Lighting Up the Night Sky

Posted on June 4, 2013March 24, 2017 by BIObus Crew

On the evening of June 3^rd the BIObus team scheduled to do a night sheet along nearby Kouchibouguac River. A night sheet is a white linen sheet we hang and light up with an ultra violet light. The UV light is used to mimic UV rays given off by the sun and moon. The light draws in insects that are positively phototaxic towards moonlight. Unfortunately, insects like fireflies that stay away from light sources can’t be collected with a night sheet. We set up our night sheet at Tweedie Trail, which runs parallel to the river. Kouchibouguac National Park turned out to be a perfect place for a night sheet because of the absence of light pollution. This National Park is a designated Dark Sky Preserve, which means the night sky is exceptionally clear and we saw the stars shining with all their majesty. A Dark Sky Preserve is an area where no artificial light is visible at night, as guided by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Because of the Dark Sky Preserve status of Kouchibouguac, the night sheet was very successful.

We caught a lot of different insects last night, such as crane flies, mosquitos and moths. We spent four hours checking on the night sheet. When sampling from a night sheet it is advised to check and collect from the sheet every hour or so, this way you can catch the emergence of different insects as the night progresses. I’ve seen June Beetles before but I’ve never seen as many June Beetles as I had seen last night – we collected upwards of 30 June Beetles. After collecting about five for DNA barcoding purposes we stopped collecting them for sampling, but that didn’t stop Graham, Katelyn, and I from collecting more in a large jar just to see how many we could get. Once we were finished collecting our samples for the night, which was at about 1:00 am, we released the mass of beetles from the jar. We left Tweedie and headed back to our camp to end yet another productive day on the BIObus.

– Martin

Beach Beetle Bonanza

Posted on June 3, 2013March 24, 2017 by BIObus Crew

Hello everybody! Kouchibouguac has been treating us well; no mountains, nice neighbours, amazing ice cream, and lots and lots of insect diversity, just the thing for us bug-sters. Today, we hand collected on the Kouchibouguac dunes, at a place called Kellys Beach. When we first showed up, the pickings were sparse indeed, a beetle here, a hemipteran there, but nothing really spectacular. When we began crossing the bridge leading further out into the dunes, however, we began crossing over into an insect gold mine. Every few steps we found a new kind of beetle, interspersed with different jumping spiders and so much more. The bridge itself acted as a sort of collecting sheet during the high winds off the water, intercepting the bugs during their flight.

A blue Coleopteran hiding amongst a pile of March Flies on Kellys Beach, Kouchibouguac National Park.

When we crossed the bridge, the diversity dried up again. All we could find was ants, and even with all of their numbers, we couldn’t find a single ant lion larva. This kept up for a bit, until Martin suggested that we cross the little grassy part we were on and go by the sea. I didn’t think we would find much by the seawater; after all, almost all of the things we have caught so far have been associated with fresh water streams or forests. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Chunky, hard shelled weevils patrolled the sand, while under every clump of seaweed we found hundreds of pretty shiny beetles. We caught orange ones, green ones, iridescent blue ones, huge black click beetles, and a wide assortment of various other nondescript beetles. It was amazing! The entire shore line was covered with seaweed and beetles, and there could easily have been thousands, or maybe millions. More amazing though, in my opinion, is how I think their little niche ecosystem works. The seaweed we found the beetles under was right by the tide, which should bring in moisture and fresh weeds to feed on. However, as the tide changes, the beetles would either be left on the sand to desiccate, or be overtaken and drowned by the sea. The only possible explanation I can see to explain their survival is that this hidden community of detritivorous beetles follows the tide up and down the beach, staying just out of the way of both extremes. Beetles are exceptional at holding in moisture, and when assisted by the reflectivity of their shells, they can survive for a time on the beach. All things considered, these little guys are probably the favourite thing I’ve witnessed on the BIObus so far, and I can’t wait to see what else shows up.

To illustrate the skill the beetles have at surviving right on the precipice of two extremes, let me explain how the march flies fared on the beaches; flies that we affectionately nicknamed Fundy Flies for their masses we saw at Fundy National Park. Somewhere around 30% of the detritus on the shoreline seemed to be dead “Fundy Flies”, while all the live ones were stuck in the sand. It seems that they either get trapped, or fly directly into the ocean and drown. The Fundy Flies may demonstrate how well the little shiny beetles have adapted to their current home.

– Graham

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