I have a pretty great commute, part of it on a trail called the Coho Loop. It may seem boring walking the same trail multiple times a week, but it’s not. I see a regular set of trail runners, dog walkers (to be fair, it’s usually the dogs that I recognize), and fishermen. Over the past few years many of us recognize each other…eye contact changed to nods, then to smiles, and eventually small exchanges even though all of us clearly enjoy the solitude of the forest.
This afternoon, on my walk home, I was appreciating the small forest flowers that are starting to proliferate, like the little native violas, their bright happy yellow faces shining like tiny spots of sunshine along the edge of the forest. The tiny striated white flowers stand above a plant known either as Winter Purslane or Siberian Miner’s Lettuce; it is apparently edible and makes a tasty addition to salads.
Just before I turned to head up a steep side trail there was a flash of brown and orange across my path and onto a moss covered log. A little Douglas squirrel stopped to examine me. It was quite the little poser, though all I had with me was my phone.
But the coolest thing on today’s trek home was a flash of bright red on a trail otherwise dull and drab with nothing but grey gravel and bleached and weathered bits of wood and leaves. On that backdrop, the tiny little splotch of crimson scurrying along couldn’t be missed. I courted down and was absolutely fascinated by the bright red beetle of a sort I’d never seen before.
When I looked it up I discovered that there is a lot more of interest to this little invertebrate than its colour.
The ‘Red Flat Bark Beetle’ (Cucujus clavipes) is native to Canada and is typically found near the tree line and under bark of dead ash and poplar trees….probably not usually in the middle of a gravel path….but perhaps it was searching for a new tree to bury itself into…which is possibly a little challenging in a forest filled with cedar and hemlock. They feed on phloem, but also on other small insects such as wood-boring beetles and mites.
But none of that is the cool part…..
Living in the cold northern climates (they are found as far north as into Alaska) presents some challenges when you are an insect. These little crimson beauties have evolved some cool physiological adaptations to survive.The Red Flat Bark Beetle has evolved the ability of go through extreme dehydration as they enter into dormancy; they also purge their gut in order to remove anything that could act as a potential ice nucleator. The dehydration reduces their chances of freezing, and the gut evacuation reduces the presence of particles on which ice could begin to form crystals.
But wait, there’s more!
These little creatures also produce anti-freeze proteins and anti-freeze glycolipids to help them out. Anti freeze proteins decrease the temperature at which an ice crystal grows by as much as 13°C in the Red Flat Bark Beetle in winter when the insect is dehydrated and the anti-freeze proteins are most concentrated. The beetle can also be freeze tolerant during a given year based on previous determinations of freeze tolerance in former years and that a strong correlation exists between its supercooling point and the lower lethal temperature.
Not just cool, but “supercool!”
Right?
