What's that on the mistflower? A wasp?

Nope! Surprise! The experts at Bugguide.net told me that it's a species of clearwing moth--Carmenta armasata. This insect reminds me of another one I spotted in our Wildscape in November 2008. That day I spotted what I thought was a wasp. But it turned out to be a Texas wasp moth (Horama panthlon texana). Nature is so COOL!

One friendly insect

Meet my friend, an eastern yellowjacket (Vespula maculifrons). It was overly friendly last night when we were sitting outside and even landed on my nose. I just let it be, and we got along fine.

An elegant roach

Last night's rains blessed us with more than 3 inches! Not to mention this interesting insect that's presently latched onto an exterior wall of our garage. I spotted a smaller one, too....

I checked with Bugguide.net, and the insect appears to be a Boll's sand roach (Arenivaga bolliana). A little further Googling led me to Insects of the Texas Lost Pines, which says that this species occurs only in Texas. "Boll's sand cockroach is the largest and most commonly seen cockroach of the forest," the book states. "A better common name would be the 'elegant roach.'"

The species does NOT infest homes and is not considered a pest, my dear James.  :-)

 

Hackberry galls

Pachypsylla sp.

Sometimes, we find the most unusual and strange things in our Wildscape. The other day, James spotted this hackberry leaf on the ground and showed it to me. Hmmm. Verrryyyyy interesting! I'd never seen anything like it before.The tiny protrusions looked like miniature flowers. I took some photos and emailed them to daughter Lindsey, who's taking at botany course at Angelo State University this fall. She shared them with her professor, who observed that "the leaf growth is altered by feeding of insects or mites. These look like leaves with blister galls from feeding by psyllid larvae."

The leaf's top side

So I checked Bugguide.net and found similar photos....looks like we have hackberry blister gall psyllids (Pachypsylla celtidisvesicula), also called jumping plant lice. According to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension's online field guide, hackberry gall psyllids are not considered to be pests and will not harm the tree.

"Common leaf gall forming species overwinter in the adult stage in bark cracks and crevices," states the AgriLife field guide. "Adults mate in the spring and females lay eggs on the underside of expanding leaves. Nymphs hatch from eggs in about 10 days and begin feeding, which causes leaf tissue to expand rapidly into a pouch or gall around the insect. They develop through several stages before emerging as adults in the fall (September), although the hackberry bud gall maker overwinters inside the gall as a last stage (5th instar) nymph to emerge as adults in early summer. One generation occurs annually."

Just a while ago, I fetched a second leaf. Then I took a small knife and opened a blister. Inside was a teeny-tiny white larva. Next, I broke open a "flower." Inside was another tiny larva but butter yellow in color. How in the world do they get out of the leaf?

"Nymphs mature and then exit the gall once leaves have fallen," states a Ohio State University Extension fact sheet. "They cut a slit in the gall to permit emergence. Thirty minutes later, nymphs molt to adults. Several thousand adults may emerge from a single hackberry tree in late-September, reaching their peak in October."

By the way, adults resemble tiny cicadas, which also molt in a similar process. All verryyyyyy interesting!

A ladybug and other stuff

Harmonia axyridis

I try to photograph every ladybug we find in our Wildscape so we can submit a report to the Lost Ladybug Project at Cornell University. This is a multi-colored Asian ladybug, an introduced species from Europe. So far, I've contributed 20 images to this research project.

Matelea biflora

Speaking of research projects, I submitted these photos of a purple milkweed vine seedpod (with common milkweed bugs below) and a prairie verbena going to seed to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's Image Gallery. 
 

Glandularia bipinnatifida

A cool fly...working on ID.

One lone oxblood lily blooming!

Look what I spotted!

One of the reasons I really wanted a stock tank pond was because of what I'd seen hovering around one at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: dragonflies! Since we put our tank together last May, I hadn't seen dragonflies or damselflies hanging out near our pond. Just a few cardinals, white-winged doves, red wasps and paper wasps. Lots of paper wasps. And then....

Right before supper this evening, I was out feeding the fish herd and pulling out dead leaves when I startled a...what's that?...an infant damselfly! Or more precisely, a damselfly naiad. I think it'd just emerged! Isn't it CUTE? Like mosquitoes, damselflies lay their eggs in water.  

According to the AgriLife Extension's online field guide, damselfly "eggs are deposited in emergent plants or floating vegetation or directly into the water. Immature damselflies (naiads) hatch from eggs and live in water. They develop through 10 to 12 immature stages (instars), although there may be more or fewer instars depending on the species and habitat. The last immature stage crawls out of the water onto vegetation before the adult emerges. Most species have one generation per year."

Cicada capers

 

Cicadas emerge from their pupae everywhere and anywhere. They're not picky. Check out these photos from our Wildscape. Also, see one emerge bit by bit in my July 30, 2010, post "The rebirth of a cicada."

Uh oh, we may have a problem, NASA

Polistes sp., maybe Polistes exclamans?

 Yeah, James has been very patient with me. I hate to kill nearly anything in our Wildscape. Unless it's non-native. Over our garage doors, we've got some paper wasps building nests. In my opinion, small ones like the one above aren't much of a problem. "Wasps feed on insects, including caterpillar pests, and thus are considered to be beneficial insects by many gardeners," states the species account on the AgriLife Extension site. That's how I feel, too–they've got a place in the natural world. 

However, when the nest gets this large, and it's right over where we walk in and out of the garage....

 

Then, dang it, we've got a probably problem, NASA.

So I guess James is gonna knock this nest down soon with a high-pressure hose.

UPDATE–Well, that evening, after a bit of drama, the nest DID come down. I was going to use the water hose, but James STRONGLY advised against the tactic. We then agreed on a bucket of soapy water. However, the first bucket accidentally got spilled down the driveway. The second bucket hit the mark. Alas, most of the wasps did die. Right away, the survivors returned and started work on a new nest. They're persistent insects! A few more dashes of soapy water, but they continue to return.

After the rains

Yesterday, God blessed us with a little more than an inch of rain! I was sitting in my office, reading, when I happened to glance out the window. Tiny winged insects were flying upward from the ground and into the sky. Apparently, the moisture had triggered their emergence. What were they? I ran outside with my camera and caught a few in my hand. The photos aren't great, but I did my best....

UPDATE...BAD NEWS! THOSE WINGED THINGS ARE TERMITES! Likely a native subterranean species. Ugh! I'm reading up now about them, including a FAQ posted online by AgriLife Extension. They were swarming yesterday....  

James walked outside, too, and spotted this small toad in the Meadow.

The raindrops on the lilies in the stock tank pond were pretty....

Mini cicada

I was outside yesterday afternoon, nipping off dead flowers, when I felt something land on my foot. I looked down and found this little cicada. I caught it in my hand, then walked into the house for my camera. Back outside, it posed patiently for numerous shots. Then it flew off.

Entomologist Mike Quinn says it's likely a grasslands cicada. Maybe Cicadetta texana? Bill Reynolds via Bugguide.net says it's a mesquite cicada (Pacarina puella). Either way, it was CUTE. I've never seen a cicada that tiny before.

BIG ant!

Or is it?

What do you think?

Get the answer here.

A fly and a fish

I grabbed my camera this morning and got ONE shot of this fierce-looking insect, which landed on our chain-link fence with breakfast. I think it was eating a bee. From what I can tell, I believe it's a robber fly species, perhaps the red-footed cannibalfly (Promachus rufipes). A new one to me!

Awhile ago, I tried and tried to snap some photos of my gambusia kids in the stock tank pond. But they're FAST.

Week Seven: Plant keys and Westcave Preserve

Retired biologist Chuck Sexton made a cheesy face when I snapped this photo. We have a lot of fun during our Thursday classes and field excursions.

With online databases and field guides with photos, nowadays it’s fairly simple and easy to identify plants, insects and other flora and fauna. But REAL biologists and other experts use a key to nail down the specific genus and species of a specimen.

Week Seven of our Texas Master Naturalist training with the Highland Lakes chapter introduced us to using a basic plant key. We met at the home of Mike and Sammy (our training program coordinators), where retired biologist Chuck Sexton spent the first half of our morning going over basic terminology.

“I started keying out plants in junior high,” said Sexton, who grew up in California and formerly worked with the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge. “Knowing the terminology is important when going through a plant key. You’ll spend a lot of time just learning that.”

“If you want to be absolutely right in identifying a plant, you’ve got to key it out,” Sexton added.

So what’s a plant key? According to Vascular Plant Systematics, “keys are devices consisting of a series of contrasting or contradictory statements or propositions requiring the identifier to make comparisons and decisions based on statements in the key as related to the material to be identified.”

In other words, you look at certain characteristics of a plant and, by a series of questions and deductions, you narrow down possibilities to a specific identification. Basic characteristics include:

·      Petiole (leafstalk)

·      Stipule (leaf-like appendage at base of leafstalk)

·      Stem arrangements

·      Margins (leaf edges)

·      Leaf arrangements

·      Leaf shapes

·      Vein arrangements

For an hour and a half, Sexton reviewed plant characteristics and defined leaf-shape terms used in keys like lanceolate (spear-shaped), oblanceolate (“ob” means opposite of), reniform (kidney shaped), cordate (heart shaped), falcate (curved) and deltoid (triangular). On our handouts, I penciled in definitions as we went. My goodness, there’s a lot to know and learn about a basic leaf! THEN consider how many species of plant leaves there are! Mind boggling!

After Sexton’s lecture, we headed to the front yard for our first exercise in plant keying. We used a two-page "Artificial Key to Some of the Woody Plants on Westcave Annex" (for practice in Master Naturalist classes).

Is this a vine? Tree or shrub? The first question is simple: We've got a tree. On our key, we jump from #1b to #3.

Are the leaves opposite? Or alternate? They're alternate. So from #3b, we jump to #8. Now are the leaves compound or are they simple? They're simple so we jump next to #14. Are the leaves in a basal rosette, not arranged along twigs? That's a twistleaf yucca, which this specimen clearly is not. Are the leaves alternate along obvious twigs? Yes. So we jump to #15. Now are the leaf blades linear (very narrow), more than 10 times long as wide? No (that's a Roosevelt weed). Or are the leaf blades oblong to ovate, much less than 10 times long as wide? Yes–so we jump from #15b to #16. Are the leaves deeply tooth or lobed, the lobes separated by sinuses almost as wide as the lobes? No (that's a Texas oak). Or are the leaves shallowly toothed, with no discernible lobes? Yes–from #16b we go to #17. Are the leaf margins entire (without teeth)? Yes (they're not toothed)–from #17a we go to #18. Are the leaves less than 2 inches long? No. Are they more than 2 inches long? Yes–we go from #18b to #20a. Are the leaves stiff or brittle, the upper surface dark glossy green, veins inconspicuous? No. Are the leaves flexible, the upper surface full green (not glossy), veins conspicuous? Yes–from #21b we go to #22. Is this a shrub? No. Is this a tree with leaves more than 1 inch long? Yes–we go to #23. Are the secondary veins unbranched and parallel? Yes to #23a!
We've got a cedar elm (Ulmus crassifolia)!

"Isn't that cool how that works?" exclaimed fellow trainee Kay.

What's this, Sexton asked, a vine or a shrub?

We keyed this specimen out to a Mustang grape vine (Vitis mustangensis).

Sexton pointed out a Virginia creeper.

He explained leaf arrangement of a honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa).

This katydid came with my specimen.

Coral honeysuckle with a perfoliate leaf base. Cool! We have this vine in our Wildscape...I've got to check this out. 

Pete helped key out this elbowbush (Forestiera pubescens). "This is so cool," said classmate Janis of our plant key exercises. "Yes, isn't this exciting?" nodded Betty, a Master Naturalist from our chapter. "You ALL get an A!" Sexton pronounced when our keying exercises ended.

Noon lunch break on the back patio.

Next we headed to Westcave Preserve, where we found this guy on my back windshield...a truncated true katydid (Paracyrtophyllus robustus).

John, our guide, tells us about the Environmental Learning Center at Westcave Preserve. 
Early settlers named the site “West Caves” because of its location west of the Pedernales. Until the late 1970s, trespassers heavily damaged fragile vegetation and cave formations at the collapsed limestone grotto. Since 1976, careful management and limited visitation has allowed the habitat to heal. Access to the 70-acre preserve is by guided tour only (Saturdays and Sundays, weather permitting, 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.).

John also shared about the area's geology.

A view of the Pedernales River and distant hills from an overlook at the preserve.

Heading down the half-mile trail.

I believe this was identified as a Texabama croton.

Along the way, we spotted a summer tanager high up in the trees (no photo).

A native passionflower vine.

Stopping to take photos.

This old cypress was....

...very very VERY tall!

Off the trail, someone spotted what was believed to be a copperhead. Which had apparently eaten recently. See the big bulge?

I got as close as I dared to get a better photo.

We've reached the bottom of the canyon, where we cross Heinz Branch.

The Grotto.

I couldn't resist photographing this delicate fern.

We hiked up inside the Grotto.

View looking out from the Grotto.

Some of us hiked up to the cave, too.

Old graffiti carved into the cave's limestone floor in 1883.

A red-eared slider didn't seem to mind our company.

Another passionflower vine.

Our snake friend was still around when we made our return trip back up the trail.

Blue curls

NEXT WEEK

Our class curriculum takes us right here to MY TOWN–Blanco–where we'll learn about more invasives and entomology at Blanco State Park (where I lived for 13 years).