Monday, October 27, 2014

Episode 237 (10-27-14): Bugs, True Bugs, and Aquatic True Bugs

Click to listen to episode (3:20)

TRANSCRIPT

From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of October 27, 2014.

SOUND – 4 sec.


What tiny word conjures up a huge world of crawling, flying, swimming, and sometimes buzzing and chirping creatures, but scientifically refers just to one particular group?  Have a guess while you listen to about 20 seconds of a recent festival devoted to this multi-legged world.


SOUND – 21 sec.


If you guessed, bugs, you’re right!  Those were sounds from the 2014 Hokie Bugfest, held October 11 in Blacksburg, Va.  This annual event, organized by Virginia Cooperative Extension and the Virginia Tech Department of Entomology, treats hundreds of visitors to displays and information about insects, spiders, and other creatures commonly called “bugs.”  But entomologists classify one particular group of insects as the so-called “true bugs.”  That group’s distinguishing features include top wings that are in part thick and leathery and also in part thin and nearly transparent; immature and adult forms that look alike; and mouthparts designed for piercing plants or prey and sucking out fluids.  Of over 3500 species of true bugs in North America, about 400 species inhabit freshwater environments, but only in slow-moving or standing water, although one group, the water striders, contains species that can live on the ocean.  Unlike many other aquatic insects, aquatic true bugs don’t have gills for breathing oxygen dissolved in water; instead, as a group they have various ways of using oxygen from air, such as tubes that can be stuck above the water surface, or the ability to submerge with bubbles of air trapped beneath their wings.  These and other features make aquatic true bugs an interesting addition to any bug fest.


Let’s close with some common aquatic bug names, courtesy of several Blacksburg friends.


SOUND – 13 sec.


For other water sounds and music, and for more Virginia water information, visit our Web site at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  From the Virginia Water Resources Research Center in Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.


SHOW NOTES

[All Internet addresses mentioned were functional as of 10/27/14]



A scene from Hokie BugFest, October 11, 2014, in Blacksburg, Va.

Giant water bug specimen (lower right corner of box) at the Virginia Tech Insect ID Lab display at Hokie BugFest, October 11, 2014.

Acknowledgments

The sounds from Virginia Tech’s Hokie Bug Fest were recorded October 11, 2014, in Blacksburg.  Sponsored by Virginia Cooperative Extension and the Virginia Tech Department of Entomology, Hokie BugFest is an annual fair to promote interest in entomology and celebrate the life of Virginia Tech’s first entomologist, William Bradford Alwood.  More information about Hokie BugFest is available online at http://hokiebugfest.ext.vt.edu/.

The aquatic bug names were recorded October 26, 2014, in Blacksburg.  Thanks to friends in Blacksburg for their participation in those recordings.


Sources for this episode

Borror, Donald J. and Richard E. White.  Field Guide to the Insects of America North of Mexico.  Peterson Field Guide Series, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Mass., 1970.


Voshell, J. Reese, Jr. Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America, McDonald & Woodward Publishing, Blacksburg, Va., 2002.


Other sources of information on insects

BugGuide, online at http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740.


McCafferty, W. Patrick, Aquatic Entomology: The Fishermen's and Ecologists' Illustrated Guide to Insects and Their Relatives, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Toronto, 1998; available online at http://books.google.com/books?id=wiTq7x-fI_0C&dq=aquatic+gnats&source=gbs_navlinks_s.


University of Florida Department of Entomology, “Featured Creatures” Web site, http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/.


Virginia Tech Department of Entomology Insect Identification Lab, online at http://www.insectid.ento.vt.edu/.


Other Virginia Water Radio episodes on insects

Dragonflies - Episode 119 (7/16/12), at http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/2012/07/episode-119-week-of-july-16-2012.html.


Mosquitoes – Episode 78 (9/5/11), at http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/2011/09/episode-77-september-5-2011-little.html.


True flies – Episode 221 (7/7/14), at http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/2014/07/episode-221-7-7-14-true-flies-or.html.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Episode 235 (10-13-14): Black-crowned Night Heron

Click to listen to episode (2:33)

TRANSCRIPT

From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of October 13, 2014.

SOUND (~3 seconds)


Can you guess what kind of stocky-looking, feathered wetland-inhabitant makes that call?  Have another listen for about 10 seconds while you consider this hint: you’d better listen at night if you want the crowning achievement of hearin’ this bird.

SOUND


If you guessed a night heron, you’re right!  That was the call of the Black-crowned Night Heron.  Named for black feathers on its head and back, this approximately two-foot-high bird is found throughout the year in Virginia’s coastal aquatic habitats; during summer breeding season, it’s also found in more inland areas of the Commonwealth. The Black-crowned Night Heron is considered the world’s most widespread species of heron, that group of birds with long legs, stout bills, and the habit of wading and fishing in shallow water.  But this species—along with the Yellow-crowned Night Heron and a similar group, the bitterns—is known for being more secretive and nocturnal than other herons with which you might be more familiar, such as the Great Blue.  The Black-crowned is also notable for its use as an indicator of environmental conditions, based on its wide distribution, aquatic feeding habits, and tendency to accumulate contaminants.  In many a marsh or other wetland, as night falls, it’s a night heron that calls.

SOUND (~3 seconds)

Thanks to Lang Elliott for permission to use this week’s sounds, from the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs.

For other water sounds and music, and for more Virginia water information, visit our Web site at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  From the Virginia Water Resources Research Center in Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.

SHOW NOTES

[All Internet addresses mentioned were functional as of 10/13/14]



 

Black-crowned Night Heron at the New River in Radford, Va., June 2014 (above) and in Pulaski County, Va., July 2014 (below).  Photos from Robert Abraham, Christiansburg, Va., used with permission. 

Acknowledgments
The sounds of the Black-crowned Night Heron were taken from the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs-Eastern Region CD set, by Lang Elliott with Donald and Lillian Stokes (Time Warner Audio Books, copyright 1997), used with permission of Lang Elliott, whose work is available online at http://www.langelliott.com/ and the “Music of Nature” Web site, http://www.musicofnature.org/.

Sources for this episode

“All About Birds,” Cornell University Lab of Ornithology, online at http://www.allaboutbirds.org; and “Birds of North America Online” Cornell University Lab of Ornithology and American Ornithologists’ Union, online at http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna (subscription required).

“Fish and Wildlife Information Service,” Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, online at http://vafwis.org/fwis/?Title=VaFWIS+Species+Information+By+Name&vUT=Visitor.

A Guide to Field Identification of Birds of North America
, by Chandler S. Robbins et al. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001).

Life in the Chesapeake Bay
, by Alice Jane Lippson and Robert L. Lippson (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006, pages 230-232.
 
Other sources of information about herons and other birds in Virginia
Other Virginia Water Radio episodes on birds are listed at our index, online at http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html.  Another heron species, the Green Heron, was the subject of Episode 127, 9-10-12.

For selected news, events, and resources relevant to birds in Virginia, please see the Virginia Water Central News Grouper posts available online at http://vawatercentralnewsgrouper.wordpress.com/?s=birds.

The Virginia Society of Ornithology is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study, conservation, and enjoyment of birds in the Commonwealth.  The Society’s Web site is www.virginiabirds.net.

E-bird Web site at
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/, maintained by the Cornell Lab and the Audubon Society: here you can find locations of species observations made by contributors, and you can sign up to contribute your own observations.