Category: Educational Material

Little Brown Spiders

Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

by Eric Neubauer

The wolf spider world never shuts down in Texas if you know where to look. About a dozen species from a number of genera mature over winter when they can hide among fallen leaves. They can be quite active at night during rare warm spells. They all look generally similar and are often hard to tell apart unless you know exactly what details to look for.

Here we have the obscure S. perplexa, which I’ve written about before. Turn it over and the white on black abdomen pattern makes identification easy. This is a juvenile male just one molt away from adulthood.

The other is Varacosa avara. I had found some a couple of weeks earlier and speculated they were this species mostly because of the strongly pinched carapace medial band at the posterior lateral eyes. This time it was another adult male, and I was able to confirm it from the spine lengths on the underside of tibia I thanks to a better image. The pinched medial band is a lot easier to see than the translucent spines, but the medial band pinching isn’t mentioned in the literature. Body lengths of both spiders are a little over 8 mm (a third of an inch).

Also seen was a much larger Tigrosa georgicola. The presumed female has been in about the same place for over a month. Previously she had retreated into her burrow as I approached but this time she held her ground. I didn’t attempt to capture her for photos since I already have a lot of photos of that species.

New and Unusual Wolf Spider Observations

Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall2 Comments

by Eric Neubauer

Here are two spiders I’ve recently observed in my quest to identify all Texas wolf spiders

Do wolf spiders intentionally lie on their backs?

Yes! Here a juvenile Hogna baltimorina does just that while subduing a moth it captured a
second earlier and just seconds after I finished photographing it. It has all legs free to hang on to the moth. After the struggle ended, the spider quickly flipped over, prey and all.

The spider was released later and took its dinner with it.

A few years back I saw a wolf spider pounce on a grasshopper about the same size. The grasshopper jumped a couple of feet into the air, taking the spider with it. The grasshopper immediately made a much smaller second jump with the spider still hanging on. Then it was all over.

Moral of the story: If you meet a really big wolf spider, don’t try wrestling with it. You won’t win.

New Hogna Species Spotted

For years I’ve been trying to sort out the various Pardosa species in Texas. There are over a dozen of them and many are very difficult to tell apart by either appearance or genitalia. One common species in Texas appears to be a more southern species (Mexico and Central America), and the species it’s supposed to be is actually many miles east Texas. Others have sketchy ranges or none at all. It would be easy for an unnamed species to be hiding in Texas but I’ve been avoiding this possibility, which could seriously complicate an already messy situation.

Well apparently here’s one that is fortunately different enough from others to not be confused with them. It also has the most shocking appearance of any. There are at least 5 details besides pattern boldness that set it apart from others. Ostensibly it’s in the lapidicina species group which is known for its evenly banded legs, at least as juveniles and females. They also love rocks of all sizes and often sun on them. Steep clay slopes will do in a pinch.

 I’ll be working with a professor at UT on this. I was visiting his ranch surveying wolf spiders and these just popped up out of nowhere. I’ve been working on that genus for years with only middling success but instantly knew this was something that was different than anything I’d seen in Texas in person or on iNat. Funding for domestic taxnomic research is scarce, so being able to interest professors in that area is important. 

A First for Me

Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall1 Comment

by Carolyn Henderson

I went home for lunch on Monday and was nicely surprised by a first sighting for me. A Northern Flicker was drinking out of my birdbath. I did not know what it was, so I worked on some photos to put on iNaturalist. I had to take them from inside my house through a window, so they aren’t perfect, but they’re clear. 

It’s considered a woodpecker, but it has dappled brown feathers with a red spot on neck and black markings. An it’s unique from other woodpeckers because it hunts its prey on the ground. Flickers prefer ants! This explains why it’s in my backyard. Fifty percent of its diet is ants. It also lets the ants crawl on it to rid it of parasites. I have an ant problem. Plenty for it to eat. Another difference from most woodpeckers is that it migrates. It can’t find ants in frozen ground.

I looked to see if anyone else in Milam County had reported one, and I saw the only other one was Michelle Lopez in 2024. She first heard it with her Merlin then she got some photos. 

I really enjoy finding new sightings. When I tried to get to a better window to take photos it flew away. I hope it comes back and eats lots of ants. 

Geeking Out over Sound Patterns

Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall2 Comments

By Sue Ann Kendall

[I wrote this for my personal blog but accidentally created it on this site, so enjoy my fascination.]

Bear in mind that I have been looking at waveforms most of my adult life, so this stuff interests me. I still edit myself talking a lot (yep, it’s my job), so I know when I’m gasping or clicking from saliva before I even listen. It’s interesting, not that fun.

But it’s only in the past couple of years, since I e had Merlin Bird ID that I’ve been able to identify bird calls by how they look on a spectrogram.

Loggerhead Shrike – you can just tell it’s loud and harsh, not melodic.

This kind of knowledge is helpful in winter when there are so many sparrows around. Their spectrograms look different. Here’s one I also like.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Songbird recordings look very different. Some are more horizontal lines going up or down with the pitch. Others have a mix of tones, but you can see the melody. These two I got from Merlin, of birds I’ve heard.

Swainson’s Warbler
Baltimore Oriole

As I’ve been enjoying the sounds birds, there have been other sounds Merlin catches, like loud trucks, airplanes, and wind. And, of course there are insects. I was being deafened by the sounds of late-summer cicadas when I looked down at the waveforms. Wow!

They look three dimensional.

You can practically feel the pulsing by looking at those fascinating shapes. On the other hand, crickets just stick to one note.

This is wind and a cricket.

So if anyone ever asks me how I know a sound is a cricket versus a cicada, I can turn on Merlin. It may not ID it, but I can now from the shape.

Here’s a sound I’m glad Merlin heard: a Yellow-headed Blackbird. They only show up here a few days a year during migration. Photo by Dorian Anderson.

I used to have some frog images but I can’t find them. I’ll be paying attention and when I hear something interesting, I’ll stop the recording, since Merlin doesn’t save recordings over about 20 minutes long, due to storage constraints. My phone would be FULL.

Possum ‘Ranglin’

Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall4 Comments

By Pamela Neeley

Sometimes I forget to replace the lid on the dog and cat food stored in galvanized containers during the day. I arrived home after dark from a meeting. I went out to feed the dog and cats.

Before I put my hand in the container I saw a little opossum face outside of the dog food bag.

Then I saw a snout move, and saw the second opossum IN the dog food bag.

I went into the house, (the food is in the art studio), to get my phone and put Ruby the dog in the house. She chases and tries to kill opossums.

Back in studio I snapped a few photos. Found a large towel, doubled it and picked up the little one. Took it outside to let it go in the pasture.

The second one was in the dog food bag. I picked up the bag, with top closed, and walked it out to deck. After a bit, that possum came out and went for the field.

I encouraged them to stay away from this farm because of the “hound” that is on patrol. I may not always be around to free them.

Opossums do so much good for us and the environment.  They love ticks and enjoy eating a variety of insects, small rodents, seeds, eggs, fruit.  And pet food!