Insects are typically the most diverse and abundant taxa in many ecosystems. For example, at Coal Oil Point Reserve, where I work, they account for over half of the 1,000 plant and animal species identified.
Unfortunately, insects are also the least known taxa, likely because they are so difficult to identify. Showy taxa such as butterflies, large beetles, dragonflies and damselflies tend to receive more attention in field guides, but the less conspicuous taxa such as tiny wasps, flies, moths, and beetles are the most diverse and least known. Identifying insects to species often requires a good microscope and an expert.
How many species of insects are at Paradise Reserve?
We have no idea, but we are trying to find out.
We are collecting insects using malaise traps and manual nets. We then sort the individuals, one in each jar, then give them a unique label and photograph, barcode, and deposit them in a museum for permanent storage and future research. We hope specialists will identify them to species.
The malaise trap is a mesh tent that traps flying insects by taking advantage of the tendency of insects to fly upward. The insects enter the tube and become trapped. Once a week, we remove the trapped insects and preserve them in alcohol (flies and wasps) or pin them (large insects and moths).
Cris Sandoval, PhD
Dr. Sandoval is doing an intensive insect collection at Paradise Reserve. Insects take a long time to identify. Collections are being deposited at the CCBER museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
She is also photographing and posting other species in iNaturalist (See Paradise Reserve and Santa Ynez Mountain projects).
Bryophytes are an informal group consisting of three divisions of non-vascular land plants (embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. The Paradise Reserve has great habitat for bryophytes, because of the shady north facing slopes and an abundance of boulders and trunks that provide a surface for them to grow.
Amanda Heinrich is surveying Bryophytes at Paradise Reserve. The survey requires collecting small samples of mosses and bringing them to a laboratory to be checked under a microscope. Mosses can be kept dry in a paper envelope and later re-hydrated for future studies.
Bryophytes are an informal group consisting of three divisions of non-vascular land plants (embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. The Paradise Reserve has great habitat for bryophytes, because of the shady north facing slopes and an abundance of boulders and trunks that provide a surface for them to grow.
Amanda Heinrich is surveying Bryophytes at Paradise Reserve. The survey requires collecting small samples of mosses and bringing them to a laboratory to be checked under a microscope. Mosses can be kept dry in a paper envelope and later re-hydrated for future studies.
The vegetation at the Paradise Reserve is very complex due to variation in elevation, aspect (north/south/eat/west facing), soil, and proximity to creeks. The dominant vegetation types are oak woodland and chaparral. Two seasonal creeks support riparian vegetation. Rock outcrops are habitat for plants like Dudleya and a variety of lichen and mosses.
Wildflowers can be seen from January through July, with the peak bloom being March and April.
At Paradise Reserve, the banana slugs occur around the Cielo creek. During Fall, they congregate around a spring in the cielo creek. The rest of the creek dries in the Fall. In the rainy season, the slugs disperse away from the spring, and move to the oak woodland and other parts of the creek.
The banana slugs found in Santa Barbara are of a species called Ariolimax stramineus, An interesting thing about the species is that it occurs in the Santa Lucia Mountains of Monterey County, from Carmel Valley south to the Monterey-San Luis Obispo County line, and then again in Santa Barbara and western Ventura counties, but not in San Luis Obispo County.
Ariolimax stramineus forms two distinct clades– the Monterey County and Santa Barbara-Ventura Counties clades, so they have been separated for some time. Each of those clades have at least two subclades that are separated geographically. Samples from Santa Rosa Island are clustered with those from southern Monterey County. Perhaps they reached the islands rafting on logs from Monterey.
The figures below show 2 DNA phylogenies for the banana slugs of the genus Arilomax. The Santa Barbara specimens come from Paradise Reserve.
My research with Timema walking-sticks focuses on various aspects of their evolutionary history and ecology, and, in particular, their relationship with their food plants and predators. All species in this group are wingless herbivores and are restricted to the western US. They have a 20,000,000 year history in this country and have primarily conquered the chaparral habitat.
One of my interests is to understand how the spatial distribution of host plants affects the balance between gene flow and natural selection. Host plants such as chamise and ceanothus impose a number of different selective pressures that foster adaptive genetic variation in local populations of walking-sticks. When host plant patches occur isolated from others, little migration of walking-sticks occurs between patches. When a patch of chamise connects to a patch of ceanothus, migration, and consequently gene flow, may occur between the local populations of walking-sticks.
The chaparal is the most common habitat for Timema species. This picture of the Santa Ynez Mountains to the right was taken at the end of Spring. Three patches of chamise, Adenostoma fasciculatum, can be easily distinguished from other vegetation by their white flowers.
PUBLICATIONS
Sandoval, C. P. and Crespi, B. Adaptive evolution of cryptic coloration: the shape of host plants and dorsal stripes in Timemawalking-sticks. (accepted in Biological Journal of the Linnean Soc.).
Nosil, P, Crespi, B.J., Sandoval, C.P., and Kirkpatrick, M. 2006. Migration and the genetic covariance between host preference and performance. American Naturalist 167:E66-E78.
Nosil, P, Sandoval, C.P. and Crespi, B. 2006. The evolution of host preference in allopatric vs. parapatric populations of Timema cristinae. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 19:929-942.
Sandoval, C. P. and Nosil, P. 2005. Counteracting selective regimes and host preference evolution in ecotypes of two species of walking-sticks. Evolution 59:24052413.
Nosil, P, Crespi, B., and Sandoval, CP (2003) Reproductive isolation driven by the combined effects of ecological adaptation and reinforcement. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences 270 (1527):1911-1918
Crespi, B and Sandoval, C. 2000. Phylogenetic evidence for the evolution of specialization in Timema walking-sticks. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 13:249-262
Sandoval, C.P. 2000. Resistance to wildfire during diapause in a walking-stick (phasmatodea, timemidae). The Southwestern Naturalist 45:123-127.
Etsuko, Y. and Sandoval, C. P. 2000. Effects of mulch, water, and weeding on restoration of coastal dune plants. Restoration and Management Notes 18(1).
Sandoval, C. P., Carmean D. A. and Crespi, B. J. 1998. Molecular phylogenetics of sexual and parthenogenetic Timemawalking-sticks. Proceedings of the Royal Society. London B 265:589-595.
Sandoval, C. P. and K. D. Lafferty 1995. Invertebrate communities. pp. 39-45 In R. F. Ambrose, editor, Coastal Wetland Resources: Santa Barbara County Mainland. Final Report to the County of Santa Barbara.
Sandoval. C.P. 1994. The effects of the relative scales of gene flow and selection on morph frequencies in the walking-stick Timema cristinae. Evolution 48:1866-1879.
Sandoval, C.P. 1994. Plasticity in web design in the spider Parawixia bistriata : a response to temporal variation in prey type. Functional Ecology 8:701-707.
Sandoval, C.P. 1994. Differential visual predation on morphs of Timema cristinae (Phasmatodea, Timemidae) and its consequences for host range. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 52 :341-356.
Vickery, V.R. and Sandoval, C. P. Description of three new species of Timema (Phasmatoptera:Timematodea:Timematidae). Journal of Orthoptera Research. in review.
Vickery, V.R. and Sandoval, C. P. Additional notes, a change in synonymy and description of two new species of TimemaScudder (Phasmatoptera: Timematodea; Timematidae) from California. The Canadian Entomologist in press.
Vickery, V.R. and Sandoval, C. P. Two new species of Timema (Phasmatoptera: Timematodea; Timematidae), one parthenogenetic, in California. The Canadian Entomologist in press.
Sandoval, C. P. and V. Vickery. Timema coffmani (Phasmatoptera; Timematodea) a new species from Arizona. The Canadian Entomologist in press
Vickery, V. R. and Sandoval, C. P. 1998. Timema monikensis, Species Nov. (Phasmatoptera: Timemmatidea: Timematidae), a new parthenogenetic species in California. Lyman Entomological Museum and Research Laboratory, Note Number 22.
Vickery, V. R. and Sandoval, C. P. 1997Timema bartmani (Phasmatoptera: Timematodea: Timematidae), a new species from southern California. The Canadian Entomologist 129:933-936
Sandoval, C.P. and Vickery, V.R. 1996. Timema douglasi (Phasmatoptera:Timematodea), a new parthenogenetic species from southwestern Oregon and northern California, with notes on other species. The Canadian Entomologist 128:79-84.
