WINGS ESSAYS ON INVERTEBRATE CONSERVATION

THE XERCESSOCIETY FALL 2008 CONTENTS

Introduction Scott Hoffman Black Page 3.

Small That Pack a Big Punch Scott Hoffman Black and Matthew Shepherd There are few places on this planet untouched by invertebrates. While feeding, rearing young, and making homes, they provide many services that sustain the environment and maintain our food supply. Page 4.

Grasshoppers: Nuisance or Necessity? Dan Johnson Grasshoppers, which many people see only as pests to be controlled, are central to the health of grassland ecosystems. Page 9.

Overlooked Gems: The Benefits of Freshwater Mussels Al Smith and Sarina Jepsen Freshwater mussels have a fascinating symbiotic relationship with fish, in which fish play host to young mussels and adult mussels ensure clean water.Page 14.

A Global Perspective on Crop Pollination Margie Mayfield In developed countries, pollinators are generally recognized and valued. In many developing countries, however, they are often misunderstood — or even seen as a threat to crops. Page 20.

Dirty Work, Done Dirt Cheap Sacha Spector and Elizabeth Nichols Without hard-working dung , the world would be a very different — and indeed far less pleasant — place. Page 24.

Xerces News Expanding our efforts to protect pollinators nationally; an update on Bob Pyle’s Butterfly Big Year and the Butterfly-A-Thon; the Xerces Society’s new and im- proved website is launched; and we’re joined by new staff members. Page 29.

 WINGS Introduction

Scott Hoffman Black

Readers of Wings certainly know that prairie ecosystems. The importance of there is an incredible diversity of inver- freshwater mussels — and their fascinat- tebrates. When it comes to protecting ing relationship with fish — is discussed them or their habitat, I imagine that in “Overlooked Gems: The Benefits of many of our readers have been asked, Freshwater Mussels.” Pollinators are “So, what do invertebrates do for me?” vital for both the production of food This issue of Wings provides at least and wild plants. The essay “A Global Per- a partial answer to that question. Our spective on Crop Pollination” illustrates first essay, “Small Animals That Pack a how farmers throughout the world rely Big Punch,” gives an overview of why on for production of their crops. invertebrates are so important for life on The last essay, “Dirty Work, Done Dirt earth. Whether you are a salmon, a griz- Cheap,” is about the not-so-lowly dung zly bear, a song bird, or a human, you beetles, amazing creatures responsible rely on insects and other invertebrates for processing waste that would for everything from food to waste clean- otherwise build up to unhygienic (and up. Although grasshoppers are often frankly, alarming) levels. derided as pests, “Grasshoppers: Nui- We hope this issue gives you a re- sance or Necessity?” details how these newed appreciation for the little things insects are vital for the functioning of that keep the world running.

The activities of insects and other invertebrates sustain the health of our environ- ment and provide a foundation on which humans and wildlife rely. Leafcutter ants (Atta cephalotes), photographed in Trinidad and Tobago by Bryan E. Reynolds.

FALL 2008  Small Animals That Pack a Big Punch

Scott Hoffman Black and Matthew Shepherd

Each summer, millions of moths mi- grizzly bears love them, and the moths grate from the dry, western margin of are a key component of their annual the Great Plains up to steep slopes above diet. Indeed, the massive concentration the timberline of the Rocky Mountains. of moths draws large numbers of griz- Miller moths (Euxoa auxiliaris), also zlies to the mountain tops for a month known as army cutworms, begin and or longer. A single grizzly may consume end their life cycle in fields and gardens ten to twenty thousand moths a day, on the plains. During the dry season, which over the period of a month can they spend a couple of months in the amount to three hundred thousand cal- mountains, probably because the high- ories worth of fat-rich nutrition, more altitude flora offer a reliable seasonal than a quarter of the bear’s annual calo- source of nectar. Here, the moths shelter rie intake. This period of gluttony is vital from the sun under rocks and logs dur- in preparing the bears for hibernation, ing the day, emerging at night to feed. particularly for pregnant females be- To people living along the migra- cause cub survival is greatly influenced tion route these moths can be a pest, but by a mother’s pre-hibernation diet. Only one other food event causes more grizzlies to gather in North Amer- ica and that is the salmon returning to their spawning streams in the Pacific Northwest. Although the grizzlies may not be consuming moths, as they feed on salmon they are no less reliant on insects: the food that fueled the young salmon years before on their outward trip to the ocean was composed largely of the aquatic larvae of midges. These are just two of the innumer- able ways that invertebrates sustain our environment, whether by serving as food for other wildlife or by provid- ing another ecosystem service such as pollination or waste disposal. The sheer abundance of invertebrate species — and The miller moth (Euxoa auxiliaris) mi- of individual invertebrates themselves — grates each summer high into the Rocky Mountains, where it becomes a key food means that they are present in virtually source for grizzly bears. Photograph by every corner of our planet, from pole Whitney Cranshaw. to pole and from the deepest ocean to

 WINGS Directly or indirectly, grizzly bears across North America rely on invertebrates for food. Photograph by Dawn Nichols. the highest mountain. Measured by number contrasts sharply with the five the number of formally described spe- to ten thousand species of vertebrates cies, insects are by far the most diverse that may await discovery and descrip- group of organisms on Earth. In excess tion around the world. of 950,000 species of insects have been Insects dominate in terms of mass described, comprising over 70 percent as well. Although tiny individually, of the total identified animal species. together they are literally the heavy- (Other invertebrates make up another weights of the planet. Some scientists 15 to 20 percent of species.) estimate that insects and other arthro- Even more remarkable are the es- pods comprise more than 85 percent of timates of how many insects we have the total weight of all land animals. If not catalogued. Most species that you weighed all of the animals in an have been classified and named to date acre (two-fifths of a hectare) of tropical are from temperate zones, but tropical rainforest, around a third of the weight habitats harbor far more. Smithsonian would come from ants and termites Institution entomologist Terry Erwin alone. has suggested that as many as thirty But what do such numbers tell us million insect species may exist. The about the importance of insects? Quite a most conservative estimates suggest that bit, actually. The huge diversity of insects between five and eight million insect means that they fill many ecological species have not been discovered. This niches and thus play a role in the func-

FALL 2008  The northern flicker Colaptes( auratus) is regularly seen feeding on ants on the ground in gardens and parks. Photograph by Steve Jennings. tioning of many different communities. feed on insects, particularly as food for In fact, there are very few terrestrial en- their young. vironments where insects are absent. Insects are also important as con- Admittedly, some insects have a sumers, not just as the consumed. In negative impact on humans, either particular, insect herbivores can have a by harming us directly through bites, tremendous impact on plant commu- stings, and the spreading of disease, nities. Grasshoppers contribute signifi- or indirectly by attacking food crops, cantly to grassland function, and as a tree plantations, and livestock. Even group they may have been as impor- so, all adverse effects combined are in- tant as the American bison in convert- significant compared to the beneficial ing grass back into nutrients. In conifer activities of insects. Insects are a part of forests, bark beetles and defoliating in- nearly every food web, either as food for sects fill a key role by recycling nutri- other animals or as agents in the endless ents. Although some of these herbivores recycling of nutrients in the soil. are considered “pests,” they are vitally Nearly nine out of ten bird species important to the sustainability of these feed on insects and other invertebrates ecosystems. at some point in their life cycle, with Some insect consumers eat a range martins and swallows among the most of things that we find noxious and dis- obvious, along with songbirds and gusting — animal dung and carcasses, woodpeckers. (The northern flicker, for to name but two — and consequently example, eats more ants than any other play an essential role in waste disposal bird in North America.) Game birds as well as nutrient recycling. The first from sage grouse to bobwhite quail also animals on the scene when a vertebrate rely on insects, and many birds of prey dies are often flies (followed by a series

 WINGS of beetles, even moths), and dung bee- ces in the understanding and treatment tles are vital to the decomposition of of several human diseases. Recent stud- animal waste. Without them we would ies of another group of Drosophila, the be up to our necks in waste and dead highly endangered picture-wing flies animals and plants. of Hawaii, indicate that they possess On a more pleasant note, insects, auto-immune system characteristics particularly bees, pollinate most human previously unknown to medical science. food crops as well as most other plant At a more basic level, disinfected mag- species. The ecological service insect gots are used to debride wounds. The pollinators provide is necessary for the benefits of insect studies extend well reproduction of about 70 percent of the beyond medicine: elucidation of the world’s flowering plants. This includes way that ants in a colony coordinate more than two-thirds of the world’s crop their interactions led to breakthroughs species, whose fruits and seeds together in the management of shipping termi- provide more than 30 percent of the nals. What other discoveries await us? foods and beverages that we consume. During debates about conserving or The spheres of business and tech- protecting at-risk species, the question nology, particularly medicine, have “What good are insects?” frequently benefited from insects. The common arises. When insects are widely per- fruit fly Drosophila( melanogaster), gener- ceived as pests and nothing more, it ally considered a pest in kitchens world- may be difficult for people to grasp why wide, has been at the center of genetics they should receive legal protection. But research for a century, enabling advan­ the services of rare and endangered in-

Endangered everywhere it lives, the American burying (Nicro­ phorus americanus) buries carcasses on which to rear its young. Pho- tograph by Doug Backlund.

FALL 2008  sect species can be every bit as vital as that drive a $50-billion-per-year recre- those of common species. Ecosystem ation industry. If you enjoy bird watch- functions, such as the recycling of nu- ing, fishing, or hunting game birds, you trients, often are done by insects with can thank insects for the opportunity. a particular skill, such as the American Pollination by wild insects, primarily burying beetle (Nicrophorus americanus), native bees, boosts farm harvests by $3 federally listed as endangered. billion annually. (If you include man- Rare species also can act as keystone aged honey bees this number goes up to species in small, specialized systems, $20 billion.) Native insects that control such as caves and oceanic islands, or in pests save growers an estimated $4.5 bil- some pollinator – plant relationships. lion per year, and the dung beetles that For example, a plant on the federal help clean up grazing lands save ranch- list of endangered species, the dwarf ers more than $380 million. bearclaw poppy (Arctomecon humilis), From grizzly bears to the bearclaw which grows in the desert areas of Utah, poppy and beyond, we all rely upon relies primarily on a single species of bee insects and other invertebrates. In this for pollination — and the bee, Perdita article, we have only touched briefly on meconis, is itself uncommon. a limited selection of the fundamental, Invertebrates can be used as indi- yet frequently unseen, roles in which cator species to monitor the environ- they frame our lives. According to E. O. ment. The presence or absence of cad- Wilson, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author disfly and mayfly larvae helps with the and renowned scientist, “So important assessment of creek health. Butterflies are insects and other land-dwelling ar- can be used to determine the condition thropods that if all were to disappear, of meadow and prairie habitats, and humanity probably could not last more snails can be used to judge the vitality than a few months.” This sentiment has of old-growth forests. Like a canary in been echoed by many other authors, a coal mine, uncommon or rare insects scientists, and commentators, and yet offer a sensitive method for judging the insects are frequently dismissed as pests health of their, and our, environment. to be controlled, creatures that can be Protecting habitat based on these small painlessly removed from our lives. The animals also protects habitat for other reality is that they can’t be, and if they more charismatic species. were, we would all be in deep trouble. There are countless ways in which As Tom Eisner, former president of the humans depend on insects for essential Xerces Society, so eloquently put it, services. Putting a dollar value on these “Bugs are not going to inherit the earth. services is not easy, but in a recent paper They own it now. So we might as well in the journal Bioscience, John Losey of make peace with the landlord.” Cornell University and Mace Vaughan of the Xerces Society estimated that the services of insects are worth more than The authors both work for the Xerces So- $57 billion per year to the U. S. econ- ciety. Scott Black is executive director and omy. Their study showed that insects Matthew Shepherd is senior conservation are a critical food source for the animals associate.

 WINGS Grasshoppers: Nuisance or Necessity?

Dan Johnson

Grasshoppers. There are few insects that that addressed three types of attitudes: so frequently find themselves in a sen- cognitive (thinking and factual knowl- tence with the word “plague.” Negative edge), moral (including ethics and valu- views of grasshoppers are widely held ing), and affective (feeling, including and often deeply entrenched, far better what we might call gut feeling). known and accepted than the wonder After a lecture that included photo- of their range of natural activities and graphs and lore regarding the lives and diversity. It appears that the emotional diversity of five kinds of invertebrates component of attitudes toward inver- (earthworm, crab, grasshopper, octo- tebrates may be difficult to change, be- pus, and spider), we re-surveyed the cause it is the product of more than a students. The results showed shifts in simple lack of knowledge. cognitive and moral attitudes, but very With Jennifer Mather, a fellow in- little change in the affective attitudes. vertebrate researcher at the University The change in feelings for grasshoppers, of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, I sur- for example, was approximately zero. veyed the attitudes and knowledge of This may not be a surprise, consider- nine hundred Lethbridge undergraduate ing how widespread is the perception students toward invertebrates. The stu- of grasshoppers as a nuisance. The re- dents completed a survey of questions sults also reflect the way that human

In prairies, grasshoppers are central to both vegetation recycling and as food for other wildlife. Green-striped grasshopper (genus Chortophaga), photographed by Bryan E. Reynolds.

FALL 2008  encounters with just a few species can study conducted in Canada between color attitudes about all grasshoppers. 1968 and 1972. Researchers analyzed the Of the hundreds of species of grass- structure and functioning of a grassland hoppers that live in the grassland, ecosystem, particularly monitoring the woodland, and cropland of North Am­ productivity of the grassland and the erica, only a small proportion actually flow of energy through the ecosystem. are pests — and then only under certain The study found that the total energy conditions. Of the nearly one hundred value of above-ground invertebrates grasshopper species found in the Cana- was a hundred times that of the birds, dian Prairies, a mere six have the poten- and six hundred times that of the mam- tial to cause serious damage to crops or mals — proof indeed that the obvious impact livestock grazing. Because other animals are not necessarily the most species prefer — or in some cases are en- important. tirely restricted to — plants that are con- Research conducted in the prairies sidered serious weeds, they are seen to of Alberta in the early 1990s illustrates be more directly beneficial. Turnbull’s the importance of grasshoppers — spring grasshopper ( turnbulli) is one species in particular — in the grassland such example; it is also called the Rus- ecosystem. It also demonstrates the sian thistle grasshopper because of its value of biodiversity for stability in preference for this plant (in the genus the food web. The main objective of Salsola, and known as tumbleweed) and the research was to determine the food other weedy members of the family resources of migratory grassland song- Chenopodiaceae. birds, particularly the chestnut-collared Most grasshopper species have no longspur (Calcarius ornatus), the domi- direct economic impact but play a cen- nant grassland songbird in the area. A tral role in the food webs of grassland. second objective was to determine how Herbivory by grasshoppers is a natural the birds’ diet and survival could be af- part of the operation of ecosystems, fected by removal of grasshoppers due assisting in the flow of energy and cy- to pest-management actions. Collabo- cling of nutrients. Dead plants take a rators included two Canadian Wildlife long time to decay and return their nu- Service scientists (avian ecologist Pam trients to the soil, but both the plant Martin, and Douglas Forsyth, studying clippings dropped by feeding grasshop- small mammals), pesticide chemist Ber- pers and the grasshoppers’ fecal pellets nie Hill, and me. are quickly degraded, aiding the rapid In the first year of the study, by recycling of nutrients. The grasshop- monitoring food items fed to chicks in pers themselves also are important as their nests, we determined that more food items for predators as diverse as than 70 percent of the diet provided by robber flies, spiders, birds, and coyotes, longspurs to their nestlings was grass- another way in which plant energy is hoppers — and for the early broods in recycled in the ecosystem. The ecologi- April and May most of the grasshoppers cal significance of grasshoppers and belonged to one species, the brown- other was underscored by spotted rangeland grasshopper (Pso- the Matador Project, a total ecosystem loessa delicatula). This species is unusual

10 WINGS The club-horned grasshopper (Aeropedellus clavatus) hatches unusu- ally early in the year, and thus is an important food item for spring- nesting birds. Photograph by Dan Johnson. because it overwinters as a mid-size im- hancing the sustainability of the song- mature and matures early in the spring bird populations. — most species overwinter as eggs bur- The population dynamics of most ied in the soil — and this means that it grasshoppers in grassland ecosystems is available as longspur food much ear- are strongly influenced by weather, lier than other grasshoppers. and by other biota such as predators In the second year of our field work, and diseases. The resulting popula- we again found that grasshoppers were tion swings in relative and absolute the dominant food item for the early abundance can strongly influence veg- broods, even though inclement fall and etation and the predators that feed on spring weather had resulted in very low grasshoppers. Some endangered verte- populations of the brown-spotted range- brate species are known to be strongly land grasshopper. It was replaced in the affected by these swings in food sup- diet by another early-spring species, the ply. Juvenile burrowing owls (Athene club-horned grasshopper (Aeropedellus cunicularia) are fed small mammals by clavatus). Unlike the brown-spotted their parents, but when they leave their rangeland grasshopper, the club-horned burrows they capture large numbers of grasshopper overwinters in the egg insects. These include the red-shanked stage, but it has unusual physiological grasshopper (Xanthippus corallipes late- adaptations that allow it to grow at very fasciatus), which is not only one of the low temperatures, and thus hatch weeks largest grasshoppers in North America, or months before other species. The di- but also one of the earliest found in the versity of species and life-cycle types spring. It overwinters as a nymph — so meant that one or the other of these fat and bumpy that it resembles a small grasshoppers was available to be the toad — and is active in April and May, major food supply of the longspurs, en- feeding on vegetation, such as Sand-

FALL 2008 11 The red-shanked grasshopper (Xanthippus corallipes) is one of the largest grasshoppers in North America. It overwinters as a nymph, shown here. Photograph by Dan Johnson. berg bluegrass (Poa secunda), that begins airplanes, since the opportunity for a growth very early in the spring. meal of katydids and grasshoppers at- Early emergence has its risks. Cool, tracts flocks of gulls and other large moist spring conditions reduce survival birds to the grass next to runways. The and growth, and the red-shanked grass- katydid was previously rare and difficult hopper can be nearly absent in years to find on the Canadian Prairies, but with such weather. After many years since 2001 its numbers have increased spent monitoring burrowing owl re- across the grasslands and northward to production, researchers Ray Poulin and the boreal forest. The reason for this is Danielle Todd are convinced that a low not clear but is likely related to chang- rate of fledgling survival is related to the ing weather patterns. collapse of spring grasshopper popula- The long evolutionary relationship tions because poor owl nesting success of grasshoppers and birds has resulted in most years is attributable to a lack of in apparent adaptations of grasshoppers food, and grasshoppers are one of the to reduce predation. One striking case is key food sources. the sagebrush grasshopper (Melanoplus There are times when the role of bowditchi canus), which feeds on silver grasshoppers as bird food can have un- sagebrush, Artemisia cana. It is often expected negative impacts. In recent found at rest on the sagebrush, where years diverse species of , in- the silver-gray color of the top of the cluding the clear-winged grasshopper grasshopper’s body (along the head, (Camnula pellucida) and broad-winged pronotum, and tegmina, the forewings bush katydid (Scudderia pistillata), have that cover the hindwings) helps it hide experienced significant increases in from avian predators. While searching abundance in Canada. These increases for this and several other sage specialist in population have become a hazard to grasshopper species in the Big Muddy

12 WINGS area of Saskatchewan, I was surprised to some distrust, even disdain, as demon- see that, when approached, it behaves strated by the survey of Lethbridge stu- somewhat like a dry sage leaf flick- dents. There are, however, signs of ing off the plant. It goes even farther changing attitudes. After seeing the re- in this strategy, and will often lie still sults of the study on the importance of after jumping. (Other spur-throated grasshoppers in the diet of chestnut- grasshoppers are known for their frantic ­collared longspurs, I began a campaign jumping and flight under threat.) to get people to leave the brown-spotted Not all grasshoppers are concealed rangeland grasshopper (and other early- by cryptic coloration. A bright blue and season species) alone. It began with a yellow form of the red‑legged grass­ paper presented to the Entomological hopper (Melanoplus femurrubrum) is Society of Canada calling for special found in isolated locations across the conservation of this important food Prairies. The reason for this rare color- item; and I mention the case whenever ation is a mystery. speaking to many grower groups, if only Despite their high ecological value, to save unwarranted and costly control grasshoppers are often viewed with actions. Although these species have no legal protection, there is now a greater awareness of the value of distinguishing different types of grasshoppers. One spring not so long ago, when I was working at a pasture field study, a rancher stopped his pickup and told me not to worry about the grasshoppers seen flying in May. He’d heard on the radio that they don’t cause problems. This growing acceptance within the farming and ranching communities that grasshoppers are not all a threat gives encouragement for a future in which grasshoppers are valued for their ecological contributions and not seen as pests to be controlled.

A professor of environmental science at the University of Lethbridge and former president of the Entomological Society of Canada, Dan Johnson is recognized glob- ally for his work on the ecology and control of grasshoppers. He is Canada Research The sagebrush grasshopper (Melanoplus bowditchi canus) closely resembles sage- Chair in sustainable grassland ecosys- brush in both color and movements. Pho- tems, and organized the most recent world tograph by Dan Johnson. meeting on grasshoppers and locusts.

FALL 2008 13 Overlooked Gems: The Benefits of Freshwater Mussels

Al Smith and Sarina Jepsen

Monkeyface, sheepnose, cat’s paw, elk soft bodies were eaten, and their hard toe, pocketbook, pearlshell, pistolgrip, shells were used as spoons and hoes, washboard, spectaclecase: freshwater crushed as temper to strengthen clay mussels may have some of the most when firing pottery, and made into jew- colorful common names of any group elry. The pearls created by some species of animals, reflecting the fact that they of freshwater mussels were often strung have been part of the human experi- into necklaces or used decoratively, in- ence for millennia. These wonderfully laid as eyes into animal designs. descriptive names were given by people Native Americans were not the only seeking to differentiate among species ones who were attracted to these gems. while collecting and using them. During the second half of the nine- Archeological records show that teenth century, pearl hunting became Native Americans have harvested mus- a big business, sparked in 1857 by the sels for at least ten thousand years. Their discovery in New Jersey of a pearl that

A shell midden left by a feeding animal, probably a raccoon, illustrates both the di- versity and beauty of freshwater mussels. Photographed in Missouri on the Pomme de Terre River by M. C. Barnhart.

14 WINGS sold for $2,500 — in excess of $50,000 today! The ensuing clamor for pearls was so intense that entire streams were stripped of their mussels. To this day, the harvesting of mus- sels threatens some populations in the southeastern United States. Fresh­ water mussels remain in demand by the pearl industry, though not for their own pearls but for their shells. Pieces of the thick mussel shells are cut and placed inside marine oysters as seeds to stimulate the formation of oyster pearls. As important as this market has been, however, the greatest mussel-based in- dustry was the manufacture of “pearl” buttons. Johann Boepple pioneered the craft, opening his first factory in Mus- catine, Iowa, in 1891. Stamped out of When feeding, mussels open their shells mussel shells, the best buttons came to filter algae and bacteria from the water. from thick-shelled species such as the Western pearlshell (Margaritifera falcata), yellow sandshell (Lampsilis teres) and photographed by Marie Fernandez. pistolgrip (Tritogonia verrucosa). At the time, there appeared to be an endless tend to go unnoticed, even by aquatic supply of these shiny, durable shells, biologists. and Boepple’s success inspired others to The United States is home to al- join the industry. According to the Uni- most three hundred species of fresh- versity of Tennessee’s Frank H. McClung water mussels, more than 35 percent of Museum, by 1912 there were nearly two the world’s eight-hundred-plus species. hundred button factories in the United They are found in streams, rivers, and States. Mussels remained at the heart of lakes across North America but are con- the industry until the 1940s, when they centrated in the southeastern states, a were replaced by plastics. region that is considered a global hot- The freshwater mussels on which spot for freshwater mussels. Alabama, this great enterprise was based are un- for example, has 180 species, more than assuming creatures, not at all flashy a fifth of the world’s diversity. on the outside. Ranging in size from Freshwater mussels are filter feeders one to ten inches across, mussel shells that consume detritus, bacteria, algae, come in a variety of shapes, and they and diatoms. It is this habit that makes may be covered in all manner of lumps them more valuable alive than dead and bumps, ridges and furrows. They (processed into buttons or pearls), for often are camouflaged against the rock as they feed they clean huge quantities or mud bottoms of streams and lakes, of water. An individual mussel can filter which might explain why these animals more than eighteen U.S. gallons (seven-

FALL 2008 15 Packets of larval mussels (conglutinates) can look remarkably like small fish, tempting larger predators to bite. Rainbow darter below conglutinates of Ouachita kidneyshell (Ptychobranchus occidentalis), photographed by M. C. Barnhart. ty liters) of water per day. Mussels often substrate and continue to grow larger. live en masse in dense beds, together By hitching a ride on fish, young fresh­ filtering sufficient water to purify the water mussels are able to recolonize dis- rivers and streams they inhabit. This is turbed areas and pioneer new realms of a key ecosystem service that maintains favorable habitat. good water quality and supports the Adult mussels have evolved creative teeming life of a healthy waterway. methods to entice fish to become glo- Interestingly, fish are integral to the chidial hosts; the orange-nacre mucket mussels’ ability to provide such ecosys- (Lampsilis perovalis), for example, pro- tem services. An adult mussel can pull duces conglutinates (packets of glochid- itself small distances across a stream or ia) that resemble small fish swimming lake bed using its muscular foot, but it in the current. When a fish is duped is essentially a sedentary creature. To into biting one of these pseudo-fish, the overcome this lack of mobility and en- conglutinate breaks up and individual able them to move up and down stream glochidia attach to the fish. Other mus- courses, larval mussels, called glochidia, sel species have evolved conglutinates attach themselves to the gills or fins of a that mimic worms, or even crayfish, to fish. After a few weeks of development fool a fish into biting them and becom- on the host fish’s body, young mus- ing a glochidial host. Although mussels sels drop to the bottom of a stream or have a parasitic relationship with fish in lake, where they remain buried in the the early stage of their lives, as adults

16 WINGS they repay the fish many times over for quality. He wrote: “Thus, pearl mussels their service by filtering and cleaning and salmonids form an important sym- water. Working in the Varzuga River on biotic community in which each species the Kola Peninsula in northern Russia, finds optimal conditions for survival. ichthyologist Valery Ziuganov found The protection and restoration of these that visibility near a dense mussel bed valuable species is therefore interdepen- was twenty times greater than it was in dent, and the conservation of either one water away from the bed. Clearer water will benefit both.” allows for deeper light penetration, The benefits from mussels are not which increases algal growth; algae limited to their feeding. Many of the make up the base of the aquatic food food items that mussels filter from the chain and are consumed by aquatic in- water are processed into packets of vertebrates, which comprise a large part material (called pseudofeces) and dis- of the diet of juvenile salmon and other charged back into the water. These food fish. Additionally, clear water allows ju- packets provide nutrients for algae and venile salmon and other fish to more detritus-feeding invertebrates. Living easily find their invertebrate prey. and dead mussel shells also provide a Ziuganov’s research led him to con- substrate for algae and invertebrates to clude that stocks of Atlantic salmon colonize. Overall, these benefits to the (Salmo salar) were robust in part because lower links of the food web are advan- large populations of the freshwater tageous to fish and by extension to the pearl mussel Margaritifera margaritifera humans, birds, and other animals that (known as the eastern pearlshell in consume fish. North America) maintained good water Because native fish and freshwater

Once a fish has bitten the mussel’s lure, the individual larval mussels attach themselves to the gills of the fish, as shown here. This enables the mussels to disperse and does not harm the host fish. Photograph by M. C. Barnhart.

FALL 2008 17 mussels are intimately linked, declines Dead mussel shells tend to persist in native fish populations present a in the environment and can act as his- major threat to the survival of fresh- torical archives to elucidate long-term water mussels. Mussels are sensitive to environmental changes. Dr. Cynthia environmental changes, which makes Tait, while working for the Bureau of them excellent biological indicators of Land Management in southeastern water quality. Many mussels are long- Oregon, compared the species compo- lived — with lifespans greater than sition of freshwater mussels in archeo- one hundred years for the eastern and logical Native American middens from western pearlshells (Margaritifera mar- parts of the Owyhee River basin to the garitifera and M. falcata, respectively) current mussel species composition in — and the adults are sedentary. Studying those same areas. Her study revealed these animals can help us understand that the western pearlshell has disap- how environmental changes affect peared from some areas where it his- aquatic ecosystems. The age structure of torically occurred, perhaps due to the mussel populations can be determined loss of native fishes such as Chinook by examining the growth rings on in- salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) dividual mussel shells, much as the age and redband trout (a subspecies of On- of a downed tree is revealed by the rings corhynchus mykiss) and high sediment in its stump. loads in some reaches. The installation of dams along the Owyhee River over the past century obstructed the passage of anadromous native fish (which live in the ocean and breed in fresh water) and likely contributed to local extirpa- tions of the western pearlshell. Unfortunately, the great benefits that mussels provide to both natural ecosystems and to humans may be in jeopardy. Freshwater mussels are the most at-risk group of animals in North America; 69 percent of all species of North American freshwater mussels are considered to be vulnerable, imperiled, or extinct. Although scientists, conser- vationists, and biologists have worked to understand and protect mussels in the Southeast, much less is known about species west of the Rocky Mountains. While there is a paucity of information Different species of mussels each have on the biology and status of western their own method to attract host fish for their larvae. The pistolgrip (Tritogonia ver­ freshwater mussels, anecdotal evidence rucosa) displays a mantle holding larval suggests that these animals are experi- mussels. Photograph by M. C. Barnhart. encing the same population declines

18 WINGS The range of the freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera) extends from Russia through Europe and into North America, where it is called the eastern pearlshell. Everywhere it is found, the mussel plays an important role in maintaining clear water. Photograph by Sue Scott, courtesy of Scottish Natural Heritage. that eastern species have experienced. that freshwater mussels play in aquatic The Xerces Society, in collaboration food webs, and of the many reasons it is with members of the Pacific Northwest vital to work to conserve them. Native Freshwater Mussel Workgroup, is beginning a status review to understand the current and historical distribution of Al Smith became interested in the plight of the three genera of western freshwater freshwater mussels in the Pacific North- mussels that once ranged from Alaska west after a career as a fish biologist. He south to Baja California and as far east co-founded the Pacific Northwest Native as New Mexico and Montana. Freshwater Mussel Workgroup, and has A few years ago while in the small done field surveys for mussels in five west- town of Merrill in south-central Oregon, ern states, co-authored a field guide to Al Smith stopped at a bridge and saw a Northwest mussels, taught college short large plank floating in the river below. courses, and given or set up numerous On the plank, which had no doubt other presentations on mussels. served as a convenient dining platform Sarina Jepsen is the endangered spe- for a river otter, were the shells of four cies coordinator at the Xerces Society and Oregon floater mussels (Anodonta orego- current chair of the Pacific Northwest Na- nensis), a reminder of the various roles tive Freshwater Mussel Workgroup.

FALL 2008 19 A Global Perspective on Crop Pollination

Margie Mayfield

Crop pollination is one of the most farmers I was hoping to meet would widely known ecosystem services. The have more knowledge than Western issue that has received the greatest media farmers do of how to farm sustainably. coverage in recent years is the decline I expected people’s appreciation for and of the European honey bee, particularly knowledge of the natural world to be in America; but a different perspective more influential than poverty, politics, on this ecosystem service emerges from and modern circumstances in defin- an examination of pollination on farms ing the farming practices they used. I in several developing nations. The dif- learned very quickly that this view was ficulties faced by farmers reliant on not only incorrect, but dismissive of insect pollination for crop production the fact that these people grapple with are heavily tied into the socio-economic a rapidly changing modern world just status of the farmer and the educational as everyone else does. and political details of the community In general, I found that many in- where a farmer lives; yet we rarely hear digenous farmers relied on knowledge about the diversity of issues relating to passed down for generations, knowledge crop pollination in most of the world’s that had been developed at a time when agricultural communities. there were far fewer people farming in My study of crop pollination began a given area and when chemicals were about ten years ago with a fellowship not an option for increasing yields. In from the Thomas J. Watson Founda- much of the world, services such as pol- tion that enabled me to spend a year lination have started to decline only in travelling to study the ways that socio- the last twenty or thirty years. Because economics and culture influence farm- historically pollination was a naturally ers’ understanding of the importance of occurring service, abundant and free, wild insects to crop pollination. As an many of the people in the poor farm- environmentally minded young person ing communities I visited knew nothing just out of college, I set out with an op- about it, nor did they realize that this timistic (and perhaps arrogant) sense of service could change or cease. In most what I would find in Bolivia, South Afri- of these communities farmers were very ca, Malaysia, New Zealand, and India. I interested in modernizing their farms. soon discovered that my world view was The benefits of using modern farming quite naïve, as was my understanding techniques seemed obvious — farmers of the farming communities in those using modern techniques earned more countries. money from their land — and almost no At the outset, I believed that, be- one foresaw any downsides to switching cause of their historical connection to to modern practices. For the majority of the natural world, most of the poor farmers, the only thing stopping them

20 WINGS from abandoning their less-intensive farming history, they now grow many traditional farming practices was a lack non-traditional vegetable crops, as well of finances, not a love of nature or a as crops such as coffee that have high desire to farm sustainably. export value. In Bolivia, I stayed at the farm of a I expected to see very specialized wealthy landowner in the Andean foot- farming techniques developed over hills several hours outside of La Paz. At hundreds of years. The farmers growing one time, this family had owned and coca for tea and chewing (not for the farmed much of the region, but they production of cocaine) did have highly had lost most of their property to land developed and fairly traditional farming reforms during the previous fifty years. techniques, but most of the other farm- The other inhabitants of this valley ers did not. The majority grew their were of Aymara heritage. The Aymara crops using methods that were neither people have lived in Andean Bolivia for particularly steeped in history nor in- at least two thousand years but were tentionally environmentally friendly. serfs first of the Incas and then of the With almost no money to develop or Spanish, and it was not until the late maintain their fields, most were doing twentieth century that most of them whatever they could to get by. There had the freedom to farm their own land. were a few wealthier Aymara farmers While these Aymara are indigenous to who were, on a small scale, using “West- this region of Bolivia and have a long ern” industrialized farming techniques,

The role of crop-pollinating insects is not widely understood in Bolivia. Some farmers thought that bees sapped energy from their crops. Stingless bees (genus Trigona), photographed on squash flower by Margie Mayfield.

FALL 2008 21 but most could not afford to buy the in the area, probably due to the low-in- chemicals and equipment necessary to tensity practices of most farmers. Back modernize. then, tilling for weed control and the From a crop-pollination perspec- application of chemical herbicides and tive, I also found — regardless of the pesticides were still uncommon. farmers’ wealth or farming success — an It was somewhat discouraging to almost uniform lack of understanding find that, while many Aymara farmers on their part of the pollination role were interested in studying agriculture played by insects and of the signifi- in order to make informed decisions cance of insect pollination to most of about how to modernize, there was al- their crops. Several farmers indicated most no opportunity for them to gain that they thought bees and other in- information about high-yielding sus- sects were unimportant for their crops, tainable and pollinator-friendly agri- neither harmful nor helpful, and oth- cultural practices. The only information ers thought the pollinators actually had about how to farm was coming from a negative effect, sapping energy from sellers of chemical herbicides, pesti- their plants. Of the farmers that I in- cides, and fertilizers. terviewed, only one (who did not have The lack of educational opportuni- a Western education) had an extensive ties in this Bolivian community was in and correct understanding of what pol- stark contrast to what I found in the lination is and the importance of it to southern Indian states of Kerala and his crop yields. He said that a few years Karnataka. Here the Indian government before there was a season with almost was aware that poor and indigenous no pollinators and everyone had had farmers were using practices that were a very unproductive year, and he was no longer ideal for the sustainability worried that it was probably just the of their land and the maximization of beginning of a longer-term problem. I their yields. As in Bolivia, the ancestors suspected that he was right. of these people had probably been farm- Despite a lack of funds to modern- ing for thousands of years. They too had ize, the drive to increase quality of life developed farming practices at a time and thus crop production in this and when there were many fewer people similar communities is leading to a and many fewer pressures to sustain steady intensification of agricultural the agricultural value of any individual practices — a bad trend for pollinators. plot of land. When I was visiting this community a These farmers grow a variety of decade ago, there was only one patch crops but the most common were car- of rainforest remaining in a series of damom and coffee, both of which are three mountain valleys. The rest of the bee-pollinated. Our common European land had been cleared for agriculture. honey bee (Apis mellifera) does not do Deforestation has been shown to lead well in southern India, and the main to declines in native pollinator numbers pollinators of cardamom and coffee in in many systems, but even with such southern India are two native species extensive deforestation, there were a of honey bee, the giant honey bee (Apis surprising number of pollinators still dorsata) and the Asiatic honey bee (Apis

22 WINGS cerana). Efforts to domesticate these species have mostly failed for the giant honey bee although they have suc- ceeded to some extent for the Asiatic honey bee, but because these species are not easily domesticated, most farmers in southern India rely entirely on wild bee populations. These populations, though, have been in decline for the past twenty years, attributable both to habitat loss and to increasing pressure from native honey collectors. Honey collecting from the giant honey bee is a centuries-old tradition in the region, but traditional honey-collecting techniques involve the total destruction of the hives. Historical- Farmers in southern India rely on wild ly this practice was sustainable because bees for pollination. Giant honey bee there were few honey collectors and (Apis dorsata) on cardamom bloom, pho- many hives; today, that ratio is being re- tographed by Margie Mayfield. versed, and these bees are disappearing from many agricultural landscapes. De- the year. Because cardamom and cof- clining bee numbers mean that keeping fee require shade and are often grown bees on a farm year-round is important with black pepper, a vine that needs for ensuring that they will be there for trees to grow on, trees are a necessary the next crop blooming season. part of these plantations. By selecting In recent years the Indian govern- a diversity of trees that bloom at dif- ment has taken some active steps toward ferent times of year, farmers can ensure solving the growing pollinator problem that floral resources are available for in southern India. The Indian Council wild bees year-round. This encourages of Agricultural Research, the Ministry bee colonies to stay in plantations and of Rural Development, and the Indian thus be there for the crops’ blooming Spice Board all have started educational season. This proactive, education-based programs that teach farmers why bees approach to protecting pollination as an are important (emphasizing pollination ecosystem service in areas dominated by over honey production), how to main- subsistence farmers results in increased tain the Asiatic honey bee in managed yields while promoting a sustainable hives, and how to retain wild pollinator mode of farming. This approach also populations in crop fields. recognizes that, regardless of a people’s One very successful practice that is history, the world is a changing place currently being tested is the use of shade and modern problems require modern trees that form a “floral calendar.” Floral solutions. calendars are lists of bee-pollinated tree species that bloom at different times of continued on page 28

FALL 2008 23 Dirty Work, Done Dirt Cheap

Sacha Spector and Elizabeth Nichols

This article is based on a review by the ern Africa by an emergency authors and a team of collaborators in program of Australia’s Commonwealth ScarabNet (www.scarabnet.org), which Scientific and Industrial Research Or- appeared in volume 141 of the journal ganization. Eight species ultimately ­Biological Conservation. established themselves on their new continent and, like Hercules cleaning the Augean stables, they mucked out Imagine, if you will, a pasture, carpeted Australia’s pasturelands. The introduced in cow dung, baking in the hot midday beetles eventually reduced the area of sun. Add to your mental picture swarms Australia covered by pats of dung by of biting flies, unpalatable weeds grow- 4 percent, which was a tremendous ing in the gaps between the hardening gain given that cows avoid eating the cow pats, and just for good measure, a grass surrounding an additional 6 to 12 stream overgrown with algae nourished percent of the area around each dung by runoff from all that dung. Now scale pat. Today, introduced dung beetles are up this vision so that it stretches to the such an integral part of raising cows in horizon in all directions. Australia that there are even consult- This may sound like one of Dante’s ing companies that will help introduce circles of hell, but it was the reality fac- dung beetles to your property, either for ing Australia’s livestock industry in the improving pasture health or for reduc- 1960s after it unwittingly undertook an ing nutrient runoff into waterways. experiment to see what the world would While Australia’s pastures are a well- be like without dung beetles. Cattle, in- known example of dung beetles’ im- troduced to a land where the native portance in preserving pasture health, dung beetle species were adapted to feed a recent study by John Losey and Mace on the dry pellets produced by kanga- Vaughn estimated the net value of dung roos and other marsupials but not the beetles to the extensively pastured beef waste of ungulates, deposited thirty- cattle industry in the United States at ­three million tons of dung each year $380 million per year in avoided costs into an ecosystem that had no ecologi- in fertilizer application and production cal mechanism for dealing with it. Pas- losses from forage fouling, enteric para- tures were smothered while populations sites, and flies. When one considers that of pest flies, both native and introduced, extensive pasture systems account for 78 exploded. General misery, human and percent of all agricultural land use glob- bovine, abounded. Dante himself would ally — currently covering nearly five bil- probably have shuddered at the sight. lion acres (two billion hectares) or about To the rescue came a host of dung 15 percent of the earth’s ice-free land beetle species, introduced from south- surface — it quickly becomes clear that

24 WINGS not only is the contribution to pasture The most obvious result of all that health from dung beetles worth billions eating and burying is that the landscape of dollars each year, but the integrity of doesn’t become overwhelmed with re- our food production system relies in no sidual wastes. Trond Larsen, in his study small part on these tiny animals. of the islands created when a massive In fact, the roughly six thousand hydroelectric project formed Lago Guri species of dung beetles in the subfamily in Venezuela, found that islands that play key roles in provid- had retained their populations of howl- ing a wide range of important ecosys- er monkeys but lost their dung beetles tem functions and services around the soon had piles of monkey dung a meter world. And it all starts with that lowliest tall under favorite resting trees! of habitats, a pile of crap. For the most The burial of all that nutrient-rich part, dung beetles are coprophagous — dung, though, also has significant im- species feed on the microorganism-rich pacts on the structure and fertility of liquid component of the dung of mam- the world’s soils. From several studies of mals (and less commonly that of other nutrient cycling in pastures and grass- vertebrates and invertebrates, as well lands, we know that dung beetles can as rotting fruit, fungus, and carrion). increase the levels of available nitrogen, They use the same materials to create potassium, phosphorus, calcium, and brood balls that they provide for their magnesium in soils. Nitrogen especial- offspring in subterranean nest-tunnels. ly may be impacted: by burying dung As they consume and relocate dung to under the soil surface, dung beetles pre- their nests, dung beetles carry out eco- vent the loss of nitrogen through am- logical processes that include nutrient monia volatilization and increase the cycling, soil aeration, secondary seed nitrogen available for uptake by plants burial, and parasite suppression. through mineralization. Without dung

Onthophagus carbonarius lives in central and southern Africa, making a living from the dung piles of elephants and other large mammals. Photograph by Piotr Naskrecki.

FALL 2008 25 beetles to transfer these nutrients into growth rival the application of chemi- the soil layers, they would likely be cal fertilizers. lost either by being leached away or by Dung beetles also help plants in volatilization. Also, as they tunnel into another critical process, secondary seed the ground, the larger beetles may sig- dispersal. Particularly in the tropics, nificantly increase aeration of the soil, many plants require vertebrates to move improving its capacity to build organic their seeds away from the parent plant. layers, exchange gasses with plants, and Once the seeds are voided in the verte- hold moisture. brates’ dung, though, they are highly As dung beetles enhance the world’s vulnerable. Seed predators like rodents soils, they in turn enhance the produc- and lygaeid seed bugs can consume over tivity of the primary producers, the 90 percent of seeds that are left exposed, plants. A raft of experimental studies and fungi and pathogens can quickly have linked dung beetle bioturbation destroy the viability of those that re- and nutrient-mobilization activities to main. Dung beetles quickly move a large increases in plant biomass, plant height, percentage of seeds horizontally, away grain production, protein levels, and from the intense predation and seed-to- nitrogen content. Several other studies seed competition near the dung pile or have shown that the benefits of dung parent tree. They also move seeds verti- beetle nutrient mobilization on plant cally into the soil, where conditions for

Naturally found in southern Europe and Africa south of the Sahara, the bronze dung beetle ( alexis) has been introduced into Australia and North America to clean up after cattle. Photograph by Piotr Naskrecki.

26 WINGS Dung beetles can rapidly sense and locate fresh dung. This Euoniticellus kawanus has just landed, and is still folding away its wings. Photograph by Piotr Naskrecki. germination may be better than on the a factor of five led to a nearly 75 per- surface. This latter benefit depends on cent reduction in the number of para- the size of the beetle doing the burying, sitic nematodes compared to pastures however, since large dung beetles rou- with normal dung beetle density — and tinely dig tunnels a meter deep, which a reduction of more than 93 percent is well below the germination zone of compared with pastures with no dung most seeds. (In this case, dung beetles beetles at all. In real terms this trans- become seed predators too.) lates to hugely reduced parasite loads in As the Australians learned, dung is livestock animals, with corresponding the breeding habitat for many species gains in meat production. For wildlife, of pestiferous flies. It is also involved the impacts of dung beetles on health in the transmission routes for disease- are unknown but thought to be huge. ­causing nematodes and protozoans that For us humans, it means lower inci- can infect livestock, wildlife, or humans. dences of parasites like Giardia, Crypto- Dung beetles, as they feed and manipu- sporidium, and Ascaria in our landscapes late dung during burial, significantly re- and potentially fewer health-damaging duce or control the abundance of those infections. flies and parasites, with potentially tre- Dung beetles have been working mendous implications for health. to exploit vertebrate dung as a resource One study found that cattle dung for at least the last forty million years. pats without dung beetles had fifty In fact, recent fossil evidence of dung- times as many helminth (internal para- packed burrows strongly suggests that sitic worm) larvae as those with healthy dung beetles evolved toward coproph- dung beetle populations. Another ex- agy in the prodigious dung piles of di- periment showed that boosting the nosaurs well before the diversification density of dung beetles in pastures by of mammals. Today dung beetles, like

FALL 2008 27 many invertebrate groups, are declining to dung beetles even after the chemicals under the pressures of habitat loss, over- pass through cows’ guts and into their application of wide-spectrum pesticides, dung, leading to an all-too-common and declines of the mammal species on sight of a ring of dead beetles around which they depend. In a recent review each cow pat in a pasture? of the literature we found that, around We don’t yet have answers to these the world’s tropical regions, there is a questions. But it is increasingly clear clear signal that forest-dwelling dung that we ignore our dung beetles not just beetles are disappearing from increas- at the risk of letting such a long, fasci- ingly agricultural landscapes. nating lineage of insects slip through Dung beetle functions may be our fingers, but at the risk of jeopardiz- maintained in pastures and croplands ing the billions of dollars worth of vital, by a handful of wide-ranging “super- but free, services they provide. tramp” species able to disperse effi- ciently and quickly colonize and thrive in those hot, open agricultural areas. Sacha Spector is the director of conserva- But what will be the fate of the tropical tion science at Scenic Hudson, and serves forests when their diverse assemblages as the chair of the Terrestrial Invertebrate and specialized species of dung beetles Red List Authority for the IUCN Species wither away due to overhunting of the Programme. He is secretary of the board mammals they depend on? What will of the Xerces Society. happen to our pastures as we continue Elizabeth Nichols is a Ph.D. student to apply endectocides (chemicals used at Columbia University whose research fo- to kill internal and external parasites), cuses on the functional consequences of such as deltamethrin, that remain lethal insect diversity loss.

continued from page 23 other nations to follow India’s lead in helping subsistence and commercial In most of the world, poor farmers farmers farm sustainably in the mod- grow crops for subsistence. Few gov- ern world. ernments devote financial resources to helping poor farmers develop modern adaptive practices to allow them to im- Margie Mayfield is an assistant professor prove their quality of life while farm- at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, ing sustainably. Pollination is certainly Australia. She received her Ph.D. from not the only issue faced by the world’s Stanford University in 2005 for her work poor farmers, but many practices that on plant conservation in fragmented trop- are good for pollinators are also good for ical landscapes in Costa Rica. Mayfield the health of farmland in general. works on a range of conservation issues, It is to be hoped that in coming including pollination as an ecosystem ser- years the growing international atten- vice, rainforest restoration, and the ecology tion to bees as crop pollinators may spur of human-dominated tropical landscapes.

28 WINGS XERCES NEWS

Expanding Efforts to Protect Pollinators Nationwide This is an exciting time for the Xerces Xerces staff members are working Society’s pollinator program! We have with NRCS state offices across the coun- worked successfully with a coalition of try. We have conducted dozens of work- conservation and agriculture groups to shops for NRCS staff, and have devel- include language in the 2008 Farm Bill oped a variety of information materials to provide financial incentives to restore for NRCS and other agriculture-related pollinator habitat in the United States staff including state and national pol- and research funding to address conser- linator conservation technical notes, vation of honey bees and native bees. guidelines on using Farm Bill programs Implementation of the Farm Bill to create pollinator habitat, and meth- has put us in an excellent position to ods for assessing the value of existing collaborate with agricultural profes- habitat. Visit our new website for more sionals to put pollinator conservation information and access to fact sheets into practice. As part of this effort, the and conservation guidelines. Xerces Society and the USDA’s National The combination of the Farm Bill Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and the NRCS collaboration offers an have created a joint, national-level pol- amazing opportunity for pollinator linator conservation position. And, with conservation. Over the next year we will Xerces staff now based in three states keep working broadly across the United (Oregon, Wisconsin, and, California), States to improve habitat for important we can reach many more people. pollinator insects.

Update on the Butterfly Big Year and Butterfly-A-Thon After an initial few months of mostly Bob will continue searching until the gray and rainy weather, and the occa- final days of 2008. With the help of sional mechanical glitch with his trusty Xerces members and supporters, Bob’s car Powdermilk, Robert Michael Pyle efforts have raised tens of thousands of has seen his luck improve as he contin- dollars in support of the Society’s efforts ues his epic year-long quest to have in- to protect rare and endangered butter- depth encounters with a record number flies through our Butterfly-A-Thon. For of North American butterflies. To date, those who have made pledges, we will he has positively identified more than be sending out pledge fulfillment re- 460 distinct species and is closing in on quests at the beginning of next year. his personal goal of five hundred species For more on Bob’s continuing ad- by year’s end. ventures, or to make a pledge, please Having already traveled thousands visit our Butterfly-A-Thon webpage at of miles and visited nearly every state, www.xerces.org / butterflyathon.

FALL 2008 29 Xerces Society Website Metamorphosis We are pleased to announce the launch ine Media, whose technical skills made of our newly redesigned website — at it possible. Some highlights of the site: www.xerces.org — with greatly improved u We’ve posted helpful information design and accessibility, and many addi- from our Pollinator Conservation Pro- tional resources. With hundreds of pages gram, for farmers, landowners, garden- of information, the Xerces Society’s new ers, wildland and park managers, and website is a vital source of information golf course superintendents, on provid- for those interested in invertebrate con- ing habitat for pollinator insects. servation. In addition to summaries of the Society’s conservation programs, u You’ll find Robert Michael Pyle’s the website offers access to dozens of Butterfly Big Year blog detailing his free, easy-to-download fact sheets and year-long odyssey crisscrossing the conservation guidelines. United States in pursuit of as many dif- We’re grateful to the many extraor- ferent species of butterflies as possible, dinary photographers whose images along with information on the Xerces grace our new site, and to Green Tanger- Society’s Butterfly-A-Thon.

The Xerces Society’s newly redesigned website is attractive and easy to navigate. On the site you’ll find hundreds of pages of conservation information, as well as dozens of publications and fact sheets available for download. Visit us at www.xerces.org.

30 WINGS u We’ve developed and posted pro- midwestern regions of the United States, files of more than a hundred rare and but in steep decline in recent years. at-risk invertebrate species, each with u You can sign up for the Xerces Soci- information on life history, status, and ety eNewsletter, which will provide you conservation needs. with periodic email updates on inverte- The profiled species include a broad brate-conservation issues. array of invertebrates, ranging from Susan’s purse-making caddisfly (a criti- u In addition, our website provides in- cally imperiled species found in just a formation about our publications, and single creek in Colorado) to the rusty- now offers, via PayPal, the opportunity patched bumble bee, once very com- to purchase Xerces Society publications mon throughout the eastern and upper and memberships online.

New Staff Members at the Xerces Society We are delighted to introduce three new tor outreach coordinator for California, members of our staff who are helping is expanding activities there, traveling to expand our conservation work and the state to help farmers and agricul- our geographic spread. Eric Mader, our tural professionals find better ways to pollinator outreach coordinator, works protect farms and harvests. Sarah Foltz, out of our new office in Madison, Wis- a conservation associate based in our consin, providing technical assistance, Portland office, will work to better un- support, and workshops to agricultural derstand the needs of endangered in- professionals throughout the eastern vertebrates and assist in our efforts to United States. Jessa Guisse, our pollina- evaluate the health of wetlands.

WINGS, Fall 2008 Volume 31, Number 2 Wings is published twice a year by the Xerces Society, an international, non- profito rganization dedicated to protecting the diversity of life through the ­conservation of invertebrates and their habitat. A Xerces Society membership costs $25 per year (tax-deductible) and includes a subscription to Wings. Copyright © 2008 by the Xerces Society. All rights reserved. Xerces Exec­ utive Director: Scott Hoffman Black; Editors: Scott Hoffman Black, Adair Law, and Matthew Shepherd; Design and Production: John Laursen. Printed on recycled paper. For information about membership and our conservation programs for native pollinators, endangered species, and aquatic invertebrates, contact us: THE XERCES SOCIETY FOR INVERTEBRATE CONSERVATION 4828 Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, Portland, OR 97215 telephone 503-232-6639 fax 503-233-6794 [email protected] www.xerces.org

FALL 2008 31 In this mouth-like image of a mussel, the flapping “lips” are a lure to attract fish and the “teeth” are pouches containing glochidia, the larval mussels. When a fish attacks the lure, glochidia are released and hitch a ride on the fish. Black sandshell (Ligumia recta), photographed by M. C. Barnhart.

THE XERCES SOCIETY FOR INVERTEBRATE CONSERVATION 4828 Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, Portland, OR 97215

Board of Directors Counselors Paul A. Opler May R. Berenbaum Paul R. Ehrlich Robert Michael Pyle President Claire Kremen Charles L. Remington Linda Craig John Losey Michael Samways Treasurer Thomas Lovejoy Cheryl Schultz Sacha Spector Jerrold Meinwald Scientific Advisors Secretary Michael G. Morris Thomas Eisner Michael J. Bean Piotr Naskrecki E. O. Wilson Scott E. Miller

A $25 per year Xerces Society membership includes a subscription to Wings.

Our cover photograph shows the nymph of a band-winged grasshopper (genus Xanthip­ pus). These grasshoppers feed on grasses, and are found at a range of altitudes from mountains to plains and in a diversity of habitats. Photograph by Bryan E. Reynolds.