Insect Photography: truth

Ultimately, photography is about story. When photographing wildlife, especially for documentation purposes, it is important that the story is true. It used to be that insect photographers, limited by primitive cameras, would chill the insects and then place the insect on the substrate of the photographer’s choosing. The resultant photographs were similar to a paparazzi photo of your favorite celeb exiting a party at 3 am. Sure, you could recognize the celeb, but it looked all weird and the pose was off due to inebriation. Insects may be on plants that they would not perch on, weird positions, etc. In the mid 1990’s I first saw tiger beetle photographs by Chris Brown, and it is was obvious – these were real photos of actual beetles living their lives. I was super impressed. Ten years later I met Chris and asked him about his photos and truth, he smiled and responded about slithering through mud on his belly. His photos made me reevaluate my own insect photography through the lens of truth.

Vanessa atalanta, 1st shot = adequate documentation. Big Oak Tree State Park, MO. 8 April 2024.

Back in the day film photography was expensive and without a dark room not much post processing was available. Digital photography changed all that and offers cropping, enlarging, color enhancement, light balancing, and even photo shop magic. It is kind of cool to make a photograph more pleasing to the through editing tools, but always remember that you are editing in the service of truth. However, I feel it is important to try to take photographs that don’t require all of that extra post processing. So I try to compose a decent photo before snapping photos. Unfortunately, birds and insects can be very wary, usually I snap a first shot and then try to get one or more pleasing shots. However, even the act of photo composition can be a lie. Perhaps the animal is deformed, but in your photo you shoot the ‘good’ side. Or perhaps you in trying for a good shot have caused the animal to move from where it was comfortable.

Vanessa atalanta, final shot = using the ground as a tripod and hand removed some vegetation in the way. Big Oak Tree State Park, MO. 8 April 2024.

I recently had an opportunity to photograph a very cooperative Vanessa atalanta. I took the first shot and thought I was done because Anacostia Riverpup is always curious about what I am interested in. Because we had just finished a run on the park trails, she just sat down. So I was free to pursue more photos. I got down low and tried using the ground as a tripod, but there was grass in the way, so slowly and smoothly I removed grass blades in the way until I was able to take the final photo. When Anacostia and I backed out and then stood up, the butterfly still had not moved. We did change the habitat a bit, but we did not move the insect or change the immediate surroundings (the grass blades removed were 7cm or more from the butterfly). I think I have have stayed true here, but I find that I often will manipulate vegetation (bend a leaf out of the way, etc), which could be stretching the truth.

The goal is to share the beauty and wonder I feel during an encounter, but also to stay within the truth, and also to do this without putting a burden on the animal or its habitat. As cameras, software, and AI change to make photography more rewarding for photographers it may mean that some aspects of truth become obscured or that photographers may have to adjust factory settings to capture the truth of the situation. In the meantime, get out, take some photos of what amazes you, and share them.

How to make dung beetle traps.

This publication is from 2012. Because links to the original document keep breaking, this reprint is for your convenience.

Autumn Meadowhawk at Dueling Creek.

Sympetrum vicinum, Autumn Meadowhawk, basking. Dueling Creek Natural Area, MD. 19 November 2023.

I have written about the Anacostia River and dragonflies a few times before and their importance. Recently I was out freezing my butt off and removing trash from Dueling Creek, when a dragonfly whizzed past and landed. I paddled my kayak over, hopped out into cold, calf-deep mud, and stealthed my way to where the dragonfly had landed. There I found Sympetrum vicinum basking in the sun! I was able to get a couple of documentation photos and respectfully back off without disturbing it.

This is a common species in North America and I have seen them in several places – often far from water in deserts. While this species may not be considered migratory, they do at least wander. Dragonflies of the genera Anax and Pantela typically come to mind when the conversation turns to migratory dragonflies, but some Tramea and Sympetrum species are also known to migrate. It isn’t too far-fetched to assume species with the flight abilities of most dragonflies would be migratory. Also, it is important to remember these are predators – to be successful in a predatory lifestyle requires thought and learning. While brain power is helpful in migratory situations, I think the example of monarch butterfly migration demonstrates that insect migration may still be best explained by invoking magic.

While this was a really cool sighting, it doesn’t mean much from a water quality/habitat stand point because the aquatic larval stage may have occurred in a totally different watershed. It does say that the Anacostia might have a reproductive population of Sympetrum vicinum or at least currently has a source of adults ready to repopulate the river once it becomes suitable habitat.

Watching butterflies

I love watching butterflies and highly recommend it for everyone. Don’t let the details weigh you down, just enjoy the beauty.

A new running coach

Mark Leyner described his approach to coachless athletic endeavors as being both Dr. Frankenstein and the Monster. While this approach does create a certain feral and anarchistic ‘je ne sais quoi’, my experience has been that it is heavy on process and not exactly results driven.

Vacation Pogonomyrmex species

If all humans disappeared today ,the earth would start improving tomorrow. If all the ants disappeared today ,the earth would start dying tomorrow.

David Suzuki

Pogonomyrmex barbatus. Adrian, TX. 4 July 2023.

Ants of the genus Pogonomyrmex (a.k.a. harvester ants, a.k.a. Pogos) are interesting ants. The colonies last as long as their founding Queen, which can be 30 years (Porter and Jorgensen, 1988). Their colonies can be spotted from aerial photos because the ants clear the vegetation around their nests. Pogo ants can be the top seed predators in some areas and as such they greatly influence plant species distribution and abundance (Briggs and Redak, 2016). Pogos also have the most potent venom of any insect (Schmidt 1986). I once knelt on a Pogomyrmex owyheensis colony and quickly discovered my error as I was weeping a clear exudite from the stings that soaked my socks and hiking boots. Doing field work in Pogo country it is not unusual to see a biologist to remove their pants in order to remove a single stinging Pogo ant.

Pogonomyrmex rugosus. Tucumcari, NM. 5 July 2023.

Pogos are predated upon by horned toads, which have evolved tolerance to Pogo venom. During my Pogo encounters I looked for, but did not find horned toads (which are actually cute lizards). At least I did get to see Pogos!

Pogonomyrmex rugosus. Santa Fe County, NM. 5 July 2023.

Next time you find yourself in arid country and you see bald patches in the vegetation go up and peek in on what the Pogo ants are up to. Be sure to look around the edges of the colony, because you may just find a horned toad too!

Pogonomyrmex rugosus. San Juan County, UT. 6 July 2023.

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis. Malad City, ID. 7 July 2023.

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis. Miles City, MT. 9 July 2023.

References:

Briggs, C.M. & R.A. Redak. 2016. Ant Pogonomyrmex rugosus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Coastal Sage Scrub: Interactions With Invasive Plant Species. Environmental Entomology, Volume 45, Issue 4, Pages 983–990,

Porter, S.D. & C.D. Jorgensen. 1988. Longevity of harvester ant colonies in southern Idaho. J. Range Manage. 41:104-107.

Schmidt, J.O. 1986. Chemistry, pharmacology and chemical ecology of ant venoms, pp. 425-508. In T. Piek [ed.], Venoms of the hymenoptera. Academic Press, London.

Dragonfly success in the Anacostia River

Dragonflies can be used as bioindicators of water quality, so the return of dragonflies to the Anacostia River is a big deal. However, adult dragonflies have wings and can occur in places where the entire life cycle is not viable. That is why documenting the flightless stages of the dragonfly life cycle is so important to be able to state that a species is capable of reproduction in a given body of water. I have put on a mask and snorkel and watched dragonfly larvae underwater, but water clarity (and quality) in the Anacostia River rarely would be conducive to this activity. Even if I did a snorkle survey of odonate larvae, are they surviving to adulthood? Recently I was lucky enough to find and document an exuvia (shed larval skin) and a teneral adult (freshly emerged and unable to fly) of Stylurus plagiatus while kayaking on the river. These sightings provide compelling evidence that the Anacostia River has changed for the better from when Orr (2001) pronounced the river dead from the viewpoint of dragonflies. Both of these sightings document a larva becoming an adult in the Anacostia River!

Exuvia of Stylurus plagiatus. Downstream from Bladensburg Waterfeont Park, Anacostia River, MD. 23 July 2023.

Dragonflies offer so much in the way of beauty and wonder. I am glad to see them back and reproductively active in the Anacostia River system.

Teneral (freshly emerged and still pumping hemolymph to inflate wings and abdomen) Stylurus plagiatus. Downstream from Bladensburg Waterfeont Park, Anacostia River, MD. 23 July 2023.

Reference

Orr, R. 2001. The Dragonflies and Damselflies (Insects: Odonata) of the Aquatic Gardens, Kenilworth Marsh, Kingman Lake/Marsh, National Arboretum and the Anacostia River from New York Avenue South to Benning Bridge (Washington, D.C.): With Notes on Butterflies and Other Natural History Observations. United States. National Park Service. 48 pages.

Sometimes you are the windshield, and sometimes you are the bug.

Wagner (2021) wrote an alarming and convincing paper about insect population declines. Living in DC, we find we almost never need to clean the car windshield of bug carcasses. Our 6,100 mile vacation car trip pointed out that automobile/insect collisions can still be a major issue.

Ladybug, Hippodamia sp., part of our vehicular insect carnage. Minnesota. 10 July 2023.

Cars are not the only issue here, but as the photos show we have killed quite a few insects on our journey and that doesn’t help the issue. As the USFWS endangered species act (ESA) listing of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is a distinct possibility, the ramifications of roadside milkweed plantings and 75 mph interstate highway speeds will need to be revisited. Most of the time the collisions are only noticed after the fact when the windshield gets smeary, but I know I hit a monarch here in Minnesota and wonder what this unintended take would involve in paperwork and fines? How many motorists could seperate monarchs from viceroys (Limenitis archippus) 75 mph to avoid one and smash the other to oblivian? Perhaps some public service announcement TV ads could point this out to help motorists do the right thing?

Dragonfly,  Celithemis eponina, part of our vehicular insect carnage. Minnesota. 10 July 2023.

Clearly in the case of motor vehicle collisions it is clearly better to be the windshield than it is to be the bug. However, the windshield is also impaired by the insects it has smashed. This isn’t just a loss of beauty, this is a loss of the ecological services that these insects could have provided if allowed to live. E,O. Wilson famously called ants: “the little things that run our world” and I think we can extend this concept to insects in general.

The front of our car is covered with smashed insects (front license plate view) – part of our vehicular insect carnage. Minnesota. 10 July 2023.

Our car was just one of many on the highways we traveled. If the monarch were listed, the incidental take by motorists would need to be considered: slower speed limits, roadside buffer strips to force insects to travel over traffic, reduced vehicular frontal areas to reduce impact potential, or some other engineering solution (public transit?) may help. Perhaps we shouldn’t wait for the ESA and start trying to solve the problem now? The canary in the coal mine just might be an orange and black butterfly. Perhaps listening to this canary might just save us.

Reference: Wagner DL. Insect Declines in the Anthropocene. Annu Rev Entomol. 2020 Jan 7;65:457-480. doi: 10.1146/annurev-ento-011019-025151. Epub 2019 Oct 14. PMID: 31610138.

Requiem for a tree.

In Burnsville, Minnesota we saw some ash trees (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) in trouble. We were staying in a hotel and of the three ash trees on the property, one was dead and two were moribund. The healthiest of the trees was still in really bad shape.

The healthiest of the moribund trees. Fraxinus pennsylvanica, Burnsville, MN. 11 July 2023.

The first thing I noticed was the complete lack of leaves in the top of the tree. My first thought was emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis, was present. This invasive and non-native beetle was discovered infesting ash trees Michigan in 2002, instead of in its Asian home. I have played once forested disc golf courses in Michigan that have lost so many ash trees, that they no longer play as wooded coursas. EAB has since spread to many east coast and midwest states, and continues to spread west. EAB larvae feed on ash tree inner bark, killing the tree within a few years depending on the tree’s size. Sure enough, closer examination revealed the classic ‘D’ shaped holes indicative of EAB.

A little googling showed that in May 2018, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) confirmed an EAB infestation in Burnsville, which is now considered “generally infested” by the MDA. But wait there’s more… The ‘healthiest’ moribund ash tree was infected with Aceria fraxiniflora, the ash flower gall mite (the other trees being unable to have flowered). This mite infests and disfigures the male ash flowers as they produce galls. Normally, this is not considered harmful to the tree. Often moribund trees will put a last gasp effort into seed production, this tree showed no evidence of seed production – only galls. It may not be killing the tree, but the mite is stopping a last ditch reproductive effort that may help continue the species presence in the area.

Galls of Aceria fraxiniflora in moribund Fraxinus pennsylvanica. Burnsville, MN. 11 July 2023.

As if the one – two punch of beetles and mites were not enough, the poor tree was also a victim of auxin mimic herbicide drift. This caused many of the remaining leaves of this tree to be curled and mis-shapened. Since leaves are where all the magic of photosynthesis occur and also a major site of respiration, this man-made problem, at a minimum, does not help this tree survive.

Leaf cupping of a moribund Fraxinus pennsylvania tree. characteristic of exposure to an auxin mimic herbicide. Burnsville, MN. 12 July 2023.

In this manner, a once common, native, forest tree is being removed from the landscape. High value trees can be protected by frequent applications of systemic insecticides, but this is not a viable strategy for the majority of ash trees. Good bye to beauty and shade my forest friend. Hello to the cascading ecological consequences of the loss of a common forest tree.

A moth with a message

Promalactis suzukiella on potato plants in the garden. NE DC. 26 June 2023.

A single 4mm moth showed up on my potatoes and I did not know who it was. I can’t say that micromoths in the Gelechioidea are an easy identification for me, but I came up with one Promalactis suzukiella of the family Oecophoridae. I thought it cool that someone named a moth after Canadian conservation celebrity David Suzuki and expected a tale of a micromoth recently discovered in Canada, but such was not the case. This is a moth known from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan and first described in 1931. The USA portion of the story starts in in 2002 in Towson, Maryland. By 2007, it was documented in many Maryland counties, Virginia, central and northern New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. The first mention in the scientific literature was Adamski, et al. (2009). Bug Guide (www.bugguide.net) data now shows this species to be known from 22 US states and as far west as Texas.

Adamski and friends (2009) point out that “In retrospect, we could not have documented the biology, described the immature stages, obtained distributional records,, or confirmed the identity of Promalactis suzukiella without open communication from professional biologists and enthusiastic amateurs. In this example, the sharing of information lead to a discovery that would not have occurred.” In other words, sharing is a good thing. Not a bad message from a moth.

NOTE: As a caterpiller Promalactis suzukiella feeds under the bark of trees in the genus Prunus, so my potatoes are safe.

Reference:

Adamski, D., G.F. Hevel, and A. Pultyniewicz. 2009. Redescription and immature stages of Promalactis suzukiella (Matsumura) (Gelechioidea: Oecophoridae), a new introduction into the United States. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 111.1: 204-214.