Oh Crappie

The kid in me cannot resist posting this interesting Village Soup article about a fish known as the black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus). Last week a boy caught a black crappie in Norton's Pond in Maine. It was the second individual of that species to be caught in the area within the past year. Maine, which has a strict policy against non-native fish introductions, is offering a $2000 reward for information leading to the conviction of anyone illegally stocking Maine waters with these or other non-native fish.

Made in Japan

Last month Japan came out with the country's first official list of invasive species. Problem (for me anyway) was that although there were some English-language articles about the list, there were no sources that actually included the list itself. Thanks to the magic of email and the ugliness of HTML-rendered Excel, I now bring you the official list of invasive species in Japan:

Mammalia:	Mammals:
Macaca cyclopis	Formosan rock macaque
Macaca fascicularis	long-tailed macaque
Macaca mulatta	rhesus monkey
Procyon lotor	Northern raccoon
Procyon cancrivorus	crab-eating raccoon
Herpestes javanicus	Indian mongoose
Callosciurus erythraeus	Pallas squirrel
Sciurus carolinensis	Eastern grey squirrel
Myocastor coypus	nutria
Trichosurus vulpecula	brushtail possum
Muntiacus reevesi	Muntjac deer
Aves:	Birds:
Garrulax canorus	hwamei
Garrulax perspicillatus	masked laughingthrush
Garrulax sannio	white-browed laughingthrush
Leiothrix lutea	red-billed leiothrix
Reptilia:	Reptiles:
Chelydra serpentina	snapping turtle
Anolis carolinensis	green anole
Anolis sagrei	brown anole
Boiga irregularis	brown tree snake
Elaphe taeniura friesi	Taiwan beauty snake
Protobothrops mucrosquamatus	Taiwan habu snake
Amphibia:	Amphibians:
Bufo marinus	cane toad
Pisces:	Fish:
Micropterus dolomieu	smallmouth bass
Lepomis macrochirus	bluegill
Ictalurus punctatus	channel catfish
Insecta:	Insects:
Solenopsis invicta	red imported fire ant
Solenopsis geminata	fire ant
Linepithema humile	Argentine ant
Invertebrata:	Arachnids:
Latrodectus hasseltii	redback spider
Latrodectus geometricus	brown widow spider
Latrodectus tredecimguttatus	black widow spider
Latrodectus mactans	black widow spider
Loxosceles - 2 species	recluse/violin spiders
Dipluridae - 2 genera	giant spiders
Buthidae - all species	scorpions
Tracheophyta:	Aquatic plants:
Alternanthera philoxeroides	alligator weed
Hydrocotyle ranunculoides	floating pennywort
Gymnocoronis spilanthoides	Senegal tea

(Thanks to T. Yoshioka for being so kind as to provide me with the list of scientific names.)

Get Out of Here, You Smarmy Little Topmouth Gudgeon!!!

Britain's Environment Agency is so desperate to rid Ratherheath Tarn of the invasive fish known as the topmouth gudgeon (Pseudorasbora parva), they are resorting to poisoning the whole lake. Gudgeons are an Asian import, still available for sale in the U.K. aquarium trade (if you get a license), and they've been in the Tarn for at least 50 years. Workers are going to remove as many of the native fish as possible and port them to a fish farm before adding the poison to the water. Read the whole report over at Manchester Online.

Oh Deer

According to this story from the San Francisco Chronicle, the National Park Service is darned sick of dealing with the exotic deer running around Point Reyes National Seashore. In response to the overload of fallow deer (Cervus dama) and axis deer (C. axis), the NPS has developed a management plan to reduce populations, with options ranging from sterilization vaccines to sanctioned hunting (Actually, according to the draft version, which you can read here, they seem to have come up with 5 plans, but really they hope to proceed with "Alternative E," which would eradicate the deer from the park by the year 2020). Turns out park rangers had been culling the deer for years by shooting them, but that program stopped due to public "discomfort" with the idea. Be sure to check out the full article to hear how PETA weighed in, see photos of the (adorable) deer in question, and vote for your favorite culling method!

Might as Well be Walking on the Shells

The Olympian is reporting that officials in the city of Olympia, Washington are hoping to get grant funding for a program to grind up the shells of invasive snails and use the paste as a fill for local sidewalks. They think the curved shells will be an excellent alternative to the rocks and gravel typically laid down under sidewalk pavement to hold stormwater runoff. Perhaps you're wondering, what invasive snails does Olympia have in such numbers that they could attempt a project like this? The article doesn't say. Neither do these Olympia City Council minutes (.pdf). Lucky for you, the ISW has gone the extra mile to uncover this information, and with a little help from bugmenot, found the answer in this King5 article. The snail in question is actually the Atlantic slipper snail (Crepidula fornicata), also known as the slipper limpet, a species native to the east coast of the U.S.

My Fellow Astronauts

NASA is reporting that, well, NASA has joined the National Invasive Species Council, making it the 13th federal agency to participate in the advisory group. Among the valuable things NASA brings to the table are expertise in remote sensing, knowledge of mapping techniques and predictive modeling of systems.

Should They Kill It, or Give it Protection?

The LSU AgCenter is reporting that a new pest has been destroying Louisiana rice fields since at least 2004. Problem is, it hasn't been identified, and as of yet it is unclear whether this is an invasive pest or a never-before-seen species. The pest in question is a tiny fly, known only as a rice whorl maggot (apparently not the same as other species given the same common name). In the coming months researchers will be studying the effects of the fly in the hopes of determining early warning signs of infestation, and finding effective pesticides.