Viceroy butterflies (right) mimic monarchs (left) and queen butterflies (below) because monarchs and queens taste terrible.

According to the Batesian mimicry theory, viceroys resemble inedible butterflies to protect themselves from being eaten.

But what happens when there are no monarchs or queen butterflies around and the local predators learn that viceroys are safe to eat? The viceroys change their tactics.

A 15 year study in northern Florida — where queen butterflies don’t live — found that in the absence of queens the viceroys retain a chemical in their bodies that makes them taste sour. Thus they aren’t eaten. In fact they thrive.

Viceroys are different in the absence of royalty.

Read more at “A tasty Florida butterfly turns sour” in Science Daily.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons, click on the captions to see the original)

If you keep honeybees in the Pittsburgh area, you’ll want to be sure your hives have not caught a highly contagious and deadly disease — American foulbrood (AFB).

This summer a beekeeper in the city of Pittsburgh suspected there was something wrong with his hives so he called for help from PA Department of Agriculture’s Apiary Inspectors, Bonnie Hall and Ken Hoover. On 5 July 2019 they found that six of his colonies had American foulbrood (AFB), the most widespread and deadly of bee brood diseases. Because AFB is so contagious, the inspectors checked all the registered hives within a 2.5 mile radius of the incident. They found more AFB in Pittsburgh and expanded the alert zone.

American foulbrood is caused by a spore-forming bacteria, Paenibacillus larvae, that kills honeybee larvae without harming the adults. As the larvae die off, AFB weakens the colony and can quickly lead to its death in only three weeks.

Adult bees unwittingly carry foulbrood spores into the hive and feed infected food to their young. When the larvae die the bacteria generates millions of spores that are spread easily by bees and beekeepers. The spores remain viable for up to 80 years even when exposed to extreme weather, antibiotics and disinfectants. Burning the hives and irradiating your equipment is the only way to kill the spores.

As of 29 August 2019, all or part of the following Pittsburgh neighborhoods are within the American foulbrood alert: Bloomfield, Garfield, Central Lawrenceville, Stanton Heights, Friendship, Shadyside, East Liberty, Larimer, Point Breeze North, Point Breeze, Squirrel Hill North, North Oakland, Squirrel Hill South, Hazelwood, Glen Hazel, Greenfield, South Oakland, Spring Garden, Spring Hill (City View, Northside), Fineview, Perry South, Northview Heights, East Allegheny, and Troy Hill.

I have colored a neighborhood map of the city with red to give you an idea of the scope. Note that my map is not as accurate as the list of neighborhood names.

Help stop this deadly honeybee disease!

If your bees are in the alert zone, make sure your hives are inspected for AFB. Contact State Apiarist Karen Roccasecca (717-346-9567 kroccasecc@pa.gov ) or local inspector Bonnie Hall (717-956-8175) to schedule an inspection.

If your bees are outside the zone, be extra aware when checking and inspecting your bees. “If something does not look right/healthy make a note of it and take some pictures.” Contact Karen Roccasecca (717-346-9567 kroccasecc@pa.gov ) or Bonnie Hall (717-956-8175).

For more information:

• Read Karen Roccasecca’s 29 August 2019 message with all the details of the AFB outbreak and what to do.
• See the factsheet on American foulbrood from Penn State Extension.
• If you have questions, contact State Apiarist Karen Roccasecca (717-346-9567 kroccasecc@pa.gov ).
• If you have not registered your beehives the inspectors won’t know about them. For the health and safety of all honeybees, it’s important to register your hives! (It’s also required by state law since 1921.) Use the Mail-In Registration Form or Online Registration.

No need to worry about the honey. Karen Roccasecca says: “Please note that American foulbrood does not affect humans and the honey is safe for human consumption.”

Note: Direct quotes, where origin not is stated in the text, are linked to the source material.

(photos and map from Wikimedia Commons; click on the captions to see the originals)

For some reason millipedes give me the creeps. A worm with a thousand legs? No way would I hold one!

However, this video of a millipede’s shadow made me take a look. (*)

TIL: millipedes prance. pic.twitter.com/PBifC3CooP

— Dick King-Smith HQ (@DickKingSmith)August 22, 2019

Who knew that millipede bodies move vertically as they walk? Who knew that their antennae tap in time to their steps?

Diplopoda or millipedes are a class of 12,000 arthropods with two pairs of jointed legs on most of their body segments. Though mille means a thousand, Wikipedia says that none of them have that many legs. The record is 750.

Millipedes are susceptible to drying out so they live where it’s cool and moist, especially under leaf litter. They’re active at night but you might see them at dusk or on a very damp day when they come out to forage for decaying leaves, decaying plants or fungi.

They can’t bite or sting so their only defense is to curl in a ball and, when really irritated, release a stinky liquid.

Millipedes are harmless to us and our houses but can surprise us when they come indoors. As Penn State’s Dept of Entomology explains:

At certain times of the year millipedes become restless and migrate from their normal living places; they [may] appear in window wells, basements, garages and other places where they become an annoyance.”

Penn State Extension Insect Advice: Millipedes

This restlessness usually has to do with mating. The crowd was looking for a cool damp place and made a mistake.

Don’t be alarmed. It’s too dry for them indoors. Penn State says, “Since millipedes do not live for more than a few days indoors, treatment inside the home is not necessary. Vacuum or sweep millipedes into a dust pan for removal.”

Did you know that you can identify male millipedes because they’re missing legs on their 7th body ring? That’s where they have gonopods for transferring sperm to the female.

Of course, you’d have to get really close to a millipede to see this.

I’m not ready for that yet.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons; click on the captions to see the originals. Video shared on Twitter by @DickKingSmith; video originally by Crystal Albright a.k.a. Chris Dull on FB)

p.s. The photos in this article are of a single species found in eastern North America, the American “giant” millipede, Narceus americanus. I’ve seen them in Pennsylvania.

This moth can remember what it learned as a caterpillar.

In 2008, scientists at Georgetown University exposed late-stage tobacco hornworm caterpillars (Manduca sexta) to a specific scent and trained them to avoid it with a mild shock. The caterpillars got the message.

Scientists had thought that metamorphosis changed the brain so much that moths would not remember their caterpillar past. However, the caterpillars that learned about the scent in their last instar remembered the scent when they became moths — and they avoided it.

I wonder if other butterflies and moths remember their final days as caterpillars. Perhaps this is how females know to lay eggs on their host plant. “Hmmm,” says the butterfly, “This smells like the plant where I was feeding before I could fly.”

Read more at this article in Science Daily.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons; click on the captions to see the originals)