Evolution has yielded many interesting creatures on this planet. Through evolution creatures slowly change. With each new change the creature either survives to pass on its new trait or does not. Through this amazing process creatures adapt to where they live, to better their likelihood of survive. It is all about passing on genes to the next generation. Those who pass on their traits are typically considered to be successful. It is all about finding a mate and passing on genes.

Beetles of the genus Pleocoma or more commonly known as Rain Beetles are experts on passing their genes. in fact this is pretty much all they do. Their entire lives are dedicated to finding a mate successfully. Through evolution they have mastered this.

These beetles start out like many other things as eggs underground. When they hatch as larvae they look “grub-like with a curved, whitish body and pale yellow-brown head.” During this stage they live soley underground feeding on nearby tree roots which typically are pear or apple trees. This is all they do, eat, eat, eat. They continue munching away on the roots for anywhere between 9 and 13 years. The reason they spend so much time eating is because they are storing as much energy as possible for later as fat. Eventually their whole chance of mating relies on how much they eat at this stage.

Once they have eaten their “fill” of roots they enter the pupal stage and mature to their adult form which is about a month before the first real rain falls over California. “The adult is similar in appearance to scarab beetles, with strong legs for digging. It is dark or reddish brown and hairy”. When they emerge as adults they don’t have any form of working mouthparts and do not have a digestive system so they never eat as an adult. It is at this time that the beetles put use to the energy they have been storing up for all their lives this is the energy they live on during their whole period as an adult. The males and females will dig themselves out of the ground that they have been living in all their life. The males will fly and use their specialized antenna to pick up on the pheromones of the females and seek out a female. Males will typically fly after the first rain of the season hence the name Rain Beetle. The females will surface from the ground for a short period of time wait for a male to mate with her. Females do not have the ability to fly. There is evidence that they may have at some point because they do have “wings” that are just little nubs.

The males need to act quickly because they only have enough energy to fly for around two hours. They use their antennae to pick up a female pheromone. Once they find the female they may have to fight off other males who also found her. Once the male is the victor he mates with the female. Shortly after mating the male will die because it has expended most of the energy it had. The female uses the energy she stored all her life to mate and then to dig a deep tunnel around 10 feet underground to lay the eggs around the roots of a tree to give the future larvae the all so important food source it needs. In most cases the female can live for a few months on it’s reserve of energy before dying.

Thus a new life cycle will begin with a male successfully finding a female and mating with her. This is the entire life goal for the Rain Beetle. They have evolved in such a way to focus solely on mating and passing on genes. The adults don’t have a digestive tract so that it can speed up the mating process by not expelling energy and time to develop and utilize a digestive tract. instead it uses this energy to find a mate and pass on genes. Although many people will look at the Rain Beetle and think that it is a useless creature (or a nuisance if you own an orchid). But this is in actuality an amazing creature. Evolution has slowly molded this insect so that it is a master of passing on genes to the next generation taking millions of years to reach this mastery. This is what is truly remarkable about the Rain Beetle.

Sources

1.  jenny.tfrec.wsu.edu/opm/displaySpecies.php?pn=630

2. http://baynature.org/articles/its-rainingrain-beetles/

3. http://www.nps.gov/yose/blogs/Rain-Beetles.htm

4. http://www.hastingsreserve.org/invertebrates/Insects/Pleocoma/RainBeetle.html 

What Makes a Great Insect Blog?

Our ESPM42 group, Pleocoma, got together to discuss what goes into making a successful insect blog. We all agreed that there are a few key things outside of the actual content of the blog. First, we all agreed that blogs written in a more light-hearted, personal voice are a lot more enjoyable to read rather than something too professional and text-heavy. As readers, we want to feel as though the blog is more of a conversation than a lecture, which will hold our interest far better and help us feel connected to the author. A more personal voice also keeps the blog from feeling boring or too formal, and also presents the information in a manner that is easy to find. Overly formal blogs tend to be far too information heavy for the reader, and a lot of important stuff is missed by the readers as well! That being said, a tone that is too casual will lose credibility, so it is really important for any author to find that right balance in order to maintain a successful blog, which is something we noticed as we were looking at insect blogs online.

The second thing our group noticed was how we were immediately drawn to blogs with videos and pictures rather than large blocks of texts. Videos, pictures, colorful diagrams, and charts help to improve the overall aesthetics of the blog and, well, aesthetics are really important when it comes to drawing in readers. While the tone of the author is incredibly important, we found that we were more likely to start reading blogs that looked interesting to us. For insect blogs in particular, it’s not hard to incorporate pictures of brightly colored bugs with aposematic colors or unique insects to add understanding and retention to the text of the blog.

(Just look at those aposematic colors! Bet you won’t forget our point now)

Videos can also be an interesting way to expand upon points made in the blog. If the blog were to go on for a long period of time about details of one topic, the reader may lose interest (particularly if there is a lot that the author is trying to say). Videos that lead to an expansion of one topic will draw more interested readers into a more in-depth analysis, while others will be able to happily continue the rest of the blog post without becoming bored or antsy (thus, losing interest). Charts and graphs also provide a much simpler way of conveying complex data which readers might otherwise not understand from a text-heavy paragraph (plus, too much text tends to convolute simple ideas)

Blog Review

The blog our group chose to break down and take a closer look at is called “Bug Girl’s Blog”. This woman keeps her readers engaged by sharing about her own life as well as her knowledge and exploration of bug related topics.  In her post “Planet of the Arthropods”, she talks about being on the radio, connecting the readers to her personal life.  She talks about the bug related topics she discussed while on the radio, educating her readers.  As another way to get the facts across to the reader the author presents a figure showing the estimated number of described species and the percentage of total species they represent.  Overall we found this to be a very successful and informative blog providing just enough facts to get the reader interested, and then providing links where they can gain further information.

(She also included charts such as this one to simplify her point and provide some pretty nifty information.)

            On a much earlier blog post named “Scientifically Accurate Spiderman (is not accurate)” she engages the reader using popular culture (Spiderman) to gain the reader’s attention, while absorbing them in the topic of the true facts about spiders.  She manages to share some interesting facts, images, and videos about spiders while talking in a casual approachable manner.  This laid back tone puts the author on the same level as the reader, building trust and credibility.

            What we really enjoyed about Bug Girl’s blog was how the tone made her posts rather enjoyable to read. We could tell she really knew her information, yet none of it dragged or felt too heavy to get through. She added humor and great references within her posts (and the titles were catchy), and broke up the text with relevant images, graphs, and links to outside sources and videos for readers who were interested in exploring the topics further. She also chose to write about information that was interesting to readers, and related to modern culture, bringing insects into a more relatable light. It’s rather difficult to write about insects for modern readers, especially as college students, because not a lot of college students are interested in insects. However, by creating an easy-to-navigate, aesthetically pleasing, well-written blog, she brought us a lot of great information we truly enjoyed reading. 

            In conclusion, we found that a personable tone and enhanced aesthetics using pictures and videos contribute to making a successful blog.

Sources (blogs we read, places we got pictures, etc…)

http://membracid.wordpress.com

http://insects.about.com/b/

http://magblog.audubon.org/insects/arachnids

For our third, group blog activity, the group Acrididae, is doing a movie review on the documentary “The Ten Plagues of the Bible” with special attention to the eight plague: the plague of locusts. The bible describes how an unnamed pharaoh refused to allow the Hebrew people out of captivity so the Hebrew God punishes him with ten plagues until he repents. This documentary, produced by National Geographic and directed by Gabrielle Wengler, looks into an alternative cause, or perhaps offers a possible method of how these plagues could have existed.

Like many documentaries such as this, I was disappointed to see all of the recycled footage that is replayed over and over again. Similarly, whenever there is a pause in the documentary (likely to give space for commercials) the narrator retells and summarizes everything that he had said up to that point. These two elements caused what could have been a half hour documentary into a ninety minute documentary. Another problem that I had with the documentary is that they give long explanations of possible explanations to how the plagues could have occurred, but then at the end of their explanations disprove themselves in at most half a minute and then continue the documentary as if these doubts have no credence. Other than these faults, the documentary was very interesting, and did provide the watchers with many groundbreaking, proven facts, such as the recent discovery of the ancient capital of Egypt, Pi-Ramesse. Also, even if the evidence may seem unlikely, the evidence still gives us insight into monumental historical events, such as the eruption of the Volcano at San Torini. Overall, the documentary was quite interesting and informative in some aspects, but it is important to remember that documentaries like these are dramatized and should be taken with a grain of salt.

The eighth plague, which we will focus on, is largely glossed over in the documentary, with only three minutes of information (from 9:30-12:30 in the second video). The beginning of the second half of the documentary details a cataclysmic eruption from a volcano, Thera, on San Torini, an island in the Mediterranean. The volcanic blast from this eruption was larger than any recorded eruptions that humans have ever witnesses in modern times, and the documentary claims that this eruption could be responsible for the 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th plagues. According to the documentary, locusts to wind currents to guide them to where they will swarm (“they came from the East wind”). The ash that was caused by the volcanic eruption could have caused one of the most violent storms in the history of ancient Egypt, and a low pressure system such as this could have created monstrous gusts of wind, thus directing a swarm of locusts towards Egypt, devastating the agriculture there.

But before we go into the possibility of the documentaries explanation, you should first have some background information:

The Ten Plagues:

1. Niles River to Blood
2. Frogs
3. Swarms of Gnats
4. Flies
5. Disease on the Cattle
6. Boils/Sores on Man and Animal
7. Destruction of Crops and Cattle by Hail
8. Destruction of crops by Locusts
9. Darkness
10. Death of the Firstborn

The Eighth plagues as described in the bible, Exodus 10:1-15

^“12 And the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over Egypt so that locusts swarm over the land and devour everything growing in the fields, everything left by the hail.”

¹³ So Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and the Lord made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts; ¹⁴ they invaded all Egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers. Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again. ¹⁵ They covered all the ground until it was black. They devoured all that was left after the hail—everything growing in the fields and the fruit on the trees. Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.”

Other places in the Bible where Locusts are mentioned:

      http://www.openbible.info/topics/locusts

But is what the documentary said accurate?

It isn’t all that hard to believe that a swarm of locusts could have pestered the Egyptians at any point in their history. As recently as early March this year there was a large swarm of locusts that invaded Israel and other areas of the Middle East from Egypt, and more recently a plague of locusts has begun infecting Madagascar. According to Dr. Siro Trevisanato, a Canadian Paleobiologist wrote in his book, The Plagues of Egypt: Archaeology, History, And Science Look at the Bible, that “The ash fall out caused weather anomalies, which translates into higher precipitations, higher humidity. And that’s exactly what fosters the presence of the locusts.” But the documentary itself dates the volcanic explosion to the 1600’s B.C.E., over 100 years before the bible suggests that the ten plagues of Egypt truly occurred. For this reason, I believe that a volcano causing a locust swarm is highly unlikely.

Other scientists, namely Stephen M. Rogers of Oxford believe that increased levels of serotonin (a chemical that causes sexual pleasure in humans interestingly) could be the cause of locusts swarming. These increased are caused when locusts, which are all of the family acrididae (our group, and the reason for us choosing this video), die off in large number because of environmental factors and are forced to feed close together. The intermingling of these normally solitary insects causes them to become a pack of ruthless veggie-hunters. If a large volcanic eruption did occur, it would likely wipe out much vegetation in the Mediterranean area which, if the volcano is the root of the locust swarm, seems more likely to be the cause of the formation of the swarm.

In the end, as the documentary says, whether or not you believe in the ten plagues of Egypt is a matter. However, the kingdom of Egypt lasted for thousands of years. To say that at some point in that time Egypt suffered from swarming grasshoppers, statistically that would be a good bet.

You can watch the documentary yourself right here!:

Photo Locations:

1. http://footage.shutterstock.com/clip-1129810-stock-footage-big-green-locust.html
2. http://malinkapusinka.blogspot.com/2011_12_01_archive.html
3. http://travelingclassroom.org/?p=196
4. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/pictures/130308-pictures-locust-swarm-egypt-israel-science/#/locust-swarm-egypt-palestine-israel-hill_65100_600x450.jpg

Additional Readings:

1. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/science/2009-01-29-locust-swarm_N.htm
2. http://books.google.com/books?id=cSSLzfRXGK8C&pg=PR7&lpg=PR7&dq=Dr+Siro+Trevisanato&source=bl&ots=nJu0YDxuPG&sig=9zKiTeMRebRQ3JAeuS4McQ4SsO4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9QldUd25B-GRiALVkYCQAw&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Dr%20Siro%20Trevisanato&f=false
3. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/solved-the-mystery-of-why-locusts-swarm-1520409.html
4. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/pictures/130308-pictures-locust-swarm-egypt-israel-science/#/locust-swarm-egypt-palestine-israel-hill_65100_600x450.jpg
5. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21963429

As humans increasingly urbanize, we are encroaching the natural habitats of insects and disrupting their natural mating habits, such as with grasshoppers. A ground-breaking study published in the magazine Functional Ecology in 2012 demonstrates how grasshoppers’ mating calls is being drastically affected by the noisy highways penetrating grasshoppers’ natural habitats. 

The study began in 2010 as scientists collected 188 male grasshoppers of Chorthippus biguttulus. Some of the grasshoppers were taken from locations where they reside next to highways and others were taken from locations that were quieter. This study was ground-breaking because it was the first time that a scientific test was conducted that explored the relationship between human noise and the impact that it has on animal or insect mating calls. The scientists then conducted their experiment. First, the scientists induced the males to perform their mating calls to females. Male grasshoppers produce mating calls by rubbing a toothed file against a vein on their front wings. The male grasshoppers were placed in front of one female specimen and their natural environment was mimicked by placing a male grasshopper inside an illuminated box inside a dark room, while they were facing this female specimen. 

The results of this experiment were shocking. Throughout the experiment the mating call frequencies of 1000 males were recorded. The evidence showed that male grasshoppers who resided next to noisy highways produced higher pitched mating calls than those who lived in quieter areas. This finding produced the first evidence that human activity is altering the natural mating call frequencies of insects in nature.

 

You may ask, why do these higher-pitched frequencies matter? And, why is this study significant?
This answer to these questions is that this study also demonstrated that male grasshoppers in this species who lived next to highways and had higher-pitched mating calls were actually seen as less attractive to females. Thus, the natural courtship ways of grasshoppers is being affected by urbanization. In addition, the natural mating cycles of grasshoppers are affected in other ways because of urbanization. For example, males grasshoppers who live next to highways are less likely to find females to mate with because of the increased noise in which which females can not hear the mating calls of the male grasshoppers. In addition, due to this increased noise females can not discern whether or not a mating call is from a male of her same species or not. Lastly, female grasshoppers also find it more difficult to judge whether or not a male is very attractive as they can not clearly discern their mating call, which leads them to mate with males that are not very attractive, which leads to offspring that are not as fit as they could possibly be to survive in their environment.

Lastly, what is the future of these grasshoppers? Although they are not extinct, one can assume that grasshopper levels near highways are being interrupted and declining, which is likely to impact predators that feed on certain types of grasshoppers, as well as the food that grasshoppers feed on as well. Thus, although it may not seem like a giant issue to focus on, the decline in grasshoppers near highways that is caused by urbanization could possibly lead to the disruption of a habitat. 

It has also been noted in this study that not just insects, scientists are discovering a trend in that increased noise levels caused by urbanization are affecting other organisms’ mating calls as well. For example, preliminary study on the mating calls of birds and frogs have also began to show that their mating calls are being affected as well.

Sources:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/11/26/grasshoppers-near-highways-change-their-mating-calls/

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2012/11/16/grasshoppers-change-mating-calls-to-overcome-urban-noise/

http://intellectualcenter.blogspot.com/2012/11/publicly-built-highways-are-not.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/20310262

You may be wondering, “what exactly is and Acrididae?”  However when the term grasshopper comes up most people know exactly what it is.  You may be surprised to discover an Acrididae is nothing more then a family of orthopterous insects that includes the true locusts as well as grasshoppers (http://www.merriam-webster.com).  There are over 8,000 species of Acrididae worldwide, with more then 600 species living in North America.  These animals have been around long before dinosaurs, the first ancestor of our modern day grasshopper developed nearly 200 million years ago.  Fossil records even show grasshoppers appearing during the Carboniferous period, more then 300 million years ago! Acrididae falls under the order Orthoptera, which encompasses insects with wings.  These wings cover the Acrididae’s auditory organs that are located on the side of their abdominal segments.  These membranes tucked safely under the wings vibrate in response to sound waves.  This is a simple eardrum that allows grasshoppers to hear one another.  But these wings have more uses then just protecting the auditory organs, they are actually quite powerful!  They use the strong wing combined with their powerful jumping legs to escape predators.  Their strong jumping legs help boost them into the air and their wings take it form there.  As well as having strong wings there are many other characteristics common to Acrididae.   Most Acrididae are medium to large size for insects, ranging anywhere from 1 to 8 centimeters in length.  Their coloration tends to be green, gray, or brown making it easy for them to blend in with their environment.  They typically live among plants where this coloration serves as the perfect camouflage.  However some Acrididae inhabit forests or even aquatic vegetation.  (The image below shows a grasshopper’s coloration matching his surroundings, serving as the perfect camouflage)

Another distinguishing factor is the antennae.  The antennae of the Acrididae are quite short, typically extending no more then half the grasshopper’s body length. (The image below shows the Acrididae’s relatively short antennae)

As you may have concluded by its given environment Acrididae feed on plant foliage.  They especially like grasses and spurges.  When grasshopper populations become overcrowded swarms of locusts can completely devour large crops and strip grasslands over relatively large areas.  Grasshoppers are known for causing billions of dollars of damage in food crops annually.  The combined feeding habits of a swarm of grasshoppers can completely strip a landscape, leaving farmer’s crops bare.  In the U.S. alone grasshoppers cause about $1.5 billion in damages to crops each year.

The lifecycle of an Acrididae includes a simple or sometimes even incomplete metamorphosis.  The three stages of this metamorphosis are egg, nymph, and adult.  In most species the eggs are laid in the ground to mature (http://insects.about.com).

In order to attract mates, male Acrididae use mating calls.  To make this courtship call some species of males rub special pegs on the inside of their hind leg against the thickened edge of the wing.  Another specie known as the band-winged grasshopper snaps their wings while in flight in order to make an audible cracking noise.  In order to make sure his genetic material gets passed on to future generations the male may continue to guard the female after mating.  In order to discourage her from copulating with other partners the male sometimes rides around on the females back for a day or more. (In the image below you can see the pegs grasshoppers use to generate a mating call)

A common misconception is that grasshoppers and locusts are different things, but in fact grasshoppers and locusts are the same thing!  However, the name grasshopper has developed with a positive connotation, bringing to mind song like chirps heard at dusk in the summer time.  While locust has a very negative connotation, bring to mind images of destroyed farmlands.  Even though these terms have different feelings attached to them they are really one in the same, both used in reference to short-horned members of the order Orthoptera.