We gained 4 new members and 8 new taxa to the project this year!
Since 2019, the most abundant scientific genera found associated with alfalfa are:
Apis
Pieris
Hippodamia
Hypera
Harmonia
For new visual summaries of four years of this project, visit https://www.usu.edu/biology/research/science-garden/index
Happy holidays!
Lauren
Hi all!
We are in Year 4 of this project. At the beginning of Year 3, we had collectively discovered 83 taxa that associate with alfalfa. At the beginning of Year 4, we sit at 103 taxa and counting! Join me for another season of observing the abundant or rare critters on alfalfa.
Best wishes,
Lauren
Hi all,
In the northern Utah neck of the woods, bugs-on-alfalfa viewing is winding down for the season. The "bugs" are entering diapause (hibernation), if they haven't already.
Since April, we've added 11 new unique taxa that are associated with alfalfa, mainly across the western U.S. That's awesome! And, it's becoming clearer and clearer how abundant western honey bees, seven-spotted lady beetles, melissa blue butterflies, cabbage white butterflies, and convergent lady beetles are on and around alfalfa.
I look forward to continuing our discoveries in the fourth year of this project. Last year we had a warm, dry winter, and I saw new alfalfa growth in February! We'll see what happens this time.
Last, 40 scientists have now contributed to the project. Thanks for all your contributions!
Lauren
Hello citizen scientists, happy spring!
We are entering our third year of this project. To kick off the third year, I just added an observation of an alfalfa "bug" that has not yet been recorded to the project -- a red bug in the family Pyrrhocoridae. Cool!
My apologies for not yet summarizing how Year 2 went. In Year 2, more members and observers joined the project! The high number of aphids, lady beetles, butterfly pollinators, ants, and spiders observed were great to see. The more years of observations we have, the richer the comparisons across years will be. And, as of today, we are up to 83 taxa found associated with alfalfa. Did we find them all? Let's see in Year 3.
To steal a line from my child's favorite TV show: we'll see you on the alfalfa creature trail; keep on alfalfa creature adventuring.
Lauren
Hello Bugs on Alfalfa community! The alfalfa is back and so are the bugs.
We would love to compare the bugs on alfalfa we saw last year to this year's bugs.
Skip smelling the roses -- stop and photograph an alfalfa critter this spring, summer and fall.
Looking forward to the new photos.
Lauren
Wow, we've made it to 156 observations and 56 species! It's been fun to see the bug communities on alfalfa change heading into fall -- there are more grasshoppers and skippers showing up on our site these days.
Zach Gompert, Adair Schruhl, and I plan to summarize what we've found so far at the "Science Unwrapped" event on Sept 20 at the Eccles Science Learning Center, room 130, at Utah State University in Logan, UT. From 7-8pm there will be a presentation by other researchers about "Food for Thought," and afterwards, we will be a part of the after-seminar activities. If you can, come visit our table!
Cheers, Lauren
Bugs on Alfalfa naturalists:
Over the last couple weeks, we have added alfalfa sites from Idaho, Wyoming and North Dakota to the map! That's awesome!
If you have joined the project but haven't uploaded an observation yet, please do! :)
Cheers, Lauren
Nice work, Bugs on Alfalfa naturalists! I love all the photos of moths and butterflies that have come in recently. I bet we can reach 100 observations by the end of this week!
I just rediscovered this great insects-on-alfalfa guide made by USU Extension: https://utahpests.usu.edu/files/pubs/alfalfa-beneficials-pests.pdf. I have learned that alfalfa weevil, hover fly, and lycaenid butterfly larvae all look quite similar!
Keep 'em coming! :)
The Bugs on Alfalfa naturalists have now recorded 32 taxa! Let's keep the observations coming. You might even become addicted to contributing, like me...
Lately I've been wondering what would happen to all these invertebrates if someone were to eradicate this naturalized weed. And this thought reminded me of this paper:
Cheers, Lauren
Over the last couple weeks I've really enjoyed discovering and photographing critters on alfalfa. Zach and I have already found quite the diversity of bugs: 17 taxa and counting. This project is open to anyone and everyone, and is not limited to the alfalfa at Utah State University, so please join us! -Lauren
