Leader for today’s Ramble: Dale
Link to Don’s Facebook album for this Ramble. All the photos in this post are compliments of Don Hunter, unless otherwise credited.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=don.hunter.56&set=a.5103239919692532
Number of Ramblers today: 25
Today’s emphasis:
Reading: Karen Porter read two poems:
Cicadas at the End of Summer by Martin Walls
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42476/cicadas-at-the-end-of-summer
For the Chipmunk in my Yard by Robert Gibb:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53932/for-the-chipmunk-in-my-yard
Show and Tell:
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| One of Gary’s “Joro sticks” |
Gary showed us two sticks he uses to take down Joro spider webs. The golden color of the silk was very obvious when densely wrapped around the sticks.
Today’s Route: We left the arbor and headed into the Lower Shade Garden via the sidewalk adjacent to the new Children’s Garden comfort station. We left the sidewalk and took the mulched path (White Trail Spur), veering off of it on to the mulched path leading down to the Dunson Native Flora Garden. We cut directly across the Dunson Garden and exited via one of the gates in the deer fence and headed down the road to the Passionflower vines. After lingering there, we slowly made our way towards the Mimsie Lanier Center for Native Plant Studies on the access road. When we were done there, we headed back to the Visitor Center via the road.
LIST OF OBSERVATIONS:
Arbor:
We saw examples of three common orbweaver spiders and their webs.
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| Joro spider on web |
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| Joro spider web showing detail of the sticky capture threads. |
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| Red-femured Spotted Orbweaver (this one is actually in the Dunson Garden) |
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| Spinyback Orbweaver Closeup of the white colored variant |
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| Spinyback Orbweaver web |
Bird’s Nest fungus
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| Bird’s Nest Fungus fruiting bodies |
Heather discovered numerous Bird’s Nest fungi growing on the mulch that borders the arbor. Each tiny “cup”, less than 1/2 inch in diameter, contains several spherical “eggs.” Together, the “cup” and “eggs” look like a bird’s nest you might find in a doll’s house. This bird’s nest is the fruiting body of a fungus that is decomposing a chunk of mulch. Y’all will remember that the job of a fungal fruiting body is to reproduce via the production of spores. Here the “eggs” contain the spores and falling raindrops cause the “eggs” to be ejected into the surrounding shrubbery where they stick to whatever they land on. Some have been found on leaves as far as 3 feet above their cup. While attached to their new location the “eggs” release their spores which are dispersed by the wind.
There are other species of Bird’s Nest fungi in our area, but these are the only ones in our area that have white “eggs.”
Sources:
Elliott, TF & Stephenson, SL. 2018. Mushrooms of the Southeast. Timber Press. p.: 343
Kuo, M. (2014, February). The bird’s nest fungi. Retrieved 9/25/2020 from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/birdsnestshtml
Hillside Mulched Trail, Dunson Garden:
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| Onion-stalk Parasol (Lepiota) mushrooms |
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| Same mushroom showing gills under cap and annulus around stalk. |
Several small clusters of Onion-stalk Parasol (Lepiota) mushrooms are growing on the roots of a rotting tree stump just off the path through the Dunson Garden. This is another fungus usually found on decaying wood. It has a finely scaly, bell-shaped cap and a partial veil. A partial veil is a delicate layer of tissue that extends from the edge of the cap to the stem and protects the spores as they develop within the gills on the lower surface of the cap. When the spores are ready to be dispersed, the veil disintegrates, often leaving a ragged ring around the stem, the annulus.
Deer Fence at Road:
Two weeks ago we checked the Passionflower vines and found not caterpillars and no sign of feeding on the leaves. Today many of the vines were stripped of leavess and only a few, small Gulf Fritillary caterpillers were found, indicating that the missing caterpillars had wandered off to find a place to pupate.
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| Gulf Fritillary caterpillar |
Many green, immature “maypops” were hanging from the vines, most perfect for popping, and a few were beginning to ripen. The mature fruit consists of a tough, wrinkled, yellowish rind and numerous dark seeds, each seed enclosed by and aril, a sac filled with sweet-tart juice.
Passionflower leaves and roots were used by Native Americans and early European colonists to treat a variety of ailments, including boils, wounds, earaches, and liver problems. Currently, dried Passionflower leaves are included in teas that aid anxiety and insomnia.
Virginia Tiger Moth caterpillars are variable in color and appearance as well as food plants. Here are three examples, two from the Passionflower vines in the Dunson Garden deer fence and one from the road into the Mimsie Lanier Center.
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| Virginia Tiger Moth caterpillar on Passionflower. Red color, sparser hair |
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| Virginia Tiger Moth caterpillar on Passionflower White color, denser hair |
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| Virginia Tiger Moth caterpillar on Morninglory Red, dense hair |
ROW and Road to Mimsie Lanier Center:
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| Scarlet Morning-glory |
The bright orange-red of Scarlet Morning-glory flowers caught our attention, twining around the shrubby vegetation along the road to the Mimsie Lanier Center. One vine could be seen 25′ to 30′ up in a large pine tree. (Photo of flowers) There are two other morning-glories in our area with bright red flowers: Scarlet Creeper (Ipomoea hederifolia) and Cypress-vine (Ipomoea quamoclit). With their bright color and long floral tubes, the flowers of all three attract hummingbirds and butterflies. Here’s how to tell them apart:
Scarlet Morning-glory: leaves are somewhat heart-shaped, sometimes with low teeth but not deeply lobed. Flower orange-red with a yellow throat. Native to southeast U.S.
Scarlet Creeper: leaves heart-shaped or three-lobed like English Ivy leaves, often both shapes on one plant. Flower red with a yellow throat. Native to Central and South America.
Cypress-vine: leaves fern-like, divided into many narrow segments. Flower dark red throughout.
As we made our way down the road towards our destination, we saw examples of Yellow Crownbeard and Common Wingstem growing close together and compared their main characteristics (wings, alternate vs. opposite leaves, flowers) (Photos of three characteristics of each)
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| Common Wingstem with torpid Bumble Bee Note that the disk florets are arranged in a hemisphere. There ae only a few ray florets per flower head in this example. |
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| Yellow Crownbeard The floral parts are loosely arranged — only a few disk florets in each flower head. |
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| Common Wingstem Alternate leaves |
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| Yellow Crownbeard Oposite leaves |
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| Tall Thistle |
Our native Tall Thistle is a butterfly magnet in late summer and an important seed source for finches in the winter. It is distinguished from other thistles, native and non-native, by the white coating on its lower leaf surfaces and by the relatively few spines along the unlobed leaf margins.
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| Fall Webworm Moth caterpillar on Sweetgum |
Heather found a Fall Webworm Moth caterpillar (FW) on a Sweetgum leaf. These caterpillars are often confused with those of Eastern Tent Caterpillars (ETC). Here’s how to distinguish them. Both create silken nests, ETC in the spring only and FW mostly in summer and fall, but rarely in spring.
Location of the nest:
ETC: crotch of tree branchs, not surrounding leaves. Caterpillars travel to ends of branches to feed on leaves, then return to nest to digest their meal.
FW: nest surrounds the ends of branches, covering leaves that will be eaten.
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| Leaf-footed Bug (Note: this photo is from a different Ramble and clearly shows the white line and expanded tibia of the male bug. At the top of the photo is a nymph with black legs and scarlet body.) |
Heather captured an Eastern Leaf-footed Bug,These
true bugs are found throughout the year. Two features are especially obvious:
the expanded and flat parts of the hind legs and the white line that runs
across the body. Why do the legs bear these leaf-shaped enlargements? No one
seems to have studied this aspect of Leaf-footed bug biology. But we can
speculate. Male bugs seem to have the largest hind legs, suggesting that the
“leaf” structure might be used in sex recognition or as a dominance signal.
This can only be determined by careful observation and recording of the bug
interactions. Here’s a project for an amateur entomologist.
We’ve
seen Leaf-footed bugs gathered on the Yucca at the foot of the Dunson Garden in
spring. They are broad ranging pests of garden vegetables, fruits of many kinds,
pine seeds. The damage they cause depends on their abundance; if you have a
home garden and see a large number you may want to discourage them by drowning
them in water with a little detergent added.
One
thing to be aware of: Leaf-footed bugs have a gland on their thorax that emits
a strong odor that is will cling to your fingers. Most people find it
disgusting, so if you’re going to handle them, wear gloves.
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| Strawberry Bush / Hearts-a-bustin’ |
Several Strawberry Bush/Hearts-a-bustin’ shrubs, loaded with their bursting seed capsules, are in full glory along the road to the Mimsie Lanier Center. Local naturalist and forester Walt Cook refers to Strawberry Bush as “Deer Ice Cream” because deer browse every leaf and tender stem they can reach. Although known to reach 12 feet in height, it is rare to see a tall specimen so loaded with fruit in this deer-ridden part of the state. Both common names refer to the warty, dark pink fruit which bursts open to reveal the bright reddish-orange seeds.
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| Eastern Tailed Blue butterfly |
Heather, with a lot of patience, coaxed a tiny Eastern Tailed Blue butterfly into a viewing tube. This tiny butterfly has wings that are about the size of a finger nail. It normally sits with its wings held together above its back, concealing its upper wing surface, which, in males, is a beautiful blue. The color of females is a rather drab grayish brown.
Recently emerged individuals have one or two fine, hairlike projections on the hind wings. At the base of these “hairs” is a colored spot. Together, the spot and hairs vaguely resemble an eye and and antennae. In other words, this part of the wing has a false head. To make the illusion more realistic the butterfly will slide the hind wings up and down, causing the fake antennae to wiggle up and down. It is thought that this movement will cause any nearby predator to attack the pseudo-head, enabling the butter fly to escape with its life, minus a piece of its wings. Consistent with this idea is that collections of butterflies with similar false eyes and antennae frequently also have wedge-shaped pieces of their hind wings missing.
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| Dogbane Saucrobotys Moth caterpillar?? |
A tiny orange caterpillar, barely noticible, even by Heather’s keen eyes, on Common Wingstem. The wingstem is not one of the preferred host plants for this moth (either dogbane or milkweed), so Don says that this ID is tentative and his best guess after comparing the photo with on-line resources.
Sumac Gall Aphid
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| Sumac Aphid Galls |
On the south side of the road there is a group of Smooth Sumac plants with clusters of swollen growths on their leaves. These are the work
of the Sumac Gall Aphid. In the spring, as the sumac
plant is producing leaves, it is visited by an aphid that lays a single egg,
usually on the mid-vein of a leaf. The plant reacts by enveloping the egg with a
growth of tissue that begins as a small, spherical swelling. Inside this growth the egg
hatches and the aphid nymph begins to feed by sucking plant juices from the gall. As the nymph
grows it will shed its skin (exoskeleton) five times. The last molt
produces a mature aphid that produces more aphids parthenogenetically;
i.e., without benefit of a male. Those aphids, in turn, produce more
aphids and the number of aphids within a single gall grows exponentially.
This exponential growth produces thousands of aphids in a single gall. Since each adult aphid has molted 5 times you can imagine how many shed skins accumulate inside the gall. We discovered how many when we opened a gall and found it stuffed with a powdery white substance. What was it? All those skins that were shed during the summer!
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| A single gall, opened to show the accumulation of cast off skins. |
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| Close up of opened gall showing winged aphids. (click on photo to see enlarged view) |
Toward the end of the growing season winged aphids are produced. They leave the gall and fly to an alternative host where they overwinter. The winter host is, strangely enough, a moss!
In the spring male and female aphids are produced, mate, and the females fly off to find more sumac, starting the cycle again.
https://bygl.osu.edu/node/1112
Visit this website for additional excellent photographs of the galls and the aphids.
Mimsie Lanier Center for Native Plant Studies:
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| Deceiver Mushroom |
As we neared the greenhouses and hoop houses, occasional patches of small Deceiver mushrooms could be seen growing in the grass. The common name comes from its highly variable appearance and it is considered a “mushroom weed” by the mushroom crowd because of it’s abundance.
” A plump, orange Virginia Tiger Moth caterpillar was seen under one of the leaves on the vine.
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| Late-blooming Boneset and Mist Flower |
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| Common Evening Primrose |
*(Photo of the Virginia Tiger Moth cat on the morning glory vine)
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| Georgia Basil |
Georgia Basil is a low shrub in the mint family, one of only a few woody mints found in Georgia. It has wonderfully aromatic leaves and small, pink flowers with a patch of darker dots forming a nectar guide.
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| Stone Mountain Daisy |
Bright and cheery patches of Stone Mountain Daisy are found throughout the grounds of the Mimsie Lanier Center. Stone Mountain Daisy is in the sunflower genus Helianthus, and is one of the few native annual sunflower species in the southeast. It thrives in the thin, dry, gravelly soils and hot temperatures of granite outcrops and is found in abundance on the granite outcrop at Rock and Shoals here in Clarke County. In older field guides and manuals, you will see it named Viguiera porteri. It was also called Confederate Daisy in the past because of its association with Stone Mountain and the carving of confederates on the side of the mountain, but now has the less controversial name.
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| Great Blue Lobelia |
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| Cardinal Flower |
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| Cut-leaf Coneflower |
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| Spotted Bee Balm |
Great
Black Digger Wasp Sphex pensylvanicus
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| A torpid Great Black Digger Wasp on Spotted Bee Balm |
After
mating a female wasp excavates a tunnel with multiple cells in soft, sandy soil. After she finishes digging she hunts for katydids, paralyzing
them with her sting. Each katydid is still alive and is flown by the wasp back
to the tunnel and placed in a cell. Each cell can hold two or more katydids.
When all the cells are full, the wasp lays a single egg on one katydid in each
cell and then fills the tunnel with soil.The eggs hatch and the grubs feed on their katydid food, finally emerging as adult wasps in late summer of the following year. (You may think that I misspelled the species name — shouldn’t there be two “n” in “pensylvanicus?” When this wasp was given its name Pennsylvania was spelled with a single “n.” The rules of scientific nomenclature only permit changing a name in the case of typographical error. Once the name is properly published it is, in effect, written in stone.)
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| Green Lynx Spider with egg sac |
The Green Lynx spider, difficult to see in the photo above, is an active predator, similar to a wolf spider, but usually hunting in shrubby vegetation. Unlike wold spiders it continuously spins a “drag line” of silk. The female remains with her egg sac, aggresively defending it. Several spiders were seen in a shrub in front of one of the hoop houses.
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| Flower flies mating on spiderwort |
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| Three-lined Flower Moth on Dog Fennel |
Difoliate Orbweaver spider Acacesia hamata
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| Difoliate Orbweaver (Photo, courtesy of Heather) |
Heather spotted this spider nestled in the tip of some vegetation. It’s pose is unusual: the first two pairs of legs bunched together and pointing forward, alongside the head. L. L. Gaddy reports, in Spiders of the Carolinas, that the species is nocturnal, building a 10 to 12 inch wide orb web.
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| Three-lined Flower Moth on Dog Fennel |
SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:
Joro Spider Trichonephila clavata
Red-femured (Spotted) Orbweaver Neoscona domiciliorum
Spiny-backed Orbweaver Gasteracantha cancriformis
Common Bird’s Nest Fungi Crucibulum laeve
Onion-stalk Parasol (Lepiota) Leucocoprinus cepistipes
Passionflower Vine Passiflora incarnata
Gulf Fritillary (caterpillar) Agraulis vanillae
Virginia Tiger Moth (caterpillar) Spilosoma virginica
Scarlet Morning Glory Ipomoea coccinea
Yellow Crownbeard Verbesina occidentalis
Common Wingstem Verbesina alternifolia
Common Eastern Bumble Bee Bombus impatiens
Tall Thistle Cirsium altissimum
Fall Webworm Moth (caterpillar) Hyphantria cunea
Eastern Leaf-footed Bug Leptoglossus phyllopus
Princess Tree Paulownia tomentosa
Strawberry Bush/Hearts-a-bustin’ Euonymus americanus
Camphorweed Heterotheca subaxillaris, syn. H. latifolia
Eastern Tailed Blue butterfly Cupido comyntas
Dogbane Saucrobotys Moth (caterpillar) Saucrobotys futilalis
Smooth Sumac Rhus glabra
Sumac Gall Aphid Melaphis rhois
Deceiver mushroom Laccaria laccata
Difoliate Orbweaver spider Acacesia hamata
Late Flowering Boneset Eupatorium serotinum
Common Evening Primrose Oenothera biennis
Georgia Basil Clinopodium georgianum
Stone Mountain Daisy Helianthus porter, syn. Viguiera porteri
Great Blue Lobelia Lobelia siphilitica
Cardinal Flower Lobelia cardinalis
Cut-leaf Coneflower Rudbeckia laciniata
Spotted Bee Balm Monarda punctata
Great Black Digger Wasp Sphex pensylvanicus
Green Lynx Spider Peucetia viridans
Syrphid fly Diptera: Syrphidae
Spiderwort Tradescantia sp.
Grass-leaved Goldenaster Pityopsis graminifolia, syn. Pityopsis nervosa
Dog Fennel Eupatorium capilifolium
Three-lined Flower Moth Schinia trifascia
