{"id":1637,"date":"2019-05-26T21:34:17","date_gmt":"2019-05-26T21:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/?p=1637"},"modified":"2019-05-26T21:34:17","modified_gmt":"2019-05-26T21:34:17","slug":"the-spring-of-2019-research-goals-and-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/?p=1637","title":{"rendered":"The Spring of 2019, Research Goals and Activities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I might as well continue the tradition of doing a spring\naphid research update!  This winter was yet\nanother intense affair, with copious snow and rain, most of it coming\nlate.  After nearly unheard-of warmth in\nJanuary, there has now been four months of cool and wet weather, including much\nsnow and upwards of 3 meters of snow on some of my favorite collecting areas in\nthe hills. Even today, 26 May, there is a layer of new snow on the hills surrounding\nour valley.  Our growing season is always\nlate here, but the cool and wet has made it even later, with the lilacs just\nnow in bloom around town, and camas lily opening in the valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aphids-wise things are of course also slow. Perhaps more\nthan some years the slow spring has highlighted which aphids are really early-season\nopportunists, and which might be less worried about an early start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nI have collected some shoots of important woody\nhost plants and attempted to root cuttings in the greenhouse.  The aim is to establish these plants on our\nproperty to make in-person study of their aphids easier and more thorough.\nThese plants were the Ribes<\/em> hosts of Aphis (Bursaphis) —<\/em>Ribes aureum<\/em>, Ribes cereum<\/em>, and Ribes\nvelutinum —<\/em> the Salix<\/em> host of\none of my Macrosiphum<\/em> species, and\nthe small-leafed Holodiscus<\/em> from\nrocky slopes near here (often called Holodiscus\ndumosus<\/em>). The Salix<\/em> were the most\ncooperative, producing vigorous roots, and they are already growing in the soil\nnext to the goldfish pond.  All the\nothers are less likely to root and survive, but hope remains after well over a\nmonth. \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Aphis (Bursaphis) happily feeding on Epilobium paniculatum after being transferred from Ribes cereum.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Early season collecting has once again focused on Aphis (Bursaphis)<\/em> in our local\narea.  Last weekend I found a good group maturing\nto alates on the developing fruits of Ribes\ncereum<\/em> on the slopes above Abert Lake. \nThis is interesting for two reasons. \nFirst, many of my previous samples on R. cereum<\/em> were either collected from curled fresh leaves on new shoots\ndeep in the plant canopy or were collected with my beating tray and therefore\nwere from unknown plant microhabitats. Second, this aphid was obviously the one\nwith short URS and long cauda that I\u2019ve hypothesized migrates to Epilobium paniculatum<\/em>.  I know there are a few species of Aphis (Bursaphis)<\/em> using R. cereum<\/em> in one way or another, but\nthis collection was my first concrete lead on possible niche partitioning\nwithin the host plant.  Subsequently, I\npotted three small E. paniculatum<\/em>\nplants and started a host transfer experiment in the greenhouse.  After 5 days, the aphids are happy and healthy\non the Epilobium<\/em>. Time will tell,\nhowever, as aphids and plants grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aphis holodisci is in the bag, having been experimentally transferred to a small Veratrum plant.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A major planned research push for this year is resolving\nsome of the biological questions about aphids of Holodiscus<\/em>. To that end I was able to pick up some Aphis holodisci<\/em> on H. discolor<\/em> a few hours drive north of here and establish a host\ntransfer experiment in the field near home onto our local Veratrum<\/em>. As I\u2019ve written elsewhere, I\u2019m almost certain that most\nof the Aphis<\/em> on Veratrum<\/em> in the Northwest are Aphis\nholodisci<\/em>. I was also lucky enough to get the early-season morphs of one of\nthe Illinoia<\/em> species on Holodiscus \u2018dumosus\u2019<\/em> on the steep slope\nabove Abert Lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, spring is perhaps the most important time to make\nheadway on my studies of aphids on sagebrushes. The taxonomy of aphids on these\nplants is plagued, I think, by morphological variations induced by the extreme\nenvironments they are exposed to (i.e. snow, cold, heat, drought, extreme soil types).  For example, summer dwarfism is a serious\nproblem in taxonomy, and so are seasonal variations in cuticular pigmentation. I\nthink taxonomy of these groups will rely on \u201capples-to-apples\u201d comparisons,\nwhich in this context means specimens collected at the same time of year, in\nthe same locations, during the same year.  Ideally, I\u2019d like a cross section of my Epameibaphis<\/em> and Pseudoepameibaphis<\/em> species from May, June, July, August, and September,\nand across many collection sites.  I hope\nto accomplish this in time, allowing comparisons that can separate the\nspecies-related morphological variation from the variation induced by season,\nhost plant, location, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of my favorite sagebrush species, Artemisia arbuscula (plus Mina the dog).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I might as well continue the tradition of doing a spring aphid research update!  This winter was yet another intense affair, with copious snow and rain, most of it coming late.  After nearly unheard-of warmth in January, there has now been four months of cool and wet weather, including much snow and upwards of 3 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1637"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1643,"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637\/revisions\/1643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}