Leader for today's Ramble: Linda
This post was written by Linda (plants) and Dale (insects)
Link to Don's Facebook album for this Ramble. All the photos in this post, unless otherwise credited, were taken by Don Hunter.
This post was written by Linda (plants) and Dale (insects)
Link to Don's Facebook album for this Ramble. All the photos in this post, unless otherwise credited, were taken by Don Hunter.
Today's emphasis: Seeking What We Find along a portion of the White Trail and in the ROW prairie below the White Trail Crossing
Number of Ramblers today: 31
Reading: Bob Ambrose recited a poem by Robert Francis, Nothing is Far. (link)
Show and Tell: Linda passed around a photo of an annual cicada, just emerged from its nymphal exoskeleton. The photo was taken on the trunk of one of the Magnolia trees slated for destruction by developers at the old Varsity site on Milledge Avenue. Georgia has more than a dozen annual cicadas, so named because they emerge every year. This is likely the Dog-day Cicada (Neotibicen canicularis), so named because it appears as the "dog days" of summer unfold.
Announcements:
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| Newly emerged annual cicada (cast off nymphal exoskeleton to the right). It takes several hours for the new exoskeleton and wings to harden. (photo by Linda Chafin) |
Announcements:
Don mentioned
the upcoming Great Georgia Pollinator Census on August 20 and 21; the Nature
Ramble on August 19 will be devoted to preparing Ramblers for the census. Details for the census can be found on the
GGPC website: (link)
FINE Things (continuing from NR hiatus):
OBSERVATIONS:
Learn about daddy-long-legs in this fascinating article by Katherine J. Wu in the Atlantic magazine. (link)
Today's Route: Sidewalk through the Lower Shade Garden to the White Trail. White Trail to the power line right of way. Turn left at the ROW and ramble to the picnic/ADA parking area and then return via the access road.
OBSERVATIONS:
Lower Shade Garden:
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| Hammock Spider Lily |
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| Hammock Spider Lily closeup showing the corona |
Hammock Spider-lily is flowering in the Dunson Garden. One of the few plants to bloom in the deep shade of the midsummer forest, this species is truly spectacular in flower. Its flower has six narrow flaring tepals (3 petals + 3 nearly identical sepals) with a spread up to 8 inches and a central, cup-like membrane called a corona (the genus name, Hymenocallis, means "beautiful membrane"). The six stamens, tipped with golden anthers, are fused to the corona. The flowers open in the late afternoon and are visited during the night by moths attracted by the sweet fragrance. Each flower remains open less than 24 hours.
There are 16 native species of Hymenocallis in the southeast; this is the only one to occur in upland forests and the only one in the Georgia Piedmont. Wondering what hammocks have to do with this plant? A hammock is a term used mostly in the Coastal Plain to describe a patch of hardwood forest surrounded by grasslands or longleaf pine woodlands.
White Trail Spur:
We spotted a downed decaying tree, partially covered with a crust (corticoid) fungus, as yet unidentified. Don's close-up photo reveals that the surface of the fungus is covered with tooth-like projections.
Heather noticed an Eastern Whitelip snail, and Gary shared a little known fact about snails: they make "love darts" composed of calcium carbonate (limestone).
White Trail Spur:
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| Crust fungus |
We spotted a downed decaying tree, partially covered with a crust (corticoid) fungus, as yet unidentified. Don's close-up photo reveals that the surface of the fungus is covered with tooth-like projections.
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| Eastern Whitelip snail |
Heather noticed an Eastern Whitelip snail, and Gary shared a little known fact about snails: they make "love darts" composed of calcium carbonate (limestone).
Most land snails are hermaphrodites, each individual has both male and female reproductive structures. And, in addition, there is the dart sac where the darts are made. During courtship two snails meet side by side and it is then that the love darts are released. The darts penetrate the body wall and not the reproductive tracts. During this part of courtship both snails try to be the darter and not the dartee. The darts carry substances that affect the amount of sperm the dartee transfers or makes. The system is not thoroughly understood. Here is a recent, open access paper that describes what is known about this unusual courtship. Monica Lodi, Joris M. Koene, 2016, The love-darts of land snails: integrating physiology, morphology and behaviour. Journal of Molluscan Studies, Volume 82, Issue 1, Pages 1-10, https://doi.org/10.1093/mollus/eyv046
Smooth Trailing Lespedeza, one of two trailing species of Lespedeza in the Piedmont. The two species are very similar, distinguished mainly by the presence (or not) of curling hairs on the stems.
Sericea lespedeza is one of the most widespread and persistent invasives in Georgia, and sadly is still planted by GA DOT for erosion control. Gary said the state almost succeeded in banning its use but the goat farmer lobby prevailed in their efforts to fight the ban on the grounds that that these plants are natural goat de-wormers. Really.
Spotted Horse-mint is in peak flower now, with its showy pink bracts and yellow, maroon-spotted corollas attracting large bees such as Bumblebees and Carpenter Bees.
With stout prickles on both stems and leaves, Carolina Horse-nettle is no one's favorite plant. But it is one of a handful of unrelated species in our area that are buzz-pollinated, making it a great example of coevolution between insects and flowers. Instead of holding their pollen in easily accessed, wide-open anthers, these flowers' pollen is packed into tubular anthers that open only from a tiny pore at the tip. Bumblebees grasp the anthers and rapidly vibrate - buzz - their thorax muscles, shaking loose the pollen grains that the bees quickly gather into their pollen baskets (honeybees can't do buzz-pollination). About 9% of the world's plants are buzz-pollinated; in our area, this includes members of the tomato family (Solanaceae), blueberries (genus Vaccinium), Senna (genus Senna), and meadow-beauties (genus Rhexia). Here's a video of buzz-pollination in action.
ROW Prairie:
The restored-prairie-in-the-making supports small populations of two disturbance-following plants: Fireweed and Dog Fennel. Both are in the Aster Family and produce enormous crops of seeds each year. Both have inconspicuous flower heads that are easily overlooked until they go to seed - each seed bears a tuft of white hairs that, in mass, becomes quite showy. The seeds are wind-borne, and plants can show up miles from their original sites. Both species are aggressive spreaders and competitors, are hard to remove once established, and should be removed from restoration sites as soon as they are seen.
A tiny flea beetle on the Dog Fennel foliage.The common name, “flea beetle,” refers to the impressive jumps that these beetles are capable of. One minute you see them, the next you don’t. Most flea beetles eat holes in the leaves of the host plant. Maybe that's what it's doing on this Dog Fennel.
One of the most problematic of invasives, Perilla Mint, is an aggressive invasive introduced here from Asia as a culinary herb.
The Great Black wasp in this photo, seen visiting the Southern Mountain Mint, is a solitary wasp. Solitary means that each female provides shelter and food for her own offspring only. There is no central nest or hive as in Honey Bees. No division of labor into egg-laying queens, sterile workers that build the nest or forage for food to feed the queen's offspring. The Great Black is a "digger" wasp -- she digs a tunnel in loose soil and then goes hunting katydids. When she finds one, she stings it and then drags the immobile katydid back to her tunnel nest. When she has provisioned the nest with enough katydids she lays a single egg on one and then builds a partition than seals the chamber in the tunnel. She repeats this until the tunnel is filled and then goes on to dig and provision another tunnel. Then she dies, never to see her offspring. That's what it means to be a solitary wasp.
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| Annual Daisy Fleabane With small lavender colored flowers, blooms May through October. |
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| Smooth Trailing Lespedeza |
Smooth Trailing Lespedeza, one of two trailing species of Lespedeza in the Piedmont. The two species are very similar, distinguished mainly by the presence (or not) of curling hairs on the stems.
 | |
| Sericea Lespedeza |
Sericea lespedeza is one of the most widespread and persistent invasives in Georgia, and sadly is still planted by GA DOT for erosion control. Gary said the state almost succeeded in banning its use but the goat farmer lobby prevailed in their efforts to fight the ban on the grounds that that these plants are natural goat de-wormers. Really.
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| Spotted Horse-mint |
Spotted Horse-mint is in peak flower now, with its showy pink bracts and yellow, maroon-spotted corollas attracting large bees such as Bumblebees and Carpenter Bees.
 | |
| Carolina Horse-nettle |
With stout prickles on both stems and leaves, Carolina Horse-nettle is no one's favorite plant. But it is one of a handful of unrelated species in our area that are buzz-pollinated, making it a great example of coevolution between insects and flowers. Instead of holding their pollen in easily accessed, wide-open anthers, these flowers' pollen is packed into tubular anthers that open only from a tiny pore at the tip. Bumblebees grasp the anthers and rapidly vibrate - buzz - their thorax muscles, shaking loose the pollen grains that the bees quickly gather into their pollen baskets (honeybees can't do buzz-pollination). About 9% of the world's plants are buzz-pollinated; in our area, this includes members of the tomato family (Solanaceae), blueberries (genus Vaccinium), Senna (genus Senna), and meadow-beauties (genus Rhexia). Here's a video of buzz-pollination in action.
ROW Prairie:
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| Fireweed, just beginning to bolt. |
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| Dog Fennel |
The restored-prairie-in-the-making supports small populations of two disturbance-following plants: Fireweed and Dog Fennel. Both are in the Aster Family and produce enormous crops of seeds each year. Both have inconspicuous flower heads that are easily overlooked until they go to seed - each seed bears a tuft of white hairs that, in mass, becomes quite showy. The seeds are wind-borne, and plants can show up miles from their original sites. Both species are aggressive spreaders and competitors, are hard to remove once established, and should be removed from restoration sites as soon as they are seen.
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| Flea beetle on Dog Fennel leaf. |
A tiny flea beetle on the Dog Fennel foliage.The common name, “flea beetle,” refers to the impressive jumps that these beetles are capable of. One minute you see them, the next you don’t. Most flea beetles eat holes in the leaves of the host plant. Maybe that's what it's doing on this Dog Fennel.
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| Perilla Mint |
One of the most problematic of invasives, Perilla Mint, is an aggressive invasive introduced here from Asia as a culinary herb.
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| Great Black Wasp |
The Great Black wasp in this photo, seen visiting the Southern Mountain Mint, is a solitary wasp. Solitary means that each female provides shelter and food for her own offspring only. There is no central nest or hive as in Honey Bees. No division of labor into egg-laying queens, sterile workers that build the nest or forage for food to feed the queen's offspring. The Great Black is a "digger" wasp -- she digs a tunnel in loose soil and then goes hunting katydids. When she finds one, she stings it and then drags the immobile katydid back to her tunnel nest. When she has provisioned the nest with enough katydids she lays a single egg on one and then builds a partition than seals the chamber in the tunnel. She repeats this until the tunnel is filled and then goes on to dig and provision another tunnel. Then she dies, never to see her offspring. That's what it means to be a solitary wasp.
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| Common Eastern Bumblebee on Southern Mountain-mint |
Don's close-up photo of the Mountain-mint captures the feature that separates our two common Mountain-mints. The species pictured here - Southern Mountain-mint, Pycnanthemum pycnanthemoides - has long, narrowly pointed calyx lobes. The other common species - Hoary Mountain-mint, Pycnanthemum incanum - has more broadly triangular calyx lobes. Both have white bracts beneath the flower heads and both are pollinator magnets.
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| Tree Cricket nymph (Oecanthus sp.) |
Tree Crickets are famous for their beautiful, high pitched sounds produced by rubbing their wings together. One wing has a structure called a file, that has a series of microscopic ridges. The other wing has a scraper, a small peg, that, when rubbed against the file, produces the high-pitched sound. Aging ears may have trouble hearing this insect music.
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| Praying Mantis nymph |
Like many insects the Praying Mantis spends the winter as an egg inside a protective substance provided by its female parent. In spring when the temperatures are warm enough all the eggs hatch and the young mantids are on their own. These are predaceous insects with good eyesight and forelimbs that are adapted to capturing prey. They are called "raptorial," in allusion to the clawed feet of birds of prey. The front legs are folded up close to the thorax and rapidly extended to grasp their prey. The strike is almost to fast for the human eye. If this mantis is a female it will more than double in size by early fall; male mantids are only about ¾ the size of the females at maturity.
You may have heard the story of the female mantis eating the head of her mate during copulation. It is true, but not every male is consumed; a few manage to escape.
.
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| Bottlebrush Buckeye fruits |
Bottlebrush Buckeye fruits are beginning to mature. The fruits develop near the ends of the long flower stalks where the "perfect," i.e. bisexual, flowers were located. Perfect flowers have both female (fruit-producing) sexual parts as well as male (pollen-producing). The male-only flowers ("imperfect" or unisexual) were located further down the stalk and, having completed their work of releasing pollen, have disappeared for the year. Only 4-5% of the flowers on a Bottlebrush Buckeye are bisexual and capable of producing fruits - just enough presumably to keep the species going but not so much as to be a drain on the plant's energy budget.
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| Carolina Desert Chickory |
Carolina Desert Chicory is a "composite" but its flower heads actually lack the two flower types that earned the Composite Family its name. This species has only ray flowers. The busyness you see in the center of the head are the black-tipped stamens of some of the centrally located ray flowers. There are no disk flowers.
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| Widow Skimmer dragonfly |
The Widow Skimmer dragonfly is one of the less common ones seen in the Garden. Like all dragonflies they have enormous eyes that they use to spot flying insects which they capture and devour in mid-air. Their spiny legs form a basket that is used to scoop up their prey. Dragonflies often sit on the same perch, flying off to capture food and returning to the same spot to finish consuming it.
I once saw a Widow Skimmer do something unusual. It was flying near a bed of Salvia in the Garden. The dragonfly hovered in front of one of the Salvia plants and then flew forward, bumping the plant hard enough for it to shake. It then flew backwards a short distance and hovered, all the time looking toward the plant. It then repeated this same activity on other Salvia stems about half a dozen times and then flew off. It looked to me like it was shaking the plants, perhaps to dislodge any insects that were inside the flowers or on the leaves. I had never seen this kind of behavior with any dragonfly and emailed a dragonfly researcher about it. She had also never seen or heard of any similar behavior. There it sits - an unsupported observation and conjecture. Keep your eyes open when you see dragonflies.
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| Meadow Katydid female nymph |
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| Fasciated stem of Late Blooming Thoroughwort |
We stopped at a Late Blooming Thoroughwort, still in bud, and to examine the curious stems. The largest stem, near the center of the cluster of stems, was enlarged and had a rather flat profile in cross-section. Although most of the other stems on the plant had a typical, roundish cross-section, a few of them were also flattish, to a degree, like the larger stem. Elizabeth indicated this is an example of fasciation, or an abnormal fusion and flattening of the stems. This can be caused by genetic mutation, hormonal imbalance, and bacterial or fungal infection.
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| Yellow Garden spider (photo from and earlier Ramble). The black and yellow pattern of the species and the white stabilimentum are clearly visible. |
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| Yellow Garden spider wrapping prey with silk. |
When we first saw this spider we thought it might be a Joro, a Japanese species that appeared in Georgia only seven years ago and has since become more abundant. No one knows, at present, if the Joro is having a negative impact on our native orb weaving spider abundance. When viewed from the underside the Joro and Yellow Garden spiders look very similar, but the color pattern of the upper side is quite different. Plus, the Yellow Garden spider has a "stabilimenum," a vertical band of white silk the that runs through the center of the orb wed. The Joro lacks this structure in its web.
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| Chinese Pistache in fruit |
Chinese Pistache is one of the species at the Garden that Gary is working to eliminate.
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| Hornbeam Copperleaf |
Another aggressive invasive that is established in the prairie, Hornbeam Copperleaf, has spread rapidly in the Garden over the last decade; it is resistant to most herbicides.
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| Crab spider with captured inchworm |
Crab spiders are sit and wait predators of other insects. The typically locate a flower like a daisy, sit on the flower and change color to better conceal their presence. The get their name from their large, elongated front legs that they hold extended on each side of their head, making them look slightly crab like. There they sit, waiting for an oblivious insect to visit the flower. When one does, the spider grabs and bites it, injecting venom that quickly paralyzes the prey.
In the photo a careless moth caterpillar wandered too close to the spider and couldn't escape. This spider has not read the books as it was on the leaflet of a Red Buckeye. But the legs look similar to the veins of the leaflet. Perhaps the white abdomen is meant to resemble a hole in the leaf.
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| Trumpet Creeper flowers |
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| Poison Ivy with developing fruit |
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| Doveweed |
Doveweed, a member of the Euphorb or Spurge family, is in flower. Although native, this species is considered a pest plant, especially in peanut and cotton fields.
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| Dirt-colored seed bug |
Seed bugs are feeding specialists on seeds, so there are probably more species of seed bugs than there are of seed plants. They use their piercing, sucking mouthparts to penetrate the seed coat and inject digestive enzymes to liquidize the endosperm. Then they suck out the liquid nutrients, killing the seed in the process.
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| Virginia Buttonweed |
Virginia Buttonweed, with its bright, white four-pointed flowers, are scattered like stars amongst the low grass in the White Trail path.
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| Citrine Forktail damselfly |
This Citrine Forktail damsel fly was drifting above the ground though the tall grass. It appeared almost weightless as it flew slowly about.
Damsel flies belong to the same insect order as dragonflies. Dragonflies are larger and swifter and hold their wings horizontally when at rest. Damselflies are smaller and more delicate appearing, holding their wings folded together above their back. Unfortunately, the photo was taken directly above the damselfly, so the wings are viewed along their top edge, making them almost invisible. Like dragonflies, damselflies are predators and capable of swift, maneuverable flight, as anyone has tried to net one can tell you. They eat mosquitoes and other similar size insects.
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| American Wisteria |
American Wisteria is in bloom on the split rail fence in the ROW. Many ants were nectaring on the flowers.
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| Unripe Passion fruit |
We examined the Passionflower vines on the Dunson Garden deer fence, looking for Gulf Fritillary eggs or larvae. Maypops, as the Passionflower fruits are called, are beginning to develop. Inside the fruit, the flesh is still solid and seeds are beginning to develop. When ripe, the fruits will be yellow, wrinkled, and soft, with a juicy interior.
SUMMARY
OF OBSERVED SPECIES:
Spider
Lily Hymenocallis occidentalis
Crab
Spider Mecaphesa sp.
Meadow
katydid Orchelimum sp.
Netted
Crust fungus Byssomerulius corium?
Eastern
Whitelip snail Neohelix albolabris
Annual
Daisy Fleabane Erigeron annuus
Native
lespedeza Lespedeza sp.
Sericea
Lespedeza Lespedeza sericea
Carolina
Horsenettle Solanum carolinense
Virginia
Buttonweed Diodia virginiana
Spotted
Horsemint Mondarda punctata
Fireweed Erechtites
hieracifolius
Dog
Fennel Eupatorium capillifolium
Flea
beetle Longitarsus sp.
Perilla
Mint Perilla frutescens
Tree Cricket Oecanthus sp.
Praying
Mantis Order Mantodea
Bottlebrush
Buckeye Aesculus parviflora
Purple
Top Grass Tridens flavus
Carolina
Desert Chicory Pyrrhopappus
carolinianus
Silver
Plume Grass Erianthus
alopecuroides
Short-toothed
Mountain-mint Pycnanthemum muticum
Southern
Mountain-mint Pycnanthemum
pycnanthemoides
Great
Black Wasp Sphex
pensylvanicus
Common
Eastern Bumble Bee Bombus impatiens
Eastern
Carpenter Bee Xylocopa virginica
Widow
Skimmer Dragonfly Libellula
luctuosa
Common
Mullein Verbascum thapsus
Late
Blooming Thoroughwort Eupatorium
serotinum
Yellow
Garden Spider Argiope aurantia
Chinese
Pistache Pistacia chinensis
Hornbeam
Copperleaf Acalypha ostryifolia
Tulip
Magnolia Magnolia liliiflora
Red
Buckeye Aesculus pavia
Geometrid caterpillar Lepidoptera: Geometridae
Trumpet
Creeper Campsis radicans
Poison
Ivy Toxicodendron radicans
Wingstem Verbesina alternifolia
Dirt-colored
Seedbug Paromius longulus
Doveweed Croton glandulosus
Coral-beads Cocculus carolinus
American
Wisteria Wisteria frutescens
Purple
Passionflower Passiflora incarnata
Citrine
Forktail damselfly Ischnura hastata
