Archive for the ‘NC insects’ Category

« Older Entries

Insect of the week – number 36

Friday, September 10th, 2010
Japygidae
A slide-mounted japygid specimen from the NCSU slide collection: USA: N. Carolina: Wayne Co.: Goldsboro, Center for Env. Farming Systems. 8-VIII-2000 C. M. Greenwood, in soil sample.

Diplura: Japygidae: Metajapyx subterraneus (Packard, 1874)

Our fall semester got under way a couple weeks ago, and ENT 502 is in the throesmidst of learning about early Hexapoda, including Diplura. No, they’re not true insects, and yes, this is the North Carolina Insect of the Week series – but these critters are just to cool to ignore. They’re ubiquitous, conspicuous (if a bit on the small side), and yet relatively rarely collected. Our entire Diplura collection, in fact, could fit inside a breadbox: 44 slides (25 Japygidae, 19 Campodeidae) and 22 vials (19 Japygidae, 3 Campodeidae). And, to top it off, only a single specimen is determined to species: an alcohol-preserved Metajapyx subterraneus collected in Raleigh in 1951. The bulk of the remaining specimens were turned in by students as parts of their ENT 502 insect collections. Let’s keep that tradition going!

Where can one find Metajapyx subterraneus? My research didn’t involve Berlese funneling nor litter extraction until recently, so I rarely saw any diplurans at all. We typically find them now in thick, rich leaf litter or under logs and stones. If you’re on the hunt for this rather large (~1.5 cm) and beautiful species of dipluran that would be a good place to start.

The species was actually described by A. S. Packard in 1874 from specimens collected under stones just inside the mouth of Mammoth Cave (and under stones along the road near Mammoth Cave) in Kentucky. We have a few records from the mountains of NC and some observations on how this species grooms itself (Valentine & Glorioso 1978), but virtually nothing else is known of this species. We do know that other japygid species are predators of small invertebrates, usually subduing them with their heavily sclerotized cerci (see image below), before ripping into their prey with monocondylous mandibles (other image below). Diplurans also regulate their water balance via eversible vesicles and have interesting ways of dealing with heavy metal pollutants.

Japygidae cerci
Sclerotized cerci used for capturing and subduing prey, while the japygid lies in wait in the leaf litter or soil.

Japygidae mandibles and other mouthparts
Monocondylous mandibles for consuming prey, which is probably (mostly) composed of other arthropods.

The oldest specimen we have dates to 1950 and was collected on a dairy farm in Raleigh. In fact, almost all of our specimens come from Wake County, North Carolina, with one each from Franklin Co., Seagrove, Rainbow Springs, Ashe Co., Buncombe Co., and two localities each in Georgia and Tennessee.

Find out more:

Sadly there are no North American Diplura species records available (yet) in GBIF: http://data.gbif.org/species/13142080

Packard, A. S. 1874. Occurance of Japyx in the United States. American Naturalist 8(8): 501-502. [the orginal description]

Smith, L. M. & C. L. Bolton. 1964. Japygidae of North America 9. The Genus Metajapyx. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 37 (2): 126-138.

Tags: ,
Posted in NC insects | No Comments »

Insect of the week – number 33

Thursday, August 19th, 2010
Dicromantispa sayiDicromantispa sayi specimen from Lyford, Texas

Neuroptera: Mantispidae: Dicromantispa sayi (Banks, 1897)

When I was a student at Texas A&M University, one of the most exciting insects I collected from a MV light trap was a mantispid.  I was just beginning as an entomologist, and this insect was one of the most beautiful and strange that I had seen!

Adults of the neuropteran family Mantispidae greatly resemble the praying mantis (Mantodea: Mantidae), with their triangular head, large eyes, elongate prothorax and raptorial legs. However, the superficial resemblance is the result of convergent evolution.  Among several important biological differences, members of Mantispidae are holometabolous and Mantidae are not. D. sayi is identified by its wing tips and crossveins lacking brown spots. The head, body, and legs are pale yellow with extremely variable brown or black markings.

In 2002, Hoffman created new genera for Nearctic and Neotropical species of the subfamily Mantispinae based on his discovery that New and Old World clades were dissimilar.  Three species were originally named to explain the extreme variation in color over the mantispid’s range– Mantispa fuscicornis from Florida and Texas, M. sayi from west of the Mississippi River and Florida, and M. uhleri east of the Mississippi and northward. Hoffmann synonymized all species under Mantispa sayi since he found no differences in genitalia among several populations from Panama to the northeastern U.S.

Dicromantispa sayi develops by feeding on spider eggs in larval stages. In the Mantispinae, first-instar larvae are campodeiform (elongated, flattened, and active) and find spider eggs by searching for, and penetrating, egg sacs or by boarding a female spider and entering the egg sac while it is being constructed by the host.  Larval mantispids drain the spider egg contents through a piercing/sucking tube formed by modified mandibles and maxillae. After pupation, the newly emerged adult chews its way out of its cocoon and the spider egg sac (Cannings and Cannings 2006).

The Mantispinae board a large variety of spiders (31 species from almost all hunting families of Lycosoidea and Clubionoidea). The first instar larva over-winters on the host and emerges in early spring or summer. Depending on life history of the spider host, between 1-3 generations of mantispids could be produced each year (Redborg and MacLeod 1985).

Only 6 species of the subfamily Mantispinae occur in North America.  In Canada, D. sayi is known only from extreme southern Ontario. In the United States, D. sayi ranges from most of the eastern states south to Florida, west to South Dakota, Utah, Nebraska, and eastern Arizona.  Its range extends south through Mexico to Panama, and it’s also found in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.

The NCSU Insect Museum has 3 old specimens: one from Lyford, Texas in May, 1965; Raleigh, N.C.  May 193x (determined as Mantispa sayi in 1936); Lumberton, N.C. (about 60 miles south of Raleigh), September 1970.

Find out more:

R. Cannings &  Cannings, S.G.  2006. The Mantispidae (Insects: Neuroptera) of Canada, with notes on morphology, ecology, and distribution. Can. Entomol. 138. 531-544.

K . E. Redborg and MacLeod, E. G. 1985 . The developmental ecology of Mantispa uhleri Banks (Neuroptera : Mantispidae). Illinois Biol. Monogr., 53.  130 pp .

BugGuide

GBIF — 499 records

Wikispecies

Tags: ,
Posted in NC insects, insects | No Comments »

Insect of the week – number 30

Friday, July 30th, 2010
Diradius vandykei

Embioptera: Teratembiidae: Diradius vandykei (Ross, 1944)

This week’s insect, Diradius vandykei Ross, is a webspinner that is found throughout North Carolina’s Coastal Plain. It is distributed in the Gulf Coast Plain (from south Mississippi to Florida) and the coastal plains of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and southeast Virginia.       

Diradius vandykei is one of less than 400 currently recognized species of Embioptera worldwide. It belongs in the family Teratembiidae and the genus Diradius. There are only three species (including D. vandykei) of Diradius found in the United States. Diradius can be identified by the presence of two prominent inner lobes in the left cercus-base (left cercus-basipodite) in adult males. Diradius vandykei is distinct from the other two Diradius species in that the anterior angles of the submentum are lobed (lobe at each anterior angle) and a tooth is present in the incisor arc of the right mandible (Ross 1984).     

Webspinners in general are known to live gregariously under rocks, in soil, and on or under bark. They construct silken galleries using silk produced from silk glands present in the basal segment of the front tarsus. These galleries are continually expanded and covers foraging zones as individuals seek fresh food such as lichens, algae, and dead plant matter. Many records of Diradius vandykei are from the trunks of isolated, lichen-encrusted hardwoods (especially oaks) and from pines (Deitz and Stephan 1984).

Other interesting facts about webspinners include their ability to move backwards with agility and their ability to fold their wings (males) forward. Winged males can run backwards through galleries without damaging their wings. These flexible wings are stiffened up for flight by inflation of the hollow veins in the wings with hemolymph. Some species of webspinners have also been observed to play dead when facing potential danger.

We have well over 200 Diradius vandykei specimens from over 40 collecting events at the NCSU Insect Museum. Most of these specimens were collected in North Carolina. We also have numerous vials of undetermined Teratembiidae (many of which are possibly Diradius vandykei). They are stored in 80% ethanol.

Find out more:

Deitz, L. L. and D.L. Stephan. 1984. Records of Diradius vandykei (Ross) in North Carolina and Virginia (Embiidina: Teratembiidae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 86 (1): 239-241.

Miller, K.B. 2009. Genus- and family-group names in the order Embioptera (Insecta). Zootaxa 2055: 1–34.

Ross, E. S. 1984. A synopsis of the Embiidina of the United States. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 86 (1): 82-93.

Szumik, C., J.S. Edgerly, and C.Y. Hayashi. 2008. Phylogeny of embiopterans (Insecta). Cladistics 24: 993-1005.

Tags: ,
Posted in NC insects, insects | No Comments »

Insect of the week – number 29

Friday, July 23rd, 2010
Zorotypus hubbardiPhoto credit: Arthur Evans

Zoraptera: Zorotypidae: Zorotypus hubbardi (Caudell, 1918)

This week’s insect, Zorotypus hubbardi Caudell, is one of only two species of Zoraptera known to occur in North America north of Mexico. The common name for this species is Hubbard’s angel insect. Its distribution ranges from Maryland and southern Pennsylvania west to southern Iowa and south to Florida and Texas.

Zoraptera is a very small insect order with only 34 extant species all belonging to a single genus (Zorotypus Silvestri 1913) (Hunefeld 2007). These termite-like insects are often found in old termite galleries, lumber mill saw dust piles, under bark, or in rotten wood. They are relatively small (2-3.5 mm in total length) and they are known to live gregariously. There are two distinct adult morphs within each species including Zorotypus hubbardi: 1.) blind and wingless 2.) with a pair of compound eyes, three simple eyes, and a pair of wings. Zorapterans have been noted to feed on fungal hyphae and spores, scavenge dead arthropods, and also prey on nematodes and other small arthropods (Hinojosa-Diaz et al. 2006). 

Zorotypus hubbardi was described by Caudell in 1918. It can be identified from other zorapteran species by a combination of character states including the oval shape of the cercus, presence of two prominent spines at the ventral margin of the hind femur, the shape of the male abdomen, and the shape of the male genitalia (Gurney 1938).

The length of the nymphal period of Zorotypus hubbardi is estimated to be 30-50 days and the adult lifespan is estimated to be around 30-40 days (Shetlar 1978). Adults are most active during spring and summer. Copulation involves a female climbing upon the dorsal surface of a male that is facing the same direction and uniting the genitalia. The female then continues to climb forward and drags the male partner leaving him upside down while their genitalia are still united. The mating process lasts about two minutes. A female may produce five to seven eggs in her lifetime (Shetlar 1978). 

Shetlar 1978(Shetlar 1978)

We have about 200 Zorotypus hubbardi specimens at the NCSU Insect Museum. These specimens come from 42 collecting events from different parts of North Carolina. They are stored in 80% ethanol.

Find out more:

Gurney, A. B. 1938. A synopsis of the order Zoraptera, with notes on the biology of Zorotypus hubbardi Caudell. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 40: 57-87.

Hinojosa-Diaz, I.A, E. Bonaccorso, and M.S. Engel. 2006. The potential distribution of Zorotypus hubbardi Caudell (Zoraptera: Zorotypidae) in North America, as predicted by ecological niche modeling. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 108 (4): 860-867.

Hunefeld, F. 2007. The genital morphology of Zorotypus hubbardi Caudell, 1918 (Insecta: Zoraptera: Zorotypidae). Zoomorphology 37(1): 135-151.

Shetlar, D.J. 1978. Biological observations on Zorotypus hubbardi Caudell (Zoraptera). Entomological News 89 (9-10): 217-223.

Tags: , ,
Posted in NC insects, insects | No Comments »

Insect of the week – number 28

Friday, July 16th, 2010
Ctenolepisma lineata
The four-lined silverfish (Ctenolepisma lineata)

Zygentoma: Lepismatidae: Ctenolepisma lineata (=quadriseriata) (Fabricius, 1775)

This week’s insect, the four-lined silverfish (Ctenolepisma lineata), is a familiar insect to many since it often lives in domestic situations. Silverfish represent one of the oldest lineages of true insects (“true insects” meaning all but the basal entognathous groups of hexapods), being about 400,000,000 years old! As old as they are, they are little changed from their ancestors, appearing today to be “primitive” (some groups even have styli on the underneath of their abdomens, similar to extra legs). While Ctenolepisma lineata is not necessarily a native of NC (it is originally from Europe), it has been here for a very long time and, thus, can be considered established.

The four-lined silverfish is larger (12-19mm) than its close relatives the common silverfish (Lepisma saccharina) and the firebrat (Thermobia domestica), and differs from Ctenolepisma longicaudata in having a striped appearance. Silverfish get their names from the iridescent scales covering the body (see below); some are more silvery than others, and Ctenolepisma longicaudata is more of a beige + silver.

Ctenolepisma lineata
A close-up of Ctenolepisma lineata showing the scaly body.

Silverfish are truly scavengers: they mainly eat carbohydrates/starches, but will also consume book bindings, wallpaper glue, paper, photos, sugar, coffee, hair, carpet, clothing, dandruff, cotton, linen, silk, synthetic fibers, dead insects, exuviae (shed skins), and even leather. Because of this, silverfish that invade homes can sometimes be pests, destroying tapestries, books and clothing, among other things. Silverfish appear to be able to digest cellulose without the aid of gut flora, probably using enzymes that they produce themselves (Lasker & Giese, 1956). Biologically, silverfish can take months to years to reach sexual maturity, and are one of the few groups of insects that continues to molt after becoming an adult. They also change little in appearance from young to adult, referred to in insects as ametamorphosis.

Specimens in the NCSU Insect Museum: We only have a handful of silverfish determined as Ctenolepisma lineata in the museum’s alcohol collection (80% ethanol being the medium to preserve these soft-bodied insects). They were collected from Wake and Chatham Co. houses in the mid-1980s.

Find out more:

Wygodzinsky, P. 1972. A Review of the Silverfish (Lepismatidae, Thysanura) of the United States and the Caribbean Area. American Museum Novitates. 2481. [PDF]

University of Missouri Extension Pest Guide to Silverfish [PDF]

Zygentoma records on GBIF (only 1 in North America): http://data.gbif.org/species/13141220

Tags: ,
Posted in NC insects | No Comments »

Insect of the week – number 27

Friday, July 9th, 2010
sharpshooter
A broad-headed-sharpshooter (Oncometopia orbona).

Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadellidae: Oncometopia orbona (=undata) (Fabricius, 1798)

This week’s insect – the broad-headed sharpshooter (Oncometopia orbona) – is a large, brightly-colored leafhopper in the family Cicadellidae (Cicadellinae: Proconiini – ’sharpshooters’). According to Nomina Nearctica, O. orbona was originally described by Fabricius in the genus Cicada, owing to its large size for a cicadellid (~10-13mm) and cicada-like appearance:

sharpshooter
From the side O. orbona appears cicada-like.

Another Oncometopia that is often confused with this species, O. nigricans, is only found in FL and has the black wing markings localized along the veins.

Like all cicadellids, O. orbona feeds on plants, sucking sap from xylem (the vessels that bring sugars from the roots to the leaves); O. orbona is a generalist, feeding on various plants. Excessive fluids taken in by the leafhopper are often expelled as honeydew, and the rapid and sometimes audible ejection may be why these hoppers are called ’sharpshooters’. In addition to the production of honeydew, cicadellids also produce a waxy powder, made up of structures called brochosomes (see below), from their Malpighian tubules (organs that are used in excretory processes in most insects). Normally brochosomes cover the body in a thin layer, and may function to repel water and their honeydew. Rakitov (2000) noted that there is sexual dimorphism in the type of brochosomes produced by different stages and sexes of O. orbona. Indeed, when females are about to lay eggs, they create patches of brochosomes on their wings (seen here), which they kick onto their eggs to coat/protect them.

brochosomes
Brochosomes produced from a sexually mature female (top) and those from an immature female (bottom) [from Rakitov, 2000; bar = 5 μm].

Many sharpshooters, including O. orbona, are vectors of Xylella fastidiosa, a bacterium that causes Pierce’s disease of grapes, phony peach and plum leaf scald (among others). In NC vineyards, 27% of the O. orbona collected were found to be harboring this baterium (Myers, et al. 2007). Because of the potential damage caused by this group of leafhoppers, there have been many attempts to identify and understand potential parasitoids of O. orbona. To that end, a number of Mymaridae and Trichogrammatidae (both egg parasitizing Hymenoptera) have been identified as control agents; Pipunculidae (big-headed flies; Diptera) also parasitize sharpshooter nymphs (Hoddle, et al. 2004; Goolsby, 2007).

Specimens in the NCSU Insect Museum: We have 7 unit trays (about half of a drawer) full of O. orbona, some labeled as their junior synonym O. undata. Most were collected from NC, with some from MD. You can see some of the specimens in this GigaPan.

Find out more:

R. A. Rakitov. 2000. Secretion of brochosomes during the ontogenesis of a leafhopper, Oncometopia orbona (F.) (Insecta, Homoptera, Cicadellidae). Tissue and Cell. 32(1):28-39. [PDF]

Illinois Natural History Survey: Use of brochosomes in oviposition (egg laying) [includes a video of sharpshooter applying brochosomes to body] [link]

Ashley L. Myers, Turner B. Sutton, Jorge A. Abad, and George G. Kennedy. 2007. Pierce’s Disease of Grapevines: Identification of the Primary Vectors in North Carolina. Phytopathology. 97(11):1440-1450. [PDF]

Mark S. Hoddle, Serguei V. Triapitsyn, Roman A. Rakitov, David J. W. Morgan. 2004. Searching for and collecting egg parasitoids of the Glassy-winged Sharpshooter in the central and eastern USA. [PDF]

John Goolsby, Jeff Skevington, Blake Bextine, Randy Coleman. 2007. EXPLORATION FOR BIOLOGICAL CONTROL AGENTS IN THE NATIVE RANGE OF THE GLASSY-WINGED SHARPSHOOTER. [PDF]

On Bugguide: Oncometopia orbona

Tags: ,
Posted in NC insects | 3 Comments »

Insect of the week – number 26

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

We have but a single specimen of this species, collected in Raleigh in 1951.

Megaloptera: Sialidae: Sialis joppa Ross, 1937

This week’s insect is one that I don’t see too often – Sialis joppa Ross, 1937, commonly referred to as an alderfly. I think I’ve only ever collected one or two alderflies, though that’s probably because I’m not usually collecting in their habitats (usually alongside permanent water sources) or using the right methods (sweep net, mostly but also Malaise traps and other methods – but probably not yellow pans, which are my preferred method!). This is yet another species that is important for water quality studies and (less so) as a model for fly-tying.

Natural History: Adults lay eggs on vegetation near water, and after the larvae hatch they move into the water, where they breathe dissolved oxygen using abdominal gills. Larval alderflies, which may live up to three years, are voracious and indiscriminate predators of other aquatic invertebrates, and they have strong mandibles to prove it! S. joppa is reported to be a small stream specialist, though prepupa have been also found inside pitcher plants (Mather 1981, in New & Theischinger 1993). Perhaps they were using this site as a place to pupate, though they often pupate in mud along the edges of the water. After they emerge from their pupa the adults can be found in overhanging vegetation (including alders!) Whiting (1991) reports that S. joppa can be found as far south as Georgia, north up to Ontario, west to Wyoming.

Taxonomic History: There are roughly 70 species of alderfly worldwide, classified in nine genera. Sialis is largely holarctic, with about 20 species in North America. S. joppa described by Herb Ross in 1937. Whiting (1994) provides a cladistic analysis of the family that places S. joppa in the californica species group.

Specimens in the NCSU Insect Museum: We have a single pinned specimen, with a data label that reads: “Raleigh, N.C. / V 13 1951 / D. M. Weisman” [NCSU 0005800]. The rest of our pinned Sialidae fit inside a single drawer and are mostly determined to species. Our wet-preserved specimens together form a fairly meager collection: 43 vials, mostly determined simply as Sialis or Sialidae. Three vials contain larvae that are determined to species: S. aequalis and S. occidens.

Find out more:

Engel, M. S. 2004. The alderflies of Kansas (Megaloptera: Sialidae). Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science (1903-), Vol. 107 (3/4): 119-12.

New, T. R.; Theischinger, G. 1993. Megaloptera, Alderflies and Dobsonflies. Handbuch der Zoologie, Vol. 4 (Arthropoda: Insecta), Part 33. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin. 97 pp.

Ross, H.H. 1937. Nearctic alder flies of the genus Sialis (Megaloptera, Sialidae). Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 21, p. 57-78.

Whiting, M. F. 1991. A distributional study of Sialis (Megaloptera: Sialidae) in North America. Entomological News 102(1): 50-56.

Whiting, M. F. 1994. Cladistic analysis of the alderflies of America north of Mexico (Megaloptera: Sialidae). Systematic Entomology 19: 77-91.

Sialis page at BugGuide: http://bugguide.net/node/view/16957 (includes pictures of live specimens and larvae)

Sialis joppa page at GBIF: http://data.gbif.org/species/13724814/ (currently 0 records)

Tags: ,
Posted in NC insects | No Comments »

Insect of the week – number 25

Friday, June 25th, 2010

Beautiful shot of Liposcelis bostrychophila, captured by Alby Oakshott.

Psocodea: Liposcelididae: Liposcelis bostrychophila Badonnel, 1931

Earlier this week I perused our North Carolina Insect of the Week series to figure out which orders hadn’t yet been represented. There are plenty of flies and beetles among the first 24 posts (and with good reason, as they’re incredibly diverse) and only two hymenopterans (remarkable restraint on our part, considering how many hymenopterists are at the Museum!) We haven’t yet covered a louse (sensu lato; Psocodea), though. After immersing myself in the Museum’s Psocodea collection for almost two hours I can see why. Very little is known about the Psocodea of North Carolina, outside of the few economically important species and the parasitic lice found on game birds. At least that’s what I can interpret from our meager collection. And so this week’s species is the common book louse, Liposcelis bostrychophila, one of the few species that we do know a lot about in North Carolina.

Natural History: Book lice derive their common name from their habits as voracious consumers of (generally) older books; they eat the pages’ delicious starch sizing. They also graze on mold, pollen, cereals, dead insects, and just about anything else you can imagine, plucked from the environment with their stylets and devoured with zest. These insects can definitely be pests in natural history collections, should the relative humidity be above a certain threshold (about 60%, I’m told). I’ve observed book louse-damaged structures, like antennae and palps, on insects in other collections (nibbled down like a corn cob), and I’ve seen book lice consume the pollen off of bee specimens. This species (and some other Liposcelis) can also be important pests of stored products. The collecting event labels on our Liposcelis specimens provide the evidence! These are verbatim statements from the labels on our slide- and alcohol-preserved collection (bracketed words are my own):

  • in wheat flour
  • in corn meal
  • in cereal
  • in rice
  • in dead leaf [OK, no so pestiferous]
  • under bark
  • in box of dead insects [!]
  • found on “pinning board” [for pinned insects, I presume]
  • on old food package
  • on book shelf in apartment
  • in book
  • in [pet] parakeet nest
  • from bird’s nest
  • in unopened bag of unpopped popcorn
  • artificial Christmas tree – apparently feeding on some sort of compressed cereal product, a cookie-like or biscuit-like material

That last one is a classic. Another fascinating evolutionary fact is that liposcelidids share a more recent common ancestor with parasitic lice than they do with most bark lice (i.e., they are more closely related to parasitic lice).

Taxonomic History: There are ~119 species in Liposcelis worldwide, and several are pestiferous. L. bostrychophila was described from Mozambique by André Badonnel in 1931. Whether it’s native to eastern Africa I can’t say, but the species is now virtually cosmopolitan (successful due to its parthenogenic life history, perhaps). There are six junior synonyms of L. bostrychophila—a common phenomenon with species that spread around the world recently, people describe them as new/different species from each locality. The type specimen, I assume, is at the Muséum d’histoire naturelle de la Ville de Genève.


One of our slide-mounted Liposcelididae (=Liposcelidae). Note the intimate association with insect collections(!).

Specimens in the NCSU Insect Museum: I wasn’t being modest when I said that our Psocodea collection was meager. We have a mere five slide boxes, three of which are dedicated parasitic lice. We also have nine racks of wet specimens: three dedicated to parasitic lice and six for bark lice. A single drawer holds our pinned collection of Psocodea. Very few of our specimens are determined to species, and, in fact, none are determined as Liposcelis bostrychophila…despite the profusion of book lice (probably this very species!) in one of our own classrooms.

Find out more:

Bess, Emilie. 2009. Liposcelididae. Version 25 March 2009 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Liposcelididae/14455/2009.03.25 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

BugGuide’s Liposcelis page: http://bugguide.net/node/view/255031

Psocodea Species File. Liposcelis bostrychophila Badonnel, 1931.

Liposcelis bostrychophila Badonnel, 1931 records at GBIF. (53 as of today)

Tags: ,
Posted in NC insects, taxonomy | No Comments »

Insect of the week – number 24

Friday, June 18th, 2010

Beautiful image of a Hydropsyche sp., captured by A. Bradford. Hydropsyche morosa adults look very similar to this caddisfly.

Trichoptera: Hydropsychidae: Hydropsyche morosa Hagen, 1861

This is the right time of year to be out looking for adults of this week’s insect, the Spotted Sedge or, more specifically, Hydropsyche morosa Hagen, 1861. [Note that many species of caddisfly are referred to as "spotted sedges."] Larvae of this net-spinning caddisfly are found in many of our rivers, from the mountains of western North Carolina, east to Raleigh and south to at least the Sandhills. Adults can be collect by sweeping vegetation near water. Many trichopteran species also flock to Hg-vapor and UV lights, which I suspect would also draw H. morosa.

Natural History: Like most hydropsychid caddisflies, larval H. morosa live underwater in rivers and streams, where they spin silken nets between rocks (similar in many respects to spider webs) in order to ensnare food items caught in the river’s flow. Their catch can include algae, detritus, and even small invertebrates. The larva lives in a small shelter near the net, emerging to graze on the net’s catch whenever it’s ready to eat. Unlike many other caddisflies, these species do not carry their shelter on their backs. Both adults, which often rest of the surface of the water, and larvae are common prey for fish – including trout – and so are popular subjects for fly tyers (here are mimics of an adult and a larva; the latter looks more like an immature stonefly (Plecoptera) to me, but then again, I’m not a trout!).


Larval H. morosa from New Hampshire, captured by Tom Murray.

Taxonomic History: John Morse’s excellent Trichoptera World Checklist provides the taxonomic history of this species. Hagen described this species in 1861 as Hydropsyche morosa (original description below) based on specimens from Canada, Washington, and New York, and it was transferred to Ceratopsyche in the 1970s. Oláh and Johanson (2008) synonymized Ceratopsyche with Hydropsyche based largely on genitalic characters. Hydropsyche is now one of the largest caddisfly genera, with about 400 species worldwide.

NCSU Insect Museum specimens: We have a fairly unpretentious (borderline paltry) collection of this caddisfly species: only three pinned specimens and two vials containing 17 or so larvae from the mountains. The pinned specimens, which we inherited from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture collection, were collected in Aberdeen, NC in 1923, Raleigh, NC in 1933, and Candler, NC 1937.


Our oldest specimen of H. morosa, NCSU 0009264, collected in Aberdeen, NC on April 12, 1923 by R. W. Leiby.

Find out more:

Ceratopsyche morosa specimens in GBIF. 249 records.

Hagen, H. A. 1861. Synopsis of the Neuroptera of North America: with a list of the South American species. Smithsonian Institution. 347 pp. (embedded below)

Morse, J.C. (ed.) 2010. Trichoptera World Checklist. http://entweb.clemson.edu/database/trichopt/index.htm [Accessed 17 June 2010.]

Oláh, J. & K.A. Johanson. Generic review of Hydropsychinae, with description of Schmidopsyche, new genus, 3 new genus clusters, 8 new species groups, 4 new species clades, 12 new species clusters and 62 new species from the Oriental and Afrotropical regions (Trichoptera: Hydropsychidae). Zootaxa 1802: 1-248.

Tags: ,
Posted in NC insects | No Comments »

Insect of the week – number 23

Friday, June 11th, 2010

Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae: Gnophothrips fuscus (Morgan, 1913)

The slash pine flower thrips (say that 10 times fast!) can be found throughout the southeastern USA, often as a pest in slash pine seed orchards (Pinus elliotti Engelm.). Very little slash pine is grown in North Carolina, but we do have a few Gnophothrips fuscus in our collection that were found feeding on loblolly pines.

Taxonomy: The species was originally described as Trichothrips fuscus by Morgan (1913), based on one specimen collected in Quincy, FL in 1910 (see below). The holotype is deposited in the Smithsonian.

Natural History: As far as is known, which isn’t very much for this species, all stages of the slash pine flower thrips feed on the young female pine cones (strobili) before they get pollinated and become tough and woody. If feeding damage is high the strobili can dry up and fall off. Cones also respond to thrips feeding—thrips pierce the tissue with their left mandibular stylet and then suck the plant juices through paired maxillary lacinial stylets—by exuding sap (oleoresin) and becoming severely misshapen. This thrips* has also been found feeding on young needles during the parts of the year when young strobili aren’t available, mainly summer.

While G. fuscus is apparently a specialist on slash pine (grown mainly south of SC), specimens have been collected as far north as New York and Massachusetts on other species of Pinus. The NCSU collection has only 17 specimens: 14 in alcohol from Wilson, NC and two slide-mounted specimens from Clayton, NC. All of these specimens were reared on the early female cones of loblolly pines between 1972 and 1974.

* thrips, by the way, is both singular and plural (Kirk, 1996)

Find out more:

Fatzinger, C. W., Dixen, W. N. 1991. Development of sampling methods for the slash pine flower thrips Gnophothrips fuscus (Morgan), (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae). Parker, Bruce. L.; Skinner, Margaret; Lewis, Trevor, eds. Towards Understanding Thysanoptera. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-147. Radnor, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station: 149-161.

Kirk, W. D. J. 1996. Thrips: Naturalists’ Handbooks 25. The Richmond Publishing Company.

Morgan, A. C.  1913. New genera and species of Thysanoptera with notes on distribution and food plants. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 46: 1-55 (embedded below)

Mound, L. A. (accessed 23 May 2010) Thysanoptera (Thrips) of the World — a Checklist.

There currently are no records of Gnophothrips fuscus in GBIF.

Tags: ,
Posted in NC insects, insects | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries