Category: Uncategorized

The narrow-winged tree cricket, Oecanthus niveus, is part of the family Orthoptera. These crickets are nocturnal and can be found on every continent except Antarctica. They’re easy to identify by the black mark on the first antennal segment and the head marked with an orange/red-orange spot. The bodies of tree crickets are long and skinny with a coloration that matches their habitat. They can commonly be found hanging out on the crowns of broad-leaved trees, understory trees, and tangled undergrowth (although this one was found hanging out in my apartment building’s hallway, most likely attracted by the hallway lights). Their antennae can sense both touch and odor and they have compound eyes, which are inherent in all Orthoptera. Like other species of cricket, they produce their calling song by rubbing the ridges of their wings together. The chirp (or trill) of a tree cricket is long and continuous and can sometimes be mistaken for the call of a cicada or certain species of frogs. While male tree crickets have the ability to call, females lack the ability so, based on this fact and from pictures I’ve seen of males and females, this individual was most likely a female.

iNaturalist post

Cricket info.

This is an ornamental grass called Pink Muhly Grass (Muhlbergia capillaris), or cotton candy grass due to its bright pink-purple inflorescences which it grows in the fall. There are other varieties with white inflorescence and hybrids with other grass species. It is said to be native to Florida or the southeastern US and can grow naturally along coastal dunes. It grows in a clumping pattern, up to 3 or 4 feet tall, and it is drought- and salt-tolerant and resistant to deer. These features make it an appealing plant for landscaping because it’s very low maintenance.  Since Pink Muhly is so easy to grow, it has been recommended by the California PlantRight program as an alternative to invasive grasses, such as pampas grass.

Bermudagrass, Cynodon dactylon, is a very common grass in the United States.  This grass is used for athletics and recreational areas because it is fast growing and tough.  It grows best in the sun and poorly in the shade.  It is highly resistant to drought or flooding making it preferable in many locations.  It is considered weedy or invasive because it outcompetes other species.  Other attributes of Bermudagrass are low water use rate, dense sod formation, tolerance of a wide range of soil pH ranges, good tolerance to salty water and conditions, good traffic tolerance, relative ease of establishment, and grows on hard soil surface and shallow soils.

My iNaturalist post can be found here.

Danaus plexippus, the monarch butterfly, is a well known species of butterfly through out the United States. I didn’t intend on using this species this week. Originally, I wanted to use a pine species from the Livingston area where the Texas chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration was holding their conference this year. An undergraduate group had studied seed germination of 3 species of milkweed native to Texas, I only knew of the common milkweed so I decided to look familiarize myself with with the Asclepias genus and was surprised by the diversity. Since monarch butterflies rely on milkweed in their life cycle, I thought I could use an earlier observation to discuss the biodiversity of milkweed without an observation.

I saw this monarch on campus and took a picture with iNaturalist for my own personal record . These butterflies are pollen generalists but only lay their eggs in milkweed to provide food for the caterpillars, their larval stage. There are over 30 types (Asclepias spp.) of native milkweed found in Texas and the unique obligatory relationship between the monarch butterfly and milkweed is a great example of co-evolution. A lot of effort has been put into restoring the butterfly population in the last few years and a major agencies like the USDA have been educating the public about saving populations of milkweed and implementing them in to gardening practices. Antelopehorns (Asclepias asperula) is found in the Blackland prairies and Edwards Plateau, so it possibly could have been observed in the areas surrounding Austin. Many of the milkweed species look similar but their unique inflorescence are helpful in the identification process.

Information about Asclepias spp. can be found here

iNaturalist post can be found here

 

 

I spent Saturday morning hiking around Wild Basin enjoying the beautiful weather. Just as I got to the overlook a bird popped out of the bushes. I stood very still and was able to get a photo. I was going through the birds in my head of what it could be and none seemed to make sense. I posted my observation and waited for others to help me identify it. Within hours several people identified the bird as the greater roadrunner.  My iNaturalist observation is here. 

The greater roadrunner can reach speeds of 20mph but when I saw it the bird was still so I’m not sure I could have identified it as a roadrunner. They eat snakes, lizards, and small birds, and do very well is harsh desert climates. You will find roadrunners in southeastern United States but you can find them as far north as Missouri. You can hear their call here, but please do not play it in the wild!

References:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Greater_Roadrunner/id

When I was volunteering at a bird observatory during my undergrad years, blue jay was one of birds that we had to be extremely careful when we band them. Because they bite (yes, bite) really hard, we have to be sure that none of our hands, hair, or even a piece of shirt are somewhere near their beaks. Comparing to others, though, blue jays often were more calm. As All About Birds state: blue jays are aggressive birds but are far less aggressive than other species like mockingbirds, northern cardinals, doves and even squirrels.

Blue jays can be found in edge of forest, cities, groves or suburban gardens and they would eat from nuts and seeds to insects. Blue jay sometime eat other birds’ eggs but that is big part of its diet. Blue jays also store their food in the spot in their throat for later.

Blue jays are uncommon west of Rockies, and if you saw a bird that look a lot like blue jay – it is likely that you’ve spotted a western scrub jay or Steller’s Jay, a jay that share same genus as blue jay – Cyanocitta (‘cyano’ kind of gives it away). Both jays are found west of Rockies, only.

Fun fact: Blue jay is blue. But really, they are brown. What is this? Blue/black or white/gold dress debate, again? No, really. Blue jay’s blue feathers’ pigments are melanin (pigments found in our skin), which are brown. Their feathers appears blue instead of brown because of modified cells on the surface of feather barbs scatter light, making feathers blue instead of brown. Makes you reconsider the dress debate, doesn’t it?

Surprisingly, even though blue jays are common, there are not much information on their migration pattern. They don’t have consistent pattern like other birds –  some blue jay will migrate when they are juveniles while other would stay in same area year round then migrate and stay there for a year round before migrating back. Some doesn’t migrate at all.

My iNaturalist observation can be found here.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/blue-jay/

http://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/blue-jay

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Blue_Jay/lifehistory

Pictures:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/California_Scrub-Jay/id

http://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/stellers-jay

I spotted this light colored, very pretty flower while walking through the zoned off construction area on campus (whoops…). It’s delicate color caught my eye, and because I know St. Edward’s facilities staff usually plants native Texas species, I had to know what it was.

The Drummond’s wild petunia (Ruellia drummondiana) is a perennial plant native to Texas. It’s habitat ranges from woodlands edge, prairies, plains, meadows, pastures, to savannahs. Drummonds wild petunia grows pretty lavender flowers throughout the summer (which is interesting because I took this photo in November). The leaves are dark green above, and the flowers are around 42 mm long. This plant usually grows to be 1-3ft tall.

Drummond’s wild petunia has many benefits to wildlife in Texas. The flowers attract butterflies, in particular the Common buckeye (Junonia coenia) and are a common nectar source for many species.

The species is named after Thomas Drummond, (ca. 1790-1835), a naturalist who made a trip to America to collect specimens from the western and southern United States. His collections were the first made in Texas that were extensively distributed among the museums and scientific institutions of the world.

Check out my inaturalist post here.

Source: http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=RUDR

As my final post, I have saved my most exciting observation for last, our exciting seahorse sighting. My research group and I caught this Dwarf Seahorse (or pygmy seahorse), Hippocampus zosterae, on our October data collection trip. Our advisor, Dr. Haynes, was with us to confirm the id in the field. It was the only seahorse we caught in all three of our trips. We had an army of freshmen on this trip to assist us with our field work and one of those freshmen spotted this tiny seahorse camouflaged among the algae in one of our seine hauls. They are only about 2 to 2.5 cm. long (max reported sighting was 5 cm. long) and look just like the algae that we catch in our seine.

The dwarf seahorse inhabits shallow tropical waters in seagrass beds, eelgrass, coral reefs, floating vegetation, and mangrove roots. It is found in the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean of the southeastern US. They have been observed to be monogamous and the male carries the eggs in a brood pouch found under the tail. They are sexually dimorphic; males are longer bodies and tails and females have longer trunks. Their common colors are beige, yellow, green, and black, and can have white speckles or dark spots. They eat living prey such as amphipods, small shrimp, and other small invertebrates. Predators of these seahorses include tunas, dorados, skates and rays, penguins, crabs, water birds, and humans.

Most recent estimates show that the dwarf seahorse is in decline. Much of its habitat is being degraded and lost through human impact, and it is continuing to be collected for the aquarium trade. in 2000, it was listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

My iNaturalist post can be found here.

Sources:

http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hippocampus_zosterae/

http://www.fishbase.org/summary/3286

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/fish/dwarf_seahorse/

Second picture: http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hippocampus_zosterae/pictures/collections/contributors/jeffrey_jeffords/fish/seahorse7/

Similar spot to where I found last week’s alligator I got a picture of what I believe to be a Great Blue Heron. These birds have specially shaped and long neck vertebrae that make them able to quickly strike prey a distance. Also, despite their size they only weigh about 5 or 6 pounds due mostly to their hollow bones – a feature that all birds share. They are located in Texas year round and will feed on almost anything within striking distance.

Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Blue_Heron/lifehistory

iNaturalist Link: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4519383

 

 

A ball moss was observed on the edge of a parking lot on the St  Edward’s University. Before moving to Texas last year I had never seen these things before and started calling them moss balls, so you can imagine how tickled pink I was just now to discover I was very close to guessing their real name (although I really think whoever named these things really missed out on an awesome bad pun opportunity by not calling them moss balls).

Medicinally, ball moss is very exciting as it has shown success in cancer and AIDS treatment.

Ball moss is actually not a moss, but a flowering bromeliad. It is not a parasitic plant as it rarely affects the health of any but the most stressed trees. It is sensitive to freezing and is found as far north as Georgia. Ball moss does not always grow on trees and is even found on telephone poles and wires–wherever it can get nutrients, sunlight, and moisture.

My iNaturalist observation can be found here.