Pink Katydid

Walking on Golden Prairie* with the "Fishin Magicians," Amy spotted this little guy, a first for us.  This isn't a product of Photoshop or spray paint.   This is actually an unusual color variant of a round-headed katydid.

This katydid, or bush-cricket, is also called the Oblong-Winged katydid (Amblycorypha oblongifolia).  The pink form of this typically lime green katydid was first described in 1887, and is said to occur in one out of every 500 individuals.  Even more rarely they may be tan or brown.  It is apparently a genetic variant as the New Orleans Audubon Insectarium bred a pink male and pink female, producing pink babies.  Because of their rarity, this isn't as likely to occur in the wild.

There are no other known abnormalities in pink katydids.  This condition, called erythrism, is similar to the recessive gene present in albino animals.  They are probably less likely to survive to adulthood, given their loss of camouflage.

Other Pink Insects

• The Rosy Maple Moth can be found at times in the Bill Roston Butterfly House.  
• Pink mantids, leafhoppers, grasshoppers, and dragonflies can be seen at environmentalgraffiti.com.
• Pink Dragon Millipede is at bestiarumvocabulum.

*We were at the Missouri Prairie Foundation's Bioblitz, a two day biological extravaganza with expert guides and teachers for each category.  Six chapters of Missouri Master Naturalists were represented.  Don't miss next year's event.

Polyphemus Moths

Polyphemus- Click to enlar

New life emerges daily at the Bill Roston Butterfly House.  My last three trips have included a Polyphemus Moth emerging from its cocoon, twice in front of a class of fifth graders, welcomed by a chorus of squeals of "COOL".  You can share their excitement as recorded by Kelly McGowan here.*

The Polyphemus Moth (Antheraea polyphemus) is one of the species of giant silk moths called Saturniidae.  When they emerge and start climbing up the stem of a plant they look like a furry bug.  Their small wing buds slowly inflate like an air mattress as they pump blood into the wing vessels.  Within minutes their wingspan is six inches.

Now you can see the prominent eye spots on the hind wings.  It is a tan colored moth, with an average wingspan of 15 cm (6 inches).  It takes its name from another giant, Polyphemus who in Greek legend had a single eye in his forehead.

Polyphemus Caterpillar Wikimedia

With no digestive system, the adult lives only to find a mate and lay eggs.  With only a week to live, they may fly for miles in their search for love, the males larger feathery antennae constantly sampling the air for a whiff of a female.

The female will lay her eggs on a wide variety of tree leaves.  This is fortunate as the caterpillars can eat up to 86,000 times its body weight as it goes through four molts (instars) before reaching up to four inches in length.  Not only does the caterpillar have to eat to grow, it has to eat to sustain the adult moth for up to a week before it dies.  On the other hand, the adult doesn't have to waste time eating.

*  To share in the excitement, visit our FOG partners Bill Roston Butterfly House

Toads in Love

Toad Amplexus- Click to enlarge

"In the spring, a young toad's fancy turns to thoughts of....." well you know.  -with apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Barb slammed on the brakes as we drove down our country lane.  There was a slight movement of a pile of mud in a gravel filled puddle.  The "mud" turned out to be a pair of amorous Eastern American Toads locked in an embrace called amplexus. 

The American Toad (Bufo americanus) is a common sight on evening walks as it begins its nightly hunt for food.  Their diet includes insects, worms, slugs and other small invertebrates.  They are gentle and easily picked up if you can overlook their tendency to "develop a leak" in your hand.

Their "warty" appearance has given rise to the old wives tale that handling them can give you warts.  Their "warts" are raised skin bumps which can secrete bufotoxin, a substance that is a mild toxin with a foul taste.  Your dog isn't likely to eat two in its lifetime unless he is a beagle with a learning disorder.

According to Wikipedia, amplexus is a form of pseudocopulation.

"Pseudocopulation describes behaviors similar to copulation that serve a reproductive function for one or both participants but do not involve actual sexual union between the individuals.  Pseudocopulation is also used to describe close physical contact between mating animals which have their eggs externally fertilized.  Frogs and toads provide one such case, with the male releasing sperm as the female discharges her eggs, a process called amplexus."

Sadly, these toads picked the wrong spot to procreate.  Their eggs develop into tadpoles which take 30-40 days to develop into adults and become land based.  This puddle will dry up in a day or so and the wheels of vehicles pass through it many times a day.  They hopped off into a thicket, still locked in the throes of toady passion, before I could tell them this or move them into a more suitable place.   Love doesn't always conquer all.

A good resource on toads in your garden is at choosingvoluntarysimplicity.com.

Mystery Caterpillars

Queen Butterfly Larva

It is not uncommon to get a picture of a caterpillar with questions about whether it is harmful and what it will become "when it grows up".  Every once in a while it leads to an exciting find.   Lisa Bakerink discovered this Queen butterfly larva in a field a half mile from her home butterfly garden.  The field has milkweed which attracted this jewel.  The first instar looked similar to a Monarch larva but its second instar revealed it wasn't going to be common.

The Queen butterfly (Danaus gilippus) is a rare visitor to the Ozarks.  According to one source it has only been reported in Missouri three times before.  It normally lives in the extreme southern United States although it may stray and sometime breed in the plains of southern Kansas.

Queen Butterfly- Wikipedia

It has coloration similar to a Monarch with the addition of white dots the upper and lower side of its wings.  It's host plant is the toxic milkweed just like its family member the Monarch (Danaus plexippus).

The Queen butterfly larva has pupated now and will be released in the Butterfly House eventually.  Chris Barnhart reported it to BAMONA.  Their website tracks butterflies and moths of North America: (http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/).  There are range maps for each species as well.

Queen chrysalis

The message here is that careful observation and curiosity can be rewarded with a rare find.  Keep looking!

Postscript
The caterpillar formed this chrysalis a few days later.

* A photographic Field Guide to the Butterflies in the Kansas City Region, Betsy Betros.

Io Moth

Io Moth

Io Moths (Automeris io) have returned to the Bill Roston Butterfly House at Nathanael Greene/Close Memorial Park.  They were "delivered" by Dr. Chris Barnhart in the form of cocoons, lovingly raised by he and his wife Deb.

Adult moths rapidly emerge from their cocoons over a few minutes.  The moths then climb and hang on plants (or in this case, their protective tent) and inflate their wings by pumping hemolymph (i.e. their version of blood) into their vessels, holding them out until they dry over twenty minutes.

Io Moth freshly laid eggs- Chris Barnhart

These night-flying moths are members of the Saturniidae family, a group with no functioning intestinal tract.  The last meal of their life was a leaf as the final instar of their caterpillar existence.  After dark the female extends her scent gland, letting her perfume, a pheromone, waft away on the darkened breezes.  The male's nightly excursions are all about picking up chicks located by sensing their scent with his large feathery antennae.

Gregarious Io Cats- Click to enlarge

The eggs are beautiful little clusters of eyeballs, carefully glued to the underside of a wide variety of tree leaves.  After emerging and eating the egg shell, the larvae stay clustered throughout their five instars, frequently traveling in a long procession across the tree leaves. They come equipped with bright colors, their early orange turning to bright green.  The last instars have a haircut with an attitude- clusters of stinging spines with a venom that will burn the skin after even a light touch.

DON'T TOUCH ME! Florida University

Eventually they will pupate in a cocoon deposited on the forest floor.  You can see some of these steps at selected times at the Butterfly House.  Being very private, the Io's do not schedule their emergence so you will have to come often to see the event.  Just don't pet the hairy caterpillar.

More of Dr. Chris Barnhart's pictures are on this Picasa page.

Periodical Cicadas II

Periodical Cicada- 17 year

I recall several returns of the 13 and 17 year periodic cicada over the years in urban settings, but I was totally unprepared for their numbers in a forest.  Walking down our tree lined drive at Bull Creek has become an almost deafening experience while wave after wave burst from the trees, colliding with me in their attempt to escape.

Ash Tree- Click to enlarge

There are two ash trees three inches in diameter beside our garage, literally covered with cicada.  They carpet the trunk, resting no less than two inches apart and hang from every branch and many of the leaves.  Standing on one spot I counted 150 on one side of a tree not including the leaves with a like number on the other side of the tree.  Three neighboring trees held similar crowds.

Walking on down the road the sound diminishes, only to pick up in another 30 feet with a similar cluster of trees loaded with cicada.  Its as though the larvae, after spending 17 lonely years underground sucking sap from tree roots are desperate for company- lots of company.  Then, as the sun disappears below the hill, the cicada disappear and there is again peace in the valley.

After several weeks of wild singing and mating, the females will leave for a little quiet time, slitting open a tree bark repeatedly to deposit clumps of eggs until 400-600 are deposited.  In 6 to 8 weeks the nymphs hatch and drop to the ground to burrow into the soil and find a juicy tree root.  In two years, 98% of them will be dead.

Cicada are on the wrong end of the fast food industry.  Nymphs are eaten by ants and underground arthropod predators like centipedes and ground beetle larvae as well as digging mammals like moles and skunks.  They also may carry the eggs of predatory wasps whose nymphs develop in their body.  Cordyceps fungi also infest them as the do ants and other insects that spend part of their lives in the soil.

Adults in large swarms are a sudden food source for birds, mammals and even a specialized wasp, the Cicada Killer.  The mass emergence of periodical cicada is a defensive strategy called by big brained bipeds "predator satiation."  What the cicada call it or if they even think about it is unknown.

Predator satiation means that when the masses appear all at once, there are more than the combined predators can eat over a short time, so many survive to breed and lay eggs.  This mass hatching strategy can also be seen with hatches of mayflies and termites.

Lots of societies around the world eat cicada.  If you are ready to try them, there are recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner at Columbia Missourian.com

I would suggest you head for the nearest woods or tree filled park to see and hear this concert which R.L. Jacobs confirms is like Mother Nature's Led Zeppelin concert.  Its your last chance for another 17 years. 

Everything you might want to know about these cicada, known officially as Magicicada Brood XIX, can be found on this magicicada.org web site.   Who knew that they were so organized that they have their own web master?

Good general information of cicada with pictures and sound files are at umich.edu.  

There is extensive information on cicada in general at both 

earthlife.net and University of Kentucky Entomological web site.

A Real Head Scratcher

Click to Enlarge

Modern technology has produced outstanding photographs of planets, stars and galaxies but some of the most fascinating images come from the other end of the spectrum.  A book called Microcosmos, created by Brandon Brill is filled with electron microscope pictures of everything from insects to common everyday items.  Many are hard to guess like the picture at the right, a real head scratcher.  Make a guess.

Twenty of these amazing electron microscopic pictures are at green-buzz.net.  Another adventure into the world of small is the microscopic sculpture of art of Walter Wiggan.  How big is big and small is small?  An interesting site of comparison is at Scale_of_Universe.

Oh---about the picture above--- that is a human head louse clinging to a hair.