What is it Wednesday: January 12, 2022

 

Can you identify what's in this photo?

 

 

Each Wednesday morning 

on Camp Lutherlyn's Facebook page

 the Lutherlyn Environmental Education Program posts a photo. 

 

 

Readers have all morning and afternoon 

to make their best guess about what the photo is. 

 

Around 6 pm LEEP provides the answer and a brief explanation.

 

 

Each week's What is it Wednesday post 

will also be posted on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

 after it is posted on Facebook,

sometimes with additional bonus information. 

 

In addition to bringing you current editions of What is it Wednesday 

on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

we will be reposting old editions,

creating a What is it Wednesday archive. 

 

This photo was posted as a What is it Wednesday on

January 12, 2022. 

 

 

 

And the answer is....

The marks in this branch (known as a “gallery”) were made by a bark beetle,
probably a European elm bark beetle.

Female bark beetles excavate a narrow groove in the wood just below the bark of a tree, with tiny even-spaced egg niches alternating on either side of the main groove. The female then lays one egg in each niche, and when each larva hatches from the eggs, it eats into the wood away from the mother’s groove and away from each of the other larvae. Each larval track is wider at the end further away from the central groove, because the larvae grow larger as they travel further away from where they started as eggs. The larva pupates at the end of the track, just below the bark, and chews its way out of the tree after it has metamorphosed into an adult beetle.

This gallery was most likely made by European elm bark beetles. Each species of bark beetle creates a distinctive pattern in its galleries. This gallery runs along with the grain of the wood, very closely matches the photos and descriptions of European elm bark beetle galleries, and was found in an area where there are some elm trees.

Keep an eye out for marks like these and you too can see evidence of the hidden lives of insects that are happening all around us! 

Like and follow Camp Lutherlyn on Facebook, to see What is it Wednesday posts when they come out and have the opportunity to share your guesses in the comments!