susanhewitt's Journal

People generally seem to think that there is no way that an ordinary person can contribute significantly to scientific research, including the discovery of new species. However, that is emphatically not the case.

As I mentioned in my previous post, there is a brand new iNaturalist project called "Leafminers of North America":

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/leafminers-of-north-america

In this new project, quite a few leafminer observations have already shown up for which the adult insect is currently a mystery. Some will turn out to be species that are currently unknown to science, and those species will need to be named and described.

We are fortunate that we have Charley Eiseman as a contributor here on iNaturalist. Charley is an expert on leafminers.

It is a relatively simple matter to attempt to raise leafminers to adulthood. It does not require a lot of equipment or time. And it is possible to find unknown leafminers in parks and wild spaces near where you live, without having to travel anywhere out of the way.

Charley Eiseman has created some instructions online about how to raise all different kinds of leafminers:

https://bugtracks.wordpress.com/rearing/

Charley has also written and illustrated an ebook that lists which known and unknown leafminers occur on any given plant:

http://charleyeiseman.com/leafminers/

I would encourage people, when they are out and about during the growing season this year, to look for leafminers, to make observations of them, and also to consider the possibility of raising some to adulthood.

Best wishes to all,

Susan

I imagine that most people have, once in a while, seen leafminer tracks -- white meandering lines or spotches within leaves of all kinds of plants? Mines are caused by the larvae of a surprising variety of different insects: moths, flies, beetles, and sawflies.

I am happy to announce that iNat has a brand new project, "Leafminers of North America", started by Charlie Eiseman, an outstanding leafminer expert. if you don't know much about leafminers, take a look at this project and the images it contains:

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/leafminers-of-north-america

If you already have made some leafminer observations, please go ahead and add them to this project, and as spring and summer in North America progresses, please keep your eyes open for more leafmines.

There are leafminers in all kinds of different plants, and many leafminers are rather poorly known to science, which makes them even more interesting and important! There are many new species waiting to be discovered among leafminers.

I am thrilled to see here on iNaturalist that Terence Zahner @zahnerphoto has recently been adding his gorgeous underwater images of marine life around the small Dutch Caribbean island of Saba, during SCUBA diving in March 2011, August 2013, and both March & August 2014

For that area of the Western Atlantic, the Lesser Antilles, I have visited and written papers about the marine mollusk faunas of the following islands: Montserrat, Nevis, St. Kitts, and also St. Eustatius (which is part of the Caribbean Netherlands, as Saba is), but I have not actually visited Saba, although I have written two papers about it.

In Britain and the US, these islands are considered part of the Leeward Island chain, although the Dutch consider them to be part of what they call the Windward Islands. Probably it is clearer to say these islands are part of the Eastern Caribbean.

I am especially happy to see that Terence uploaded images of a number of Saba sea slugs. Until 2013, the marine mollusk fauna of Saba had hardly been recorded at all in the scientific literature. And this is why, a few years ago, I started asking a few people who lived on or visited Saba to search for and photograph marine mollusks for me. I compiled as much info as I could, and wrote two papers on the subject, one in 2013 and one in 2017:

2013, Hewitt, Susan J., Marine mollusks from the island of Saba, Leeward Islands, West Indies, The Festivus XLV (8) 67–73

2017, Hewitt, Susan J., Additions to the marine mollusk checklist for the island of Saba, Leeward Islands, West Indies, Vita Malacologica Vol 16, 40 - 43

Terence, as well as photographing the Caribbean Reef Squid, the Queen Conch, the Flamingo Tongue Snail and the Lettuce Sea Slug, all of which have previously been recorded from the island, has photographed quite a few species which would be additions to the published marine mollusk faunal list for Saba. Here are some of them:

.....................................................

*Cyphoma signatum now known to be just a form of C. gibbosum
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20018533

• Micromelo undatus
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19994368

• Felimare acriba
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19994366

• Felimare ruthi
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20021418
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20032382

• Flabellina engeli
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20023589
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20023588

• Flabellina hamanni
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20023468

• ?Doriprismatica sedna -- small juvenile
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20021414
  Doriprismatica sedna -- adults
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19783756
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19808623

• Facelinidae
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20020802

• Scyllaea pelagica
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20032361

*Felimeda binza
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20032356

......................................................

It would be great to include all these additional species in a new short paper updating the marine mollusk faunal list of Saba -- and I am prepared to write it, if I can work out which scientific publication might be prepared to publish it. A short paper like this would have been perfect for the old journal "The Festivus", but the new, more magazine-like "Festivus" has a lot of problems -- it appears that the peer review process for that publication is seriously broken.

I would prefer to publish this info as a short paper in a peer-reviewed journal, but if I can't find the right outlet for it, I could I suppose publish it in "Spirula" a non-peer-reviewed publication of the Dutch Malacological Society. On problem is that the paper would require three color plates, which are expensive for a publication.

I recently got curious as to which species of marine macroalgae I have observed so far in NYC. Here is an attempt at a list. Nearly everything is from Randall's Island; other species have their localities listed. Warning: some of these IDs are only guesswork:

GREEN ALGAE
Sea Lettuce -- Ulva latuca
Gut Weed -- Ulva intestinalis
Other Sea Lettuces -- Ulva spp
Bryopsis sp.

BROWN ALGAE
Rock Weed -- Fucus distichus
Bladder Wrack -- Fucus vesiculosus
Ribbon Weed -- Punctaria plantaginea [Soundview Park] but in Spring 2019 I found it at Randalls
?Ectocarpus siliculosus? -- or something similar-looking which grows attached to hard substrate.

RED ALGAE
Grinnell's Pink Leaf -- Grinnellia americana
Agard's Red Weed -- Agardiella subulata
Irish moss -- Chondrus crispus
False Irish moss, aka Turkish Washcloth -- Mastocarpus stellatus
Red Puff Balls -- Spermothamnion repens
Rusty Rock -- Hildenbrandia rubrum
Gracilaria ?vermiculata [this one from Fort Tilden]

Added in Jan 2019: Landlady's Wig -- Ahnfeltia plicata

I hope to add more to this list and/or refine it as I go along. Maybe I can add some nicer images too.

This morning I took Daniel Atha of the New York Botanical Garden to 87th Street to show him two really good local plant finds, so that he could take samples to press for the NYBG Herbarium.

The two plants were the Scarlet Creeper:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/16286168

And the White Morning Glory:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/16230038

Both species have only ever been recorded once before in NYC. The new occurrences I found meant that these two species are probably now established in NYC, whereas the first occurrences could have been just "waifs", of no lasting significance.

Alas... when we arrived there, I was astonished to discover that the entire very long raised bed had been weed-whacked right down to the ground. It had been just fine on Friday morning and now early on Monday morning -- nothing left standing. This raised bed had over 65 plant species growing in it, all spontaneous -- an amazing diversity. A large proportion of the plants were native species, i.e. what I would consider to be wildflowers. There were no garden plants in this raised bed at all -- it seems that nothing had ever been deliberately planted here, or if so, it had all died out long ago.

Fortunately the person who weed-whacked the bed had not dug up the soil. I hope they have no intention of planting garden plants in there. Perhaps the weed-whacking was just a "fall clean-up" by some garden company that has a contract with the building?

If they now leave it alone, probably most of the plants will stage a come-back, either this year during the remaining warm fall weather, or failing that, the plants will hopefully come back again next year. I am sure that most of the plants had dropped seeds into the soil.

I do have iNat observations/photos of all the plant species I saw here, but the Herbarium material would have been a permanent formal museum record.

Ah well, such is life! We need to educate people that biodiversity is GOOD. Do not shun a fine diversity of spontaneous plants.

I am currently on the small island of Nevis, St. Kitts and Nevis, Leeward Islands, West Indies. My husband and I have been coming here on annual visits for 21 years, this time for four weeks.

The island used to have a severe litter problem along the main road, but, over the years that has been almost entirely eliminated, which is really great. However, this year the verges of the main island road (and some other pieces of public land) look almost uncannily neat and tidy, and that is in large part due to deployment of numerous Weed Whackers, which is more or less a new technique here.

I suppose I should be celebrating this neatness, but I love weeds. I find them very interesting in themselves, not to mention the surprisingly rich range of other wildlife that lives in and among the plants that flourish in open areas which are not completely overgrown, but are nonetheless somewhat neglected -- benign neglect.

The rental house we are staying in has a yard, quite a small yard, that surrounds the house. I spent the first week or two photographing every organism I could find in the yard. That was because I was in a medical CAM boot, and was not allowed to walk around more than a few feet. I did surprisingly well with what I found. There are very few garden plants in the yard, but the weeds were doing well, and many of the smaller weeds were flowering. These supported quite a range of bugs, including providing nectar for at least four species of butterflies.

But then, at the end of those two weeks, the gardener came and weed-whacked everything right down to the ground. Where did all the nice bugs go? Goodbye to the several different species of butterflies that used to cruise the yard and settle on some of the Tridax Daisies.

Alas, alack, the weed whackers. Does the trimming have to be so complete and ruthless?

At 4:26 this afternoon it felt like an explosion had taken place on the island of Nevis, like a dynamite charge had gone off, but no "bang", just the whole island going "WHUMP". Then I could feel rocking, clear waves back and forth, about one every half a second. However that only lasted about 8 or 9 seconds, and then it stopped.

I recognized it as an earthquake, having been through one or two when I lived in California. However this one was lower frequency and higher amplitude waves than the ones I felt there, and therefore more impressive.

So it turned out it was a 4.7 earthquake going off under Antigua and Barbuda, which is only 60 miles east of where I am, on the island of Nevis. This counted as a "light" earthquake, not at all serious. Interesting though, and it sure makes you pay attention. :)

I did not hear any birds or dogs responding with alarm, but maybe they take it all in stride.

I am on the lovely Caribbean island of Nevis for four weeks, but I have my left foot in a stiff and heavy medical CAM boot, and the right foot with a big rubber "even-up" layer strapped onto my sneaker. This is because of severe Achilles tendinitis (correction -- tendinosis) in the left leg, and therefore I am also under doctor's orders to minimize my walking as much as possible.

This has some pluses as well as some minuses. Although I can't walk down to the main road and go to the various beaches every day on foot or on the bus as I usually would, I can nonetheless walk around the small yard of the rental house to some extent, or even go up and down the lane a little bit, as long as I am careful not to do very much.

Because my scope for exploration is severely limited, this is causing me to concentrate my awareness and my searching efforts, in order to find as many different species as possible within this small and somewhat ecologically impoverished area of a few houses and a few vacant lots that are mostly overgrown with invasive species.

I think this is actually good discipline for me as a naturalist! I have to focus really intently and therefore manage to find things that normally I would not notice.

I have included here some of the more picturesque things I have found so far in this small area.

RANDALL’S ISLAND, MANHATTAN, NYC, US
MOLLUSKS

From April 2017 to March 2018. The marine species were (all but one) found by me. Cedric Lee found many of the most interesting terrestrial species, and the Succinea sp. was found by Danny Molinaro, who was then part of the Natural Areas Management team of RIPA.

Note: species in square brackets may or may not actually live in the estuary around the island.

[NOTE: Two recent additions are in capital letters]

PART I - MARINE/ESTUARINE MOLLUSKS
.
...........................................................................
MARINE AND ESTUARINE BIVALVES:

Mytilus edulis, Blue Mussel -- fresh dead
Geukensia demissa, Atlantic Ribbed Mussel -- live
Argopecten irradians, Bay Scallop - few old valves
Crassostrea virginica, Eastern Oyster -- live
[Astarte castanea, Smooth Astarte -- one old dead valve]
Mulinia lateralis, Dwarf Surfclam -- live
[Spisula solidissima, Atlantic Surfclam -- one broken piece]
Ensis directus, Atlantic Jackknife Clam -- live
Macoma balthica, Baltic Macoma -- live
Macoma tenta, Shining Macoma -- one shell, paired valves
Ameritella agilis, Northern Dwarf-tellin -- live
Angulus versicolor, Many-colored Tellin -- one shell, paired valves
TAGELUS PLEBEIUS, STOUT TAGELUS -- ENTIRE SHELL OF JUVENILE
Mercenaria mercenaria, Hard Clam -- live
Mya arenaria, Softshell Clam -- live
Rangia cuneata, Atlantic Rangia -- single valves
Cyrtopleura costata, Angelwing -- fragment, juvenile
Teredinidae family, Shipworms -- many
Lyonsia hyalina, Glassy Lyonsia -- a number of paired valves
Total 18

MARINE GASTROPODS: 

Littorina littorea, Common Periwinkle -- live
Assiminea succinea, Atlantic Assiminea -- live
Crepidula convexa, Convex Slippersnail -- two shells
Crepidula fornicata, Common Slippersnail -- juvenile shell
Crepidula plana, Eastern White Slippersnail -- live
Neverita duplicata, Shark Eye -- several
Urosalpinx cinerea, Atlantic Oyster Drill -- several
[Busycon carica, Knobbed Whelk -- juvenile shells]
Tritia obsoleta, Eastern Mudsnail -- live
Boonea bisuturalis, Two-Groove Odostome -- live (one)
Haminoea solitaria, Solitary Glassy-bubble -- several
Melampus bidentatus, Eastern Melampus -- live
Myosotella myosotis, Mouse-ear Ovatella -- live
Total 12

NOTE: I am not including here all of the exotic species I have found – shells that were presumably brought to the island by humans and then left here for a variety of reasons.
.
.
RANDALL’S ISLAND MOLLUSKS - PART II - FRESHWATER & LAND

FRESHWATER GASTROPODS:

Physa sp., -- Live in freshwater pond
Viviparus georgianus, -- one worn shell on Wards Island beach
Dreissena bugensis, -- one intact fresh-dead shell, Wards Island beach, inside an oyster shell – possibly this species is now invading estuarine waters?
Total 3

LAND GASTROPODS, SNAILS AND SLUGS:

Cepaea nemoralis, Grove Snail -- many colonies
Deroceras reticulatum, Milky Slug -- several live
Deroceras sp., -- few
Oxychilus draparnaudi, Draparnaud’s Glass-snail -- live
VALLONIA COSTATA, RIBBED GRASS-SNAIL -- LIVE
Vallonia excentrica, Eccentric Grass-snail -- live
Arion intermedius, Hedgehog Slug -- live
Zonitoides nitidus, Shiny Glass-snail -- live
Zonitoides arboreus, Quick Gloss Snail -- dead
Cochlicopa lubrica, Slippery Moss Snail -- live, fairly common
Discus rotundatus, Rounded snail -- common live

Vertigo pygmaea, Common Whorl-snail -- live, one colony
Hawaiia miniscula, Minute Gem -- live, one colony
Paralaoma servilis, Pinhead Spot Snail -- live, one colony
Succinea sp., Amber snails -- one live
Total 13
.
Specialized salt marsh species living in the Little Hell Gate Salt Marsh

**Assiminea succinea, Atlantic Assiminea -- many
Melampus bidentatus, Two-toothed Marsh Snail -- many
Myosotella myosotis, Mouse-eared snail -- many
Total 3

**Please note that the Assiminea succinea is actually listed twice, as a land snail and as a marine snail, however, it is not counted twice.

GRAND TOTAL OF MOLLUSKS, April 2017 to March 2018, 48 species

There is a fairly large species of obligatorily estuarine clam that lives in the Gulf of Mexico. It is edible, and it was so common there that the shells used to be crushed and used as road gravel. The scientific name of this clam is Rangia cuneata -- the Atlantic Rangia. It is not very beautiful, but it is interesting.

This clam species cannot survive in water of full ocean salinity. Adult clams can survive in freshwater, but they can't reproduce there.

During the Pleistocene period, which ended 10,000 years ago, this species lived in the Gulf of Mexico, but it also occurred in various estuaries on the East Coast of the US, from New Jersey south -- we have plenty of fossil evidence of that fact.

In 1955, an observer found a colony of this clam species living in an estuary on the East Coast. This clam species currently lives in several East Coast estuaries, including the estuary that surrounds the island where I live -- the estuary of the Hudson River. Since last April I have found about 50 valves of this species on the Harlem River beaches of Randall's Island Park, Manhattan, NYC. The salinity right there is most often between 18 and 23, but of course it can vary a lot more than that.

One theory as to how these clams ended up living in several different East Coast estuaries is the idea that they were introduced from the Gulf of Mexico by human agency -- either as larvae in ballast water, or with oysters when new oyster beds were being set up.

The other theory is that there were small relict populations of the clam that had survived in East Coast estuaries since the Pleistocene, and that these populations underwent a resurgence during and after the 1950s, and thus became noticeable where previously they were overlooked.

Currently people favor the first theory over the second one, but both ideas seem a little surprising when you think carefully about them.

For example:

1. How did the clam first spread from estuary to estuary WITHIN the Gulf of Mexico?
2. If the clam was introduced to the East Coast by humans, how come it took until 1955 to become established? There was plenty of shipping and ballast water before then.
3. In the 20th century, shell collecting was not popular as a hobby until a few years after WWII, so 1955 would have been more or less exactly the time when people would start looking for, and finding, interesting shells which might have been overlooked previously. Is this relevant?
4. How about the effect of global warming? When did ocean temperatures on the East Coast start to rise? Is that relevant?

This is a very interesting clam, and it's a bit of a puzzle too.