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Spider identification - Opadometa fastigata
On December 3, 2010, Clynt Ridgell, reporter for the Pacific News Center, brought me a specimen of a spider which he suspected may have been accidentally imported with a Christmas tree he just bought.
I identified this spider as Opadometa fastigata (syn. Leucauge fastigata; Family Tetragnathidae) based on a description in Yoshida 2009[1]. This spider is a tropical species recorded from the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Sulawesi. It was first reported from Taiwan in 2009 from a specimen collected in 1993.
It is improbable that this spider arrived with Christmas trees which are typically shipped to Guam from the American Northwest. I am unaware of any previous record of Opadometa fastigata collected on Guam, however it may have been here for years. Despite an abundance of spiders on Guam, and new species continually arriving, a comprehensive taxonomic checklist of these animals is not available.
The specimen was placed in the University of Guam insect collection (Accession Number 4cf9c1fdc65d8).
References
- H. Yoshida, “The spider genus Leucauge (Araneae: Tetragnathidae) from Taiwan”, Acta Arachnologica, vol. 58, no. 1, pp. 11-18, 2009.
Beetles feeding on cycads in Luzon, Philippines
From
http://www.cerambycoidea.com/titles/chujochujo1998.pdfAnadastus
bicolor Chujjb, 19741.
Bull. Japan. Ent. Acad., 8(2): 18-19.2.
Type label: Anadustus bicolor Chujo, 1973. Tagaytay, Luzon,
Philippines, 12. vii.1970,
M. Sato leg.3.
Glued. Well preserved except that only terminal segment of right hind
tarsus ismissing.
Anadastus
luzonicus Chttjja, 19741.
Bull. Japan. Ent. Acad., 8(2): 21-22.2.
Type label: Anudustus luzonicus Chujja, 1973. Tagaytay, Luzon,
Philippines, 12. vii.1970,
M. Sato leg.-
Glued.
Well preserved.
http://www.wptrc.org/userfiles/file/Marler/Terry%20et%20al%20Micronesica...
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Leptocoris vicinus sighting
Hi Aubrey,
Just wanted to report that I saw Leptocoris vicinus on Allophylus timoriensis (Family Sapindaceae) along the road down to the refuge. The plant is fruiting right now with nice fleshy red fruits. I'm keeping a record of where I'm seeing them and when. Thought you might want this for your records as well. Hope all is well.
Cari Eggleston
Fish and Wildlife Biologist
US Fish and Wildlife Service
Guam National Wildlife Refugeeggplant horned planthopper
Spent a few minutes sweep netting an abandoned eggplant field at the UOG Ag. Expt. Stn. in Yigo. Came up with a couple of cool looking membracids with 3 horns. I presume these are the eggplant horned planthopper aptly named Leptogentrus taurus. Specimens were photographed and catalogued on this site.
Small Bee from Palau
STUB
Weevils attacking sweetpotato on Rota
Adult specimens of two species of weevils collected in Rota sweetpotato fields by G. P. Reddy and A. Badilles were brought to me for identification. The smaller species, body length 3.3 mm, is Euscepes postfasciatus and the larger species, body length 5.9 mm, is Daealus tuberosus.
E. postfasciatus, is the West Indian sweetpotato weevil, a common pest of sweetpotato with a cosmopolitan distribution.
D. tuberosus is native to Micronesia with genus and species described from Guam by Zimmerman in 1942 1586. This is one of the few native insects of Micronesia which has become a crop pest. Pemberton 1523 characterizes Dealus sp. [note mis-spelling] as "A weevil abundant and injurious to sweet potato vines on Rota, Yap, Palau and Woleai.". More recently, in August 2003, there was a thread on PestNet about this species damaging sweetpotato on Rota 1624. Click here to see images and a summary for this species from PestNet.
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