Arizona Before the Conference

Flame Skimmer (Libellula saturata) in Tanque Verde Canyon

I've been back from the annual Bug Conference in Arizona for nearly a week now. The trip was fun, and I'm just now feeling like life is getting back to normal. I wanted to concentrate a lot on my insect photography. Later I realized that I had done so almost to the exclusion of other photography. For example, on my first day in Arizona, Homer and I went down to Bisbee to visit Cobban and Ray. I took a couple of photos of a tiger beetle by their pool, but none of any of them nor of Cobban and Ray's beautiful house. Ah, well.

Filagree Skimmer (Pseudoleon superbus )

Mexican Amberwing (Perithemis intensa)

It has been unusually hot and dry this year, so the insects were not what they have been in previous years. The Sunday before last, I went out to Tanque Verde Canyon and photographed dragonflies. It was brutally hot, and I did not stay terribly long. I brought my usual amount of water, and it was inadequate for the extreme heat. I saw some cool species and collected a couple of interesting Buprestid beetles.

Willcox Playa

On Monday I went back to Willcox Playa to photograph tiger beetles. It was difficult for a variety of reasons. Due to the dry conditions, there were not that many beetles, and very poor species diversity. I had my new, better camera with me, and wanted to get better shots of both the Aridlands Tiger Beetle (Cicindela marutha) and the Black Sky Tiger Beetle (Cicindela nigrocoerulea). I succeeded from the standpoint that I now have better pictures of both of these species, but I'm still not entirely satisfied. There's always next year.

Aridlands Tiger Beetle (Cicindela marutha)


Black Sky Tiger Beetle (Cicindela nigrocoerulea)

On Tuesday of last week, I headed down to Rio Rico, but not before detouring west to Kitt Peak. I wanted to see and try to photograph gorgeous longhorn beetles in the genus Tragidion. I've seen them there before. Alas, the habitat where I had previously seen them had burned recently and was still looking pretty scorched.

Scorched vegetation at Kitt Peak

There was not a lot to see at Kitt Peak this year. I collected a couple of buprestid beetles (Agrilus pulchellus) at the roadside picnic area below the mountain. Part way up the mountain, I got another very pretty Agrilus, black with a bright metallic red head, on mesquite. There were some nice grasshoppers to photograph at the picnic area at the summit.

Slant-faced Grasshopper (Psoloessa texana) at the summit of Kitt Peak

So the insect viewing, photography, and collecting were not as good this year as they have been the past few times I have visited. Still, it was southeast Arizona during the monsoon season, and I can think of nowhere else I would have rather been.

Magic Gas Stations

Doug has been a bad blogger. I've been busy with my travel, and out of contact with the Internet for long periods of time. I can do email and comment on blogs via iPhone, but I can't put up new blog posts that way. I'm still in Arizona, having a wonderful time at my conference.


I've been hitting the magic gas stations in southeastern Arizona this week, It's fun because there are so many more of them out this way than there are at home.

You want magic? I'll give you magic.

A magic gas station is one that is out in the middle of nowhere, or perhaps on the edge of town. It doesn't have to be a real gas station- a convenience store, motel, or any well lighted establishment that's in a location without a lot of competing light sources will do the trick. Magic gas stations function like very high wattage black or mercury vapor lights. They bring in lots of insects from a long distance and can be great collecting spots.

Wind Scorpion (Solfugidae) at the rest stop on Interstate 19

The magic gas station pictured at the top of this post is in Tubac, Arizona, just 15 or 20 miles north of the Mexican border. The first time that I went there I was actually gassing up my rental car and not specifically looking for insects. A huge longhorn beetle (Lochmaeocles marmorata) landed right on my car. There were no Lochmaeocles this year, but I got a nice series of a close relative called the Mesquite Girdler (Oncideres rhodosticta).

Mesquite Girdler (Oncideres rhodosticta)

Further north along Interstate 19, the Border Patrol checkpoint functions as a magic gas station. Still further north, the outside walls of the bathrooms at the rest area are also good collections spots. Thursday night, I saw a new (for me) species of tiger beetle there. The Sonoran Tiger Beetle (Cicindela wickhami) is one of many species of plants and animals that just barely make it into the US in extreme southeast Arizona from their broader ranges in Mexico.

Sonoran Tiger Beetle (Cicindela wickhami)

I've seen tiger beetles extraordinarily abundant at magic gas stations before. Several years ago I was at a Chevron station in Sunsites, Arizona. The pumps were covered with hundreds of tiny pink White-lined Tiger Beetles (Cicindela lemniscata) interspersed with dozens of much larger green Cicindela punctulata chihuahuae. A spectacular sight, indeed.

White-lined Tiger Beetle (Cicindela lemniscata)


Cicindela punctulata chihuahuae

2009 Biology Department Field Trip

Vermillion River, LaSalle County, IL

Can it really be time for our annual department field trip again? On Sunday, my department headed down to Illinois River country for some departmental bonding and collecting live animals for display at the museum. We were able to do some fishing in the Vermillion River this trip. Last year at this time it was in full flood, and we couldn't get anywhere near it.

A Helgrammite that we dredged up with the seine net

Ichneumon wasp from the banks of the mighty Vermillion.
Please don't scream like a girl.

After fishing and bug watching along the Vermillion, we headed off to Starved Rock State Park where we set up camp for the evening. Vincent made Cajun chicken breasts and jambalaya for dinner. Can you tell that Vincent is from New Orleans? After dinner, some of the crowd headed off for amphibian watching. Others stayed in camp while I fired up the blacklinght. The sheet was reasonably active this year, with lots of geometrid moths and sexton beetles.

Oak Beauty (Nacophora quernaria)


Pretty moth, not yet identified
Update: Orange Wing (Mellilla xanthometata)

Fishfly (Chauliodes) Caddisfly Thanks Seabroke!


Dobsonfly (Corydalus) - This is what helgrammites turn into
Fishfly (Chauliodes) thanks, again, Seabrooke
Sorry for the terrible editing on the captions for this post.

Sexton Beetle (Nicrophorus orbicollis)
One of our prettier carrion beetles

After we all went to bed, it started raining, fairly hard. The next morning, the forecast was for the weather to ease a bit, and then to get very bad with thunderstorms, hail, and high winds. We decided to hang out for the day and to head home rather than camping for a second night.

Illinois River seen from Starved Rock


One of the many canyons at Starved Rock State Park

We started with a hike at Starved Rock. We climbed up on the bluffs for great views of the Illinois River, then descended into one of the many canyons that dissect the park. After a couple of hours of hiking, the sun poked out. We decided to take advvantage of the situation and do a bit more fishing. We visited a small creek that runs through and adjacent to agricultural land. Last year we had quite a bit of success getting minnows for aquarium displays at the Museum.

Steve and Jamie work the seine net in a small creek

Checking ouit the net contents. The crew gathers minnows from the net and puts them in a bucket

This year was much the same. We got a great assortment of fish for our aquarius: red bellied dace, rainbow and orange-throat darters, and creek chubs. Our aquariums are going to look great when we add these guys

The minnow bucket. What a haul!

The Lichen Grasshopper

Leuronotina ritensis - The Lichen Grasshopper

Two years ago, as a brand new blogger, I posted about the Invertebrates in Captivity Conference. In it, I mentioned that I had an adventure in the Santa Rita Mountains during an unsuccessful quest for an endemic grasshopper. Although I did not find the grasshopper, I did have an unexpected encounter with a bear (and not in a good way). Each of us startled the other. I began yelling and throwing rocks at the bear while trying to look bigger than I am by waving my butterfly net over my head. The bear was looking very puzzled about this bizarre human behavior, and climbed a tree to further ponder the strangeness of the situation. I took advantage and did not run away, but walked purposefully down the trail.

Last year, I wanted to go back (this time with a companion for safety) to try to find the grasshopper. It poured buckets in a monsoon thunderstorm that day. I really wanted to see this grashopper, in part because they have very exacting requirements. They live on bare rock that is covered with lichens, on which they are well camouflaged.

This year, I returned yet again. Although we had a fine day, the lichen grasshopper did not show up. I left vowing to try again next year. Imagine my surprise when I later found a population in a completely different mountain range.

Leuronotina ritensis habitat in the Atascosas Mountains.
The grasshoppers were on the bare patch of rock that is visible in the center of the photo.

Leuronotina ritensis is described in Otte's The North American Grasshoppers as "[p]resently known only from between 5,000 and 8,000 feet on the Santa Rita Mountains in southern Arizona and from Sierra de los Ajos, at the head of Canyon de Evans, Sonora, Mexico." The book was published nearly 25 years ago, and I have no idea how many other locations it has turned up in in the intervening years. Still, when I find something outside of a reported range from a group that I do not have personal expertise in, I'm reluctant to make the call on my own.

What to do? Easy. Post my photo to BugGuide.net and wait for noted grasshopper expert David Ferguson to weigh in on the matter. David expressed a lack of surprise that it would turn up where it did.

So where did I find my lichen grasshopper? Right off of Ruby Road between Peña Blanca Lake and Sycamore Canyon. As I wrote in my initial post at BugGuide:

These have beautiful dark orange hindwings. They perched on bare, lichen-coverd rocks, on which they are well camouflaged. They were reluctant to move when disturbed. Their habitat and appearance remind me of descriptions of Leuronotina ritensis...

A mounted specimen of Leuronotina ritensis showing the dark orange hindwings

David confirmed that they indeed were Leuronotina ritensis and said that he expected that these would turn up on some of the other mountain "sky islands" of southeast Arizona. He is no doubt correct. They may well have already been reported from the Atascosas where I took mine. The exact spot where I got them was not 100 yards from the road. They probably aren't particularly rare. Still, the opportunity to observe something endemic to a part of the world that I truly love is always special. The fact that I've been looking for 2 years just made finding it that much sweeter.

Skywatch Friday - Rounding out the Conference

Sunset Over Tucson

I've been negligent in my blogging about the remainder of my trip to Arizona. On Tuesdaty of last week, the conference began. We arrived at Rio Rico around lunch time. John joined Nancy, who was co-presenting a workshop with him. They ran off to prepare. Vincent and I registered and headed out Ruby Road for some more collecting. We got a some nice aquatic insects for live displays at the Museum. I also found a really interesting grasshopper. It lived on bare rock, and the color pattern blended in beautifully. It's obvious that it relies on its camouflage, because it's very reluctant to fly. This made it easy to take specimens. More about this species later.

Lichen Grasshopper

Tuesday night, I went out blacklighting with Mark from St. Louis and Ken from Florida. A fun evening, and I got a nice photo of the impressive ichneumon wasp that showed up.

Ichneumon Wasp

Some people have recently expressed concern about ichnuemons that they have encountered. Screaming like a girl has figured in the discussion. Here. let me put my hand right up next to this one as a size comparison.



Wednesday was field trip day. We went back put to the Santa Ritas looking at butterflies. I got nice pictures of an Empress Leilia (not to be confused with Princess Leia) butterfly. Once again this year, I couldn't believe how green the desert was. It looked like I was back east.

Empress Leilia

A very green desert near Box Canyon

Thurdsay was my talk, which went OK. I did an evening black lighting trip to Box Canyon. Mark's mercury vapor lamp pulled in HUGE numbers of moths and beetles. I don't think I've ever seen so much on the sheet at one time. Species diversity was not as good as the quantity would have led me to expect. Still a good time.

Very heavy visitation to the sheet. When the bugs are this thick, they are going down your shirt, in your ears and up your nose. Still, it's lots of fun.

Friday was time around the conference, talking to colleagues and listening to talks. I stayed up too late watching friends play Texas Hold 'em. Much fun. Saturday night, I went up to Tucson for dinner with Homer. That's where the sunset photo was taken. Homer is a great guy, we had lots of fun talking about many subjects. On his blog (where there's a photo of us taken just before the cops kicked us out of Signal Mountain Park), he claims that we were gossiping about other bloggers. I would NEVER gossip about other bloggers because gossip is the lowest form of human discourse. Bonus points to whoever can tell me what movie that line comes from.

French Joe Canyon

Not much was happening on Sunday, so John and I went out for more collecting and photography. We stopped by French Joe Canyon near Sierra Vista (Hi, Cobban) and saw arroyo grasshoppers. I was glad to see them, because they had vanished last year. Monday, alas, was time to depart. We had a bit of time to kill on the way to the airport, so we drove the length of Sahuarita Road (Hi, Kathie). Some of the desert there was blooming like it was springtime. John caught a species of metallic wood boring beetle that neither of us has seen before. We only found that one. I still don't want to talk about it.

April in August along Sahuarita road

Pleasing Fungus Beetle (Gibbifer californicus) photographed in San Rafael Valley

It was another great conference. It is always good to see friends and colleagues. Many of these people I only get to see at the conference. Plus they always spark new plans. I'll probably be visiting Seattle and Portland in September to view breeding facilities for the Oregon Silverspot butterfly. Too much fun!

Check out the rest of Skywatch.

Storm update: Things are back to normal. I was without power for a bit over 24 hours. The tree blocking my street took about 2 days to remove. Thanks to all who expressed concern. We're just fine.

Madera Canyon

The conference has really kept me hopping. I've had no time to blog at all. I haven't been reading or commenting on blogs that I regularly read, either. For much of Sunday and Monday I was without internet access. I'm writing this post from Rio Rico, AZ and having awonderful time. Wish you were all here!

Sandy and Me

Sunday was a transition day. I had to pick up fellow entomologist john at the airport in mid afternoon. Fortunately, I was able to have a very pleasant noon time having lunch with Sandy. He's only the fourth blogger that I've met in person, and was a really great guy. We had good food and better conversation at Rosa's.

After I picked john up, we headed off towards Kitt Peak to do some collecting. This was a bit of a bust, because I didn't know that the road up the mountain closed at 4 PM. We got there at about 3:30. We did a bit of collecting just outside the gate and then headed down to Madera Canyon, where we had rented a cabin. This turned out to be a better situation than I had expected. Madera Canyon is well known as a birding hotspot. It also has great insects. Our plan was to check in, go down the moountain for dinner, and return to blacklight. By the time we got checked in, we realized that it would be dark when we returned. We were too hungry to set up the blacklight before eating, so as a compromise we left the back porch light on. Wow. When we returned, the back door was covered with amazing moths and beetles, including a half dozen Chrysina.

Chrysina lecontei

Chrysina are are amazing green scarab beetles. (Bug Girl: "Ooh! Shiny!") There are three species in Arizona, and we namaged to get all 3 black lighting. There were beautiful scarabs, huge fierce looking longhorn beetles and colorful underwing moths. We put the sheet and black light up, and things got even better. It was the finesst blacklighting experience I have had to date.

Chrysina beyeri. Not the best photo, but it shows off the apple green elytra and blue legs.

The aptly named Chrysina gloriosa. The stripes are metallic chrome colored.

On Monday, we spent the day higking up Mt. Wrightson. We did not get anywhere near the summit, mainly because the collecting was so good. I saw my first ever Arizona hairstreak (sorry, no photo), a bunch of beetles and some cool grasshoppers. My favorite was the blue winged grasshopper.

Blue-winged grasshopper (Trimerotropis cyanipennis)

A peek at the blue wings

It was an amazing day of insects and plants surrounded by gorgeous views. We even saw a feb birds (Painted Redstart, anyone?) Folks on the trail were intrigued by our butterfly nets, and very friendly. Later, when we got to the conference, two colleagues were snickering at us. they were in Madera the same day we were. They ran into some hikers who said they had seen two other entomologists, one from Denver and one from Chicago. Our colleagues knew that we were just up the hill from them.

More adventures to come (heck, more adventures still happening).

Skywatch Friday - Arizona Sands Through the Hourglass

The Whetstone Mountains near Sierra Vista

Where has the time gone? The summer is slipping by so quickly. A week from tomorrow, I'm flying out to Tucson for the annual Invertebrates in Captivity (AKA Bugs in Bondage) Conference. It's one of my favorite events of the year. I'll get out and do a bunch of collectin. We are already putting together a shopping list of critters that we need for the Museum. I hope to do a lot more bug photography. There are numerous species of tiger beetles that I see regularly, but that don't yet appear (at least as live specimens) on BugGuide.Net. I want to hike in Madera Canyon. I have plans to meet blogger Kathie of Sycamore Canyon. I know several other bloggers down that way, perhaps some of us will get to meet up as well.

This year's conference really causes me to reflect on the passage of time. This is the tenth anniversary of my first conference. I remember being immediately welcomed into that community even though I didn't know very much beyond butterflies at that time. People have been so generous with their knowledge. I still sometimes think of my work at the Museum as my"new" job, even though my eleventh anniversary of employment was this past Sunday. The conference involves beautiful surroundings, good people, and great intellectual stimulation. Oh yeah, it also involves lots of great bugs. It's a time where I feel aware of the richness of life, and for that I am always grateful.

Week from Hell

You haven't heard much from me this week. There's a reason. Last Friday (6/27) began an interesting time in my life. I drove up to Lake County to partcipate in their BioBlitz. Al large part of my activities involved black lighting.



Not much was coming to the sheet in terms of species diversity. We did get a couple of fishflies and a few geometrid moths.


Note all the mosquitoes on the sheet with the moth. This was representative. The mosquitoes were absolutely fierce. Although none are pictured here, there were considerable numbers of Asian tiger mosquitoes in with the swarms of more familiar species. They are huge and very aggressive. It's like being attacked by a swarm of B25s. The tent where we were doing our identification was full of mosquitoes.

Saturday, I had to leave the BioBlitz to go further into Lake County for a butterfly course that I was teaching at Illinois Beach Stae Park. For some reason, even though the weather was nice there were very few butterflies out. We did manage to get the course in before being chased off site by a severe thunderstorm. I was actually relieved at the storm's arrival. I had a great class- the students were really good- and I was running out of things to say to them. We were looking at other insects (due mostly to the lack of butterflies) and I did get to see a speecies of tiger beetle (Cicindela formosa) that I've only seen once before, and never in Illinois. I got a decent photo.

Cicindela formosa

Sunday was butterfly monitoring at the Fen. While I was there, I tried unsuccessfully for a nice photo of Typocerus sp., an interesting longhorn beetle that has become more abundant on site as our prairies have improved. I had no luck at all with that, and was unable to get my complete monitoring route done before a fast-moving thunderstorm moved in and soaked me to the skin. At least I got a nice picture of the hill prairie in full bloom.

Hill prairie at the height of flowering

The less said about my work week the better. On Thursday, we went out to Grundy County seeking the leadplant flower moth (Schinia lucens). This is a very rare species that we want to do restoration work on. The host plant, leadplant, is an attractive shrub with purple flowers. It's been a very successful component of many prairie restorations, so there are many places the moth could possibly go.

Vincent and Brad in Schinia lucens habitat


Leadplant (Amorpha canescens)

We did not get any moths. I did manage to get a nice photo of milkweed longhorn beetles. I also got the worst case of chiggers I've ever had in my entire life. I'll spare you a photo of my thoroughly bitten legs.

Milkweed Longhorn Beetles (Tetraopes tetropthalmus)

I've spent the week being bitten, wet, and frustrated. I'm now off to the Fen for more butterfly monitoring. Let's see what further disasters can befall me.