Ibycter Illustrated 2013 Beach Issue!

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Welcome to the 2013 Beach issue! Here we bring out our best shots of the loveliest ladies relaxing at beautiful Island View Beach. The beauties in the next few pages had us stunned at our exotic field location on gorgeous Vancouver Island.

Cute Little Homewrecker

Coelioxys says she is really a nice girl at heart, enjoying the simple things in life: nectar, long flights on the beach and sunrises.

II chatted with this little cutie after the shoot, and she says the rumours about being a homewrecker are blown out of proportion.
“Where did you hear that? Megachile? I can’t help how she raises her larvae! She is probably just mad because she has a big butt! Did you know Coelioxys is Greek and refers to my sharp ovipositor and’slender tapered abdomen’? That’s me!”

“I am actually super playful!”

“sure, sometimes I drop some eggs in Megachile‘s nest occasionally, but she seems like the nurturing type! She is always working, so an extra mouth to feed will just give her a new challenge!”

“I just love to hang out at the beach and watch the sunrise! It is so romantic!”

Sand Lover

“I am just the girl next door. I enjoy simple things, like sand to dig in, caterpillars to paralyze, and a communal roosting site”

“My girlfriends and I like to hang out together. Preferably from a stiff dead flower stalk!”

“In the daytime, it is just go go go, but nighttime is our time to just relax, with our jaws clenched tightly on dead vegetation!”

The girls of Island View Beach!

Sometimes the girls like to hang out in a group situation. II was there capturing all the hot, yet completely motionless action.

“Cross-species sleepovers are fun”, Ammophila tells our reporters.
“You get to meet all kinds of interesting insects. It is funny how we have such different day to day lives, but at night we all like the same kinds of things, like allowing our bodies to reach low temperatures. It isn’t a party until you cannot even fly!”.

When the girls hang out together, nothing is sexier than a giant bee-wasp totem formation.

Copper beauty Lycaena helloides doesn’t mind getting wet!

I really feel like I have a lot in common with Coelioxys! We just have the same kind of liberated outlook. And we both like, kinda enjoy sticking our ovipositor in someone else’s stuff!”

“I have a love/hate relationship with sunrises. I like to dry my wings, but it means getting back to work, and possibly getting grabbed by a random male”

Buff Beach Body

“I use these big, burly tibiae to cover my mate’s eyes while mating, although I am so pretty, I wonder why she would be into that”.

This stunner of a bee was sleeping the beach when our photographer found him. Ibycter Illustrated beach shoots have a way of uncovering new talent!

He is a mysterious creature, and would’t even give his name, but he told us “I frickin’ hate Coelioxys, that little parasite!”.

Insects, kids and science outreach!

Sep9

Yesterday, we headed down to Richmond Nature Park for their first annual Bugs Galore! event. This was a fun opportunity to introduce the public, particularly children, to the wonders of insects and other arthropods. When you have a roomful of kids meeting some pretty cool bugs, magic happens!

kids of all ages showed up, and most were wide awake…

The leaf insects got quite a workout, and the kids loved handling them.

Although some adults were more wary!

Catherine brought male and female black widows, as well as some false black widows.

The Reptile Guy, Mike Hopcraft brought some awesome tarantulas, amblypygids (tailless whip scorpions) and scorpions. Here Catherine gets up close with Gretchen.

Most folks were happy to have a close spider encounter…

but some less so!

When people asked Mike (the Reptile Guy) “why doesn’t the spider bite you?” he replied “why would she?”. Catherine also surprised a lot of folks by telling them that black widows are not aggressive and hardly ever bite.

A great educational display was a female black widow, into whose cage we introduced this male. Over the course of several hours he courted and copulated.

Which was awesome!

What time is it? Amblypygid time!

The Reptile Guy doing his thing!

We got to talk to all kinds of people about science and bugs.

Tanya introduced visitors to some of the major common insect orders

We had about 750 people come through, most of whom stayed for quite a while.

Many thanks to Emily Toda at the Richmond Nature Park and all the great volunteers for making this event so awesome!

With so many cool insect/kid encounters going on, I had better just truncate this post with a slideshow. If you would like to see some of these in larger size, try my flickr page.

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Early morning in Beacon Hill Park

Sep5

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The past week has been rather hectic, with a flood forcing Catherine and I from our home, paper revisions made and further plans for Honduran fieldwork underway. I did not get a chance to post these shots I took from our time on the Island, where I spent part of Sunday morning out shooting in the dry grasses of Beacon Hill Park.

I saw lots of moth eggs on the dry grasses.

Now is the time to find sclerotia of ergot (Claviceps spp.) which contains chemicals studied by Albert Hofmann (from which he synthesized LSD-25).

This sleepy robber fly was not as sleepy as I thought, and flew off after this shot.

The skipper was more accommodating.

A peacock stalks the Garry Oak meadow.

Coelioxys rufitarsus hanging from grass in the dawn light.

I tried a couple wider shots with the 18-55 on 11 mm of extension (around 24 mm focal length). This is something I would like to try more of…

Not a Love Story: a blog post about spider sex

Sep3

Romance between highly sexually dimorphic spiders such as the Cross Orbweaver, Araneus diadematus is fraught with danger for the smaller male. His potential objet d’amour is many times his size, fast and often hungry. Therefore, when he approaches a female’s web, he is very tentative, signalling his intentions with much tapping and stroking of her web and forelegs. With repeated bouts of this, he is often able to approach closely while the female appears to be put into a quiescent state.

The size differential is great, so the male is cautious

Much “footsie” type courtship seems par for the course, and is kinda cute.

Eventually the female hangs motionless.

the final approach

that is a close embrace!

hmmm. that seems like too close an embrace!

Doesn’t look good for Lothario here.

Nope. I think we may chalk this up to a “fatal sexual encounter”. I am sure another male will be around shortly!

Common Social Wasps of BC

Sep3

Commonly seen wasps of urban BC

Wasps are a big part of outdoor life this time of year in Coastal BC. It seems we have more than our fair share of scavenging workers pestering us at barbecues and picnics. The long dry summer was ideal for nest success and thus we have a large population approaching the end of their colony cycles. But which insects are responsible? It turns out only three of the common wasps we see are much of a nuisance outdoors, and all belong to the genus Vespula. Below are some short summaries of what they look like and what the differences are.

Genus Vespula: ground or structure nesting, large colony sizes, often scavenge in late season at outdoor cooking or dining areas. They differ from a related genus Dolichovespula by having the mandible closer to the eye than the latter.

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Nest entrance typical of Vespula wasps. They will also nest in cavities and structures

Western Yellowjacket: Vespula pensylvanica: native species, builds nests underground, has a “complete yellow eye ring” (see photo)

Common Yellowjacket: Vespula alascensis: somewhat smaller than the Western, this species has an interrupted yellow band behind the eye. This individual is gathering paper fibre for nest-building.

German Yellowjacket (Vespula germanica): This also does not have a complete band around the eye, but it does not have the interruption in the yellow band behind the eye. Often black spots are visible on the abdomen.

Dolochovespula: We have two common species in BC, the Common Aerial Yellowjacket, Dolichovespula arenaria and the Bald-faced Hornet Dolichovespula maculata. Unlike the Vespula, these hang their nests from branches and projections, and so they are often visible. They do not scavenge, except for sugar sources (you may see them on fruits or flowers).

Bald-faced Hornet nectaring.

This is a nest of Bald-faced Hornets. Aerial yellowjacket nests are similar, hanging from branches or obstructions.

Common aerial yellowjackets on their nest. The upper one is the queen, the lower one a worker.

“Paper wasps” subfamily Polistinae

Two genera are found in BC; Polistes and Mischocyttarus. They are superficially similar, but Mischocyttarus has an elongate “petiole” joining the abdomen to the thorax. Their nests are open, meaning they are without an envelope, and are often found under overhangs. They are not very aggressive.

The European Paper Wasp: Polistes dominula. This species is overall yellow and black, with yellow or orange antennae.

Polistes aurifer. This species is larger, darker, and much less common than it used to be, perhaps due to competition from Polistes dominula.

Mishchocyttarus flavitarsus. This odd paper wasp is a member of a genus that is mostly found in the tropical and subtropical parts of the Americas. This is one that makes it as far as Canada.

Summary: There is quite a diversity of social wasps in BC, many of which will not be found in cities at all. They are important players in ecosysyems, as predators, scavengers, and possibly pollinators. Avoiding conflict with them is easy, provided they don’t nest near your entrances or walkways, as stinging typically occurs during nest defense. If you wear long sleeved white or light coloured clothing with close fitting cuffs, the chance of an accidental sting are minimized. Some stings can be life-threatening to some people, so if you work with groups of people, familiarize yourself with the symptoms and treatment of anaphylaxis, and always have an Epipen and phone ready.

Nest destruction should be contemplated if the nest is going to bring people or pets very close to the nest entrance, as the number of stings from a defensive colony at close range can be severe. Over-the counter wasp killers work well for simple to access nests, but more difficult to reach nests inside structures may require the pros.

I simply leave nests be if they are out of the way and not likely to pose a threat.

If you find a nest and would like to help us out in the lab, we would love to collect some or all of the wasps! You can emal Sebastian Ibarra at [email protected] or call us at the lab at 778-782-5939.

Sebastian collecting Western Yellowjackets by the water.

Exile in Port Moody

Aug29

Well, after last week’s successful field trip to Island View Beach, Catherine and I returned to find our apartment full of water and smelling like a mouldy swamp. It turns out that the genius who lives upstairs had a toilet overflow (for an unknown number of hours) and the water leaked down (it does that) into our place. This bright star living above us thinks nothing of it, mops out her bathroom, and calls it a day. Or three. Meanwhile, the damage is done. Many gallons of water have flooded our carpets, eaten away the ceiling, infiltrated the walls, and rotted for three days. The upstairs tenant calls no one, and we return to a minor disaster.

Smartypants upstairs claims she didn’t know about the flooding. Where did the footprints come from? A mystery!

After the landlord, insurance adjusters and emergency contractors storm in, we realize that to get this fixed will take 4-6 weeks minimum, and that we cannot be there while this happens. Because we have no renter’s insurance, no one will cover the monetary cost of our enforced exile (the landlord has been great though, refunding our rent and offering for us to stay with him). So we are moving. Back to the smaller place I had, near Commercial Drive in Vancouver. It is probably a good thing; it will save us money and get us access to a 140 lb Rottweiler. In the meantime, we are staying with Catherine’s Aunt in Port Moody, east of the school. It is really not so bad here, it has a great view and borders a really wild ravine. I have been taking some pics (of course) to try to keep sane. I hope you enjoy!

The view from here.

Tom the dog showing off the view.

Moth in the nighttime!

Mites on a millipede?

Uloborid spiders (Hyptiotes gertschi) mating. Thanks to Robb Bennett and Chris Buddle for the ID!

A Male Drumming Katydid.

Male Araneus diadematus.

Isopod with friends.

Isopod with frenemy?

Tom and Kong!

Cheapskate Tuesday 26: the power of french fries

Aug27

Next time you are on a ferry passage, I recommend you investigate the use of french fries for gull photography. That is all.

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Weekend Expedition 31: Sleeping Hymenoptera!

Aug26

What is the perfect arthropod photographic subject? Cute jumping spiders, powerful robberflies, shiny tiger beetles? I would argue that all these are great, but they are not very easy to do full photographic justice to. No, what you need is something that stays still for long periods of time, at a handy angle for posing against the light, and is pretty to boot! Sleeping bees and wasps fit this bill perfectly! Many solitary bees and wasps perch with their mandibles locked into a plant substrate. making for some fine shooting opportunities. I was lucky enough to come upon two sleeping aggregations with Coelioxys bees and Ammophila wasps at Island View Beach on Friday morning. Because they were so still, I was able to try many kinds of shots with them, I hope you will enjoy seeing them as much as I loved taking them!

The colours of the dawn sky show from the east , while a diffused flash and a fill card light the subject. This is Coelioxys rufitarsus, one of the parasitic Megachilids. These beauties lay their eggs in other Megachilid nests, and their larvae consume their host’s provisions.

This Ammophila was shot using my standard lighting using the Monster Macro Rig.

I love the elegant pointed abdomens of these awesome bees!

This shot of the two sleeping insects was shot from the tripod with all natural light, 1/8 sec, f13.

Tripod shot of the aggregation, silhouetting them against the dawn sky.

This shot shows the Coelioxys waking up.

When I have the time and a great subject, I like to compose some “cover shots”.

Of course I also shot them on white!

This is the second aggregation, a bit further up the beach.

Spider Fieldwork at Island View Beach, Part 1: the Spiders!

Aug25

So this week I have been hanging out at the beach! The reason is that I am helping Catherine and her collaborator Devin out with her field study of sexual communication of western black widow spiders (Latrodectus hesperus), which are super abundant at this locality. Island View has some really nice dune habitat with abundant woody debris. It is perfect for black widows, but there are lots of really great species to be found here. I took what time I could to go out and take some photos. This was Catherine’s very first field study for her degree, as she is mostly in the lab working with captive spiders.

Loading up the truck! For some reason, I never got good head-on shots of Devin, as he was always working!

The trip over is the always-scenic route through the Gulf Islands. Needless to say, in fair weather I hit the deck with my camera!

The portion of Island View Beach we were working on is on the lands of the Tsawout First Nation, and the condition of the shoreline and grasslands is great, with areas set aside for restoration of native vegetation. There is lots of woody debris, which makes for good habitat for small animals.

Western black widow! This adult female has a nice red hourglass marking and we saw her out on her web in the daytime. The habitat is loaded with these, with almost every log sheltering several females.

The capture webs often extend out into the grasses and herbs, and the log forms a secure retreat for the spiders.

Juvenile females are sometimes boldly marked with bright white, as seen here. The colouration is actually quite variable.

Males look a lot like juvenile females, but are most often yellow or light brown in colour.

Black widows have a fearsome reputation, due to their potent venom, but in reality are pretty harmless to people as they rarely bite. Their prey, however, do get bit, and succumb quickly to the effects of the venom. Black widows are often able to subdue much larger prey with a combination of silk throwing and venom injection.

Even big strong and hard insects, such as this Golden Buprestid are subject to widow predation.

This is the season when mating occurs, and we even saw some courtship in the daytime!

Other spiders are also to be found, but are not as abundant as the black widows. Here is a Woodlouse Hunter, Dysdera crocata.

Many of the logs shelter both black widows and two species of invasive Tegenaria, They have different web morphology, but are probably direct competitors with the widows.

A small female Habronattus americanus. I did not get any great shots of the colourful males this time, but these beauties abound on the mossy areas off the beach.

Larger jumpers, such as this Phidippus johnsoni, are also around the beach.

We worked day and night, but did not get much opportunity to hang out at the beach. No matter! The fieldwork was fun, and a good workout as well.

The quiet nights doing fieldwork in good weather were really almost too good to be true. The moonrises were excellent (although I was hauling gear with no camera for the best) and we saw a really big Great Horned Owl on the way in.

At the end of it all, Catherine was really happy with the data we collected, which were excellent and conclusive even after a single 24 hours of work! This is the smile of a happy field biologist! I will tell the whole story of the fascinating experiment in an upcoming post.

Pics from the field soon!

Aug23

I found this Ammophila (Sphecidae) sleeping near the beach at dawn.

Catherine, her collaborator Devin and I have been out doing fieldwork with western black widows at Island View Beach near Victoria. The data coming in has been awesome, and I think I have got some awesome images as well! This short field outing has been one of the most productive and rewarding trips I have been on, and it is low-cost and really pretty here as well. When I get some time I will prepare some material for the blog.