Hi Everyone,
Progress was slower than normal last week as we spent even more time packing up our lab and moving to the new spot. That on top of the holiday on Monday means we only sorted 3 kits this week: B. Stitt (Medina County), C. Cottrill (Ross County), and J. Howard (Adams County). We pinned a small number of bees on Thursday, but did not get around to entering them into our database, so our databased number of specimens is the same as last week.
We are at least halfway moved in to our new lab! We at least got most of the supplies moved over that we needed to keep processing specimens.
On top of all the moving and packing, we took 20 minutes to remove the non-native thistle from the pollinator garden. The garden is somewhat small, but that did not stop us from still having 4 bags of thistle!
Bycatch:
We are adding a smile to your day with this leafhopper that has a froggy face on it’s back. There are several leafhoppers that have this face-like pattern, but they are always fun to find.
Check out this wasp with it’s tiny abdomen in comparison to it’s large thorax! These evaniid wasps are parasites of cockroaches. Some people like finding them as it means fewer cockroaches in the world. But if you are finding a lot of them inside a building, that indicates that building might have a cockroach problem. In this case, this was found outside where we expect woodland cockroaches, so they are not an indication of an issue. Learn more about these wasps here: https://bugguide.net/node/view/14164 and here: https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/roaches/ensign_wasp.htm
A beekeepers nightmare, we found our first varroa mite in our samples! These mites are problematic for honey bee hives, but are not known to target any of our native species. Learn more about these bee bloodsuckers here: https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/bees/varroa_mite.htm
Upcoming events:
June 19th (Newark, Ohio) – Infirmary Mound Park Bioblitz – See more about the Bioblitz here: https://www.facebook.com/events/4622035604491199
and sign up for a team here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0c49a8a82da7fecf8-bioblitz
Webinars of interest:
Specialist bees presentation by Nancy Adamson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=S8WWgEzD5dg
All for now,
MaLisa