The Praise of Insects

Saturday, 16 February 2013

PhD week 50: Thomas Broun

Portrait of Thomas Broun. From Searell P, Watt JC. 1974. Science gallery: Thomas Broun (1838–1919). New Zealand's Natural Heritage. 3(37) via Bugz

The key figure in the study of New Zealand beetles is without a doubt Thomas Broun (1838–1919). Born in Scotland, he served in the British Army, seeing action in the Crimean War and the Indian Rebellion. He arrived in New Zealand in 1863, where he served in the New Zealand wars before becoming a school teacher on retirement from the army. While he had a strong interest in natural history from a young age, it was not until his arrival in New Zealand he began serious taxonomic research, describing insects in the evenings after work. Over the course of his 56 years in New Zealand, he described 3538 beetle species, covering all families.

While his work has not, in the words of Elwood Zimmerman "stood the test of time", it must be remembered that it was done in testing conditions and with the aid of substantially poorer optics than we have today. Being so distant from the centre of entomological research at the time, he had to rely on the literature he was able to obtain from European colleagues. His decision to bequeath his collection to the British Museum of Natural History has indeed limited further research into New Zealand beetles; but this decision was a prudent one in an age where New Zealand institutions were still very much in their infancy.

He described approximately 70 species of Irenimus, though he described them in the genus Catoptes. He recognised the difficulty of the group, and made the following comment in 1904:

[Catoptes (= Irenimus) duplex] is one of several species that do not accord exactly with Catoptes, Brachyolus or Inophloeus, but partake more or less the structure and appearence of all three. In order to avoid confusion it will be necessary before long to redescribe these genera and define their limits more accurately; when that is accomplished the aberrant species alluded to above may be referred to new but certainly very intermediate genera. As I have not seen some of these species as yet, and as very few examples of some others are possessed by me, the difficult task must be allowed to stand over at present

This "difficult task" has been left until now. Here's hoping that my contribution will finally make this group tractable.

References:
Crosby TK. 2012. 'Broun, Thomas - Broun, Thomas', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara—the Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Cheesman TF. 1920. Major Thomas Broun 1838–1919. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 52: ix–x

Read:
Ferngren GB (Editor). 2002. Science and Religion. A Historical Introduction Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press
Hughes P (Translator). 1937. Meditations for Lent from St. Thomas Aquinas. London: Sheed and Ward

Websites:
The Internet Bird Collection—Videos, photos and recordings of a number of birds around the world

Watched:
Project 86—Fall, Goliath, Fall music video
Open AIr Summer Shakespeare 2013—Twelfth Night
Star Trek: Enterprise Season Two

Saturday, 9 February 2013

PhD week 49: Slide mounting

Weevils slide mounted in Euparal

If you look back over previous blogposts (such as this one and this one), you'll see that I've agonised over different microscope mounting media like I were a character from Twilight. Swayed by my colleague, Rich Leschen, I have thrown my lot in with Euparal, and have spent the past week dissecting and slide-mounting weevil specimens. I will be unable to see the results for another two weeks or so, but initial indications suggest that it will have been a worthwhile exercise. The features that I particularly hope to see are characters of the mouthparts, where I hope to see differences between species that suggest different food preferences. Determining these differences will require careful observation, and it is hoped that these slide mounts will make the task much easier.

While it seems that I am currently at peace with my decision of slide mountant, there remain some dark clouds on the horizon. I recently read a paper that states that Euparal is becoming difficult to source due to a combination of concerns over its toxicity, and its continued availability. This paper suggests dimethyl hydantoin formaldehyde (DMHF) or polyvinylpyrrolidone homopolymer (PVP) as possible substitutes. Maybe my slide mountant angst will continue for a little while yet.

References:
Leschen RAB. 2005. Erotylidae phylogeny and review (Insecta: Coleoptera: Cucujoidea). Fauna of New Zealand 47: 1–108
Liberti G. 2005. Improved solutions of two water-soluble media for mounting beetle genitalia. The Coleopterist 14(1): 29–35.

Read:
McCulloch D. 2010. A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years London: Penguin

Websites:
DNA barcoding blog—Seven Deadly sins of DNA barcoding
Tom Robinson—Māori Macron Characters

Listened:
Angel D'Agostino—Adios Arrabel

Sunday, 3 February 2013

PhD week 48: Alpine collecting

Camping at Round Hill Skifield.

I love skifields. Only at this time of year though. In a few months time they get covered with snow, and all the insects hide away making them not worth visiting in the slightest. In the past week, I had two very pleasant days in the Two Thumb Range at Round Hill and Mt Dobson Skifields. The point of the trip was to search for Haplolobus saevus, which was collected from the "mountains near Lake Tekapo" according to the original description. We managed to track some down in some spent flowers of Celmisia lyalli at Round Hill. We also found some specimens of Inophloeus in Aciphylla plants growing at the top of Mt Dobson skifield at an elevation of 1950 m. Pretty hardy organisms! The weather was perfect, the company was enjoyable, and the collecting was excellent. The total was one very succcessful field trip.

Read:
Chesterton GK. 1908. Orthodoxy. Image, New York (2001 Edition)
McCulloch D. 2010. A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years London: Penguin

Listened:
Phantom Empire—If the World Burns
Blindside—The Great Depression
Norma Jean—Meridonal

Watched:
Star Trek: Enterprise Season One

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

PhD week 47: VII Southern Connections Congress

The Otago University clock tower.
Photo courtesy of Velvet Android via Flickr. Licence: CC: BY-NC-SA.

Over the past week I had the priviledge of attending the 7th Southern Connections Congress, held this year at the University of Otago in Dunedin. This congress, held every three years, seeks to bring together scientists from a variety of disciplines including biology, climatology, palaeontology and geology to discuss factors which have influenced the distribution of plants and animals in the Southern Hemisphere. For me, the highlights of this conference included:

Microclimate: A number of talks highlighted the variation in environmental conditions that exist at very localised scales. For example, a rock may be heated up to 50°C, while a couple of metres away, it may be only 12°C in the shade of a plant. Alpine areas are particularly variable in this respect. This is somewhat intuitive, but it is worth being reminded about, particularly when regional-level climatic data is being used to try to infer the effect of climate change on species responses.

NZ in the Oligocene: It is well known in geological circles that the extent of New Zealand was much reduced during the Oligocene period, as much of the land was submerged below the ocean. A few years ago, some biologists and geologists questioned whether there any part of New Zealand was actually above the water, with the implication that all of NZ's biota got here from somewhere else after this time. This contention has spurred a significant amount of geological research to figure out where land may have been during this time. Evidence is appearing that there may have been islands north of New Zealand, and emergent land in the Otago and Catlins area during this time of maximum inundation.

Evolutionary Radiations: I had the priviledge of talking in a symposium of papers considering evolutionary radiations. All the talks were excellent, and included both conceptual overviews of the subject, as well as more in-depth case studies.

Overall, I had a great time. Many thanks to the organisers! The next congress is in 2016 and will be held in Chile. I hope to get there, depending on my situation at that time.

Read:
   Pine-Coffin RS (translator). 1961. The confessions of Saint Augustine Middlesex: Penguin
   Chesterton GK. 1908. Orthodoxy. Image, New York (2001 Edition)
   Proverbs 6–8, Romans 1–11

Websites:
Public access data for mapmaking
Norma Jean Australia Tour 2013 tickets

Sunday, 20 January 2013

PhD week 46: The poetry of taxonomy

Not-so-gratuitous picture: My new favourite bird: the Fernbird Megalurus punctatus. Image out of copyright.

There is a poetry in the process of taxonomic description. Reducing an organism's appearence to a paragraph of characters requires a certain degree of creativity and wordsmithing. It it unfortunate, therefore that the end result should be somewhat unenthralling. Descriptions are useful though and writing them makes one appreciate good ones all the more.

Websites:
Dolph Schluter's Laboratory blog
geomorph R package
Spinnerette—A webcomic
ABC Religion and Ethics

Listened:
Antagonist A.D.—Nothing From No One

Watched:
Star Trek: Enterprise Season One

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

PhD week 45: Back into it

Gratuitous picture: Stolas chalybaea (Germar, 1824) (Chrysomelidae) from Brazil. Courtesy of Udo Schmidt via Flickr. License: CC: BY-NC-SA.

The past week has been spent hanging out and relaxing into the new year. It involved a bit of lab work, a bit of looking at specimens, and a bit of sorting out my priorities for the next little while. I couldn't be too strategic unfortunately—dealing with immediate issues (in my case, a conference) took top priority over planning for the long term. Overall though, it's good to be back! (Though one could question if I ever really left...)

Read:
McCulloch D. 2010. A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years London: Penguin

Websites:
Animal Genome Size Database

Watched:
Star Trek: Enterprise Season One