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New Dragonfly Identified at Swadini

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HOEDSPRUIT: Undocumented dragonfly found


An undocumented dragonfly has been found and celebrated close to Hoedspruit.
July 25, 2019
The Dragonfly named Eastern Scissortail was found and photographed by Antoinette Snyman.

An undocumented dragonfly has been found at the Swadini Forever Resort.

This is the first time that this dragonfly has formally been documented in the country; needless to say, it is also good news for the Limpopo ecosystem.

Earlier this year Swadini started a project with the aim of understanding the ecosystem in and around the resort ultimately exposing guests and students to a wealth of knowledge.


Image

The project was started in partnership with Neels Snyman, Flip du Plessis as well as Dries de Vries, guests staying on the Resort documenting and monitoring this new species.



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The Dragonfly named Eastern Scissortail was found and photographed by Antoinette Snyman on 20 May.

“Dragonflies and Damselflies play a key role in both the terrestrial and aquatic habitats. They are predators as both nymphs and adults feed on a variety of prey including nuisance species such as mosquitos, ants and biting flies. Dragonflies are also able to consume their own body weight in as little as half an hour. Dragonflies’ are nature’s way of pest control – natural alternative”, said Nols van der Berg, General Manager at Swadini.

Some fun facts about these interesting little creatures:


Dragonflies were some of the first winged insects to evolve, some 300 million years ago. There are more than 5,000 known species of dragonflies. In their larval stage, which can last up to two years, dragonflies are aquatic and eat just about anything—tadpoles, mosquitoes, fish, other insect larvae and even each other. Dragonflies are expert fliers. They can fly straight up and down, hover like a helicopter and even mate mid-air. If they can’t fly, they’ll starve because they only eat prey they catch while flying. Dragonflies, which eat insects as adults, are a great control on the mosquito population. A single dragonfly can eat 30 to hundreds of mosquitoes per day. Some adult dragonflies live for only a few weeks while others live up to a year.

Swadini is not only home to the newly documented Eastern Scissortail Dragonfly, but also home to other unique Dragonflies such as Painted Sprite, Great Sprite, Lined Claspertail and Spined Fairytail.

“Overall, our vision is to leave behind a wealth of knowledge, understanding and awareness for the unique Fauna and Flora in and around Swadini and the Blyde River Nature Reserve for future generations”, van der Berg concluded.

https://letabaherald.co.za/69463/hoedsp ... fly-found/


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Re: New Dragonfly Identified at Swadini

Post by Lisbeth »

A new species must be good news.....I think :-?


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Re: New Dragonfly Identified at Swadini

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I think it may just be a first for that area? -O-


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Re: New Dragonfly Identified at Swadini

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Interesting! :shock: \O


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Weaving insect wildlife back into the tapestry of life

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March 2, 2020 10.29am GMT | Michael Samways
Professor, Conservation Ecology & Entomology, Stellenbosch University


Insects are fundamental to the functioning of land and freshwater ecosystems. They permeate all aspects of these ecosystems, chewing and pooing, pollinating, seed spreading and affecting each other’s population levels through predation and parasitism. They also provide ecological processes of vital importance for frogs, lizards, birds and mammals, especially as food items for these vertebrates.

Insects also supply ecosystem services of great benefit in support of human activity, especially food and fibre production, through actions such as pollination, nutrient cycling and control of pest insects. This means that the fate of insects is entwined with that of people and of many other vertebrates.

Yet all is not well with this entomological fabric. Insects are declining in abundance in many parts of the world, and species are being lost at a rapid rate, especially through the felling of tropical trees.

Scientists warn that these declines and losses are undermining the ecosystems on which many lives depend. One of the known root causes is habitat loss. This occurs especially through insect population decline and extinctions arising from the carving up of the landscape and planting extensive fields of single crops which causes landscape degradation and eventually leads to loss of their natural habitat.

Other factors are the uncontrolled use of polluting compounds, especially nitrogen-based fertilisers, overuse of pesticides, the spread of invasive alien species and loss because other species on which they depend are also being lost.

Overarching all of these impacts is global climate change, which is complex in its manifestation on insect populations and interacts with the other impacts. Climate change is associated with more extreme weather events and with more intense and frequent fires reducing insect populations. It also changes pest prevalence, making their control more difficult.

In addition to this, landscape fragmentation and habitat loss mean that insects cannot move so easily across the terrain to find the conditions that suit them best, as they once did. And these optimal habitats are becoming further apart and smaller. Yet the future is not at all hopeless. Strategies are being put in place in various parts of the world that when scaled up, will benefit insects globally.

Unequal effect

Not all insects are being affected equally. Individual species responses depend on genetic disposition, crafted by past events, often long before human impact on the landscape.

Some species survive well in human-modified circumstances, whether agro-forestry or in cities. Others have the capability of surviving well in certain agro-ecosystems or even city parks. But many are specialists that require particular circumstances or particular host species in order to live.

These specialists are the ones being lost at an alarming rate, especially in tropical forests undergoing rampant deforestation. Their home space is being greatly reduced, lessening their opportunity for survival. When this shrinking space reaches a critically low level, they have nowhere else to go.

In contrast, some genetic modifications enable certain insects to adapt to the changing human environment. The Small ermine moth (Yponomeuta cagnagella), for example, is becoming less responsive to artificial light, improving its chances of survival in the urban environment.

Others can benefit enormously from some artificial environments. This is best seen in the case of artificial ponds. Our research found that these provide many more opportunities for survival, as more options are available, especially when natural ponds are under drought stress.

What needs to be done

International scientists have proposed a roadmap to deal with many of the problems that insects are facing. These are strategies for a way forward not only for long-term insect survival but for ensuring that insect populations continue to provide ecosystem services beneficial to humans. These include the pollination of crops, control of pests using natural predatory and parasitic insects and maintenance of healthy soil.

Recently though, much more detailed strategies have emerged. These focus on specific ecosystems, whether forest, grassland, freshwater, caves or cities. In short, various research activities around the world, in concert with effective implementation, have illustrated that there are positive ways forward.

These strategies involve much more investment in the future, rather than on destructive short-term economic gains. Different parts of the world can benefit from these findings and tailor them to local conditions.

Among the strategies available are implementation of functional corridor networks of natural vegetation among crops and plantations that enable insects to move across the landscape. Planting particular vegetation between crop rows and around field margins can also be beneficial, as can the careful planting of roadsides.

Rivers can be rehabilitated by ensuring no run-off of pollutants and pesticides, and restoring the river banks with natural vegetation. Reduced insecticide input is essential, as pollinating bees in particular are suffering greatly.

Biological alternatives to pest control, such as parasitic wasps and predatory beetles, are available. These often go hand in hand with re-establishment of natural vegetation.

Cities, towns and abandoned land can also make a great contribution by increasing the amount of green space relative to the hard grey of the man-made structures. Vegetated green roofs and walls can also help create habitats for insects.

If this generation doesn’t put these strategies in place, the future for future generations will be bleak because options for resilient landscapes are diminishing.

https://theconversation.com/weaving-ins ... 0of%20life


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Re: Weaving insect wildlife back into the tapestry of life

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Some wise words by Michael Samways O-/ I would love to see some more scholars climb out of their universities and speak out.


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Re: Weaving insect wildlife back into the tapestry of life

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The entomologists have a much weaker voice than other biologists, I'm afraid :-( I.e. they are less listened too. Not many people realise how important the insects are to our ecological system, unfortunately :-(


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Re: Weaving insect wildlife back into the tapestry of life

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Wildly more important than saving the big five... :evil:

:ty:


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How did insects get their colours? Crystal-covered beetle discovery sheds light

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April 16, 2020 10.28am BST | Maria McNamara, Senior Lecturer in Geology, University College Cork - Luke McDonald, Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University College Cork

The natural world is full of colour, and few groups of animals are as colourful as insects. From the dramatic black and yellow stripes of wasps and striking spots of ladybirds to the dazzling metallic sheen of jewel beetles, insects show a kaleidoscopic array of hues, patterns and optical effects.

But exactly why insects are so colourful isn’t always clear. How and when did insects evolve colours, and have their roles always been the same? We recently discovered some spectacularly preserved blue-green colours in the scales of 13,000-year-old fossilised weevil beetles. Our find, published in Biology Letters, sheds light on the evolution of the most complex colour-producing structures known in insects: 3D biophotonic crystals.

Until now, we had only ever found one example of such preserved crystals in a fossil. Our new specimen supports the idea that 3D colour-producing structures may have evolved as a means of camouflage rather than to attract attention. But more importantly, the discovery indicates that these fossils may be much more common than we previously thought. This opens up greater potential for us to learn far more about the evolution of these “structural colours”, and the biophotonic crystals that produce them.

These futuristic-sounding structures are part of a family of materials that often have a regular, self-repeating architecture at a nanoscopic level. Such structures are often able to scatter specific wavelengths of light, producing so-called structural colours that have particular optical properties. We encounter these every day: the rainbow sheen on a DVD, the swirling colours of a soap bubble, and the fire-like flash in a crystal of labradorite or opal.

The structural colours produced by biological nanostructures are the brightest and most intense in nature. Classic examples include the dazzling blue flash of a Morpho butterfly’s wing and the golden mirror-like reflection from a Chrysina beetle, both produced by microscopic layers in the insects’ tissues.

These structures produce flashy colours that you can only see from a narrow range of viewing angles and that change depending on viewing angle (a phenomenon known as iridescence). These optical effects, and the associated vivid colours, happen to be very useful for startling predators and attracting mates.

But there are also 3D biophotonic crystal structures that can manipulate light in all directions. In insects, these are found only in the scales of weevils, longhorn beetles, butterflies and moths, where they can form intricate arrays of chitin (the material that makes up the bulk of the exoskeleton of insects) and air.

Studying where these structures have appeared throughout evolutionary history could help us understand why they appeared in the first place. The problem is that the fossil record of 3D biophotonic crystals is virtually non-existent. There is only one known example, a 735,000-year-old fossilised beetle found by one of us (Maria) in 2014 in rock made from layers of sediment deposited by a glacier in Canada.

Image
The crystals were identified with a microscope and an electron microscope. University College Cork

Our new discovery provides another fossilised example of 3D biophotonic crystals from a different type of location, suggesting their preservation is probably more widespread than previously thought. The specimens are 13,000-year-old weevils found by our colleague Scott Elias (formerly of Royal Holloway University), in sediments from the ancient lake of Lobsigensee in Switzerland.

The newly-discovered insects appear rather underwhelming, preserved as small brown fragments of wing cases. But at high magnification, the scales’ colours are astonishing: vivid greens, blues and hints of yellow. We examined the scales using powerful electron microscopes, which confirmed the presence of ordered nanostructured arrays. Preservation of this level of tissue nanostructure is mind-boggling, even for us hardened professionals.

With our microscope studies, we had good evidence that the structures were 3D biophotonic crystals, but to prove it required structural diagnoses and optical modelling. This was done by our colleague Vinod Saranathan, who examined the scales using X-ray analysis at the Argonne particle accelerator near Chicago. Saranathan’s work confirmed that the fossil scales contain a single diamond photonic crystal nanostructure. And so the brilliant green, yellow and blue colours are indeed fossilised structural colours.

However, the colours from the individual microscopic crystals appear to mix at a visible level, suppressing iridescence and producing an overall greenish colour. The result is a matt rather than a shiny colour, unlike that of most insects with 3D nanostructures. This suggests the weevil’s crystals evolved as a form of camouflage, matching it to its leafy background habitat.

Where are the other fossils?

But if the fossilisation of 3D biophotonic crystals is more common than we thought, why haven’t we found more specimens? Maria’s previous research confirmed the crystals should survive the rigours of decay and burial during fossilisation. Instead, the poor fossil record of these structures probably reflects the fact that the scales likely fall off after death.

What’s more, scales bearing structural colours are usually less than 100 microns across, effectively invisible to the naked eye. So it’s likely that many other examples of fossilised 3D crystals have actually been overlooked, due to the small size of insect scales.

What now? Clearly we need to search deeper in time for more examples. Good targets include fossils from the Cenozoic Era (from 66 million years ago to today) that preserve other types of structural colour and insects hosted in amber, which can preserve scales with evidence of colour.

Most useful of all would be studies of the earliest weevils, from the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous periods (163-100 million years ago). These would allow us to test whether the evolution of 3D biophotonic crystals was linked with the proliferation of flowering plants that took place at this time. Close examination of the insect fossil record will likely reveal many more examples, helping us understand the environmental and ecological factors driving the evolution of these incredibly complex tissue structures and their functions.

https://theconversation.com/how-did-ins ... ds%20light


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Insects News & Resaerch Articles

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May 19, 2020 | Richard Elton Walton, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Biology, Newcastle University

When you settle down for bed, after the birds and bees have hushed, moths are just starting their work. You might only see them bobbing around street lights at night, but they actually spend most of their time visiting flowers, pollinating them in the same way butterflies do during the day, while drinking nectar with their long tongues.

In fact, our new research found that moths visit a surprisingly diverse range of plants at night. The work these nocturnal pollinators do is bigger and more complex than many people realised, and because it happens under the cover of darkness, it’s often largely invisible to human eyes.

Moths were known to pollinate flowers at night, but science has only recently begun to uncover their efforts in detail. We now know the types of flowers they visit – pale-coloured flowers with an open cup or tubular shape, such as creeping buttercup or honeysuckle, which tend to emit a strong fragrance at night. We also know that they carry pollen on their tongues. But besides that, most of what we know about pollinators, and how to help them, comes from research on daytime species such as bees, hoverflies and butterflies.

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Honeysuckle flowers – irresistible to moths. Michael Warwick/Shutterstock

We urgently need to learn about the more mysterious pollinating insects. Among the 353 daytime pollinator species in Britain, numbers fell by a third between 1980 and 2013. If these losses are being recorded among well studied species, what could be happening to nocturnal pollinators, whose lives we don’t know as much about? We know how valuable bees and other insects are for pollinating the crops we eat, like apples and raspberries, but we’re less sure about the debt we owe moths for their tireless nighttime work.

What moths get up to at night

Our research focused on the edges of nine ponds surrounded by crops and hedgerows in north Norfolk farmland. We wanted to find out which flowers moths chose to visit and how they behaved, compared with the daytime habits of other insect pollinators.

We observed and recorded key daytime pollinators, including bees, hoverflies, and butterflies, as they visited flowers. In the evening, we used light traps to lure moths into buckets set next to ponds and, the next morning, we brought the moths to the laboratory to identify them and check their bodies for pollen.

Image
Some of the pollen grains recovered from the bodies of moths. Richard Elton Walton, Author provided

Researchers tend to look for the pollen moths gather on their tongues. But anyone who spends even a moment with a moth will notice their bodies are rather “furry”. At rest, their bodies tend to stick very close to the landing surface of the flower, meaning moths can’t help but bump into the pollen on the plant’s reproductive parts as they drink nectar, causing it to stick to them.

With hairy bodies, bees and hoverflies tend to transport pollen between the plants they visit by picking it up on their bodies. We wondered, could moths be pollinating plants in the same way?

We managed to trace the pollen carried by different species of moths to the plants it came from, and compared those records with the flowers that daytime pollinators visited. We found that moth food webs were incredibly complex. Moths tended to visit the same range of plant species that daytime pollinators visit, but far more species of moth were involved in the effort compared to bees and butterflies. Since moths and daytime pollinators interact with many of the same plants, moths could help fill in the gaps if some daytime species die out.

Image
A herald moth resting near a farmland pond. Richard Elton Walton, Author provided

We also found that moths interacted more regularly with some flowers, such as white clover, compared to daytime pollinators. This indicates they may be very important for the pollination of those particular plants, and so help sustain them for the benefit of the greater ecosystem. We also found that moths carried most of the pollen on their bodies, suggesting they transport pollen in much the same way that daytime pollinators do.

It’s likely that scientists have been underestimating the contribution moths make to pollination. These nocturnal creatures play a very important role in boosting the ecological health of the countryside, but even as we learn how undervalued they are, recent research suggested that moth populations in Britain are shrinking by 10% each decade. We should all think of the many types of plants we can grow to encourage their populations to thrive – such as forget-me-nots, primose, and jasmine – and support efforts to protect the flower-rich habitats they rely on and enrich, while most of us are tucked up in bed.


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