Possibly the most common non-human resident in the average home is the long-bodied cellar spider. These innocuous beasties provide non-toxic, round-the-clock pest control for just the price of a small place to live. And although there are those who'd be less than thrilled by these little guests, they keep actual pest populations in check. This episode discusses how you can document the guests in your home and share them for posterity and science.
The episode art is modified from a photo uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by Ryan Hodnett.
I recorded this back in January and am finally getting around to launching it today. This episode features a fascinating little beetle larva that clings to rocks in rivers and in wave-washed lake shores. Water penny beetle larvae were first mis-described as isopods and later the error was fixed. You can find them on river rocks where they graze on periphyton. The episode art is from photos taken by then UVM student Erin Hayes Pontius when she worked in the lab at St. Michael's College. It shows a water penny (genus Psephenus) on the left and a false water penny (genus Ectopria) on the right.
The winter season ha provided some wonderful snowflakes. IN this episode I discuss a Vermonter know as "Snowflake Bentley". Wilson Bentley attached a bellows camera to a microscope and made some of the first snowflake photographs ..... thousands of them. And while he made scientific studies of snowflakes, I'm just having fun, and you can too.
Episode art is a photo I took using a Nikon Dipahot inverted microscope from the 1980s.
Upcoming bug talks:
March 7 & 9 in the Flower Show in Essex Vermont: https://vnlavt.org/vermont-flower-show/workshops/
March 19 in Newport Vermont: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/turning-stones-discovering-the-life-of-water-tickets-1242151802479
Of late, I'm more frequently called upon to talk about bugs than ever. But to reduce the chances of rendering my audience comatose, I use live insects and hands-on demos to keep things moving. You can also!! This episode describes how to get aquatic insects at almost any time of year using inexpensive improvised gear found in a dollar store, or more durable equipment if you intend to make a habit of this sort of thing.
To see a recent talk go here: tinyurl.com/3htf29tv
And to read about it, you can find my book here:
https://tinyurl.com/McCabeBook
Episode art: timing a standardized sampling event
Freshwater ecologists often group invertebrates based on how they eat. Black fly larvae filter particles out of the water and in one case, they managed to help put a murder behind bars. This time around I'll be chatting about these incredible little organisms that improve water quality and are food chain links between incredibly small morsels and the fish we love to catch.
I'll also be sending some love out to those incredible curators and lovers of books that run independent book stores. On both sides of the Atlantic I have been graciously hosted by independent book stores and I wanted to show my appreciation in this small way.
North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier Vermont will be hosting me on September 26th at 6:30 PM and this event will be co-hosted by Bear Pond Books. We'll talk about my book: Turning Stones: Discovering the Life of Water! You'd all be most welcome!
Macroinvertebrates, or the invertebrates we can see, are sentinels of clean water monitored by professional biologists. They can also be a gateway drug for budding scientists young and young at heart. This episode describes inexpensive equipment for catch-and-release studies of macroinvertebrates in ponds and streams.
This video takes you through the same approaches.
Episode art is clipped from an image uploaded to Wikimedia commons by John Rostron.
Driving directions from Danville if you'd like to join us on Saturday 6/29/24 9:00AM:
At the Route 2 light in Danville, turn south onto Peacham Road. Take an immediate left (at the Danville Post Office) onto Brainerd Street. Stay on Brainerd Street for .8 miles, where you will keep right onto Greenbanks Hollow Road (dirt road). Stay on Greenbanks Hollow Road for 1.9 miles. Go through the covered bridge, and continue south on Thaddeus Stevens Road for one mile.
Parking instructions:
The parking location is on the side of Thaddeus Steven Road at the town line between Peacham and Danville which is one mile south of the Greenbanks Hollow covered bridge in the vicinity of 3027 Thaddeus Stevens Road.
See you at 9am on Saturday.
Imagine a worm that enters the body of a different species, and then takes over its brain, altering its behavior to the benefit of the work and to the detriment of the host. Such is the story of the horsehair worm.
Following this episode I'll announce 2 events. The first is on Wednesday June 19 at 7:00 PM in Beardsley Zoo but also live on Zoom: registration is required: https://connecticutsbeardsleyzoo-bloom.kindful.com/e/june-evening-lecture-2024. I'll be co presenting with Aimee Turcotte (St. Michael's College class of 23). The second event will be a book talk & signing co-hosted by Northern Woodlands at Norwich Bookstore: https://www.norwichbookstore.com/events/20240620
Episode art for this episode is by Eduard Solà Vázquez and shared on Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nematomorpha_Somiedo_(white_background).jpg
In warmer weather, have you ever encountered a cloud of flies buzzing up and down near a water body? Chances are that you have encountered a swarm of midges. This episode gets into the biology of these amazingly diverse little insects. I am also pleased to announce my first book event at Phoenix Books in Burlington Vermont at 7:00PM on Thursday June 6th 2024. Finally, I reveal some secrets of the podcast recording process in my back yard shed.
The episode art is a photograph of a male adult midge with its characteristic feathery antennae. The females have simpler antennae but are none the less incredible products of fine-tuned evolution. The art comes from Wikimedia user WanderingMogwai and is shared under
Original image is here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Non-Biting_Midge_chironomus_spp..jpg
It is entirely likely that you share your dwelling with some generally innocuous beetles that subsist in corners on dried crumbs, cat hair, or other dried organic materials. But, it can sometimes happen that these beetles reach numbers that can threaten wool carpets or fur coats....or worse still, these insects may consume your insect collection. This episode discusses these fellow travelers.
The episode art pictures a varied carpet beetle, one of many species in the family Dermestidae that we discuss today. The photograph was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by user Didier Descouens.
What sucks the juice out of many plants, leaves a sticky mess that promotes mold growth, and will lay its eggs ANYWHERE. The answer is the spotted lanternfly, a beautiful insect that hails from East Asia and is spreading from an introduction site near Allentown Pennsylvania. Although it is pretty, it can be destructive in its home away from home.
The episode art this week was uploaded by Wikimedia user WanderingMogwai and can be found here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spotted_lanternfly_displaying_underwing.jpg
Scuba divers pump compressed air into or out of jackets to hang neutrally buoyant in the water column. Few insects can manage the same feat and must hang onto to plants or expend energy swimming. But one insect can shunt oxygen in and out of an air bubble to "float" anywhere between the water surface and the pond floor. This same insect turns camouflage on it's head to adapt to its unusual back-stroke approach to swimming. Backswimmers do all of this and are also well equipped with a beak that can get your attention if you mishandle them.
The episode art is modified from Didier Descouens' stunning image found here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Notonecta_maculata_MHNT.jpg
A friend and radio broadcaster in my home town asked me to record something about the process of writing and publishing a book. I suspect that each book develops on a unique trajectory, and mine seems certainly to be unique. It's my first book and so I claim limited expertise on the topic. There were pitfalls, and one major one, but it was nothing I could have avoided. So this podcast is certainly not a how-to, but more of a how-I-did. And when you write your book, I'm sure it will be in a very different way than I did.
Episode art is Adelaide Murphy Tyrol's art on the book cover. The book is available for pre order here:
https://bookshop.org/p/books/turning-stones-discovering-the-life-of-water-declan-mccabe/20598149?ean=9781684751839
and also on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
We have dramatically changed our climate. It's easy to consider that the change is slight. After all, who can remember what our climate was like back in the 70s? Back when it was "normal"? But consider this, roughly 60% of the US population had not even been born until the 1980s. So, our childhood recollections of "normal" weather occurred when climate change was already well underway. Scientists call this phenomenon the "shifting baseline" - what we each consider baseline conditions is very different from what a pre-industrial baseline might look like. This episode examines long-term data sets to explore how climate has affected important parts of the New England culture like ice fishing, lilac flowering, and maple sugaring.
The episode art is from the Joe's Pond Association website. It shows a concrete block perched on a wooden pallet on the frozen pond. "When the ice breaks, the pallet will fall, and down will come cinder block".....unplugging a clock to establish the precise moment of ice out! Please pay them for their photograph by placing a bet on when the ice will go out in 2024: https://www.joespondvermont.com/ice-out-tickets.html
Ladybugs, Ladybirds, or Lady beetles are familiar to all in art and in reality. These little munchers of aphids and other garden insects are common in many habitats. If the supply of soft-bodied insects on your cabbages dwindles, the adults will fly off to other plants in your garden and elsewhere. Because lady beetles have been collected and sold for as biological control agents, species have been moved from place to place and even between continents. This episode covers such topics and also addresses efforts to document rare native species and even farm them for reintroduction into their former habitats.
Episode art is from iNaturalist contributor Bill Siebert. Bill is a retired biology teacher equipped with a 600mm and macro lens. For more information about his photograph, get a free iNaturalist account and look here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/171724937
In colder winters than we are currently experiencing in Vermont, small streams wear thick layers of ice. In the winter of 1997 I attempted to sample some streams year round. I was thwarted by ice so thick that a felling axe made little impression. But spring-fed streams with an endless supply of water at a constant temperature shrug off any ice that may form. These unique flowing-water habitats lack the minute bits of organic material that feed insects in other streams. And so many species simply cant live in springs, freeing up those habitats for spring water specialists found nowhere else.
The art for this episode is a photo of the Well of Dee, the source of Scotland's River Dee. The river emerges from the ground as a large spring in Cairngorms National Park and flows west to the North Sea at Aberdeen. The art is from Wikimedia Commons and full details are here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Well_of_Dee_-_Source_of_River_Dee_-_geograph.org.uk_-_229032.jpg
With snow on the ground, you might not expect to find many invertebrates about, but there are some exceptions. Long-jawed spiders are among the most common invertebrates found clamoring about for food on Vermont's snow crusts. They come in two common colors and my bias is that the green ones are spectacular. So, grab your phone and perhaps a clip-on macro lens to get up close and personal with these amazing creatures making a living by eating snow fleas.
The episode art this week is from Wikimedia Commons. Full details can be found here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tetragnatha_P1060796a.jpg
Calligraphy beetles have beautiful patterns that appear to be inked onto their elytra with a fine-tipped black pen. Their larvae specialize on particular plant species before dropping into the soil to pupate. I find them fascinating, and so when my daughters pointed out that my podcast lacked a proper logo, I suggested the willow calligrapha for inspiration. Lauren, my youngest is an artist and in short order she produced a new logo for the podcast. To see more of Lauren's art please visit her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauren.mcc.photography/ And to hear why some beetles in the genus Calligrapha support the matriarchy, give the episode a listen.
Episode art this week is a willow calligrapha beetle uploaded by user B. Schoenmakers to Wikimedia Commons. Full details here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Calligrapha_multipunctata_(Chrysomelidae)_-_(imago),_Jefferson_(NY),_United_States.jpg
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" - Shakespeare said it best. The subject of this week's episode has many names just in English, but whatever you choose to call them, they are important in processing leaves and decaying wood in the environment. Isopods are ubiquitous crustaceans that you doubtlessly have seen at home, in the woods, in a pond, or in weeds washed up on a beach somewhere. I dig a little into their biology here discuss a few of their very many names.
I also am excited to announce that my first book, "Turning Stones: Discovering the Life of Fresh Water" will be coming out in June. I'm excited to see this project come to life and I look forward to scheduling some book events. You can take a peek or pre-order a copy here on the Down East Books site: http://downeastbooks.com/books/9781684751846
This week's cover art is from Wikimedia user Dat doris and found here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kellerassel_001.jpg
If you have seen a freshly felled tree, you may well have noticed the rings in the cross section that mark the passage of the years. But felling trees just as an historical exercise seems extreme and so my students and I cored some trees on campus and nearby to explore succession, competition, and the deep history of organisms far older than ourselves. The pine trees we cored stood in what we now call "Colchester Vermont" when Thomas Edison's first viable light bulbs shed light on the world for about 14 hours before burning out. This podcast describes the process of tree coring and ways we can use this technique to test hypotheses.
Update 12/29/2023: episode art is from a bald cypress found here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tree_rings_in_Taxodium_distichum_wood_(bald_cypress)_4_(24518375307).jpg
Why do we fish and should we fish at all? When I fish, it is usually for recreation or education. I encourage others to fish because I believe that familiarity with the fascinating organisms in the natural world fosters appreciation for the environment. When a person catches a fish in a nondescript pond, dots are connected. A previously boring water body becomes a habitat. Certainly it was habitat before anyone caught a fish, but an appreciation for the pond as habitat is built. And when we appreciate organisms and habitats, we are more likely to value and protect that habitat.
In this episode, several St. Michael's College Environmental Science tell us why they fish and what they caught.
Update 12/29/2023: episode art is from Wikimedia Commons and found here: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Lepomis_macrochirus_photo.jpg