texascavers Digest 5 Apr 2012 20:18:13 -0000 Issue 1526
Topics (messages 19802 through 19815):
Longhorn Cavern Project - April Work Trip-REMINDER
19802 by: Mark.Alman.L-3com.com
Re: leafcutter bees
19803 by: Louise Power
weather
19804 by: Karen Perry
19805 by: Charles Goldsmith
19806 by: Scott Boyd
19807 by: Diana Tomchick
19808 by: Logan McNatt
19809 by: Fritz Holt
19810 by: Diana Tomchick
19812 by: Butch Fralia
19813 by: Butch Fralia
Re: Ashland Resource Area Assistant Job -
19811 by: Louise Power
book review: cave life
19814 by: Mixon Bill
Maybe it just didn't like the music!!!
19815 by: Louise Power
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--- Begin Message ---
Howdy, y’all, and happy spring!
We will be conducting a work weekend at Longhorn Caverns State Park on
Saturday, April 7th, even though it’s Easter weekend. (We’ll try not to bury or
otherwise harm the Easter Bunny!).
We have plenty of projects and a need for cavers, so come on out!
We will have one crew working on building the stairs that go down behind the
Indian Council room where they stash the wine for events.
(Sorry, there’s none there now!).
We also will have a crew working on the surface, carefully, over the Natural
Bridge area, as it has been mentioned some limb and debris clearing in that
area would be beneficial.
Bring hand tools, buckets, shovels, gloves, loppers, etc., if interested.
Finally, if we have enough help, a crew can use the fill from the Wine Area
stairs and that pile of dirt in the Grand Ballroom could continue to be used to
fill in the washed out trail areas in the Grand Ballroom, near the
end/beginning of the Lover Lane trail.
We’ll be meeting at the Parking Lot up from the Visitors Center at 9 AM
Saturday.
Look for my big white F250 with the SPAM/Shiner Bock/John Wayne/Luckenbach/Bat
stickers on the back window.
We will conclude with a thru trip later on in the afternoon and an evening
dinner at the Bluebonnet Café in Marble Falls.
Camping is available at the park Friday and Saturday nights
Please let me know if you’ll be attending and I can send you the combination to
the gate and other tidbits.
Hope to see you there!
Thanks!
Mark
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--- Begin Message ---
The closeup of their little buttocks certainly make it look like they're
stingerless. I guess we could ask Jim.
Louise
> Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2012 19:14:58 -0500
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> CC: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [Texascavers] leafcutter bees
>
> So, are these bees stingerless?
> --Ediger
>
> On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 2:32 PM, Mixon Bill <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Many of us have enjoyed watching parades of leafcutter ants, such as can be
> > seen in Bustamante Canyon in northern Mexico. Don't think they get very far
> > into Texas. Here's a curious things from Jim Conrad's Naturalist Newsletter
> > about leafcutter bees, which I'd never heard of before.
> >
> > You can sign up to get his e-mail weekly newsletter at
> > www.backyardnature.net/news/natnat.php
> >
> > Very rarely anything about caves, but lots of interesting nature stuff,
> > especially about plants and birds. -- Mixon
> >
> > JIM CONRAD’S NATURALIST NEWSLETTER
> > Issued from the woods not far from Natchez, in
> > southwestern Mississippi, USA
> >
> > April 1, 2012
> >
> > *****
> >
> > LEAFCUTTER BEES
> > On my last day in the Yucatán I untied the rope that
> > for so long had been suspending my backpack from the
> > hut's ceiling, hopefully out of mind for nest-seeking
> > rats and mice, and took my old backpack in hand. Ashes
> > from daily campfires had settled all over it so I
> > stepped outside and gave it a good whack. The
> > resulting cloud was half ash and half green tatters of
> > dried, coiled-up leaf-parts stuck together into tube-
> > like affairs. The leaf tatters surprised me.
> >
> > But, I knew what they were, for back in 2006 during my
> > stay at Genesis Retreat in Ek Balam, Yucatán, the Maya
> > staff there had showed me the same thing. You can read
> > about that encounter and see the leafy, tube-like item
> > at http://www.backyardnature.net/yucatan/jo_olon.htm
> >
> > A young Maya woman had told me that the green leaf-
> > tube was a collection of nests stuck end-to-end, and
> > that the tube construction itself was known by a
> > special Maya name, which was pa'ak. The creature
> > inside the cocoon was Jo'olon. I was told that a bee
> > made the nest, but I hardly believed it.
> >
> > But, now I believe her, for once I had disturbed all
> > those nests in my roof-suspended backpack, hoards of
> > bees came complaining, thumping against me and
> > entangling themselves in my hair but never stinging.
> > And they were surely the most unusual bees I've ever
> > seen, for instead of carrying clumps of pollen on
> > their back-leg "baskets," they transported it on hairs
> > covering the entire bottoms of their abdomens. With
> > their golden-yellow abdomen bottoms they look like
> > dimly lit fireflies. You can the pollen-dusted lower
> > abdomen on a bee entering its pa'ak cocoon, one
> > stuffed into one of my backpack's looped belt-tips, in
> > the hut's dim light, so it's a grainy picture, at
> > http://www.backyardnature.net/n/12/120401be.jpg
> >
> > A rear view of the same bee showing golden pollen
> > stuffed inside a green pa'ak tube is shown at
> > http://www.backyardnature.net/n/12/120401bf.jpg
> >
> > So, this was my last Yucatán identification challenge
> > for volunteer IDer Bea in Ontario. Here's what she
> > came up with: It's a Leafcutter Bee. Many times we've
> > spoken of leafcutter ants, but this was something new.
> >
> > Leafcutter Bees, I find, are members of the genus
> > MEGACHILE, and despite my ignorance of its existence
> > that genus is one of the largest among bees, home to
> > well over 500 species and over 50 subgenera. A list of
> > insects of Río Lagartos, Yucatán includes eight
> > species of Megachile leafcutter bees, but I can't say
> > which species is shown here.
> >
> > Of leafcutter bees I read that, exactly as we see with
> > our pa'ak tubes, Megachile nests typically are
> > composed of single long columns of cells constructed
> > from cut-out leaf sections. Females place pollen or a
> > pollen/nectar mix in each cell as food for the egg
> > laid there, then the cell is capped so that a wall
> > separates that cell from the next one. The larva
> > hatching from the egg eats the food supply and after a
> > few molts and maybe a period of hibernation spins a
> > cocoon and pupates, emerging from the nest as an adult
> > bee. Males are typically smaller than females and
> > emerge before them. Males die shortly after mating but
> > females survive for several weeks, building new nests.
> >
> > What a fine last discovery to end my Yucatán days!
> > ----------------------------------------
> > The winner of the rat race is still a rat.
> > ----------------------------------------
> > You may "reply" to the address this message
> > came from, but for long-term use, save:
> > Personal: [email protected]
> > AMCS: [email protected] or [email protected]
> >
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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> > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected]
> > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
> >
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Hope all in DFW area are OK............. Sounds like its bad
Karen
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
So far all of the damage is Arlington and Forney with a small bit in
north Addison from what we are told. My work evacuated us to storm
shelters for about an hour today.
On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 3:49 PM, Karen Perry <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hope all in DFW area are OK............. Sounds like its bad
> Karen
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Despite the funnel clouds south of us, we had no damage here in Crowley.
Just heavy rain and marble-size hail.
Scott
On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 3:49 PM, Karen Perry <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hope all in DFW area are OK............. Sounds like its bad
> Karen
>
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Picture a whole campus of Ph.D. scientists and M.D.s, clustered around the
outer windows of 13-story buildings watching the weather roll in from the SW
(Arlington area) and passing over Love Field to then on to the NE. It was a
rare chance to spend 45 minutes watching nature and gossiping about all sorts
of subjects.
We don't need no stinking storm shelter!
Diana
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Diana R. Tomchick
Professor
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Department of Biochemistry
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
Rm. ND10.214B
Dallas, TX 75390-8816, U.S.A.
Email: [email protected]
214-645-6383 (phone)
214-645-6353 (fax)
On Apr 3, 2012, at 3:52 PM, Charles Goldsmith wrote:
> So far all of the damage is Arlington and Forney with a small bit in
> north Addison from what we are told. My work evacuated us to storm
> shelters for about an hour today.
>
> On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 3:49 PM, Karen Perry <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Hope all in DFW area are OK............. Sounds like its bad
>> Karen
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Visit our website: http://texascavers.com
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected]
> For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
>
________________________________
UT Southwestern Medical Center
The future of medicine, today.
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Photos, Videos?
On 4/3/2012 4:04 PM, Diana Tomchick wrote:
Picture a whole campus of Ph.D. scientists and M.D.s, clustered around the
outer windows of 13-story buildings watching the weather roll in from the SW
(Arlington area) and passing over Love Field to then on to the NE. It was a
rare chance to spend 45 minutes watching nature and gossiping about all sorts
of subjects.
We don't need no stinking storm shelter!
Diana
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Diana R. Tomchick
Professor
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Department of Biochemistry
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
Rm. ND10.214B
Dallas, TX 75390-8816, U.S.A.
Email: [email protected]
214-645-6383 (phone)
214-645-6353 (fax)
On Apr 3, 2012, at 3:52 PM, Charles Goldsmith wrote:
So far all of the damage is Arlington and Forney with a small bit in
north Addison from what we are told. My work evacuated us to storm
shelters for about an hour today.
On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 3:49 PM, Karen Perry<[email protected]> wrote:
Hope all in DFW area are OK............. Sounds like its bad
Karen
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________________________________
UT Southwestern Medical Center
The future of medicine, today.
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--- Begin Message ---
Fortunately the windows didn't blow out or there might be a few less Ph.D.
scientists and M.D.'s clustered and we do need those stinking folks.
Fritz
-----Original Message-----
From: Diana Tomchick [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012 4:04 PM
To: Cave Tex
Subject: Re: [Texascavers] weather
Picture a whole campus of Ph.D. scientists and M.D.s, clustered around the
outer windows of 13-story buildings watching the weather roll in from the SW
(Arlington area) and passing over Love Field to then on to the NE. It was a
rare chance to spend 45 minutes watching nature and gossiping about all sorts
of subjects.
We don't need no stinking storm shelter!
Diana
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Diana R. Tomchick
Professor
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Department of Biochemistry
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
Rm. ND10.214B
Dallas, TX 75390-8816, U.S.A.
Email: [email protected]
214-645-6383 (phone)
214-645-6353 (fax)
On Apr 3, 2012, at 3:52 PM, Charles Goldsmith wrote:
> So far all of the damage is Arlington and Forney with a small bit in
> north Addison from what we are told. My work evacuated us to storm
> shelters for about an hour today.
>
> On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 3:49 PM, Karen Perry <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Hope all in DFW area are OK............. Sounds like its bad
>> Karen
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Visit our website: http://texascavers.com
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected]
> For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
>
________________________________
UT Southwestern Medical Center
The future of medicine, today.
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--- Begin Message ---
Some of the best can be found on the Washington Post web site:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/tornado-emergency-in-dallas-ft-worth-area-two-confirmed-tornadoes/2012/04/03/gIQAMsnRtS_blog.html
If you must read the Dallas Morning News, here's a link:
http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2012/04/weather.html
Diana
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Diana R. Tomchick
Professor
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Department of Biochemistry
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
Rm. ND10.214B
Dallas, TX 75390-8816, U.S.A.
Email: [email protected]
214-645-6383 (phone)
214-645-6353 (fax)
On Apr 3, 2012, at 4:22 PM, Logan McNatt wrote:
> Photos, Videos?
>
>
>
> On 4/3/2012 4:04 PM, Diana Tomchick wrote:
>> Picture a whole campus of Ph.D. scientists and M.D.s, clustered around the
>> outer windows of 13-story buildings watching the weather roll in from the SW
>> (Arlington area) and passing over Love Field to then on to the NE. It was a
>> rare chance to spend 45 minutes watching nature and gossiping about all
>> sorts of subjects.
>>
>> We don't need no stinking storm shelter!
>>
>> Diana
>>
>> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>> Diana R. Tomchick
>> Professor
>> University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
>> Department of Biochemistry
>> 5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
>> Rm. ND10.214B
>> Dallas, TX 75390-8816, U.S.A.
>> Email: [email protected]
>> 214-645-6383 (phone)
>> 214-645-6353 (fax)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Apr 3, 2012, at 3:52 PM, Charles Goldsmith wrote:
>>
>>> So far all of the damage is Arlington and Forney with a small bit in
>>> north Addison from what we are told. My work evacuated us to storm
>>> shelters for about an hour today.
>>>
>>> On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 3:49 PM, Karen Perry<[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> Hope all in DFW area are OK............. Sounds like its bad
>>>> Karen
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Visit our website: http://texascavers.com
>>> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected]
>>> For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
>>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>>
>> UT Southwestern Medical Center
>> The future of medicine, today.
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Visit our website: http://texascavers.com
>> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected]
>> For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
>>
>>
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Don't forget that nice tornado throwing trailers around at the truck yard in
Lanchester.
All good in SW FTW.
Butch
-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Goldsmith [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012 3:52 PM
To: Karen Perry
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Texascavers] weather
So far all of the damage is Arlington and Forney with a small bit in
north Addison from what we are told. My work evacuated us to storm
shelters for about an hour today.
On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 3:49 PM, Karen Perry <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hope all in DFW area are OK............. Sounds like its bad
> Karen
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This should be public, this is a photo from my patio and I said it was quiet
here.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=2550724187222&set=a.2380473251055
.86723.1827398679&type=1&theater¬if_t=photo_comment
Butch
-----Original Message-----
From: Logan McNatt [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012 4:23 PM
To: Diana Tomchick
Cc: Cave Tex
Subject: Re: [Texascavers] weather
Photos, Videos?
On 4/3/2012 4:04 PM, Diana Tomchick wrote:
> Picture a whole campus of Ph.D. scientists and M.D.s, clustered around the
outer windows of 13-story buildings watching the weather roll in from the SW
(Arlington area) and passing over Love Field to then on to the NE. It was a
rare chance to spend 45 minutes watching nature and gossiping about all
sorts of subjects.
>
> We don't need no stinking storm shelter!
>
> Diana
>
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
> Diana R. Tomchick
> Professor
> University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
> Department of Biochemistry
> 5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
> Rm. ND10.214B
> Dallas, TX 75390-8816, U.S.A.
> Email: [email protected]
> 214-645-6383 (phone)
> 214-645-6353 (fax)
>
>
>
>
> On Apr 3, 2012, at 3:52 PM, Charles Goldsmith wrote:
>
>> So far all of the damage is Arlington and Forney with a small bit in
>> north Addison from what we are told. My work evacuated us to storm
>> shelters for about an hour today.
>>
>> On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 3:49 PM, Karen Perry<[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Hope all in DFW area are OK............. Sounds like its bad
>>> Karen
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Visit our website: http://texascavers.com
>> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected]
>> For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
>>
>
> ________________________________
>
> UT Southwestern Medical Center
> The future of medicine, today.
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Visit our website: http://texascavers.com
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected]
> For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
>
>
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--- Begin Message ---
Hi All,
If you know of anybody who would like to work in SW Oregon (we do have
mountains, rivers, amazing wildlife, caves and other kinds outdoor activities),
check out this job announcement. You don't have to be a federal employee to
win. Please feel free to pass this on to anyone who might be interested. For a
federal agency, this one is pretty good to work for.
Louise
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
List-Post: [email protected]
Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2012 14:32:28 -0600
Subject: FW: Ashland Resource Area Assistant Job -
From: Gerritsma, John E
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012 1:05 PM
To: BLM_OR_MD_ALL
Subject: FW: Ashland Resource Area Assistant Job -
I would appreciate helping spread the word on this vacancy. This links to the
DEU announcement. It will also be flown as Merit.
John Gerritsma
Ashland Field Manager
Medford District
541-618-2438 (work)
541-944-7901 (cell)
From: Langhoff, James P
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012 11:27 AM
To: BLM_OR_MD_ASH
Subject: Ashland Resource Area Assistant Job -
http://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/313315800
James Langhoff
541-618-2461
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--- Begin Message ---
"Cave Life of Oklahoma and Arkansas: Exploration and Conservation of
Subterranean Biodiversity." G. O. Graening, Danté B. Fenolio, and
Michael E. Slay. University of Oklahoma Press (Animal Natural History
Series), Norman; 2011. ISBN 978-0-8061-4223-4. 6 by 9 inches, 226
pages, hardbound. $59.95.
This small but expensive book is sort of a hybrid between an
introduction to cave biology and its conservation in the area and a
formal contract report for the Subterranean Biodiversity Project. A
casual reader can get a pretty good notion about the principles of
cave biology from parts of the text and the color photos, but he'll
have to put up with an awful lot of pedantry and pseudo-science along
the way, because the book is very heavily biased toward the report
aspect. The authors have compiled an extensive record of animals seen
in caves in Oklahoma and Arkansas, with 1355 taxa listed, 690 to the
species level, in Appendix A. Much of the data resulted from generally
brief visits to a large number of caves, where eyeball searches were
used. But a considerable amount was obtained from extensive surveys of
literature, from scientific papers to caving-club magazines. The
authors recognize that this has resulted in a rather unsystematic
database of a pretty random collection of observations, but that
doesn't discourage them from applying lots of statistics. The actual
scientific value of the book is the list of fauna and the caves in
which they were observed, which in principle makes it possible to at
least create distribution maps. However, that won't be easy in
practice, because they've elected to put the distribution data in
Appendix B, which is the list of caves and the serial numbers of the
taxa in Appendix A that were seen in each of them. That means that to
find out where a given species has been found one must search for its
number throughout that fifteen-page Appendix B. It would have been a
whole lot better to number the caves, not the taxa, and list the cave
numbers for each taxon in Appendix A, with just the names (or, often,
just cave-survey numbers) of the caves in numerical order in Appendix B.
The authors seem to think they were being paid by the number of
literature citations they could cram into the text, and so the
innocent reader is subjected, for example, to numerous citations for
things that are common knowledge about biospeleology and can be found
in any introduction to the subject. It's a rare paragraph that doesn't
have several intrusive citations. Some pedantry, such as a half-page
list of the collecting permits the project had, is easy to skip over,
but then there are things like the information that they used "Access
2007 (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Washington)." Who cares what database
they used? Who else makes Access? How many Microsofts are there?
The pseudo-science comes in when the authors apply statistical
techniques to their data, despite its acknowledged limitation and
biases. For example, for each site they recorded qualitative data such
as how extensively it is visited, lightly, moderately, or heavily.
Then they applied a statistical test to see whether this "affects"
species richness. In this case, they find that the most heavily
visited caves have the greatest biological diversity, to their
surprise, but this is just because cavers prefer to visit longer
caves. Correlation is not causation. They fit curves to scatter plots
of things like site richness versus site length, even though there is
no theoretical reason to expect the data to fit that particular form
of equation. In one case, they fit both linear and exponential
functions to the same data, displaying the best-fit coefficients to
four allegedly significant digits with no confidence intervals. Both
fits give p < .0001. What p is that? I doubt the authors know; it just
fell out of the software. The mathematical qualifications of the
authors may be judged by the statement that the number of taxa found
at a site tends to increase exponentially with the number of specimens
collected.
In truth, there is a good bit of useful information buried in this
book, and I suppose even a lay reader who is not as easily annoyed as
I am could learn some things from it. But I shudder to think of the
graduate students who will accept this book as a good style guide for
their theses and dissertations. It is an excellent example of what
happens when somebody carelessly leaves statistics software lying
around where anybody can get at it.--Bill Mixon
----------------------------------------
The winner of the rat race is still a rat.
----------------------------------------
You may "reply" to the address this message
came from, but for long-term use, save:
Personal: [email protected]
AMCS: [email protected] or [email protected]
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http://wonderwall.msn.com/music/bat-urinates-in-eye-of-florida-rocker-1675215.story
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