Invasive Species

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Sanguivores: Nature's Blood Drinkers

Oxpecker bird, which is a sanguivore (blood drinker) (Photo: Flicker Sharing, Derek Keats)

12 of the Most Interesting

Let's face it, there are a lot of ways to eat and be eaten in the animal kingdom. Feeding ranges from the sponge-like mouth parts of flies to the flat molar-like chompers of clam-eating fish like black drum. If an animal or plant exists in the world, then something feeds in or on it. This is true of animals that drink blood, also called sanguivores (sang-wa-vors). Another word for this is hermatophagy (pronounced her- mat-oh-fay-gee). Any time you see the term "--phagy" at the end of a word it means "eating". Herma comes from the Greek word "haima" or "blood" and phagein or "to eat." For today's post I want to share with you the world of sanguivores or blood drinkers. There are more than you think, and even though you may already be squirming in your seat at the though, keep an open mind. Blood is little more than water with easily digestible proteins, lipids (fats), and nutrients. To humans blood is super taboo, and gross, we see blood as "disgusting" because we're taught that it's full of diseases and should only be seen in horror films. However, in nature blood is something not to be wasted or ignored. It's the "water of life" for some animals. Here are 12 of the most interesting.

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Wineberry: An Edible Invasive

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Ripe wineberry (Photo: K. McDonald)

Eat the Aliens!

Sometimes there's an irony to being a blog writer. When I was researching primary sources for information about wineberry vines (Rubus phoenicolasius, pronounced Rue-bus foe-knee-col-ass-e-us), I found out that the majority of the field research has been done by researchers from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), where I work. To be fair, there are 16-19 research laboratories at any given time and over 200 on staff, so individual projects and research is hard to keep up with.  Being at SERC is what has inspired my interest in the wineberry, because it is a widespread plant that produces fruit in July and has become a significant symbol of summer for me and the staff and volunteers I work with.

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Japanese Honeysuckle: Why There are Two Flower Colors

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Japanese honeysuckle (Photo: Karen McDonald)

What Gives with Japanese Honeysuckle Flowers?

Here in the Eastern US there are many different native vines, along with a cadre of introduced or invasive vines as well. Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicrea japonica) is one of them. If you're like me, as a kid I loved plucking the yellow and white flowers, nipping off end and sucking the base of the flower to get the sticky sweet drop of nectar from inside. As an adult I occasionally do the same thing, while cursing the rapid growth of the vine as it takes over my backyard fence. I'm not going to go into the whole life cycle of Japanese honeysuckle here, but if you want to know more check out this great dissertation about its life history and ecology by Anna D. Letherman and her PhD thesis from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Mostly what I'm interested in is a very basic question:   Why does the Japanese honeysuckle have two different flower colors?

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Stink Bugs: Will They Bite and How Can I Get Rid of Them?

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The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Photo: Wiki Commons).

Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs

Stink bugs are one of those creatures everyone sees, but no one really understands or likes, and for good reason.  The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halyes), also known by BMSB, first showed up in the US around 2001 in Pennsylvania.  It's thought to have been brought in with either fruits or fruit trees of some sort.  As a native to Eastern Asia it is truly an invasive.  Even in its home countries, it's a pest, including in Japan, Korea, and China.  In the last decade or so they have invaded over thirty-four states in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US, including Washington DC.  They were first seen in Oregon and out west around 2004 and since then they've spread in California and other states.

I'm going to call these guys stink bugs for now because Brown Marmorated Stink Bug sounds good, but it's long to type and BMSB just looks funny.  The stink bugs we're talking about are mostly brown or marbled brown and tan on top and whitish grey on bottom.  They are usually about 1" long as adults, smaller as nymphs.  They belong to the Hemiptera, or "true bug" family, and more specifically, to the suborder called Heteroptera.  That's not to say that there are false bugs, but true bugs are "typical insects" with the usual set up of body parts and legs. Hemiptera, also, all have piercing mouth parts (bug sippy straws).  Stink bugs and Heteropterns also have a special set of wings (Heteropera means "different wings" in Greek). Their type of wings are called hemelytra.  The wing part nearest their head is leathery while the part near their rear is membranous like the wings of a dragonfly.  If you look carefully at the stink bug's back you can see a large X.  It's this X that lets you know it's in the hemiptera family.  There are two triangles formed by the X, one near the head, and one near the rear. The one near the rear is the set of membranous wings folded up.  X marks the spot when you're looking for all true bugs.

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X marks the spot when looking for a true bug or Hemipteran. You can see the unique wing configuration of this stink bug, with the leathery wings on the top of the X and the membranous wings at the bottom. (Photo: USGS, Wiki Commons)

To be sure you're looking at a brown marmorated stink bug, and not a native US species, be sure to look for the white bands that are on their antennae.  There should be one near the antennae joint, and sometimes a smaller one or two closer to the head.

When talking with friends and "non-bug-folks", some of the first questions they ask are:

1. Do stink bugs bite?  Nope, you're safe.  If you look closely at these little home (and crop) invaders, you'll see that they have a straw like projection that tucks up under their head. This is a sucking proboscis.  It can pierce the flesh of fruit, such as apples, pears, and peaches, so it's not out of the question that it could give you a short poke or stab, but this is rare.  They don't sting either.

There are other Hemipterans that can give a much worse poke than the stink bug.  Check out this picture of an Assassin bug sucking the life juices from a beetle.

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An assassin bug sucking the juices from a tortoise beetle. (Photo: Wiki Commons).

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