Harlin:
Perhaps one thinks to one’s self “it should be easy to find the story behind this creature of the wild”, and then one is reminded that pride comes before the fall. Yep, that’s what happened. I have a full color field guide to grasshoppers and all of the internet so I figure this dadgummed katydid will be no problem. But, after a long time I just don’t know what the story is. The book says that if the wings bow out and there are a couple of wrinkles across the pronotum then that is a sign you are looking at a true katydid (as opposed to the other kinds). The distribution map puts Paracyrtophyllus robustus in the center of Texas. However the back of the pronotum is supposed to be rounded.
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/walker/buzz/s131kd1.htm
Maybe not what my picture [photo above] is of. The pictures on the internet are not reassuring either. Here is one in which at least the colors are in the ball park.
http://bugguide.net/node/view/425549/bgimage
Whatever it is, there are many of them and they are enjoying the walnut or pecan tree that is to the north of the central oak. One of the features of katydids is apparently that they are hard to see since they are at the tops of trees where we aren’t very often.
Here is how bugguide.net explains it:
Order Orthoptera (Grasshoppers, Crickets, Katydids)
Suborder Ensifera (Long-horned Orthoptera)
Infraorder Tettigoniidea (Katydids, Camel Crickets, and relatives)
Family Tettigoniidae (Katydids)
Order Orthoptera (Grasshoppers, Crickets, Katydids)
Suborder Ensifera (Long-horned Orthoptera)
Infraorder Tettigoniidea (Katydids, Camel Crickets, and relatives)
Family Tettigoniidae (Katydids)
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| Tettigoniidae |
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| Tettigoniidae |
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| Tettigoniidae |
Below is a picture of a small moth. It was on my shirt sleeve and I could see it had a pattern that looked promising. It waited until I finished my sandwich, went with me to get a camera, patiently endured several bad photographs, flitted down to the picnic table for a different view, and finally had this recognizable picture taken.
Really, really nice wings as far as I’m concerned.
The books says the larva of Petrophila bifascialis “scrapes diatoms and other algae from rocks of fast moving streams where it lives in a silken web.” (Peterson field guide-Eastern Moths). Maybe the name translates to two striped rock lover—what do you think?
Really, really nice wings as far as I’m concerned.
The books says the larva of Petrophila bifascialis “scrapes diatoms and other algae from rocks of fast moving streams where it lives in a silken web.” (Peterson field guide-Eastern Moths). Maybe the name translates to two striped rock lover—what do you think?
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| Hedgehog or Lace Cactus (Echinocereus reichenbachii) |
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| Trumpet Creeper (Campsis radicans) |
The unifying theme below is the idea of the seed pictures being at least as good as the plant pictures.
Rattlesnake Weed (Daucus pussilus)
Other common names seem to be “southwestern carrot”, “southwestern wild carrot” and “American wild carrot”. There are small backward pointing barbs on the end of the spine and doing a little bit of searching turned up several terms used to name them: barbed bristles, uncinate bristles, and glochidiate prickles. I think “glochids’ are the small devils that get you when you brush up against the prickly pears. (Actually “devils” is not the correct term but rather a euphemism so as not to offend any government agents reading my electronic mail). I guess “glochidiate” means “glochids in reverse”.
In any case, these are seeds that are designed to catch onto fur in order to get dispersed.
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Acalypha (Acalypha phleoides)
My pictures of the flowering parts of this plant just weren’t very satisfying. Then I noticed that I might be able to stick two of them together to at least give an idea of what the whole thing looks like. There are female flowers lower and male flowers higher. Some of the male flowers are sporting a spot of white pollen. The female flowers have three styles each of which splits into many ends.
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| Chenopodium with beetle |
(Chenopodium or maybe berlandieri)
The name depends on knowing the difference between “mealy” and “glandular”. I’m thinking this is a case of “mealyness”. Also the seeds do look a little bit like they have a “honey combed” surface and the plant stinks which are other features of Chenopodium berlandieri. (There is a different name on the list I just sent you [see previous post], but I’m going to change it.) This plant is close to the north east corner of your septic tank field. It is a little bushy and has kind of gray-green leaves. Get close and see if you don’t agree that “stink” is the right word.
The Flora of North America has a description of Chenopodium, and my going through the key leads to C. berlandieri. There are many varieties and they all say fruiting in the fall. Well, at least it doesn’t say only in the fall. The key to the varieties is a little more ambiguous, but Google books has the information below. I’d say the tidbit about the smell being like the air from an inner tube nails the identification.
Plants of Deep South Texas: A Field Guide to the Woody and Flowering Species
By Alfred Richardson, Ken King
One might think that one only needs one sample. One would be right if one had a perfect memory, but I’m not that one. For me there are (at least) two kinds of information overload when doing nature puzzles. The first is that it’s hard to remember whether I’ve seen one of whatever it is previously. The second is that I know I’ve seen one of that group before, but I don’t know enough about the group to know whether the one I’m looking at now is a different from the one I was looking at before. For instance, there are many kinds of winecups and I don’t know if the one today is the same as the ones I saw on the other side of the property last year.
The wild oats seemed like it might be new to the list but the grasses blur together even more readily than those with more colorful flowers. The distinguishing features of grasses are at the millimeter size level and I am not reminded of those traits by just wandering around in the fresh air. So especially for grasses my pattern is to go through the tour of interesting landmarks provided by the plant key and then forget. I think we talked about the possible positive side effect of this: one gets to repeat a discovery of the same thing for several times, but after the first time there is also a little let down that I’ve been here before and didn’t realize it. The outcome of this situation is that it’s often best to get the sample. Either it will be new or I’ll be doing remedial communing with nature.
In this case Avena fatua is new to the list.
One would think that oats would be edible, but the Shinners book says it has a habit of having bad fungus growing on it and says that hay containing sick oats can hurt the horses or cattle which eat it. There is a poison symbol by this plant. In one of the photos below you may be able to see a kind of smudge in the spikelet that is the dust from some sort of fungus.
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| Wild Oats (Avena fatua) |
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| bug |
