About This Project

Undescribed species are lurking in the leaf litter. The beetle genus Sonoma is full of them, but you can only tell them apart by their aedeagi (twig and two berries, Wangdoodles, "John Thomas," etc...). The project: Describe new species.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Amazingly, many animals can only be told apart by their Tally Whackers. Some species diverge and, although they may look the same, a glance at the Old Chap will tell you they are definitely different.

I worked on little beetles in the genus Sonoma. They're fierce predators of springtails and live in leaf litter. There was supposedly only one species in the eastern US, but when I started looking I found a bunch of Wangs, and before the dust settled I had sixteen different Dongs in hand! Getting a look at these Pirates of Men's Pants isn't easy, they're internal, you have to dissect the 2 mm long beetle to get to its ¼ mm long Undercover Brother—not a simple operation to take It Out.

I described the eastern US species, but it turns out there are many undescribed species in the west...

What is the significance of this project?

Humans are music makers, comedians, singers, and explorers. We explore the Earth, the stars, the atoms, and all forms of life. A species represents a unique twig on the tree of life—the newest member of a chain of ancestors and decedents that stretches back, unbroken, for more than three and a half billion years. To describe a new species is to discover a portion of the universe that no one has ever explored before.

Even better are New Mysteries the species create: I have in hand at least 11 species of Sonoma from one mountain in Oregon! How do they coexist? Are they found at different elevations? Active at different times of the year? Live in different levels of the leaf litter? No one knows.

What are the goals of the project?

There are 27 species of Sonoma already known from the western US and Canada, each with their own "Captain Standish," but new ones have shown up!

Goals:

1. Describe new species, complete with an illustration of each species' aedeagus (a doodle of it's Doodle), and name the one with the most outlandish Bob-My-Nag after Stephen Colbert!

2. Re-illustrate "Chairman Mao" for all the old western species, that way we have spanking new illustrations of every Sonoma Schmitzengruben (to help with ID).

3. Most of the specimens are 30+ years old, so no DNA! Get fresh specimens for DNA to test if Sonoma is 1 genus or 2 (or 3?!) and help figure out where the weird genus Megarafonus fits.

4. Stretch goal 1 (revealed if I hit the first goal)

5. Stretch goal 2 (grand adventure that may include bears!)