conservation

Happy Holidays from the Mollusc collection

December 16 2016December 15, 2016

… and the giant clam, festively decorated for the Holidays.

Caitlin Byrne, collections manager, next to the giant clam Tridacna gigas, one of over 98,000 specimens of molluscs at the museum

Below are a couple of photos from a quick visit to the mollusc collection. Note in the foreground in the picture on the left the book “The Freshwater Mussels of Ohio” authored by by G. Thomas Watters, Michael A. Hoggarth, and David H. Stansbery, a unique gift idea for the Holiday season. In addition to detailed accounts of each mussel species found in Ohio, the book provides information on basic biology, human use, and conservation issues of molluscs. Did you know that a recent scientific estimate puts two-thirds of our freshwater mussels at risk of going extinct? Mussels are important though, they naturally filter the water of our rivers, without them the murky waters would be less livable for other organisms.

A view of the mollusc collection

Caitlin’s work desk – many more shells to accession

About the Author: Angelika Nelson is the curator of the Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics and the social media manager for the Museum of Biological Diversity. All photos taken by the author.

More than 17-year cicadas

June 10 2016

To complement Norman’s post on the 17-year cicadas, I thought today we would look at some other species of cicada that are part of the holdings of the Triplehorn Insect Collection.

Some of our cicada specimens are pretty old, dating back to the 1890’s, but the majority were collected and preserved by Joe and Dorothy Knull between the early 1930s and 1960s.

Drawer with specimens recently returned to the collection

There are over 190 different kinds of cicadas (that includes species and subspecies) in North America alone (Sanford, 2012) and more than 3,000 around the world.

In the collection we have species of around 200 of those, but that number is likely to increase thanks to a recent loan return which added another 800 cicada specimens to the collection. That material had been borrowed for study in 1969 and only now was returned to us. The specimens in this batch date to 1950s and 1960s.

We don’t have an exact count of the number of cicadas in the Triplehorn Insect Collection yet, but we estimate between 8,000 and 10,000 specimens. Once we finish curating and databasing our cicadas, the data for all the specimens will be available online via the collection database interface.

Here are a few of my preferred. Notice that most were collected out west. That is a reflection of the collection’s history and the research interests of the people who helped build the collection over the past 80+ years.

Some species of the genus Okanagana:

: Okanagana vanduzeei, collected in California

: Okanagana opacipennis collected in California

: Okanagana nigriviridis collected in California

: Okanagana magnifica, Paratypes, from New Mexico in 1918

: Okanagana gracilis collected in California

More interesting and attractive specimens:

: Diceroprocta apache collected in California & Arizona

: Diceroprocta apache again

: Tibicinoides mercedita, so charming with its short wings. Collected in 1941 in California

: Neotibicen dorsata, collected in Texas

Some exotic beauties:

: Loba leopardina, poorly labeled, collected somewhere in East Africa

: Zammara intricata, collected in Ecuador

: Graptosaltria tienta, collected in China, 1929

: Yanga guttulata, collected in Madagascar early 1900s

Finally, a few yet to be determined show stoppers:

: These 3 1/2 inch long giants were collected in Thailand

: From Tanzania

: Sadly, no collecting label.

As we curate the collection I’ll post more photos of interesting cicada specimens from our collection.

Literature reference: Sanborn, Allen F., and Maxine S. Heath. 2012. The Cicadas (Hemiptera, Cicadoidea, Cicadidae) of North America North of Mexico. Entomological Society of America.

About the Author: Dr. Luciana Musetti is an Entomologist and Curator of the C. A. Triplehorn Insect Collection. All photos by the author.

Dead clams walking – Part I

April 11 2016April 7, 2016

Freshwater mussels are the most imperiled animals in North America according to the US Fish & Wildlife Service. Habitat destruction, pollution, dams, and a litany of other problems have driven many to the verge of extinction. Alas, many are already there. Perhaps the poster children of extinct or soon-to-be-extinct mussels are members of the genus Epioblasma. Once widespread in eastern North America, perhaps no other group has been so decimated by the activities of mankind. And “decimated” is an understatement. Technically, “decimated” means to kill every tenth member of something. For Epioblasma, every species is either extinct or endangered to the point of becoming extinct. And we, mankind, did this to them.

Because so many species of Epioblasma are extinct, the habits of very few have ever been studied. But those that have been investigated reveal a unique (if perhaps somewhat shocking) lifestyle. Like most freshwater mussels, members of Epioblasma have a parasitic larval stage, the glochidium, that uses fishes as hosts. Most mussels have evolved some means of efficiently putting their babies on the proper host. This usually entails luring the host to the mussel to be parasitized. But Epioblasma goes one step further – they actually catch the fish and hold onto it until it has been covered with thousands of parasitic larvae. Mama mussel then releases the host. If all goes as planned, several weeks later the larvae will transform on the fish, fall to the bottom and start their life as juvenile mussels. For the few species for which the hosts are known, the victims are darters and sculpins. The fishes have no one but themselves to blame – they are caught by the mussel when they get too nosy and stick their heads in the mussel to investigate.

Below are some images of the federally endangered Northern Riffleshell and its unfortunate host. Members of the Division of Molluscs have been moving this rare species from the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania to Big Darby Creek in Ohio. The Allegheny population is the only reproducing one on earth but it is doing very well, with probably 100s of thousands of individuals. In partnership with the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium and Columbus Metro Parks, we have been relocating this species for nearly seven years with the permission and funding of the US Fish & Wildlife Service, the ODNR Division of Wildlife, and the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission. To date nearly 10,000 individuals have been moved. In order to monitor these mussels, every one has been affixed with a $4 Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tag. All have been released into several of the Metro Parks on Big Darby where they can be protected and monitored. The goal is to start a reproducing population there with the ultimate hope of delisting the species as endangered. This is the largest introduction/augmentation of an endangered species in the history of Ohio.

Next time we will present a gallery of Epioblasma.