Our recent field work around the western USA, dubbed “The Big Loop Trip”, covered about 6165 miles (9922 kilometers) and almost one month. My graduate student John Sproul was with me for the entire trip; my former postdoc (now UC Berkeley Prof) Kip Will joined us for the portion of the trip from the Bay Area east to New Mexico and back to the Bay Area (about 4800 miles). Here is our route:
Big Loop Trip 2013
My next few posts will be about some of our adventures and discoveries.
We made it back to Corvallis a few hours ago, after having logged 6165 miles (9922 km) on the road trip. Herbert (“El Tigre”) was very glad to arrive in Corvallis, as he noted that it is much moister than the arid slopes of Mount Taylor in New Mexico from whence he came.
From the dashboard, Herbert watches the rain in Corvallis.
It was a fantastic trip, with much learned about the diversity of Bembidiina in New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. I’ll write more soon about what we learned, and our travels.
I’m now in Moab, Utah, on day 16 of a long field trip. On 26 May my graduate student John and I drove south from Corvallis, Oregon, collecting our way down to Concord, California, where we met up with my former postdoc, and current UC Berkeley prof, Kip Will. The three of us then began a three-week-long field trip to hunt for carabid beetles.
The purpose of this trip for me is to collect beetles for my project on Bembidiina of North America; John and I are preserving beetles we find for DNA and morphological studies to help discover and document the species of this group in the United States and Canada. Kip is hunting for a different group of carabid beetles, members of the subgenus Hypherpes of genus Pterostichus, in order to document that group in the southern mountains east of California.
We set off from Concord on 28 May, heading south to near Lake Isabella, CA, in Kip’s great field vehicle, a Ford Raptor. Here are Kip and John in front of the truck – Kip is looking at beetles, and John is looking cool. Continue reading
I want one of these.
From an article by Paul Roman, “Artificial Intelligence at Milan”, in the April 1986 issue of European Science Notes published by the U.S. Office of Naval Research.
Kip Will, John Sproul, and I are about to embark on a 3-week trip from the Bay Area to New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. If you want to see pictures of the trip, check out my Instagram feed (@bembidion). (I’m new to Instagram, so if that isn’t the right way to refer to that, please post a comment!)
Thirty years ago today, on 19 May 1983, I embarked on an extraordinarily ill-fated collecting trip with Jim O’Hara, fellow graduate student at the U of Alberta in Edmonton. It is perhaps most memorable for the discovery of a body. In the space of less than two days the expedition packed in a lot of misery.
It started out promisingly enough, as we drove in Jim’s van east to the North Saskatchewan River near Maidstone, Saskatchewan, in particular to the Paynton Ferry crossing. The primary goal was to acquire adult females of the rare beetle species Bembidion balli, so that I could raise larvae from them. I had collected Bembidion balli from that site the fall before, so I was very hopeful.
Bembidion balli
In my post “What should I name this beetle?”, I discussed a pretty, spotted beetle species that lives in the Sierra Nevadas of California and which lacks a name.
I’ve recently been in discussion with Don Cameron, an arachnologist and friend of my brother Wayne. Don is a scholar of Greek and Latin, and has been tremendously helpful in my search for a name. Here are the options he suggested that I like the best:
Bembidion oreoastron, from the Greek “oreos” (= “mountain”, genitive singular) and “astron” (= “star”, neuter noun). Thus, oreoastron is “mountain star”.
Bembidion orolampron, from the Greek “oros” (=”mountain”, nominative neuter), and lampron (= “gleaming”). Thus, orolampron is “mountain gleaming”.
I’m strongly leaning toward Bembidion oreoastron. I’ll sleep on it a few days, and decide.
What do you folks think?
In an earlier post, I discussed the mystery of Bembidion ulkei. Here’s a quick summary: according to Lindroth’s (1963) study, Bembidion obscuripenne is a widespread species in the west, from California north to Washington. In contrast, Lindroth knew B. ulkei only from the type series of five specimens labelled “Nevada”. However, every single male that I have examined from Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington has male genitalia that match Lindroth’s drawing of the male genitalia of B. ulkei, and none match B. obscuripenne. Lindroth’s drawing of B. obscuripenne is of a male from Dallas, Oregon, in the coastal range, and I have not seen any specimens of this group from the coastal range. There seemed to be only two viable explanations for these observations: either (1) B. obscuripenne is a rare species restricted to the Coast Range of Oregon, and B. ulkei is the widespread species, or (2) Lindroth mislabelled the figures in his publication.
I have borrowed the holotype specimens of B. obscuripenne and B. ulkei, and today I know the answer. Continue reading
I have a question for the Tiffanys of the world. Does your partner call you by the shorter name Tiff? Does your partner wear glasses? If they are not wearing their glasses, do they call you Jpeg?
Dyschirioides sellatus
Dyschiriina is a subtribe of carabids that include small, fossorial (they live in tunnels in the soil) members. I found the one above on a river shore in Missouri. I love the interesting form of the beetle, and the delicate amber of the elytra.
Dyschiriines are unusual in that they have odd plate-like sensory structures on the palps (appendages around the mouth). These sensilla differ between males and females, and their function is unknown.
David Maddison
The Subulate Palpomere 