Arizona Beetles

I am preparing powerpoint slides for a talk to the Docents of Sabino Canyon about the beetles of their beautiful park. The canyon begins on the desert floor and eventually reaches up the highest elevation of the Catalinas at above 9000 feet. Few hikers will follow it that far, but most of it know how to connect with it again after driving up Catalina Highway. Theoretically, this vertical expansion over many different types of vegetation and habitats could allow us to find almost all AZ beetle species right here. Even recent arrivals from south of the border often make their way here after a couple of years. Missing are of course specialists of sand dunes and some other extreme niche habitats and the northern much populations that are more connected to Utah and Colorado than southern AZ. So my talk about Sabino Canyon Beetles will very much be an introduction to Arizona Beetles in general.

After posting this title slide on Facebook, I got many requests for prints. I don't really do mass produced posters. Instead,  I am offering a special  limited edition of giclee prints size 20 by 34 in. These frameable prints are printed on heave acid free paper with archival pigment ink. I am offering them for a limited time to my naturalist friends at $60, which is way below my normal price rate. 

I got so many requests for posters that I inquired into having them printed: This 18 by 24 in version will cost $20 plus shipping in a tube. I'll order them if I get at least 10 orders.

Update: I have more than enough orders, so if you'd like one, let me know soon so you get included. email me mbrummermann at comcast.net 

March 2014 in Sabino Canyon

 I try to join Ned Harris and his naturalists tours in Sabino Canyon at least once a month. It's nice to be in like-minded company, even though I usually don't last very long in the group because I stop too often and too long for insects that are too small for most participants' eyes or camera lenses. 

This time, my first stop (before I met the group) was devoted to the resident Roadrunner.  When I found the nest, very well hidden in a Chain Fruit Cholla, I got a glimpse of some chicks and some as yet unhatched eggs. Roadrunners begin incubating right after the first egg is laid so the chicks are as different in size as organ pipes. Many birds with nestlings that are born blind, featherless and dependent on their parents (altricial) follow this strategy. For the youngest ones, this can be perilous. Their only chance of survival is a year with plenty of food. Under poor conditions the parents can decide to raise only the older, stronger siblings to ensure at least their survival. There seems to be a tuft of fur from a bunny or a rock squirrel tail in the nest. So this pair is bringing in rather big prey. That probably means good chances for all the chicks.

When I checked again on my way back, I was greeted by the angry stare of one of the parents. Altricial chicks are rarely left alone, and that means that in many species both parents share the nest duties.

Two lonely, very young Mallard chicks were dabbling in the small pond by the dam. They were contently feeding on the willow seeds that drifted into the water. Very different from roadrunners, ducks are precocious birds. The female only starts incubating after she has laid the whole clutch. So the chicks all hatch on approximately the same day even though some eggs are up to 2 weeks older than others. The chicks hatch with feathers, open eyes and ready to go. And they have to. The family, which means mother and chicks, the father is not involved, leaves the nest and the dangers of sedentary living and moves out right away. The two in the picture seemed actually to be on their own, no mother in sight. And yet, they still have a chance to grow up.

Rhagoletis sp. (Maggot Fly)

The first interesting insect was a little fruit fly that I had never seen before in the Tucson area. Some of these flies can become invasive destructive pests of agriculture. That's what those controls between CA and AZ are about, to stop the cross border transport of infected fruit. So I sent this photo to a friend who works at USAD. Just in case. We all thought that it looks quite similar to the Apple Maggot Fly, Rhagoletis pomonella (which would not find a lot of suitable food in Sabino, I'd say, not many rosacean plants there). Unlike the apple Maggot Fly, it has no white scutellum. Martin Hauser then pointed out that it could be  Procecidochares atra, in which case it would be a gall producer rather than a fruit maggot fly. As the common host, Golden Rod, doesn't grow at the elevation, I will be looking for similar galls on related plant species.

Dufourea sp. male on  Brittle Bush, Encelia farinosa

Dufourea sp. female

 In the canyon, Brittle Bush was still blooming where it thrives on water run-off from the road. The dominant bees here were Dufourea sp. in the Sweat Bee family Halictidae. 

Red and yellow Trichodes ornatus

 The bees were joined by a great number of Checkered Beetles, Clerids,  who were feeding on pollen and trying to find mates. Both striking color morphs were present, the bright yellow-black and the red-black version. The two forms mate freely and either color-type occurs in both sexes. I have no idea how the genetics work in this case.

Haplorhynchites planifrons

A greenish black Tooth-nosed Snout Weevil occurs every spring on the brittle bush flowers in Sabino, but I have yet to find it anywhere else. 

Acmaeodera sphaeralceae

The Metallic Wood-boring Beetle Acmaeodera sphaeralceae is also a springtime regular of Sabino Canyon, but before I've found it more often on Globe mallows.

Monoxia sordida

 A leaf beetle on Brittle Bush leaves turned out to be a new species for my photo collection. The species is one of a few in this difficult western genus with 16 to 18 species that can be identified from a photo.

Trirhabda sp., probably T. geminata

This other leaf beetle is so common on Brittle Bush that I find it every year, but its wing coloration is very variable, so the identifications on BugGuide have triggered a lot of discussion. Some years ago, I collected some in the larval stage and watched them for a while after the metamorphosis to the adult beetle: The wing pigmentation kept changing for weeks, way beyond the usual teneral stage. T. geminata seems to be the most likely species id. 

 

Some New Mexico Thistles were covered in Honey Bees, others hosted loads of Blister Beetles in the genus Nemognatha. 

I don't think the beetles would cause a problem for Honey Bees, but the solitary Diasdasia bee above was certainly in danger of picking up a beetle larvae that would then live as a cleptoparasite in her nest and feed on the provisions that she had accumulated for her own brood.

On this beautiful spring day, larvae and nymphs were everywhere. One of my favorites is the young Mexican  Bush Katydid. The adult Katydids are just green and have long wings.

  I also found the first hatched clutches of  Giant Mesquite Bugs, Thasus neocalifornicus, whose mother had left the eggs in a sheltered spot under the bark of a mesquite tree before the winter. These little guys will molt one more time and then, always as tight-nit  a group of siblings, try to reach the freshly thriving mesquite leaves.  I followed the life-cycle of Thasus in an earlier blog.

Lema daturaphila

Lema daturaphila eggs

Leafbeetles on the Datura plants in the shadow of the willows by the creek were starting the next generation.

Dolichodynerus tanynotus

 Just when the wind was kicking up in unpleasant gusts I found a couple of specimens of a rarely photographed Mason Bee. I wished my photos had come out better, but by then everything was too windswept.

 

Ornate Tree Lizards were trying to warm up on light colored rocks to get ready to pounce on all those bugs.

It was after noon when I was finally back on the tram road approaching the entrance, and I remembered the turn circle for school buses where we usually found Ironcross Blister Beetles at this time of the year. Maybe it's still too early, although the little blue star flowers that attract them were  blooming. 

Walking along with my eyes on the ground I saw something hop that seemed to slender to be a grasshopper nymph. I found that it had to be a fulgorid planthopper, but one that I had never seen before.

Lois O'Brien confirmed it: It's Rhabdocephala brunnea, a species that is not common, even Lois has only 3 specimens in her collection.

So as always, Sabino Canyon was worth the long drive across town.

Monstrous!

I'm going to be out of the country for a short while without access to my blog, I expect. So this is an opportunity to publish a few short blogs that were planned but not executed before. For example, when I found those big Bot Flies in Sabino Canyon they exited me and a very select few of my entomologist friends to the point, that a much more popular monster was left by the wayside. Literally: just watch him walking along.

Our Gila Monsters were unusually visible this year, at least in Sabino Canyon. For several weeks the Group of the Friends of Sabino Canyon met on or two on each of their Wednesday hikes. No idea whether it was the same individual that took a liking to the group? I think the monsters are rather oblivious of people. Mostly they want food at this time. After all, they spend most of the year under ground, hiding from drought and food shortage between the rainy seasons.
When they are out, they gobble up whole clutches of quail eggs,  whole litters of rat pinkies...I once surprised one that was chewing down a whole rather grown-up pack rat. This venomous lizard  (the only  in the US) has to chew with their formidable jaws to release venom along a grove in their teeth.

On the lower jaw of my friend here you can see the big, bulging glands. Although I didn't get my nose too close to him, after all, Gila Monsters are said to suddenly lunge, bite, and then hold on for good, I noticed a peculiar chemical smell -  ok, all smells are chemical, but his perfume seemed nearly inorganic: a little like chlorine in a pool...   A pheromone? It is mating season.

 The smell of his poisonous droolings? But he wasn't drooling. He was only testing the air with his forked purple tongue. He was certainly not interested in me or my hiking boot standing between him and whatever he had to do before going into hiding once more.

It always pays to watch the competition

Yesterday, when I arrived for the weekly nature walk of the Friends of Sabino Canyon the temperature was in the fifties. Much too cold for mid-April morning in Tucson and too cold for most insects and lizards that I wanted to see. In addition, a fierce wind was howling down into the canyon from the Catalinas. The other naturalists decided to look mostly at plants, I guess because those can't hide from the elements. Two saguaros, one with an imposing crest, looked indeed positively defiant.

Eastern Collared Lizard, who stayed hidden yesterday (Photo Ned Harris, April 2012)

But I don't get to Sabino often enough, so I was going to give Esperero Trail a try because that's where I had seen the beautiful Eastern Collared Lizards last year. The trail leaves the main canyon and winds up the mountain side with full exposure to the western wind gusts. It seemed like a dumb idea but I am stubborn and in Arizona the sun usually breaks through eventually.

View into Sabino Canyon from Esperero Trail

 Well, it didn't and there seemed to be very few living things willing to share the exposed mountain side with me. Until I came to some part of the trail that rose somewhat over its surroundings resulting in a low but pronounced hill top.

Ash-throated Flycatcher, who was out and about

 There was a big Ash-throated Flycatcher busily swooping from his perch as if catching - flies? Sure enough, even in this abysmal weather some Bee Flies, Tachinids, Robber Flies  and even some butterflies (Tiny Checker Spots, Marine Blues) were hill-topping, a behavior that is typical for many flying day active insects.

Some of the hill-topping flies and butterflies

 Males had staked out little territories, patrolling back and forth, chasing everything that flew by, driving off other males and trying to mate with passing females. I think I understand why the big collared lizards and the flycatcher seem to prefer this exact area. It's the place where they can be sure to find enough prey. Of course the ectotherm lizards had the luxury to take the cold day off while the endotherm bird had to keep working, especially as he was feeding nestlings that I could hear keening in a Saguaro hole. I followed the bird to an especially exposed area with some bare boulders where he seemed to concentrate his efforts.

 At first I payed little attention to a big black fly that landed as if to bask in one of the sparse sunny spots because I mistook it for a Mexican Cactus Fly, a common syrphid. But then I heard a very deep basso buzz when the fly changed to another boulder, only about 5 m from the first. That sound is one of the loudest and deepest flight noises I've ever heard here in Arizona - not easy to forget. Through my new little Papillon binoculars I could also verify that the fly was not all black but had silvery grey flanks - a bot fly in the genus Cuterebra. (Later identified by Jeff Boettner as C. austeni)

Rodent Bot Fly, Cuterebra austeni, Esperero Trail, Sabino Canyon, Pima County Arizona, April 2013 

This is only the third time that I encountered these big, fascinating insects. Some people may feel that the live history of bot flies seems like an episode from the X Files or the movie Aliens. I think, however, that the film makers borrowed their ideas from the biology of these flies whose larvae are mammalian parasites.

Deer Bot Fly, Cephenemyia jellisoni infects the alimentary tract of ungulates like white-tailed deer, mule deer, moose or elk. Photo by Philip Kline Pusch Peak,  Catalina Mountains, Pima County, Arizona, March 2009

 While some bot fly larvae develop in the alimentary tract of mammals, the big black and grey Cuterebra that I was watching yesterday belonged to the group that develops subcutaneously in mammals. Luckily they are quite species specific in their host choices so I knew that I wasn't the target - the host would most likely be a rabbit or a pack rat.

Pack rat with 2 nearly grown Cuterebra larvae Photo Jan Emmings

 The female fly will lay hundreds of eggs in rat runways. Only a few of the larvae will actually find their way into a passing rodent.There it will develop rather quickly feeding on the body fluids of the rat that this irritation draws. Inflammation and pain are controlled by the larva and the wound heals very quickly as soon as the guest drops out of the host to pupate.

Cuterebra sp. larva ready to pupate found crossing Sabino Canyon Rd. on Feb. 22, 2011. Photo by Fred Heath

Rodent Bot Fly, Cuterebra sp., Pima Canyon, Catalina Mts. Pima County, Arizona, September 2009

 The only bot flies likely to infest humans do not occur north of Southern Mexico. As I mentioned, the deep characteristic buzz of the big flies is rather recognizable and would probably warn the victim of an intended egg drop. To give their larva a chance to find their way into the body of a wary primate, female bot flies in the genus  Dermatobia  have an amazing strategy. They capture another insect like a mosquito, horsefly or tick that is drawn to warm blooded mammals for its own reasons and attach a load of their eggs to this carrier. When the released  mosquito later lands on a primate for a blood meal, the bot fly eggs hatch and the young larvae bore into the warm skin of the doubly victimized monkey or human.

 While feeding from the host subcutaneously for several weeks the larvae have to behave reasonably well. They seem to prevent inflammation even though they need to keep a hole in the host's skin open to be able to breath periodically. They probably have anti inflammatory and antibiotic capacities. I have two good friends who both got parasitized in Central America, are now in their eighties, and live and love to tell about it. If not removed prematurely, the larvae will eventually leave the host, drop to the ground and pupate. In time a new generation of mature adults will hatch. These big flies are born without mouth parts. From their time as maggots in the flesh, they are provisioned with enough energy reserves to survive for about 10 days, time enough to start the cycle again.

Catching the redeye to Amhesrt, MA 

Yesterday's bot fly, however, is not going to propagate his genes this way. Instead he is contributing them to conservation biologist Jeff Boettner's research project at UMASS - Amherst. There are many open questions concerning host relationships and phylogeny of the group. As specimens are difficult to obtain, Jeff would be grateful for specimens and info about lek sites. Here is a link to his info pamphlet.
Here is a link to photos of the removal of a human bot fly larva (Peruvian Amazon)
Classification:
Arthropoda (Arthropods) » Insecta (Insects) » Diptera (Flies) » Calyptratae » Oestroidea » Oestridae (Bot Flies) » Cuterebrinae (New World Skin Bot Flies) » Cuterebra (Rodent and Lagomorph Bot Flies)

Sabino Canyon in April

"Sabino Canyon is fun!"

Yesterday, Ned Harris invited me to join his 'Friends of Sabino Canyon' for one of their weekly spring walks. The morning was beautiful, cloudy, but not windy... just perfect. Notably missing were flowers. No spring annuals and nearly no brittle bush bloom this year. But lots of small critters and birds were out.

 Round-tailed Squirrel

Sonoran Whiptail Lizard

Young Desert Spiny Lizard

Clark's Spiny Lizard

Female Side-blotched lizard

We also saw Greater Earless, Zebratail, Side-blotched, and Ornate Tree Lizards. The canyon has a lot of diversity because it covers very different habitats and elevations. Some of the lizard species are confined to certain areas. Knowing what to expect where can be a great help to identify them.

Black-chinned Hummingbird at Ocotillo flowers

This is from the visitor center in the open desert area. TheBlack Chins shared the ocotillo with Ana's. In the riparian part of the canyon we encountered also Costa's and mostly Broadbills.

Pyrrhuloxia and Northern Cardinal were waiting for hand-outs at the tram station kiosk.

Pyrrhuloxia female

Cactus Wren

The Roadrunner was making barking noises that confuse even the experienced birders. We also heard the song of many territorial males of Lucy's Warbler. 

All Black-throated Sparrows were paired and nesting. Turkey Vutures were circling, also Redtailed Hawks, and Cooper's were calling among their nesting trees. Of course, lots of  Phainopeplas planting mistletoe.

But I went to look for insects. Surprisingly few Grasshoppers, so I photographed our most common one, the Pallid-winged banded Grasshopper.

Metallic green Sweat Bees enjoying Ocotillo pollen. They were joined by huge Carpenter Bees, their mimics the Mexican Cactus Fly and even a couple of Tarantula Hawks.

Along the creek, and especially in the area of the dam, we always find the best insects. This time, Fred Heath discovered the big, colorful Soldier Fly, and I found a very modest looking Tipulid, that Carl Olson declared 'very cool!'

Soldier Fly

Limoniid Cranefly

Haplorhynchites planifrons

This beetle is a  primitive weevil that returns every year to blooming Brittle Bush in Sabino Canyon. This year, there was only one - there was just one blooming Brittle Bush.  

Three different insect orders on one little Fleebane disc: To beeflies, a little wasp and the mating Metallic Wood-boring Beetles (Buprestids) Acmaeodera sphaeralceae.