Blodgett Peak Bioblitz Report

Back on April 22, 2016, I sat down with a City of Colorado Springs parks official to discuss my idea for having a bioblitz at one of the parks or open spaces in the city. He was enthusiastic enough to turn that concept into four bioblitz events as part of this year's 20th anniversary of TOPS - Trails and Open Spaces. Our first event was held Friday and Saturday, June 16-17, at Blodgett Peak Open Space in the extreme northwest corner of Colorado Springs, up in the foothills and mountains. Here is what happened.

Blodgett Peak from "Base Camp"

First, let me express how grateful I am to City personnel for their organization, and furnishing everything from vehicles to food for the volunteer science teams. Without their hard work in planning, and in coordinating with other City departments, we could not have achieved any of our goals.

The Mammal Team checking traps

A bioblitz, for those not familiar, is usually a 24-hour event designed to record as many species of organisms in a given location as possible. The resulting data often sheds new light on what plants and animals occupy the ecosystem. County and state records for species are not uncommon; and even species new to science have been discovered at bioblitzes. The Blodgett Peak event included scientists looking at mammals, birds, plants, fungi, reptiles and amphibians, and of course invertebrates.

Observations are being recorded on the iNaturalist website. So far, the Blodgett Open Space Bioblitz project has recorded 419 observations tallying 279 "species," which range from actual species to genus-, tribe-, or family-level classification, or even higher. All of this has been accomplished with only seventeen people uploading their records and images. The identifications are vetted by professional experts and citizen scientists from around the globe. Reports continue to trickle in, so keep an eye on this project.

The species tote boards filled up quickly

What did the invertebrate team discover? We started out by setting up three blacklight stations to attract moths and other nocturnal insects Friday night. We had a long wait for darkness, but just past dusk the insects started flying in. We also heard a Northern Pygmy Owl, which was something of a surprise in itself. One of our stations was at the entrance to the Open Space, right by the parking lot, and at the lowest elevation possible. Another station, unmanned, was placed well up the slope and just off of a trail in mostly scrub oat habitat. The last station was placed at an overlook even higher up, where mixed conifer forest habitat begins. Getting to the uphill stations was strenuous exercise.

Without a working flash on either of my two cameras, I was unable to document many of our nighttime visitors, but among our more spectacular species were these, imaged by my wife, Heidi:

Hesperophylax sp. caddisfly

Geometer moth, Euchlaena sp.

Owlet moth, Ulolonche disticha

Acrea Moth, Estigmene acrea

Vashti Sphinx moth, Sphinx vashti

Raspberry Pyrausta moth, Pyrausta signatalis

Spotted Tussock Moth, Lophocampa maculata

The next day came early, given the late night prior, but we persisted and found considerably more interesting species, from grassland habitats to thick forest:

A mating pair of Polyphemus Moths discovered by Tim Leppek

Erik Ostrum netted this gorgeous Two-tailed Swallowtail

Anicia (Variable) Checkerspots were abundant

Horse flies, family Tabanidae, found us!

One of the Vogels netted this male Twelve-spotted Skimmer dragonfly

Putnam's Cicadad, Platypedia putnami was heard, but seldom seen

Pale Snaketail dragonfly, Ophiogomphus severus

Giant Lady Beetle, Anatis lecontei

Male robber fly, Cyrtopogon willistoni

Emerald Flower Scarab, Euphoria fulgida

Special thanks to: Tim Leppek for lending his amazing knack for spotting cryptic insects, and his quality images of them; Erik Ostrum for coming all the way down from the Ft. Collins area to share his expertise in Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths); Sam Johnson for his lifelong expertise in Lepidoptera; Emilie Gray for sharing her own expertise and some equipment; Bell Mead for manning our Mile High Bug Club Booth for the entire day on Saturday; the Vogel family for setting up one of the blacklight stations Friday, and energetically and enthusiastically searching for more species on Saturday.

Several organizations had booths at the bioblitz

We're just getting started with these bioblitzes, so hopefully some of you can join us for the next one, Friday and Saturday, July 14-15 at Jimmy Camp Creek Park on the eastern fringe of Colorado Springs. This is a grassland and sandstone bluffs ecosystem, with a quality riparian corridor and even stands of Ponderosa Pine on the ridges overlooking the creek. It is where we found that stray Mexican Silverspot butterfly this spring, so who knows what else awaits discovery there.

As close to the top as we got (and were allowed)

House Centipedes

One of the most confounding, and arguably creepiest, creatures I am asked about at AllExperts.com has to be the “house centipede,” Scutigera coleoptrata. Neither insect nor arachnid, it is variously described to me as spidery, an animated feather, a speeding, ghostly apparition, and plenty of other epithets born out of both fear and fascination.

This species seems to be genuinely domestic, occurring mostly in and around human habitations where these venomous predators prowl in search of other invertebrates to eat. It is thought to have originated in the Mediterranean region, but unless one starts speaking Italian or Greek, you could fool me. International commerce has now succeeded in transporting the house centipede to virtually all inhabited corners of the globe anyway.

Related species in the genus often live in caves, and indeed the long legs and antennae of this animal are characteristic of habitats where visual acuity is much less important than a sense of touch. The lanky build of these creatures also makes them appear much larger than the 25-35 mm body length of the average specimen. Couple that with the incredible speed at which they can travel, and you have the heebie-jeebies come to life. I confess they can even freak me out at times because they can climb walls and scurry across ceilings at about Mach 7.

Fortunately, house centipedes are totally harmless to people and pets (well, if you have a flea circus I guess you’d better be careful). I encourage folks who encounter house centipedes to just let them continue their pest control patrol, like this one is doing, or usher the centipede into a container and release it outdoors in a woodpile, rock wall, or other sheltered situation where it will be equally happy hunting for food and mates. Those approaches are certainly preferable to "Honey, can you get me a shoe? A really big shoe?"

A Day in the life of an Entomologist

I thought I would share just how exciting it is to be in a laboratory doing critically important work as an entomologist, processing pitfall trap samples. I’m kidding, of course, when it comes to the “exciting” part, but it truly is important.

The project I am involved with is striving to develop a protocol for assessing the ecosystem health of forested watersheds, a common yet complex habitat in the northeast U.S. The University of Massachusetts has partnered with the Massachusetts State Department of Environmental Protection and the United States Environmental Protection Agency to carry out this research. Dozens of people have been working in the field and in the lab for nearly ten years already. What started as one person’s project has mushroomed into something much greater. Ok, I know what you’re thinking: How does this affect me, Al Franken?

The habitat under scrutiny here includes many streams that run for most of the year, but run dry in the heat of the short summer. Hence, pitfall traps can be set in mid- to late July in places that are under water the rest of the year. Even then, a freak storm can set the watershed running again and flood the traps, or a beaver can dam the place and do the same thing. The former event happened last year, so I am able to process only a portion of the total pitfall trap samples collected in 2008.

A pitfall trap is a container sunk into the soil (or sand, or other such substrate) such that the lip of the container is flush with the surface of the substrate. Any insects, spiders, mites, and other creatures that come strolling by then fall into the trap. A trap is typically set for a week before being collected and the contents preserved in ethyl alcohol.

The resulting sample I see is in a plastic container with a label detailing the site identification and plot number, and date the trap was set and the date it was collected. Comments indicate the type of location (such as a sphagnum moss mound) and the condition the trap was found in when it was retrieved. I pick out the insects, arachnids, and other invertebrates that I can see with my naked eye, placing each taxon into its own glass shell vial. The vial is labeled both inside and out with the plot number, site ID, and taxon name (Coleoptera – beetles in this photo). The inside label also includes the number of specimens.

I also record the same data on a sheet, counting the number of specimens as I go. Once I’m done with the “big” specimens, I then put the container under the microscope and sort out the smaller things. The effect the alcohol preservative has on the specimens can be dramatic. Spiders fall apart. Even beetles start losing legs and abdominal segments. Springtails, normally pigmented, become literal shadows of their former selves, the alcohol having “cleared” them. It is a strange sight to see a ghostly springtail float across your field of view (cue the spooky music).

The amount of debris in a given sample, and/or the number of invertebrates, can greatly extend the time it takes to process a sample. It can also be very confusing at high magnification to tell a segmented plant part from an insect larva!

Stay tuned for further episodes in the life of an entomologist. Next week, Eric goes insane while trying to identify micro-Hymenoptera to family level….