Thursday, October 31, 2013

Pictorial guide on insects released for Kalakkad – Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve

The Kalakkad – Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) , which is the natural habitat for rare species of insect, now has its population of butterflies and moths documented for the first time. 

A comprehensive pictorial guide on these insects is available for the benefit of visitors, adding to the data that already exists on the birds and animals found in the reserve. 

Retired biology teacher Geetha Iyer helped bring out the guide, replete with striking photographs of butterflies and moths she spotted around Thalaiyanai near Kalakkad, Sengaltheri, Nambi Temple, Maanjolai, Kuthiraivetti, Upper Gothaiyaar, Kannikatti and Kodamaadi. 

“I could see (butterflies and moths) right from the Tiny Green Blue (a tiny butterfly with a wingspan of 12 mm) to the Southern Bird Wing (having a wingspan of 190 mm) during my stay inside this sanctuary. Much more needs to be explored and documented,” Dr. Geetha says. 

The giant Atlas moth (with a wingspan of 210 mm) is also a denizen of the reserve, she points out. 

Though the butterflies and moths face no serious threat from predatory creatures, their habitat is at risk, she warns. 

“Several small species of animals and plants help create habitats in forests and maintain them. Many of them are unknown to humans,” Dr. Geetha observes. 

“This (documenting butterflies and moths) is one step towards the goal of holistic conservation of the sanctuary,” said Field Director (in-charge), KMTR, Rakesh Dogra, while releasing the guide in the presence of C. Gurusamy, Deputy Director, KMTR’s Mundanthurai Division and K. Sekar, Deputy Director, KMTR’s Kalakkad Division. 


‘Though the butterflies and moths face no serious threat from predatory creatures, their habitat is at risk’ 

‘Small species of animals and plants help create habitats in forests and maintain them’ 

Original Story

Thursday, October 24, 2013

IndianMoths Data Collection Update : October 2013

As most of you are aware of the iNaturlist project [http://www.inaturalist.org/projects/indianmoths] that we are working as a group. 



We are working on a target of putting together 5000 records by end of this year. Here is the progress so far: We have more than 3400 records in place and we have more than 30 members of the project and already have more than 1000 species posted. The curators Nuwan and Sachin are helping with the ids with major share of work being done by Dr. Roger. 

We have about 10 weeks left for the end of the year. And we have to put together about 1600 records, so about 160 per week. Most of the people interested in Moths have 100s of photos and even if we get 16 members who are willing to put efforts to sort through their photos and upload them as records, they will have to spend less than an hour a week to finish this target that we have. 

If any members unfamiliar with iNaturalist need help, we can certainly extend that. It is fairly simple to use website the records are going to be extremely useful for all us to understand out Moths. So please participate in this activity and let us keep our target.

Another interesting thing we are working on is to get updates about IndianMoths in single place form all the websites. Please check http://diversityindia.org/pages/Moths.html and let us know what more you would like to see and how we can improve it.

Eagerly waiting for all of you, specially members who have not done so yet,  to post records for the project.

Here are some recent records posted on the project.


Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Log a Frog, Share a Snake

Citizen scientists play a role in conservation by reporting wildlife sightings.

By Cullen Hanks and Natalie Reina
From a young age, University of Texas student Emily Powell has been fascinated with wildlife. As a child, she was constantly on the hunt for insects, lizards and frogs in her backyard, sparking a passionate interest in reptiles.

“I was always interested in finding wild animals, but I think I was also motivated when I was younger because I wanted to keep reptiles as pets, and my parents would not let me for years,” Powell, a biology major, says. “I contented myself with observing them in the wild.”
A field herpetology course taught by University of Texas professor Travis LaDuc introduced Powell to the Herps of Texas (HOT) Project on iNaturalist. The project is an effort to map the distribution of reptiles and amphibians through crowdsourced observations. The iNaturalist platform allows people to share their photos of plants and animals, and in the process, it gives them the opportunity to learn about what they are seeing and contribute to conservation efforts.

Snake

Texas indigo snake.


“During the semester, we logged over 300 observations of 87 species,” Powell says. “I have only been using it for five months now, but I have found it to be a very useful program.”

iNaturalist is the perfect tool for anyone who wants to know more about wildlife. The website allows users to post observations as well as explore other observations. In addition, the iNaturalist mobile app allows people to report sightings when they are far from a computer or even a cellphone tower.
When people post an observation on iNaturalist, the program asks them for four pieces of information: who, what, when and where. These basic ingredients of an observation aid identification and allow biologists to create large, meaningful sets of data that can support conservation efforts.
“Who” is the observer, the person posting the observation.

“What” is the species identification. Fortunately, the platform is set up for naturalists of all skill levels, so observers don’t need to know what species it is.

“If you are unsure of what species you saw, you can upload the photo, ID it as ‘frog’ or ‘bird,’ and mark it for an expert to help you,” Powell says. Once the photo appears on iNaturalist, the comments section becomes a forum where others will chime in to identify the animal. When identified, the species observation is automatically linked to the profile page where you can learn more about it.
“When” is the date. Recording the date of observation is important with reptiles and amphibians, since they’re active only during certain seasons. The iNaturalist app can extract time, date and location information from data associated with smartphone pictures.

“If I am pressed for time, I’ll just snap a picture of the animal, record the location and save it to add later,” Powell says.

“Where” is especially valuable, as it helps biologists better understand what habitats support wild populations. The location is also essential for creating automated checklists for counties, parks and states on iNaturalist, a valuable resource for the amateur naturalist. The iNaturalist app automatically assigns the location using the phone’s GPS, or observers can mark the location using a Google map on the iNaturalist website.

iNaturalist

State herpetologist Andy Gluesenkamp (with phone) and TPWD biologist Cullen Hanks record an observation of a yellow mud turtle using iNaturalist.


Harnessing the power of the crowd, iNaturalist is constantly updating the profile of each species based on new observations coming in.
“You can find range maps of animals in books,” Powell says, “but iNaturalist is much more reliable because you have proof that the species was seen in that location recently.”

iNaturalist users can include additional details about the animal in the “description” tab. They can list the number of animals, the habitat in which the animal was found, the animal’s identification marks, the weather, behavior and more. These details enrich the experience of other iNaturalist users and add value to research. For example, if the animals have young, the population or the habitat may be more valuable to conservation efforts.

The HOT Project on iNaturalist was started in September 2012 as an experiment, but it has exceeded the curators’ best expectations. In the first year, the project has accrued 250 members and documented more than 4,000 observations. Perhaps more significantly, the project has documented more than 200 species, which is more than 90 percent of the reptiles and amphibian species found in Texas.

The success of the project has been due in large part to the high caliber of the three curators (well-respected professional herpetologists from major research and conservation institutions) who are managing the project: Toby Hibbitts, curator of amphibians and reptiles at Texas A&M University; La­Duc, assistant curator of herpetology at the University of Texas at Austin; and Andy Gluesenkamp, state herpetologist for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. This team has not only introduced the project to the naturalist community, but also has been very active in providing feedback on people’s observations. Every observation submitted to the HOT Project is validated by at least one of these three expert curators (in addition to the feedback from the iNaturalist community).

iNaturalist

Texas horned lizard.


So why are these professional herpetologists taking time to check all of these observations? One major reason is that they enjoy it.

“As a child, I was always thrilled to see reptiles and amphibians in the wild,” Gluesenkamp says. “That passion has never waned, and much of what I do as a parent and as state herpetologist involves sharing my love of nature with others.”

Another reason for their participation is the sense that this project could have a revolutionary impact on research and conservation for herps in Texas. While the first year has been an impressive success, it is still only scratching the surface of the power of the crowd to generate and identify observations. To understand that potential, we can look at what has been accomplished for birds with an online platform called eBird.

Started in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, eBird is an online bird checklist that allows birders to upload observations via smartphone or computer. By unlocking the power of the crowd, eBird has compiled more than 140 million observations of birds from around the world. In Texas alone, birders have reported more than 7.5 million observations.
eBird has proven to be an invaluable resource for birders, as well as for research and conservation. Even though the data is not collected with a standardized methodology, the sheer volume of observations allows researchers to discover patterns in populations that were not detectable before. For example, although ornithologists thought there was a single population of indigo buntings in the United States, they have discovered that there are actually two populations with very different migratory strategies.

“If the HOT Project results in just 1 percent of the volume that eBird has achieved, it will have a profound impact on our knowledge of reptiles and amphibians in Texas,” Gluesenkamp says. “It has already started to refine our understanding of the distribution of wild populations through observations beyond the expected range.”

For example, the recent observation of an unknown rattlesnake posted to HOT proved to be of one of the easternmost occurrences of the ornate black-tailed rattlesnake. With enough observations, this data can be used to model the distribution of each species using geographic information systems, or GIS. These models will fine-tune range maps and highlight regions where populations were thought to exist but actually may not exist.

On a finer scale, these models are helpful for identifying habitats that are essential to certain species. This will provide powerful baseline data for understanding how species could be affected by changes in habitat or climate. This is why all observations are valuable, and no species is “too common” to report.

iNaturalist

Red-eared slider.


The power of the crowd will also be an important early detection system for changes in ranges and colonization events. This is especially important with non-native and potentially invasive species. Already, the project has detected undocumented non-native species like a bearded dragon found in a Fort Worth park. In such cases, early detection can be critical to responding to the introduction of a non-native population. The project has also helped map the distribution of known non-native species like the Cuban brown anole. Should this population start to really grow, the project will detect it.
Of course, any observation of a rare species is valuable. In many cases, species are thought to be rare because of a lack of information. As an example, the Texas tortoise is considered a declining species, but the HOT Project could show that it is more common than once thought.

On the other hand, an observation of a truly rare species is a significant conservation opportunity. Rare species are often passed off as common species because they are not often encountered, but such an observation is likely to be recognized in the HOT Project. For example, the spot-tailed earless lizard has not been detected throughout the southern half of its range despite a concerted effort to find it. A single observation would offer an opportunity to study where the lizard is persisting and to better understand the reasons for its decline.

No matter how common or rare the species, the observation is valuable.
“Using iNaturalist makes me feel I am doing my part to provide information for researchers and conservationists,” Powell says.



TPWD Citizen Science projects

TPWD is involved in several citizen science programs. These programs make up TPWD’s Texas Nature Trackers, associated with the Texas Master Naturalist program. Unlike iNaturalist, these programs are tailored toward specific animals, but like iNaturalist, these programs help us learn more about animals and their habitat distribution. The animals include tarpon, mussels, horned lizards, box turtles, whooping cranes and many more. Here are a few of the programs:
Texas Nature Trackers: www.tpwd.state.tx.us/trackers
Texas Horned Lizard Watch: www.tpwd.state.tx.us/hornedlizards
Texas Whooper Watch: www.tpwd.state.tx.us/whoopingcranes
Texas Mussel Watch: www.tpwd.state.tx.us/mussels
Tarpon Observation Network: www.tpwd.state.tx.us/tarpon
Box Turtle Survey Project: www.tpwd.state.tx.us/boxturtles

Original Story: http://www.tpwmagazine.com/archive/2013/nov/ed_2_herp/index.phtml

Friday, October 4, 2013

Three new species pages, and notes on Erionota torus from Kerala

Krushnamegh Kunte reported on ButterflyIndia yahoo group:

We have three new and exciting species pages on the website:

Erionota torus – Rounded Palm-redeye: http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/293-Erionota/Erionota-torus



Lethe ramadeva – Single Silverstripe: http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/2755-Lethe/Lethe-ramadeva



Allotinus unicolor – Plain Mottle: http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/201-Allotinus/Allotinus-unicolor



Of these, E. torus is of special interest. This species was not known from peninsular India until now. The credit for this discovery goes to David Raju, who in August found its caterpillars devastating banana plantations around Thattekad in Kerala. Since then, several people have found the caterpillars in other parts of Kerala, so this is currently quite widespread in the coastal strip. Vivek is in the field surveying the current range of the species and damage done to the banana plantations, so we will know more about this soon. The case of Erinota torus is taxonomically interesting as well. People on Facebook have been using various names for it: Erionota acroleuca, Erionota acroleuca apex, Erionota hiraca, Erionota hiraca apex, Erionota hiraca apicalis, etc. I knew about the Kerala records from David’s first sightings and many people had asked me about this species in the past 40 days, but I wanted to confirm the species identity before I created the species page. I knew since last year after seeing specimens in the BMNH that Evans’s (1932, 1949) morphological key to Indian Erionota was not useful in separating the species. It is unfortunate that many people still blindly use these morphological keys without double-checking with other resources and without realizing that the only way to distinguish these species is by dissecting the male genitalia. To confirm the species identity, Kalesh and I recently dissected four males that we raised from caterpillars. Their genitalia match those of torus and no other species. Two of the dissections are available on the species page for your reference. From the variation that I have seen in torus in recent weeks and among all the species in the BMNH last year, it is clear that the external differences mentioned by Evans to separate torus, thrax, and hiraca (=acroleuca) are not reliable in distinguishing these species. The characteristics mentioned by Evans included the color of the UPFW apex, convexity of the FW termen and perhaps the color of the antennal club. That is, there is too much variation in these characters within species so that one cannot reliably distinguish between them from external characters alone. We will post images of male genitalia of other Indian Erionota on the website in due course.

Lethe ramadeva is very exciting due to the rarity of this species. I wonder whether this is the first ever photographic record of the species.

Congratulations to David and Anurag for these important and exciting discoveries!