Oct. 9th, 2015

urbpan: (dandelion)
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If you are a North American and you have ever seen an earwig, the chances are very VERY good that you are familiar with the European earwig Forficula auricularia* According to my go-to insect guide, "In the early 1900s, European earwigs were introduced to Rhode Island, and quickly spread across the country." It's nice to lay the blame on a neighboring state, since Massachusetts is responsible for a great many Old World invaders.

Earwigs are essentially harmless, causing only psychic damage if--for example--they suddenly appear in from a child's toy that was left in the yard over night. I've recovered from that shock, as you can see by this photograph. The alarming "pinchers" are anatomically the same as the vibration-sensing cerci of cockroaches and silverfish. Earwigs make a show of bending those cerci at you if you try to pick one up, but apart from perhaps some large tropical species, they can't actually pinch you with them. There are a few native North American species, but I am confident I have never seen one--every earwig I've found roaming the sunflowers, or hiding in the cracks of the chicken coop, or harboring in the folds of anything made of fabric left outside overnight, has been a European.

They are opportunistic omnivores, sometimes eating aphids from your garden, sometimes damaging your garden plants, probably more often doing something entirely neutral. What they don't seem to do, despite folklore and their name, is habitually enter human ears. This gross list includes cockroaches, fly larvae, and actual parasites, but not earwigs. It may have happened at some point in history--there are a lot of humans sleeping on the ground, and a lot of earwigs out there, but it's not a typical part of their natural history.

*Little scissors of the ear
urbpan: (monarch)
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One of North America's largest and most beautiful butterflies might be on the ropes. The monarch butterfly Danaus plexippus* has two big challenges: it migrates halfway across the continent, and it relies on an agricultural pest plant to survive. Deforestation of its southern wintering spot and industrial control of its host plant are converging to make life tough for an insect recognized as state insect or state butterfly for seven US states.

This individual and several like it that I saw in the Missouri Botanical Garden was among the very few I've seen this year. Citizen science is catching up with anecdotal evidence to prove that the population of monarch butterflies is plummeting. We should all plant milkweed in our yards, and hope that the orange giant is with us for years to come.

*Danaüs = Greek myth a king of Argos who told his fifty daughters, the Danaides, to kill their bridegrooms on their wedding night
Plexippus = In Greek mythology, Plexippus or Plexippos (Πλήξιππος) is a name that refers to:
A son of Thestius, who, together with his brother Toxeus, participated in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar. He was angry that the prize of the boar's hide had been given to a woman (Atalanta) by his nephew Meleager, who then killed him in the ensuing argument.
A son of Phineus and Cleopatra, brother of Pandion. He and his brother were blinded by Phineus at the instigation of their stepmother Idaea.
One of the sons of Aegyptus. He married (and was killed by) Amphicomone, daughter of Danaus.
A son of the Arcadian king Choricus, brother of Enetus and Palaestra.
urbpan: (dandelion)
 photo IMGP2472_zpsqnuykt9f.jpg
It was kind of nice to experience pond sliders (specifically the red-eared slider Trachemys scripta elegans*) in their native home range. True, it was in an artificial body of water in the botanical garden, with animals clearly accustomed to being fed by humans, but it was their native home range. These hardy semi-aquatic turtles are transported around the world as food animals and especially pets. More often than not, any pet sliders that survive the care of their early years outgrow their tiny tanks. The pet owners time and time again take their problem to the nearest pond and dump it. Pond sliders turn out to be survivors, and this practice has meant that these turtles now have among the broadest range of any turtle species in the world. Australia and Europe have banned its importation, but much of the damage is done. I can see a time when the pond slider is the last species of turtle, and once we're gone it will radiate into all the other turtle niches.

*Elegant written rough turtle

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