Unless you’re an entomologist, chances are you’ve never heard of Scatophila carinata. Why would you? It’s nothing more than a garden-variety housefly, an everyday pest that’s been bugging horses and housewives in central Iowa for generations. But the tiny invasive species caused quite a stir last May when it was discovered in the Potomac Gorge area near Washington, D.C., 1,000 miles from its known stomping grounds in the Midwest. The discovery of the first Scatophila carinata found east of Iowa was made by a team of field researchers participating in a 30-hour biodiversity survey hosted by The Nature Conservancy (TNC).
“The Potomac Gorge is the stretch of the Potomac River from Great Falls to Georgetown and it is very, very biologically rich,” explains TNC’s Stephanie Flack, who coordinated the 2006 project. “We knew from previous studies that there are more than 200 rare species and natural communities that occur there.”
But there were gaps in this data—particularly for invertebrates and nonvascular plants—so the organization decided to host what’s known in the scientific community as a “bioblitz.” The timed events bring together a variety of experienced scientists for an around-the-clock survey of just about everything that creeps, crawls, or grows in a given area. “The idea is to get people out into the field to race against the clock and see what can be found in a prescribed time period in a prescribed area,” Flack says. “It’s no substitute for prolonged and sustained field research because it’s just a snapshot, but it’s a neat way to get a lot of information in a short amount of time.”
Along with the carinata, the 130-plus field biologists and naturalists found close to 1,000 species in the 15-mile swath of woods and riverfront that make up the Potomac Gorge. Their haul includes a new-to-Virginia beetle, two rare land snails, and a pair of plants that hadn’t been collected in the area since the 1880s. But bioblitzes are about more than just numbers and raw collection data. They’re scientific get-togethers that also serve to educate the general public about biodiversity issues in their area. “Sort of like a field survey and festival rolled into one,” says Flack.
Bio-what?
The Potomac Gorge event is just one example of the bioblitz concept in action. Since the first bioblitzes were held in the mid-1990s (depending on who you ask, the idea debuted in 1996 at either Kenilworth Aquatic Park in Washington, D.C., or Walden Pond in Concord, Mass.) similar events have been held all over the country. Each one is organized and executed with regional needs in mind. And that’s how the idea’s pioneers like it.
Invasive virile crayfish Photo by Roy Sewall.
