EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Each week a different image of our fascinating environment is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional ecologist.

1-7 January 2018

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Western Box Elder Bug (Boisea rubrolineatus), Family Rhopalidae
Oregon

Credit & Copyright: Dr. Bruce G. Marcot

Explanation:  As we edge into yet another new year (and Happy New Year to all!), it's a nice time to be reminded that nature is all around us, and that it sustains us as much as we sustain it.  

And that there is much to learn from close observation, even in your back yard, even with creatures small and plentiful, such as this week's EPOW star, the western box elder bug.

Western box elder bugs tend to aggregate in the thousands over winter, hiding in the fissures of tree bark.  Studies suggest that they bask in warm sunlight in high numbers in order to sanitize themselves of a fungal pathogen and microbes that the bug picks up when feeding on leaf surfaces and in their overwintering niches.  Who knew? 

  
Information:
     Schowalter, T.D.  1986.  Overwintering aggregation of Boisea rubrolineatus (Heteroptera: Rhopalidae) in western Oregon  Environmental Entomology 15(5):1055-1056.
     Schwarz, J.J., Z. Punja, M. Goettel, and G. Gries.  2012.  Do western boxelder bugs sunbathe for sanitation?  Inferences from in vitro experiments.  Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 145(1):38-49.

   

   

Next week's picture:  Tea and Tigers

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