Bull Creek Lobster

Click to enlarge

My nephew came back from the Bull Creek swimming hole with the excited report of a large crawdad "the size of a lobster."  It had been partially eaten, leaving only the head and tail.  By the time he returned to collect it the next morning, it was further chewed up but still identifiable.

This is the Longpincered Crayfish- Orconectes longidigitus, the largest crayfish in Missouri.  It is found in Northern Arkansas and Southwestern Missouri in Table Rock Lake drainages including Bull Creek.  Its body can be over six inches in length, and with its claws it can surpass ten inches long.  The claws on our specimen were missing but the antenna was four inches long.

The MDC page describes its habitat:

"An inhabitant of medium-sized to large, clear Ozark streams with permanent, strong flow and predominantly silt-free substrates. The favored habitat is moderately deep pools along bluffs where rock slabs and large rubble provide crevices for hiding during the daylight hours. At dusk it emerges to forage over the stream bottom.  This species is omnivorous and does not hesitate to capture and consume other crayfish if the opportunity arises."

The pool where it was found is over 60 feet long and up to 6 feet deep.  It has a rock ledge on one side with underwater holes that go back in deep.  We have snorkeled with Midwest Water Snakes which will enter an opening and emerge four feet away from another.

Click to enlarge

Over several days, our family was able to watch two adult and two small water snakes.  The largest is about four feet long, and all are quite comfortable with their surroundings.  Jeremy took pictures from above and then a great head-on shot as one rested in one of the holes in the ledge rock.

No kisses on a water snake- Click to enlarge

You will notice the color resemblance to a copperhead.  The water snake has irregular bands rather that the "Hershey kisses."  It also will spend considerable time under water as it patrols the nooks and crannies of the ledges.  We have seen a copperhead swim across the swimming hole (see below) but it keeps its head up and travels on the surface with a purpose rather than cruising along the edges.

Copperhead- Click to enlarge

It is fun to identify crayfish you find while swimming but it is critical to identify snakes.

For information of all the Missouri Crayfish, go to mdc.mo.gov.

A Walk With Kevin

Synanthedon exitiosa

Kevin Firth is an accomplished amateur lepidopterist, as well as other "ists" of nature.  We share pictures and he is my backup source for ID's of insects, etc.  Here is his report from a hot hike two days ago.

I got up early Saturday and went to Bois D'Arc.  It was a weird day.  In three hours of walking, I did not see a single swallowtail, adult or larva.  I don't think that has ever happened at this time of year.  The largest lepidoptera I saw were Great Spangled Fritillaries.  Even the Pearl Crescents were pretty scarce.  But it wasn't a total loss, I did see some interesting stuff.

The most unusual was this female moth, the Peach Tree Borer, Synanthedon exitiosa, , an obvious wasp mimic.  This species is sexually dimorphic, the males lacking the broad orange band on the abdomen.   The BAMONA coordinator for Missouri tells me that the males come readily to baits, but the females are rarely seen.

I also found a freshly-eclosed Snowberry Clearwing, Hemaris diffinis, which was nice because it was not yet ready to fly and therefore sat still for me while I got some pictures.  Note that the wings are not clear--they are still covered in scales.  When these moths first eclose, they still have scales on the wings.  Once they begin to fly, the scales quickly fall off.  (Editor's note- This is especially neat.  We see lots of mature Snowberry Clearwings like below right but haven't seen a fresh eclosed specimen just out of the cocoon.)

Snowberry newly emerged

Older Snowberry - Roy Thompson

Next, I noticed some skeletonized leaves on a hackberry tree and went to investigate.  When I turned the leaves over, I discovered a group of several dozen Emperor larvae.  They are too small at this point to tell if they are Hackberry Emperors (Asterocampa celtis) or Tawny Emperors (Asterocampa clyton)--they are about 1/4 inch.  Normally ubiquitous at this time of year, I have seen very few Emperors this year, so I brought these guys home with me.  I figured that I might be able to improve their rate of survival.

Red-Banded Hairstreak

One species that I did see in abundance was the Red-Banded Hairstreak, Calycopis cecrops.  The caterpillars feed on sumac and they overwinter in the caterpillar stage.  (Editor's note- A small butterfly with a wing span of an inch.  Notice the small hair at the back of the wing.  Looks a little like antennae so a bird might strike them thinking that was the head.)

I also found a few prominent caterpillars on oak.  These are probably Lochmaeus spp..  I hope to raise them into adults, when I can be a little more certain of an ID.

There were several Tussock larvae on honey locust.  The first is Orgyia leucostigma,  the White-Marked Tussock.  The second I am not sure of.  It looks to be Dasychira spp., but I cannot at this point determine the species.  I'm not sure why I found them on locust, though most Tussocks are polyphagous.  I am offering them both honey and black locust, indigo, oak, and birch.  Hopefully that will be enough of a smorgasbord that they will find something they like.

White-Marked Tussock

Unknown Tiny Tussock Larva

Carrion Beetle

Finally, I took a few non-lepidoptera photos.   This is a carrion beetle, Necrophila americana.  I was amused when I looked this one up in my Audubon Field Guide, which lists its habitat as "Wherever carrion is found."  (Editor's note- Unlike the endangered Burying or Sexton Beetle of the Nicrophorus genus, these are common and wide spread, and lay their eggs on the dead animal rather than burying it.  Sounds gross but their recycling function is important in nature and their larvae eat fly eggs and maggots.)


Thanks to Kevin for letting us accompany him via computer in an air conditioned room.

Prairie Bioblitz

The Missouri Prairie Foundation held their annual Bioblitz at Schwartz Prairie a few weeks ago.  This is always a good opportunity to learn more about prairies as well as share in a potluck.  There was a wide variety of experts in botany, entomology, herpetology and many other "ologies".  

Bronze Copper

I went on a True Bugs walk with James Trager and was impressed with the nearly microscopic range of bugs and beetles which reside on the prairie plants.  In addition, we saw occasional Regal Fritillaries and caught this pretty Bronze Copper Lycaena Hyllus, a relatively uncommon find.

A second session was on Insect Mimicry led by Richard Thoma.  In addition to mimicry itself, insects use a wide variety of strategies to avoid predators.  For instance, I had never noticed how grasshoppers tend to make a little hop after they land on a flight of avoidance.  This helps explain why it is so hard to catch them.

Yellow-collared Scape Moth

A good example of mimicry was this Yellow-collared Scape Moth, Cisseps fulvicollis that bears a superficial resemblance to a wasp.  This is a prodigious pollinator  of many prairie flowers, nectaring on many species including some eupatoriums, such as Joe-pye weed and boneset that contain toxic alkaloids.  The male feeds on these and passes the alkaloids to the female along with his sperm.  This then is incorporated into the eggs, a form of protection against predation.

• The Missouri Prairie Foundation has a lot of educational opportunities and resources available on their web site.   Read about it and consider joining.
• Shelly Cox has an colorful PDF Photo Field Guide to Prairie & Grassland Invertebrates which pictures many of the invertebrates you are likely to see around home.

Dobson Flies

Eastern Dobsonfly- fcps.edu

The chance finding of a male and female Dobsonfly attracted to our porch light gave us the opportunity to compare their anatomy in real time.  First a reminder that Dobsonflies, fishflies, dragonflies, etc are not true flies (i.e. Diptera).  You can tell the difference in the name- true flies are named in two words, i.e. house fly, fruit fly, etc.

Diptera have one set of wings while their second set of would-have-been wings have evolved into small antennae-like balancing structures called halteres.  Dobsonflies are in the Megaloptera order which includes fishflies and alderflies. All of these have four wings although you wouldn't know it from the usual pictures as they generally have them tucked tightly on their back.

Male Dobsonfly

Female Dobsonfly

These are Eastern Dobsonflies, Corydalus cornutus.  The male is a fearsome looking beast with long threatening jaws nearly half the length of its body.  Their threatening appearance makes one shy away from picking it up.  Actually the jaws are rather weak, used only for clasping a willing female to stay with him a little longer.  Measuring 2.25" long, it has an almost prehistoric appearance.

Female's Jaws

The female is the same size but has much smaller jaws.  Because this provides her much more mechanical leverage, she is able to transmit a painful bite.  This is one more reason to be very careful when dealing with the female of some species.

Adults only live 7 days and do not eat.  They live several years in the aquatic larval stage called hellgrammites.  They are a favored bait for fishermen although with increasing pollution they are harder to find in recent years. 

Videos are available at wn.com/DobsonFly and extensive scientific information is at tolweb.org/Corydalus.

Black Cohosh

Merrill and his Cohosh

During a tour of the Dubach's land deep in Swan Creek territory, we stopped to see a patch of Black Cohosh, its flowers almost through for the year.  It would have been easy to miss them as we drove by.

Black Cohosh (Actaea racemosa).  previously called Cimicifuga racemosa is also called bugbane because of its insect repelling odor.  It tends to grow in richer soil in shaded areas, and is partial to small openings in the woods like Merrill's.

Cohosh flowers in the late spring to early summer with blooms atop tall spiked stems.  The flowers have no petals or sepals, just small white stamens surrounding a white stigma.  They do not attract butterflies in general, relying instead on their sweet fetid odor which attracts flies, gnats, and beetles to spread their pollen.

Tripinnate leaf- all one leaf

The large basal tripinnate leaves are interesting.  Tripinnate means "divided into pinnae that are subdivided into smaller, further subdivided leaflets or lobes." The picture shows a single leaf, divided into three leaflets which are again divided into subleaflets.  This one pinnate leaf can measure 3 feet long and wide are made up of three coarsely tooth pinnate leaflets.

In other words, what you see in this picture is all one big leaf.

Native Americans used the ground roots and rhizomes for the treatment of pain and inflammation.  Nineteenth century eclectic physicians used it for a wide variety of disorders.  Now there are serious studies in progress on its use in treating menopausal hot flashes, described in this NIH Fact Sheet.

Merrill's patch probably won't ever bring him out of retirement for a fourth time, although with his Master Gardener training, you never know what he will do next.  For now the Cohosh provide a pretty sight in the understory of his woods.

Good pictures and descriptions at missouriplants.com,
and facts are at Wikipedia.

Joys of Country Living- Part IV

(Part IV Continued)

Parasa interermina- click to enlarge

I returned to the swing and started to read when I noticed some green and brown stuff on the upholstery.  I thought it had blown off the trees and brushed one off-  and it flew!  I collected several in an insect box and put one under magnification and realized it was a moth.

After a lot of web browsing, I came up with a fit, the Stinging Rose Moth, Parasa_indetermina.  It has a wingspan of an inch and even on close inspection I can't find evidence of a head.  Talk about camouflage- this moth should be a turkey hunter.

A Headless Wonder

These moths are wide spread in the Eastern US but are generally uncommon.  They fly in June and lay eggs in July.  The larval caterpillar hides under leaves as it feeds on a wide variety of trees including the rose family (Rosacae- apple and cherry), dogwood, hickory, maple, and oak.  They over winter in their cocoons.

If the moth is interesting, the caterpillar is spectacular.  In fact, I had a hard time finding identifying the moth as 80% of pictures are of the caterpillar.  "The head capsule is complete, but it is usually withdrawn and concealed in the prothorax,"* making it hard to see which end is the head if it isn't moving.

Stinging Rose Caterpillars- Wikimedia

The "stinging" in Stinging Rose caterpillar refers to the stinging hairs described at uark.edu.  Their urticating hairs, actually spines, have a poison gland at the base.  Touch them and the tip breaks off, leaving a stinging sensation like the notorious Saddle Back caterpillar.

While the moth depends on protective coloration, the cat practically screams at predators, "Come on, you want a piece of me?  Give me your best shot!"  The bright aposematic coloration warns predators "Don't even think about it Buster."

*The uark.edu site has more details as well as drawing showing the structure of urticating spines.

This species was reported to BAMONA, the first documentation in Christian County.

Joys of Country Living, Part III

(Continued)

Red-tailed Specter Moth

After storing the Osage Orange Sphinx moth in a ziplock bag, I looked over the collection of small nondescript moths scattered over the siding and furniture around the deck light.  A number of tan moths had no distinguishing markings but one white moth stood out.  Dramatic brown stripes on the white wings revealed thin red-orange lines under close scrutiny.

I searched long and hard through BOMONA images, finally giving up after the 16th page.  I shot it off to Dr. Chris Barnhart who sent the identification 5 minutes later (I can't explain his long delay).  "An old friend - Species Euerythra phasma - Red-tailed Specter Moth - Hodges#8141."

by Ron Votaw at Pteratory.com

The name Red-tailed Specter Moth was surprising until I spread its wings.  Sure enough, there were orange-red bands on the lower dorsal abdominal segments.  For such a distinctively colored moth, first described in 1876, there is surprisingly little information available.  I reviewed 90 Google hits without a hint of its life history or larval food plants.  This one will have to get by on its looks alone. 

Again in May, 2015

Check here for pictures of other members of the colorful Arctiidae family which includes the familiar Hairy Wooly Bear caterpillars.

This specimen was reported to BAMONA and confirmed, its first documentation in Christian County.
Continued in Part IV