Three Little Wasps

Here's a trio of neat little wasps:

Netelia sp, IBSP, Lake County, IL 11/1/14

This one's Netelia sp., in the family Ichneumonidae.

Gasteruption sp, Grant Woods FP,
Lake County, IL 7/9/14

This one's Gasteruption sp., in the family Gasteruptiidae.

Proctotrupes sp, IBSP, Lake County, IL 10/24/14

And this is Proctotrupes sp., in the family Proctotrupidae.

If you noticed that none of them are ID'd to species, well, that's what I get for looking at such unassuming little critters. They're very hard to identify beyond genus, usually requiring dissection at some point. This difficulty isn't, though, from a lack of effort on researcher's parts. If you search for papers on these three genera, you'll find plenty of taxonomic and descriptive work. What you won't find much of is theoretical work.

A couple of articles of some interest beyond the taxonomic one include Gokhman & Ãîõìàí's work on chromosomal evolution. (1) What they found, to my eyes, is that while it is possible to trace the evolution of karyotypes in this order (Hymenoptera, that is), evolution at this level is probably too fast for working out higher-level taxonomies. (The second name above is my computer's desperate attempt to render Cyrillic -- try searching for Gokhman on Google Scholar if you want to see it properly.)

Another, by Broad & Quicke, looked at echolocation in parasitoid wasps -- which all three of our critters here are. Apparently by tapping on old logs, tree trunks, etc., the wasps can find caterpillars, beetle grubs, and the like hanging out in the wood, and even estimate how deep they are (2) -- another example of a simply physical problem being solved repeatedly in different lineages.

(1) Gokhman, V. E., & Ãîõìàí, Â. Å. (2011). Morphotypes of chromosome sets and pathways of karyotype evolution of parasitic Hymenoptera Ìîðôîëîãè÷ åñêèå òèïû õðîìîñîìíûõ íàáîðîâ è íàïðàâëåíèÿ ýâîëþöèè êàðèîòèïà ïàðàçèòè÷ åñêèõ ïåðåïîí÷ àòîêðûëûõ (Hymenoptera).

 

(2) Broad, G. R., & Quicke, D. L. (2000). The adaptive significance of host location by vibrational sounding in parasitoid wasps. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 267(1460), 2403-2409.

A Proper Mink Coat

This little guy seemed remarkably unconcerned about my presence this afternoon:

This is an American Mink (Neovison vison), a rather large member of the weasel family. He was hunting the rocks along the side of N. Pt. Marina, hoping to find some mice for dinner.

This is the same species that mink coats are made of, and these days they are intensively farmed for their fur. Here in the US and in Canada, this is a cause for concern, since domesticated mink are genetically distinct from wild ones by now. When they escape, some are able to survive, and can dilute the gene pools of wild mink in the area. (1)

In Europe, this is even more of a concern -- in addition to farm escapes, wild mink have been released in a number of countries as a source of fur. As they are semiaquatic predators, it isn't surprising that they've been implicated in declines of muskrats, at least in Poland. (2) (Muskrats are a favored food in their native range as well.) These days, mink control programs are common throughout Europe, (3)  but they are hampered by continuing escapes of domesticated mink. (4)

There does appear to be some hope in this regard, though. Some island populations have actually been eradicated, in part through careful consideration of how the mink respond to trapping pressure. (5) Modelling efforts suggest that eradication may even be possible in some mainland populations. (3)

Of course, my little model is a native mink, and there's no pressure at all to get rid of him. Which means he's still free to consider me a curiosity:

(1) Kidd, A. G., Bowman, J., Lesbarreres, D., & SCHULTE‐HOSTEDDE, A. I. (2009). Hybridization between escaped domestic and wild American mink (Neovison vison). Molecular Ecology, 18(6), 1175-1186.

 

(2) Brzeziński, M., Romanowski, J., Żmihorski, M., & Karpowicz, K. (2010). Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) decline after the expansion of American mink (Neovison vison) in Poland. European journal of wildlife research, 56(3), 341-348.

 

(3) Zabala, J., Zuberogoitia, I., & González-Oreja, J. A. (2010). Estimating costs and outcomes of invasive American mink (Neovison vison) management in continental areas: a framework for evidence based control and eradication. Biological invasions, 12(9), 2999-3012.

 

(4) Zalewski, A., Michalska-Parda, A., Bartoszewicz, M., Kozakiewicz, M., & Brzeziński, M. (2010). Multiple introductions determine the genetic structure of an invasive species population: American mink< i> Neovison vison</i> in Poland. Biological Conservation, 143(6), 1355-1363.

 

(5) Bodey, T. W., Bearhop, S., Roy, S. S., Newton, J., & McDonald, R. A. (2010). Behavioural responses of invasive American mink Neovison vison to an eradication campaign, revealed by stable isotope analysis. Journal of applied ecology, 47(1), 114-120.

 

(6) Zalewski, A., Michalska‐Parda, A., Ratkiewicz, M., Kozakiewicz, M., Bartoszewicz, M., & Brzeziński, M. (2011). High mitochondrial DNA diversity of an introduced alien carnivore: comparison of feral and ranch American mink Neovison vison in Poland. Diversity and Distributions, 17(4), 757-768.