Bugging out at Prairie Garden Trust

<p>Helen Wilbers/For the News Tribune</p><p>Dogbane flea beetles are among biologist Gabe McNett’s favorite insects. These common but beautiful beetles dine on dogbane, a plant poisonous to most animals.</p>

Helen Wilbers/For the News Tribune

Dogbane flea beetles are among biologist Gabe McNett’s favorite insects. These common but beautiful beetles dine on dogbane, a plant poisonous to most animals.

Biologist Gabe McNett dove forward when he spotted movement a few feet ahead on the trail.

Tiny brown insects scattered from where they'd gathered as McNett tried to corral them long enough to capture one. The wily bugs tried to hide under leaf litter, but McNett persisted until he had one on the tip of his finger and could take a closer look.

"Look at the rounded abdomen and the long antennae," he said, excited. "I think these are bark lice."

Moments of discovery and delight fill McNett's days at Prairie Garden Trust near New Bloomfield. An assistant biology professor at Westminster College in Fulton, McNett is conducting a broad survey of insect life at the nature preserve.

"I could study them my whole life," he said. "There's just endless discovery out there."

Special site

McNett regularly brought his classes to PGT over the years, and about four years ago - as he was heading back to work after a turn staying home with his twins - he realized it might be the perfect spot to do some research.

"It's kind of a unique place here in Mid-Missouri," he said. "Within a few hundred acres, you have almost every habitat you could want. There's a creek, some wetlands, forest, some prairie, savanna."

PGT's managers have worked since the 1970s to care for the land and keep invasive plants at bay. Such a healthy habitat, McNett realized, could be home to rare or even unknown-to-science insects.

"(Nationwide), there's been a crash in insect population and biodiversity," he said.

Lorna Domke, director of PGT and daughter of its founders, said she's glad to have McNett conducting research there. Both Westminster and William Woods University have close ties with PGT, she said.

"We're very interested in all the life that's thriving in the PGT," she said. "We just want to know what's here. Insects are part of that."

Domke said she's watched the number of insect species at PGT change over the years, but it will be good to have solid data. She noticed a decline during a drought a few years back and a recent rise.

Studying the insects there could provide a snapshot of the biodiversity in the region. The population at PGT could be tracked over time or compared to other nearby areas - the research possibilities are numerous.

McNett regularly sets traps for insects at PGT: pit traps for crawling critters, net traps for flying ones, light traps for those active at light.

On mornings when he has to work later, he might bring a couple of nets and a set of hip-waders and wander the trails or wade into ponds, catching whatever passes by. A short walk through the prairie could take him past butterflies, bees, wasps, day-flying moths, grasshoppers, flies, beetles and more.

Then he takes his bounty back to his Westminster office, where he and students work to identify each insect.

"I have whole jars full at my office," he said.

Some, like butterflies, are simple to identify by comparing their markings and shape with photos. Others need an expert eye or even dissection to narrow down to the species or even genus. (To give a non-insect example, horses are in the same genus, Equus, as donkeys, but the two are different species.) McNett sometimes calls on experts at different universities or online for identification help.

That hard work pays off whenever McNett finds something he's never seen before or knows to be uncommon. Recently, he was elated to meet a "stinkfly," or Coenomyia ferruginea.

"It's this fat, chunky fly that gives off an interesting odor," he said. "This is the only place I've found them, and I found both a male and a female in one day."

He's spoken to Missouri Department of Conservation staff about potentially using PGT to reintroduce the Regal Fritillary (Speyeria idalia) to the area. This striking orange, gray and white butterflies live in prairies and are classed as "vulnerable" as their habitat and numbers decline.

"The females lay eggs in the fall, and only on violets," McNett explained.

Next generation

Discovery and research aren't the only reasons McNett is spending time at PGT. He wants to use the site and his research to get youths interested in insects and field biology.

McNett grew up in rural Ohio, just down the road from a lake. One day, he rode his bike out to the lake and, on a whim, joined a nature walk that a naturalist was leading.

"He was identifying the plants, he was identifying the insects," he remembered. "We found a turtle nest. I was just enthralled."

He expressed fears that field work - the kind of science he loves because it involves a lot of going outside and getting dirty - is fading in favor of lab-heavy disciplines.

McNett hopes that by bringing children to PGT, he'll be able to capture the interest of the next generation of biologists and entomologists. Perhaps they'll be enchanted by holding a butterfly or using a listening device to hear the whale-songs of tiny leaf-hoppers.

"When I was getting ready for college, I had no idea that entomology was an option," he said.

While to some insects are creepy or even scary, to McNett they allow a glimpse into an alien world. He wants to share that view with others.

"They're weird, fascinating creatures," he said. "They make us refocus our anthropocentric (human-focused) perspective."

Next summer, McNett is planning a bug camp targeting high school-aged children.

PGT, at 8945 Callaway County Route 431, will host a butterfly walk at 10 a.m. Aug. 4. Henry Domke, Lorna's husband, leads a nature walk on the second Saturday of each month. Call 573-295-4220 to reserve a spot or to schedule a visit to PGT. Visit prairiegardentrust.org to learn more.