A bumblebee feeds from the delicate white flowers of a whorled milkweed. Text reading ''University of Kansas Field Station'' overlays the bottom of the image.

Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research

August 2024 Edition

This is the monthly newsletter for the University of Kansas Field Station community.

Each month, we share details about upcoming public programs, volunteer opportunities, and highlights from the month before.

Newsletter archives can be found at https://biosurvey.ku.edu/ku-field-station-newsletter.

Please email wendyholman@ku.edu if you have questions or would like more information.

August: Public Programs

August 18: Science Sundays

August Topic: Studying Jellyfish in a "Flyover" State

Did you know that jellyfish are not just ocean animals, but that they can be found in freshwater across the Midwest?! Come learn all about jellyfish with Dr. Anna Klompen, an evolutionary biologist and budding venomologist who studies jellyfish venom systems and how they change. Anna is currently a NSF PRFB Fellow in the Gibson Lab at Stowers Institute for Medical Research, where she is focused on how jellyfish build their unique stingers. She will share how she studies jellyfish in Kansas and Missouri, and discuss how jellyfish have become amazing tools for exploring many different biological questions related to evolution and ecology. Anna will also bring along some live jellyfish so that you can have an up-close look at these incredible animals!

PS: Are you a fan of Ologies with Alie Ward? Check out the Toxinology episode where Alie interviews Anna about jellyfish venom!

When: 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 18, 2024

Where: KU Field Station, Armitage Education Center, 350 Wild Horse Road, Lawrence, Kansas 66044

What to bring: A mug for tea/coffee to help us reduce waste.

Please RSVP to Wendy (wendyholman@ku.edu) as space is limited.

Science Sundays talks cover a variety of science topics, including research happening at the Field Station. Talks are free and open to everyone, but may not interest younger audiences. These talks are intended for members of the general public who want to learn more about science. You do not have to be a scientist to attend! Please RSVP to Wendy Holman (wendyholman@ku.edu) as registration will be capped at 40 each month. It also helps us plan for seating and snacks!

August: Volunteer Opportunities

August 8: Weeding and Harvesting Dye Plants

A dense patch of bright orange Cosmos flowers. The flowers each have two layers of petals. In the background, there is a garden shed and the sky is blue and clear.

Do you love gardening and want to learn about the art of dyeing yarns and fabric with plants? Join Mary Anne Jordan, professor of Textiles/Fibers Program in the KU Department of Visual Art, for a hands-on volunteer gardening event at the KU Native Medicinal Plant Research Garden. Volunteers will help weed and mulch the dye plant gardens, and harvest flowers and leaves used for making natural dyes.

Do you have any questions about using plants to dye yarns or fabric? Walk through the dye plant garden with Mary Anne to discuss the plants, their color potential and the dyeing processes with plants such as Indigo, Cosmos, Weld, Madder, Leadplant, Joe Pye, Showy Gaillardia, and more. She will bring various samples of dyed fabrics to showcase the beautiful range of colors that can be created using these natural dyes.

Getting your hands in the soil is known to release “feel good” chemicals in your brain, so come get your hands dirty, enjoy the light of the setting sun on the flowers, and learn something new!

Please RSVP to Wendy (wendyholman@ku.edu) so that she can communicate any weather-related changes with you before the event.

When: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 8, 2024

Where: KU Field Station, Native Medicinal Plant Research Garden,1865 E. 1600 Road, Lawrence, Kansas 66044

What to bring: garden gloves (if you have them; we have extras), water bottle, work clothes, bug spray (we also have extra!), sun protection.

The KU Native Medicinal Plant Research Garden is open to the public from dawn to dusk and is a great place to learn about native plants and their uses, enjoy demonstration and community gardens, and see research in action.

July Highlights

A brightly colored and boldly pattern moth rests with folded wings on a person's hand. It is about an inch long.

A teenage boy stands in front of an illumated white sheet with a moth resting on his finger while his grandfather takes a photo. They both wear headlights.

A mole cricket gently grasped between someone's thumb and forefinger.

A crowd of people surrounds an illuminated sheet in the dark as they look at the insects attracted to the lights.

A large beetle rests on someone's open hands, while two people photograph the beetle with their phones. A white sheet lays on the ground below them as part of a light trapping set up.

The weather cooperated, and another successful National Moth Week is in the books! A fantastic group spent their Friday evening with us, gathered around a light pointed at a sheet along the tree line, geeking out over each new creature that appeared.

We enjoyed a variety of identifiable moths, two mole crickets, a mantidfly, several large beetles, and a group of lucky wolf spiders who benefited from all the insects attracted to the light. Our observations joined over 200,000 others submitted by volunteers worldwide during (Inter)National Moth Week. Hooray for community science!

You can learn more about National Moth Week on their website.

To see the observations submitted from around the world during National Moth Week 2024, check out the project on iNaturalist.

Claudia stands in front of a room beside a large TV projecting a slide that reads ''What is Lepidoptera?'' There is a crowd of people in the audience.

We love when people are excited for our Science Sundays topics, and Dr. Claudia Nuñez Penichet's talk on butterflies and moths generated lots of excitement! Normally, Science Sundays attendance is capped at 40 people, but the interest in this topic led Wendy to remove the usual furniture and replace it with folding chairs to accommodate more attendees. A record-breaking 55 people joined us to learn about lepidopterans, and we also set a new record for chocolate chip cookie consumption!

(Thanks to Natalie Vondrak, communications coordinator at the KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum, for the photo!)

A group of high school students sit in two aluminum boats in the middle of a lake. A researcher holds out a rope attached to a secchi disc. One student passes a bottle containing a water sample to a student in the next boat.

A group of people standing in a muddy creek gather around four containers with water and little creatures in them, trying to identify what they have caught.

After our plans were nearly foiled by a strong storm front moving through, the Topeka Zoo High School Teen Camp made it to the KU Field Station to enjoy a day under clear blue skies. It was hot, but not too hot, to get out on Cross Reservoir with Dr. Ted Harris and members of the Lake Assessment Lab to learn about lake ecology and what it is like to be an aquatic researcher. Students practiced using Secchi discs to measure water turbidity and a Van Dorn water sampler to collect water from various depths so that they could experience the differences in temperature (and smell!) of the water, down to 10 meters. To beat the afternoon heat, we visited a creek to search for little water dwelling animals in the shady waters. What a great way to spend the day!

Four people walking through tall grass in an open field. They are in single file, facing away from the camera, and all wearing wide brimmed hats. They are looking up into the blue sky as a great blue heron flies by in the distance.

Six people gather in a circle of metal chairs beneath a shade tent beside a prairie. The sun is setting in the background, and poet Lori Brack is leading them through a participatory poetry experience.

The Spencer Museum of Art hosted two guided tours of the here-ing labyrinth at the KU Field Station in June. After participants completed the walk of here-ing, they engaged in a participatory poetry experience led by Kansas poet Lori Brack. The poems that were created were shared with participants in July, and we would like to share one with you here.

Full of this magic

Grasshopper in sunlight warming up for night:
when the breeze hits the trees
through grasses, glistening leaves as they blow,

light without an obvious source
and what my inner ear will be hear-ing –
snap under prong.

Deer is spooked and glides over grass,
a finger soft breeze, butterfly
floating below the tops of tallgrass.

Deep are the roots beneath my feet.
Prairies full of this magic:
grating calls of frogs warming up for love

Photos

Not on social media? No problem.

Here are a few of our favorites from the past month.

A Coppery Dung Beetle (Canthon chalcites) rests on top of a perfectly round ball of dung that is several times her own size. She is a deep coppery purple with smooth wing coverings and has long, strong legs.

Sleeping on the job? But really, who can blame her? Dung beetles like this one can bury up to 250 times their own weight in dung in a single night! That's a lot of work for a little beetle.

There are around 8,000 described species of dung beetles found all over the world, split into three main groups: tunnelers, dwellers, and rollers. After shaping the dung into balls, rollers like this Coppery Dung Beetle [Canthon chalcites] push them away from the original pile to avoid competition. They bury the balls in the soil, using them as both a food source and a place for the female to lay eggs. The larvae hatch inside the dung ball, feeding on it until they emerge as adults.

Two researchers kneel down in a prairie and smile at the camera while they get ready to set small mammal traps. There are blooming gray headed coneflowers, prairie blazing stars, and ironweed around them.

Researchers from Oklahoma State University are visiting to trap prairie voles for a different kind of "hear-ing" project! (...get it?).

Luberson Joseph, PhD candidate in Integrative Biology, and Nale Colon, post baccalaureate student in Integrative Biology, are studying how small mammal species with different social behavior organizations (solitary, monogamous, and highly social) hear and process sound. They are also looking at the cells that express hormones (oxytocin and vasopressin) in brain areas that process sound for mammals from each of those social groups. By studying these cells, they can better understand the role auditory systems play in communication and social structures.

Prairie voles are one of the few species known for forming lifelong monogamous bonds, sharing nests, defending territory, and raising young together with their partners. They communicate with each other using a variety of vocalizations and scent markings, which play a crucial role in social bonding and territorial defense. These little mammals are an important part of prairie ecosystems, where they promote plant diversity and overall ecosystem health by dispersing seeds, aerating soil, promoting nutrient cycling, and serving as an important food source for other animals.

A smiling high school student holds a crayfish up to the camera. The crayfish is gently pinched between her thumb and forefinger, and she is standing in a muddy creek under the shade of the trees as sunlight dapples through.

Crayfish catcher level: expert

A yellow and pink Imperial Moth perched on the rough bark of a silver maple tree. It is very fuzzy and brightly colored, with a lighter yellow base color and deep pink/purple markings on its wings and abdomen. This is a large moth, approximately 4 inches across.

Come celebrate the diversity and colors of our native moths for National Moth Week! This stunning Imperial Moth is just one of the gorgeous insects we could attract to our lights. Join us in discovering the hidden beauty of these nocturnal creatures.

Please email Wendy if you plan to join us tomorrow evening! Full details below:

(Details removed in interest of space; but these were the same event details shared in the July newsletter!)

A mantidfly clings to a white sheet, attracted to the light shining on it. It has clear wings with defined veins running through them, its eye has a pattern like a 6-pointed star. Its large raptorial front legs are tucked in under its head, and its clear wings are folded tent-like over the abdomen.

Have you ever seen a mantidfly?! Look at those multicolored eyes!

This one looks like a Say's Mantidfly (Dicromantispa sayi) and was attracted to the lights we set up for National Moth Week. This adult is on the hunt for small flying insects, but their larvae specialize in eating spider eggs. After hatching, the larvae search for spider egg sacs to chew into, and some even hang out on adult female spiders, waiting until she lays eggs. They will eat eggs from any species of spider but often feed on the eggs of large wandering spiders like wolf and grass spiders.

Despite their name, these insects are neither true mantises nor flies. They are voracious predators and are easily identified by the grasping raptorial front legs they use to capture prey, which resemble those of praying mantises. This is an example of convergent evolution, not an indication that they are related to praying mantises. There are about 13 species of mantidflies in North America and over 400 worldwide. This is the perfect time of year to leave the porch light on to try and attract a mantidfly!

Keep in touch with the KU Field Station!

University of Kansas Field Station Mission:

To foster scholarly research, environmental education and science-based stewardship of natural resources.

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