Now Posted on E-Fauna BC: An Introduction to the Fishes of British Columbia

 

 Ratfish (Hydrolagus colliei)

This month, E-Fauna Fish Editor Eric (Rick) Taylor has posted his new Introduction to the Fishes of British Columbia.  He says:  "The fishes of British Columbia are an extremely diverse and interesting wildlife group. With 67 native and 15 or so introduced species of freshwater fishes and 409 native species of marine fishes, British Columbia boasts a fish fauna much richer than most provinces in Canada. A simple count of named species as a measure of diversity, however, does not tell the true story of BC’s diversity of fishes. First, many species are endemic to BC; that is, they occur nowhere else in Canada. Second, BC, owing to its mountainous terrain and a mix of freshwater and marine habitats, possesses myriad genetically distinct populations within species (including several thousand distinct populations of Pacific salmon and trout). In addition, some “species complexes” comprise genetically distinct populations living together that act as distinct biological species, but have not yet been named as such (e.g., BC’s world famous “species pairs” of threespine sticklebacks)." 

Read the rest of Rick's article here. 

New E-Fauna Species Account Now Posted: Eubranchipus hesperius n. sp. (Western Ethologist Fairy Shrimp)

 

 Eubranchipus hesperius n. sp. (Western Ethologist Fairy Shrimp), photo by Ian Gardiner

A new species account for Eubranchipus hesperius n. sp. (Western Ethologist Fairy Shrimp--unofficial name), Order Anostraca, prepared by Thalia Grant, has now been posted on E-Fauna BC.  In her write up, Thalia says: 

"Eubranchipus hesperius was recently declared a new species, separate from Eubranchipus serratus Forbes 1876 (Rogers, 2014). It differs from E. serratus in the morphology of its antenna, brood pouch and abdomen, and in its geographical range; E. hesperius is found in North American transmontane and cold desert bioregions west of the Great Plains. E. serratus is now considered restricted to the Appalachian/Ozark bioregions and eastern Great Plains of the United States."

"Eubranchipus hesperius has been recorded in British Columbia, eastern Washington and Oregon, Idaho, western Montana, northwestern California, northeastern Nevada and central Arizona. In British Columbia, E. hesperius has been found at altitudes of 600 to 1700 meters around Merritt, south of Merritt on Iron Mt., Selish Mt., Gillis Mt. and Shovelnose Mt., southwest and southeast of Kamloops, and in Curzon in the southeastern part of the province (Smithsonian collections, RBCM collections, Ian Gardiner, Thalia Grant)."

Read about the Western Ethologist Fairy Shrimp (unofficial name) here.
View Ian Gardiner's fabulous photos for this species here.  
Read Thalia's species account for the Oregon Fairy Shrimp here.
View Thalia's key to the Anostraca.

Note to Registered E-Fauna Photographers

This week E-Fauna was hacked into, and there was some damage.  While we now have the site back up and running, some data was lost. The database that holds the photo details that accompany your photos was corrupted.  Our back up files were also corrupted.  The result of this is that if you submitted photos to E-Fauna between August 2014 and now, your photo details will have been wiped out. This includes the location information, date, habitat, and comments. Lats and longs will still be there, as these were unaffected.  We are asking you, if you have the time, to re-enter the details, particularly the location of your shot.  To do this, go to the 'edit my photos' link at the top of the photo upload page. That will take you to your photo file where you can re-enter the data.

Steps have already been taken to ensure that if we are hacked again, we will have back ups to replace lost data that can't be corrupted.

Oregon Fairy Shrimp (Eubranchipus oregonus): Species Account Now Posted

 Oregon Fairy Shrimp, photo by Thalia Grant

A new species account for the Oregon Fairy Shrimp (Eubranchipus oregonus), written by reseacher Thalia Grant, is now posted on E-Fauna BC. This tiny crustacean species is primarily a species of western North America (disjunct in Oklahoma), where it is reported from California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. In British Columbia, it is described by Thalia as "recorded from Vancouver Island, Salt Spring Island, Texada Island, Galiano Island and on the lower mainland between the US border and Whistler, with one historical outlying record from Kamloops (RBCM collection). It is now rare on the mainland of British Columbia. The species was first described in Oregon, in 1930. It was first collected in Hope, BC, in 1918 but at the time was misidentified as Eubranchipus vernalis (Johansen, 1921; Ferguson, 1935)."  

Thalia describes the habitat of the Oregon Fairy Shrimp as follows:  "[It] occupies small, freshwater ephemeral ponds from sea level to 1500 meters elevation. It is restricted to small water bodies that are neutral to mildly acidic, low in dissolved solids and turbidity, have little or no flow, and are inundated for several months (Eng et. al, 1990). Habitat ranges from deciduous or mixed forest, to wet meadow and Typha-dominated pools, with some shade and proximity to coniferous forest being frequent habitat descriptors (Hill et. al, 1997)."

Thalia Grant is a recognized expert on the Galapagos, and has been working on Eubranchipus oregonus with John Richardson at UBC.  She has recently published a book titled Darwin in Galapagos: Footsteps to a New World (2009).  Her most recent Galapagos research has focused on the distribution and breeding behavior of the world’s rarest gull, the Lava Gull (Leucophaeus fuliginosus).

Read more about the Oregon Fairy Shrimp on our atlas page, found here.
Read more about Thalia's book, co-authored by her husband Greg Estes, here. 
View Thalia's photos of the Oregon Fairy Shrimp on E-Fauna BC here.

Additional Rare Bird Articles Now Posted: Red-faced Cormorant, Red-legged Kittiwake, Little Bunting

Additional rare bird articles authored by Rick Toochin, Jamie Fenneman, Louis Haviland, Peter Hamel, Margo Hearne, and Martin Williams have now been posted on E-Fauna BC. These include the following rare species:  Red-faced Cormorant, Red-legged Kittiwake, and Little Bunting.  The rare bird articles are found in our Notes and Articles section. They are comprehensive summaries of the species occurrences in BC and include detailed species descriptions.

E-Fauna BC 2014: New Bird Articles for Baikal Teal, Snowy Egret, Wood Stork and More

Several new rare bird articles are now posted on E-Fauna BC, authored by Rick Toochin, Jamie Fenneman and Don Cecile.  These include articles on Acorn Woodpecker, Baikal Teal, Costa's Hummingbird, Little Blue Heron, Wood Stork, Snowy Egret, Emperor Goose and more.  These detailed articles summarize species distribution globally and in North America, and include all known records for BC.  They include tables, graphs and photographs.

Visit our Notes and Articles section, listed in the home page menu, to call up each PDF. 

Citizen Science: E-Fauna Photographer Adam Blake Confirms Breeding Eastern Bumble Bees in BC

 

 Mating Eastern Bumble Bees (Bombus impatiens), photo by Adam Blake

When SFU entomology graduate student Adam Blake submitted his first photo of a queen and drone bumble bee mating out at Boundary Bay, it looked like it was going to be an important image.  As he indicated in the photo details, it looked like mating Eastern Bumble Bees.  On E-Fauna BC, we had already confirmed the presence of escaped eastern bumble bees in BC as we had received several photos taken in BC. But confirmed breeding would be significant.

Robbin Thorp, author of the recently published Bumble Bees of North America, took a look at the photo and confirmed the species identification and indicated that this was, indeed, a mating pair of Bombus impatiens. Robbin says:  "Interesting photo indeed!  And frightening.  These are a mating pair of the Eastern Bumble Bee, Bombus impatiens.   [It confirms] earlier photos suggesting this eastern species, introduced for use for commercial pollination in tomato greenhouses, has escaped and is now established in southwestern BC!"

Given this, we had to ask: why is the Eastern Bumble Bees being used in greenhouses in BC?

Robbin says:  "In the 1990's we had the Western Bumble Bee, Bombus occidentalis, available for pollination in the western states and provinces. But in 1997, both commercial producing companies reported an outbreak of a pathogen, Nosema bombi, in their rearing facilities and they stopped producing colonies of the western species shortly thereafter. Now we only have one NA bumble bee available as a managed pollinator...There is interest in developing commercial production of a western species for western markets, but it looks like that is too late.  It will be interesting and disturbing to follow the invasion of this eastern species in the west, with your area as a focal point for established and potential subsequent spread.  Unfortunately bumble bees do not need passports to cross international borders and being so close to [the US] border, it would seem only a matter of time before we have B. impatiens in WA and who knows where else in western NA."

Adam now has two photos up on E-Fauna BC confirming the breeding of this species in BC. Congratulations, Adam, on submitting such significant photo records!

Mating Eastern Bumble Bees (Bombus impatiens), photo by Adam Blake

Adam is a PhD candidate in entomology at Simon Fraser University, studying with Gerhard Gries.  His "research deals with insect communication, specifically the use of polarized light as a foraging cue in herbivorous insects."  Adam moved to Burnaby from Edmonton, Alberta to pursue his PhD in the fall of 2012. Previous to that he studied at the University of Alberta where he received both a Master's and undergraduate degrees. He is an avid naturalist and photographer with an interest in insects, birds and plants.  

View the E-Fauna atlas page for the Eastern Bumble Bee here.

View a video taken by Adam of these mating Eastern Bumble Bees here. 

Read our previous post on Robbin's bumble bee book here. 

Read Adam's blog.