Essays on Invertebrate Conservation

WINGS ESSAYS ON INVERTEBRATE CONSERVATION

THE XERCES SOCIETY SPRING 2009 CONTENTS

Introduction Scott Hoffman Black Page 3.

The Memory of Water: Life in Ephemeral Water Holes Craig Childs Some desert water holes abound with invertebrate species that have adapted to survive extreme variations in their environment. Page 4.

Capturing Butterflies Photographically Bryan E. Reynolds Photographing these elusive creatures may require special equipment and uncomfortable hours in the field, but the rewards can be great.Page 10.

The Beauty of Butterfly Nets Robert Michael Pyle Butterfly nets are an important tool for lepidopterists, useful in the continuing effort to expand our knowledge of butterfly diversity and distributions — and they remain an invaluable educational aid as well. Page 15.

Riverfly Partnership: Protecting Britain’s Rivers Vicky Kindemba Three insect orders — mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies — together form an essential component of river ecosystems. The Riverfly Partnership was formed to protect them in Britain. Page 19.

The Importance of Deep-Sea Coral Communities Brian Tissot Corals deep in the ocean provide habitat for a wide variety of marine life. Page 24.

Xerces News Understanding and protecting rare species, including tiger beetles in Oregon and Nebraska and yellow-faced bees in Hawai‘i; working to gain the support of U.S. Senators for funding for pollinator research; and staff changes at the Xerces Society. Page 29.

WINGS Introduction

Scott Hoffman Black

You’ll notice that this issue of Wings is author explores the strategies that in- a departure of sorts. For nearly two de- vertebrates use to survive the dry times. cades, each issue of the magazine has Across the Atlantic, in Britain, we get a had a theme — beetles, global warming, look at the Riverfly Partnership, an ini- insects and the city, for instance — to tiative to protect that nation’s streams which all of the articles related. We still and rivers and the important insects intend to do themed issues, but over the that need them to survive. Survival is past few years we have been approached also the topic of an essay on deep-sea by authors with great essay ideas that coral reefs and the amazing inverte- did not easily coalesce around a par- brates that are adapted to life on the ticular topic. The occasional themeless ocean floor. This issue is completed by issue, such as this one, allows us to give a pair of articles that promote different these essays the light of day. ways to study butterflies — with a cam- The first article delves into ephem- era and with a net. eral water holes — water bodies that dry We hope that you will find each of up, sometimes for lengthy periods. The these essays interesting and enjoyable.

The gray comma (Polygonia progne) is a skittish butterfly, likely to take flight as you approach. Capturing it in a photograph may test your stalking skills. Photograph by Bryan E. Reynolds.

SPRING 2009 The Memory of Water: Life in Ephemeral Water Holes

Craig Childs

I went looking for a water hole in the holes, burrowed into the Navajo sand- desert and when I got there it was dry. stone of the Utah-Arizona border, hold Walking in the stinging summer heat enough rainfall to fill a swimming pool. of southeast Utah for days, all of my In the best years, these water holes are needed belongings carried on my back crowded with Triops, crustaceans one or through untrailed canyons and cliffs, two inches in length that look like tiny I was counting on this water hole. It horseshoe crabs, rare water-dwellers had always been full before, marked by deep in the desert. Whenever I see water the green tower of a single young cot- filled with Triops performing energetic tonwood tree beneath a shading ledge somersaults around each other, I am eight hundred feet up a rock outcrop. amazed that such creatures have found It is a place where rain collects in a a niche in the desert. natural basin. When I found it empty, Triops look ominous, with their I stood still for a moment, astonished shield-like carapaces and two poppy- and afraid. seed eyes, a fleshy, pronged tail ringed It is a hard and beautiful way to like that of a rat, and wired sensory live, counting on ephemeral water holes organs splayed off the front. They are like this. You have to be ready for long among the oldest “living fossils” on periods of waiting, traveling at night to earth, bodies completely unchanged preserve water in your body, sleeping for approximately four hundred million in daytime shade. Then the rains come years. After predatory suction-feeding and you bathe in liquid prosperity, fill- fish evolved about three hundred mil- ing every bottle you have, drinking and lion years ago, the only Triops that re- drinking, even washing your face. mained were those not in the oceans. Instead of walking away from this Congregating in loose aggregations of dry hole dejected, I shrugged off my water holes, Triops survive by moving pack and dropped to my knees, my eyes from one temporary water hole to the sore and burned from the sun. I reached next, waiting out dry times in the form my hands in and began digging. Pawing of eggs as parched as dust. into the sand I hoped for at least a taste If there were any Triops in this dry of moisture, maybe a damp, wretched Utah hole, they existed only in the form ball of clay I could pack into my cheek of anhydrobiotic cysts, the animal’s to keep me going to the next water. waiting phase. Anhydrobiosis — life There are holes I know of in other without water — is an adaptation com- parts of the desert that are ridiculously mon to many water-hole creatures. It rich with water. Some of these water is a form of existence in which all mea-

WINGS surable life processes are shut down. the cysts of each species are uniquely Basically, these animals die but can, shaped, with hooks or wings that grab under the right circumstances, come onto passing animals or catch the wind back to life. Many invertebrates living in search of the next rain, the next water in ephemeral water sources rely on an- hole. They are models of physical en- hydrobiotic stages to bridge the long, durance and patience. desiccating periods between rains. In At this empty water hole I was not their larval or egg form, they in essence in my waiting phase. I was very thirsty. I become “seeds” that can withstand in- put my back into digging down through credible pressures and doses of radiation sand, spraying it out behind me until I that would quickly kill the adult phases. reached a layer of putrid black clay that Unprotected cysts taken by space shut- was slightly damp. At that layer I began tle to outer space and exposed for pro- digging outward, forming a basin. Black longed periods to cosmic radiation were water beaded out of the clay. I quickly still able to come to life when added to gathered flat pieces of sandstone and water back on earth. Like pollen grains, built up the edges of my basin, hold-

Tadpole shrimp (genus Triops) live only in temporary freshwater pools. They have an accelerated life cycle that allows them to develop from egg to adult in a matter of weeks. Photograph by Betty Nottle.

SPRING 2009 ing back the black clay. Clear water ap- twenty miles wide broken by thorny, peared through my sandstone cistern, barren mountains. But there is water in slowly filling a cup in the bottom that I the mountains, natural holes worn into gathered in my palms and drank. It tast- bedrock collecting sporadic rainfall. In a ed good. After an hour, I had a couple good year I counted several thousands of gallons of fresh water. of gallons of water in the water holes I once worked mapping water holes of one of these ranges, and almost all for the United States government along of them were heavily populated with the border between Arizona and Mex- various crustaceans: tiny, bustling ostra- ico, a remote and desolate part of the cods, clam shrimp in their own trans- Sonoran Desert. It is a region where you lucent shells, and fleets of fairy shrimp would expect no water at all, arid basins cruising the holes like sharks.

Even in the harshest of landscapes, water gathers into pools following rainstorms. Although they last only weeks or days, such pools often teem with life. Photograph taken at Vermillion Cliffs, Utah, by Zane Paxton.

WINGS As their name suggests, clam shrimp look like bivalve molluscs but are actually crustaceans. The female lays her eggs into a space beneath her shell; they are released when she molts. The eggs can survive up to seven years without water. Photograph by Betty Nottle.

Bees and dragonflies visited these flew in from unknown water sources. water holes, slipping in and out while Their development followed in perfect I took measurements. At times, when I stride the slow vanishing of the pool. rested in shade nearby, I heard bighorn On the nineteenth day, at 10:30 in the sheep clattering down through loose morning, the pool came very near to rocks to the water, where they dipped drying. En masse, the beetles, which their heads and drank. The water holes had only recently reached their adult are strongholds of life. phase, suddenly produced an intense, What amazes me is the ability of high-pitched buzzing sound. Then, as invertebrates in these pools to deter- the researcher stood watching, the en- mine how long water will last and to tire group of beetles lifted into flight at adjust their life cycles accordingly, each once. The swarm set off to the south- pool requiring distinct calibration. One west, disappearing at the horizon. With- observer visited an Arizona stock tank in one hour the pond went dry. for the nineteen days that it held water This kind of ability to perceive sub- after a heavy summer rain. Nearly tle environmental signals of impending twenty species of invertebrates and change is common among dwellers of amphibians appeared during this time, ephemeral water sources. Phenotypic and he took note of each. Predaceous plasticity allows organisms to alter their beetles, Eretes sticticus, hatched by the body shape in step with changes in the thousands from eggs laid by adults that surrounding environment. Toads, fairy

SPRING 2009 The end can be abrupt for inhabitants of temporary pools. Dead clam shrimp litter this dry water hole, but their eggs remain as cysts, lying dormant until the next wet period. Photograph by Betty Nottle. shrimp, and beetles will shrink and the organisms distinguish the chang- stretch their growth rates in precise ca- ing amount of time or effort necessary dence with the pool’s life span. Devel- to move from the top of a pool to the opment rates in water holes depend not bottom, or that they gain cues from in- on the original size of the pool but on creased crowding. It could be that the the rate at which it dries. Thus, small mosquitoes discern a changing volume pools do not necessarily produce small of air in their tracheal systems during organisms. Rather, pools that dry quick- their descent to the bottom of the pool. ly produce small organisms because the Whatever it is, these organisms appear animals must develop rapidly, resulting to know exactly how long their habitat in dwarfed adults. It is not the actual will last. In the case of Eretes sticticus, it volume of water that matters, but how was down to the hour. fast the volume is decreasing. My own adjustments are simple No one yet knows how this rate is calculations, trekking across the desert perceived. After numerous studies, most feeling the dwindling weight of water ly involving mosquitoes, researchers on my back, scanning the horizon for have been left guessing, suggesting that a likely canyon, wash, or plain of sand-

WINGS stone where rainwater might collect. With all this rain around me on this After building my cistern, I filled all night, the desert exploded into streams the bottles I had and hitched my pack and small flash floods. Even after the onto my shoulders. I moved back into thunderstorm departed, dragging its the open desert, a blistering landscape pulses of lightning elsewhere, I lay on of red stone and blue sky. That night wet sandstone listening for hours to I set a camp and was awakened by a burbling, grumbling water that finally searing crash of thunder and the smell dwindled into drips that sounded like of rain. An unexpected thunderstorm chimes on the rock. In the morning barged in. Rain pummeled me. I had I walked back to the water hole I had no sleeping bag, no tent, only a wool found dry the day before. This time it serape pulled over me. The ground was was filled to the top with a hundred still hot from the day, and the pounding gallons of red floodwater. I knelt at the rain was welcome. My serape quickly edge, cupped my hands, and drank. soaked through to my skin and I lay in It was not a wise thing to do, but the a bath of wind and rain. water seemed like such a blessing that Thunderstorms are fickle. They will I could not help myself. Within a min- drop a quarter of the year’s precipita- ute my stomach cramped into a knot. tion, maybe two inches, in one canyon I doubled over and waited for the pain and leave neighboring canyons abso- to pass, knowing it would not linger. I lutely dry. With such localized, sporadic had done this many times before, per- rainfall, some water holes go empty for haps a foolish act. It’s just hard for me years at a time. Yet when the rains come not to drink fresh floodwater when it and the holes fill, life quickly springs comes, and feel the zing of life inside of from (or into) the water. The preda- me. The water hole had been waiting, ceous, aquatic backswimmer Notonecta its floor packed with cysts silently pre- flies from hole to hole. To find the next pared for any touch of moisture. When water hole, it seeks polarized ultraviolet the water came, life erupted and I could light reflected from smooth bodies of feel it in my stomach, the sharp taste of water, the same method used by water the desert being born again. striders and dragonflies. Ultraviolet sensors are located in the lower portion of its compound eyes. Notonecta flies with Craig Childs has published more than a its body tilted fifteen degrees to the ho- dozen critically acclaimed books on na- rizon, placing these UV sensors at a level ture, science, and adventure, including that will be struck by polarized light The Secret Knowledge of Water. He is a off a flat surface at an optimum angle, commentator for National Public Radio’s initiating a dive-and-plunge response. Morning Edition, and his work has ap- Once, sitting in the desert with a cup peared in The New York Times, the Los of water in my hand, I was bombarded Angeles Times, Men’s Journal, Outside, by backswimmers. Five of them made a and Orion. He lives off the grid with his bull’s-eye into the cup. Its mouth just wife and two sons at the foot of Colorado’s four inches across, it contained the only West Elk Mountains. More can be found water to be found in the area. at his web site, www.houseofrain.com.

SPRING 2009 Capturing Butterflies Photographically

Bryan E. Reynolds

Close-up photography of butterflies choice is any lens with a focal length can be one of the most challenging between 80 mm and 200 mm. In this and physically demanding types of general focal range you will find a few photography, but also one of the most that are special macro lenses. Nikon, rewarding . On any given day you might for example, offers a 105 mm and a 200 be hauling heavy camera gear through mm macro lens (it calls them “micro” swamps and thickets, up rocky cliffs, lenses) that focus to life size, meaning or across deserts. You might be dodg- that the image on the negative or slide ing rattlesnakes, wasps, mosquitoes, or is the same size as the subject. ticks. You can expect sunburn, scraped If you already own a macro lens elbows, and sweat dripping into your such as these, great, you’re ready to go. eyes. But the reward is sweet indeed If you don’t, I wouldn’t go right out and when all that trouble yields a great shot. buy one. Most photographers probably If you’re serious about taking pho- already own a suitable telephoto zoom tographs of butterflies (or, for that mat- lens (such as an 80–200 mm or 70–300 ter, any small object; the techniques I’ll mm) to which an inexpensive diopter discuss work with other insects, spiders, can be added. A diopter is a small, easy- lichen, reptiles, and amphibians), you to-carry, high-quality, multi-element need to know what gear to use and how lens that when screwed onto the front to use it. You should also understand of your prime lens provides instant where to find butterflies, their behav- close-focusing ability. This zoom-and- iors, and how to stalk them once you diopter combination works really well find them. for photographing butterflies and offers The best camera to use in your hunt great versatility; after you finish shoot- is a single-lens reflex (SLR) with a me- ing that mountain, just screw on a diop- dium telephoto lens, either fixed focal ter, and you’re ready for close-ups. Be- length or zoom. Whether you opt for sides convenience, you also don’t have film or digital is a personal choice. Most to refocus as you zoom in and out with people now use digital, but a few still this combo. prefer film. The techniques I describe Lenses ranging from 80 mm to 200 here work for either. mm focal lengths provide two ben- Modern mid-priced SLR cameras efits over the shorter 50 mm to 60 mm provide impressive functions for the lenses. First is background control. The money, such as auto-focusing, auto- shorter lenses have such a wide field of exposure, and optional flash units. In view that distracting elements, such as addition, all of the top camera compa- beer cans or your feet, sometimes ac- nies have a myriad of lenses that can cidentally end up in the photograph. be used on their SLR bodies. The best A longer lens narrows down what the

10 WINGS camera sees and helps prevent this from Now that you have your basic gear happening. The second, and probably you should read — or re-read — your more important consideration, is work- manual and get to know your camera. ing distance, the distance between the It is really important that you are famil- butterfly and the front of your lens. A iar with the basics, such as where the 50 mm lens has a working distance of dials are and what they do, and how less than one foot to get a frame-fill- to change lenses and film (or memory ing shot of a butterfly. A 200 mm lens cards) before you go into the field. A will achieve the same image size at four fumbled adjustment or use of the wrong times the distance. At this greater work- camera setting can be the difference being distance you won’t be as intrusive tween an acceptable photograph and a to the subject’s natural behavior. Stick great one. with a longer lens and decrease your Proper exposure is the first consid- frustration. eration. Most cameras provide four op- Another piece of equipment recom- tions: auto exposure, manual exposure, mended by many books is a tripod. A shutter priority, or aperture priority. tripod will add stability and reduce cam- Auto exposure is effectively a point-and- era shake. However, given that you’ll be shoot option; the camera sets both shut- chasing active subjects, hand-holding is ter speed and aperture. Manual expo- the way to go. This will provide better sure allows you to choose both shutter mobility and considerably lighten your speed and aperture settings. In between load in the field. are the two semi-automatic options of

The northern pearly eye (Enodia anthedon) likes deep woods. Using total flash was the only way to capture this image. Photograph by Bryan E. Reynolds.

SPRING 2009 11 A thumbnail-sized Sheridan’s hairstreak (Callophrys sheridanii) perched in typical North Dakota badlands habitat. To get close, the photographer had to drop to his belly and then, to obtain sharp focus, made sure to keep the wings parallel. Photograph by Bryan E. Reynolds. shutter priority or aperture priority, in situations. Current cameras come with which you chose either shutter speed through the lens (TTL) technology, or or aperture and the camera automati- point-and-shoot flash. The camera will cally sets the other. I would recommend measure the light bouncing off the sub- you opt for aperture priority. By setting ject and the flash will extinguish itself the aperture, or f-stop, you control the when the proper amount of light has depth of field, i.e., how much of the hit the film (or, in digital bodies, the photograph is in sharp focus. An f-stop sensor). Some cameras come with a between f8 and f16 will give your sub- flash unit built in. Others require that ject just the right amount of sharpness a flash be purchased separately. They while keeping the background out of both work the same, but for ease of use focus. However, you have to be careful in the field, the built-in flash is handier in low-light situations or if the subject and is one less item to carry around or is moving fast or blowing around in the get lost. Just turn on the flash unit and wind. In these situations, flash will have fire away. to be used or you could end up with Using flash in this manner is very blurry photographs. easy. Basically, you point and shoot. The action-stopping capability of However, total flash can sometimes flash will freeze any movement of the create unnatural-looking black back- subject or compensate for low-light grounds. This happens when the sub-

12 WINGS ject is totally exposed by the flash but nectar. A pile of mammal scat will draw the flash unit is not powerful enough to many butterflies. Other species will light the background, something that slurp drunkenly on fermenting apples frequently happens with butterflies up or tree sap and several like to gather on tall flowers. One way to help with around puddles after a rain to take in this is to change the shutter speed. The minerals, in which circumstances they flash sync-speed (the default shutter can often be easier to approach. speed when using flash) of most modern Once you find a butterfly, stalk up SLR cameras is 1/200 or 1/250 of a sec- on it slowly. I routinely crawl on my ond. Slowing this down to around 1/60 belly to get close. If the wings are closed, of a second will allow some of the am- photograph from the side, or photo- bient light to come in to provide some graph from above if the wings are open. illumination of the background. To do By doing this, more of the butterfly will this you have to change your camera be in focus because the focal plane will setting to manual instead of aperture priority. When using this technique on bright sunny days, you have to be careful that you don’t get dual images of the butterfly, one from your flash and one from the natural light at the same time, a problem known as ghosting. It’s always best to test your system before trying it in the field. To test your system, take photographs with and without flash and com- pare them. Which ones do you like best and why? If you have butterflies in your yard, practice with them before you try the techniques farther out in the field. Play with the f-stop and shutter speed on the same subject to see how the photograph changes. Take notes on what you try and don’t be afraid to experi- ment. Once you’ve practiced at home, you’re finally ready to venture forth. Finding butterflies is usually easy. The hard part is getting close enough to them to get good photographs. But- terflies are typically easier to approach when they’re preoccupied with activities A cloudless sulphur (Phoebis sennae) nectaring on a cardinal flower. A moderate such as mating or feeding. Butterflies f-stop (around f8) rendered both the but- nectaring on flowers almost always stay terfly and the flower sharp, making them still — and they make a pleasing image. pop out against the background. Photo- Some, however, prefer foods other than graph by Bryan E. Reynolds.

SPRING 2009 13 be parallel to the wings. Preset your the better you’ll get to know the behav- magnification and focus, then slowly iors and habits of the butterflies in your move back and forth to get the butter- area, and the better your photographs fly crisply in your viewfinder. Expect the will become. Using a handheld rig with butterfly to flush, possibly several times, a zoom–diopter setup or short telephoto before you even get a shot off. Don’t lens, TTL flash, and a lot of patience, give up; stick with that same individual. will provide you with many hours of I’ve found that, after a few attempts, a fun and great pictures of butterflies. butterfly gets used to my presence and allows a closer approach. Butterfly photography is not a Bryan Reynolds is a professional nature gentle activity. A good day in the field and wildlife photographer. His work has will involve several hours of bending, appeared in several publications from the stooping, squatting, crawling, getting National Geographic Society, as well as up and down, holding your breath — such magazines as Outdoor Photogra- and a little cursing. It can also be hard pher, Nature Photographer, Photo Tech- on your knees and elbows; I sometimes niques, Highlights for Children, and wear knee and elbow pads. But, stick Discover. Check out his web site at www. with it. The more you’re out chasing, bryanreynoldsphoto.com.

Butterflies can make for striking images, but they can be elusive. Stalking and photographing them is easier when they are preoccupied by feeding or mating. Butterflies drinking at a puddle, photographed in Guyana by Piotr Naskrecki.

14 WINGS The Beauty of Butterfly Nets

Robert Michael Pyle

It is in many ways apt that this piece read an encomium to the classic collect- should be penned on a Friday the thir- ing implement in a journal devoted to teenth, the day between Charles Dar- insect conservation. But this is no con- win’s two hundredth birthday and St. tradiction, as was recognized in the ear- Valentine’s Day. The thirteenth, because liest days of the Xerces Society, when its an unlucky day to me is one when I collecting policy was carefully crafted. don’t get outdoors in direct contact with When collecting presents an actual con- nature. Valentine’s, because this essay is servation risk with overzealous pursuit really a love letter to one of my favorite of rare or highly restricted species, we tools and field companions. And Dar- of course oppose it. But this is an un- win Day, on account of the simple and common event. For the most part, aerial certain fact that our all-time greatest insect populations in particular are re- naturalist might have merely toiled in productively adept, elusive, and highly quiet obscurity as a country vicar, had resistant to overcollecting. Besides, as it not been for his butterfly net. anyone who has actually tried to catch When Darwin cut theology classes butterflies knows, a human being wield- at Cambridge, he did so to collect beetles ing a net is one of the most inefficient and chase swallowtails at Wicken Fen. predators you could design. On the That’s what led him astray, ultimately to other hand, in order to conserve some- his voyage on the Beagle, to the Galapa- thing, you have to know exactly where gos, and to his residence at Down House it occurs. The great contribution of the where On the Origin of Species was writ- net-wielders is in building and updat- ten. Things are not too different in our ing the database of invertebrate distri- time: E. O. Wilson didn’t need a net bution. This is why, as counterintuitive to study ants, but he made clear in his as it may seem to some, butterfly nets memoir, Naturalist, that his carefree have been among our most important days afield with his insect net were the instruments for insect conservation. hours that made him who he is. The But that is just one reason we godfather of the Karner blue butterfly should appreciate these simple and (Lycaeides melissa samuelis) and a great centuries-old implements. True, our literary recorder of the “individuating field guides, state butterfly atlases, and detail,” Vladimir Nabokov, put it this rare-species surveys have commonly de- way: “The ordinary stroller might feel pended upon specimens in hand. More on sauntering out a twinge of pleasure and more these days these functions . . . but the cold of the metal netstick are being conducted with binoculars in my right hand magnifies the pleasure and digital cameras instead, and that’s to almost intolerable bliss.” all to the good when it serves the pur- Some readers perhaps find it odd to pose just as well. But it doesn’t always.

SPRING 2009 15 Pinned specimens contribute to scientific knowledge about butterfly diversity and distribution. They are also useful for education; this box, which includes both rare and common species, is used to train land managers to identify butterflies. Photograph by Jim Haeger.

The fact is, many butterflies — especially species it represented — and in the end, certain blues, skippers, and rare varieties he was able to determine that it was the only subtly differentiated from more- one that belonged there after all. common types — require close examina- So the reliability of occurrence data tion for positive identification. For these is essential — and often it is still the net it doesn’t help to have an approximate that sifts good data from bad. Nets are ID; positive recognition is essential. seldom weapons of mass destruction and For example, during my recently need not even be lethal. I do a great deal completed Butterfly Big Year, I was look- of my field survey and teaching with ing (among other things) at the respons- harmless catch-and-release. I find that es of ranges to changing climate, and I people make a deeper connection when certainly saw some dramatic examples. they can examine a creature up close, But, at one spot in arid north Texas, I from every angle, and then carefully re- thought I had found a species abundant lease it to a flower, or a child’s nose. This more than a hundred miles north of any practice, employing net, tweezers, and previous records. Surrounded by my a light and practiced touch, gives a far field guides, I still couldn’t determine more satisfactory encounter for a group the species for sure from my notes, or than a fleeting glimpse from yards away. from photographs. Even the national And that brings us to my favorite authority on the group had to dissect reason for loving butterfly nets: they are a specimen to be certain which of two the cheapest, simplest, and most effec-

16 WINGS tive environmental education tools ever sects is fun. It also brings the chaser invented. Give a child a pair of binocu- face-to-face with exciting, novel, al- lars or a camera, and he will be occu- ways-surprising life. Talk to any number pied for a moment or two, before setting of biologists, doctors, wildlife manag- it aside. But give her a net, and watch ers, and other life-science professionals, her go! Besides, the argument that all and the preponderance of them will interaction with butterflies should be tell you that catching bugs was a vital conducted solely through optics is an early stimulus for their engagement elitist one; most kids can’t afford close- with nature. And consider the current focusing binoculars or a good camera, crisis of children’s disconnection from but they can often pull together twelve the living world, articulated in Richard or fourteen bucks for a basic net from Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods: Sav- BioQuip — or make one themselves, as ing Our Children from Nature Deficit Dis- my friends and I always did. To this day order. Most kids used to wander freely I chiefly use a net fashioned from a Col- and catch fireflies in a jar — or crawdads, orado cottonwood branch — an artifact or polliwogs — and, through those en- from my youth — that I named Marsha. counters, learned to connect with the I made Marsha almost forty years ago, land on which we all depend. These and she has had a hard life (described days, their attachment to electronica in detail in Walking the High Ridge: Life almost from birth, combined with par- as Field Trip). Yet she is still with me, ents’ fears for their child’s safety and the a beloved friend who has helped me loss of accessible habitats close to home, introduce butterflies to thousands of means that this fundamental experience children and their parents. of roaming freely is increasingly rare. Kids love nets because chasing in- Where will our future conservationists

Butterfly nets offer children an intimate connection to butterflies that cannot be replicated by viewing from afar. Photograph by Idie Ulsh.

SPRING 2009 17 and biologists come from, when kids no used them all — or none. When investi- longer chase grasshoppers in real life? gating endangered species, such as the Well, there is no more effective defense Uncompahgre fritillary above thirteen against nature deficit disorder than the thousand feet in Colorado’s San Juan butterfly net! That’s why the Lepidop- Mountains with Xerces director Scott terists’ Society has initiated the Outer Black; in parks and preserves, where nets net Project, to get free nets into the were not welcome; or when in compa- hands of curious kids, and to get them ny with watchers uncomfortable with outdoors with knowledgeable mentors. nets, I relied solely on my binoculars. Now, some people oppose the use The point is, all of our appliances for ap- of nets outright. With the exciting rise prehending nature, taken together, are of butterfly watching and photography like a good tool box: more than the sum in the outdoor-recreation repertoire, of their parts. When a butterfly in the an either/or mentality has too often bush just won’t do, a net in the hand, crept into people’s attitudes. Since my deftly and gently wielded, may be just Watching Washington Butterflies (1974) the right tool for the job. and Handbook for Butterfly Watchers Watching and photographing but- (1984) were among the first books to terflies as a recreational pastime now push these activities, I accept some re- draws increasing numbers of enthusi- sponsibility for this trend. However, I asts. But to me, doing away with butter- have always promoted watching and fly nets, as some advocates of butterfly photography alongside — not instead watching would like to do, would be a of — responsible netting. I continue to mistake. Many butterfly watchers, like preach mutual tolerance in this regard most biologists, began with a butterfly and an ecumenical approach among net, and learned much of what they watchers and catchers, as parallel parts know on the end of it. Many will go of the community of butterfly lovers. on to enjoy butterflies through ground For my own part, I have carried both glass instead of gossamer mesh; more my binoculars and my netstick (when power to them. My wish for all children appropriate) for several decades, and I is that they may know the delight of a feel naked without either one. They can sunny day afield in company with the be wonderfully complementary means bright wings of summer. If that should for exploring the living world. During involve a net, more power to them, too. the Butterfly Big Year, I used Marsha a great deal — as net, yes, but also as com- panion, and walking staff. But I also em- Robert Michael Pyle, the founder of the ployed Akito, a beautifully engineered, Xerces Society, made his first butterfly net extendible and collapsible Japanese net, fifty years ago. Portraits of the several nets given me by a fine lepidopterist of the employed during his 2008 Butterfly Big same name; a basic BioQuip wooden- Year, including, of course, Marsha, may handled net, easy to jump out of the be viewed on the Butterfly-A-Thon blog at car with; and a little foldable job known www.xerces.org. Bob is the author of fif- as Mini-Marsha that fits into a pocket teen books, among them The Butterflies for times when I need both hands. I of Cascadia and Sky Time in Gray’s River.

18 WINGS Riverfly Partnership: Protecting Britain’s Rivers

Vicky Kindemba

In picturing a British river, many people of freshwater ecosystems, forming an will imagine the languid flow of a low- important link in aquatic food chains land stream beneath drooping trees, by feeding on algae and being eaten by the surface broken only by the circu- predatory fish such as trout and salmon. lar ripples left by trout rising to feed. An abundance of riverflies and other Within the watery depths and hovering invertebrates is central to the sustain- around the river banks, there are insects ability of rivers in terms of both habitat that underpin the health of rivers; these quality and species diversity. are the “riverflies,” a collective of insect Mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies groups including mayflies, stoneflies, all live in water when immature and on and caddisflies. The immature stages of land as adults. Because of this change riverflies can commonly be seen darting between life stages, they require appro- among water plants; and the larvae of priate vegetation — both in the stream one group, caddisflies, carry elegantly channel and along the riverbank — for crafted cases over the stony riverbed. shelter throughout their lives. The adults of all of the groups swarm at In a country as small and as densely the river surface and flit between bank- populated as Britain, there are many side plants. threats to riverfly populations. Straight- Healthy rivers are alive with river- ening and widening river channels flies. They are an essential component causes the loss of important bank-side

The term “riverfly” refers to members of three orders of insects. One of these is Trichoptera, the caddisflies. Because they are cannot tolerate pollution, they can be used as indicators of stream health. Yellow spotted sedge (Philopotamus montanus), photographed by Stuart Crofts.

SPRING 2009 19 and shallow in-stream habitat. Drain- heavy rain. The impact of insecticides ing and in-filling ponds removes habi- can be catastrophic. Just a teaspoon tat for some specialized species. Soil full of cypermethrin-based pesticide erosion from farmland smothers stony can devastate populations of riverflies riverbeds, prevents plant growth, and and other aquatic invertebrates along clogs the gills of riverfly larvae. Farm- more than six miles (ten kilometers) of land also sheds nutrients, which boosts a river. In addition, disused mines con- growth of aquatic vegetation to exces- tribute damaging acidic runoff. Many sive levels, and insecticides wash from of these impacts are compounded by both farms and industrial sites during diversion or removal of water: reduced

Britain’s rivers and streams are home to a diverse community of insects. Because they live in the water as larvae and in the air as adults, riverflies need bank-side vegetation as well as clean conditions in the stream channel itself. Photograph by John Bridges.

20 WINGS river flows result in less habitat for riverflies, and less water means pollutants become more concentrated. Away from the water’s edge, light pollution is a growing issue for adult caddisflies, as artificial light can lure them away from the water and cause them to become disoriented. Careful management of waterways and bank-side vegetation is critical to maintaining riverfly populations. A buffer strip of vegetation can be a good way to filter water running off adjacent land to reduce nutrients, sediments, and other pollutants from entering the river. Excessive cutting of bank-side and in- stream vegetation can be detrimental, but the clogging of watercourses with plant life is also a problem. A moderate amount of bank-side grazing creates a mixed vegetation sward, which is ideal habitat for many species, but too much Another order of riverflies is Plecoptera, can cause bank erosion and stream silt- the stoneflies. Nemoura cinerea, photo- ation. A careful balance is needed to graphed by John Bridges. achieve natural river systems with a variety of vegetation, clean rocky beds, published a landmark report document- and open water. ing the dramatic decline of riverflies in The problems facing riverflies were chalk streams, which had been noted noticed decades ago by scientists, an- by anglers. glers, and others closely associated The culmination of all of this activ- with Britain’s rivers. In the mid-1970s, ity was the creation in 2004 of the Unit- the first recording program was estab- ed Kingdom Riverfly Partnership. Today lished to survey for caddisflies; a simi- the Riverfly Partnership brings together lar program was started for mayflies in anglers, conservationists, entomolo- 2000. During the 1980s, monitoring of gists and other scientists, watercourse riverflies was pioneered and training managers, and government agencies to workshops for anglers first presented. work together to increase expertise in The workshops became increasingly and understanding of British riverfly popular through the 1990s. The posi- populations and to promote conser- tive results of these activities were wit- vation efforts. Semi-annual meetings nessed in 1999, when monitoring by a bring together the partner organizations local anglers’ group highlighted serious to develop workshops, conferences, and pollution incidents on the River Wey. outreach materials, and to address re- In 2001, Britain’s Environment Agency search, fundraising, and policy issues.

SPRING 2009 21 The third order of riverflies is Ephemeroptera, the mayflies. Mayflies have fleeting lives as adults, as little as thirty minutes for some species.Lepto - phlebia, photographed by John Bridges.

Funds for the partnership support the a sensitivity that has caused them to monitoring workshops as well as con- be called “the canaries of our river sys- servation programs. Funding is also tems.” To support anglers, the Partner- used to support workshop trainers and ship organizes training courses and pro- staff of partner organizations who are vides expert guidance. Angling groups working on Partnership tasks. throughout Britain are now monitoring The importance of anglers as watch- the health of their river catchments and dogs of rivers and lakes was demon- collecting long-term data on their riv- strated by the protection of the River ers, which are fed back to government Wey, and anglers are becoming increas- agencies. This regular monitoring helps ingly proactive in the monitoring and to identify any changes in water qual- management of their rivers. A signifi- ity and alerts government agencies to cant part of the work of the Riverfly problems, allowing pollution incidents Partnership is the Angling Monitoring to be dealt with rapidly and effectively Initiative. This initiative uses a simple by these agencies. Monitoring by an- technique that enables angling groups gling groups has already led to success- to monitor the biological quality of ful prosecution of river polluters. their rivers by recording riverfly larvae The Riverfly Partnership is also in- on a monthly basis. Riverflies were used volved in the conservation of rare and due to their general intolerance to pol- threatened riverfly species. Eight riverfly lution and need for good water quality, species have been designated as conser-

22 WINGS vation priorities by the British govern- zations and interest groups, the Part- ment, including the iron blue mayfly nership is taking strides to ensure that (Nigrobaetis niger), which has declined rivers and streams maintain their im- significantly, and a caddisfly, the small portance, both visually and ecologi- grey sedge (Glossosoma intermedium), cally, in Britain’s countryside. Rivers, which recent surveys found in only streams, and ponds are, quite literally, two streams. The Partnership’s Species downstream of everything else and are and Habitat Group has secured funding impacted by what happens on the sur- for a project that will raise awareness, rounding land. Fortunately for Britain’s carry out research, and implement con- rivers, the Riverfly Partnership is pro- servation projects for the eight priority moting greater awareness, understand- species. Over the next three years, the ing, and conservation of three keystone Species and Habitat Group will conduct groups of insects — mayflies, stoneflies, surveys to establish priority species’ dis- and caddisflies. tribution and abundance, and increase understanding and monitoring through the publication of resources and keys. Vicky Kindemba is the freshwater officer Monitoring of the focal species will be at Buglife — The Invertebrate Conserva- expanded. Conservation guidelines for tion Trust, Britain’s leading invertebrate each species will be produced and dis- conservation organization. She chairs the tributed to land managers and anglers to Riverfly Partnership’s Species and Habitat promote habitat management and cre- Group. Craig Macadam of the Mayfly Re- ation, such as the excavation of ponds cording Scheme and Bridget Peacock, di- to benefit the window winged sedge rector of the Riverfly Partnership, contrib- caddisfly (Hagenella clathrata). Captive uted to this article. To learn more about breeding programs will be developed the Partnership visit www.riverflies.org, for species with restored river habitat and for information about the conserva- within their historic range. tion of riverflies visit the web site of Bug By engaging a diversity of organi- life at www.buglife.org.uk.

The cinnamon sedge caddisfly (Limnephilus lunatus) is widespread across Europe. In Britain, the adults may be seen anytime between May and September, often resting on waterside vegetation. Photo- graph by John Bridges.

SPRING 2009 23 The Importance of Deep-Sea Coral Communities

Brian Tissot

I remember my first dive clearly, gradu- counterparts, deep-sea corals comprise ally sinking to the bottom in three solitary or colonial anemone-like pol- hundred feet (ninety meters) of water. yps supported by external calcareous As the bottom approached, the water skeletons. Individual polyps harvest cleared and in the dim light I could plankton and other nutrients from sea- make out white objects covering the water using stinging cells. Because they seafloor. Suddenly, we landed and the feed on food-laden ocean currents, they submersible’s pilot turned on the out- are often found in habitats that exhibit side lights. Wow! We were surrounded very specific combinations of substrate, by corals, sponges, and feather duster ocean currents, sedimentation rate, worms, carpeting the rolling landscape temperature, and salinity. as far as the eye could see. Although corals are animals, they This first encounter with deep-sea are often mistaken for plants due to corals was on Heceta Bank, forty miles their sessile habit and bushy or tree-like (sixty-five kilometers) off the Oregon shapes. Large aggregations of corals may coast, hardly a place that fits the clas- resemble small forests or thickets. Some sic image of a reef basking in sunlight coral colonies may exceed fifteen feet under clear tropical waters. Corals, (five meters) in height and form exten- though, are world-wide in distribution sive deep-water “coral gardens.” These and are quite common in both shal- are often associated with large numbers low and deep oceans as well as warm of fish and other marine life, as evi- and cold seas. Unlike corals in shallow denced by the schools of small juvenile tropical waters, cold-water deep-sea cor- rockfish — a commercially important als and their associated communities species that uses these areas for nursery are relatively unexplored. In the last habitat — that I saw among the corals few decades, however, we have begun and sponges on Heceta Bank. to learn a great deal about these fasci- Deep-sea corals inhabit the deeper nating communities, their unique role continental shelves, slopes, canyons, in sustaining healthy fisheries, and the and seamounts of the ocean at depths serious threats they face from human anywhere from one hundred sixty feet impacts. (fifty meters) to ten thousand feet (more Corals are classified in the phylum than three thousand meters). For this Cnidaria (from the Greek word knide, or vast area of the ocean, our knowledge “stinging nettle”). We currently know of is extremely limited. Although recent dozens of species in several taxonomic advances in seafloor mapping and sub- groups, including stony corals, black mersible technology have permitted sci- corals, gold corals, hydrocorals, and entists to begin to locate and map the gorgonian corals. Like their tropical distribution and abundance of deep-sea

24 WINGS corals, research efforts in deep-water en- (crinoids), basket stars (brittle stars), and vironments are extremely costly and lo- anemones. Taken together, these “struc- gistically difficult, so individual research ture-forming” invertebrates may serve missions typically cover small sites. Still, as important habitat for a wide variety we have learned that deep-sea corals are of marine life, especially fishes. In ad- both ecologically important and vulner- dition to shelter, these structures may able to a wide variety of threats from improve feeding habits and provide human activities, and as such are in critical breeding grounds and nursery dire need of coordinated conservation areas for vulnerable young fish. In Alas- efforts around the globe. ka, a study by Bob Stone of the National Of course, one major reason why Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra- deep-sea corals are so important is the tion (NOAA) has shown that 85 percent ability of some species to build reefs, of commercially important fishes and features which may include other inver crabs were observed in association with tebrates such as sponges, feather dusters corals and other structure-forming in-

Deep-sea corals may form reefs that are both impressive and diverse. These reefs, in turn, provide habitat to many other species and are important for productive fisheries. Hydrocorals and strawberry anemones, photographed by Victoria O’Connell.

SPRING 2009 25 vertebrates. In the Atlantic waters off the ans in Alaska may be one or two centu- coast of the southeastern United States, ries old by the time they reach six feet coral structures have trapped sediments (two meters) in height; a colony of gold that, together with the skeletal material coral in the Bahamas was estimated to of dead corals, have formed reefs eighty be eighteen hundred years old! These feet (twenty-five meters) high at depths ancient features are especially vulner- of twelve hundred feet (three hundred able to mobile fishing gear: bottom and sixty-five meters) below the surface. trawls that target bottom-dwelling fish A study by John Reed of the Harbor drag nets on the seafloor and can break, Branch Oceanographic Institute found smash, and otherwise damage deep-sea these reefs to be occupied by seventy corals and other marine life. These coral species of fish and more than three hun- communities can take many years to dred species of invertebrates. recover, and coral damage can signifi- Back in 1988 when we took that first cantly affect organisms in surrounding dive to Heceta Bank, the principal crea- ecosystems, particularly fishes that de- tures of interest for the research cruise pend on corals for essential habitat for were fishes, with deep-sea coral commu- shelter, feeding, and reproduction. nities as just a piece of seafloor “habi- Research documenting the im- tat.” Those of us with an interest in the pacts of different fishing methods on corals almost had to be stowaways in seafloor habitats has found corals to be the submersible. Fourteen years later, in particularly vulnerable. For example, 2002, I returned to the Bank for a new Mark Hixon of Oregon State Univer- series of dives. However, this time the sity and I recently conducted a study corals and other invertebrates were on off the Oregon coast that showed that an equal footing with fishes — recogni- fishing using bottom trawls reduced the tion that damage to deep-sea coral com- abundance of sea pens by 99 percent munities was a key element in recent and decreased the overall abundance failures of the Northwest groundfish of benthic invertebrates by 55 percent. fishery. Our team’s research focus was Other studies from around the world now on how fish and benthic inverte- have yielded similar results, and many brates live together and how these deep- nations have taken steps to provide sea coral communities form essential protection for habitats where deep-sea fish habitat, the holy grail of recent corals occur. conservation efforts. In the last few years conservation The last six years have seen a grow- of deep-sea corals has also been emerg- ing scientific and political interest in ing as a high-priority policy issue in deep-sea coral communities stemming North America. In 2005, the Bottom both from our increased understanding Trawl and Deep-Sea Coral Habitat Act of the importance of these ecosystems was introduced into the United States as habitat for fishes, and from their high Congress. This would have temporarily vulnerability to human impacts. Many banned the use of mobile bottom-tend- deep-sea corals — particularly gorgo- ing fishing gear in unstudied areas until nians, black corals, and sea pens — are research determined whether deep-sea slow-growing and long-lived. Gorgoni- coral ecosystems are present, and would

26 WINGS Gorgonian soft corals offer shelter to rockfish. When damaged by fishing trawls, they may take a century to grow back. Photograph courtesy of Ed Bowlby, NOAA. have permanently banned the use of tablish and protect more than 130,000 mobile fishing gear in Coral Habitat square miles (337,000 square kilometers) Conservation Zones where deep-sea of marine waters off the West Coast of coral ecosystems are known to exist. North America as essential fish habitat Although this act did not pass, the next for commercially valuable bottom fish. year Congress did provide protection for Within much of this area the plan pro- deep-sea coral habitats by amending the hibited fishing methods — such as bot- reauthorized Magnuson-Stevens Fishery tom trawling — that can cause long-term Conservation and Management Act. damage to the ocean floor. During this Also in 2005, NOAA Fisheries closed same period both the North Pacific and nearly four hundred thousand square Pacific Fishery Management Councils miles (a million square kilometers) of proposed and adopted fishery manage- the North Pacific Ocean surrounding ment plans that provide protection for the Aleutian Islands of Alaska to destruc- deep-sea coral habitats. tive commercial fishing. These areas in- In the two decades since my first cluded spectacular deep-sea coral and dive, ocean management has clearly im- sponge gardens. Similarly, in 2006, proved, but we are still just beginning NOAA Fisheries approved a plan to es- to understand and protect these valu-

SPRING 2009 27 able deep-sea habitats. Currently there tance to sustaining healthy fisheries and is insufficient protection — and it is not maintaining the oceans’ productivity. keeping pace with the rapidly expand- ing exploitation of marine resources. In the past decade, fishing trawlers oper- Brian Tissot is a professor in the School ating in the open seas in international of Earth and Environmental Science at waters have had devastating effects on Washington State University in Vancou- deep-sea coral habitats. Protecting these ver, Washington. A marine ecologist, he areas, to be successful, requires both specializes in studies of marine inver- increased awareness and international tebrates, especially on issues that occur cooperation. Thus, in addition to more at the interface between biology, fishery research on deep-sea corals, which will management, and policy. He also studies no doubt reveal some surprises, we need the effects of the live aquarium trade on to spread the word about these fantas- coral reefs in Hawaii and the restoration tic organisms and their critical impor- of endangered black abalone in California.

Deep reefs form a physical structure on which many other species can live, often with one species finding refuge in or on another. Feather stars on a vase sponge, photographed by Rick Starr.

28 WINGS XERCES NEWS

Research on and Advocacy for Rare and At-Risk Invertebrates With funding from the U.S. Forest Ser- in Washington’s Puget Trough. Zach vice and the Bureau of Land Manage- Gompert of the University of Wyoming ment, Xerces Society staff members are will examine how a bacterial infection engaged in assessments of forty-nine (Wolbachia) affects the Karner blue but- species of rare Pacific Northwest inver- terfly (Lycaeides melissa samuelis), an tebrates. These animals include dragon- endangered species found in the upper flies, stoneflies, butterflies, caddisflies, Midwest and Northeast. This infection snails, and the Oregon giant earthworm may negatively impact the demograph- (the largest earthworm in North Amer- ics of Karner blue populations. ica, reported to have lily-scented spit). We continue to advocate for such We are working to understand habitat species as the Salt Creek tiger beetle requirements and mapping the distri- (Cicindela nevadica lincolniana). The bution of these species so that land- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently management agencies and the Xerces announced the reopening of the com- Society can better understand — and thus ment period on a proposal to designate protect — these vulnerable creatures. critical habitat for the tiger beetle under This summer, Xerces staff will sur- the Endangered Species Act. The USFWS vey for the Siuslaw hairy-necked tiger is proposing to add 138 acres of critical beetle (Cicindela hirticollis siuslawensis) habitat resulting in a total area of just in the sand dunes of the Oregon coast. 1,933 acres. This tiger beetle once ranged along the Three years ago, a multi-agency team Pacific coast from southern Washington of scientists concluded that more than state to northern California, but may thirty-six thousand acres of critical hab- now be relegated to only a few locations itat were needed for the recovery of the in Oregon. Surveys will allow us to fully Salt Creek tiger beetle. At the prompting understand the extent of decline that of the USFWS, this team revised their this species has experienced, and help recommendation to fifteen thousand us to prioritize conservation efforts. acres, but expressed that this was the Each year the Joan Mosenthal minimum amount needed for the spe- DeWind Award, administered by the cies to recover. Scientists involved in the Xerces Society, provides funding for re- conservation of this tiger beetle believe search into Lepidoptera conservation. that the present proposal of less than Two individuals were awarded grants two thousand acres will be inadequate for this year. Erica Henry of Washing- for the protection or recovery of this ton State University at Vancouver is species. The Xerces Society is working investigating ways to manage habitat with these scientists to ensure that the for highly imperiled populations of the USFWS provides meaningful protection mardon skipper (Polites mardon mardon) for the Salt Creek tiger beetle.

SPRING 2009 29 Protecting Endangered Yellow-Faced Bees in Hawai‘i A number of yellow-faced bees (Hy- Yellow-faced bees can be found in laeus species) endemic to the Hawaiian a variety of habitats on the Hawaiian Islands are threatened with extinction. Islands, including coasts, dry forests and Yellow-faced bees are important pollina- shrublands, mesic and wet forests, and tors of native Hawaiian plants (many of subalpine shrublands. All Hawaiian yel- which are also endangered). The decline low-faced bees strongly depend on an of these pollinators could lead to the intact community of native plants and loss of native plants; conversely, their are mostly absent from habitats domi- protection could aid the recovery of nated by non-native plant species. The some endangered plants. bees require habitat with a diversity of In order to gain protection for these plants that flower throughout the year yellow-faced bees and the habitats upon so that a consistent source of pollen and which they depend, in March 2009 the nectar is available. They also need an Xerces Society petitioned the U.S. Fish abundance of nest sites, in the ground and Wildlife Service to protect seven of for some species and in hollow-stemmed the most at-risk species under the En- plants for others. dangered Species Act. The petitioned The yellow-faced bees are threat- species include: H. anthracinus, H. lon- ened by development (particularly in giceps, H. assimulans, H. facilis, H. hilaris, coastal areas), fire, feral ungulates such H. kuakea, and H. mana. as pigs, invasive ants, and the loss of In the late 1800s and early 1900s, native vegetation to invasive plant spe- the biologist R. C. L. Perkins called yel- cies. Remnant populations of many spe- low-faced bees “almost the most ubiq- cies of Hawaiian yellow-faced bees are uitous of any Hawaiian insects.” By sur- small and isolated, and thus especially veying many of Perkins’ original collect- vulnerable to habitat loss, predation, ing locations, biologist Karl Magnacca stochastic events, and other changes. has demonstrated that most Hawaiian Conservation of these important polli- yellow-faced bee species are in decline, nators will require active management many of them are extremely rare, and of natural areas where populations are several are possibly extinct. known to exist.

Xerces Lobbies for Pollinator Funding in the U.S. Farm Bill The Xerces Society recently worked with aged honey bees, and into how native Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to draft bees can be used to diversify the range a letter requesting that the Agriculture of species employed for pollinating Appropriations Subcommittee allocate crops. The 2008 Farm Bill authorized $20 million for pollinator research. If $100 million over five years to further allocated, this money will increase the our scientific understanding of agricul- resilience and security of U.S. farming tural pollinators, but the funds must be systems by supporting vital research appropriated by Congress each year. into Colony Collapse Disorder in man- Managed and native pollinators

30 WINGS play a key role in providing more than contact their Senators and urge them $18 billion — and perhaps as much as to support this effort. With their help, $27 billion — per year in agricultural Senator Boxer’s letter requesting fund- products in the United States. Yet, total ing for pollinator research funding was spending on pollinators at the Depart- signed by Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Max ment of Agriculture accounts for merely Baucus (D-MT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), a hundredth of 1 percent of the agency’s Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Kent Conrad budget. Without native bees and honey (D-ND), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Russell Fe- bees, our current yields of alfalfa, al- ingold (D-WI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), monds, apples, cherries, cranberries, Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY), Orrin Hatch blueberries, kiwis, strawberries, melons, (R-WY), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Patrick squash, peppers, peaches, pears, plums, Leahy (D-VT), Robert Menendez (D- carrots, onions, and other crops would NJ), Jack Reed (D-RI), James Risch (R-ID), not be possible. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Charles Schumer The Xerces Society reached out to (D-NY), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and thousands of people asking them to Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Staff Changes at the Xerces Society When you call our Portland, Oregon, ship services and office management office you may hear a new voice on the support. Sean Tenney, who served in the other end of the line. Suzanne Grana- position for the past year and a half, has han has joined the Xerces Society as our left Xerces so that he can travel through new membership and administrative as- Mexico and Central America. We wish sociate. She will be providing member- Sean the best, and welcome Suzanne.

WINGS, Spring 2009 Volume 32, Number 1 Wings is published twice a year by the Xerces Society, an international, non- profit organization 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 © 2009 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

SPRING 2009 31 Although having the appearance of plants, these feather stars are actually invertebrates, and are closely related to sea stars and urchins. They hold their arms out to catch the rain of detritus that descends from the ocean’s surface. Photograph by Michael Carver, Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary.

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

Board of Directors Counselors Dennis Paulson 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 Paul A. Opler Marla Spivak

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

Our cover photograph shows a water strider (genus Gerris) — called a pond skater in Britain — on the surface of a pond. Hairs on the insect’s feet prevent it from sinking. The mirrorlike reflection on the water makes it obvious how the meniscus flexes under the strider’s feet as it moves. Photograph by David Chauvin.