax, and Abdomen." They had everyone in the crowd do the movements. It was fantastic.

 It was a good turnout, and some of the folks at the campfire talk signed up to be Bioblitz participants the next day and spend some time searching. Two little boys even collected some ants on their bristlecone hike and turned them in.

 One really fun part about the Bioblitz was meeting the other participants. This is Sarah, and I loved her vial bag. I think it may have to become the next fashion accessory.

 Cecilia came from Brazil to study Hymenoptera at Utah State University, and Juanita came from Columbia.

 This is Ken, a retired entomologist who was so gracious sharing his knowledge. In another post I'll pass on some of what he taught me. His binoculars will focus on things only a couple feet away, giving a whole new dimension to insect watching.

 How do you like this bee?
If you say, That's not a bee, you're right. It only has two wings and no waist, which makes it a Diptera (which means two wings). Diptera are flies, and this fly's coloring imitates a bee.

 Students, visitors, and entomologists enjoying a patio talk by another graduate student.

 It was neat seeing the specimens being brought in. This couple had signed up at the campfire program to collect Hymenoptera. They came in so excited. They had found a few cool things. Plus, they said that the Bioblitz experience made them look at the national park in a whole new way. Their peripheral vision was expanded as they tried to locate the insects they might want to catch. And they realized that as they walked, they paid attention to things they had never really noticed before.

Just listening to them brought tears to my eyes. How cool to have a transforming experience and have your horizons broadened and be helping science at the same time!

 A school group from Colorado came and participated the second day, and Desert Boy couldn't resist joining them. With all those nets sweeping the vegetation, they were bound to find some neat things.

 They found this beautiful green wasp, a cuckoo wasp.

 Two of the students examine their catch.

 Here one transfers a find into the baggie. They were so professional, and even though it was the last field day of their 14-day trip, they went after the task with energy.

I sure want to go on a high school class trip like them!

 A big part of a Bioblitz is managing the data, and Sara helped enter the datasheets from the specimens coming in one morning. Even though it isn't one of the funnest tasks, Sara managed to have a big smile. She's going to go far.

 Near the end of the 48-hour collecting period, some of the experienced entomologists from the Nevada Department of Agriculture pulled out their microscopes to start sorting the specimens. So many were collected, especially from the light traps and malaise traps, that they wanted to make it a little easier for folks in the lab.

 Dr. James Pitts, the lead entomologist for the event, helped Becky preserve the specimens she had caught in her bowl traps--colored bowls filled with soapy water. She had a good number.

 Melissa made sure her datasheets were complete before she turned them in. She included a little of the vegetation in her sample, since some hymenopterans can be very particular about what vegetation they use.

 Grace and June were a delight to meet, as well as their fun mom. They did a super job collecting in various locations and I hope we get to spend more time with them!

 The Bioblitz was lucky to have two great sponsors, Western National Parks Association (WNPA) and the Great Basin National Park Foundation. They both provided lunches, at the beginning and end of the event. WNPA also provided some raffle prizes that made some of the participants extra happy.

 Apparently if you're an entomologist, you don't want to get far from your microscope, even if it is lunch time!

The event concluded with the preliminary results:
Over 60 participants
Over 160 collections brought in
Over 25 families of Hymenoptera added to the park list
Over 65 species of Hymenoptera added to the park list

Dr. Pitts and his students now have a big job of sorting, pinning, and identifying ahead of them. We can't wait to find out more about what was caught. They will undoubtedly add some families and many species to the tally. It may take a few (or many) months to process the thousands of specimens collected.

Well that's the quick overview. It was super fun and now I'm ready for a good rest.
If you ever have a chance to participate in a Bioblitz, I highly recommend it!

The Great Frog Search

We were waiting for my husband to do a task that was taking longer than expected out in the desert, so I decided we had time to go on a frog search. We headed to the nearby "swamp" and proceeded to look for frogs. We found tons!

These are Columbia spotted frogs. It wasn't that long ago that the Division of Wildlife folks were counting egg masses. Now little frogs are hanging out all around. We managed to catch one, but not for long. They are really good at getting away.

I was very worried that Emma would fall into the water, but she seemed to listen to directions to stay out.

Desert Boy became a good frog spotter after he had seen a couple.

Then it was time to take a walk. And of course when you're in the "swamp," you don't take nice, tidy little walks. Desert Boy found a good muddy spot right off the bat and sunk up to his knee in the mud.

He kept looking for frogs, though. We only spotted one in this grassier section.

Meanwhile, Desert Girl got in on the action and plopped her tush down in the mud. She wasn't sure what to think at first, but she quickly figured out that the mud was fun and not too cold.

Desert Boy continued his trek. He was fearless as we tramped through the wilds.

Still looking...

Meanwhile, up on the drier bank, I found this dragonfly--or is it a damselfly? I don't know much about the Order Odonata.

Where's Emma?

Sitting in the mud again!

We sure enjoyed the beautiful spring day. I'm glad we got out, as it's going to be cold and rainy the next few days.

Garden Cricket

Note: If you are visiting this site from Britain or one of the commonwealths, do not expect to find a post about a game that is played in said areas. There will be no talk of wickets, tippy-go, slogging, or "last ball pending soup."

I have no idea what any of those mean.

I'm not sure that I will ever know what they mean.

Do you know what they mean? If you do, leave a comment so I can give you a virtual high five. And then we'll wonder why you know what you know.

Anyway, back to my garden cricket:
We've been busy in the garden, and there are no shortage of worms and crickets there. I think this is in the genus Gryllus, the field crickets. The Bugguide website can help you identify insects, although it helps if you have a little background in entomology to get started there. (And seriously, I mean little. I've never had an entomology class, but I'm starting to figure it out. Not just identification, either. Insects are exciting. And there are so many left to discover and name!)

I thought I'd let Desert Girl get a closer look. She was quite interested, runny nose and all. (Fortunately the runny nose is gone now. That was a constant companion for over a month this winter.)

"Aw, mom, you shouldn't give me such a yummy treat to eat!"

If you're worried, no, she didn't try to eat it. But a couple nights later we had a cricket in the kitchen, and she chased it all over for a good ten minutes, catching it and then losing it. Eventually the little cricket lost in the battle with Emzilla. So we dipped it in chocolate and ate it.

Or did we?

Into Ice Cave

A couple weeks ago I took some work colleagues into a nearby cave. It's not real large, but it has some interesting features in it. To go in, first we had to unlock the gate.

Desert Boy doesn't look too sure about this outing. He wasn't supposed to go, but my husband had a water meeting that ran long, and since I knew Desert Boy could handle the cave, he got to go.

He was happy when he was doing something physical, otherwise he was ready to leave. He made the cave seem quite a bit bigger and was able to squeeze along some of the rather small passageways.

Do you see the scallops on the cave walls? They are an indication that there was once flowing water in the cave. I've been in this cave when water flowed into it--brrrr! It required crawling through some cold creek water. The scallops are found at all levels of the cave and you'll see them in the following pictures, too. Obviously there used to be a lot more water flowing in the cave.

Here's Bryan, who was eager to explore every little nook and cranny, hoping to find some new passageway.

Bryan, Travis, and Nicole reached a deadend and had to turn around. But before they could get out of the passage, I made them stop and pose for a picture. I'm mean that way. 

I didn't have any kneepads that fit Desert Boy, but it turned out he hardly had to crawl, even though the rest of us did.

Here's Nicole in an upper passage. There is just a little bit of maziness to the cave that makes it fun to explore.

I love looking down the deep, dark passageways and wondering where they go.

Travis was willing to not just wonder, but crawl around and find out.

Of course I'm always on the lookout for cave insects, but I didn't find a lot on this trip. This beetle was one of the more interesting finds. There was also a lot of rodent scat in the cave, some of it fairly fresh. But we didn't run into any live rodents. 

Another crawling passage, this one with plenty of dirt on the floor. And you know what you get when you put Desert Boy and dirt together...

...yum. Or not. I just hope he is getting his immune system strong.

After an hour and a half of checking out the entire cave, it was time to leave. But we'll be back!

Beetle Bioblitz

Last weekend Great Basin National Park hosted a Beetle Bioblitz. During a 24-hour period, more than forty people traipsed throughout the park collecting beetles, searching a variety of habitats from 5,300 feet to 10,800 feet.

The event started with a beetle workshop, where participants learned some beetle basics. 

Beetles belong to the Order Coleoptera, and there are over 12,000 described types of beetles in the U.S. and over 300,000 worldwide. Wow! This amounts to about 25% of all living organisms. Even more amazing--there could possibly be 5 to 8 million beetle species--many of them remain undescribed.

Beetles include some commonly seen insects like "ladybugs" and lightning bugs.

Although beetles have hardened forewings (elytra), they have a second set of wings that allow (most of) them to fly.

There are many other cool facts about beetles at Wikipedia.

Southern Utah University from Cedar City, Utah, brought a display case of beetles, some found in the area, but the more dramatic ones as examples of how different beetles can be.

Other participants came from Dixie State College in St. George, Utah, University of Nevada-Reno, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and Nevada Department of Agriculture.

Participants had to keep track of where they collected beetles on data sheets and label their vials so that the park could keep a record of them.

Different collecting techniques were used, from turning over logs and rocks to installing pitfall traps, where unsuspecting beetles would fall into a cup and be trapped. Light traps were quite successful, as were sweep nets that were brushed through grasses, shrubs, and trees.

Following collection came the really hard part: identification. Fortunately there were some very talented entomologists (insect specialists) who were able to get the beetles sorted down to family in relatively short time. One of the entomologists, Jeff Knight from the Nevada Department of Agriculture, took the beetles back with him to identify them down to a further level.

The preliminary results were 716 beetles collected in at least 30 families. Over 600 hours of volunteer time made it all possible. 

The national park now has a much better idea of the beetles that live in it. Typically, insects aren't high on anyone's priority list, so this beetle bioblitz made it possible to learn a lot in a relatively short period of time.

Bioblitzes are becoming more popular throughout the country. It might not be long until one comes to a place close to you! And if not, Great Basin National park plans to have another one next year and you can come out and participate!