The Fall of the Tiny Insect Empires

Image: Ronny Overhate

Oliver Milman’s book The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World, is about the precipitous decline of insects. Some people would joke that they wouldn't mind there being fewer insects - like Jersey mosquitoes - around. But that is very short-sighted and reading this book you see what the disappearance of insects means for human life and the other creatures around us. 

These tiny invertebrates and their “tiny empires”  when measured as a whole biomass, the size is more than enormous. Their decline affects the food we buy and medicines we take and much of the natural beauty around us both flora and fauna.

The threats to insects are familiar - pesticides, habitat destruction, electric lighting and climate change.

In 2019, Biological Conservation reported that 40% of all insect species are declining globally and that a third of them are endangered.

theguardian.com/books/2022/jan/14/the-insect-crisis-by-oliver-milman...

Interview with Milman on NPR 

To Rake or Not To Rake

It's time to start raking leaves. Or is it?

Most of us rake up our leaves. Some of us bag them, some can dump them on the roadside and let the town pick them up. Fewer people mulch them. But you might want to consider letting them stay where they fall.

The leaves that fall and stay there in woods (known as leaf litter) are habitat for salamanders, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, worms, and lots of insects that most of can't identify.

Leaves are important for wildlife and there is a cycle of life contained there. If you raked under that fallen forest log, you would be destroying some wildlife.

One species you might find there are the butterflies that find shelter (in the egg, pupal, or adult form) as a protected place to over winter and wait for spring.

Besides shelter, leaves offer food to some invertebrates who in turn help break down the leaves, which feeds the soil.

Deeper piles support spiders but ladybugs, salamanders, toads, and other predators of pest insects (like aphids) are fine with naturally occurring piles.

Of course, I understand if you don't want piles on your front lawn, but consider leaving a pile or two in the backyard corner. When spring comes, you can watch the birds picking through the leaves in search of a natural meal.

And more people are trying out leaving the leaves and using them as mulch or running a mulching mower over them and letting the leaves help the lawn's soil.

Leaving them is not as easy with all the oak leaves that I have in my backyard. Their size and chemicals make them slower to break down than most other deciduous tree leaves. They might form a mat that could actually rot your plants underneath.

Even if you rake your leaves or don't have leaves to clean up, there is the possibility for a good lesson here for kids on what is "alive" in and under those leaf piles.

Check out these sites for information about leaves, raking (or not raking), and leaf pile  wildlife:
agreenhand.com/who-lives-in-the-leaves-great-play-outdoors-fun/
beautifulwildlifegarden.com
healinglandscapes.org
insects.about.com

                 

And don't forget The Lorax  by Dr. Seuss. I wrote a post about that book elsewhere but it's a good environmental stewardship tale for all of us.

Are Bees Endangered?

I was having a conversation with some friends about this blog and someone said, "Why don't you write about bees. Aren't bees endangered?"

Turns out that people are paying attention to the news articles about the disappearance of bees. But bees (and there are so many species - and we don't mean wasps and yellow jackets) have not made the official endangered lists.

Even kids that watch Jerry Seinfeld's Bee Movie know that one-third of our food depends on the services of a pollinator—bee or other insect, bird, or mammal.

Bees are the most important pollinators in the Northeastern U.S., and there are hundreds of species of bees that live in our state.

National Honey Bee Day is August 17. It's a good time to celebrate honey bees that pollinate many of our important food crops like apples, broccoli and blueberries - and then there is that wonderful honey.

You might have read that there have been many problems with bees in New Jersey and across the country. Scientists are still not sure if the cause (or causes) are fungal, viral or from toxic pesticides.

Bees are one of the issues for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

In 2006, beekeepers became vocal about disappearing bees. Seemingly healthy bees were abandoning their hives, and this became known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Estimates are that nearly one-third of all honey bee colonies in the country have vanished.

Scientists have not come up with a definitive answer to the the problem. Factors seem to be pesticide exposure, invasive parasitic mites, an inadequate food supply and a new virus that targets bees' immune systems.

We know from other endangered species that when species disappear it is often an early indicator of problems that will affect humans. For example, bees that pollinate crops that are sprayed with pesticides are more likely to die off than bees that pollinate in the wild. 

Have you have ever thought about having your own hive? Check out the  NJ Beekeepers Association which has chapters throughout the state. 

Garden State Invasions

There was a good feature article this past Sunday in The Star Ledger on invasive species of foreign bugs, plants, animals and aquatic creatures that are invading New Jersey.

Invasive species are introduced species that can thrive in areas beyond their natural range. They are characteristically adaptable, aggressive, and have a high reproductive capacity. Their vigor combined with a lack of natural enemies often leads to outbreak populations that threaten and endanger native species.

Did you know that NJ has a problem with feral cats and feral pigs?

Stink Bug  via http://media.nj.com/hunterdonnews_impact/

The East Asian stink bug is hitting the Garden State hard. And, yes, it does stink. (Quick! Make your own trap!)

Both the European green crab and the Asian Shore Crab are some of the aquatic creatures threatening our native populations.

Flathead Catfish caught in the Delaware River near Lambertville blogs.courierpostonline.com

The Flathead Catfish is normally found in the Mississippi basin, but has been found in NJ in places like the Delaware and Raritan Canal.

It might be exciting to think about catching one of these - they grow up to 100 pounds - but they can really do damage to the native populations of striped bass, eels, sturgeon and shad that they feed upon.

Giant Hogweed flower head

Giant Hogweed, which sounds like something from a sci-fi story, is a real species that can grow up to 20 feet.

It produces sap that cause blisters and severe burns that leave scars on humans.

And there is the carpet-like algae that has been seen on the Delaware River in 2008. It's probably a form of didymo, but has been given the disgustingly common name of "rock snot."


The Ledger article was written by Brian T. Murray who often writes about environmental issues in our state - from the fall season deer and car collisions, to invasive freshwater mussels discovered in Hunterdon County, and the way environmental issue mix with politics and business, as with windmill farms in NJ.


Further Reading

• Unnatural Landscapes: Tracking Invasive Species
• What Can We Do About Invasive Species?
• Invasive Species in a Changing World
• Invasive Plant Species of the World

The Incredible Journey of Monarch Butterflies

Every spring, blue skies in Michoacán, Mexico, turn orange as millions of monarch butterflies gather in the same ancient forests.

They are traveling from as far away as Maine, New Jersey, and Canada - up to 3000 miles. They weigh just a fifth of a penny. The millions of flapping wings are said to sound like falling rain.

Right now, the monarchs are leaving these forests, mating along the way.

This summer, four generations will be born and die, each living about a month before a "super generation" arrives. They will live seven months and, though they have never been to Mexico, they will somehow find their way, back to those same forests.

Watch a good video introduction to monarchs.


There are an estimated 250 million monarchs that winter in the Mexican preserve. The number is impressive, but 15 years ago, the number was nearly one billion. One problem is that the giant fir trees where monarchs huddle for warmth are being cut down.

Without cover, millions of butterflies often freeze to death. In typical years, about 15 percent will freeze, but this past winter's bad weather killed more than 50 percent.

Despite 140,000 acres being set aside by the Mexican government as a preserve for the monarch butterflies, more than 100,000 trees are cut down each year within this zone. Much of this is by residents who use the wood for fuel, building and to clear for crops.

Mexico recently lost nearly 7 percent of its forests. That is an area twice the size of New Jersey. A majority of that loss is from illegal logging.

The deforestation also destroys watersheds which can cause dangerous mudslides.




Ecolife Foundation is one organization working to replant trees and educate residents in the area by supplying them with efficient stoves to reduce their use of wood as fuel. Ecolife is pledging to plant a million new trees over the next three years.


The fall monarch butterfly migration.can be observed in New Jersey. Cape May County is a prime location to watch this phenomenon, Stone Harbor Point being an active spot.


 

Report on CBS News
Monarch and Milkweed
The Last Monarch Butterfly: Conserving the Monarch Butterfly in a Brave New World
Chasing Monarchs: Migrating with the Butterflies of Passage

For Younger Readers
The Prince of Butterflies
Monarch Butterfly (Life Cycles)
A Monarch Butterfly's Life (Nature Upclose)
Monarch Butterfly (Welcome Books)

Using Dogs To Sniff Out Endangered Species

You have probably heard of dogs being trained to find hidden drugs, bombs, even cell phones. Well, there are also dogs whose highly developed sense of smell is being used to find endangered species.

An issue of The Scientist reported that conservationists are training dogs to track down rare species of plants. Many of those species are extremely hard for humans to find.

In the video below, you can see John Vesely, executive director of the Oregon Wildlife Institute, and Rogue the Belgian sheepdog sniffing out the Kincaid's lupine, an endangered plant that is host to a rare, endemic butterfly found only in Northwest Oregon.

Endangered Invertebrates: The Butterflies

An invertebrate is an animal without a vertebral column - and they probably don't get much of your interest, even if you are interested in wildlife and endangered species.

Did you know that this group includes 95% of all animal species? Yes, that is all animals except those in the Chordate subphylum Vertebrata (fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals).

A bit of science history first - the Carolus Linnaeus' Systema Naturae divided these animals into only two groups, the Insecta and the now-obsolete vermes (worms). Then, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle coined the term "invertebrate" in 1793 to describe such animals and divided the original two groups into ten, by splitting off Arachnida and Crustacea from the "insects" and Mollusca, Annelida, Cirripedia, Radiata, Coelenterata and Infusoria from the "worms." They are today classified into over 30 phyla.

On the New Jersey threatened and endangered list, there are 17 invertebrates. For this post, I am looking at the six listed butterflies.

INVERTEBRATES LIST Source: njfishandwildlife.com Click name to show fact sheet (pdf) ** indicates Federally endangered or threatened
Endangered in NJ		Threatened in NJ
Beetle, American burying	Nicrophorus mericanus**		Elfin, frosted (butterfly)	Callophrys irus
Beetle, northeastern beach tiger	Cincindela d. dorsalis**		Floater, triangle (mussel)	Alasmidonta undulata
Copper, bronze	Lycaena hyllus		Fritillary, silver-bordered (butterfly)	Bolaria selene myrina
Floater, brook (mussel)	Alasmidonta varicosa		Lampmussel, eastern (mussel)	Lampsilis radiata
Floater, green (mussel)	Lasmigona subviridis		Lampmussel, yellow (mussel)	Lampsilis cariosa
Satyr, Mitchell's (butterfly)	Neonympha m. mitchellii**		Mucket, tidewater (mussel)	Leptodea ochracea
Skipper, arogos (butterfly)	Atrytone arogos arogos		Pondmussel, eastern (mussel)	Ligumia nasuta
Skipper, Appalachian grizzled (butterfly)	Pyrgus wyandot		White, checkered (butterfly)	Pontia protodice
Wedgemussel, dwarf	Alasmidonta heterodon**

If you have an interest in butterflies, you many want to check into the North Jersey Butterfly Club which is a chapter of the North American Butterfly Association. It is a non-profit organization working to promote the public enjoyment and conservation of butterflies.

One way to get involved is in raising butterflies from your garden.

The Butterflies and Moths of North America website has maps, species accounts, checklists, and photographs of butterflies and moths (endangered or not) and includes a section on New Jersey species. For example, you can find detailed information on the Arogos Skipper.