environment

‘Hanging out with bugs’ at Scoville

‘Hanging out with bugs’ at Scoville

Scientist Michael LaScaleia talks about caterpillars and plants at the Scoville Memorial Library on Thursday, June 12.

Patrick L. Sullivan

SALISBURY — Michael LaScaleia, a scientist with the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, took an audience through the strange and wonderful world of caterpillars and invasive plants at the Scoville Memorial Library Thursday, June 12.

The talk was sponsored by the library and the Salisbury Association Land Trust.

LaScaleia, with infectious enthusiasm, gave a precis of his academic career. A highlight was a study of dung beetles.

“Dung beetles play a huge role in the African savannah, because there is so much, um, poop” he said.

He showed a photo of himself during the dung beetle phase, looking somewhat grimy and disheveled.

He said it was a critical experience.

“I thought, this is my thing. I love being dirty. I love hanging out with bugs.”

Lately he has been working on why, exactly, invasive plants succeed in New England.

Viburnum dilatatum (aka linden arrowood) is native to East Asia and was introduced in this country in the early 19th century.

“We already had a very similar plant — Viburnum acerifolium” (aka maple-leaved arrowood).

LaScaleia wanted to know why caterpillars will eat the native plant but not the exotic version.

He provided a brief and moving picture of the plight of the caterpillar.

“Even caterpillars don’t want to be caterpillars.”

Hence their eternal struggle to turn into moths or butterflies.

“Birds eat them. Also spiders, wasps and ants,” he continued.

“They have a long development cycle. They have to shed their own skin, and if they can’t they asphyxiate.”

“It’s truly awful.”

LaScaleia is testing the Enemy Release Hypothesis. The gist of this is when a plant is introduced to a new, faraway location, such as New England from East Asia, it leaves behind the predators that kept it in check on its home turf. In the new location, the native predators (such as caterpillars) aren’t much interested in the new arrivals, which allows the plants to spread, causing consternation and dismay.

Scientists are now working on why specialist caterpillars won’t eat invasives. Specialist caterpillars are picky and only eat specific plants, as opposed to generalist caterpillars, which are broad-minded and will eat almost anything.

If the goal is controlling the spread of invasive plants, can these specialist caterpillars be assisted in developing an appetite for invasives?

One idea is to take advantage of the tendency of invasive Japanese barberry to start growing earlier in the spring than its native counterpart by developing a caterpillar that also gets going earlier in the spring.

After LaScaleia wrapped up the talk, he and a group hiked over to the Land Trust’s Vincent Preserve for some field work.

environment

Latest News

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy

Juneteenth and Mumbet’s legacy
Sheffield resident, singer Wanda Houston will play Mumbet in "1781" on June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main, Falls Village.
Jeffery Serratt

In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.

Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”

Keep ReadingShow less
history

A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

A sweet collaboration with students in Torrington

The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.

Photo by Kristy Barto, owner of The Nutmeg Fudge Company

Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.

The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

In the company of artists

In the company of artists

Curator Henry Klimowicz, left, with artists Brigitta Varadi and Amy Podmore at The Re Institute

Aida Laleian

For anyone who wants a deeper glimpse into how art comes about, an on-site artist talk is a rich experience worth the trip.On Saturday, June 14, Henry Klimowicz’s cavernous Re Institute — a vast, converted 1960’s barn north of Millerton — hosted Amy Podmore and Brigitta Varadi, who elucidated their process to a small but engaged crowd amid the installation of sculptures and two remarkable videos.

Though they were all there at different times, a common thread among Klimowicz, Podmore and Varadi is their experience of New Hampshire’s famed MacDowell Colony. The silence, the safety of being able to walk in the woods at night, and the camaraderie of other working artists are precious goads to hardworking creativity. For his part, for fifteen years, Klimowicz has promoted community among thousands of participating artists, in the hope that the pairs or groups he shows together will always be linked. “To be an artist,” he stressed, “is to be among other artists.”

Keep ReadingShow less
exhibit