Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Slash and Burn “Campaign for the 21st Century”

Posted on 2013-08-23 by admin

Sign the Petition to Restore Science to Brooklyn Botanic Garden! (Added 2013-09-16)

Updates:
2013-08-29: Added more links. I will continue to do so as this story begins to get more exposure.
2013-08-24: Expanded analysis. Added more external links to relevant sections of BBG’s Web site.
2013-08-23 18:00: Added response from BBG.

I was alarmed to read the following on Twitter yesterday [2013-08-21]:

Brooklyn Botanic Garden suspends science program and lays off botany staff. Express concerns to president Scot Medbury scotmedbury@bbg.org.
– New York Flora Association, 2013-08-22, ~06:00 EDT

My Letter

For over a century, since its founding, science has been a foundation of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It is a primary reason why I have supported them. This morning [2013-08-23] I wrote the following email to Scot Medbury, President, Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG), and the Director of Major Gifts at BBG’s Development Department:

Subject: The end of BBG’s Scientific Mission?

I’m writing to express my concern at what I’m hearing about the elimination of all remaining science staff at BBG.

I would like a statement of what was done, and why, and what BBG’s future plans are for its scientific mission.

BBG’s scientific mission has been a foundation for over a century. It is a primary reason why I have supported BBG. Not just financially, but through social media: my blog, Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook. I even helped organize a meetup of Brooklyn Bloggers at BBG a few years ago.

This latest – and apparently final – blow to science at BBG makes me question my support.

You can respond by email or phone. My cell number is XXXX.

Thanks in advance for your attention to this.

BBG’s response

Not long after, I received the following response from Kathryn Glass, VP of Marketing at BBG:

Thank you for your interest in and concern for BBG.

I’m sad to have to confirm that, because of financial difficulties coupled with a serious infrastructure issue in the foundation of the Garden’s off-site science building, BBG announced Wednesday that it was suspending its field-based botanical research program and putting the related programs and projects on hiatus. During this suspension interim, there’s going to be very limited access to the 300,000 specimen herbarium.

This decision was not taken lightly, and puts major challenges to not only temporarily relocate the herbarium and re-building the building, but also to plan for bringing back the research program with a strong plan for sustaining it. So not a lot of clarity here but the picture will emerge over the next months and years.

Again, thank you for your support of the garden.

The announcement mentioned was strictly internal, and sent by email. Later this afternoon, I saw the article in the Crown Heights and Prospect Heights edition of DNAInfo, which leaked the email:

“Despite the successes achieved in the Garden’s most recent fiscal year ending June 30th, BBG faced significant challenges in planning the FY14 budget because of increased insurance and employee-benefits expenses, among others,” Garden President Scot Medbury told staff in an email obtained by DNAinfo.

“The Garden faced a shortfall that could not be fully addressed by increasing revenue targets or reducing non-personnel costs.”

– Brooklyn Botanic Garden Cuts Science Staff Weeks After Native Garden Debut, DNAInfo, Crown Heights and Prospect Heights edition, 2013-08-23, 10:15 EDT

Analysis

For the past several years, under the guise of its “Campaign for the Next Century,” the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has been in a development frenzy – the Edibles/Kitchen Garden, The Visitor Center, the Native Flora Garden Expansion, the planned overhaul of the Children’s Corner at Flatbush and Parkside. Ample naming and branding opportunities to go around. At the same time, it has been gradually eroding its scientific and educational missions.

BBG claims these benefits for its “Campaign”:

… these enhancements will help the Garden … [foster] a love and understanding of plants and the natural world and inspiring the next generation of environmental stewards.
– “Vision,” Campaign for the Next Century, Brooklyn Botanic Garden [Emphasis added]

What relevant understanding of “plants and the natural world” is possible without science? What inspiration can the next generation find when science is valued less than a plot of Lilacs?

I can only begin to identify other costs and impacts of BBG’s “suspension” of science:

The New York Metropolitan Flora Project has provided information to other organizations working to document, and mitigate, the impacts of invasive plants in our region.
Field work has supported the work of other programs and organizations, such as the Greenbelt Native Plant Center, and the Long Island Native Plant Initiative, to document, collect, and preserve the natural botanical heritage of the region.
Just one year ago, BBG hosted a two week Herbarium Course, co-sponsored with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, for students to “learn how to properly curate and conserve a scientific collection of preserved plants.”
Earlier last year, Hobart and William Smith College donated its entire herbarium collection to BBG.

By turning its back on its scientific mission, BBG has betrayed the trust of these and scores of other institutions and individuals that have collaborated with them. BBG has lost the right to call itself a “botanic” garden.

For a vision of what has been lost, read this article of a visit in 2005, just before Scot Medbury was installed as President of BBG, and began destroying it all.

Spring has Sprung, Ivan Oransky, TheScientist, 2005-04-25

Links

Reports:

Botanic Garden’s celebrated plant research center wilts under layoffs, NY Daily News, 2013-08-28
Brooklyn Botanic Garden Cuts Science Staff Weeks After Native Garden Debut, DNAInfo, Crown
Heights and Prospect Heights edition, 2013-08-23

Reactions:
Softball Practice: Part 1: When an Organization Undermines Its Own Mission, 2013-08-24; Part 2: Follow up to “When an Organization Undermines . . .”, 2013-08-29
BBG Purge, Backyard and Beyond, 2013-08-23
Brooklyn Botanic Garden suspends science program, Kent Holsinger, 2013-08-23

Background:
Brooklyn Botanic Garden Names New President, Press Release, published on BGCI Web site, 2005-08-15

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Announces Interim Herbarium Plans, 2013-09-12
BBG Announces Plan to Reenvision Research Program, 2013-09-06
Brooklyn Botanic Garden Announces Suspension of Research Program, 2013-08-28
Note: BBG PULLED this press release when they decided they were “re-envisioning,” not “suspending.”

Campaign for the Next Century
Herbarium
Herbarium Course at BBG, 2012-08-10
Herbarium Receives Historic Collection, 2012-05-31
New York Metropolitan Flora Project (NYMF)

BBG’s 2013-09-06 Press Release:

In late August, Brooklyn Botanic Garden announced plans to put its research program on hiatus while it grapples with an engineering problem in its science building and formulates a plan for a new research direction in plant conservation.

Garden president Scot Medbury said, “Our commitment to scientific research as a fundamental part of the Garden’s mission is unwavering. We will use this transition period to refine the focus of our research program and strengthen its base of financial support.”

During the hiatus, the Garden is taking proactive steps to protect its valuable herbarium from a failing building foundation and will limit herbarium access to qualified researchers while planning to relocate the collection.

“BBG has successfully reimagined its research programs several times in its hundred-year history, and this is another such juncture,” said Medbury.

BBG’s 2013-09-12 Press Release:

Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) today announced a new collaboration offered by The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) during a period of planning and construction affecting access to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Herbarium.

In late August, engineering problems affecting the foundation at Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s off-site science center led to a phased closure of that building and consequent access restrictions to its herbarium, the collection of 330,000 pressed, dried plant specimens housed there. While planning gets under way to relocate the BBG Herbarium (BKL), BBG will remain focused on the care of its herbarium collections, maintaining one part-time and two full-time staff members, including its director of collections, Tony Morosco, an eight-year veteran of the University of California’s Jepson Herbarium during a similar period of transition.

As part of the new collaboration, science staff from NYBG’s William and Lynda Steere Herbarium will provide additional monitoring and support for the BKL during BBG’s planning phases. BBG’s important subcollection of herbarium type specimens will be temporarily moved to NYBG to facilitate researcher access. NYBG will also help process the return of loans made to other institutions from the BKL and assist with future loan requests. In addition, plans are in progress to transfer the BKL database to NYBG, where it will become a subunit of NYBG’s C.V. Starr Virtual Herbarium.

“Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s commitment to ensuring that scientific research remains a fundamental part of its mission is unwavering,” said Scot Medbury, president of BBG. “We are deeply grateful to The New York Botanical Garden for their generous technical support while we undergo a major transition.”

The Supermodel in the Sewer: /Dolichovespula maculata/, Bald-Faced Hornet

Posted on 2013-08-18 by admin

Setting aside for a moment the less-than-appealing staging, this is a beautiful creature.

This is Dolichovespula maculata, the Bald-Faced Hornet. Despite its prevalence, this is my first direct encounter with one.

I’m more familiar with its signature creation: its nest. Here’s a huge one I found a few years ago high in one of the Lilacs at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It was March; this one was left over from the previous year.

They typically nest high in trees, or large shrubs like the Lilac above. Sheltered by summer foliage, and camouflaged the color the bark, they’re difficult to spot. We’re more likely to discover them when they fall. Here’s one that was downed when a tornado swept through Brooklyn in August 2007 …

… and flagged – if mislabelled – by a helpful neighbor.

Earlier in the year, the nests are much smaller. New queens emerge, and create new nests, each year. Here’s one Matthew Wills and I came across during our Magicicada hunt in Staten Island.

The “setting” of the opening photo is canine dung, aka “dog poo.” I prefer to think of this as an image from a photo shoot of an aspiring hipster photographer (me) of a model wearing haute couture (hornet) in a sewer (dung).

Much more glamorous now, ain’t it! Except this hornet is too zäftig to be a modern model.

I observed this individual scrambling over, flying off, then returning to such, uh, settings repeatedly. In between visits from the hornet, each was buzzing with flies. As the horned honed in, the flies flew off.

I think this explains this hornet’s interest. The adults are largely vegetarian, eating nectar and fruit. They capture and pre-chew flies and other insects to food to their larvae. This is the same child-rearing strategy used by a majority of bird species, most of which need insects to feed their young, but are largely vegetarian as adults.

Far from being a “pest” (in human terms) this is a beneficial (in human terms) insect. Carnivorous wasps such as this one help keep insect populations in check. A diversity of species – emerging and active at different times of the year, occupying different habitats, and specializing in different prey – ensure that no one species of insect will get out of control, at least not for long. The better able we are to at least tolerate, if not celebrate, less charismatic species such as wasps and hornets, the more we will be able to enjoy the spaces surrounding our homes, and the healthier will be our interactions with our co-habitants in nature.

Links

Bald-Faced Hornet (Dolichovespula maculata), BugGuide
Bald-faced Hornet, Dolichovespula maculata, Study of Northern Virginia Ecology
Baldfaced Hornet, Virginia Cooperative Extension
Dolichovespula maculata (Linnaeus, 1763) – Baldfaced Hornet, Biological Survey of Canada

Cry Wolf: /Philanthus gibossus/, Beewolf

Posted on 2013-08-14 by admin

Philanthus gibossus, Beewolf, on Pycnanthemum muticum, Clustered Mountain-Mint, in my native plant gardens this past weekend.

This thirsty little wasp face down in a cup of nectar is a Beewolf, so-named because they provision their larvae with bees. Despite the size of the image, these wasps are small; the individual flowers of this Pycnanthemum are about the size of a pencil point.

Their prey is also small. They favor Halictids, Sweat Bees. I grow a wide variety of native plants, attracting any different species of bees and wasps. There are several species of Halictids that frequent my gardens, making good hunting grounds for the Wolves.

I first noticed and identified this species in my garden last summer. I noticed them again this year, then realized I’d never uploaded last year’s photos. They are numerous this time of year, along with the little sweat bees.

Beewolves earn that name. The females target small bees, and even other wasps, as food for their larval offspring. Not all beewolves you see around flowers are there for nectar. The females will actively stalk bees that are busy gathering nectar and pollen themselves. …

A victim is stung immediately between its front legs, disabling a nerve center and rendering the bee paralyzed. The wasp then carries the bee beneath it, held in the wasp’s middle legs. It takes several bees to feed one larval beewolf wasp.

– Wasp Wednesday: Beewolves, Bug Eric

Links

BugGuide: Philanthus (Beewolves), Philanthus gibbosus
Wasp Wednesday: Beewolves, Bug Eric (Eric Eaton), 2011-08-17

Cupido comyntas, Eastern Tailed-Blue

Posted on 2013-08-03 by admin

Cupido comyntas, Eastern Tailed-Blue.

A lifer butterfly for me. Very lucky to get a few good shots of it while it was resting, wings open, to take in some sun. They’re small and fast.

The undersides of the wings look completely different. Here’s another one the same afternoon in a more typical pose with the wings folded up.

From the flight pattern, I thought at first it was a Summer Azure, which are common here. Perhaps these are what I’ve been seeing instead.

To me, it looks like a cross between an Azure and a Hairstreak. Took me a while to identify it on BugGuide.

There were two, at least, flying around today. Glad they’re finding habitat in my gardens. I hope they make a home here.

Host Plants

The caterpillars eat the flowers and seeds of plants in the Fabaceae (Leguminosae), Pea Family. Genera and species include:

Lathyrus, Wild Pea
Lespedeza, Bush Pea
Medicago sativa, Alfalfa (I had no idea alfalfa was in this family!)
Melilotus officinalis, Yellow Sweet Clover
Trifolium, Clover
Vicia, Vetch

While there is some clover in my yard, the most prominent Fabaceae I’m growing is Wisteria frutescens ‘Amethyst Falls,’ a cultivar of the native Wisteria that has been reblooming in my garden most of the summer this year. I wonder if this is the plant that has attracted them?

Links

BugGuide
BAMONA

Bzzz, Bzzz, Bzzz! (About Bees)

Posted on 2013-07-26 by admin

I Am Not a Honeybee

Earlier this evening, I was interviewed on Sex and Politics Radio, a program broadcast on Brooklyn College Radio. If you missed it, the podcast will be published sometime next week.

How to Make Your Garden Bee-Friendly

Different species of bees have different requirements. Here are some things you can do to make your garden bee-friendly.

Avoid chemicals, especially pesticides.
Leave some areas of bare or muddy ground for ground-nesting species.
Set aside “wild” areas, even a few square feet.
Provide bee nesting houses.
Forego that perfect lawn, minimize lawn area, and/or mow less often.
Plant a diversity of flowering plants; bees prefer yellow, blue, and purple flowers.
Provide a succession of blooming plants throughout the growing season, especially early spring and late fall.
Provide a mix of flower shapes to accommodate different bee tongue lengths.
Emphasize native plants. (See plant lists under Links below.)
Minimize the use of doubled flowers.
Select sunny locations, sheltered from the wind, for your flower plantings.
Practice peaceful coexistence.

Links

Finally, here are some good links where you can learn even more about bees and other insect pollinators.

Recently, several new species of bees were identified in New York City, including two in my area of Brooklyn.

City Bees Newly Discovered, Yet Here All Along, Erik Olsen, City Room, New York Times, 2011-11-10

Rainbow Garden

Posted on 2013-07-02 by admin

My front garden bloomed all the colors of the rainbow just in time for this past Pride Weekend.

The plants in bloom include natives, heirlooms, passalongs from past plant swaps, and weeds. Not everything in bloom is visible in the photo. Some are too small to stand out at this scale. Others are just off-frame to the right.

Achillea millefolium, Common Yarrow, cerise/pink-red, passalong
Campanula trachelium ‘Bernice’, double-flowering Bellflower, purple, purchased
Commelina communis, Asiatic Dayflower, blue, weed
Dianthus (I think), pink, passalong
Echinacea purpurea, Purple Coneflower, purple-pink, native
Hemerocallis fulva, Daylily, orange, came with the house
Hemerocallis fulva, double-flowering Daylily, orange, heirloom
Hemerocallis ‘Pardon Me’, red, purchased
Oxalis stricta, Upright Wood-Sorrel, yellow, native/weed
Rudbeckia fulgida, Black-eyed Susan, yellow, native

The white-flowering plants are:

Alcea rosea, Common Hollyhock, seed strain that came with the house
Digitalis purpurea, Foxglove, seed strain that came with the house
Penstemon digitalis, Tall White Beard-tongue, native
Thalictrum pubescens, Tall Meadow-Rue, native
Trifolium repens, White Clover

Almost everything in this photo was newly planted this Spring. The only existing plantings are those near the steps. You can see everything is in full sun. It wasn’t so when we bought the house.

Two years ago, Hurricane Irene hit. The mature London Plane Tree in front of our next-door neighbor-to-the-south came down. This changed our shady front yard to one of full sun, and opened up new opportunities for plant choices.

It also allowed me to advance my long-term plan of planting all of the front yard, and eliminating the last vestiges of “lawn” from our property. So this Spring, I planted out the first section, along the driveway. I’ll make my way across the lawn year-by-year. In a few years, the entire front yard will be planted out.

Physocephala tibialis, Thick-Headed Fly

Posted on 2013-06-30 by admin

2013-12-29: Identified as Physocephala tibialis by Aaron Schusteff, Contributing Editor of BugGuide.

A few weeks ago, I tweeted:

2013-06-11 19:57: Found – or rather one of our cats did – an incredible wasp-mimic fly. Chilling in refrigerator for later identification.

2013-06-11 20:01: The fly looks very similar to /Physocephala/
http://bugguide.net/node/view/7190/bgimage except all-black at first glance. Will examine more closely later.

This is what she found:

Yes, that is a fly, not a wasp. You can tell it’s a fly from the antennae in the center of the face, instead of the top of the head, the large, rounded eyes that cover both sides of the face, instead of being restricted to the upper part of the head, and the “forked” feet.

For comparison, here’s the all-black Sphex pensylvanicus, Great Black Wasp, to which Physocephala bears, I think, a superficial resemblance. Note the position of the antennae, the location, size and shape of the eyes, and the clawed feet.

Even before I knew what it was, from past experience, I knew that wing venation would be important in identification. By chilling this individual in the refrigerator overnight, I got a few minutes of close-focus macro time to highlight all the key features. Based on comparing the wing venation to other examples on BugGuide, I think this is Physocephala, but I’ve submitted it to their experts for positive ID.

Here are my other photos of this impressive mimic.

Links

BugGuide

Amphion floridensis, Nessus Sphinx Moth

Posted on 2013-06-29 by admin

Amphion floridensis, Nessus Sphinx Moth, on Rhododendron viscosum, Swamp Azalea, in my urban backyard native plant garden and wildlife habitat. The two bright yellow bands are a key for this species.

Another lifer moth for me, I saw this in my backyard a few weeks ago. Fortunately, I had my camera with me. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to break out the flash, or the tripod. This was a fast-moving moth.

Here is a better view of the moth at rest. This is from Flickr member Circeson, taken in Atlanta, Georgia.

Amphion only has one brood as far north as New York, from April to July. The specific epithet floridensis – of Florida – points to its more southern range.

Swamp Azalea flowers are intensely fragrant, reminding me of cloves and maple. The deep, trumpet-shaped flowers are perfectly suited to this moth, which hovers in front of each flower while it sips out nectar with its long tongue from the nectaries at the base of the corolla.

Sphinx Moths, Family Sphingidae, are medium to large moths, generally colorful, and certainly eye-catching in flight.

Links

BugGuide
BAMONA

Long Island Native Plant Sale, June 7&8, 14&15

Posted on 2013-06-06 by admin

2013-06-09: Updated from my visit on Saturday, 6/8.

The Sale

This Friday and Saturday, June 7 and 8, and next week as well, June 14 and 15, is a rare opportunity to purchase local ecotypes – plants propagated from local wild populations – of plants native to Long Island. The sale is organized by the Long Island Native Plant Initiative (LINPI). Proceeds benefit LINPI.

It’s gratifying to see this happening. I’ve lived most of my life on Long Island, including the 20+ years I’ve lived in Brooklyn which, after all, comprises the westernmost reaches of Long Island.

Note that the location of the sale is not at LINPI’s headquarters. The sale is at the Greenhouse of the Eastern Campus of Suffolk County Community College, 121 Speonk-Riverhead Road, Riverhead NY 11901.

The Plants

Asclepias incarnata, Swamp Milkweed, one of the species on sale.

These are species that were advertised to be in the sale. There were even more species available that were not listed in advance, nearly double this number available onsite, a diverse selection.

Botanical name	Common Name
Myrica pensylvanica	Northern Bayberry
Pinus rigida	Pitch Pine
Prunus serotinus	Black Cherry
Andropogon gerardii	Big Bluestem
Andropogon virginicus	Broome Sedge
Dichanthelium clandestinum	Deer Tongue
Eragrostis spectabilis	Purple Lovegrass
Panicum virgatum	Switchgrass
Schizachyrium scoparium	Little Bluestem
Sorghastrum nutans	Indian Grass
Tridens flavus	Purple Top/Grease Grass
Asclepias syriaca	Common Milk Weed
Asclepias tuberosa	Butterfly Weed
Asclepias incarnata	Swamp Milkweed
Baptisia tinctoria	False Indigo
Chrysopsis mariana	Maryland Goldenaster
Eupatorium fistulosum	Joe Pye weed
Eupatorium hyssopifolium	Hyssop-leaved Thoroughwort
Eupatorium serotinum	Late-flowering Thoroughwort
Euthamia caroliniana	Slender Goldentop
Euthamia gramnifolia	Grass-leaved Goldentop
Lespedeza capitata	Round-headed Bush Clover
Lespedeza hirta	Hairy Bush Clover
Lespedeza virginica	Slender Bush Clover
Opuntia humifusa	Eastern Prickly Pear
Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium	Sweet Everlasting
Pycnanthemum tenuifolium	Slender-leaved Mountain Mint
Pycnanthemum virginianum	Virginia Mountain Mint
Rudbeckia hirta	Black Eyed Susan
Solidago nemoralis	Gray Goldenrod
Solidago juncea	Early Goldenrod
Symphyotrichum laeve	Smooth Blue Aster
Symphyotrichum novae-angliae	New England Aster
Symphyotrichum pilosum	Hairy White Field Aster
Vernonia noveboracensis	New York Ironweed

My Selections

I picked up over a dozen different species, most of them second year seedlings in six-packs.

Asclepias incarnata, Swamp Milkweed
Asclepias tuberosa, Butterfly Weed
Baptisia tinctoria, Wild Indigo
Eragrostic spectabilis, Purple Lovegrass
Ionactis linarifolius, Stiff Aster
Lespedeza capitata, Roundhead Lespedeza
Opuntia humifusa, Eastern Prickly-Pear
Pycnanthemum tenuifolium, Narrow-Leaved Mountain-Mint
Pycnanthemum virginianum, Virginia Mountain-Mint
Schizachyrium scoparium, Little Bluestem
Trichostema dichotomum, Forked Blue Curls
Verbena hastata, Blue Vervain
Viola lanceolata, Bog White Violet

Map of Level IV Ecoregions in and around New York City, including most of Long Island.

Links

Long Island Native Plant Initiative (LINPI): Plant Sale
Native Plant Sale, June 7,8; June 14, 15, 2013 (Facebook Event Page)
Google Map

Pycnanthemum muticum, Clustered Mountain-Mint in my garden, bejeweled with pollinators. Two other species are on sale.

Magicicada Brood II

Posted on 2013-05-28 by admin

UPDATED: Expanded and organized into topics.

Magicicada in Staten Island’s Clove Lakes Park

Yesterday, Matthew Wills and I traveled to Staten Island in search of Magicicada, the periodical cicada, specifically, Brood II. We both had examined the online reports and articles; although the south shore of Staten Island is their stronghold, Cloves Lake Park – not that far from the ferry terminal – kept turning up as one of the places they’d been sighted. As a bonus, I had the car, and this park was closest to the Verrazano narrows bridge.

Matthew had some intel that they had been sighted in the northwest section of the park, so we started there. Finding none after scouring the narrow northern end of the park, we packed up and went to the southwestern edge, and parked along Royal Oak Road.

Jackpot!

Once Matthew and I found the evidence, it was hard to miss. The ground in many places had numerous exit holes. These are only six inches apart or so.

Closer to the bases of the trees, there were innumerable husks – shed nymphal exoskeletons – as well as disembodied parts of adults that had been eaten by their numerous predators.

We each collected samples at different locations. I’m hoping I can cobble together enough to identify at least one of the species.

Within a minute after we’d parked. Matthew found one nymph struggling through the long grass, the only live individual we found. We took turns posing with it. Here it is on Matthew’s arm, obligingly depositing a generous drop of honeydew. (We didn’t sample it.)

After our photo shoot, we placed it on the nearest tree, next to my parked car. As we left, we found it again on the tree, just a few feet above where we had placed it. Its appearance had already changed from just an hour or so earlier; it no longer appeared quite so fresh and juicy. It was working on its molt into an adult.

Their distribution was extremely localized. Even venturing away from the street along the margin of the park turned up relatively few husks, although they were abundant along the street trees. Matthew hypothesized, and I concur, that the paved areas of street and sidewalk create a micro-climate that warms the surrounding soil earlier than more shaded, unpaved areas. So what we found is just the advance guard. The deeper and wilder woods that comprise the southern end of Clove Lakes Park is ideal cicada territory. It’s going to be quite a party.

Given the difficulty we had in finding them, I would recommend to other eco-tourists to wait until the warmer weather later this week, when they should emerge in even greater numbers. Once they begin sounding off – which could be as early as this weekend – they will be easy to locate. It would have saved us a lot of time if the little buggers had been announcing their presence!

About Magicicada

Magicicada spend most of their life underground, suckling on tree roots. Every 13 or 17 years – prime numbers – they emerge as nymphs, metamorphosize into adults and molt their nymphal exoskeletons, mate, and die. Hopefully, they emerge in numbers overwhelming to their predators, who gladly feast upon them.

There are seven identified species: three 17-year species and four 13-year species.

The years of emergence are not hard and fast. Some populations of Brood II emerged in 2009, four years “early” or 13 years, instead of 17 years, after they hatched and burrowed underground. Broods that emerge early or later, – almost always exactly four years off their normal cycle – are called stragglers. Because each species is typically tied to its 13- or 17-year cycle, straggling is believed to play a role in species formation.

Links

Cloves Lake Park, NYC Parks

The awesome Magicicada Mapping Project (magicicada.org):

Sign the Petition to Restore Science to Brooklyn Botanic Garden! (Added 2013-09-16)

Contents

My Letter

BBG’s response

Analysis

Related Content

Links

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Related Content

Links

Related Content

Links

Host Plants

Related Content

Links

Related Content

How to Make Your Garden Bee-Friendly

Recommended Reading

Links

NYC

Plant Lists

Other

Related Content

Related Content

Links

Related Content

Links

The Sale

The Plants

My Selections

Related Content

Links

Contents

Magicicada in Staten Island’s Clove Lakes Park

About Magicicada

Related Content

Links