American burying beetle (Nicrophorus americanus)

Species: American burying beetle (Nicrophorus americanus)

Status: Critically Endangered (CR)

Interesting Fact: The American burying beetle buries a whole carcass to feed its young!

The largest carrion beetle in North America, the American burying beetle is an attractive species with bright orange markings. These beetles are named for their specialised mechanism of parental care that involves providing the growing larvae with carrion upon which to feed. At night, beetle pairs will locate a suitable carcass and then cooperate to bury it in the soil, thus protecting their find from competition with other species. Once the carcass is beneath the soil, the beetles strip away the fur or feathers and produce a compact ball; the female then lays her eggs in a chamber created above the carcass. Unusually for insects, the parents both remain to provide for the larvae after they have hatched, regurgitating food for the growing grubs until they are able to feed for themselves. Roughly a week later, the larvae pupate in the soil nearby, having consumed the entire food supply; they will emerge as adults around a month later and overwinter in this stage.

The American burying beetle has disappeared from much of its former range, with one of the major causes of the decline believed to be loss and fragmentation of available habitat. This species is now being monitored, with plans to breed it in captivity and reintroduce it in the future.

Find out more about the American burying beetle from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

View images of the American burying beetle on ARKive.

Becky Moran, ARKive Species Text Author

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Name: Queen Alexandra’s birdwing (Ornithoptera alexandrae)

Stats:

Status - Endangered (EN)

Wingspan – Up to 28 centimetres

Interesting Fact:

An enormous wingspan of up to 28 centimetres earns this magnificently vibrant insect the title of being the world’s biggest butterfly. Highly specialised, it feeds and reproduces on a single species of toxic vine, making the caterpillars distasteful to predators, and if consumed can cause severe vomiting.

Where am I found?

Found only in the lowland rainforests of northern Papua New Guinea, east of the Owen Stanley Mountains, Queen Alexandra’s birdwing has an extremely small range.

What do I eat?

Both the adult butterfly and the caterpillar feed only from the vine species Aristolochia schlechteri.

How do I live?

Queen Alexandra’s birdwing lays a single egg on the underside of one of the vine leaves and after 11 to 13 days the caterpillar hatches and eats almost constantly, growing rapidly. The vine contains a toxic substance which, although not poisonous to the caterpillar, makes it distasteful to potential predators, and may cause severe vomiting.

The caterpillar’s rapid growth is accompanied by six moults, in which the caterpillar grows new skin and sheds the former, before forming a chrysalis, in which metamorphosis takes place over a period of 40 to 45 days.

Why am I threatened?

As one of the world’s most beautiful butterflies, Queen Alexandra’s birdwing is extremely attractive to collectors. Fetching thousands of dollars per butterfly, this rare species has been severely over harvested.

However, the greatest threat to Queen Alexandra’s birdwing is the loss of its lowland rainforest habitat. Historically, forests were cleared for farming and logging, and a vast area was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mount Lamingtonin 1951. Today, the main cause of forest loss is the expansion of the palm oil industry, and the development of rubber and cocoa plantations.

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Another Valentine’s day has passed us by and it seems as though invertebrates have been overlooked. If our spineless friends had the capability to feel emotion, this would surely be a blow to their fragile self esteem.

One of my personal favourite invert groups are the crayfish. At a time of year when couples are demonstrating love for one another by dancing in the manner of a bird of paradise, or showing commitment by fusing with their other half in the in the style of a deep sea anglerfish, these enigmatic Arthropods are simply left out.

In the spirit of ARKive’s Love Species Campaign, I want more people to appreciate crayfish for what they are, so here is why I love them.

Freshwater lobsters

You might have noticed that crayfish strongly resemble lobsters in appearance, and that’s because they are, in fact, very closely related. Both groups belong to the infra-order Astacidea.

Unlike lobsters however, which are marine crustaceans, crayfish only inhabit freshwater systems such as streams and rivers. Generally speaking, crayfish are also a fair bit smaller than your average lobster, but some have been shown to reach truly massive sizes.

Owing to their riverine existence, crayfish are often referred to as freshwater lobsters, neatly leading on to my next point.

Funny names

As a group, crayfish are rather cosmopolitan. They exist on a variety of continents and so people have labelled them with a host of interesting names. Focusing on the English speaking world, ‘craw’ seems to be a preferred prefix in the USA. Names there range from crawfish, crawdad and crawdaddy, all the way over to mudbug and my personal favourite; spoondog.

As always, Australia takes the cake for far-flung nomenclature, referring to a variety of crayfish species as yabbies.

The yabbie - crayfish are amphibious, able to traverse stretches of land between freshwater systems such as rivers and streams.

Crayfish plague my heart

Crayfish around the world are susceptible to a nasty fungal disease known as crayfish plague. Europe is currently seeing the worst effects, with the plague being highly lethal to native species such as the now Endangered white-clawed crayfish.

What’s worse, European species are being outcompeted by an invasive called the American signal crayfish. Not only is it larger and more efficient at catching food, but the American signal is resistant to plague. It acts as a carrier for the disease as it spreads across the continent, obliterating native European crayfish when entering new freshwater systems.

American signal crayfish feasting on a common carp. This species acts as a carrier for crayfish plague.

There you have it. I love crayfish because they look like lobsters, have a variety of strange names (bonus name; grave digger) and are threatened by a lethal fungal disease.

It’s all too easy to overlook less aesthetic species in favour of fluffier ones, but I hope this will inspire you to spare a thought for invertebrate life at this lonely time of year.

Robert Morgan, ARKive Media Researcher

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