Mini Urban Zoo

      Over the last one hundred or so years of human civilization there has been a dramatic shift from people living primarily in rural areas, where agriculture and other primary resource generating activities occur, to living in urban areas such as cities. It was estimated that in 2007 the majority of the world's people would be living in urban centers (McKinney, 2002). What this means is that more people that ever are living in altered urban environments and farther away from native wildlife and plants, so getting out and finding nature can be a bit more difficult. However, compared to other animal groups, insects are a bit easier to find for even a little dose of nature.
     When I moved to Oklahoma to start my job here at the Sam Noble Museum, I rented a tiny apartment not far from the museum. There is a field behind the museum that was left to return to a prairie environment, but the area around my apartment complex proper was far from natural. It was mowed, sprayed, chopped, and otherwise a very neat landscaping job. When I poked around the little yard I had behind my apartment, I wasn't expecting to find much in the way of bugs or plants.
      However, come later that summer, I saw a plant start to crop up in the back area of my yard. Looking closely at the flowers, I noticed it was a monocot (one of the two major groups of plants) and that there was stuff feeding on it. Excitedly I started looking more closely at it, trying to figure out what plant it was, hoping it was a native plant.

Commelina communis, image from wikipedia.com

    I took a plant sample (traditionally botanists take as much of the plant as they can, including the flowers and roots if possible, to identify it), and sat down with my botany book to figure out what it was. It is Commelina communis, or the Asiatic dayflower. And...found out its an invasive, non-native plant from China. Sigh. Its still pretty.
    My second thought was "well, even if the plant isn't native to Oklahoma, maybe the bugs that are feeding on it are!". Many native species of insects have successfully "switched over" to feeding on plants not originally from North America. This includes feeding on things like apple, corn, and other crops produced for food as well as landscaping plants (bushes, ornamental trees). Maybe what was munching on the plant switched too. So, sitting next to the plant one afternoon in the sun with a container to put the bugs in, I caught two things that were feeding on the plant.
     First, I found this beetle.

Criocoris sp. Sorry for the fuzzy image, still figuring out my new camera!

     The beetle is part of the Chrysomelidae family, or the Leaf Beetles. These beetles primarily feed on plants, and usually on one or two types of plants only for each species. This particular beetle, a member of the Criocoris genus, feeds mostly on asparagus (hence its common name, asparagus beetle). They are native to Europe and Asia, where asparagus is also from, and were likely brought over when we brought the plant to farm and eat here in North America. And what is interesting is that not only was little guy not feeding on the non-native asparagus, but instead switched to the non-native dayflower. Both plants are part of the monocot group, so it was a relatively similar group of plants to switch to.
     The second thing I found was this bug:

Sixeonotus sp.

   These bugs, which are members of the Miridae family (or, Plant bugs). They are part of a subfamily of bugs called the Bryocorinae, which primarily feed on ferns and monocots. Because Commelina is a monocot, these guys also seemed to switch over to feeding on that plant versus our native Oklahoma monocot plants. However, unlike Criocoris, with Sixeonotus I finally found a native Oklahoman bug, since these bugs are found in North America. I was really happy to find a native Oklahoma bug, even in my highly maintained apartment complex back yard!
     So, in short, even in modified urban habitats where you have a lot of non-native plants and insects, if you look close enough you still can find a little native Oklahoma sneaking in and persisting. Next time you are in your back yard, even in one as small as one like mine, take a closer look at what is there. You may have your own little patch of nature ready to be explored!