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Transcript 6/5/21:
Beauty is out there, you just have to go find it. Welcome to The Nature of Phenology where we share the cycles and seasons of the outdoors. I’m your host, Hazel Stark, and this episode was written by Joe Horn.
Jewels abound if you only know just where to look and how to look at them. Jewelweed is a plant that I adore and its name betrays its flashiness, but this quality is only revealed when the leaves are immersed in water—a hidden delight. Ruby-throated hummingbirds are another species whose name suggests its visual kinship with a fine gemstone, though the name scarcely does justice to the metallic emerald green of the rest of this lovely bird. Then there are hidden jewels who are not revealed in name: a dewdrop on a clover leaf which sparkles silver in the morning sunshine; the copper, green, and gold elytra of Japanese beetles as they party like ancient Romans in hedonistic delight inside a beach rose blossom; and the fire red, sky blue, olive green, and shimmering gold of a brook trout—if you have the skill to catch one. The world is filled with such hidden jewels to those of us that are keen to patiently look. One such specimen was new to me as of a couple of years ago but left quite an impression: the alder leaf beetle.
First, let’s get a few things straight about where beetles fit into the whole world of creepy crawly things. In that whole creepy crawly category—which is wholly unscientific yet almost universally known—we have the arachnids, like spiders and ticks, the worms, like leeches and earthworms, and the insects, like flies and beetles. Insects, unlike those other groups, generally have six legs, three major body parts, and two pairs of wings. To complicate matters, sometimes those body parts or wings can be somewhat fused or reimagined into other body parts. Beetles are just one branch in the class of insects. Technically speaking, they belong to the order Coleoptera. This order is the single largest order of any group of organisms on our planet whose ranks are some 400,000 strong and growing every day as scientists identify more. This is approximately 40% of all insects that scientists have described to date and a quarter of all species of all organisms that humans have described on Earth.
The word “coleoptera” was first coined by the Greek philosopher Aristotle when he mashed up the word “koleos”, meaning “sheath” (like you might store a dagger in), and “pteron” meaning “wing.” It is those hard shell-like wings that shield the insect’s body which unite the order of beetles, and which give the alder leaf beetle its jewel-like appearance.
It was the first week in June two years ago when I first spotted these beetles with a group of students in Downeast Maine. The beetles were clambering all over an alder shrub in the dense mossy forest surrounding their school. What had caught my eye was that despite their size they were shimmering and sparkling the most dazzling hue of metallic indigo, a color unlike anything I had ever seen in nature. The beetles turned this way and that, even shimmered violet. Simply stunning. It did not take long for me to identify the little beetles by this trait in addition to the particular shrub where I found them. They are fittingly called an alder leaf beetle, though it is a surprise to me that no one calls this a “sapphire alder beetle.”
These marvelous little beetles are native to Europe and Asia and have a fondness primarily for alders, but also for witch hazels and a few other shrubs when there are no alders around. They were accidently introduced into North America in the 19th century and while they can certainly make a mess of an alder shrub, their damage is generally superficial and rarely does long term harm to the plant. While the adults certainly can fly, they seem more content wandering around by foot on their favorite shrubs. Their larvae are glossy and jet black and can also be found on alder trees.
So this weekend, you could strike out to the many alder thickets that call our rivers, streams, and boggy forests home in search of these little bejeweled bugs. And while you are at it, you might keep a look out for other little gems hidden in the woods. Perhaps you will find a six-spotted tiger beetle, a hummingbird, or even the metallic green, bicolored striped sweat bee.
You can download this episode and find a link to the transcript, photos, information about podcasting and more by visiting archives.weru.org. Thanks for listening and please join us next week for another dive into The Nature of Phenology.
References:
Agelastica alni (Linnaeus, 1758). GBIF. (n.d.). https://www.gbif.org/species/165424794
The Nature of Phenology 
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