I work outside and spend pretty much every free moment outside as well - a lifelong habit. So I was pretty horrified when I read the NYT article and the concept that people might need to break the 20 minute recommended time into shorter, cumulative blocks.
Oh, THANK YOU, Bryan. And to think of that big old NYT office building sealed up against the outside, maybe a quick dash across the concrete walks and streets to pick up lunch. So it goes. To not go outside every single day is death, even if merely sitting on the porch with that incredible rain pounding down.
Love how you seamlessly incorporated the DBLB with the NYT write up. It would be a great companion piece for the NYT to publish! It sounded like the writer threw a few select words into CHatGPT to come up with the article. Human emotion and the real sense of glorious revelations beyond the front door were definitely missing. Our local Seven Days paper did a much better job at sending us out to go on a great adventure across VT. Though it was all food related destinations, it captured all of our curiosity with great incentives. Dogbane Leaf Beetle is pretty cool! Makes me wish when I was a child—my mom pointed out the little things. She loved the painted landscapes of upstate NY. Me too, but I was much more interested in dropping ants into spider webs to watch the spider spin its silk around its prey. Just imagine if taking the classroom outside was an embedded standard of learning like the Waldorf schools. I would know my Beetles like the ABCs.
Your column was great as usual. I give the NYT props for acknowledging we're addicted to our phones and trying to gradually wean us off of them, starting with 20 minutes a day.
Don't get me wrong -- I'm with you! I give The Times credit as well. I only wish they had been more compelling about the tons of nature in the city. And I'm going to write again on phone and nature and culture, mostly nature's absence from the culture.
Bryan, not to criticize your piece but for many those simple suggestions are perhaps beyond what they had ever considered. As you know, far too many people don't understand or appreciate getting out and paying attention to the natural world that is right around them so they need those beginning steps. After that they can get down and dirty and watch the wonderful world of Dogbane Leaf Beetle sex. Thanks for your inspiring all of us to get out and see.
Please do criticize, David. I'm with you on this. Like you, I'm glad to see The Times getting folks out into the city for nature. I only wish they had been better on the nature.
But there's a much bigger essay here -- bigger than phones: nature's absence from the culture. I'll be writing on that.
Regardless, thanks to you as well for inspiring us to get out into the wild wherever we can find it.
Delightful read on a Friday morning! Thanks for starting the day off with a laugh :)
I don't want to fault the NYT article too much since that is, sadly, the state of most of our society these days. No wonder we have a biodiversity crisis!
But they did miss a great opportunity to go deeper. Unfortunately, most people don't appreciate insects AT ALL - except perhaps butterflies and fireflies.
This reminds of the time the NYTimes recipe section wrote an article about the easiest way to boil an egg and it was also about 1000 words, had 100 steps and involved programming a nuclear reactor.
New Yorkers seem to belong to a different, but very innovative species. Their most recent discovery seems to be that there is an "outside." As for the dogbane beetle, it is one of hundreds of insect species that have evolved resistance to the cardenolides (heart poisons) in their food plants (https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/731277). Monarch butterflies are the prime example. As for the long copulation, sure, it can be male guarding, but in blister beetles (Meloidae), only the males synthesize the toxic cantharidin, and transfer it to the female during copulation, who sequester it into the eggs. I wonder if something like that could also go on in the dogbane leaf beetle, even though the chemistry of cardenolides and cantharidins is different.
Yes, I suppose I should have mentioned that the cardenolide tolerance isn't all that uncommon (nor is the promiscuity among insects, for that matter). Thanks for the link -- I'll have a look at the paper. And that cantharidin is indeed quite the nuptial gift from a blister beetle to its mate. So if female Chrysochus are eating from the same plants as males, might a male still have something to offer a female? Cool question. Perhaps it depend on what else the male may synthesize?
Thank you for the map. It is a reminder to me that I should (?) be posting my observations. I went to the place I usually see this beetle in Shutesbury MA where I look for bog copper butterflies and WOW, it has an iNaturalist sighting for this beetle listed! Now on to check my feelings of guilt as I look to see if the same naturalist posted the butterfly...
Fabulous in every way! Thanks for starting my day with a smile. And a bely laugh.
Heather Remoff
I must write on flowers and pollination at some point soon! 😀
I went outside yesterday.
Yay! Me too. (Torrential rains.)
I work outside and spend pretty much every free moment outside as well - a lifelong habit. So I was pretty horrified when I read the NYT article and the concept that people might need to break the 20 minute recommended time into shorter, cumulative blocks.
Yeah, it so foreign -- but sadly not unusual. We're unusual!
Hi Bryan,
Pretty cool 😎 thanks and have a good day, Pamela
Oh, THANK YOU, Bryan. And to think of that big old NYT office building sealed up against the outside, maybe a quick dash across the concrete walks and streets to pick up lunch. So it goes. To not go outside every single day is death, even if merely sitting on the porch with that incredible rain pounding down.
And that was some rain -- I was out for part of it!
Love how you seamlessly incorporated the DBLB with the NYT write up. It would be a great companion piece for the NYT to publish! It sounded like the writer threw a few select words into CHatGPT to come up with the article. Human emotion and the real sense of glorious revelations beyond the front door were definitely missing. Our local Seven Days paper did a much better job at sending us out to go on a great adventure across VT. Though it was all food related destinations, it captured all of our curiosity with great incentives. Dogbane Leaf Beetle is pretty cool! Makes me wish when I was a child—my mom pointed out the little things. She loved the painted landscapes of upstate NY. Me too, but I was much more interested in dropping ants into spider webs to watch the spider spin its silk around its prey. Just imagine if taking the classroom outside was an embedded standard of learning like the Waldorf schools. I would know my Beetles like the ABCs.
Your column was great as usual. I give the NYT props for acknowledging we're addicted to our phones and trying to gradually wean us off of them, starting with 20 minutes a day.
Don't get me wrong -- I'm with you! I give The Times credit as well. I only wish they had been more compelling about the tons of nature in the city. And I'm going to write again on phone and nature and culture, mostly nature's absence from the culture.
Looking forward to it!
Bryan, not to criticize your piece but for many those simple suggestions are perhaps beyond what they had ever considered. As you know, far too many people don't understand or appreciate getting out and paying attention to the natural world that is right around them so they need those beginning steps. After that they can get down and dirty and watch the wonderful world of Dogbane Leaf Beetle sex. Thanks for your inspiring all of us to get out and see.
Please do criticize, David. I'm with you on this. Like you, I'm glad to see The Times getting folks out into the city for nature. I only wish they had been better on the nature.
But there's a much bigger essay here -- bigger than phones: nature's absence from the culture. I'll be writing on that.
Regardless, thanks to you as well for inspiring us to get out into the wild wherever we can find it.
Yeah, that's a key point. Put the phone away. Take off the headphones. Slow down. Walk. Stop. Look. Listen. Smell. Ask questions. Be wonder-full!
Delightful read on a Friday morning! Thanks for starting the day off with a laugh :)
I don't want to fault the NYT article too much since that is, sadly, the state of most of our society these days. No wonder we have a biodiversity crisis!
But they did miss a great opportunity to go deeper. Unfortunately, most people don't appreciate insects AT ALL - except perhaps butterflies and fireflies.
Thanks, Ruth. I'm glad you're out there reporting from the green as well!
This reminds of the time the NYTimes recipe section wrote an article about the easiest way to boil an egg and it was also about 1000 words, had 100 steps and involved programming a nuclear reactor.
Ha! Next thing you know, Aaron, they'll be tapping ITER for all that!
Sounds like they're just buzzing off some buzz words lol I'd trust you in the matter much more than them. Godspeed!
You’re funny 😆
You are fun and funny. A delicious romp, Nature Boy!🥰🤣🕺
New Yorkers seem to belong to a different, but very innovative species. Their most recent discovery seems to be that there is an "outside." As for the dogbane beetle, it is one of hundreds of insect species that have evolved resistance to the cardenolides (heart poisons) in their food plants (https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/731277). Monarch butterflies are the prime example. As for the long copulation, sure, it can be male guarding, but in blister beetles (Meloidae), only the males synthesize the toxic cantharidin, and transfer it to the female during copulation, who sequester it into the eggs. I wonder if something like that could also go on in the dogbane leaf beetle, even though the chemistry of cardenolides and cantharidins is different.
Yes, I suppose I should have mentioned that the cardenolide tolerance isn't all that uncommon (nor is the promiscuity among insects, for that matter). Thanks for the link -- I'll have a look at the paper. And that cantharidin is indeed quite the nuptial gift from a blister beetle to its mate. So if female Chrysochus are eating from the same plants as males, might a male still have something to offer a female? Cool question. Perhaps it depend on what else the male may synthesize?
We have tons of dobgane in our meadows at Paddock Hill, but I never thought to look for this beetle. Thanks for the reminder!
Depending on your location, they'e out on the dogbane from June into August. July and August are best here in New England.
We're south of you--Pennsylvania. I'll start keeping my eyes peeled.
They are out now in Pennsylvania!
Thank you for the map. It is a reminder to me that I should (?) be posting my observations. I went to the place I usually see this beetle in Shutesbury MA where I look for bog copper butterflies and WOW, it has an iNaturalist sighting for this beetle listed! Now on to check my feelings of guilt as I look to see if the same naturalist posted the butterfly...
A friend of mine reported the butterfly nearby, but not in my reliable bog.
and the place I go for bog elfin is not on iNaturalist. I must amend my ways.
You, Sue, have nothing to prove or amend! 😀