Diario del proyecto Insects on Mount Royal

During the lab, I observed the hooded rosette lichen (a foliose lichen) which is a part of the Physciaceae family and Physcia genus. This type of lichen is very common and is seen along the east and west coasts of North America. It usually has a pale grey or green colour to it (sometimes yellow) and appears on twigs and tree bark or walls and sometimes on rocks. A lot of the time lichen grows flat against their surface but this lichen does not. It has uneven branching patterns and thickened branches.

One of the mushrooms observed on our bioblitz was the Stinking Dapperling (Lepiota Cristata). They are part of the most widespread fungi in the genus Lepiota. The fruiting body is easily distinguished by the reddish-orange concentric scales on the caps, while the rest of the body is lighter-colored. These mushrooms are commonly known as poisonous, although there is evidence that points to them not commonly containing amatoxins or phallotoxins from different regions in Turkey. It's good to understand what exactly makes a mushroom inedible. That way we can rule out false potential causes to advance scientific knowledge and improve medicine.

The genus Pholiota includes wide range of wood-rotting mushrooms and is comprised of 157 species! Usually, these fungi have mushrooms that are yellow or brown, and have small darker spots protruding from the surface. Many species found in the genus Pholiota have been found to produce certain chemical compounds that can have antioxidant benefits for humans. While certain species are consumed in Asian culture, such as the Pholiota microspora, others are poisonous, like the Pholiota squarrosa.

An observation I made during the bioblitz was a Large Crane Fly. It is a part of the Tipula Linnaeus genus and in the Tipulidae family. One unique adaptation of the Crane Fly is their long legs. They have very long legs which are usually more prominent than their bodies for a specific reason. They have long legs in order to avoid having predators come for their bodies and instead have them go for their legs which will allow the fly to shed the limb and escape the predator. Losing a leg or a part of the leg causes a lot less damage to the insect than having a predator attack its body. One adaptation that all my observations have in common is having multiple legs. Insects have at least 6 legs to help with moving around and carrying things. For example, an ant has 6 legs where the 2 in the front are used to carry food, and the 4 in the back are used to help the ant move around and stay balanced. Finally, the phylogeny placement of one of my observations, the Black Carpenter Ant, is Animalia (kingdom), Arthropoda (phylum), Insecta (class), Hymenoptera (order), Formicidae (family), Formicinae (subfamily), Camponotini (tribe) and Camponotus (genus).

The European Earwig, also known as Forticula auricularia in the scientific community, is a part of the modern wing-folding insects, and is classified in the Forticulidae family in the order of Dermaptera. The Earwig is a shared ancestor of over five thousand species across the world, making the Forticula auricularia just one of many!

One adaptation seen in all observed species of this group project is a pair of antennae. The antennae is what links insects' senses to their surroundings, allowing them to process the chemical and physical components to their environment.

An adaptation of the Western Bumble Bee (Bombus occidentalis) is synchronizing its pollination cycles with the blossoming of nearby flowers. Since Western Bumble Bees are common organisms having spread across large regions, their communities have adapted their work cycles to match the species of flowers found in their environment.

An observation made during Wednesday's bioblitz was a Narrow Headed Marsh Fly ( helophilus fasciatus). Helophilus is a genus of diverse hoverflies that appear bee-like. They are in the Class Insecta, like all other observations in our project: they all have a three part body, and a chitinous exoskeleton. An adaptation of Helophilus is their characteristic striped thorax, and parallel horizontal blotches of coordinated yellow and black on the abdomen. They have the same colours as bees, however being a hoverfly, do not bite or sting.

One of my observations was a furry bee which I identified to be a type of Bumblebee (genus Bombus though I could not identify the subgenus). When examining its phylogeny, I discovered bumblebees to be part of the family Apidae along with honey bees, orchid bees, and stingless bees (all with pollen baskets), though it shares the most common ancestor with stingless bees (Meliponini). All of the insects I observed had antennae that aid them in assessing the physical and chemical characteristics of the environment they're in. The defining characteristic of a bumblebee is the long-branched setae all over its body called pile which gives the bumblebee a furry look. Bumblebees adapted to have these hairs as they provide an efficient means to collect pollen (which sticks to the individual hairs). In addition, the hair also helps bees detect vibrations from the atmosphere and helps with temperature regulations.