Tag Archives: Tennessee

Trechus roanicus Barr

Roan Mountain Ground Beetle (Trechus roanicus)

The Roan Mountain Ground Beetle was described in 1962, it was originally only known from its type locality, Roan High Bluff, the highest point on Roan Mountain in Tennessee, USA.

The species apparently is thought to occur in North Carolina as well, but I have no further information about that. [1]

The Roan Mountain Ground Beetle is considered possibly extinct.

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References:

[1] Thomas C. Barr Jr.: Revision of Appalachian Trechus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Brimleyana 2: 29-75. 1979

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edited: 07.09.2020

Athearnia crassa (Haldeman)

Boulder Snail (Athearnia crassa)

The Boulder Snail was described in 1842; it inhabited the Clinch- and the Powell rivers which are a part of a river system that spans over parts of Georgia, Iowa and Tennessee, USA.

The species is now extinct, the last remaining population of this species disappeared when the Tellico River was dammed in 1979 to create Lake Tellico.

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The Boulder Snail is sometimes considered rediscovered, however, these accounts must be assigned to a closely related species, Anthony’s Boulder Snail (Athearnia anthonyi (Redfield)).

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edited: 14.11.2021

Trechus luculentus ssp. unicoi Barr

Unicoi Mountains Ground Beetle (Trechus luculentus ssp. unicoi)

The Unicoi Mountains Ground Beetle was described in 1979, this subspecies of the Luminous Ground Beetle (Trechus luculentus Barr) is known only from the type locality, Stratton Meadows a place that extends from Monroe County, Tennessee to Graham County in North Carolina, USA. [1]

This form is considered possibly extinct.

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References:

[1] Thomas C. Barr Jr.: Revision of Appalachian Trechus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Brimleyana 2: 29-75. 1979

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edited: 07.09.2020

Trechus novaculosus Barr

Clingmans Dome Ground Beetle (Trechus novaculosus)

This species, described in 1962, was restricted to its type locality, Clingmans Dome in Sevier County in Tennessee, USA. [1]

The species is thought to have also occurred in North carolina, however, I’m unable to find any additional information.

The species is thought to be extinct now.

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References:

[1] Thomas C. Barr Jr.: Revision of Appalachian Trechus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Brimleyana 2: 29-75. 1979

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edited: 07.09.2020

Trechus luculentus ssp. luculentus Barr

Luminous Ground Beetle (Trechus luculentus ssp. luculentus)

The Luminous Ground Beetle, described in 1962, is apparently restricted to its type locality, Clingmans Dome in Swain County, North Carolina, USA. [1]

The species, respectively this nominate form of it, is considered likely extinct.

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References:

[1] Thomas C. Barr Jr.: Revision of Appalachian Trechus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Brimleyana 2: 29-75. 1979

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edited: 07.09.2020

Epioblasma haysiana (Lea)

Acornshell (Epioblasma haysiana)

The Acornshell aka. Acorn Pearly Mussel was described in 1834; this species inhabited the drainages of the Cumberland- and the Tennessee Rivers in Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, USA.

The species died out due to habitat destruction and pollution; the last known individuals died in the 1970s due to exposure to domestic sewage.

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Photo from: ‘Paolo G. Albano; Barbara Bongiovanni; Pamela D’Occhio; Bruno Sabelli: Natural history museums as repositories of endangered diversity: the case of the United States Unionida in the Museo di Zoologia dell’Università di Bologna. Zoosystematics and Evolution 90(2): 105-111. 2014’

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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edited: 17.08.2022

Conuropsis carolinensis ssp. carolinensis (L.)

Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis ssp. carolinensis)

The Carolina Parakeet was one of only two parrot species that are truly native to the USA (the other one is the Thick-billed Parakeet (Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha (Swainson)) which, however, is now extinct there and only survives in northern Mexico).

The Chickasaw people named the bird ‘kelinky’, the Seminoles again named it ‘pot pot chee’ or ‘puzzi la née’.

The species had a very wide distributional area in the southern USA, where it inhabited old-growth wetland forests along rivers and swamps. The parakeets had a preference for the seeds of the Rough Cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium L.) (see lso depiction below), a plant that contains toxic glucoside, making the flesh of the birds poisonous to predators (the American naturalist and painter John J. Audubon noted that cats apparently died from eating them).

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The Carolina Parakeet was considered a crop pest and birds were shot by the thousands. Some also ended in the feather trade, in which it apparently was especially popular to dye the originally very colorful birds completely black – such blackened specimens are still kept in several museums.

The last known Carolina Parakeet, a male named Incas, died in the Zoo of Cincinnati, Ohio at February 21, 1918. Yet, in the wild the species apparently survived for several years longer, this can be assumed from eggs that are kept in a museum and that had been collected in Florida in the year 1927.

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The Carolina Parakeet wasn’t particularly popular in the aviculture, especially because of its loud, harsh voice, however, the ornithologist Hans Freiherr von Berlepsch at the end of he 19th century kept a free-flying population in Germany which, being well-adapted to the European climate was thriving very well. This little population, that could have been the lifeline for the whole species, however, was shot by the innkeeper of a little pub in a neighboring village within only two days.

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edited: 20.01.2020

Tremarctos floridanus (Gildey)

Florida Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos floridanus)  

The short-faced bears, so named for the shape of their skulls, which appear to have a disproportionately short snout compared to other bears, are a subfamily (Tremarctinae) of the bears that are/were restricted to the Americas. Only a single species survives until today, the Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos ornatus (Cuvier)) of South America.  

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The Florida Spectacled Bear, described in 1928 based on fossil bones from Pleistocene deposits, inhabited the southern parts of North America, including Mexico, as well as Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, and Tennessee, USA.  

The species differed from its South American counterpart by its much larger size and its heavier proportions.  

The Florida Spectacled Bear was mainly a Pleistocene species and disappeared at the end of that epoch, however, bones of the species, found at Delvil’s Den, a flooded karst cave in Florida, were dated to an age of about 8000 BC, indicating that the species may have survived for a somewhat longer time. [1]  

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References:  

[1] B. Kurtén; E. Anderson: Pleistocene Mammals of North America. Columbia University Press 1980  

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edited: 04.11.2017