Rock Pools

Here is a new species of Berosus from Venezuela that will appear in a forthcoming paper. It has a very specific habitat: it lives in "pothole" pools in the large granite outcrops in the Guiana Shield region. Despite our sampling efforts, this species has only been found in these pools, where it can be fairly common--but nowhere else...not even in nearby forest pools or ditches! Another example of the high habitat specificity in the region.

The Giant Water Scavengers

After unnecessary dawdling, my work on the Hydrophilina was finally published this month in the journal Systematics and Biodiversity. In addition to the first phylogeny for the group, a very curious new genus is described from Venezuela:

Short, A.E.Z. 2010. Phylogeny, evolution and classification of the giant water scavenger beetles (Coleoptera: Hydrophilidae: Hydrophilini: Hydrophilina). Systematics & Biodiversity, 8(1), 17-37.

Abstract. The hydrophiline subtribe Hydrophilina is composed of nearly 200 described species, including all known water scavenger beetles over 15 mm in length. Found in all biogeographic regions, the lineage is the most recognizable group in the family due to its large size and presence of a sternal keel. A phylogenetic analysis of Hydrophilina based on 80 adult morphological characters supports the reciprocal monophyly of most genera, including Tropisternus Solier, Sternolophus Solier, Hydrophilus Geoffroy, and Hydrobiomorpha (s. str.) Blackburn. The monophyly of Hydrochara Berthold was not resolved. The subgenus Brownephilus Mouchamps of the genus Hydrobiomorpha is elevated to generic rank and suggested to subtend (Hydrophilus+ Hydrobiomorpha (s. str.)). A newly discovered taxon from Venezuela, Protistolophus spangleri gen. et sp. nov., is described and resolved as the earliest diverging lineage of the Hydrophilina. A revised generic classification of the Hydrophilina is proposed, including a key and revised diagnoses for each genus. The evolution of giantism and complex secondary sexual characters are discussed in the context of the newly developed phylogenetic hypothesis.

Costa Rica 2010

First, although I wasn't able to blog due to lack of computer, the Venezuela trip went very well. We were able to sample at about 27 sites in the northeast. A few unexpected (new) Myxophaga, but otherwise nothing I would consider bizarre. Fast forward, and the lab is now off to Costa Rica on Sunday for 11 days. My graduate (Taro) and undergraduate (Grey) students, our collection manager (Zack Falin) and I will spend a week at Tapanti National Park and also a bit at INBio. Tapanti is a super-dense cloud/pre-montane forest about 2 hours south of San Jose. I've collected there four times before. It is a challenging place to collect, but the rewards are high. We're going to be implementing some quantitative sampling protocols and doing some reconnaissance for a possible study abroad class.

Empanadas and a batido

I flew to Maracaibo, Venezuela on Thursday for the next aquatic insect survey expedition. Yesterday I had some meetings at the Universidad del Zulia, and today I am at the collection. Tomorrow I take an 8 hour taxi ride to Maracay. I still await to have my favorite Venezuelan food (cachapas), but having a few cheese empanadas and a fresh strawberry shake in the morning is not far behind. I don´t have my laptop on this trip, so I may not be able to post many photos unfortunately.

Free press

University relations put together a little educational clip following a public lecture I gave in the spring:

Endgame: Caracas for a course on biodiversity

The last week has been a bit hairier than normal. Joined by another Colombian water beetle student, we flew down to Puerto Ayacucho in southern Venezuela to scope out some new sites. No need for details at this point but things did not go quite as planned. The fact that an American and a Colombian were traveling together along the boarder with Colombia the day after Venezuela shut down all relations with Colombia because of percieved US military agression (likely) played a role, if you are curious. But, enjoy the two landscape photos of this area below that make it one of my favorite places in the world. After a very (very) long, 13 hour bus ride, I'm now in Caracas to participate in a Neotropical Biodiversity course put on by IVIC (the national Venezuelan Instiute of Scientific Investigation). My 30 minute talk tomorrow will be the first full-length presentation I attempt to give entirely in Spanish...we shall see how that goes. This marks the final phase of the trip...I return to Kansas on 6 August.

Main expedition complete...

The main expedition is now complete and we are all now back in Maracaibo doing some post-expedition sample sorting and prep. Not a whole lot of time to write at this moment so hopefully some pictures will suffice:

Dunes and lagoons

From San Cristobal: The last week has been a whirlwind of different habitat types (as normal). We zipped across from Maracaibo to Coro in Falcon state where we stayed for a few days to work the region. This part of Venezuela is mostly dry semi-desert. Lots of cactus. Among the more striking feature is a dune region which is large enough to make you think you were in lost somewhere in the Sahara. Of course, there are oases of sorts that were full of beetles. We crossed the Sierra San Luis and headed south to Barquisimeto and made our first foray into the Andes nearby, climbing up to just over 6000 feet. Heading down the Andes a bit to Biscucuy and Bocono we stopped at a number of rivers and lagoons with mixed success. We dropped out of the Andes yesterday near Guanare, went south to hit the exiting streams, and today eventually climbed back up into them in the state of Tachira. We will collect here tomorrow before heading up the main Andean chain to Merida and Trujillo later in the week. There has been regular rain but usually only part of a day or at night, and it has had minimal impact on our actual collecting...although it has made some rivers either a bit too swift for our taste or pretty gauged out and not much to collect.

The Perija

We left for a quick 2-day trip to the small village of Tukuko, an outpost at the foot of the Serrania de Perija (see photo at left)--the mountain range that forms the northwestern boarder with Colombia. It has become almost a tradition to visit this area on the first few days of each trip...in fact, all five trips have now started with a visit to this area. It takes about 4 hours to make the trip from Maracaibo...two hours to Machiques by car or bus (or a carrito in our case...), and then another 1.5 hours in the back of a pickup truck or similar transport over dusty dirt roads. It rained during the second half, and that made things a bit muddy. Upon arrival we spent a few hours searching out various Zingiberales that might have some interesting beetles living in the micropools. I had collected them here last July, and was eager to get more....and we did. The second day also brought rain in the morning and we scratched it for collecting, but the afternoon was great and we were able to get into one of the local rivers to do some work. Got some space in an outgoing pickup truck around 3:30 and headed back to Maracaibo.

Arrival

We arrived safely in Maracaibo yesterday. Today is for errands and setting up other logistical details for the trip. Stay tuned for an actual update...

Venezuela Expedition #5...

After seeing Kelly off this afternoon, attention turned to getting the last things packed for our fifth Venezuela expedition (and my 6th trip overall). We leave at 4:30 am tomorrow- yikes! One of my undergrads, Grey, will be joining myself as well as Bob Sites (University of Missouri) and Bill Shepard (Essig Museum of Entomology, UC-Berkeley) down for several weeks to collecting and collaborating with our Venezuelan counterparts. This trip will be entirely in the Northwest--mostly in the Andes and the dry regions of Falcon State. I'm hopefully of keeping the blog updated during the trip. We'll see how that works.