Hundreds of homes damaged as storms sweep across America's Midwest.

Hundreds of homes have been destroyed an a number of people have been injured as series of storms swept across the American Midwest on Monday 6 March 2017. The worst of the damage occurred around Oak Grove on the border between Jackson and Lafayette counties in Missouri where about 500 homes and commercial buildings were damaged or destroyed by a tornado that reached three on the Enhanced Fujita scale (or an EF-3 tornado), with winds peaking at 245 km per hour. 

The aftermath of the 6 March 2017 Oak Grove tornado outbreak. Kansas City News and Weather.

Elsewhere in Missouri between fifty and sixty homes were damaged or destroyed by an EF-2 tornado with peak winds of over 210 kilometres per hour in Smithville. 46 homes were damaged in the Kansas City suburb of Leaward, while twelve aircraft hangers were damaged and one destroyed at Johnson County Executive Airport. Two people were injured and a number of properties were damaged after an EF-1 tornado with winds of 140-175 kilometres per hour hit Wentzville. A water treatment plant was damaged in Odessa and tornadoes were also reported in Lee's Summit and Macks Creek.

 Overtuned mobile home in Wentzville, Missouri following the 7 March 2017 tornado outbreak. Robert Cohen/St Louis Post-Dispatch.

In Iowa an EF-2 tornado with winds peaking at 185 kilometres per hour hit the city of Muscatine leaving a trail of destruction 200 m wide and over three kilometres in length, with three people injured and over eighty homes damaged. A second tornado hit the city of Blue Grass, though this caused only minor damage. Tornadoes were also reported in Minnesota, the earliest in the year ever reported in the state, as well as in Kansas and Illinois, while major thunderstorms were reported in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

 Damage in Seymour, Iowa, following the 7 March 2017 tornado outbreak. Daily Iowegian.

Tornadoes are formed by winds within large thunder storms called super cells. Supercells are large masses of warm water-laden air formed by hot weather over the sea, when they encounter winds at high altitudes the air within them begins to rotate. The air pressure will drop within these zones of rotation, causing the air within them so rise, sucking the air beneath them up into the storm, this creates a zone of rotating rising air that appears to extend downwards as it grows; when it hits the ground it is called a tornado. 

Tornadoes can occur anywhere in the world, but are most common, and most severe, in the area of the American mid-west known as 'Tornado Ally', running from Texas to Minnisota, which is fuelled by moist air currents from over the warm enclosed waters of the Gulf of Mexico interacting with cool fast moving jet stream winds from the Rocky Mountains. Many climatologists are concerned that rising temperatures over the Gulf of Mexico will lead to more frequent and more severe tornado events.

Simplified diagram of the air currents that contribute to tornado formation in Tornado Alley. Dan Craggs/Wikimedia Commons/NOAA.

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Three new species of Fairy Wasp from tropical Africa.

Fairy Wasps, Mymaridae, are a large group of small Chalcid Wasps found in temperate and tropical regions around the world. The group includes both the smallest known insect (at 0.139 mm) and the smallest known flying insect (at 0.15 mm) with even the largest species typically under a millimetre in length, and are parasitoids, typically laying their eggs inside the eggs of other Insects. Fairy Wasps are thought to be the oldest group of Chalcid Wasps, with a fossil record dating back to the Early Cretaceous.

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 22 February 2017, John Huber of Natural Resources Canada and Serguei Triapitsyn of the Entomology Research Museum at the University of California, Riverside, describe three new species of Fairy Wasp from the Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Gabon as part of a review of Fairy Wasps in tropical Africa.

The first new species described is placed in the genus Anaphes, and given the specific name quinquearticulatus, from the Latin words for 'five' and 'articulated' in reference to the antennae of the species, which have five funicle (stem) segments. The species is described from seven female specimens collected from the Republic of Congo. These range from 255 to 358 μm in length and are dark brown in colour with lighter limbs.

Anaphes quinquearticulatus, female specimen in dorsal view. Huber & Triapitsyn (2017).

The second new species described is placed in the genus Paranaphoidea and given the specific name africana, as it is the first member of the genus found on that continent. The species is described from a single female specimen from Osun State in Nigeria. This is 1.180 mm in length, excluding the head, and brownish in colour with yellow markings.

Paranaphoidea africana. Scale bar is 1 mm. Huber & Triapitsyn (2017).

The third new species described is placed in the genus Allanagrus, and given the specific name occidentalis, meaning 'west', all previously described members of this genus having come from East Asia and Australia. The species is described from a single female specimen from the Forêt de la Mondah in Gabon. The specimen is 450 μm in length and brown in colour with yellow markings.

Paranaphoidea occidentalis, part of mesosoma and metasoma, and wings. Scale bar is 200 μm. Huber & Triapitsyn (2017).

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Archaeoripiphorus nuwa: A Wedge-shaped Beetle from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of Inner Mongolia.

Wedge-shaped Beetles, Ripiphoridae, are a small but widely distributed group of Beetles related to Blister and Fungus Beetles. They are unusual in that they are parasitoids, with their larvae developing inside the body of another Insect and only emerging as an adult (typically with fatal consequences for the host), typically targetting Cockroaches, Bees or Wasps (including Wasp species that are themselves parasitoids). Wedge-shaped Beetles lack the penetrating ovipositors (egg laying organs) of parasitoid Wasps, instead laying their eggs on a host or in places where the emergent larvae will encounter a suitable host, for example some Bee-targeting species lay their eggs on flowers, with the newly hatched larvae climbing onto the back of visiting Bees, then hitching a ride back to the hive where they infects larval Bees in their cells. Wedge-shaped Beetles have a limited fossil record, with the majority of fossil species known from Cainozoic amber, and a small number of specimens from Cretaceous amber.

In a paper published in the European Journal of Taxonomy on 14 February 2017, Yun Hsiao of the Department of Entomology at the National Taiwan University and the State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Ecology and Evolution at Sun Yat-Sen University, Yali Yu, also of the State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Ecology and Evolution at Sun Yat-Sen University and of the College of Life Sciences at Capital Normal University, Congshuang Deng, again of the State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Ecology and Evolution at Sun Yat-Sen University and of the College of Life Sciences at Capital Normal University and Hong Pang, once again of the State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Ecology and Evolution at Sun Yat-Sen University, describe a Wedge-shaped Beetle from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of Inner Mongolia.

The Daohugou Beds of the Jiulongshan Formation are a fossil Lagarstätte from Ningcheng County in Inner Mongolia, which have produced a large number of well preserved Middle Jurassic Vertebrates, Insects, Plants and other fossils. The fauna has been considered to be part of the Jehol Biota, but is now generally considered to be slightly earlier. The deposits formed in lake surrounded by a moist, warm-temperate forest, dominated by Conifers, Ginkos and Cycads.

The new species is named  Archaeoripiphorus nuwa, where 'Archaeoripiphorus' is a combination of 'Archaeo' meaning ancient, and 'Ripiphorus' the modern genus from whifh the group gets its name, while 'nuwa' honours the ancient Chinese goddess Nüwa, credited with creating Mankind and rebuilding the world after a terrible flood. The species is described from a single specimen of indeterminate sex, 15.5 mm in length and 5.0 mm in width and covered in fine hairs.

Archaeoripiphorus nuwa. Photograph of complete specimen. Scale bar is 5 mm. Hsiao et al. (2017).

Archaeoripiphorus nuwa cannot be placed in any of the modern subfamilies of the Ripiphoridae, though it does bear some similarities to two modern groups, the Pelecotominae and Ptilophorinae. The similarity to the living Pelecotominae is particularly interesting as the larvae of this group specialise in parasitizing the larvae of Wood-boring Beetles, with the adults laying eggs on infested wood. A number of representatives of Beetle groups with wood-boring larvae today have been found in the Daohugou Biota, combined with Plant fossils which imply a palaeoenvironment with Gymnosperm forests and some Angiosperms.

Reconstruction of Archaeoripiphorus nuwa, illustrating a hypothesized behavior in which the females search for damaged xylem cells, caused by larvae of xylophagous Beetles, to oviposit in wood. Hsiao et al. (2017).

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Asteroid 2017 DV36 passes the Earth.

Asteroid 2017 DV36 passed by the Earth at a distance of 393 100 km (1.02 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, 0.26% of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), slightly before 3.00 am GMT on Monday 27 February 2017. There was no danger of the asteroid hitting us, though had it done so it would have presented no threat. 2017 DV36 has an estimated equivalent diameter of 5-16 m (i.e. it is estimated that a spherical object with the same volume would be 4-16 m in diameter), and an object of this size would be expected to explode in an airburst (an explosion caused by superheating from friction with the Earth's atmosphere, which is greater than that caused by simply falling, due to the orbital momentum of the asteroid) in the atmosphere between 43 and 25 km above the ground, with only fragmentary material reaching the Earth's surface.

The calculated orbit of 2017 DV36. Minor Planet Center.

2017 DV36 was discovered on 25 February 2017 (two days before its closest approach to the Earth) by the University of Arizona's Mt. Lemmon Survey at the Steward Observatory on Mount Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. The designation 2017 DV36 implies that the asteroid was the 921st object (object T36) discovered in the second half of February 2017 (period 2017 D).

2017 DV36 has a 860 day orbital period and an eccentric orbit tilted at an angle of 7.98° to the plane of the Solar System, which takes it from 0.91 AU from the Sun (i.e. 91% of he average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun) to 2.62 AU from the Sun (i.e. 2.62% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun, considerably outside the orbit of the planet Mars). It is therefore classed as an Apollo Group Asteroid (an asteroid that is on average further from the Sun than the Earth, but which does get closer). This means that close encounters between the asteroid and Earth are common, with the last having occurred in January 2010 and the next predicted in May 2024.   

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The down-side of Animal tagging in wildlife conservation and management.

The advent of satellite and radio tags that can be used to monitor the movement of wild Animals in their natural environment has revolutionised fields such as ecology, conservation and wildlife management, providing insights into the movement and behaviour of many species that have been elusive to Human trackers for generations. However, like all technologies these tracking systems have their potential downsides, particularly in their ability to modify the behaviour of both humans and animals. The potential of such tags to modify the behaviour, or even directly harm, the subjects of these studies was anticipated very early in the use of the technology, and most modern studies consider these possibilities carefully before a single tag is deployed.

In a paper published in the journal Conservation Biology on 20 February 2017, Steven Cooke and Vivian Nguyen of the Fish Ecology and Conservation Physiology Laboratory at Carleton University, Steven Kessel of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University, Nigel Hussey of the Department of Biology at the University of Windsor, Nathan Young of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Ottawa and Adam Ford of The Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences at The University of British Columbia, discuss a number of examples of how Humans have behaved in response to tagging programs, and the implications of these for people and organisations involved in animal tracking studies.

Firstly Cooke et al. note that there have been a number of attempts to obtain data from real-time tracking systems (systems that constantly broadcast the position of an animal to scientists monitoring it, as opposed to systems that broadcast packages of data at intervals), for the purposes of hunting or otherwise harming the subjects of the studies. 

In Minnesota in 2001 a group of anglers petitioned to be given access to data from a tagging study on Northern Pike, Esox lucius, agruing that since the study was publicly funded, they, as members of the public, were entitled to the data. The case was rejected by the court, on the basis that the data was collected to improve the catch-rates of recreational anglers, but the danger remains that a similar case elsewhere might be more successful. In 2014 White Sharks, Carcharodon carcharias, tagged as part of a study of their spatial ecology with a view to improving conservation planning were targeted for culling by the State Government of Western Australia, which had access to the data as part of the permitting agreement under which the researchers were working, as the government determined they were a threat to bathers on the state's beaches, despite the fact that the species is considered Endangered underh the terms of the Australian Environmental Protectionand Biodiversity Conservation Act.

An additional problem is that members of the public are often able to obtain equipment that enables them to track tagged Animals  directly. Even it this is done with essentially benign intent, for purposes such as photography or wildlife viewing, there can still be negative effects, such as Animals reacting to, or becoming habituated to, the presence of Humans and modifying their behaviour. In one such case authorities at Banff National Park in Alberta were forced to introduce restrictions on the use of VHF radio receivers in the park due to concerns about the harassment of Animals wearing tags. More worryingly in 2013 an attempt was made to hack a GPS system tracking Tigers in the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, India, apparently with the intention of poaching the Tigers.

Cooke et al. also raise concerns about the deployment of tagging systems for malign purposes. Tagging is generally considered an expensive technique by researchers, as most studies require a large number of tags to gather useful data. However a single tag could potentially be used for the purpose of tracking the movements of a group of social Animals. exposing that population to the risk of hunting, at a relatively low cost.

There is also the potential for the technology to be deployed in order to disrupt studies, for example by deploying extra tags to disrupt data collection. This might seem an obscure threat, but many conservation projects have commercial implications, potentially with vested interests that stand to benefit from undermining the quality of data collection, and some fringe groups are known to object to conservation projects for less definable reasons, for example it has been speculated that Wolves in Yellowstone National Park have been targeted by hunters who objected to the presence of Wolves in the park, and who may have been able to access encrypted data from radio collars worn by the Animals.

Tagged Wolf in Yellowstone National Park. William Campbell/US Fish and Wildlife Service/Wikipedia.

A negative public perception of tagging is also a potential problem, potentially undermining public support for conservation projects using the technology. Cooke et al. note that some indigenous fishermen around the Fraser River watershed in Canada objected to a tagging program targeting Pacific Salmon on the basis that it tampered with a food source (thought the majority of the population was strongly supportive of the project), while in parts of the US visitors to national parks have complained that visible tags on animals detract from the wilderness experience. 

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Magnitude 5.6 Earthquake in Adıyaman Province, Turkey.

The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 5.6 Earthquake at a depth of 10 km, about 3 km to the west of the  town of Samsat in Adıyaman Province, southeast Turkey, slightly after 2.05 pm local time (slightly after 11.05 am GMT) on Thursday 2 March 2017. There are no reports of any fatalities associated with this event, but at least five people were injured and a number of buildings destroyed. The event was felt across much of Turkey and neighbouring Syria.

The approximate location of the 2 March 2017 Adıyaman Province Earthquake. USGS.

Adıyaman Province lies at the boundary between the Eurasian Plate to the north and east, the Anatolian Plate to the west and the Arabian Plate to the south. The Arabian Plate  is being pushed north and west by the movement of the African Plate, further to the south. This leads to a zone of tectonic activity within the province, as the Arabian and Anatolian plates are pushed together, along the East Anatolian Fault, and past one-another, along the Dead Sea Transform.

This movement also leads to a zone of faulting along the northern part of Turkey, the North Anatolian Fault Zone, as the Anatolian Plate is pushed past the Eurasian Plate, which underlies the Black Sea and Crimean Peninsula  (transform faulting). This is not a simple process, as the two plates constantly stick together, then break apart as the pressure builds up, leading to Earthquakes, which can be some distance from the actual fault zone.

The northward movement of the African and Arabian Plates also causes folding and uplift in the Caucasus Mountains, which separate Georgia from Russia. Again this is not a smooth process, with the rocks sticking together, then moving sharply as the pressure builds up enough to break them apart, which can also lead to Earthquakes in the region.

 Plate movements and fault zones around the Anatolian Plate. Mike Norton/Wikimedia Commons.

Witness accounts of Earthquakes can help geologists to understand these events, and the structures that cause them. The international non-profit organisation Earthquake Report is interested in hearing from people who may have felt this event; if you felt this quake then you can report it to Earthquake Report here.

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Strigula acuticonidiarum & Strigula guangxiensis: Two new species of Lichen from South China.

Lichens are hybrid symbiotic organisms, with a 'body' comprised of Fungal hyphae within which can be found cells of an Algal symbiont, and (it has recently been discovered) a third, Bacterial component that somehow facilitates the symbiosis between the other two partners. This unique symbiosis enables lichens to survive in a wide variety of habitats found inhospitable by other organisms. Members of the genus Strigula are found growing on the leaves of tropical plants. About 70 species have been described to date, of which 21 come from China.

In a paper published in the journal MycoKeys on 25 January 2017, Shu-Hua Jiang of the State Key Laboratory of Mycology at the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xin-Li Wei, also of the State Key Laboratory of Mycology at the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Jiang-Chun Wei, again of the State Key Laboratory of Mycology at the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, describe two new species of Strigula from South China.

The first new species is named Strigula acuticonidiarum, meaning 'sharply pointed macroconidia', in reference to the shape of the spores (macroconidia). This species forms a symbiotic relationship with Green Algae of the genus Cephaleuros, which are often found as parasites of tropical and subtropical Plants, including a number of commercially important species. The colonies are hemispherical in shape, 0.5-4 mm across and 10-25 μm thick, and dark green in colour with black patches on its upper surface. The species was found growing on the leaves of a variety of plants in semi-exposed humid forests in Guangxi and Yunnan Provinces.

Strigula acuticonidiarum. (a) Thallus with perithecia and pycnidia (b) Asci, with eight biseriate ascospores (c) Ascospores, with constriction at septum (d) Macroconidia. Scale bars: (a) = 300 μm, (b), (c), (d) = 10 μm. Jiang et al. (2017).

The second new species is named Strigula guangxiensis, meaning 'from Guangxi'. This species forms flattened colonies typically 1-2 mm across (some reach 3 mm) and 30–45 μm thick. The are pale or bright green in colour, sometimes while towards the centre and have areas of black hardened tissue. This species was found growing on leaves in semi-exposed humid forests in the Longhu Mountain Natural Reserve in Guangxi Province.

Strigula guangxiensis. (a) Thallus with perithecia (b) Thallus with pycnidia (c), (d) Perithecia (e) Asci with eight biseriate ascospores (f) Ascospores, with distal cell slightly enlarged (g) Macroconidia; (h) Microconidia. Scale bars: (a), (b) =100 μm; (c), (d) =50 μm; (e), (f), (g), (h) =10 μm. Jiang et al. (2017).

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