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I was outed to both my boss and several folks high up in the Michigan Powers That Be as the author of the Bug Blog.
I have deleted several posts about the recent Michigan budget issues at their request. I’m very sorry if your comments disappeared with them.
I am really happy that people like my work enough to praise me by name–but there is a REASON that I blog anonymously.
The Bug Blog is closed until further notice.
PNAS recently published a really interesting paper that estimated what the cost was, in terms of ecosystem services, of planting all that corn for ethanol production. Basically, when you plant just one crop, you reduce the amount natural control of pest insects by beneficial insects.
I’ve mentioned corn and ethanol before here–the change in the US landscape is dramatic, and will continue, unless legislation is changed. We are threatened by what one writer calls “The Corn-Ethanol Juggernaut”–in order to meet Congressionally mandated production goals, we must plant more corn. 8 BILLION gallons of ethanol are to be in use by 2012. This paper quantifies some of what that will cost us. From the abstract:
“Increased demand for corn grain as an ethanol feedstock is altering U.S. agricultural landscapes and the ecosystem services they provide. From 2006 to 2007, corn acreage increased 19% nationally, resulting in reduced crop diversity in many areas.
Biological control of insects is an ecosystem service that is strongly influenced by local landscape structure. Here, we estimate the value of natural biological control of the soybean aphid, a major pest in agricultural landscapes, and the economic impacts of reduced biocontrol caused by increased corn production in 4 U.S. states (Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin)……
Recent biofuel-driven growth in corn planting results in lower landscape diversity, altering the supply of aphid natural enemies to soybean fields and reducing biocontrol services by 24%.This loss of biocontrol services cost soybean producers in these states an estimated $58 million y−1 in reduced yield and increased pesticide use. For producers who rely solely on biological control, the value of lost services is much greater. These findings from a single pest in 1 crop suggest that the value of biocontrol services to the U.S. economy may be underestimated.”
So, more pesticides, less profit for the farmer. Not good. Is congress likely to repeal or change the ethanol mandate? Um. Probably not, alas.
Full Citation:
D. A. Landis, M. M. Gardiner, W. van der Werf, S. M. Swinton (2008). Increasing corn for biofuel production reduces biocontrol services in agricultural landscapes Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105 (51), 20552-20557 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0804951106
I was surfing about, and this image happened to catch my eye on Flickr. It turned out to be part of this.
It’s apparently from an art show by Regina Silveira: Mundus Admirus e Outras Pragas.
(“Mundus Admirabilis and other plagues”; Mundus is Latin for “clean”, but I need help with Admirabilis; “wonder” or “admiration doesn’t quite scan.)
My Spanish is…well, terrible, frankly, but as best I can tell from the artist’s web pages, it’s an installation that examines “aspects of conflict and deterioration,” using insects as a metaphor for social and environmental threats to our human future.
If you click on the “Images” link you can see that this was a work on a massive scale. There are additional photos here.
There is an English language description of her gallery work–from that:
“Regina Silveira’s works here deploy visual metaphors – such as images of pests – to foreground aspects of the deterioration and danger involved in the presumed continuity, or re-emergence, of pests or plagues. Present-day versions of mythic pests or plagues become visual fables for contemporary life…
Mixed images of pests are stuck to the walls and floor of the entrance and main hall of the gallery. Insects also appear on porcelain objects and a cross-stitch embroidered towel. A large black egg emits the combined sound of mosquitoes and helicopters and a porcelain panel alludes to the rain of frogs.”
So, not particularly a happy use of insects in this case.
What I really want to know, though, is how did she make these way cool dishes, and can I learn to do that??
I thought a long time about what I could write for Mr. Darwin–but I really just don’t have anything I think will do him justice.
How about you check out the Brand New edition of Evolution: Education and Outreach, which has a special Darwin Edition? I especially liked this essay on Darwin, which comes close to how I feel:
I have been most intrigued in the past few years with the young Darwin—the young man with only rudimentary training and only the simplest of scientific equipment, who travelled on the H.M.S. Beagle for nearly 5 years (1831–1836) around the world….
Darwin’s passion for his work—and, more deeply, for life itself—shines brightly throughout his diary, letters, and notes on the Beagle. …Most famous, of course, is his written cry “The mind is a chaos of delight” as he recorded his thoughts and feelings when at last he glimpsed a true tropical rainforest—in Bahia, soon after the Beagle reached Brazil in 1832. The Bahian forest was the prototype for his “entangled bank” passage in the last, reverentially poetic paragraph in On the Origin of Species published 27 years later.
And, excited as he was to experience first hand the wonders of South American ecosystems, its species of animals and plants, its fossils—in Darwin’s head there lurked a quieter, careful, analytic mind…
Darwin is all of us, as we seek to do our creative best no matter what our path in life—and above all in maintaining our very passion for life itself.”
Yeah. what he said.
Millard Fillmore (or his bathtub, anyway) tagged me with a historical meme. I’m supposed to:
Since I was tagged almost a year ago, I’ll pass on giving this chain letter to anyone else. But I will entertain you with some random facts about a favorite (and very infamous!) entomological figure: Harrison G. Dyar (1866-1929).
Dyar is one of the truly bizarre figures in Entomology. First a Smithsonian scientist– then dismissed over charges of bigamy— he ended his career as an editor of a Bahai religious journal.
Like many gentlemen scientists of the era, Dyar worked without pay, supporting himself with investments and his inheritance at the beginning of his career. At the National Museum, he began to develop a name for himself working on mosquitoes.
While becoming a recognized expert, and eventually earning a salary from the museum, Dyar was also known for his (frequently public and published) arguments with other scientists.* One of his papers was titled “New Facts That Are Not New”; a scathing criticism of amateur entomologists and their observations. That should pretty much give you a sense of his temperament. (And that was one of his nicer papers!)
He developed what is now known as “Dyar’s Law”, which is still in use today. He described the way in which larval head capsules grow geometrically with each instar (moult).
So, a recognized, if ill-tempered, expert in his field. And then…things went horribly wrong.
“Midway through his career, Dyar encountered problems in his personal life that had serious effects on his professional life. His marriage to Zella Peabody ended in 1915 amid charges of bigamy, and he was dismissed from the USDA for conduct unbecoming a government employee. It became known that in 1906 Dyar, using the alias Wilfred Allen, had married Wellesca Pollock, an educator and ardent disciple of the Bahá’í faith. They had three sons, whom Dyar legally adopted after he and Allen married legally in 1921.
A truck fell into a labyrinth of tunnels near Dyar’s old home in 1924… Eventually Dyar accepted responsibility for the tunnels and similar works behind his new home, saying he found relaxation in digging underground. The brick-walled tunnels extended for hundreds of feet and measured six by six feet.”
Dyar named a moth species wellesca after the woman he married in 1906. You’ll note this is 10 years before he got around to divorcing his first wife, Zella, whose name he later gave to another insect species in 1927. I doubt she was appeased.
Most of what is said about Dyar is not actually true:
So there’s your (in)famous entomologist. You can learn more about Dyar in the excellent paper (alas, not available online):
M. E. Epstein & P. M. Henson. 1992. Digging for Dyar: the man behind the myth. American Entomologist 38(3): 148-169.
*Despite the fact that I am also known for cranky, ill-tempered rants about others, that’s not why I’m fond of Dyar. Really!
I’m sure somewhere you’ve heard about the silliness about dueling bus slogans in Britain and elsewhere. 
Now someone has created an online Bus Sign Generator. You had ta’ know I’d go there:
What can you come up with?
I also made one for another common arthropod.
You might remember me covering this bill before–it’s now The Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act (H.R. 669). Currently, species may be imported unless declared “injurious” under the Lacey Act–which can only happen after an animal has caused demonstrable harm.
A few highlights from an Ecological Society of America Press Release:
If you’d like to know more about the costs and impacts of invasive species, The ESA issued a position paper in 2006 (PDF). Listing the thousands of invasive species that cost an estimated $138 Billion/year in control and damage would take too long–I’ll just invite you to surf around and note how many pests were imported as food, pets, or garden ornamentals.
Fairly predictably, owners of exotic pets are (again) sounding an alarm.
As I stated last time: This law will regulate new introductions of species. Not species that are already established here in the US. It also calls for a “white list” of already introduced exotics that may be continued to be imported, since they are judged to not be harmful, or have potential to be harmful.
No one will come and grab your snake.
Exotic plants and animals are interesting, beautiful creatures, and lots of fun to own. But they can also, despite our best intentions, escape and become terribly destructive.
Once the stimulus Kerfuffle is over, I encourage you to contact your Representatives and get this bill on the House floor and passed to the Senate. Don’t let the pet industry kill it!
Related posts:
When you email me about an internship I’ve posted, and tell me YOU are looking for an internship for your son/daughter, that pretty much puts the kibosh on me ever hiring your kid right there. (BTW, It’s especially not helpful if you use the words “lost”, “adrift”, or “confused” to describe your child.)
I’m sympathetic. Figuring out what you want to do in the world is hard. But any student over the age of 18 should be able to write me their own damn email.
If your kid isn’t with it enough to seek me out on their own, then I’m not about to let them near my research. Sorry.
The Collegiate Employment Research Institute found that 23% of employers reported parents were involved in the hiring process “often” to “fairly often.” In fact, some recruiters reported parents came to the interview with the student.
That’s messed up. Please don’t be a parentzilla.
Related posts:
I have a super busy schedule today, so how about you cruise over to Scienceray and look at their pretty photos of…insects eating each other. This lovely robber fly is a great example.
You can also just surf around in stboed’s photostream–lots of neat photos like this one there.
Also, since there are lots of academics here–how do you feel about Ms. Biden wanting her title to be used?
As someone who is always called Miss Bug Girl by students, while my male colleagues get to be called Dr. Whosit, I understand where she’s coming from. (And I bet none of the male faculty I work with have ever been mistaken for a secretary.)
Would anyone have bothered to write about this if Dr. Biden was a dude? (Aside from the wonderful happenstance of a gay couple as VPs during Freedom to Marry Week.)
You might also be interested in Orac’s take on this, as an MD.
Talk amongst yourselves. Back Tuesday!
Looks like there could be a new repellent compound to choose from on your shelves soon!
The compound, isolongifolenone, is made from a tree with the charming name of Bastard Bulletwood. From the abstract:
We show that (Ð)-isolongifolenone deters the biting of the mosquitoes Aedes aegypti (L.) and Anopheles stephensi Liston more effectively than the widely used synthetic chemical repellent…(DEET), in laboratory bioassays. The compound also repelled blacklegged ticks… and lone star ticks, as effectively as DEET.
Isolongifolenone is easily synthesized from inexpensive turpentine oil feedstock. We are therefore confident that the compound has significant potential as an inexpensive and safe repellent for protection of large human populations against blood-feeding arthropods.
Their tests were done in the lab, so I want to see some actual biting data with humans to verify these results.
It would be nice to have a choice other than DEET, since while DEET’s relatively safe, it is known to melt your pantyhose and stain fabrics. (Yeah. I know. Bug Girl is not known for pantyhose wearing. But sometimes I have to, and it’s a drag when your legs are covered in both blood from smacked mozzies and stifling nylon.)
Also, not every mosquito species tested reacted the same way–some were more repelled than others. This is also true of DEET, so isn’t surprising. The doses of active ingredient are similar to DEET, so unlike Picaridin, you shouldn’t have to apply extra doses of lotion.
Very (cautiously) exciting news!
The full citation:
AIJUN ZHANG, JEROME A. KLUN, SHIFA WANG, JOHN F. CARROLL, MUSTAPHA DEBBOUN (2009). Isolongifolenone: A Novel Sesquiterpene Repellent of Ticks and Mosquitoes Journal of Medical Entomology, 46 (1), 100-106 DOI: 10.1603/033.046.0113
