Spiders!!!

Gabe inspects for spiders

Last weekend I had the great pleasure of taking an enthusiastic two-year-old(and his lovely parents) for a walk around the Orokonui Ecosanctuary.

Most people I guide seem to have tunnel vision with a focus on birds, charasmatic macrofauna seems to get all the attention, despite all the other stunning creatures thriving at the sanctuary (not to mention the plants all in flower and looking just stunning).

This tour was a delightful exception and we meandered the paths of the sanctuary only to have every rock proclaimed as ‘bug’ or if it was too large to turn over alone ‘help’, and, upon the discovery of anything of a ‘creepy crawly’ nature ‘hold’ (although theres still a bit to learn about holding bugs without squishing, but to be fair there are much older kids who struggle with this as well).

Now the people who know me might be surprised, I don’t usually relate well with small children, but exploring is a definite exception. In my work at the Ecosanctuary I am lucky enough to take school groups bug hunting and it’s one of my favourite things to do (barring the occasional scream in the ear) and quite different from the inevitably ‘bird centric’ guided tours.

We explore the leaf litter, under rocks and shake foliage – then they have to tell me what they’ve found. But why bother? well I expect if you’re reading this you’ve already come to the ‘bugside’ and realise how much we have to learn from the invertebrates around us but I’ll tell you anyway.

 

some of the delightful spiders we found

When we find these amazing creatures we talk about the environment we find them in, what do they need for survival, we discuss what they might eat and what might be eating them (and the habits they’ve adapted to do things better), we place them in their food webs – finding their place in the world.

I’ve had some in-depth discussions over why people are scared of spiders (with reasons ranging from ‘they have hairy legs’ to ‘the way they move’), and I find holding one of these in your hands is a pretty good argument for their harmlessness (until they try to hide up your sleeve that is). And chatted on the leg situation of centipedes and millipedes.

The great thing about working with kids is they are less stuck in their ways than adults and you can give them a oppertunity to change their mind about things, most of them if given the opportunity would love to hold a big hairy spider or eat huhu grubs. I love sharing this amazing world, especially as the stakes are higher for them – they will inherit it after all (though I’d hardly call them meek).

The spiders pictured are a couple we found on my adventure with Gabe, I think (and correct me if I’m wrong) they’re both night hunting forest spiders. The big black one has the body shape of the genus Cambridgea (family Stiphiidae) and I’m really unsure about the other but it has the velvety patterning of a wolf spider (family Lycosidae) and is the most common one on my investigations in the sanctuary.

 

Pollination baby

Fuchsia excorticata is the New Zealand tree fuchsia and is in all it’s glory at this time of year.

This strange-looking tree grows to about 13 metres tall making it the tallest growing fuchsia in the world, and has soft flaky bark peeling like sheets of paper from its branches.

The flower pictured to the left is one of the Hermaphrodite variety, with both anthers covered in purple/blue pollen and a bright yellow stigma. But not all tree fuchsia are created equal and in the image below you can see the difference between the big hermaphrodite flowers and delicate female flowers without pollen of their own (this variety gives the NZ tree fuchsia the label gynodieocious). Female trees are completely reliant on the availability of the pollen of the hermaphrodite flowers while hermaphrodite flowers may be pollinated by themselves (selfing) or any other hermaphrodite pollen available. only a little pollen is required for seed set but studies have shown that mainalnd pollinators still arent cutting it and flowers are often pollen limited, meaning that not as many seeds are made as in plants on offshore islands where pollinators are abundant.

The difference in colour you see above and below  occurs when the flowers mature and are pollinated ( – although I’m not 100% on the latter and can’t find the reference), they go from a glossy green contrasting with the vibrant purple pollen and yellow stigma to the pink that is more commonly associated with Fuchsia flowers. You can find out more on the evolution of colour change in flowers here, but I still find it surprising the way it happens here. Usually you will find that brightly coloured flowers, particularly red  ones are those evolved to attract birds, like fuchsia they tent to have nectaries with a little treat for the visiting bird, enticing them to get pollen on them and therefore transferring it from flower to flower to the plants advantage.

Red is a great attractant for birds as their range of vision lean towards the red end of the spectrum (think tui in your Pohutukawa or bellbirds in the Rata at christmas), and white flowers often have ultraviolet ‘landing strips’ for insects, particularly bees whose vision tends towards the blue end of the spectrum, and green flowers might have strong night scent for moths.

BUT if red is such a good attractor for birds, and birds seem to be the ‘intended’ pollinator for fuchsia (hanging flowers with large nectaries) why would the fuchsia flower only turn red/pink when pollination is done and the nectar reward is gone?

And despite this rejection of the trend, the birds still come – the trees are full of bellbirds with faces blue from the bright pollen, they figured it out anyway – clever birds.

So, after all that, I don’t have an answer for you – I just think it’s curious that’s all.

And now we know how pollination happens, it’s all about the nectar eaters hunting out the best snacks in the forest. Here in New Zealand the main pollinators are bellbirds and tui, while in overseas gardens bees do more of the work (although not anywhere near as well) but birds have more to do with this life-cycle than just pollination. The tree fuchsia forms juicy berries, popular in cooking once upon a time, which are yet another part of these birds annual diet and in the disposal of wastes the seeds are dispersed across the forest to ensure the continuation of the species – birds are very good at depositing seeds, fertilizer included

But are they doing it well enough? This study looks at fuchsia reproduction and has noticed it’s not just mammal browsing that these trees have to worry about. On offshore islands the fruits are gobbled up almost as soon as they are ripe, while on the mainland where our bird life has been hammered by habitat loss and mammalian predators often the fruit remains on the trees – what happens next?

The loss of pollinators and dispersers is a problem across the country, what trees are disappearing under our noses as their natural replacement is disrupted?

something to think about.

But on the lighter side, a great place to see mainland fuchsia getting back to what they ought to be doing is the Orokonui Ecosanctuary

where the forest is being restored and the bird life along with it, there’s no shortage of bellbirds or tui there. Also keep and eye out for Kanuka, Bushlawyer, Wineberry and Hebe lots of stunning flowers and their assistants the birds and the bees working away.

Boris is back, with a movie to follow

Hey lovely bug people

here I am again, with that pesky movie finally done I hope I’ll have some time to tell you about all the fabulous bugs out and about here, summer has arrived and while it may not last the critters are out in force!

In the meantime here’s a sneak preview of some of the wonderfulness to be found in my film. It’s a very rough assembly made for my stepdads birthday (He’s kind of into spiders). Hope you like it!

For more information on the rest of the film, and how to get tickets to the premiere go here.

Spiders are amazing!!!

To create bulletproof peoples see here!!!

Self portrait

The last year has been one of adventure, and some of the best were those intrepid journeys into the Mackenzie/Waitaki basin, it has however played havoc with my resolution to write every day………….

Wishing there were more hours in the day… but that’s no excuse, so I’m back from the basin and back to the writing

Here I am (can you see me) on my way to Twizel this week, as usual the Waitaki put on an excellent show for me, what a stunning day! and as usual an adventure taken alone so I occasionally take some different measures to get a few ‘behind the scenes’ pictures for my thesis project.

there’s a complete change of atmosphere out there, another world

a wilderness of wide open spaces, worth it.

Why I blog…

my mantis, pic by Cassie

It all began in the summer of 2010…….

there I was, technologically naive but willing to learn, the paper was Digital design, the teaching was minimal and the computers were big and shiny  – and there it all began.

Blogging is something I used to consider as just an extension of social networking, another time waster where you tell complete strangers things you would never admit face to face (kind of like the overshare that is this series – 30 days of me).

But!

An exploration into science communication has opened my eyes to the tool it can be. A stream of short and informal posts on various topics (within the theme of bugs) is just so accessible.

And like most bloggers, this is really all about me. I love being able to share the exciting things i see around me, and the regular writing is pretty good habit to get into when there’s a thesis coming up.

So this is where it all began – with a song and a spider.

And of you want to know more, you’ll just have to read all about me

whats in a name?

It seems fairly obvious, but that’s the question for the day so lets see if I can assemble a more specific answer…

In the beginning:

My interest in bugs started when I was very small, I grew up in the country and my father has a passion for the natural world. It seems only natural that I developed a sense of admiration for these tiny creatures that play such a massive role in so many living systems.

That being said, it hasn’t always been a smooth journey for me and bugs

Bugs not Hemipterans:

The term ‘bug’ most accurately refers to the group Hemiptera, or ‘true bugs’ but is often used in a more general way to describe ‘creepy crawlies’ and I use it to include non-insects and even non-arthropods of a particular habit.

To me bugs are small (but not always)

all insects are bugs but not all bugs are insects

all arthropods are bugs (I think) but not all bugs are arthropods

bugs include some molluscs (like snails and slugs) but not all (I don’t think squid count but I might be inclined to write about them anyway).

So all in all…

This blog was about writing about something that interests me, and to provide a venue to share those interests with anyone who might read it. Calling the blog ‘anything about bugs’ gives those who might stumble upon it a rough idea as to what they might find within its virtual pages, while giving me enough scope to write about pretty much anything that takes my fancy whether it be the grafitti’d snail I saw once in London or the unusually bright cicadas around Dunedin last season.

Completely self-indulgent (as perhaps all blogs are) but also about accessible information and interesting stories about the world around.

Also, for the musings of miss ninja check out another day 1.