Catopsilia florella (Fabricius 1775)

Four days into national insect week, it seems as though it would be atrocious if I allowed the long-standing funk I seem to be in to stop me from posting something appropriate.

I had planned a lengthy discourse with tons of pictures of invertebrates, but focusing on anything lately has not been very doable (you may have noticed, in the unlikely event that you read through it, that the lengthy taxonomic notes have disappeared from recent posts. Which makes navigation harder, but saves about half an hour of distractedly re-doing the same thing.

Anyway, whining over, meet today's guest:

Lusaka City, Lusaka Province, Zambia, in October 2011. Photographed with Olympus E-420 DSLR, Zuiko 40-150mm lens and 3 KOOD magnifiers.

This soft-touch of an entry to a blog supposedly focusing on under-loved groups (in my defence, it was suggested by a random number generator) is one of Zambia's many Agulugufe (Chewa - plural of gulugufe), but is far from endemic; it extends through most of Africa, including island nations such as Madagascar and the Canary islands - which, having remained a territory (=colony) of Spain, is often used by entomologists to say that the butterfly is found in Europe. A little bit like saying that penguins breed on British shores when they're actually in the Falklands, but I digress.

This gulugufe is also found as far east as India and Sri Lanka (பட்டாம், ~Pattaam in Tamil; तितली, ~Dtidt(a)li in Hindi), and just in case you hadn't worked it out from the picture, the English term is Butterfly. 






As an etymological aside, one Chewa term for these distinctly user-friendly insects is Peperu, which is, to my ears at least, surprisingly close to the French Papillon.

As with a lot of insects which are not particularly edible, a common name specific to the species is difficult to find in Chewa; the most direct translation from the English '[African] Migrant' I can find is Matchona, which means migrant workers, and, by its structure and the persistent use of Zimbabwe in the example usages, would seem to refer even more specifically to members of the Shona people of Zimbabwe, who make up a considerable proportion of migrant workers in Zambia and Malawi.

So I am forced to think more broadly for a Chewa name to reflect the nature of these insects; Mlendo, which translates most directly to Guest, but can also mean Stranger, Tourist, Foreigner or Traveller, seems the most appropriate.

Our Mlendo Gulugufe can be referred to, internationally, as

Catopsilia florella

(Fabricius, 1775)

Within the butterflies, it is in a generally not white subfamily (Coliadinae) of the 'White' Butterflies (gugulufe loyera), the Pieridae, of which only one other butterfly has thus far been featured, the also not-white (but in the largely white-ish subfamily, Pierinae) Eurasian Orange-Tip, Anthocharis cardamines. 

Same as opening image, but only 1 KOOD magnifier.

As with most butterflies, there is sexual dimorphism (males and females look different), but with the Mlendo Gugulufe it is imperfect; while the individual to the right(the same one pictured at the top of the post) shows a colour form found in both males and females, the more cryptic colouring  of the specimen below is only known from females. 

Photographed in Chongwe, Lusaka, Zambia, in February 2013, using Olympus E-420 DSLR and 40-150mm Zuiko lens with 1 KOOD magnifier.

And that, folks, is all.

For the identification of large and distinctive African butterflies, the most comprehensive guide I've found affordable is Steve Woodhall's Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa, published through Struik and available through Amazon (here). As I remain the world's biggest fan of free information, I can't go without mentioning the late R. C. Dening's collection, which, although not as user friendly, is more appropriate to Zambia and, key point, freely accessible online (click here to visit it).

Cheilomenes lunata (Fabricius, 1775)

So what group of beetles is not significantly more valuable to agriculture than the average beetle group but is much more widely tolerated and, for an insect, even loved across the western world?

I'll give you a hint.

Photographed in Chongwe, Lusaka, Zambia, in February 2013. Olympus E-420 DSLR, Zuiko 40-150mm digital lens with 3 KOOD magnifiers.

Yes, it's a ladybird. Specifically, the (African) Lunate Ladybird,

Cheilomenes lunata

(Fabricius, 1755)

 

 - Coccinellini
- Coccinellinae
- Coccinellidae  
 - Cucujoidea         
 - Cucujiformia         

See also Otiorhynchus atroapterus.

- Polyphaga                

See also Malachius bipustulatus and Melolontha melolontha.

- Coleoptera                   

See also Demetrias atricapillus and Anthia fornasiini.

- Coleopterida                   
- Endopterygota                    

See also Crambus pascuella, Hagenomyia tristis, Astata tropicalis, Vespula germanica, Synagris proserpina, Zebronia phenice, Laelia robusta, Anthocharis cardamines, Acada biseriata Panorpa germanica, Megistocera filipes, Senaspis haemorrhoa, Episyrphus balteatus, Helophilus pendulus, Diasemopsis meigenii and Dolichotachina caudata

- Eumetabola                                  

See also Pephricus, Anoplocnemis curvipes and Ranatra

- Neoptera                                          

See also  Sibylla, Stictogryllacris punctata, Lobosceliana loboscelis and Cyathosternum prehensile

- Manopterygota                                     

See also Rhyothemis semihyalina, Pseudagrion hageni and Enallagma cyathigerum

- Pterygota                                                  

- Dicondylia                                                  

- Insecta                                                            

- Hexapoda                                                           

- Arthropoda                                                            

See also Ligia oceanica, Dicranopalpus ramosus, Enoplognatha ovata, Argiope bruennichi and Hyllus argyrotoxus.

- Ecdysozoa                                                                 

- Protostomia                                                                  

- Nephrozoa                                                                      

See also Burhinus vermiculatus, Chiromantis xerampelina, Thelotornis capensis, Trachylepis varia, Lygodactylus capensis, Ardea goliath, Chalcophaps indica, Sterna hirundo, Synchiropus splendidus and Hipposideros vittatus.

- Bilateralia                                                                            

- Eumetazoa                                                                              

- Animalia                                                                                     

- Eukaryota                                                                                       

Why are ladybirds so much popular than, say, the Carabidae, which are just as active, if not more so, as predators, and have generally higher metabolisms, demanding that they chow down more pest insects? 

I'd suggest that it's actually about toxicity. The ladybirds are often brightly coloured, advertising that many of them have fairly nasty poisons in their systems, which any sensible vertebrate would do well to avoid. Defended so visibly, many of them are active during the day and, being conspicuous, are much more likely to be observed chowing down aphids than a night-active beetle with a similar diet. As a result of this, one might expect them to earn a reputation for helpfulness.

But this is just speculation. What is true, though, is that Ladybirds have been introduced to farms all over the world, and in many cases wreaked havoc upon the native ecosystems - from the seven-spot ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata) introduced to the Americas from its native Europe, and now devastating beetle life stateside, to the harlequin ladybird (Harmonia axyridis), which has been destroying the seven-spot (and other local species) ever since it was introduced from the Far East. 

The short version: Ladybirds are great, so are many beetles. Setting them free in new environments is not great. At all. 

That's all, folks!

Ranatra, Fabricius, 1790

I know troublingly little about the group here, even less than is hinted at by my only listing the genus.

So, in the absence of anything to say about it, here's a picture:

And now, to put said picture in context:

 - Eukaryota
   - Animalia
     - Eumetazoa
       - Bilateralia
         - Nephrozoa - see also Thelotornis capensis, Lygodactylus capensis, Chalcophaps indica, Sterna hirundo, Ardea goliath, Trachylepis varia and Hipposideros vittatus.
           - Protostomia
             - Ecdysozoa
               - Arthropoda - see also Ligia oceanica, Dicranopalpus ramosus, Argiope bruennichi, Enoplognatha ovata and Hyllus argyrotoxus.
                 - Hexapoda
                   - Insecta
                     - Dicondylia
                       - Pterygota
                         - Manopterygota - see also Pseudagrion hageni and Enallagma cyathigerum.
                           - Neoptera - see also Cyathosternum prehensile, Stictogryllacris punctata, and Sybilla.
                             - Eumetabola - see also Vespula germanica, Synagris proserpina, Astata tropicalis, Senaspis haemorrhoa, Malachius bipustulatus, Otiorhynchus atroapterus, Melolontha melolontha, Anthia fornasinii, Demetrias atricapillus, Helophus pendulus, Episyrphus balteatus, Diasemopsis meigenii, Megistocera filipes, Panorpa germanica, Acada biseriata, Anthocharis cardamines, Laelia robusta, Zebronia phenice and Hagenomyia tristis.
                               - Paraneoptera
                                 - Condylognatha
                                   - Hemiptera
                                     - Heteroptera - see also Anoplocnemis curvipes and Pephricus.
                                       - Nepomorpha
                                         - Nepidae
                                           - Ranatrinae

Ranatra

Fabricius, 1790

Ranatra comprises a species-rich and near-cosmopolitan assemblage of long, slender water scorpions, also known as water-stick-insects to reflect their body-plan, (but only distantly related to true stick insects, which group with the grasshoppers. Traditional, more scorpion-y water-scorpions are usually more leaf-shaped, and are held in the subfamily Nepinae. 

It's worth noting that no water scorpions are venomous - they are all quite harmless true bugs, whose flimsy, pincer-like front legs are for grabbing small aquatic animals, and whose long thin tails are not tails at all but breathing tubes. If you were tadpole-sized, it would be worth treating them with extreme caution, but if you're reading this, you're probably a good deal bigger. 

Being insects, they're also not particularly close to scorpions, which group with spiders and harvestmen in the Arachnida.  

Here's another - more informative, but less appealing to my eye - angle on this particular individual from Chongwe, Lusaka, Zambia, taken in October 2011:

Vespula germanica (Fabricius, 1793)

You may well note that today is the day of wasps. 

There is a reasonable reason for this.

Today, at my oh-so-glamorous retail job, my colleagues were overreacting to this post's featured species. Earlier in the week, they called the exterminators in, who came and sprayed some poison and completely overlooked the fact that it is late summer in England.

Let me expand.

Towards the end of summer, the wasp queens gradually stop laying eggs. The workers, who have up to this point been using their developing siblings to convert mashed up insect remains into sweet sugary nectar, are left out of a job and out of food.

So, more than a bit peckish and possibly having mid-life crises as they realise that they have spent their entire adult life raising something which no longer needs them, they go a-wandering. And in their wanderings, they find that sweet things, previously only really encountered in flowers and at the business ends of their little brothers and sisters, are everywhere.

In retail, sweet things often go out of date, or are dropped on the floor and rendered somehow unsaleable. They are then thrown into a large bin, in a half-heartedly tied bag, and put outside.

Starving wasps smell this sweet waste from some distance and come flocking. Having temporarily eaten their fill at the waste, they explore the surrounding area, and, should they wander inside, become disoriented by artificial light-sources, and become trapped inside, where they will eventually either find their way out, or die.

Killing the wasps inside the shop, or even on the bin, or - should you locate it - at the nest will have little effect. None of these is the source of the wasps, which are now vagrants with sweet... mandibles, and indeed the only extermination that could wholly prevent their arrival is of every social wasp in the country. Even if this was viable, the reduced predation on insect larvae the following year could easily turn large swathes of the country into desert.

So - as I have now told you, and as I told my co-workers before they called for the exterminators, extermination is useless. As preventing access to the shop is also not viable (customers and staff fit through holes a little too large to exclude wasps), the only reliable way to discourage these wasps is to remove the local food source - to whit, to clean the years of sugary filth of the outside of the bins, to ensure that the bins are closed and thus not attracting wasps, and to be certain to contain and clean up any spillages.

An easier option is to simply avoid sitting on or swatting at the wasps. As they are no longer protecting nests, they tend to sting much less readily, although they can still become aggressive if directly offended - to whit, being swatted at or partially crushed.

One argument against this laissez-faire attitude is that they are annoying.

This, and note sarcasm, is absolutely a reason to take something's life. 

I'll reward you for trawling through that lengthy pre-amble with a photograph. Spheksophobes should either accept that a picture is not going to sting them or skip ahead. 

A female V. germanica eating sugar. Bosham, West Sussex, UK.

 
After that picture break, here's the taxonomy: 

 - Eukaryota
   - Animalia
     - Eumetazoa
       - Bilateralia
         - Nephrozoa - see also Thelotornis capensis, Lygodactylus capensis, Chalcophaps indica, Sterna hirundo, Ardea goliath, Trachylepis varia and Hipposideros vittatus.
           - Protostomia
             - Ecdysozoa
               - Arthropoda - see also Ligia oceanica, Dicranopalpus ramosus, Enoplognatha ovata and Hyllus argyrotoxus
                 - Hexapoda
                   - Insecta
                     - Dicondylia
                       - Pterygota
                         - Manopterygota - see also Enallagma cyathigerum and Pseudagrion hageni
                           - Neoptera - see also Sybilla, Stictogryllacris punctata and Cyathosternum prehensile.
                             - Eumetabola - see also Pephricus and Anoplocnemis curvipes
                               - Endopterygota - see also Hagenomyia tristis, Zebronia phenice, Laelia robusta, Anthocharis cardamines, Acada biseriata, Panorpa germanica, Megistocera filipes, Diasemopsis meigenii, Episyrphus balteatus, Helophus pendulus  Demetrias atricapillus, Anthia fornasinii, Melolontha melolontha, Otiorhynchus atroapterus, Malachius bipustulatus and Senaspis haemorrhoa

                                         - Hymenopterida
                                           - Hymenoptera
                                             - Apocrita
                                               - Aculeata - see also Astata tropicalis
                                                 - Vespoidea
                                                   - Vespidae - see also Synagris proserpina

                                                     -Vespinae

Vespula germanica

(Fabricius 1793)

Otherwise known as the German wasp - rather misleadingly, as it is not confined to Germany but native to much of Europe and introduced to just about every large city within the temperate zones of the world, where - in the absence of various similar Eurasian species - it is often known simply as the yellowjacket.

For a similarly misleading regional name, see Panorpa germanica.


That's all, folks.

Melolontha melolontha (Linnaeus, 1758)

Beetles....

British Beetles...

What to say about British Beetles...

Regular readers (hypothetically speaking), might remember me rambling without direction about the diversity of flies and beetles in this post (About the lovely and bizarre Diasemopsis meigenii). Well, we're going to expand a little bit on that here.

As a resident of the UK, I am both cursed and blessed where entomology is concerned - cursed because three of the biggest reasons to have low diversity of wildlife are: a) being an island; b) being a long way from the tropics and therefore having a history of ice-ages wiping out the local wildlife; and c) being a densely populated and heavily developed part of Europe, where people have been disturbing wildlife as heavily as they can since just before the ice left. Blessed, however, because this limited fauna is one of the best studied on the planet, which makes it much easier to identify most species without breaking the bank.

It is also one of the few places in the world where the known species of fly greatly outnumber the known species of beetle, and this, in concert with its uniquely well-studied fauna, is one point of support for flies being more diverse than beetles.

This brings me - finally - to my point. Flies are - as the name suggests - mostly quite good at flying, if only because their bodies are so light that they need very little energy to stay in the air. This gets them blown across such insignificant bodies of water as the English Channel with a frequency much higher than, say, large beetles.

It does have a handful (some of which, like the greater stag-beetle (Lucanus cervus), are in a fairly alarming decline because of the incompatibility of a large population which burns all available wood in the winter and a beetle that spends several years as a larva inside dead wood and doesn't survive being burnt), and today's subject is probably the most frequently encountered of that handful...

Eukaryota
  Animalia
    Eumetazoa
      Bilateralia
        Nephrozoa
          Protostomia
            Ecdysozoa
              Arthropoda
                Hexapoda
                  Insecta
                    Dicondylia
                      Pterygota
                        Manopterygota
                          Neoptera
                            Eumetabola
                              Endopterygota
                                Coleopterida
                                  Coleoptera
                                    Polyphaga
                                      Scarabaeiformia - Beetles that are like scarab beetles
                                        Scarabaeoidea - Scarabs and friends
                                          Scarabaeidae - Scarab beetles
                                            Melolonthinae - Chafer beetles...
                                              Melolonthini

Melolontha melolontha

 (Linnaeus, 1758)

 Also known as the Common Cockchafer, it had gone through a period of being not-that-common (Europeans have been very fond of pesticides for almost as long as Americans), but is making a sort-of-recovery lately. There is one very similar species in the UK, which is distinguished by having a blunt, rounded tip to its abdomen, rather than the rather pointed one of this species (not visible in either photograph displayed here).

A more informative view of the same (male) is shown below:

Anoplocnemis curvipes (Fabricius, 1781)

Continuing our bug theme - remember, it is absolutely okay to call any member of the insect order Hemiptera a 'bug'. It is not okay to call beetles (Coleoptera), wasps, ants and bees (Hymenoptera), Flies (Diptera), Moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera), Scorpionflies (Mecoptera), lacewings (Neuroptera), grasshoppers (Orthoptera), mayflies (Ephemeroptera), Dragonflies (Odonata), Termites, mantids and Cockroaches (arguably all Dictyoptera), Stick insects (Phasmatida), Earwigs (Dermaptera), Fleas (Siphonaptera), Caddisflies (Trichoptera), Silverfish (Thysanura), jumping bristletails (Archaeognatha), webspinners (Embioptera), heelwalkers (Notoptera), alderflies (Megaloptera), stoneflies (Plecoptera), snakeflies (Raphidioptera), or no-real-common-name orders Strepsiptera and Zoraptera, bugs. Because they're not bugs. 

Thrips (Thysanoptera), barklice (Psocoptera) and Lice (Pthiraptera) are also not bugs, but they're closely related, and so I'll forgive people who occasionally slip up there.

I'm afraid that the concession of three orders is all anyone's getting. Even Americans. Sorry, but just because it's a near universal vernacular doesn't mean it's correct. And come on, I'm giving you three whole orders to get wrong here... 


So, anyway, into the taxonomy...

Eukaryota
  Animalia
    Eumetazoa
      Bilateralia
        Nephrozoa
          Protostomia
            Ecdysozoa
              Arthropoda
                Hexapoda
                  Dicondylia
                    Pterygota
                      Metapterygota
                        Neoptera
                          Eumetabola
                            Paraneoptera
                              Condylognatha
                                Hemiptera
                                  Heteroptera
                                    Pentatomorpha
                                      Coreiodea
                                        Coreidae
                                          Coreinae
                                            Mictini

Anoplocnemis curvipes

(Fabricius, 1781)

As you may be able to guess from the early description, it's a widespread and conspicuous insect... (originally described by Fabricius in 1781, just 28 years after Linnaeus jump-started the taxonomy game as we now know it) - and here it is:

And now to the continuation of the bug theme: 

Anoplocnemis are stink-bugs - as you can tell from the bright orange stink gland between the second and third pair of legs. However, they are, and I cannot stress this enough, NOT shield bugs. All shield bugs are stink bugs, but not all stink bugs are shield bugs.

Remember this. It'll be referred to again later.



Acknowledgements/notes: identified as Anoplocnemis by me... identified as A. curvipes by Mick Webb of the Natural History Museum of London. 

Megistocera filipes filipes (Fabricius 1805)

Happy Earth Day (yesterday, in case you didn't catch the google doodle)!

Mine was spent failing to convince three-items-or-less customers at the local convenience store not to ask me for a bag. Oh, the glamourous life I live.

Anyway, enough about me - On with the show.


As a post-Earth Day treat, I'll be uploading a few animals only recently photographed, and even more recently identified to species level (I only found out what this one was at 7.40 this morning).

Eukaryota - It has a nuclear membrane, and (usually) cell organelles such as mitochondria (allowing an innovative and widespread delegation of aerobic respiration, reducing the effective toxicity of nasty oxygen). 

  Animalia - it has multiple cells and, more importantly, isn't a plant, a fungus or any of various Protists. 

    Eumetazoa - it has tissues. So it can't be a sponge. 

      Bilateralia - It has two way symmetry - at some point in its life. 

        Nephrozoa - it possibly isn't a member of several disputed taxa that probably actually belong somewhere within this group... (this is a bit of a redundant clade). 

          Protostomia - it's not a chordate, an echinoderm or an arrow-headed worm. 

            Ecdysozoa - It sheds its skin, and isn't a mollusc or a member of a bunch more obscure groups of worms... 

              Arthropoda - it has a jointed exoskeleton. 

                Hexapoda - it has six legs. 

                  Insecta - it is an insect. 

                    Dicondylia - not a jumping bristletail...

                      Pterygota - it has wings! 

                        Metapterygota - it has wings and it's not a mayfly!

                          Neoptera - it's also not a dragonfly! Exclamation marks can be nauseating!

                            Eumetabola - it's not a cockroach, grasshopper, stick insect or earwig. 

                              Endopterygota - it undergoes complete metamorphosis. It's not a true bug or a booklouse. 

                                Panorpida - it's not a wasp, beetle or lacewing. 

                                  Antliophora - it's not a moth or a caddisfly either. 

                                    Diptera - and it's not a scorpionfly... it has two wings, (usually) reduced mouthparts, and relatively short antennae... we'll come back to that bit. It's a true fly.

                                      Nematocera - it has multi-segmented antennae (more than three), and is part of a lineage which includes mosquitoes, march flies, drain flies and the: 

                                        Tipulomorpha - the crane flies and their closest relatives. 

                                          Tipuloidea - the crane flies (multiple lineages).

                                            Tipulidae - the true crane flies.

                                              Tipulinae - the... really true... crane flies. That bit's not true. It's more "the ones that have turned out to be related to the large european crane-flies", and are therefore grouped in or close to the genus Tipula. 

Megistocera filipes filipes 

(Fabricius 1805)

Now, you remember that passing comment I made about flies having short antennae? Well, for males of Megistocera, that's a bit of a fib. Although they don't seem to have more segments in their antennae than other craneflies, their antennae go on... and on... and on... for quite some distance... I didn't actually manage to get a picture which included their entire length without losing focus. 

This is the best I can show you:

This ridiculous oversize serves one very good function (bear in mind that the fly's body isn't far off two centimetres long, the antennae were around five times that) - it makes males of the genus instantly recogniseable (other crane-flies with massively over-extended antennae are found in the Tipulidae, in which they do not typically reach, let alone extend beyond, the tip of the abdomen, and in the Limoniidae, which, while proportionally similar, is a much smaller fly than Megistocera). Better yet, only two species are recognised from the genus, M. filipes in Africa, Asia and Australia, and M. longipennis in the Americas and the Caribbean. At various points, other species (notably M. fuscana) have been described, but have since been regrouped into one of these two species. 

Acknowledgements: Identified as Megistocera by diptera.info member John Carr, further identification deduced from the Catalogue of Craneflies of the World, and confirmed by John Carr.