How Far Can Rhynchophorus palmarum (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) Fly?

The palm weevil, Rhynchophorus palmarum (L.), was first recorded in San Diego County, CA in 2011 and breeding populations were recovered from infested Canary Islands date palms, Phoenix canariensis, in San Ysidro, San Diego County, in 2015. This palm pest presents a significant threat to California’s edible date industry as Phoenix dactylifera is a recorded host for this weevil. The flight capabilities of R. palmarum are unknown which limits understanding of rates of natural dispersal. In response to this knowledge deficit, 24-h flight mill trials were conducted with field-collected male and female weevils. A total of 87 weevils (49 females and 38 males) were used in experiments, ~6% failed to fly >1 km in 24 h and were excluded from analyses. Of those 82 weevils flying >1 km in 24 h, the average distance flown by males and females was ~41 and ~53 km, respectively. Approximately 10% of females flew >100 km in 24 h, with two (~4%) females flying >140 km. The maximum recorded distance flown by a male weevil was 95 km. Flight activity was predominantly diurnal and flying weevils exhibited an average weight loss of ~18% while non-flying control weevils lost ~13% body weight in 24 h. The combined flight distances for male and female weevils exhibited a heavy-tailed platykurtic distribution. Flight mill data for R. palmarum are compared to similarly collected flight mill data for two other species of invasive palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier) and Rhynchophorus vulneratus (Panzer).

"Pseudo-Sousveillance"

This article introduces the concept of “pseudo-sousveillance” as simulated sousveillance practices created by the sensory environments of immersive technologies. To advance this concept, I analyze the virtual reality (VR) experience “Use of Force” that immerses participants within the scene of the night during which immigrant Anastasio Hernandez Rojas was beaten by border patrol officers at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. I argue that the pseudo-sousveillance practices of cellphone recording and surveillance from above enlist users to be active participants in resisting dominant surveillance practices by constructing alternative narratives about immigrant experiences, exposing the overreach of the border patrol, and revealing the limits of surveillance in immigration control. I then discuss the implications that pseudo-sousveillance has for rethinking the rhetorical power of emerging technologies and sousveillance in a surveillant age.

Additional species for the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico, U.S.A.

In this paper, we note 161 species and varieties of plants in the Jemez Mountains verified through voucher specimens. These species were not previously listed in the most detailed previous floristic study in this area Floristic Studies in North Central New Mexico, U.S.A. the Tusas Mountains and the Jemez Mountains by Reif et. al. (2009). Most of these specimens are housed in the Jemez Mountain Herbarium (JMH) at the Los Alamos, New Mexico Nature Center. Others are housed in the herbarium at the Museum of Southwestern Biology at the University of New Mexico (UNM), and a few elsewhere as noted (SEINet). If this number is added to the total for the Jemez Mountains from Reif’s work, the new total for the Jemez Mountains is 1,504 taxa. These additions include seven new state records, as well as several species not expected in the Jemez Mountains environment and altitude range. Of special interest are the flora of the San Pedro Parks Wilderness in the northwest part of the range, White Rock Canyon along the Rio Grande, and the desert shrublands west of San Ysidro at the extreme southwest part of the Jemez Mountains. For completeness, we include species escaped from cultivation but apparently well established in the wild, and a list of species that have not recurred where they were collected. Finally, there are comments on aspects of Reif et al. (2009).

Language choice and accommodation

The present study investigates language choice in two bilingual speech communities in the United States: Nogales, AZ and San Ysidro, CA. Ethnically distinct fieldworkers approached members of these two communities under the guise of being lost tourists in order to engage in casual speech encounters. It was found that language choice varied between the two communities, with participants of the San Ysidro community more likely to engage in codeswitching. Ethnicity was also found to be a significant predictor of language choice, with more codeswitching taking place with the fieldworker of a Hispanic phenotype. Potential explanations and factors for future research are discussed.

Road Signs on the Border

This article considers the political impact of a series of billboards that appeared at the Windsor–Detroit border and the Tijuana–San Ysidro border between 1991 and 2007. While there is a significant asymmetry between the political tensions on the northern and southern borders of the United States, there are remarkable parallels and relays between events that have taken place in major cities on these borders that indicate that generalized border anxiety has spread far beyond the localized territory of the southern borderlands. In this heightened climate of border insecurity, artists and community groups have seized on the geopolitical confusion that has emerged in mainstream American media where issues such as terrorism and illegal migration have often been folded into the same discourse. While border regions are tightly controlled spaces, these projects have served to highlight contradictory narratives of globalization and security, unmasking national insecurities that have been submerged through the bureaucratic discourses of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the more recent Smart Border agreements.