DiscoverLife.org April 2013
To share knowledge and improve education, health, agriculture, the economy, and conservation in the world!
Apantesis vittata Catocala blandula Apatelodes torrefacta Hymenia perspectalis
Anisota stigma
Photos by John Pickering
Vol. 1, Issue 1 “It makes people like moths.”-Cameron Prybol
Mark your Calendars! Welcome to Life Discovered!
30 April Moth Party @ Sandy Creek The amount of work that goes on behind the scenes at Discover Life is @ 7:30 pm! Check often tremendous, but remarkable. Life Discovered is our attempt to connect the Facebook for emerging human aspect of the organization to its science. Every day scientists, students, details. Come help us kick- and volunteers across the world collect data for www.discoverlife.org. They start a new observation site! wake at 3:30am to photograph moths by porch lights, hang bed sheets in the woods erecting observation sites, sit for hours at computers identifying moths, argue, laugh, tell stories, eat tangerines, drink coffee (lots of coffee!), and Dyspteris abortivaria enjoy every minute of it. Discover Life is a living, breathing organism. It is both a scientific encyclopedia and a broad family of people with a passion for life and discovery, for science and education. In these monthly newsletters you will find articles, updates, news, factoids, calls for volunteers, and anything else we can think of that will connect you— the dedicated and passionate— to what others in the Discover Photo: John Pickering Life universe, and beyond, do. We welcome your suggestions and comments, but, most of all, we thank you for making Discover Life extraordinary. Enjoy!
—Anthony Sadler, Editor
Did You Know?
Scientists Jesse Barber and William Conner from Wake Forest University discovered certain non-toxic Tiger Moths, such as the Milkweed Tiger Moth, Euchaetes egle, mimic the sound of toxic moths to avoid being eaten by bats!
Photo: John Pickering
Discover Life.org April 2013
New Mothing Site Digitizing Museum at Sandy Creek Specimens Permanent site, volunteers needed Data Collection, volunteers needed
Photos: Alec Weil Ever dream of scouring the We want to know what Photo: Tori Staples archives of natural history moths at museums can tell museums to collect data for us about populations over Discover Life partnered with observe biodiversity. science? Think Old Weather, time. but more exciting. You the ACC Department of Leisure We need all the volunteers would be documenting life! Pick visited the American Services to observe moths at we can get. Participants will Museum in New York in March and documented Sandy Creek Nature Center. photograph moths and other Discover Life is partnering with UGA Entomologist half the specimens of H. insects. We'll identify your Tori Staples received a $500 Rick Hoebeke at the UGA fucosa there. Claire will moths to species and share visit the American grant from the UGA College of Museum of Natural History your data on the web. and the Tri-Trophic Museum in May to finish Agriculture and Environmental Thematic Collection photographing the species. Sciences to fund the project On April 30th, Discover Life Network funded by the and currently has applications will throw a mothing party National Science Ultimately this project to other organizations, to kick off the site at the Foundation to digitize could turn into several million digital specimens including the National Wildlife Walker Center at Sandy Creek entomological collections in museums across the United on Discover Life. , for additional Nature Center at 7:30 p.m. It’s Federation States. funds. also Pick’s 60th birthday! He We are looking for urges everyone to come see if Pick, along with student- volunteers to go to Since February, Tori and museums to photograph H. he can make it to the party volunteers Claire Najjar and Cameron Prybol have Alec Weil, is capturing fucosa. We need people to before having another heart photographed nearly 50 photos of specimens and travel to museums in the attack. eastern U.S. such as species and have a healthy their labels to document Harvard, the Smithsonian, competition with Pick’s Blue Faculty, students, and moth activity and distribution over the past or big collections in Heron site over biodiversity. anyone interested in century. Florida, North Carolina, Team Sandy Creek already contributing meaningful data Mississippi, or Louisiana. has a handful of species not are welcome. To participate, We are particularly For information on yet seen at Blue Heron! contact Tori Staples at interested in Hypoprepia fucosa, the Painted Lichen volunteering contact [email protected]. This site is the first of a moth, a species on which Nancy Lowe at permanent, global network to we have contemporary data. [email protected].
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Staff Picks: A Monthly Exercise in Choice
State your name and what you do at Discover Life? Tori Staples; I’m the “Micro Queen” What is your favorite moth species? The Southern Lappet Moth, Phyllodesma State your name and what you do at Discover Life? occidentis, has won my heart Cameron, ”Chief Mother”—Pick When and where did you first notice the species? What is your favorite moth species? In early March, I saw this guy for the first time Pseudodirphia menander in person, waiting on Pick’s wall. When and where did you first notice the species? Why is it your favorite? UGA Costa Rica, May 2012 This is a gorgeous creature! The wings are Why is it your favorite? Coloration, calm, funny unusual. How would you describe your moth to a “muggle” (someone How would you describe your moth to a “muggle”? outside of the science community)? Imagine a noble creature, magical if you wish. The Furry and friendly. Go ahead and touch it. Southern Lappet Moth is like a tiny, red, resolved What do you want the readers of “Life Discovered” to know about your moth? pony. What do you want the readers of “Life Discovered” to
It makes people like moths know about your moth? The Southern Lappet Moth is flying now!
State your name and what you do at Discover Life: Kyndall Dye; I process and identify moth photos that our moth-ers upload What is your favorite moth species? Hyles lineata, White-lined Sphinx Moth (also called a hummingbird moth) When/Where did you first notice the species? In Arizona for an internship last summer. It was feeding on the nectar of some local flowers, and I was taken aback by its speed and beautiful wing coloration. I automatically wanted to catch it and examine it! How would you describe your moth to a “muggle”? A very streamlined “cool” looking moth that looks like a hummingbird when flying; bright, eye- catching patterns on the wings, and flies during the day/evening What do you want the readers of “Life Discovered” to know about your moth? These are really cool, unique moths that most people don’t even recognize as moths; they even pollinate a rare species
If you would like to discover your favorite moth, contact Tori Staples at [email protected] to volunteer
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The Beauty and The Outer Margin Importance of “Nothing” Miscellany news from the edges of our wings
Peter Burn, the sufferer of a Topographical Maps and Aerial Photos added to Discover Life.org Suffolk, Massachusetts winter, idly Discover Life’s Global Mapper now includes United States waits by lamplight each morning Topographical maps from the United States Geological Survey and for signs of life. aerial photos from the National Agricultural Imagery Program. At 1 meter per pixel, land managers and other users can now receive Often no moths join him. Yet he detailed data on the location of specific species. documents his solitude religiously. As a dedicated moth observer, he Discover Life regularly updating GBIF.org understands the importance of Discover Life is now updating data on a bi-monthly basis to the null data. Global Biodiversity Information Facility, a website “established in Photo by Peter Burn 2001 by governments to encourage free and open access to The literature on climate change biodiversity data.” GBIF (www.gbif.org) houses nearly 400 million effects on species and their that we can see there is records of species occurrences in the world. Combined with data interactions shows many shifts in “nothing.” If we have no from www.discoverlife.org, over 607,000 species are represented on . also uses these data to provide maps to our seasonal emergence times in photo, we have no data. GBIF Discover Life partner The Encyclopedia of Life (www.eol.org) and other users. spring. For example, in a year with an early spring or a warm Discover Life runs these data through an error checker to assure Peter Burn goes out on cold accuracy. winter, insects emerge earlier and snowy nights to take pictures are sometimes out of synch with of his light and the fact that Discover Life extends an Athens welcome to their host plants. For this reason, there are no moths. These Larry Thompson we are particularly interested in null data are hugely FOY (First Of Year) images, to important! So we are giving Larry Thompson is a bird photographer who has a phenomenal watch this seasonal timing. the “Peter Burn Award” this album on Discover Life. He will arrive in Athens, Georgia, later this spring to one of our top month to take photos of spring warblers. He is retired but travels the world for Discover Life, documenting issues such as climate We can’t know if a species is moth-ers, dedicated enough FOY if we didn’t see its absence change and the asynchrony of birds and caterpillars. Look for a to take pictures of no moths. full-length article on Larry in next month’s issue of Life Discovered! before. We know it seems odd, but from a scientific perspective A riddle: If moths come to March use of Discover Life up considerably from last year! it’s important to take pictures your light, and you aren’t when there are no moths, there to photograph them, Discover Life had 57 million hits in March, twice as many as 2012. especially now. If you have are they really there? The number of users (IP addresses) increased 40% to 445,000! We pictures of a species of moth on are very grateful for what you do to make Discover Life grow. March 25, we know it was there Not as far as we’re Without your contributions, word-of-mouth, and dedication to then. But if we don’t have any concerned, as scientists. science, Discover Life could not possibly have reached this pictures on March 3-24, we have milestone. Thank you! no idea if it was there, or whether Also, if they DON’T come to Kyndall Dye accepted to University of KY Grad School you just didn’t take pictures that your light and you aren’t night. there to record their absence, Discover Life would like to congratulate our own Kyndall Dye for are they really absent? her acceptance into the UK grad school in the coming fall, where So those null data are of great she will study Public Health Entomology. She has been a vital part importance to understand first Again, no. We want to see of the Discover Life family since the spring of 2012. We will miss her emergences. the emptiness. like a severed apex, but are excited about her new chapter!
We at Discover Life ask our Think of it as a kind of Zen. moth-ers for photos of their cell Ah, emptiness. phone (for the date) and a light so
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All photos: John Pickering Plague of Cissusa spadix An April Legend
trees without the caterpillars foliating plants. They stay as reminds us at A pril climbing up the walls of your late as May before pupating house, up your pants legs, in the soils beneath the trees Discover Life about Cissusa into your hair, everywhere. from which they feed. They spadix—the Black-Dotted It was an outbreak. wait a year before hatching, Brown moth. and then start the cycle Sometimes insect population Ichneumonid parasitoid Photo: John Pickering Three years ago, black and booms such as these can be again. brown-striped caterpillars, explained, but sometimes Since Pick has been taking insects alive until they are larvae of the Black-Dotted scientists are not sure what nightly photographs of adult finished developing. (Fans of Brown moth, crawled all causes them or what causes moths in Clarke County the Ridley Scott classic Alien over Athens-Clarke County them to end. In the case of since 2010, and uploading will be familiar with this and more than 60 other the caterpillars of the Black- them to behavior.) Our prediction was counties in the Southern Dotted Brown moth, Cissusa www.discoverlife.org, we that parasitoids would reduce Piedmont of the United spadix, we are still not sure were able to find out when the C. spadix population in the States. about the cause of outbreak the adult Black-Dotted spring of 2011 and there They found the new leaves years, nor why the outbreak Brown moths, parents of the would not be another of giant red and white oaks ended. caterpillars, had been flying. caterpillar outbreak. and feasted. They defoliated C. spadix moths hatch and Pick predicted that the next Yet the next spring, in 2011, some, which concerned emerge in late March or year parasitic Ichneumonid the caterpillars came back in foresters and ecologists early April. They are wasps might fly in large even greater numbers, along alike. Yet you didn’t need to members of the largest moth numbers. Parasitoids such as with parasitoids, slightly early. be a scientist to notice the family, Noctuidae. They fly Ichneumonids are insects Last year, 2012, there were event. When they were in at night and eventually lay that lay eggs in larvae or large numbers of adults in greatest numbers, you eggs. They hatch in larval pupae of other insect species, early spring, but far fewer couldn’t be outside near oak forms as caterpillars and feed and those parasitic larvae caterpillars by April. There on the leaves of some oaks hatch and eat “non-essential” was no C. spadix caterpillar and hickories, among other tissue, keeping their host
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outbreak. For two springs C. home, where it was warm— photograph moths, upload spadix flourished seemingly unnaturally warm for silk their images to the Discover without hindrance. The moths. They hatched too Life website, and use the wasps should have knocked early. The buds on the analysis graphs to look for out the caterpillars in the Hawthorn trees they fed on patterns of changing second year, but they didn’t. were tightly closed. To keep seasonal emergence. Their population didn’t the tiny caterpillars from We will look through the Clydonopteron sacculana crash until the third year. starving, he used a razor litter beneath majestic oak But what caused it? blade to slice open tree buds, and hickory trees and extract leaf matter, and We have a hunch. Each attempt to find those now “bottle” feed the larvae. year had been warmer than elusive caterpillars. We the last. As bondservants to Recalling this experience, he invite you to join in the temperature, C. spadix may suspects the culprit for the search— to dabble in have emerged earlier, with crash of the C. spadix discovery— at their emergence triggered by caterpillar outbreak may be www.discoverlife.org. temperature, whereas oaks asynchrony—when insect A full-length article Mocis texana did not emerge as early and host arrive separately. concerning this outbreak since their developmental C. spadix caterpillars may written by Dr. David Coyle, cues are more tied to have starved in April of 2012, Entomologist, Warnell School photoperiod. Insect but this is only a hypothesis. of Forestry, University of developmental cues are There are other possible Georgia, will be published later more tied to temperature, explanations, too. Biological this year by American which is changing, and factors could also have Entomologist plant clocks are more tied to Antheraea polyphemus caused the decline. Pathogens day length, which is not could have killed off C. spadix changing. pupae before they could As a lad in England, Pick emerge. had a hobby of collecting To find out more about C. butterflies and moths. At 11, spadix and other moth he pooled together his funds species, each night this April, and purchased a dozen silk Discover Life moth-ers will Artace cribrarius moth eggs. At the time, he wait by lamplight at their did not understand moths houses, at Sandy Creek, or on Photos: John Pickering depend upon temperature to a wall at Myers Hall, hatch. He kept them at
For more information go to www.discoverlife.org
For outreach, Mailing Address: For more about … education, albums, and John Pickering … the Sandy Creek Site, general information 517 Biological Sciences contact Tori Staples at contact Nancy Lowe at Building, University of Georgia [email protected] [email protected] or Athens, Ga 30602-2602, USA … the newsletter, contact Anthony Sadler, (404) 272-4526 editor, at [email protected]
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