Tag: Eric Neubauer

The Frontier Is Closer Than We Think

Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

by Eric Neubauer

Recently, while photographing wolf spiders scooped off of a lake beach, a strange tiny critter appeared in the bowl along with a spider. It was easier to photograph than ignore, and it was about as small as I could get with my camera.

I uploaded it to iNaturalist figuring it was a juvenile bug (Hemiptera) but was soon told it was probably a globular springtail (Symphypleona). A while later someone even made a species ID (Pseudobourletiella spinata). Try to say that quickly. No common name of course.

Now I’d heard of springtails during my TMN training, but globular springtails? I checked these out on iNat, and my observation was a county first for the species, and only the fifth in Texas. The others were from the Austin area and brown. Most in the U.S. were also brown, so I’m guessing than mine may have been the adult form. You can learn something new every day.

You’ll note the two pale shapes of the critter. They are simply reflections of my light ring which I built for my equipment so I could take consistent photos, cloudy or clear, day or night.

A Fine Spider Photo

Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall1 Comment

by Eric Neubauer

I usually take photos for identification, but occasionally there’s one that could hang on a wall.

Look at those eyes!

Most wolf spider species pass the winter as juveniles. Tigrosa georgicola is an exception and one of the larger species. I’ve generally had trouble identifying Tigrosa to species, mostly because I hardly ever encounter adults.

This winter I have two locations where I can more or less reliably find Tigrosa georgicola adults and am taking full advantage of it. The females must be keeping to their lairs since I usually find males, but at least I’m getting practice identifying one of the sexes.

Spider Hunting on Alligator Creek

Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall4 Comments

by Eric Neubauer

Sorry to miss the last meeting, but it was prime (for January) wolf spider weather in the early evening and I had unfinished business down near Alligator Creek.

Two images are attached. Both are adult males and would be considered large wolf spiders with a body length approaching a half inch. One is Tigrosa georgicola, a common species around here. I’ve seen them near the creek several times.

The other [P111694] has been baffling me after I found the first one on New Year’s Eve. Field identification guidance is fairly well developed for the larger wolf spiders, but there were reasons for eliminating all of them. I’ve found three now, so the first wasn’t an oddity.

Originally, I thought it might be Alopecosa, which only has a few images on the internet. At present I’m thinking it might be a morph of the other species I found there, Tigrosa georgicola. If I was still taking typical wolf spider photos, that is dorsal views only that weren’t highly detailed, it would have ended up as “something in the Schizocosa ocreata species group” and that would be the end of it.

As it is now, I can’t get beyond subfamily Lycosinae but am favoring a rare morph of an existing Tigrosa species or much less likely an undescribed Tigrosa species. Considering all three were found in the same area, they could all be siblings. Their mother would be proud.

I suppose there could be another option: a hybrid of Tigrosa georgicola and Schizocosa perplexa but I’d think the two are too unrelated to produce offspring.

Winter Spiders

Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

by Eric Neubauer

Wolf spiders can be a winter activity; just use a headlamp at night when it’s relatively warm and humid.

Last Wednesday, I went out there to see what I could find, and came up with five species. Most were juveniles of course, and now is a good time to photograph them as they grow.

The ones I saw covered most of the possible size range. The smallest had a body
length of 0.11″/2.8 mm. At this size it could still be with its mother. The legs are short (fully stretched out in the photo) and they don’t run very fast. Their best defense is to pull their legs in close, stay still, and pretend they’re a wee lump of nothing worth notice.

Juvenile

The largest had a body length of 1.1″/27 mm. I’m still not certain which of two species it is and should have used a larger container for photos so she could stretch out her legs and show me another clue of her identity.

Adult

Doing the math suggests that the weight of 1,000 of the little ones would equal the weight of the large one.

Deep Thoughts on Johnson Grass

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by Eric Neubauer

Johnson grass, in greener times. Photo by SA Kendall.

You’d think the hard dry soil would add to the difficulty of pulling up plants, but some of the plants are coming up easily. I’ve often marveled at how fast new shoots can come up.

Just about every Master Naturalist knows that Johnson grass uses stored energy in its rhizomes to do this. There is a cost because the rhizome shrivels up as the new shoot advances. Johnson grass appears to be exceptionally adept in moving its resources around. Even as the water becomes scarce, the shoots keep coming. There is a point when the grass has to stop growing, as it did last summer.

Anyhow, I am amazed that the grass has been undeterred so far except for giving up on inflorescences and at least nothing is presently being added to the seed bank. But I shouldn’t be. As the plants use their stored resources for continued growth, they are metabolizing. The products of metabolism are carbon dioxide (plenty of that around) and water, a scarce commodity. All the plant needs to do is relocate that water to the advancing shoot. Growth can still occur.

Johnson grass doing what it can’t do in the current drought. Photo by SA Kendall.

Meanwhile, the rhizomes are invisibly shrinking under the surface and the plants can end up being anchored by only a few measly roots. That explains why some plants are easier to pull up now. It also means that rather than digging for rhizomes, it’s only a matter of waiting until they magically turn into shoots and then pull those.