Endangered BugsEndangered Bugs
by Charlotte Overby
Missouri's rare and endangered insects probably won't end
up on postage stamps, but they're fascinating once you get to
know them.
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Who cares about insects? Many people don't even think of insects as animals, let alone something important to our environment. But there is such a thing as an endangered bug, and Missouri is home to several species of insects that are listed as endangered or rare.
The Popularity Contest
"It's harder to get people interested in saving animals that aren't cute or cuddly." That's one problem facing people who are trying to save endangered species, says Amy Salveter, endangered species coordinator for the Conservation Department.
"Some animals, like eagles or barn owls, are more popular than others. They attract attention because they tend to be big, beautiful and familiar to people. But there are many unfamiliar animals and plants on the endangered species list. They need people to care about them, too, if they are going to survive."
For example, the regal fritillary is a large, colorful butterfly whose range once extended from eastern Colorado and Wyoming all the way to North Carolina. Today it is found in just a few places in the prairie states, including small prairies in Missouri. It has reddish-orange forewings and black hindwings with white spots. It feeds on thistles, milkweeds, clover and other flowers.
Regal fritillaries are in danger because they have few places to live. One fourth of Missouri once was covered by tallgrass prairie-the regal fritillary's habitat. Today, almost 99 percent of the prairies in Missouri have been converted to agricultural land, cities and roads. The regal fritillary stands a chance if people work to conserve our prairies and learn more about all prairie species.
Another remarkable Missouri insect is the Glyphopsyche missouri caddisfly, commonly called "G. missouri" by researchers. Caddisflies are small winged aquatic insects and are important food for fish and birds. Their life cycle consists of egg, larval, pupal and winged adult stages. G. missouri is unusual because the only place in the world it has been found is in the cool water of Maramec Spring near St. James. G. missouri was discovered in 1938.
Scientists have not learned a great deal about G. missouri, but they are certain that water quality affects the population. In the fall of 1981, for example, a fertilizer pipeline 12 miles from the spring broke. The fertilizer seeped into the ground and traveled to the spring, wiping out almost all the oxygen from the water in the spring. This and other types of water pollution near the spring affects all aquatic animals and plants. If we work to keep Missouri's waterways clean, all rare and endangered animals-including G. missouri-have a better chance of survival.
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Prairie mole crickets-almost 2 1/2 inches long-are some of the largest insects found on prairies. While most common crickets have large hind legs adapted for jumping, prairie mole crickets have big front legs designed for digging. They burrow into the soil, build systems of tunnels and chambers and live longer than many other species of crickets. They remain underground for two to three years, most likely eating the roots of prairie grasses.
Once a prairie mole cricket becomes a mature adult, it emerges in April or May to look for a mate. Sitting above ground, females listen at sunset for a distinctive, harsh buzzing sound-a sound made by males rubbing their wings together.
A buzzing or calling male positions himself in his specially dug chamber just below ground. The chamber acts a little like a stereo speaker, amplifying or increasing the output of the sound he makes. A female hears his buzz and flies to his tunnel.
They pair off and retreat to their underground tunnels. In a laboratory, it was discovered that females lay 30 to 70 light gray eggs. The eggs hatch into nymphs, which look like small versions of the adult crickets, except they don't have wings. Very little is known about prairie mole crickets' development, habits or behavior in the wild.
Prairie mole crickets once thrived in the prairies of southwest Missouri, throughout Kansas and Oklahoma and in the northwest corner of Arkansas. But as people converted prairies into towns, cities and agricultural land, prairie mole crickets began to disappear. They were thought to be extirpated-or gone-from Missouri until a Conservation Department biologist found small populations of them in 1986 near Nevada. They live on a few remaining pockets of prairies in southwest Missouri.
As long as Missourians continue to conserve prairies and work to reestablish new ones, prairie mole crickets stand a chance of surviving. Another endangered bug, however, hasn't been so lucky.
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The American burying beetle once was found in 35 states in the central and eastern parts of the U.S. By 1923 they were dwindling, and when they were placed on the federal endangered species list in 1983, they had disappeared from all but four states. Today, only about 1,000 beetles live in three states bordering Missouri-Nebraska, Oklahoma and Arkansas-and on Block Island off the coast of Rhode Island. There are no longer any American burying beetles in Missouri.
American burying beetles are called carrion beetles because they eat dead animals. Using organs located on the tips of their antennae, the beetles can smell carrion-another name for dead animal carcasses-from far away. They follow their noses, so-to-speak, and fly to the dead carcass. Once they find a dead mouse, bird or other creature, their work begins.
A male and female pair may move the mouse-sized remains several feet, rolling it along into a ball. The beetles then bury the dead body by digging out or excavating the soil underneath it. Pretty soon, the dead mouse, bird or mole is resting in a covered hole.
They remove all the fur or feathers from the dead animal, then cover it with special secretions-or fluids-that preserve it in a semi-mummified state. The female then lays 10 to 30 eggs in a nearby tunnel, and when the larvae hatch, food is just right next door. The young ones eat the carrion. The adults tend to the carrion by removing fungi and continuing to keep it "inoculated" or protected with secretions to keep it from decomposing too rapidly.
After about a week, the larvae have eaten all but the bones of the carcass, and the adults fly away. The young remain in the nearby soil for about a month, then come out when they are adults and carry on the process.
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The diversity of animal species living on the smaller pockets of land has changed, possibly affecting the beetles. For example, there are fewer large predators and more animals such as foxes, crows, raccoons and possums. These animals adapt well to smaller patches of habitat and their numbers grow. But they are also scavengers, which means they often eat what the beetles eat: carrion. The beetles, some scientists conclude, may not be able to compete with them for food.
Another theory suggests that the beetles, which are active at night, are sensitive to artificial lights. Many natural areas that are fragmented are close to cities and developments with lots of bright lights. Too much light may disrupt the beetles' ability to find food and reproduce.
Scientists have raised American burying beetles in captivity and have had some success letting them go in the wild. And in 1995, a 9-year-old girl who was visiting her grandmother near Jamison, Neb., discovered an American burying beetle crawling across the road toward a dead possum.
Maybe there is hope for endangered bugs in Missouri. So what if one of them eats dead things and another one spends two to three years underground? They could turn out to be an important links in a food chain, teach us something about another animal's habits, or be be clues to solving an environmental puzzle.
To learn more
about endangered animals in Missouri, check out a website
created by students in Rebecca Cavener's biology class at Marionville
High School. It features the cougar, gray bat, Massasauga rattlesnake,
peregrine falcon, red wolf and wood frog and includes photographs.
The address is < http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/5045/>.
You also can type in "endangered species" in search
engines, such as Yahoo or Alta Vista, and turn up a huge variety
of interesting sites about endangered animals around the world.
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