New Insect Species Discovered at Ashland Nature Center

Posted by Joe Sebastiani on January 7, 2019
Posted in: Ashland Nature Center, Botany, Insects. Tagged: , , , . Leave a Comment

By Jim White: Senior Fellow for Land and Biodiversity

It’s not every day that a new species of animal is found in Delaware. In fact, it is very rare indeed. However, in the summer or 2015 Adam Mitchel, a PhD candidate at the University of Delaware did just that. While collecting insects in a meadow at the Ashland Nature Center for his PhD research project on the effects of invasive alien plants on native insects, Adam found several insect specimens that he could not identify.  After examining them under a microscope in his lab he could only identify them as insects belonging to the Insect Order Thysanoptera commonly called Thrips (both the singular and plural of the noun has an (s). The Order Thysanoptera are minute insects with reduced wings, most species being around 1mm long. All but a few use sucking mouth parts to feed on the stems of plants. Several species are considered pest as they can damage crops and other plants. However, the vast majority of the 6,000 or so species are not pests to humans and are valuable members of the food chain.

This species of Thrips, new to science, was discovered at the Ashland Nature Center by entomologist Adam Mitchel. It has no English common name, but scientifically it is called Konothrips polychaeta.  Photo courtesy of Dr. Mitchel, from Goldarazena et al. (2017).

These tiny insects are not often studied unless they are considered pests and information on the many non-pest species is limited. Lucky for Adam, a professor from Belgium, Dr. Arturo Goldarazena…an authority on Thrips, was visiting the University of Delaware. Adam approached Dr. Goldarazena and asked if he would look at some of the Thrips specimens that he collected.  It did not take long for the professor to realize that he had never seen some of the specimens and declared that Adam might have discovered a new species. Adam agreed to give Dr. Goldarazena the specimens to study back in Belgium.  After an exhausting investigation the new species was described and published in Goldarazena et al. (2017). Its official scientific name is Konothrips polychaeta which loosely translates to “hairy tenacious woodworms”.  At this time, there is no common English name for this new species of Thrips. However, I propose to call it Mitchell’s Thrips.

Andropogon virginicus is the host plant for the newly discovered Thrips. Is the new species found wherever this plant exists??? Photo courtesy of Dr. Mitchel, from Goldarazena et al. (2017).

Finding a new species of animal or plant is a dream for biologists – finding them right under our noses in places like Ashland is even more exciting. Adam found the new species inside the flowers of the broom-sedge, Andropogon virginicus but he believes that Konothrips polychaeta probably feeds and breeds on other grasses and sedges that are abundant in the meadows and marshes at the Ashland Nature Center and beyond. These meadow and marsh habitats have been restored and maintained at several of Delaware Nature Society sites as part of the land and biodiversity management program. The program is dedicated to the conservation and preservation of native species and their habitats.

Dr. Adam Mitchel is a native Delawarean and discovered the new species of Thrips while he was a PhD candidate at the University of Delaware. Photo courtesy of Dr. Mitchel.

Dr. Adam Mitchel is a native Delawarean. He attended St. Marks High School and received his undergraduate degrees at the University of Delaware in Wildlife Conservation, Entomology, Plant Protection, Agriculture and Natural Resources (quad majored), and earned his master’s degree in Fish and Wildlife Management at Montana State University. Adam returned home to University of Delaware to obtain a PHD in Entomology and Wildlife Ecology (concentration: Entomology) at the time of the discovery of the Thrips. Adam is now employed as an Assistant Professor of Entomology at Tarleton State University in Texas.

Reference:

Goldarazena A, Mitchell AB and T. Hance (2017) Konothrips polychaeta sp.n. from Delaware, North America, with a key to the three species of this genus. Zootaxa 4341: 445-450.

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Observe those Osage oranges!

Posted by Ian Stewart on January 3, 2019
Posted in: Botany, Burrows Run Preserve, Coverdale Farm, General Ecology, Native American. 6 comments

Ian Stewart

Happy New Year everyone! If you’re looking for an interesting New Year’s Resolution to get you outdoors, why not seek out and learn about a different tree every month? This is exactly the time of year to spot one of Delaware’s most distinctive trees – the Osage orange.

The Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree native to the Midwest that was originally restricted to a relatively small stretch of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. It is not related to oranges but is in the Mulberry family. The name refers to the bright orange color of its wood and the Osage Nation, a midwestern Native American tribe who used the wood for making bows and apparently supplied early settlers with young plants.

The exposed orange roots of a fallen Osage

Although their original range was small, Osage oranges are now found throughout the lower 48 states after lines of them were planted to provide windbreaks in flat open landscapes such as farmland and isolated homesteads. Lines of Osages were also planted throughout the rest of the country to act as natural thorny fencerows for housing livestock and to delineate driveways and land borders, which is why you most often find Delaware Osages arranged in rows on either side of old country roads. Coverdale Farm Preserve’s famous ‘Avenue of the Osages’ contains no fewer than 72 of these striking trees which were probably planted over a hundred years ago.

Coverdale Farm’s famous ‘Avenue of the Osages’, with fallen fruit in foreground

Gnarly, orange-tinged bark of an Osage

The easiest time of year to identify Osage oranges is in the middle of winter as the bare trees now reveal their distinctive gnarled orange-tinged bark made up of many twisted strips. Some trees still bear their large green fruit, commonly known as ‘monkey brains’, although most of these have now fallen to the ground. Be careful – if they fall on a sidewalk or road they become a slippery hazard to pedestrians and motorists alike!

Osage orange fruit with knobbled surface

Interior of an Osage fruit with some seeds

Osages occur as either male or female trees but only the female trees produce the softball-sized fruit which contains several small seeds within its gooey white flesh. Although the fruit is edible almost all animals ignore it as it is tough, unpalatable and exudes latex, so the clusters of monkey brains simply remain where they fall until they decay. Squirrels do eat the seeds however, which may be why you see so few young trees mixed in with the old ones.

Interestingly, almost every Osage I see has a poison ivy vine growing up its trunk, perhaps because the vine finds it easy to grip onto the furrowed bark. Next time you are a passenger in a car being driven along a country lane, try to spot some rows of Osage oranges. If you spot some it might make you resolve to learn about our local trees in 2019!

This Osage was cut down at Coverdale and has about 90 growth rings, suggesting it was at least 90 years old. The poison ivy vine seen in cross-section on the left of the trunk had 19 growth rings so it had been attached for many years.

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Watch out for Winter Finches!

Posted by Ian Stewart on November 7, 2018
Posted in: Ashland Nature Center, Birds, Bucktoe Creek Preserve, General Ecology, Winter. 2 comments

Ian Stewart

Every fall birdwatchers throughout the eastern United States wait anxiously by their computers for an email containing this year’s Winter Finch Forecast http://jeaniron.ca/2018/wff18.htm. For almost 20 years now Ron Pittaway, a former naturalist at Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario Canada, has been predicting whether this group of small, seed-eating birds that breed in Ontario remain there during the winter based upon how successful the cone crop was that summer. Simply put, if the trees produced a lot of seeds then the finches will have enough food to survive the winter and will stay up north, but if the cone crop was poor they will have to fly south to find food and will ‘irrupt’ into the northern United States or maybe even further south.

Remarkably, Ron’s forecast is usually correct so local birders were thrilled to read his prediction that finches would be travelling south this winter because the cone crop in Canada was poor. Sure enough, about 2 weeks ago people throughout Delaware and south-eastern Pennsylvania started seeing flocks of Purple Finches at their feeders! These look a bit like our resident House Finches but the males are raspberry-colored over their whole body while the females and immature birds are heavily streaked below and have white stripes on their face. Purple Finches are attracted to black oil sunflower seed, especially if it is piled on a horizontal platform feeder.

A flock of Purple Finches at a platform feeder

The Delaware Nature Society’s bird banding program has confirmed that this is an irruption year for Purple Finches. So far this fall we have banded no fewer than 40 of these birds, compared with just 5 in the winter of 2016 and none at all last winter.

Male House Finch (left) and Purple Finch (right) banded this fall

Now people across our region are seeing a second species of winter finch at their feeders, the Pine Siskin. This small, streaky finch has yellowy-green wing patches and a very thin beak which it uses to pry nyjer (thistle) seeds from finch socks or hanging feeders with narrow holes.

Pine Siskin feeding on ground (Photograph by Hank Davis)

The thin beak of a Pine Siskin

Whisper it quietly but this winter we may see two more highly-prized finches which usually remain far to our north. The first of these is the Redpoll, a small streaky finch with a red forehead that flocks in weedy fields and congregates at nyjer feeders. The second is the majestic Evening Grosbeak, a striking yellow, black and white version of our familiar Cardinal which is attracted to platform feeders baited with sunflower seed

All of the above winter finches readily come to bird feeders and best way to attract them to your yard is to provide a variety of seeds in different types of feeders, like hanging tubes of either black oil sunflower or nyjer coupled with platform feeders filled with sunflower seeds or millet. Try visiting Wild Birds Unlimited in Hockessin for a large selection of seed mixes and feeders.

Flock of Siskins at a hanging feeder (Photograph by Hank Davis)

Another two irruptive winter finches that are much sought after by birdwatchers are the crossbills. The Red Crossbill tends to occur in pines and the White-winged Crossbill in spruces and larches. These intriguing birds are unique in that their upper and lower beaks are ‘crossed’ and are used to prise open pine cone scales to get to the seed within. Crossbills do not usually come to seed feeders but if you want to attract them you could try pulling the old ‘salt block trick’. Apparently they are very fond of salt and can be attracted to platform feeders using chunks of the salt blocks that farmers leave out for cattle and horses!

The winter of 2018/2019 could be a memorable year for winter finches in Delaware, so be sure to take full advantage of it. The best places to search are weedy fields and stands of cone-bearing pine trees in public parks or cemeteries, but you are just as likely to see them at the feeders in your back yard or the Ashland Nature Center bird blind. And maybe consider dropping by our free bird banding sessions to see if you are lucky enough to see a winter finch up close. Bird banding takes place through November every Monday at Ashland Nature Center and every Wednesday at Bucktoe Creek Preserve near Kennett Square, 8am-11am.

 

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Spotted Lanternfly in Delaware

Posted by Shannon Giordano on October 31, 2018
Posted in: Ashland Nature Center, Environmental Awareness, Insects. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment

Recently, Delaware Nature Society hosted an informational session with Dept. of Ag. Environmental Scientist Stephen Hauss at Ashland Nature Center. This came after the insect was documented at Ashland Nature Center by our Hawk Watch Coordinator. There have been other confirmed sightings of the insect in Northern Delaware as well. Delaware is the second state to report the Spotted Lanternfly, which was first found in Pennsylvania in 2014.

Pumpkin carved by Delaware Nature Society Web & Graphic Design Coordinator, Christi Leeson

What is the Spotted Lanternfly?

The Spotted Lanternfly is an invasive and destructive insect native to China, India, and Vietnam and is known to attack many hosts including grapes, apples, stone fruits, walnut, willow and tree of heaven. It is also known as the hitch-hiker bug as it has traveled far and wide “hitch-hiking” on vehicles and other outdoor items.

Why is this a bad bug?

Delaware’s #1 industry is agriculture. The Spotted Lanternfly is a potential threat to a wide variety of crops including grapes, peaches, apples, and timber.

What to look for

The adult Spotted Lanternfly is 1 inch long and a ½ inch wide when resting and has a wing span of about 2 inches. The forewings are grey with black spots, and the hind wings are red with black spots. The head and legs are black, and the abdomen is yellow with broad black bands. The immature stages of the Spotted Lanternfly are small, round, and black with white spots, and develop red patches as they grow.

Spotted Lanternfly Adult

Spotted Lanternfly Adult

 

Spotted Lanternfly Nymphs

Spotted Lanternfly Nymphs

The Spotted Lanternfly egg mass can be difficult to spot due to its color and being small. A fresh mass will have a grey putty-like covering on top of them, blending in to the bark of the tree it’s on. An older mass that has hatched will be brown and look dried and cracked.

Lanternfly egg mass on a rock

Lanternfly egg mass on a rock

It is believed that the Spotted Lanternfly needs to feed on Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) to reproduce but will feed on other hosts as well.

What to do

If you see a Spotted Lanternfly in any of its stages, it is important to report the sighting. The Delaware Department of Agriculture asks that anyone who sees a Spotted Lanternfly to follow the below steps:

  1. Take a picture: With the GPS function turned on your smartphone or a camera with GPS, take a photograph of any life stage (including egg masses). Upload your photograph to Facebook or Instagram, using the hashtag #HitchHikerBug. If you don’t have GPS capabilities and/or access to social media, submit the photograph via email to HitchHikerBug@state.de.us and include your name, contact information, and the address or georeference of where the photo was taken.
  2. Collect a specimen: Suspected specimens of any life stage can be collected and placed in a vial or plastic zip-lock bag with the name and contact information of the collector and turned into the Delaware Department of Agriculture CAPS program for verification. This insect is considered a threat to some crops and early detection is vital for the protection of Delaware businesses and agriculture.
  3. Report a site: If you can’t take a specimen or photograph, send an email to HitchHikerBug@state.de.us, submit using this form or call (302) 698-4586 with a message detailing the location of the sighting and your contact information.

For more information, See the Department of Agriculture’s Spotted Lanternfly checklist.

Other things to know

The coloring of the Spotted Lanternfly indicates that it could be toxic to dogs and there have been reports of dogs becoming ill after eating them. Pet owners should be careful to keep animals from eating the insect in any stage of its life.

Spotted Lanternfly Fact Sheet

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