A few birds from our birding trip to the Texas gulf coast during May 2016.
Birds of the Texas Gulf Coast
Category: wildlife
Meet the Slugs – Nason’s Slug
In my anecdotal experience of hunting for slug caterpillars over a six to eight week period this summer, the Nason’s slug (Natada nasoni – Hodges #4679) was by far the most abundant that I came across. This was particularly true in the drier, oak/hickory/pine hillsides of Hickory Canyon N.A. in Sainte Genevieve County.
This species is able to retract its spines, elongating them to their fullest with any notion of danger. These guys have pretty substantial spines and because the cats were so abundant, I found I was accidentally stung a few times while lifting vegetation. This was not a pleasant experience.
I really enjoy the colors and patterns this species displays.
The image below was one that I had previsualized and worked a good bit on to get it right. I used my plamp to hold the leaf and attached the plamp to a dead limb to position the leaf high enough to get the leaf and caterpillar back lit by the sun. I then used just a bit of flash to illuminate the ‘face’ of the caterpillar and the underside of the leaf. In cases where I removed the leaf to get a photo, I always placed the leaf securely back on the same plant.
-OZB
Derbid Plant Hopper
Derbid Planthopper – Derbidae – Apache degeerii.
Photographed 08-13-16 at Cuivre River State Park, Lincoln Co, MO.
Meet the Slugs – Stinging Rose Caterpillar
Arguably the most stunning of Missouri’s slug moth caterpillars, the Stinging Rose Caterpillar can most often be found on oak and hickory saplings. However, a number of other woody species (including those in the rose family) will also be used as host plants.
This is one of the species I voluntarily allowed to sting me – it wasn’t that bad, perhaps a mild ‘stinging-nettle’ type of experience that was gone in 30 minutes or so.
The image below shows a little of the variety of color and patterns that can be found in this species, this one showing more of a yellow/orange background. Some animals can be found that are completely yellow.
-OZB
Meet the Slugs…
I’m sharing three different slugs tonight. First up is arguably one of the more attractive of this group, the Crowned Slug.
Next up is the spineless, Yellow-shouldered Slug.
Last of all is the Purple-crested Slug. This is the only individual of this species I was able to find this year.
-OZB
Meet the Slugs – Red-crossed Button Slug
The next slug to make your acquaintance is the Red-crossed Button Slug. This species is quite similar to one or two others as both larvae and adult, but given that most lists I have seen from Missouri list this one and not the others, I am pretty confident in this ID. This species lacks the stinging, protective hairs, going instead with a more camouflage approach of looking like a bit of leaf blight as it passes over leaves of oaks, hickories and quite a few other known woody, deciduous host plants.
The image above gives a glimpse into how the slugs get around – on a substance described as liquid silk. See the winding trails?
Here I caught one in the act. From what I’ve read, slugs leave distinctively shaped (indented) frass that is different from that of other caterpillars. I didn’t pause long enough to investigate.
Finally, the adult slug moth is pictured above. Slug moths are strongly attracted to lights and, from what I have read, are often some of the first species to show up when setting up a light and sheet/trap. I have a theory that this may be why I find many less slug caterpillars the closer I look near St. Louis. Although I found very similar habitats with the same composition and numbers of sapling oaks and hickories (the favored host plants), the closer I came to the city the number of slug caterpillars dropped significantly. Perhaps the city lights are sucking in the adults before they are able to reproduce? Probably a too simplistic idea, but it is a trend I noticed. It could just as well be due to fragmented habitat and overall less habitat available the closer one gets to the city.
Aliens in the Midden
While searching for arthropod subjects to photograph on Steve’s property, we decided to check the compost/midden pile and found something completely unexpected.
These beetles were crazy to watch – super speedy while flipping their gold-tipped abdomens over their backs in display. These guys yield even more support to my contention that the vast majority of ideas used in the sci-fi genre (particularly the creature-features) were taken from somewhere within the natural world.
Check out those chompers!
-OZB
Meet the Slugs – The Saddleback
We were quite fortunate during our first summer of hunting for “slug” caterpillars – members of the moth family Limacodidae who get their name from their absence of prolegs, which are replaced by a sucker that enables them to move quite similarly to a true slug. We (Sarah, Steve and I) were fortunate because we were able to locate and photograph ten species of slugs. I had read about these fascinating animals before, but never realized how abundant and diverse they actually were in the Missouri Ozarks. Yes, a good amount of work and patience is necessary to find them – I don’t want to tally up the hours, but it was time well spent outdoors.
I’ve decided to begin sharing these images with a species that is probably most well known of those who have heard of the slugs – the aptly named saddleback caterpillar. As can be seen in the image below, the saddleback wears a green saddle, bordered with white. Also apparent in these images are the urticating (stinging) hairs that are concentrated along fleshy nobs located at both ends of the caterpillar. These spines are found on a number, but not all of the caterpillars in this family and are capable of delivering a painful sting that is quite similar to that of the stinging nettle plant.
The image below shows the ocellus, or eyespots, which are actually on the posterior end of the animal.
Finally, the anterior end – the animal’s head is nicely hidden under a few fleshy folds that are armed with spiny protuberances.
I look forward to sharing more examples of this fascinating group of Missouri slugs in the near future.
-OZB
The Resident Ichneumon
This tiny and speedy ichneumon wasp, which I am calling a Theronia species, has been hanging around my patch of wild strawberries for a couple of months. If I am close to correct in the identification (with more than 100,000 described ichneumons, how close could I be?), then this species parasitize tent caterpillars along with a number of other lepidopterans.
“I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent & omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidæ with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars …”
-Charles Darwin-
-OZB
The Imperial Moth
Belonging to the family of moths called Saturniidae, the Imperial Moth can reach up to six inches. Many members of this family are large-bodied and short-lived as adults – typically living only one or two weeks and not feeding in this stage. This female was attracted to lights during a national moth week event at Cuivre River State Park on July 31, 2016.
A Thousand Acres of Silphiums 