Bugstock summary

Bugstock summary

All those who attended Bugstock, 2007 owe a huge thanks to our host, Steven Barney, his entire family, and Travis Huval! After a lot of work on a house whose construction is still underway and an equal amount of work on trail-making, these folks got “The Farm” in Washington, LA ready for this first time event.

The idea - originally Steven’s - was to gather people from Louisiana with an interest in insects and other arthropods for a couple of days and nights during which time we could socialize and observe and collect critters. The 130 acres we had access to presented a terrific mix of hardwood forest, open fields, and aquatic habitats (and one cannot discount the house itself, for under what other structure would we have found ant lions?).

Some attendees (totaling around 20) arrived on Friday and had to leave on Saturday, some came Saturday and left on Sunday, and still others made a 3-day weekend out of it. Both the house on the Barney property and in-town lodging were used, but sleeping was a minor concern, really... we were after bugs!

Both day and night collecting were very productive, and regardless of any given person’s area of interest, I think it’s safe to say everyone was pretty pleased with what was found. In terms of overall diversity, here is a sampling of what we found: 36 spider species, 48 beetle species, 22 butterfly species, 11 odonate species, 24 fly and mosquito species, 24 hymenopterans, and 15 species of true bugs. This is certainly only a fraction of what is out there; neither was this an attempt to catalogue every arthropod nor did our group have the expertise to do so. Even with this in mind let me reiterate, as one who has poked around plenty for bugs in Louisiana, that this was a good couple of days!

Numerically, there were some insects that were collected in good numbers on account of varying desires: water scorpions, fiery searchers, carrion beetles, predaceous diving beetles, water scavenger beetles, spotted pelidnota beetles, giant water bugs, and whirligig beetles were among these. There was also a Saturday night trip about 40 miles north that landed us about 80-90 ox beetles (!) as well a trio each of unicorn beetles and stag beetles (a small number of at least 2 of these 3 species were collected at The Farm as well). That was a late night!

Speaking of nights, the three light rigs set up each night were quite productive. In fact, a lot of the aforementioned haul was from beetles, in particular, flying to said lights. We used a combination of UV and mercury vapor lights at each station. This is probably a good time to note that no one tracked all the microleps on our sheets, but we had plenty. There were also an unavoidable number small dung beetles, rice beetles, and (on Saturday) mayflies. We also saw a lot of nice moths, though nothing in extraordinary numbers. We had 5 saturniid species and a few pretty tiger moths and sphinx moths as well. During our relatively brief sleep on Friday and Saturday evenings, the frog and cricket choruses were exceptional in their volume.

Several insects were conspicuous during daylight and depending on where you were hanging out: paper wasps, tiger beetles, male velvet ants, and immature golden silk spiders were some of these. Finally, there were the neat surprises, and here I would have to include: purse web spiders (one established web that we assumed was of an adult female, one wandering adult male who was “introduced” to the web just cited), a live mourning cloak female and a dead one (not sexed), an as-yet unidentified cobweb weaver found under bark, a trio of thread-legged bugs, and several neat flies and wasps.

We were not without neat vertebrate sightings, too. A young cottonmouth made a Saturday appearance. The water snake activity along the edge of the pond was impressive, if for no other reason than they were so numerous in such a small body of water and their lack of shyness allowed for good viewing. Plenty of frogs around the pond, too.

To sum it up, this was a wonderful weekend of relaxed, productive “bugging.” We ate well, listened to a real quality bagpipe player in Michael Barney, and enjoyed great company. The subtropics in summer may be a tad hot, but there is a lot to be found!

SHORT VERSION:

Bugstock, 2007 was a success! Steven Barney and his “crew” did a lot of prep work in order to host about 20 Louisiana entomophiles at “The Farm” during the weekend of June 16th and 17th. The 125-acre tract in Washington, LA has good field, forest, and aquatic habitats, and we took advantage of this by collecting during the day (by hand and with nets) and night (with 3 lights used both Fri. and Sat.).

It would be hard to list all the neat stuff we saw - and there would be plenty of debate about what ought to be on the “neat” list - but the diversity of arthropods was quite good. We ate well and a lot of fun socializing, too. Let’s do it again!

Zack

Prophetic collecting forcast..

I think Michael saw into the future:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/120650

collecting forcast

I'm going to make the prediction that any bug collecting done during the upcoming "bugstock" weekend, will be rewarded with unusually large numbers of insects!
=As everyone knows, we've been spending all of our free time trying to get the farm ready for the big event. I was out there last weekend, and I managed to collect about 20 chiggers! Needless to say, I brought all of them home with me, and incubated them. (I KNOW!! 20 CHIGGERS!!!) And that was without even trying!! Imagine what I would have made off with if I had made any sort of attempt!! I'm sure this is a good sign!=

Michael

"Big L" Run - 6/1/07

Michael, Travis, Emma and I traveled up to "Big L" again last Friday. We had started out just planning on setting up a light at the farm, but... you know how the farm is 1/2 way there.. (we were almost there anyway), plus I have a soft spot for "Big L" that got pushed on by the guys.

We setup at the farm then went for food (of course we couldn't just visit ONE drive through). We were all in the car with the flashlights and containers anyway; so we left from there. We had to gas-up on the way so we stopped by Pseudo-Sammy's. There were so many back-swimmers and other things flying around that there was a fog or cloud around the pumps. We sat at a safe distance for a moment, while I searched for charged batteries for my camera, and watched people attempting to fuel their vehicles: wiggling, swatting and cursing the air. We took some photos of the swarm (will post soon), then drove to real-Sammy's (I wasn't going to get out of the car in the middle of THAT storm). Sammy's was a little less infested.

Once there we hit: Lupé's, Chevron, "that one place where James found that huge Ox beetle" and the gas station that is over by Lee's. We found four Ox beetles (S. aloeus), mostly males, and some nice, big moths (after my run-in with "out of focus moth" I didn't try to take any pictures of them). We did not go to "tiger truck stop" but the furthest station had quite a few water beetles. Surprisingly, Lupé's didn't offer anything except for four or five Strategus that were the victims of hit-and-run accidents and an attendant that was wondering what we were doing; she must be new.


Back at the farm the sheet was nearly covered but there was nothing that we kept. The rig was so full of insects that we turned the lights off (Travis figured out a quick way to turn all the lights off at once) and left it there. I found out later that the quickest way to take down a rig is to run it over with a lawn mower (it was like the magic trick where you pull the table cloth out from under the stuff on the table: gone in a flash)

Steven

Farm Visit

We recently had a great visit to the Farm. We met Steven’s parents who were hard at work clearing undergrowth around the cabin. Enjoyed socializing with their two fine dogs. The pond hosted numerous Odonata, including the uncommon Arigomphus maxwelli (Bayou Clubtail).
Value of having a bug on your shirt: When we left, we stopped at a eating place near Washington, and while we were selecting our food, I heard a quiet voice behind me, "Gayle?", I looked around and there was Steven whom we had not previously met. He had spotted the Dragonfly (picture) on Jeanell’s shirt, and guessed who we were.
To see our photos of creatures from the Farm, open BugGuide http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740 and enter Barney Farm in the search window.
Gayle & Jeanell

St. Landry Par. LA, Barney Farm, near Washington LA 19 May 2007
9:30 AM-12:30 PM, Clear, Temp 75-85.

Asilidae:
Efferia aestuans male (images on BugGuide)
Promachus bastardi
Atomosia pusilla

Only Salticids - couple of Anasaitis canosa
Other spiders: Pair of Neoscona, probably arabesca (images on BugGuide)

Odonata:
Ischnura hastata- 4
Ischnura posita- 2
Argia tibialis- 10 (at Bayou Cortableau)
Arigomphus maxwelli- 4 (images on BugGuide)
Erythemis simplicicollis- 8
Pachydiplax longipennis- 20+
Pantala hymenaea- 1 (early LA flight date, previous 11 Jun.)
Perithemis tenera- 15+
Plathemis lydia- 40+
Tramea lacerata- 15+

No Crane flies!!

Several Tabanids, 2 or 3 probably new to our collection (images on BugGuide)

Long-horned Beetles: (images on BugGuide, see comments at dorsal view of each)
Strangalia luteicornis female
Strangalia famelica male (08 June 2007: After considerable discussion on BugGuide, make that S. solitaria)

Caterpillar, Geometrid, Nematocampa, probably resistaria (image on BugGuide)

Other:
Several Ribbon Snakes, some busily chasing frogs, also a very musical Bullfrog. Based on the volume of his reveberating song, not worried about any predator short of an Anaconda.

Contrary to what everyone is saying about our last "Big L" run, there was at least ONE great find! Quickly overlooked by both Steven, and Travis, I found this little "gem" on the ground right as I exited the vehicle. Here's the photographic evidence to backup my story. Look for yourself!!



By: Michael

Where are the photos? Yabb.

Hey ! Where are the Photographs of the all the progress you have made at the Farm ? Like: "Fish with Gun _ _ _ _ _ _ " , "Bloody Foot _ _ _ _ _ _ " and so on.


Umm! I'm pretty sure that the Moth was in focus. Possibly it may have been an "operator error" that caused such a strange phenomena. Or, perhaps a "mechanical error" within the camera. I'll go with the later explanation. Just don't blame the Moth. NOT NICE.