Month: June 2024

Wildscape Workday

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by Catherine Johnson

The best time to work in the Milam Wildscape is after 7:00 p.m. at this time.  Everyone was ready to leave on a recent Saturday at 11:00 a.m.  However, Phyllis, Patricia, Dorothy, Carolyn, Kim, Jackie, and Catherine accomplished some specific tasks of pruning, eliminating aggressive vines and harvesting excess plants. 

Gene showed us the new major Bird Station in progress which will have water and native grasses and berries. Ann Collins is the coordinator and looks forward to future educational programs.

4H Presentation

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by Carolyn Henderson

A few members of El Camino Real chapter Texas Master Naturalist presented a program on butterflies to some 4H members on Friday, June 28. The 4H program was having a summer day camp and offered the chapter the opportunity to speak with the children. Debra Sorenson, Carolyn Henderson, Liz Lewis and Pamela Neeley presented the program on helping pollinators do their thing. 

An Unusual Spider Story

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by Eric Neubauer

Wolf spiders usually carry egg sacs attached to the spinnerets at the back of the abdomen. They will pull the egg sac forward under their sternum to protect it when feeling threatened so I expected to see the sac still attached to the spinnerets with silk in the ventral view. What I did find was the spinnerets in a jumble and apparently not working right. Until the spiderlings emerge and climb on her back, she won’t be able to catch prey or eat without putting the sac down. She seems prepared to do whatever is necessary.

Spider courtesy of Alan Rudd/Edwards Ranch.

I suspect this species spends a lot of time preying on smaller Pardosa wolf spiders on the lake shore. Without better than average photos including a ventral view, this story would never be known. As it is, we’ll never know how it ends. Or how she managed to make the egg sac in the first place.

Hogna Babies Are Teens!

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By Eric Neubauer

I’ve been checking my local Hogna ‘incognita‘ spiders since late last
year and looking forward to the time when I can get some good
photographs of adults. They’ve already started to grow rapidly, and at
5:15 AM on June 15 I found my first sub-adult male. A few more molts and
they’ll be adults!

Look at that face!