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Natural History Survey

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  • Finding darters where no one thought to look

    Nov 29, 2018 11:45 am

    INHS staff spent the last two summers sampling small, overlooked streams throughout much of the greater Chicago region and discovered that the Iowa darter has been hiding out in streams so small that biologists haven’t bothered to sample them. It appears that there are enough healthy populations in these small streams that this fish is in the process of being taken off the state threatened-species list.

  • Camera trap study reveals the hidden lives of island carnivores

    Dec 21, 2018 11:30 am

  • New miniature grasshopper-like insect is first member of its family from Belize

    Feb 10, 2012 8:00 am

    A new species of Neotropical Orthopteran has been described by INHS Entomologists Sam Heads and Steve Taylor. Ripipteryx mopana belongs to a group of small and unusual insects related to grasshoppers that includes the North American pygmy mole crickets. This new species comes from the Toledo District of southern Belize, an area of tropical rainforest that is largely unexplored by entomologists. It was named in honor of the Mopan, a Mayan people that live primarily in the area of Belize where the species was discovered. The entomologists will return to the region this coming spring to study the local insect fauna in more detail.

  • Learning by listening to the people who live it

    Mar 19, 2024 8:30 am

  • Bald Eagles nesting in NE Illinois

    Jun 20, 2012 8:00 am

    The recent discovery of a nesting pair of Bald Eagles in Lake County has been described as "a fairly big deal." According to INHS Ornithologist Steve Bailey, the Chicago area did not have breeding pairs of eagles until recently, and he knew of only one other nesting pair in Lake County. This discovery brings the total to 5 active Bald Eagle nests in the Chicago area this season.

  • INHS breaks ground on new building

    Jul 14, 2009 3:30 pm

    The Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS), a division in the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, held a groundbreaking ceremony July 10, 2009 for its new facility, the future home of the plant and fungus collections from the INHS and the University's departments of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences.

  • "I am a Botanist", "Reclaim the Name" Challenge!

    Sep 2, 2014 8:00 am

    As one of the oldest biological surveys with a long history of botanical research, INHS Botanists support The Botanical Society of America "I am a Botanist", "Reclaim the Name" Challenge!

  • A new study adds to the evidence that apex predators like pumas play a unique role in ecosystems that is not fulfilled by smaller carnivores.

    Camera-trap study provides photographic evidence of pumas' ecological impact

    Jan 23, 2023 10:45 am

    A camera-trap study of two ecosystems – one with pumas and one without – adds to scientists’ understanding of the many ways apex predators influence the abundance, diversity and habits of other animals, including smaller carnivores. The study followed multiple members of the order Carnivora, looking at how the largest carnivore in each locale influenced the behavior and presence of other animals in the same vicinity.

  • Safety in numbers for 13- and 17-year cicadas

    Jun 24, 2011 8:00 am

    That loud buzzing heard across the southern half of Illinois this month?  It's the mating calls of periodical cicadas emerged after spending 13 years underground. Most cicada species emerge after 2 to 5 years, but some species have longer cycles and emerge en masse. According to INHS Entomologist Chris Dietrich we are should consider ourselves fortunate to have those loud inundations of periodical cicadas. "Illinois has five different (periodic) broods, two 13-year and three 17-year," he said. "We're kind of lucky. We get to see them more often than people further west. Cicadas are found mostly in the tropics, but there are 25 to 30 species in Illinois and close to 100 in the U.S."

  • First fossil of differential grasshopper described

    Aug 26, 2013 8:00 am

    INHS Paleo-entomologist Sam Heads and collaborator Yinan Wang recently described the first fossil record of the differential grasshopper. The specimen, a species which is still alive today, was found in material from the Late Pleistocene McKittrick tar pits of southern California.

  • Citizen scientist mussel survey finds 14 species

    Oct 1, 2012 8:00 am

    INHS Field Biologist Sarah Bales accompanied a group to survey mussels at Lake of the Woods. The group of citizen scientists found 314 individual mussels of 14 native and one introduced species. According to Bales, only one species that was previously found there was not found by this group, and that species is rare. She also said that the range of sizes found indicates the mussels are reproducing and that the habitat had not been degraded significantly.

  • New species of leafhopper named for INHS Entomologist Chris Dietrich

    Oct 15, 2014 8:00 am

    A new species of leafhopper has been named for INHS Entomologist Christopher Dietrich in recognition of his extensive work on the group. The new species, Futasujinus dietrichi, is described in a paper in the October Annals of the Entomological Society of America.

  • TJ Benson

    Do we need a new approach to prevent bird window strikes?

    Oct 23, 2023 9:00 am

    In early October, nearly 1,000 birds perished after colliding with the windows of a convention center near Lake Michigan in Chicago, marking the largest mass bird die-off in decades. But bird window-strike fatalities are an ongoing threat. Illinois Natural History Survey wildlife ecologist Thomas J. Benson, an expert in bird population trends in Illinois, spoke to News Bureau life sciences editor Diana Yates about the problem and what new strategies may help.

  • Jeff Hoover

    How does climate change affect global bird reproduction?

    May 1, 2023 2:15 pm

    A new study reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences assessed changes in the reproductive output of 104 bird species between 1970 and 2019. Illinois Natural History Survey avian ecologist Jeff Hoover, a co-author of the paper, discusses the findings and how climate change is altering bird ecology and health around the world. 

  • Illinois Chapter of the Wildlife Society Honors Dr. Stephen P. Havera

    May 18, 2007 12:00 am
  • Matthew Niemiller

    Researchers sample a DC swamp to study a spineless creature

    Jun 19, 2017 9:45 am

    INHS ecologist Matthew Niemiller led a recent study that used an environmental DNA approach to search for Hay’s Spring amphipod in its Rock Creek Park home. “It’s not a cute, cuddly or charismatic species. But we’re still learning more and more about groundwater ecosystems. And there is evidence that these crustaceans are important indicators of groundwater quality, and may play important roles in water purification and nutrient cycling over time.”

  • Chris Taylor and Eric Larson standing in a stream

    Team discovers invasive-native crayfish hybrids in Missouri

    Oct 8, 2021 7:00 am

    In a study of crayfish in the Current River in southeastern Missouri, researchers discovered that the virile crayfish, Faxonius virilis, was interbreeding with a native crayfish, potentially altering the native’s genetics, life history and ecology. Reported in the journal Aquatic Invasions, the study highlights the difficulty of detecting some of the consequences of biological invasions, the researchers say.

  • Miriam Schlessinger

    My experience at a Wildlife Veterinary Epidemiology Laboratory

    Nov 4, 2022 10:45 am

    Miriam Schlessinger writes about her experience as an intern in the Illinois Natural History Survey's Wildlife Veterinary Epidemiology Lab for the Outdoor Illinois Journal.

  • Invasive Species Workshop Trains First Detectors in Illinois

    Nov 11, 2016 8:00 am

    The 2017 Illinois First Detector Workshop on invasive plants, diseases, and insects will be offered at eight Illinois sites beginning in January 2017.

  • Restoration begins on Cook County Forest Preserve lands

    Jan 15, 2016 8:00 am

    The Prairie Research Institute, with researchers from INHS and our sister surveys, has helped the Forest Preserve District of Cook County identify areas for restoration under the Next Century Conservation Plan. Restoration on Deer Grove West in Palatine is underway.

  • Digitization of biological collections will make fragile specimens more accessible for study

    Jan 30, 2012 8:00 am

    The biological collections of the Illinois Natural History Survey are among the largest in the nation, with nearly 10 million specimens collected over the past 150 years. These collections document our natural heritage and can be studied to understand variations within and between species, changes over time, and countless other topics. Many of the specimens are fragile and must be stored and handled with extreme care. As part of a $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation, researchers at INHS are working with several other institutions to digitize collections, taking high resolution images from a variety of angles. Scientists from around the world will be able to see the images of the specimens and physically handle only the ones that they need for closer examination. For more information on the invertebrate side of the project, check out the InvertNet website.

  • white-tailed deer

    Deer protected from deadly disease by newly discovered genetic differences

    Feb 23, 2023 9:45 am
  • Illinois Natural History Survey medical entomologist Jiayue (Gabriel) Yan peers through a viewing port as he works inside a sealed glove box, using tongs to carefully handle Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

    Starving mosquitoes for science

    Feb 23, 2024 9:45 am

    A behind the scenes look at the Medical Entomology Laboratory at Illinois Nature History Survey and the work of Jiayue (Gabriel) Yan on Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

  • Sarah Douglass

    INHS malacologist Sarah Douglass among the sixteen employees honored with Chancellor's Staff Excellence Award

    Apr 18, 2024 8:00 am

    Sixteen academic professionals and civil service staff members have received the 2024 Chancellor’s Staff Excellence Award. 

  • Attack of the Flying Fish

    Jun 24, 2010 2:00 pm

    The Illinois Times talks to Kevin Irons, INHS LTRMP Fish Specialist, about sampling for Asian carp. Irons catalogs some of the things that he does to make sampling on the Illinois River safe.

  • Leellen Solter and Sam Heads

    Ancient katydid fossil reveals muscles, digestive tract, glands and a testicle

    Jun 26, 2023 1:45 pm

    Fifty million years ago in what is now northwestern Colorado, a katydid died, sank to the bottom of a lake and was quickly buried in fine sediments, where it remained until its compressed fossil was recovered in recent years. When researchers examined the fossil under a microscope, they saw that not only had many of the insect’s hard structures been preserved in the compressed shale, so had several internal organs and tissues, which are not normally fossilized. 

  • a deer

    Chronic wasting disease: hunters' perceptions and attitudes

    Aug 1, 2022 9:45 am

    For Outdoor Illinois Journal, INHS scientists describe what their surveys have revealed about deer hunters'perceptions and attitudes toward the management of chronic wasting disease in Illinois' deer population.

  • Yanghui Cao, Valeria Trivellone, and Christopher Dietrich, photo by Fred Zwicky

    Study tracks plant pathogens in leafhoppers from natural areas

    Aug 2, 2022 8:00 am

    Phytoplasmas are bacteria that can invade the vascular tissues of plants, causing many crop diseases. While most studies of phytoplasmas begin by examining plants showing disease symptoms, a new analysis by researchers at the Illinois Natural History Survey focuses on the tiny insects that carry the infectious bacteria from plant to plant. By extracting and testing DNA from archival leafhopper specimens collected in natural areas, the study identified new phytoplasma strains and found new associations between leafhoppers and phytoplasmas known to harm crop plants.

  • INHS staff attend 5th North American Duck Symposium

    Sep 1, 2009 3:30 pm

    Illinois Natural History Survey staff and students were well represented at the 5th North American Duck Symposium held in Toronto, August 17-21. This prestigious symposium is held every three years and is attended by hundreds of scientists from Europe and North America. Forbes Biological Station director Joshua Stafford was a member of the Scientific and Student Awards committees, co-organizer of a special session on Duck Foods and Foraging Habitats in North America, and co-author of two plenary talks, two student talks, and one student poster. Randy Smith and Aaron Yetter each provided poster presentations based on recent work conducted at the Forbes Lab. University of Illinois Ph.D. candidate (NRES) Ben O'Neal received one of only five travel awards from the Delta Waterfowl Foundation to attend the conference. Ben also garnered the award for "Best Ph.D. Presentation" for his presentation titled Waterfowl on Weather Radar: A New View of Dabbling Duck Migration (co-authored by Stafford and Ron Larkin). The Web site of the symposium, with photos and conference proceedings, may be viewed at: http://www.northamericanducksymposium.org.

  • Purple martin migration behavior perplexes researchers

    Sep 30, 2019 9:15 am

    Purple martins will soon migrate south for their usual wintertime retreat, but this time the birds will be wearing what look like little backpacks, as scientists plan to track their roosting sites along the way.

  • Dr. John Marlin's Mud to Parks Program tackles Pekin Landfill

    Nov 16, 2007 12:00 am

    The Mud to Parks Program took another step forward last month as dredged earth from the Lower Peoria Lake was used to cap off the Pekin Landfill. Dr. John Marlin, senior scientist at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources' Waste Management and Research Center, oversees the program and discussed the new developments with several news outlets.

  • Saving our natural heritage, one stopper at a time

    Dec 12, 2018 10:00 am

    The INHS Insect Collection holds more than 350,000 vials with more than 3 million insect and arthropod specimens inside. About 70 percent of these are in vials with stoppers that are – or could soon be – melting. A National Science Foundation grant supports our efforts to replace these stoppers and protect these specimens.

  • Cultivating Innovation: The Intersection of Geography, Climate, and Agricultural Research in Illinois

    Jan 31, 2024 8:45 am

    Since its inception in 2008, the Prairie Research Institute has conducted long-term monitoring of Illinois’ water, soil, and climate. These data, including growing and pest degree days, soil temperature and moisture, water table levels, and in-stream sediment, are used every day by thousands of Illinoisans and by the state’s agriculture, renewable energy, and construction industries.

  • Could Asian carp be competing for food with eagles?

    Feb 1, 2010 2:30 pm

    INHS Scientists Dr. Gregg Sass and Dr. John Chick were interviewed by Chris Young for an article that questions the cause of the decline of the Bald eagle, and other birds, at the Starved Rock Lock and Dam. One of the possible contributors to the decline may be due to the presence of Asian carp.

  • INHS botanists reconstruct 226 year history of fire in Southern Illinois

    Mar 14, 2011 4:45 pm

    By looking at the scars in the growth rings of 36 old-growth post oak trees, INHS botanist Greg Spyreas, affiliate John Ebinger and Illinois State Museum botanist William McClain found that there had been more than 100 fires in Southern Illinois between the 1770s and 1996. This repeated burning stabilized prairies and kept the woodlands open until the mid-1800s when fires appear to have been suppressed by the settlers in the area for a 30 year period. Fire suppression altered the plant community by allowing fast-growing, shade-loving species to survive. The study was published in the journal Castanea. Read news coverage of the story by the Science Blog, Science Codex, and Earth Times.

  • The insect now known as Kaikaia gaga, a new genus and species of treehopper.

    Grad student names new treehopper species after Lady Gaga

    Mar 16, 2020 9:00 am

    The insect now known as Kaikaia gaga represents a new genus and species of treehopper.

  • Taxonomists stand up and count your species

    Mar 27, 2007 10:15 am
  • female cowbird and male cowbird perched on wire fence

    Cowbirds change their eggs’ sex ratio based on breeding time

    Jun 24, 2020 9:15 am

    Brown-headed cowbirds show a bias in the sex ratio of their offspring depending on the time of the breeding season, researchers report in a new study. More female than male offspring hatch early in the breeding season in May, and more male hatchlings emerge in July.

  • Illinois Natural History Survey Mycologist Awarded $780,668 to Digitize Microfungi Collections

    Aug 25, 2015 8:00 am

    Illinois Natural History Survey Mycologist Andrew Miller was awarded a National Science Foundation Thematic Collections Networks (TCNs) grant to digitize microfungi collections.  Miller will lead the Microfungi Collections Consortium, a group of 38 institutions across 31 states, in their efforts to digitize the more than 1.2 million specimens including slime molds, smut fungi, and powdery mildew.  An additional 1.1 million existing records will also be added to the online portal known as the MyCoPortal (http://mycoportal.org/portal/index.php).

  • leopard resting in a tree

    Study finds Serengeti leopard population densities vary seasonally

    Aug 31, 2020 8:30 am

    A study of camera-trap data from Serengeti National Park in Tanzania found that leopard population densities in the 3.7-million-acre park are similar to those in other protected areas but vary between wet and dry seasons. The fluctuations appear to be driven by the abundance of prey and how this affects interactions with other large carnivores like lions.

  • Least bittern perched on a plant.

    Study tracks waterbird use of Chicago-area wetlands

    Sep 14, 2022 9:30 am

    A three-year study in northeastern Illinois and northwestern Indiana found that – even at small scales – emergent wetlands or ponds support many wetland bird species. The study also found that, at least in the years surveyed, the level of urbanization had little effect on most of the studied species’ use of such sites, provided the right kinds of habitat were available.

  • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Ph.D. candidate Nicholas Antonson prepares a nest box to accommodate a prothonotary warbler nest.

    Cowbird chicks do best with two warbler nest mates – not four, not zero, study finds

    Sep 15, 2022 10:15 am

    A new study seeks to understand the strategies cowbird chicks use to survive in prothonotary warbler nests when they hatch with different numbers of warbler nestlings. The study reveals that a cowbird chick does better with two than with four or zero warbler nest mates. 

  • Kevin Johnson and colleagues find Passenger Pigeon a place in the family tree

    Oct 7, 2010 10:30 am

    INHS Ornithologist Kevin Johnson and his colleagues published a paper on the phylogenetics of the extinct Passenger Pigeon. They found that its closest living relative is not the mourning dove, but actually other large pigeons found in Central and South America, but even those are distant relatives. “The passenger pigeon is in a monotypic genus, which means there is only one species in that genus: Ectopistes migratorius,” [Johnson] said. “This bird is pretty diverged from its nearest relatives, meaning it had a unique place in the world. It represented a unique lineage that’s now gone.” For more information, read the press release or an article published by Science 2.0.

  • Researchers from the Illinois Natural History Survey use electricity to stun the fish for capture

    Illinois sportfish recovery a result of 1972 Clean Water Act, scientists report

    Oct 18, 2017 11:30 am

    Populations of largemouth bass, bluegill, catfish and other sportfish are at the highest levels recorded in more than a century in the Illinois River, according to the Illinois Natural History Survey, which has surveyed fish there since 1957.

  • plants and fungi

    Fire-spawned forest fungi hide out in other organisms, study finds

    Oct 25, 2019 6:45 am

    When a wildfire obliterates a forest, the first life to rise from the ashes is usually a fungus – one of several species that cannot complete its life cycle in the absence of fire. Scientists have long argued about where and how such pyrophilous (fire-loving) fungi survive, sometimes for decades, between fires. A new study finds that some of these fungi hide out in the tissues of mosses and lichens.

  • Digitization Project Finds Anthrax Samples in Collections

    Mar 30, 2016 8:00 am

    When anthrax became a household name in 2011, even curators of some herbaria were unaware that samples of Bacillus anthracis, the source of anthrax, had been housed in their microfungal collections for more than a hundred years. Recently, a digitization project at the Illinois Natural History Survey unearthed the whereabouts of historical samples, including one at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

  • INHS scientists teach students about conservation

    May 12, 2011 9:00 am

    Moultrie County 4th graders learned about Conservation at the Moultrie County 4-H Fairgrounds, with the help of INHS scientists. Tara Beveroth taught about birds and research techniques, Jean Mengelkoch taught about bats and endangered species, while Jen Mui and Patty Dickerson brought the Traveling Science Center with its display about Biodiversity and Exotic Invasive Species.

  • Asian tiger mosquito

    Asian tiger mosquito gains ground in Illinois

    Jun 4, 2020 8:15 am

    Researchers report that the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, has become more abundant across Illinois in the past three decades. Its spread is problematic, as the mosquito can transmit diseases–like chikungunya or dengue fever–to humans.

  • Over time, an invasive plant loses its toxic edge

    Sep 1, 2009 4:15 pm

    Dr. Richard Lankau and plant ecologist Greg Spyreas, both of the Illinois Natural History Survey, just published an article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) about the potency of garlic mustard over time. Garlic mustard is an invasive species that injects a toxin into the soil. Research conducted by INHS researchers indicates that over time the toxin becomes less potent.

  • Remnant prairies protected by railroads

    Oct 8, 2012 10:00 am

    INHS Plant Ecologist Bill Handel has been surveying railroad prairies for the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) for years. The data Handel and his colleagues at INHS gather are used by IDOT and other state agencies to protect native habitats when planning construction projects, mowing along roadways, and applying pesticides.