Rearing and Display of the Margined Burying Beetle, Nicrophorus marginatus

Bob Merz, Saint Louis Zoo

The unusual and subterranean reproductive habits of Nicrophorus marginatus (Margined Burying Beetle) makes this beetle a challenging, but rewarding, insect to both raise and exhibit. However, the story of their parental behavior alone, offers eye-opening educational opportunities for this bizarrely charismatic and beautiful insect. This paper will detail the collection of this North American native, as well as the husbandry and exhibition techniques used to populate a dynamic exhibit focusing on a unique genus of beetles at the Saint Louis Zoo’s Monsanto Insectarium.

The Effort to Save the Endangered American Burying Beetle on a Shoestring Budget: Making Conservation Resources Go Farther with Invertebrates

Louis Perrotti, Roger Williams Park Zoo; Ming Lee Prospero, University of Rhode Island; Edward M. Spevak, Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden

An example of an inexpensive and valuable conservation program is Roger Williams Park Zoo’s captive breeding and reintroduction of the federally endangered American Burying Beetle Nicrophorus americanus. The development and implementation of conservation programs have several factors with which to contend; money, staff-time and captive breeding space. Invertebrates have the potential to allow zoos, universities and other organizations to participate in conservation programs therefore having a greater impact on conservation. Because they are found worldwide, participation by institutions can be local, regional or international. Opportunities for zoos and other facilities to participate in invertebrate conservation programs will also be discussed.

American Burying Beetles Do It Underground

Jane Stevens, Saint Louis Zoo

The beautiful black and orange-red beetles was placed on the federally endangered list in 1989 due to the loss of the beetle from 34 of the 35 states it used to inhabit. Since then it has been found in scattered populations in 7 states. Not seen in Mo. since 1982, a search has been ongoing in the state since 2002. As well as searching for the beetles we are one of two Zoos (Roger Williams Park Zoo) and Ohio State University. The Saint Louis Zoo has organized an American burying beetle Conservation Center, which funds the Center. This report will tell of results of survey work and PHVA and all it’s fieldwork and allowed us to host a PHVA for the beetle in November 2005.

Magnifying Education and Conservation Impact Through Butterfly Monitoring Networks

Ruth Allard, American Zoo and Aquarium Association

Butterfly monitoring networks educate, engage, and mobilize citizens in conservation while producing critical baseline information on species distribution, relative abundance, and population trends. This information helps land managers identify vulnerable species and distinguish between significant population changes and natural fluctuations. However, only three statewide networks exist in the US along with a sprinkling of species-specific networks; North American butterflies would benefit from more networks and greater participation. Butterfly Conservation Initiative members and partners find that their involvement increases staff morale, requires relatively low financial and time commitments, and demonstrates conservation leadership and commitment to the local community and fauna.

A Comparison of Relative Abundance of Summer Monarch Butterflies in the Midwest with Winter Roosting Populations in Mexico

Doug Taron, Chicago Academy of Sciences

The Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network has estimated relative abundance of butterflies, including Monarchs (Danaus plexippus), since 1987. Abundance of wintering Monarchs in Mexico is correlated with the number of Monarchs observed in Illinois the previous summer. Abundance of Monarchs in Illinois during the summer does not, however, correlate with the abundance of Monarchs in Mexico the previous winter. Data gathered in Ohio shows the same pattern relative to the Mexican data. Additionally, the annual relative abundance of Monarchs in Illinois and Ohio are very strongly correlated.

Butterfly House Lighting: What are Exhibits Doing and Why?

Hazel Davies, American Museum of Natural History

The staff at many butterfly conservatories has pondered the question of how to effectively use artificial lighting in their exhibit. What type of lights should I use? How many will I need? Will more light stimulate more butterfly activity? To find out more about this issue, a survey was sent out to the members of the International Association of Butterfly Exhibitions in October 2005. This presentation looks at the reasons why some IABE exhibits have gone to the effort and expense of installing artificial lighting, the type and number of lights being used, and how the lighting affects plants and butterflies.

Chrysalis Parasitoids and Disease Trends -Year 4: Interpreting Worldwide Data for Farm Raised Butterflies.

Wayne Wehling, USDA APHIS PPQ

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service requires butterfly house exhibits showing exotic butterflies to submit annual reports for imported pupae. The report is expected to detail by supplier and species the number of pupae received, the number producing healthy butterflies, and the disposition for all others. These data place APHIS in a unique position for asking questions about this fascinating industry. This is the 4th year for summarizing these data. Who is the biggest, smallest, best, or worst? Are there any trends in the industry?

Enrichment…It’s Not Just for Mega-vertebrates Anymore

Jamie Sincage, Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Over the years enrichment has become a major component of standard care for animals in zoological parks. However, enrichment typically was provided for the charismatic mega-vertebrates in most zoos. At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, we have developed an enrichment program that has helped to provide species appropriate behaviors in many of the terrestrial invertebrates that are in our collection. Much of the enrichment that we do for our invertebrates is as simple as adding more substrate to providing different pieces of furniture to their enclosure. This paper will discuss our success and near misses in providing a healthy environment for our terrestrial invertebrate collection.

Woodland Park Zoo’s Bug Club

Sue Anderson, Woodland Park Zoo

Woodland Park Zoo’s Bug Club has been active for nine years. More than 220 kids have participated in Bug Club; those that started in Bug Club in 1997 are now teenagers! We were curious to see if all the years of craft building, snack-eating and arthropod-adventuring have accomplished the Bug Club goal of encouraging kids to establish a connection with their natural environment that will shape their conservation ethic. In 2005, we conducted a longitudinal evaluation to see what the kids remembered and how it has impacted their lives. This paper will review the methods, results and conclusions of this study.

Alan Henderson, Melbourne Museum

The decision to develop the “Bugs Alive!” exhibition was an ambitious one for Melbourne Museum, particularly due to the substantial living component, the desire for a long term exhibit, and ground breaking approaches being taken with the interpretative content. This paper examines the challenges faced, the development of unique husbandry facilities, systems and skills, and field collection of many species, which were being kept in captivity and documented for the first time. The result was the establishment of the largest and most diverse terrestrial invertebrate collection in Australia, and an extremely popular and successful on-going exhibition.

Cockroaches of Oz - Australian Cockroach Diversity and Husbandry

Deanna Henderson, Melbourne Museum

Australia has a remarkable diversity of cockroach fauna, with well over 400 species currently described, including the world’s heaviest cockroach, and an abundance of sun loving colourful species. Unfortunately the reputation of these often-beautiful animals is a poor one deserved only by the few invading exotic pest cockroaches. Melbourne Museum houses, and displays, the largest collection of live cockroaches in Australia, and has made many discoveries into their captive management and breeding. This paper delves into the specialist husbandry methods that have been developed to ensure successful cockroach displays within Melbourne Museum’s exhibitions and educational programs.

Butterflies Down Under

Andrea Schepmann, Krohn Conservatory

This is our 11th year of seasonal butterfly displays and our attendance is still going strong. This presentation will focus on the creative theme design and the promotional events that encourage visitors to return again and again. A brief overview of marketing highlights and promotional materials will be included.

Workin’ with Yabbies (Cherax quadicarinatus)

Tom Mason, Toronto Zoo

The red-clawed Yabby, is one of Australia’s donations to the culinary cuisines of today. Like the American crawdad (Procambarus clarki), it is farmed as food throughout north and east Australia. The species is readily maintained and becoming more available. The Yabby is unique to Australia and is a great link between the countries wildlife and culture. As Australia has the largest number of crayfish species in the world, it is an important addition to any collection displaying Australian wildlife. This paper gives a short synopsis of this species husbandry and usefulness for display.

The Penang Butterfly Farm: Much More than Butterflies

Randy Morgan, Cincinnati Zoo; B.T. Chin, Penang Butterfly Farm

Penang, Malaysia is a large tropical island rich in history, cultural diversity and extraordinary food. It is also home to the Penang Butterfly Farm, now in its twentieth year. This tropical butterfly conservatory is Penang’s premier tourist attraction. Visitors are immersed in a myriad of fluttering beauties, but also get to see and learn about a diversity of other live insects, reptiles, fish, birds and plants. The Farm extensively breeds a variety of tropical butterflies, and has become an important supplier of pupae and other insect livestock to butterfly houses and insect zoos around the world.

Preliminary Field and Laboratory Work with the Malaysian Giant Forest Ant, Camponotus gigas, at the Penang Butterfly Farm

Randy Morgan, Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden; David Goh, B.T. Chin, Kuennie Lee Yoke Kuen and Ms. Tan Poai Ean, Penang Butterfly Farm

The giant forest ant is the largest ant in the world, with the biggest individuals spanning over 3 cm long. Collecting and keeping live colonies of this species is especially challenging, since colonies occupy multiple nests widely-scattered within vast territories, and defending workers produce large quantities of highly caustic formic acid. We report preliminary field and laboratory work with this formidable and fascinating ant at the Penang Butterfly Farm.

Jayme Necaise, Audubon Nature Institute Insectarium

On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina ravaged the entire Gulf Coast of the United States. The city of New Orleans was particularly hard hit by Katrina’s storm surge. Widespread flooding and destruction were everywhere. Eastern New Orleans and Chalmette were among the most devastated areas with floodwaters rising to 16ft. in some neighborhoods. Directly between these two cities lies the Audubon Insectarium Insect Rearing Facility. This presentation will focus on Audubon’s insect colony survival in a post Katrina New Orleans, a devastated world of 95-degree heat, no electricity, and no running water.

Putting the SOP to the test: Hurricane Rita at the Cockrell Butterfly Center

Nancy Greig, Eddie Holik, and Laurie Pierrel, Cockrell Butterfly Center

The threat of a direct hit to Houston from Hurricane Rita in 2005 gave the Cockrell Butterfly Center a chance to implement emergency procedures outlined in our Standard Operating Procedures on file with the USDA. About 36 hours before the hurricane was scheduled to arrive, staff removed all butterflies from the free-flight conservatory, storing them in holding cages in the basement. Once the hurricane threat had passed, we released all surviving butterflies back into the conservatory. We took this opportunity to count all the butterflies captured initially versus those that survived the holding cage experience. Large interspecific differences in survivorship were evident.

Digestive Characteristics Of The Giant Jumping Stick Stiphra Sp. (Orthoptera: Proscopiidae) From Peru.

Stephen R. Madigosky, Widener University

We conducted a series of experiments to characterize the behavioral, morphological, and physiological changes that occur in Stiphra sp. during development. Little is known about food preferences and digestive efficiency of many insects and this includes Stiphra sp. We compared two different methods of estimating daily food intake and tested preference in four species of plants. Results indicate a high preference toward firethorn and blackberry and therefore we determined the digestive efficiency of these two species of plants. Adult females had a net assimilation of about 20% in food and energy consumed.

Metabolic Characteristics Of The Giant Jumping Stick Stiphra Sp. (Orthoptera: Proscopiidae) From Peru

Angela Caranci, Widener University

Jumping sticks (Stiphra sp.) exhibit marked sexual dimorphism and therefore undergo different trajectories in their development. We measured the metabolic rate of: eggs, all instar stages, as well as male and female adults. As expected, specific metabolic rates declined with each progressive instar and increasing body mass. Metabolic rates of adult females were similar to those of other species of jumping sticks and fit nicely with the predicted values from digestive studies. We also determined the changes in metabolism due to increasing environmental temperature (Q10) as well as the pattern of gas exchange.

Brent Karner, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County - Insect Zoo

Live butterfly exhibits are popular attractions and are a great way to introduce visitors to concepts relating to natural history and science, but other arthropods can be equally engaging while drawing large crowds. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County used its butterfly enclosure to investigate alternative programmatic themes and opened its first ever “Spider Pavilion” on September 24, 2005. This paper describes this exceptionally popular live orb-weaving spider exhibit - its original concept, its design and creation and its run through November 6, 2005. The importance of this exhibit in addressing misconceptions of spiders and their relatives is also discussed.

Introducing the Pygis (Pee-gees) Amblypygi and Uropygi and How They’re Stay’in Alive, Stay’in Alive at the Toronto Zoo!!!

Lydia Attard, Toronto Zoo

The search for species of invertebrates that is fascinating, educate, and can be sustainably maintained in captivity is what every exhibitor searches for. Arachnids are of great interest for this purpose. However some species are difficult to maintain and others are difficult to display. Tarantulas end up being used the most and do work well, but they tend to be quite uniform in their appearance. Toronto Zoo has been working on the finding animals that are different in appearance from the typical. This paper discusses the successful rearing of one species of Amblipygi and one species of Uropygi.

Sexing Tarantulas

Fred Sherberger

The sex of an adult tarantula is easily determined, but immatures are less distinctive. Methods for determining sex include the presence of tarsal apophyses and comparison of body proportions. Examination of reproductive structures seen on molted exoskeletons will be emphasized, as these allow sex determination of almost any tarantula from about 3rd instar to adult.

COTERC and Cano Palma Biological Station

Tom Mason, Toronto Zoo

In 1991, a zookeeper from Toronto Zoo visited the east coast of Costa Rica and saw a need for research in the lowland flooded forest near Tortuguero. With that in mind, she purchased approximately 100 acres in the Barro del Colorado Wildlife Reserve and returned to Canada to form a charity named COTERC. Fifteen years later, the station and COTERC have widened their horizons to include conservation and sustainable management as part of their mission. This paper is meant to stimulate interest and show what can be done to help save our environment. Forest biodiversity will be stressed.