insects – Nature Along the El Camino Real

Who’s Survived the Drought?

August 20, 2022August 19, 2022 Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall3 Comments

by Sue Ann Kendall

Over here in northern Milam County, we’ve had some rain three days in a row, which has been a welcome relief after pretty much nothing since May. Today there was even a little bit of rain in our front pond (tank in Texan), which had dried up completely as of last week. This was too late for all the fish, who made all the egrets and herons happy as they all died. I assume more will show up.

Today I went out around our ranch, the Hermits’ Rest, to see what had made it through the drought. Was anything blooming? What insects are still there?

I can tell you that the bees survived just fine, and you can thank some humble plants for that. The turkey tangle frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) has not stopped blooming and has formed mats where the grass once was. Bees and wasps are all over it. The other plant that’s attracting so many bees you can hear it from a distance is the scarlet toothcup (Ammannia coccinea). Now, the latter is a bog plant, as is its friend the floating primrose-willow (Ludwigia peploides). We seem to have some kind of springy area that has supported them all summer, to the delight of the flying insects.

Other plants have been thriving. Of course, the silverleaf nightshade (Solanum elaeagnifolium) is fine. It’s like iron. In fact, some of them have fruit large enough that they look like cherry tomatoes! I wouldn’t eat them, though. I don’t trust anything named “nightshade.” The lesser balloon vine (Cardiospermum halicacabum), which just loves our ranch, is also plugging along happily. There are so many of the vines in the dried-up bed of Walker’s Creek that it smells like a Bed, Bath and Beyond store! I had no idea how fragrant those tiny flowers were until I encountered thousands of them in a confined space! The other thriving plant is the violet ruellia (Ruellia nudiflora), which is having a great year, according to Linda Jo Conn, our iNaturalist approval maven. One of our rental houses seems to have a purple carpet in the yard. Way to go, little flowers!

One more happy vine is the sorrelvine (Cissus trifolioata), which is more numerous than the smilax this year. It has some healthy-looking fruit, which I learned just this year is related to the grapes (none of which fruited here this year).

A few of our usual summer stalwarts are barely hanging on, though. There are many passion vines, but the flowers were looking pretty straggly until after the rain. They finally look normal. I have found one sad little Texas bindweed (Concolvulus equitans), a couple of prairie coneflowers/Mexican hats (Ratbida columnfera) (my photo is too blurry to share), a few velvetweed (Oenothera curtiflora), and sparse Lindheier’s doveweed (Croton lindheimeri) (it’s usually everywhere – in fact, my chickens had a tree version last year by the time it got cold). And there’s vervain (Verbena halei) and green poinsettia (the native one Euphorbia dentata).

Two plants are here in large numbers, but I didn’t recognize them at first. The asters (Synphyotrichum sp.) and the broomweed (Amphiachris dracunculoides) have had all their foliage eaten by the eight gazillion grasshoppers of the season, so it wasn’t until I found a few sad little blossoms that I realized what they were. Yes, it was a fine year for differential grasshoppers, obscure bird grasshoppers, and prairie boopies (look them up, I’m tired of typing in Latin).

Speaking of insects, in addition to the grasshoppers, we’ve had lots of dragonflies and damselflies this summer, and a variety of small crickets (not the usual giant annoying ones). The chickens love them all. The cicadas Donna wrote about recently are few and far between, but I’ve heard them.

One way I’m hoping we are attracting insects is the number of milkweed plants on the ranch. I’m happy to see lots and lots of zyzotes milkweed (Asclepias oenotheroides) and a good number of green antelope horn (Asclepias viridis) out in the fields. Even better, I’ve seen many dispersed seeds. Come on over, monarchs!

I’m glad some of our plants and animals have made it through the summer. I will be interested to see how many trees we lose in this drought. The previous one was very hard on the older trees on our property, which slowly keeled over from 2012-2015. I hope you got rain where you are, but not too much. Some of our chapter members had a hard time in the past couple of days. We are due for more rain, but I won’t complain. I miss the ponds and my horses miss the grass!

What’s a Banana Cockroach?

August 18, 2022August 16, 2022 Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall1 Comment

Story by Sue Ann Kendall, photos by Carolyn Henderson

Carolyn Henderson, our Chapter President, spotted an unusual insect in her house last week. Being a Master Naturalist, she didn’t squish it. Of course, she photographed it. Neither she nor any of her friends had ever seen one of these little green creatures before.

She looked it up on iNaturalist, and even though none of us had seen one before, sure enough, it’s common around here; it just doesn’t usually visit our houses, a trait we all appreciate. Here’s what she read about the unusual green banana or Cuban cockroach (originally from Wikipedia):

“Panchlora nivea, the Cuban cockroach or green banana cockroach,^[2] is a small species of cockroach found in Cuba and the Caribbean, and along the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas, and has been observed as far north as Summerville, South Carolina. It is found in subtropical or tropical climates.

“The females can grow up to 24 mm and the smaller males are 12 to 15 mm long. It is winged and a strong flier, pale green to yellowish green in color, with a yellow line running up the sides. The nymphs are brown or black in color and are burrowers.

“It is usually an outdoor species and is rarely found indoors, so is not considered a pest. The adults can often be found in shrubbery, trees, and plants. The young can be found under logs and other debris. It is often attracted to both indoor and outdoor lights and it is mainly a nocturnal species.

“It is often a popular pet roach due to its relatively pleasant green color, and because it is not an invasive indoor species. It is also used as food for other pets. [emphasis mine]”

That last part is interesting. I guess Carolyn had a new pet! The color is “relatively pleasant.” I think I’ll let them live outside, but it sure is interesting to know they live here! Let us know if you run across any in your nocturnal excursions.

Ten Minutes with a Tree

June 20, 2021 Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

by Carolyn Henderson

On a hot, humid day this week, I ventured out in the early evening to see what I could find to post on iNaturalist. Because of the aforementioned humid heat, I didn’t go far. I decided to peruse a Texas Ash tree in my backyard. This tree took a hard hit from the freeze earlier this year, and I am doubtful it will survive, but nature seems to think otherwise. I spent 10 minutes looking over the tree and found nine species on it.

Butterflies, spiders and bugs were all over it. I first happened upon a live Superb Dog-day Cicada before it molted from those prehistoric looking shells they leave attached to everything. There were two shells and a live one that I think was trying to get out of it’s shell. It succeeded. I checked back the next day, and the shell was attached to a leaf with out the Cicada in it. It had a little white thing attached to it pre-shedding (molting?) and post-shedding that the other two shells didn’t have on them. These are the cicadas we get every year in Central Texas. I haven’t seen one of the 17 year versions.

Next, I found two types of beetles and an ant hanging out together. I took a picture of the small, brown stink bug and got a larger Green Beetle and ant with it. The smaller brown beetle was identified as a Southern Green Stink Bug on iNat. I didn’t attempt to identify the type of ant. I thought the Green Beetle was a leaf when I took the picture. I also found a Dock Bug (per the closest thing I could find that looked like in on iNat). It could be a juvenile leaf-legged beetle. These look very prehistoric. The armor clad look makes me think of ancient Samurai warriors. Another type of beetle-looking bug was also abundant. It is identified as a Acanthocephala terminalis on iNat.

On that same tree, were several Seven-spotted Lady Beetles, Hackberry Emperors, and Garden Orbweavers. The Hackberry Emperors camouflage well when on the bark of the tree with their wings up. That’s nine different species cohabitating on one tree in close proximity to each other.

In a nearby bush, I found a Mealybug Destroyer with it’s children?. The “destroyer” name seems inappropriate for the small, fluffy white insect. Note in the picture that there is a much larger one (compared to the others) and three very small ones. The three small ones are in a straight line behind the large one. There was a Texas Ironclad Beetle, a Flesh Fly, and a Condylostylus. The last one, a very colorful and small flying insect, is numerous and difficult to take a clear shot of because of it’s size. A better camera than I have is needed.

A quick walk in my backyard produced a large array of nature to observe. And, I had more than one thing to post on iNat. If you are interested in joining iNaturalist, go to www.inaturalist.org to get started. Linda Jo Conn is the go-to person for our club on anything iNat.

Hint: If you want your post verified quickly to get research grade status, post it of a bird, butterfly or bee/wasp. I’ve had my bird posts verified before I finish the post.

Weird and New Nature Observations

June 10, 2021June 11, 2021 Sue Ann (Suna) KendallLeave a comment

by Sue Ann Kendall

In the past week or so, I’ve seen some pretty darned interesting sights on my north Milam County ranch. I thought I’d share a few with you all. Plus I have a bonus observation from Pamela Neeley.

We’ve been digging a lot of holes for fence poles this week, which stirs up the insect population. A couple of days ago, we saw something wriggling on the ground, and I realized it was a spider I’d never seen before. It had beautiful pale green markings and had a very large abdomen.

I wondered what it was, and iNaturalist indicated it could be an Giant Lichen orbweaver, Araneus bicentaurius. What a beauty. We are in some of the most western areas they are found.

The day before, I has spotted a rabid wolf spider, lying motionless and with its legs all curled up. That was weird. I went to look at something else, and when I came back, I knew what had happened to it. A Rusty Spider Wasp Tachypomplilus ferrugineus had stung it, and now it was dragging it up the wall to wherever it was going to enjoy its spidery meal. It turns out those wasps, which were new to me, prefer wolf spiders as prey.

Something else that was new to me this year was my discovery of a bunch of odd-looking, deformed Mexican hat flowers (Ratibida columnifera or upright prairie coneflower). I wrote about them in my personal blog, but have learned more since, thanks to fellow Chapter member, Linda Jo Conn. Alongside of a field that had grown oats for silage, the flowers didn’t look quite right.

Just a sampling of the floral weirdness.

Since I know that the field next to the flowers got sprayed by herbicides more than once (the representatives from our ranch coop gave permission), I wondered if that is what caused the flowers to have extra petals, extra “cones” or oddly shaped flowers. I uploaded some of the images I had to iNaturalist and waited. Sure enough, Linda Jo commented that there’s a word for abnormal growth in vascular plants: FASCIATION. Now, isn’t that cool? The Wikipedia article on fasciation says sometimes it’s caused by hormones or by viral/bacterial infections. But, among the possible causes ARE caused by chemical exposure. Another possibility is excessive cold weather. Guess what we had in February??

Other than that, I’ve been enjoying the insects of summer. Wow, there have been some interesting ones here at the Hermits’ Rest!

And finally, just for fun, I wanted to share a photo Pamela Neeley took of a young praying mantis. Look at its shadow! It’s a giraffe!

A Fly Named Anthrax pluto

May 18, 2020 Sue Ann (Suna) Kendall1 Comment

by Eric Neubauer

When I review my photos and decide what to upload to iNaturalist, the first thing I do is separate them into broad categories such as flies aka Diptera, and today was the day to work on that group. One was this shaggy, spotted fly found in a wooded area near Alligator Creek.

Sue Ann now declares this her SECOND favorite fly.

I don’t know my flies very well, and trying to identify one I’ve never seen before is like going down Alice’s rabbit hole.

There are so many different kinds of flies. A fair number don’t even have a single observation at iNaturalist, but I thought this one was distinctive enough and I might get lucky. Way down in the low double digit observation totals of Texas flies, I finally found one with similar spots. It was in the Anthrax genus which I’ve never encountered before.

The word “similar” is a dangerous one and it has burned me before, so the next logical step was to search the genus Anthrax in Texas. And what do you know, there was another nearly identical species down in the single digits! Now, how am I going to tell them apart?

The only consistent difference I could see was that the leading edge of the wing of one was solid black and alternated between black and clear on the other. Mine was the one with 7 observations, now increased to 8. The only other observations for this species in North America are four in eastern Canada, oddly enough.