Ramble Report July 28 2022
Leader for
today’s Ramble: Linda
Author of today’s
Ramble report: Linda
Fungus and insect identifications: Don
Hunter and Bill Sheehan
Link
to Don’s Facebook album for this Ramble. All
the photos that appear in this report, unless otherwise credited, were taken by
Don Hunter.
Number of
Ramblers today: 27
Today’s
emphasis: Searching for Pine Sap but finding lots of Tipularia, fungi, and floodplain wildflowers instead…mostly fungi.
Ramble Report July 21, 2022
Leader for
today’s Ramble: Bill Sheehan
Author
of today’s Ramble report: Bill Sheehan
Number of
Ramblers today: 20
Today’s
emphasis: Galls
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| It was a rainy morning in Georgia, so the Ramblers gathered in the Garden Room on the lower level of the Visitor Center for an excellent presentation on gallsby Bill Sheehan – what they are, how to find and photograph them, and how to participate in citizen science efforts to document them. Bill also brought in several gall specimens from Garden trees and shrubs and demonstrated how to examine and dissect them using a dissecting microscope. What follows are Bill’s Powerpoint slides and his commentary. |
One of the more interesting people who studied galls was
Alfred Kinsey. His collection of over 5 million gall wasps is one of the
largest insect collections in the American Museum of Natural History. He later
applied the same “big data” approach to the study of human sexuality, resulting
in groundbreaking (and blockbuster) books on male and female sex sexuality in
the early 1950s. This is, of course, not to say that if you take up the study
of galls you’ll wind up studying human sexuality!
My objectives today are to describe what galls
are, convey the range of gall diversity, and describe some of the tools I’m
using to learn about galls. I’m still at an early stage, having gotten serious
about them only this year.
Some galls are large and hard to miss. You’ve probably seen examples
made by the Wool Sower Gall Wasp and the various Oak Apple gall wasps. Also common are those of the Goldenrod Stem Gall
Fly, the Cone Gall Aphids on witch hazel, or by some large fungi like Cedar-Apple
Rust (after rain on junipers), or perhaps the galls found on Horse Sugar.
But most are much smaller, like these galls made by tiny
flies called gall midges.
Plant galls are abnormal plant growths caused by a wide
range of other organisms that hijack the host plant’s physiology. They
typically concentrate nutrients for the benefit of the gall-making organism,
and, especially with insects and mites, provide shelter for developing
youngsters. Insect galls are induced by chemicals deposited by the insect or mite mother along
with the egg, or by chemicals secreted by the larva after it hatches. In the Goldenrod
Leaf Gall, spores of a fungal symbiont are deposited with the egg by a
gall midge. It is the fungus that guides growth of the gall structure and
provides food for the developing young.
Many different kinds of organisms can induce galls on
plants, including bacteria, fungi, nematodes, mites, and insects. Insect-induced galls have
the most complex and varied structures. There is speculation that some
insects may incorporate DNA from bacteria or viruses to provide the
instructions that result in the host plant growing a particular gall structure (specific
for each species). The author of a 2019 paper provides such
speculation. Perhaps analogously, Mike Strand at UGA has demonstrated how the
two main lines of hymenopteran parasitoids (wasps that lay their eggs on or in the bodies of other insects) incorporate viral DNA to overcome the
immune responses of their insect hosts.
Some of the most common insect gall-makers include gall
wasps, gall midges, certain moth larvae, and aphid relatives. Wasps, flies, and
moths have larvae specialized for feeding that look entirely different from the
winged adults. Aphids and other true bugs, on the other hand, have young with
legs and look like adults without wings.
This is an interesting gall that I have found many times at my house. While most insect gall-makers hijack plant physiology, this midge causes a crust fungus to make a gall for it – something quite unusual in the world of insect galls. The fungus is the toothy thing feeding on a dead Water Oak branch, and the little bumps are midge galls. Inside the midge gall chamber is white material which is probably a different fungus imported by the gall midge to provide food for the developing larva. Bottom line: an animal makes a gall on a fungus which is feeding on a plant (dead oak branch) and the insect brings along another fungus for food.
Leaf mines are similar to galls in that they are an enclosed
space within a plant in which an insect develops. There was an outbreak of Solitary
Oak Leaf Miners this spring around North Georgia, primarily on White Oaks but
also on some other oaks. Many people were concerned (including ramblers, see this rambler report), but it’s unlikely that it
has a lasting effect on the trees. For one thing, it’s most prevalent in edge
areas, around houses and roads, much less abundant in the woods, and less
prevalent higher up in trees.
I use three tools to learn about galls: a camera
and two websites, gallformers.org and iNaturalist.org.
I created a project on iNaturalist called Galls
of Clarke County, GA. It displays any observation of a gall-maker posted by
anyone since January 2000. As of July 18 of this year, 48 observers had posted 360 observations
of 125 species.
· Using the website www.gallformers.org/id, you can see
all documented gall species in Georgia – or in all of North America. Since gall insects
tend to be host specific, you need to start by specifying a host plant. Here
are statistics for two of the most fascinating (to me) gall-making insects:
–There are 406 species of cynipid gall wasps documented on all oak species in Georgia.
–There are 62 species of
gall midges documented on all hickories in Georgia.
Photo-document: You can use any camera but a smartphone
streamlines things because every photo has geocoordinates and a timestamp encoded
in it (you can add them manually on iNaturalist), and you can upload directly
to iNaturalist from a smartphone. Some tips to make observations of maximum
usefulness:
A key tool I have found for photographing insects
and other small things is the auto-focus lock function. On a smartphone, aim at
anything with similar lighting (your arm, a tree trunk) at a distance of
several inches, and when it comes into focus press the screen until AF LOCK or
a padlock symbol appears. Then point at your subject from the same distance, and
shoot.
Gallformers.org:Before posting your photos to iNaturalist, go to www.gallformers.org/id to try to get a
gall-maker ID – at least to family. First, add the host plant species, or at
least host genus (e.g., oak or hickory). You will see all the gall species that
have been recorded from those host plants. For White Oak, it is 118 gall
species. You can narrow that down by providing the gall family (if known), the
location of the gall, or other features (like hairy). Then scroll down the page
and see which gall most closely resembles what you have.
iNaturalist:Finally, go to iNaturalist, either on your smartphone or your home computer or tablet. You’ll need to set up an account, which is free. Upload your photos, putting
your best one first, since that will be the one displayed on the observations
page. It helps greatly to provide the best gall-maker name you can because it
makes it easier for other interested people to find it. If you leave the name
blank, iNaturalist will display “Unknown” and no one will find it. iNaturalist
uses machine learning to provide name suggestions but that doesn’t work very
well for non-charismatic tiny things like most galls. This is why it is good to
have at least a family name from gallformers.org. The power of iNaturalist is that it engages
naturalists all over the world with similar interests. You can tag people by
putting their iNaturalist screen name preceded by @ in the comment field of an
observation. When I am uncertain, I often tag @megachile, one of the young
hotshots behind the gallformers.org site. Use of iNaturalist is a topic for another rainy day!
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| Bill brought in several gall samples for examination using a dissecting scope |
Resources mentioned:
Alfred Kinsey’s cynipid collection:
https://www.amnh.org/shelf-life/kinsey-wasps
Goldenrod Leaf Gall Fly: A GallingDiscovery by Chris Helzer, The Prairie Ecologist
Gall induction paper: The mechanism of plant gall induction by insects by Omar Gätjens-Boniche 2019
Gallformers.org www.gallformers.org/id
iNaturalist project, Galls of Clarke County, GA
iNaturalist – Getting started
https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started
https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/video+tutorials
Plant species mentioned:
Apple Malus spp.
Cedar Juniperus virginiana
Goldenrod Solidago spp.
Hickory Carya spp.
Horse Sugar Symplocos tinctoria
Water Oak Quercus nigra
White Oak Quercus alba
Witch Hazel Hamamelis sp.
Ramble Report July 14 2022
Leader for
today’s Ramble: Holly Haworth
Author
of today’s Ramble report: Holly
Link to Don’s Facebook album for this Ramble. All
the photos that appear in this report, unless otherwise credited, were taken by
Don Hunter.
Number of
Ramblers today: 26
Today’s
emphasis: Trees, Shrubs, Ferns and Wildflowers in the Lower Shade Garden and Dunson Native Flora Garden
Ramble Report July 7, 2022
Leader for today’s Ramble: Linda Chafin
Authors of today’s report: Linda
Insect identifications: Don Hunter, Heather Larkin, Dale Hoyt
Linkto Don’s
Facebook album for this Ramble. All the photos that appear in this report,
unless otherwise credited, were taken by Don Hunter.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.6022574794425702&type=3
27 Ramblers today
Announcements:
Bob announced a new David Attenborough series, “The Green Planet,” showing on PBS. Filmed over a period of three years in 27 different countries, it consists of five episodes.
Today’s emphasis: What’s blooming and who’s eating who in the right-of-way
Reading: Today we had two readings….
Kathy had a reading from a rabbinic midrash:
“There is a wonderful Chasidic story about the child of a
rabbi who used to wander in the woods. At first his father let him wander, but
over time he became concerned. The woods were dangerous. He did not know what
lurked there. He decided to discuss the matter with his child.
One day he took
him aside and said, ‘You know, I have noticed that each day you walk into
the woods. I wonder, why do you go there?’
The boy said to his father, ‘I go there to find
God.’
‘That is a very good thing,’ the father replied
gently. ‘I am glad you are searching for God. But, my child, don’t you
know that God is the same everywhere?’
‘Yes,’ the boy answered, ‘but I am not.'”
***********
Terry brought in our second reading, excerpted from an interview with Ed Yong, science writer, in Publisher’s Weekly (link to interview):
“There is one thing that I keep thinking about: if you look at all the colors of the flowers around you and consider what kind of eye would be best at telling them apart, what you end up with is an eye that’s basically exactly like what a bee has. You might think, then, that the bee has evolved an eye that’s really good at seeing flowers. And actually, you would be completely wrong. It’s the other way around. The bees came first and the flowers came after, which means that flower colors evolved to tickle the eyes of bees and other insects. And I think that’s just a truly magical thing to discover.”
Show and Tell:
Heather brought in a branch from a White Oak tree; every leaf had been extensively damaged by Solitary Oak Leaf Miners, caterpillars so tiny they can actually feed between the upper and lower surfaces of the leaves, then go on to spin a cocoon and pupate there as well. The adult form is a very small, silvery moth with tan markings on its wings. For more information and suggestions for reducing leaf miner damage to your trees, check this link.
Tom brought two dead male Hercules beetles that he collected beneath an outdoor light at his house.
Today’s Route: We left the Children’s Garden arbor and wove our way through the Shade Garden and over to the the Georgia Power right-of-way. We ventured briefly down the ROW but then turned north and walked up the ROW nearly to the top of the hill. From there we returned to the Visitor Center via the road.
Today’s Observations:
The small stand of Sweetshrub in the Lower Shade Garden blooms regularly but bears only a few fruits each year, relying more on vegetative spread than sexual reproduction. It may be that the sap beetles that pollinate Sweetshrub flowers are in short supply in this part of the Garden. Sweetshrub’s ancestors evolved early in the history of flowering plants, about 97 million years ago, and are pollinated mainly by sap beetles. Sap beetles (family Nitidulidae) are small dull-colored insects that mainly eat decaying vegetation, over-ripe fruit, and sap. They are drawn to Sweetshrub’s flowers by their fragrance which has been described as a mixture of melon, banana, pineapple, and strawberry. (Here’s a link to a great article about Sweetshrub pollination.)
Sweetshrub ‘fruit’ is a bit of a misnomer – what appears to be a lumpy green fruit is actually a fleshy structure called a floral tube, formed when the lower part of petals, sepals, and stamens fuse together. If the flower is pollinated and ovules are fertilized, the floral tube expands and encloses the developing seeds.
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| Sweetshrub fruit with mature seeds. Photo by Dan Tenaglia |
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| Sweetshrub fruit opened by a rodent. Photo by Gary Knight. |
Once the seeds mature, the sack-like tube dries and turns brown. It persists on the shrub through the winter; mice and other rodents tear open the sack and make off with the seeds.
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| We first thought this Mabel Orchard Orbweaver was our first sighting of a Joro spider of the year — that actually happened later in the ramble. So it begins…. |
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| Chinese Pistache Tree |
A small Chinese Pistache Tree growing along the White
Trail Spur has so far escaped Gary’s eradication efforts. Pistache Trees
of both sexes were planted in several places in the Garden decades ago, guaranteeing its spread. Although not on the Georgia
Exotic Pest Plant Council’s list of invasive species, it is expected to become a widespread problem,
especially if both sexes are sold. Its leaves resemble those of several
native trees but the crushed vegetation has a distinctive– and very
unpleasant–odor.
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| Yaupon Holly in fruit. Yaupon is the only native North American plant containing caffeine and was a valuable trade item among Native Americans |
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| Hop Hornbeam in fruit The fruits – small, seedlike nutlets – are contained in the slightly inflated sacs that make up the fruit clusters. There are 10-30 sacs per cluster and only one nutlet per sac. The clusters of sacs superficially resemble the flower clusters of the hop plants (no relation) that are used in beer-making. |
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| Red-femured Orbweaver spiders are easily identifiable by their red leg segments and the “cat-face” pattern on their abdomens. |
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| Heather found a tiny Meadow Katydid nymph |
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| The single Red Buckeye tree in the ROW is loaded with fruit. Each of its flower clusters has many flowers but only the flowers at the base of the cluster will bear fruit; the rest of the flower cluster has been shed, leaving behind only a bit of the dried stalk seen in Don’s photo. |
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Cross-section of a Red Buckeye fruit. It is typical for each fruit to contain two or three developing seeds and one or more aborted seeds. |
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| Unlike the Red Buckeye, which flowered in April, Bottlebrush Buckeye blooms in the summer. Its fruits will closely resemble those of Red Buckeye. All buckeye species have highly toxic seeds. |
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| Holly found a Field Cricket which we containerized for viewing. |
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| A leaf-footed bug was also captured for viewing. It appears to be a late instar nymph of Acanthocephala terminalis, no common name. |
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| Post Oak leaves |
A small Post Oak sapling has so far escaped the maintenance mowing in the right-of-way. These tough trees are denizens of dry, open ridges and upper slopes. It comes equipped for droughts and dry soils: its leaves have a thick, waxy coating above and a felt-like coating of hairs below. It is also adapted to the frequent fires that used to sweep across Piedmont prairies and creep through Piedmont woodlands–it sprouts prolifically after fire and also after browsing.
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| Carolina Desert Chicory |
Carolina Desert Chicory flower heads are composed of delicate, almost translucent, ray flowers that are a distinctive pale lemon yellow, different from the golden yellow of late summer’s sunflowers. But what’s up with that unwieldy name? The Carolina part it comes by honestly: the species name is carolinianus, indicating that the plant specimen on which the name was based was collected in “the Carolinas.” But desert…in the Carolinas? Of the four or five species in its genus, all but this one occur in the desert southwest of the U.S. and this one was swept up in the naming frenzy. And chicory? A bit more complicated: this species belongs to a subgroup of Aster Family plants called the Chicory Tribe (Cichorieae). Their flower heads are made up entirely of rays, all of which are fertile and capable of forming seeds. Disk flowers are absent. Instead, in the center of the head, you can see the dark anthers and yellow style branches belonging to each ray flower. If you’ve ever seen the blue flower heads of Chicory, you may recall the resemblance – other than the color – to this flower head.
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Photo by D. Mott
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Blue flower head of Chicory
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| Little Sensitive Briar is in the genus Mimosa. Its flower heads resemble those of a Mimosa Tree. |
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| Virginia Buttonweed in the moist, grassy areas of the right-of-way. |
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| Southern Mountain Mint |
Southern Mountain-mint is one of the most common wildflowers in the right-of-way and will be a pollinator magnet once the flowers open. Most mountain-mints have whitened bracts and calyxes that draw bees and butterflies to its otherwise inconspicuous flowers. The powdery white coating is called “pulverescence,” which shares a root word with pulverize–to reduce to powderiness (Thanks, Avis!).
Redbud trees in the right-of-way are playing host to the caterpillars of Redbud Leaf-folder Moth. Dale wrote about this species in the July 10, 2014 Ramble Report: “Many insects and spiders fold or roll leaves to make a protective home that they can either retreat to or feed in. (Think of the fern leaf ball roller caterpillar we saw earlier this year.) So, it is was no surprise when someone noticed a folded leaf on a small Redbud. Carefully opening it, we discovered not one but two small caterpillars. They were light colored with numerous black rings encircling their bodies. This turned out to be the Redbud Leaf-folder caterpillar…Folded or rolled leaf shelters can provide protection from parasitic wasps and other predators, but some animals are capable of using the folded leaves as a sign of a tasty meal inside. An observer on buguide.net indicated that two birds, titmice and chickadees, were seen foraging on folded redbud leaves. When the leaves were examined after the birds left, no caterpillars were present.”
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| A folded Redbud leaf indicates that a Leaf-folder caterpillar is hiding (and eating) inside. |
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Black and white stripes mark the Redbud Leaf-folder Moth caterpillar, |
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| Delta Flower Scarab beetle |
Heather took this photo of a Delta Flower Scarab beetle,
a first sighting for her and an old favorite of Don’s, who sees it each summer starting in late June or early July.
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| Thimbleweed flower is rare in the right-of-way but common and widespread throughout much of North America in areas with high-calcium soils. |
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| Molted skin of a Praying Mantis |
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Short-horned Grasshopper on the leaves |
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| Rustweed with its narrow, pointed leaves and tiny flowers. This plant forms circular mats on the ground, with the lower portions of the branches rusty-red at their bases. |
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| Carolina Milkvine is still in flower. |
We visited the right-of-way milkvine patch near the Sparkleberry tree on May 12
and found a large number of flowers. We returned today, expecting to see developing fruits. Instead, ever more
flower clusters were in full bloom or even still in bud. Milkvines are
close relatives of milkweeds and have the same risky
pollination system that depends on precise yet accidental leg
movements by pollinators. Details in last week’s blog!
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| Carolina Milkvine flower |
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| Widow Skimmer dragonfly resting near the patch of Carolina Milkvine |
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| A friendly Mischievous Bird Grasshopper hopped from one Rambler to the next. It was particularly fond of one of the flowers on Linda’s shirt. |
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| Heal-all (aka Self-heal) living on this continent was long thought to be a European import. Recent molecular genetics work indicates that there is a native variety that differs in leaf shape; both are found in disturbed habitats such as the right-of-way. |
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| Pencil Flower |
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| Wild Petunias are abundant in the right-of-way. |
Each Wild Petunia flower lasts only a day but the plants are prolific and continue blooming well into summer. The flowers provide nectar for butterflies, bees, wasps, and hummingbirds. It is a host plant for caterpillars of Common Buckeye butterflies.
SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES
Eastern White-tailed Deer Odocoileus virginiana
Sweetshrub Calycanthus floridus
Joro Spider Trichonephila clavata
Chinese Pistache Tree Pistacia chinensis
Clasping Heliotrope Heliotropium amplexicaule
Yaupon Holly Ilex vomitoria
American Hophornbeam Ostrya virginiana
Meadow Katydid (nymph) Conocephalus sp.
Red-femured Orbweaver spider Neoscona domiciliorum
Red Buckeye Aesculus pavia
Bottlebrush Buckeye Aesculus parviflora
Field Cricket Gryllus sp.
Leaf-footed Bug (no common name) Acanthocephala terminalis
Post Oak Quercus stellata
Carolina Desert Chicory Pyrrhopappus carolinianus
Virginia Buttonweed Diodia virginiana
Little Sensitive Briar Mimosa microphylla
Southern Mountain-mint Pycnanthemum pycnanthemoides
Foxtail grass Setaria sp.
Elliott’s Milkpea Galactia elliottii
Eastern Redbud tree Cercis canadensis
Redbud Leaf-folder Moth (caterpillar) Fascista cercerisella
Delta Flower Scarab beetle Trigonopeltastes delta
White Crownbeard/Frostweed Verbesina virginica
Short-horned Grasshopper Melanoplus sp.
Thimbleweed Anemone virginiana
Wild Bergamot Monarda fistulosa
Daisy Fleabane Erigeron sp.
Rustweed/Juniper Leaf Polypremum procumbens
Praying Mantis (molted skin) Family Mantidae
Carolina Milkvine Matelea carolinensis
Widow Skimmer Dragonfly Libellula luctuosa
Mischievous Bird Grasshopper Schistocerca damnifica
Pencil Flower Stylosanthes biflora
Starry Rosinweed Silphium asteriscus
Versute Sharpshooter Graphocephala versuta
Heal-all Prunella vulgaris
Wild Petunia Ruellia caroliniensis