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Exploring the beautiful nature of California


California Nature:  Itchy, Stingy Bugs


California is home to an incredibly diverse biota. In addition to over 30,000 species of insects, California boasts 563 birds, 96 reptiles, 190 mammals and well over 5000 species of plants. And the numbers only tell part of the story. The geographical diversity which is responsible for this great biological diversity has also helped to preserve many unusual species, for example, giant redwoods and California Condors. Many unique insects are also restricted almost entirely to California. Rain beetles, Timema walking sticks, and Diphyllostoma beetles, to name a very few, all represent ancient lineages which are centered in California today.

Human development has already significantly impacted California's insect biodiversity as evidenced not only by the 20 insects currently listed as threatened or endangered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, but also by the nearly 150 additional species which have been proposed for listing but which are still in review.
The valley Carpenter bee is the largest bee in California nature Bees are often confused with wasps. Although closely related, they differ in many ways. Bees feed pollen and nectar to their young. They are beneficial insects that pollinate fruits, vegetables and many other plants. The most common bees are the honey bee, bumble bee, and carpenter bee.

Bees are not commonly serious problems and usually require no control. When stung by a honey bee, scrape the bee's stinger out of the wound immediately. Be careful not to pull it out. If you do, you will force poison into the wound. If the stinger is not removed, the poison gland attached to the stinger will continue to pump poison into the wound for several minutes.

Wasps and other bees do not leave a stinger and are capable of stinging many times. At certain times of the year (spring and early summer), honey bee colonies divide by swarming. Swarms are not usually a problem unless they land in an inconvenient spot or enter a building.

Valley Carpenter Bees are the largest bees in California and common throughout San Diego County at lower elevations from coast to foothills. Like many different kinds of animals often do, the males and females exhibit sexual dimorphism, the females black, the males blonde.
The mud dauber is commonly seen around wet areas where the females gather mud with their mandibles, taking it to some secluded or protected spot to build their mud nests. This can be under the eaves of houses, bridges, wood piles or even in the wheel wells of old abandoned cars. How many trips to build each single cell cannot be calculated, but a single concentric layer at approximately 1/16” wide and ¾” long may take several.

You can often see the layers as rings in the mud going end to end. The cells are provisioned with various spiders which are paralyzed and a single egg is lain within each cell, then sealed. In the picture, you can see what is left of the pupae which never matured. This was probably due to attack by parasitic wasps or flies. These parasites usually lay their eggs in the open cell while the wasp is away to get more provisions.

Another wasp which is often seen visiting the old nests of the Yellow and Black Mud Dauber is Chalybion californicum, the Blue Mud Dauber, a beautiful steel blue species, which cleans out and patches up the old abandoned cells for her own brood.
while not insects California scorpions are truly creepy stingy bugs Scorpions are eight-legged venomous invertebrates belonging to the class Arachnida, and the order Scorpiones. They are related to spiders, mites, ticks, and harvestmen as well as other members of the Arachnida class. They possess an extended body and a segmented, erectile tail ending with the telson (the sting). There are roughly 1,300 species of scorpions worldwide. Scorpions vary in size from one to four inches long. 

These crab-like animals are dark brown, have a broad flattened body, and ten legs. The front pair of legs is modified into claw-like pincers which are used to hold their prey. A scorpion's most noticeable feature is their curled fleshy tail.  It is usually held over their body.  The scorpion tail ends in an enlarged upturned tip that ends in a stinger. The sting is used for defense as well as for capturing prey.

About 90 species are found in the U.S. All but four of these naturally occur west of the Mississippi River and are abundant in semi-arid regions. The highest concentration of scorpions are found in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.
Scorpion venom is used to subdue prey and to defend against threats, as well as in the mating process. The composition and action of the venom varies from species to species. The venoms are mixtures of salts, small molecules, peptides, and proteins. The peptides are specialized; some act against invertebrates and some against vertebrates, and some target both. This complex formula results in a neurotoxin which depolarizes the nervous system of the victim. Scorpion venom is a nerve poison, but the dose injected usually is not enough to kill adults.

Bark scorpions live in Baja California del Norte, northern Sonora, southeastern California, extreme southeastern Utah, Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. Of the three most commonly seen species, the bark scorpion is the only one that prefers to climb, and it may be found many feet above the ground on trees and rock faces. Because bark scorpions display negative geotaxis, that is they orient themselves upside down, people are often stung by them as they pick up an object and press against a scorpion clinging to the underside. Defensive stinging is usually a series of quick jabs, after which the scorpion makes a hasty retreat. The sting of the bark scorpion is considered to be truly life threatening.
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