First conclusive evidence of Jackson’s chameleons feeding on Hawaiian insects and snails.
It’s official, the paper documenting native Hawaiian insects and snails from Jackson’s chameleon stomachs has been published in the online version of the journal “Biodiversity and Conservation.” The title is: ”A reptilian smoking gun: first record of invasive Jackson’s chameleon (Chamaeleo jacksonii) predation on native Hawaiian species”, and the authors are Brenden S. Holland, Steven L. Montgomery, and Vincent Costello. (I think the date of publication is 25 December 2009, but you have to look in the “online first” section to find the paper.)
You can see the abstract for free at the Biodiversity and Conservation website, but if you want to read the entire paper, then you have to pay $34.00. I was a little surprised they included a head shot of a dead male Jackson’s in the paper. If there is ever any kind of a depredation program to keep these guys out of native forests, I suspect it will be met with fierce opposition by many folks who have a strong affinity for the cute little beasts. They have kind of become a Hawaiian icon – maybe not quite like the gecko, but they do have a certain status in Hawaii. In light of this, I would hope the Hawaii environmental and conservation community proceeds with caution and tries to exercise some good PR along the way. I don’t think a picture of a dead chameleon sends the right message, but then again its a research paper, not a community bulletin, so it’s probably not a big deal. I guess I am somewhat guilty of the same offense by calling them “killers” in one of my blog entries. Anyway, gruesome picture notwithstanding, I give these guys kudos for getting the paper out. I know both Steve and Vince fairly well and they are both really good guys and extremely good field biologists.
And now a little teaser from their paper (the last two paragraphs of the discussion):
“Much remains to be determined in terms of making an accurate assessment of the threat posed by Jackson’s chameleons in Hawaii, and further work is planned. For example, little is known about their precise range, elevation preference, reproductive season and rate, desiccation tolerance, and prey preference. Jackson’s chameleons occur in lower to mid elevationnon-native forests on Oahu, and have rarely been reported from tree snail habitat, which tends to be upper elevation dominated by native flora beginning around 600 m above sea level. The observations presented provide conclusive evidence that when chameleons are present in native forest where tree snails and other endemic invertebrates occur, they pose a threat.”
“It is possible that due to a number of factors, such as prey availability and distribution, changing climatic conditions, recent population establishment due to pet release or escape, Jackson’s chameleons are undergoing a range expansion into upper elevations. This is a concern for a variety of threatened and endangered invertebrate species, including tree snails (Achatinella spp.), pomace flies (Drosophila spp.) , rare damselflies (Megalagrion spp.), and rare amastrid and succineid land snails, all restricted to upper elevation forests such as Mt. Kaala Natural Area Reserve adjacent to the sampling locality. Prior to this discovery, as part of an ongoing collaborative study, one author (BSH) has collected several hundred chameleons, and gut contents are being examined from populations in the Round Top/Tantalus area of the Koolau Mountains, Honolulu, on eastern Oahu (Whiting et al. in prep). Endangered Oahu tree snail species have not been observed in this region in several decades. It is conceivable that predation by Jackson’s chameleons may have played a role in the local extinction of Achatinella spp. in this area.”
I was out at the Niulii ponds (Lualualei Valley) again a few weeks ago, and I had the opportunity to look around and take some photographs. In the small area that I was in, there were a number of interesting insects, but what caught my eye most were some damselflies fluttering around near an area with a lot of seepage. The blue spot at the tip of the abdomen on the males was a quick giveaway that they were Ischnura ramburii (Odonata: Coenagrionidae). I was excited to get some images of the them, because they didn’t seem to mind me being there so I had ample opportunity to get some good shots. Unfortunately, I was reminded of how crappy I am at photography because, for whatever reason, I just couldn’t get any good shots. They all came out a little grainy and not quite totally in focus. Anyway, here are the best shots I managed to get of the male and female:
And here is some interesting info from Dan Polhemus and Adam Asquith’s book “Hawaiian Damselflies: A Field Identification Guide” (Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, 1996).
“Distribution: Originally distributed from Maine to Chile. Introduced to the Hawaiian Islands around 1973, and now known from Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Maui, and Hawaii. Commonly found along the margins of coastal wetlands, and around ponds at elevations up to 500 ft, but not generally a mountain species.”
“On the North American mainland two distinct female color forms are present, the orange form and a bright green form similar to the male. The latter color form was previously recorded from Hawaii (Hilton 1989), but has not been seen during the last decade, and may have died out in the islands.”
I saw this picture in the latest issue (Nov 2009) of National Geographic.
Photo by Sharon Fullingim, published on National Geographic Your Shot
In the Nat Geo article they reference some more pics at BirdwatchersDigest.com of a mantis preying upon a hummingbird…
It always warms my heart to see insects taking down vertebrates, except for the next picture, which makes me a little uneasy…
This is a species of spider from the genus Nephila, commonly known as golden orbweavers. The spider shown above is supposedly from Australia, but there is also a species that is relatively common in Florida, Nephila clavipes.
By the way, a couple of Entomologists recently described a new species of Nephila, N. komaci, which is the largest known species of web spinning spider currently in existence. The official reference for their publication is “Kuntner M, Coddington JA, 2009 Discovery of the Largest Orbweaving Spider Species: The Evolution of Gigantism in Nephila. PLoS ONE 4(10): e7516. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007516.” According to the paper, body length of the females can get up to 4 cm long. I didn’t see anything about legspan, but according to Nat. Geo. this can be up to 12 cm for the females. Unfortunately, this species is very rare and has only been found in certain parts of South Africa and Madagascar.
I found this little flatid back in April (30 April 2009) when we were inpsecting a Mehamehame tree, or Flueggea neowawraea, in Lualualei Valley. I was thinking it could be native, but I later learned there are no species of Flatidae native to Hawaii. This particular species is Melormenis basalis, the West Indian Flatid. Not sure how long it has been in Hawaii, but it wasn’t mentioned in “Insects of Hawaii” so it must have arrived sometime after that particular volume was written. The other species of flatid in Hawaii is Siphanta acuta, the Green Torpedo Flatid or Torpedo Bug. It is mentioned in “Insects of Hawaii” and arrived sometime before 1898. These are evidently the only two species of Flatidae known to occur in Hawaii.
-
- Jackson’s Chameleon camouflaged in an Ohia and Lama tree.
-
- Close-up.
On a recent trip to the ridgeline of Lualualei Valley we were surprised to see a Jackson’s Chameleon, Chamaeleo jacksonii xantholophus . One of the guys I was with happened to be looking at an Ohia tree just off the trail (at about 2,400 ft above sea level) with a pair of binoculars and by chance he spotted a big female. You can see from the pictures that it was nicely camouflaged. I think the white patch on its side is a shedding piece of skin. I thought Jackson’s were found only in the Ko’olaus, so like I said, we were surprised. The next day in the office I called Army Environmental to tell them about it and they were very interested. It seems they have recently been finding them on the ridge to west of the location of our sighting. They have been collecting all the Jackson’s they find and analyzing their gut contents. Unfortunately they have been finding, among other things, native insects and native snails in their stomachs. I gave them the coordinates and description of where out sighting occurred, and amzingly enough they went back the next day a found the darn thing. It had evidently move to a nearby christmasberry tree. They collected it and are going to look at its stomach contents. I really hope the day never comes when I have to start killing these guys as part of an invasive species management project. I grew up loving them and dreamed of owning one as a pet – they rate high on the cool lizard scale. I’ve also always wanted a green iguana…maybe one day.
Anyway, here is some interesting information from Sean Mckeown’s Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians in the Hawaiian Islands (Diamond Head Publishing, Inc., 1996)
“Hawaiian Jackson’s Chameleons have all descended from several dozen specimens. In 1972, a Kaneohe pet shop owner, Robin Ventura, received a Hawaii State Dept. of Agriculture permit to bring in Jackson’s Chameleons for sale. They arrived thin and dehydrated, so he released the lizards into his backyard on Kane’ohe Bay Drive, figuring they could be retrieved later, as needed. The chameleons increased in numbers and by the late 1970’s had spread to the nearby watershed area at the base of the Ko’olau mountains. The country of Kenya stopped exporting this species in 1981. So, virtually every Jackson’s chameleon of this subspecies in captivity on the US mainland is of Hawaiian origing or has Hawaiian roots. In the islands, this lizard is one of the most popular animals with young people and is widely kept as a pet. ”
“The Jackson’s chameleon is now well established in Hawai’i. While it is most common on Oahu in areas of mid-elevation in the Ko’olau Range between Kane’ohe and Kailua, it has a wide, disjunct distributon throughout Oahu and can even be found on the much drier leeward side of the island. Additionally, it is now also well established at mid-elevation in several areas on the Kona side of the Big Island of Hawaii and on the island of Maui. In upcountry Maui around Makawao, these lizards are most frequently encountered in secondary disturbed forest areas, in various types of orchards and on hedges in yards. The first reports of this species on the islands of Kauai and Lanai were in 1995. The yellow-crested Jackson’s chameleon is native to the slopes of Mt. Kenya in the country of Kenya in East Africa where it occurs at 6,000-8,000 ft. (1830-2440 m) elevation. It is the largest of the three Jackson’s chameleon subspecies.”
Here are a couple pics of a female Scolependra subspinipes that a coworker brought in and we kept for while in big glass jar in our supervisor’s cubicle while she was on TDY.
-
- mother wrapped around her brood
-
- a close up shot of the protonymphs
If I remember correctly she was named Betty and as you can see in the images she was caring for a clutch of babies. According to a powerpoint presentation on myriapods (Inventorying Myriapod Diversity in India – A Review) by Dr. Vinod Khanna, these baby white centipedes are called “protonymphs” and in a few weeks they will start to get some color and then in a few more weeks undergo their first molt and venture out on their own. In the office we discussed the matter of parental care by S. subspinipes at some length, even to the extent that one of my coworkers made plans to document Betty’s behavior as she reared her protonymphs. Unfortunately, a second, larger centipede that we were keeping (also in our supervisor’s office) escaped and brought all centipede experiements in the office to a crashing halt. The escaped centipede was never found.
One last thing about centipedes…
I happened across this article online about centipede envenomation and I found it to be very informative. The official reference is Wilderness and Environmental Medicine Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 93–99, but you can find it online at http://www.wemjournal.org/wmsonline/?request=get-document&issn=1080-6032&volume=012&issue=02&page=0093 . The bottom line is you’re not going to die from the bite and the treatment is pain control and routine wound care, but one thing I didn’t know is that the application of heat at the site of the bite may alleviate some of the pain.
I sort of know one of the authors of this paper – Scott Stockwell. He used to be an entomologist in the Army and is a well know scorpion expert. When I was in the Army Reserves, my unit replaced his in Bagram, Afghanistan. He had to leave prematurely due to an accident with a russian pistol – somewhere I have picture of the bullet hole in the tent where it happened. Anyway, I guess maybe he is slightly accident prone since in this paper 3 of the 5 cases described are bites he experienced, and two of them are from the same centipede.
Took this picture of a mating pair of what I think are large yellow underwing moths (Noctua pronuba). We happened upon them while surveying at night for larvae of Hypolimnas octocula marianensis in the Pagat area of Yigo, Guam. There were a also a lot of large sphingids buzzing around our headlamps.
-
- Noctua pronuab, mating pair, Yigo, Guam
Last year I did an insect presentation at one of my daughter’s preschool and a couple of weeks later I did an entomology presentation for career day at my oldest daughters elementary school. It was a little crazy. For the preschool I did maggot art with them, which is a separate tale that deserves its own telling, and I had various live and preserved insects for them to see. For the elementary school I brought a microscope, collecting equipment, and the same live and preserved specimens that I used for the preschool. Of the live specimens, by far the most popular were the walking sticks. I had acquired 4 or 5 individuals from a friend specifically for these presentations, and the kids loved them. Because they are slow moving, I was able to let the kids hold them and check them out up close. Unfortunately this took its toll on the delicate insects and by the end of it all only one survived. It lost one of its forelegs, but it seemed to otherwise be in good health. Sipyloidea sipylus (Orthoptera: Phasmidae) is not a native Hawaiian species, and I think they are relatively new to the state. I do not know the details, but I recall that they first became established on the big island and then spread to other islands (although I am not sure about this). Because this is an alien species, I was hesitant to let it go after the presentations were over. But it had performed extremely well for the kids and was the sole survivor, so I couldn’t bring myself to kill it either. I ended up just letting it go at Pearl Harbor – probably not the best thing to do, but they’re pretty much ubiquitous on Oahu by now so I don’t think it was a huge deal.
I took a few pics before releasing it:
-
- Sipyloidea sipylus profile
-
- Sipyloidea sipylus face
-
- Sipyloidea sipylus close up
-
- Sipyloidea sipylus hiding under plumeria leaf
Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society Vol. XVIII, No. 1, August, 1962, pps 121-122.
The Green Sphinx of Kauai
(Lepidoptera: Sphingidae)
E. H. Bryan, Jr.
Bernice P. Bishop Museum
Honolulu, Hawaii
(Submitted for publication August, 1961)
A specimen of a sphingid moth believed to be Tinostoma smaragditis (Meyrick), the famous “green sphinx of Kauai,” was collected at Halemanu, near Kokee, on July 7, 1961, by Kenneth E. Gouveia (fig. 1). While a student at the Kamehameha Schools, Honolulu, Mr. Gouveia had learned of this rare and elusive moth and had been watching for it many years. So when he saw a greenish-winged sphinx moth resting on the lid of a garbage can on the side of Kokee Road, he promptly captured it and later brought it to the Bishop Museum to make sure of its identity.
This is the second known specimen of this moth. The first one had been taken more than 65 years ago by ladies of the Gay family at their mountain home at Makaweli, Kauai, and given to Dr. R. C. L. Perkins. It was made the type of a new species by Edward Meyrick; the description and a colored plate appear in his paper on Hawaiian Macrolepidoptera [Fauna Hawaiiensis 1(2):191, 1899]. He remarked at the time that “this example has lost one antenna and the apical half of the other, and also both posterior legs; it is therefore impossible to determine its generic position…It is a remarkable and beautiful species and its fair captors might earn additional praise by discovering further specimens, and enabling its affinities to be accurately ascertained.” Walter Rothschild and Karl Jordan, in their huge monograph on the Sphingidae of the world, described a new genus for this single specimen which is preserved in the British Museum (Natural History), London.
As years went by, various entomologists tried to discover more specimens of this moth. B. Preston Clark, whose extensive sphingid collection lacked only a few of all the described species, employed J. August Kusche to make a special search for the green sphinx. According to Zimmerman’s account (INSECTS OF HAWAII 7:429, 1958) Kusche went to Kauai in 1919 and searched in the area from Kokee to to Kaholuamano without success, returning again to renew his efforts in 1920. No green sphinxes were caught, although he reported them flying about the Metrosideros trees always too high up for him to capture, and that he had collected, but failed to rear caterpillars which he considered to be those of the moth. However, Kusche’s accounts were not always reliable, and it is rather doubtful that he saw either the adults or caterpillars of the green sphinx. As late as 1928 Clark was still offering one hundred dollars for a good specimen of the moth. On his death his collection, still minus the green sphinx, was left to Carnegie Institute Museum, Pittsburg.
Superficially, the Kokee specimen differs from the type in details of coloration. The main differences are the absence of the dark spot on each forewing, with the apical margin only very narrowly brown; except for a basal purplish blotch on the forewing, the undersides of both wings are green instead of purplish ochreous; and the abdomen is green instead of purple fuscous, with no trace of orange on the dorsum as indicated for T. smaragditis by Zimmerman.
(For more recent info – check out the listing at the ICUN Red List Site)
Earlier this week we were called to an area of the base on Pearl City peninsula to check to check out a fly problem. Evidently the problem has been persisting for some time, and the pest control shop called us in for a consult. We collected some specimens and it turns out they have two fly problems which appear to be unrelated – infestations of phorids and psychodids. We collected a lot of psychodids (Diptera: Psychodidae – drain flies or moth flies) from the shower, but other work spaces were infested with phorids (Diptera: Phoridae).
It seems pretty clear that the flies in the shower are breeding in the drain area. There was a long drain that spanned the length of the shower and was harboring a lot of scum. I was a little surprised though at how tiny the psychodids were – I am more used to seeing the larger blackish gray species. These were very tiny. One of the pictures below (sorry about the poor quality – I used my point-and-shoot through the miscroscope lens) was taken on a dime, just above the date, for scale. This should be a pretty easy fix. We’ll put together some options for them on what they can use to clean the drain and prevent the flies from breeding there.
The phorids may be a different story. Below is a picture of a fly tape they had hanging in an office area – as you can see, it was covered with the flies. There were two separate buildings on the compound, and they both are having problems with the phorids. This leads me to believe that there may be an outside area where they’re breeding. There was a recent mangrove removal project on Pearl City peninsula in which they basically mulched the mangrove into large piles on the shore line. The mangrove mulch is not far from this particular compound, so I am curious if this is the source of the phorids. We need to go back and check this out.
-
- Fly tape covered with phorid flies.
-
- Phorid collected from a refrigerator.
-
- drain fly (psychodid) from shower
-
- Drain fly (psychodid) on a dime.
-
- Drain fly (psychodid) from shower.
