Hello Slug Fans,
Since the last post, we have retired and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Although Elysia will always have a place in my heart, insects have been my bread and butter, and the move to this semi-arid region of northern New Mexico was an excellent opportunity to connect with the local fauna. To this end, we have set up the Tierra de Oro Laboratory and associated web site to describe our observations of life in the pinyon-juniper savannah. The lab and the website are both works in progress, so expect some not-yet-live links, but it is exciting to watch things grow.

Eleodes obscura raising its abdomen in response to a threat.

I am currently getting to know the local Eleodes beetles (“stink beetles”) by monitoring their behavior in the field and their physiology in the lab. There is a lot to learn about their seasonal patterns (it gets cold up here in the winter) and their vulnerability to increasing temperatures (it’s getting hotter everywhere). Five or six species of Eleodes can be found here in the warmer months, along with a handful of beetle species that look like Eleodes but do not stink, a phenomenon called Batesian mimicry. In all, there may be a dozen species of large-ish black, shiny beetle species wandering around the neighborhood. That seems like a lot to think about.

I plan to support the Solar Sea Slug page indefinitely. Who knows, I may even post here from time to time. There’s a cool article about antimicrobial compounds from Elysia crispata that warrants a journal club, if I can find a little time.

At some point, I will archive this site under the TDO Lab domain, but that will be a few years down the road.

In the meantime, if the biology of beetles or the ecology of pinyon-juniper savannah interest you, have a look at the new site.