Unexpected Tiger Moth Caterpillar Hunt

Last year, this patch of Butterflyweed at the back of my vegetable garden supported a large population of Unexpected Tiger Moth larvae, Cycnia inopinatus, which are an endangered species in Ohio.  According to the literature, the larvae should have pupated at the base of the plants and the late spring hatch of adult moths should have laid their eggs on this clump of plants.  I’ve been making casual observations of the flowers in hopes of finding more larvae, but have seen none.  I decided a more thorough search was in order.

Larvae begin their lives feeding on the blooms, so I began to search flower by flower.  The larvae coloration trends towards bright orange, so they can easily hide among the flower clusters.  Examination from the top revealed no larvae.

Examination from the side revealed no larvae.

Examination from below revealed no larvae.  There was no sign of feeding or of fras anywhere on the plant.  I have to conclude that there are no larvae there. 

I did find many other neat animals making their homes on or otherwise using the Butterflyweed.  This jumping spider wasn’t at all curious about me and did its best to escape my sight.

Soldier Beetles, Chauliognathus marginatus, were busy at the flowers.  I would guess they were after nectar.  Each had its head buried down in the flower and was not moving.  Apparently the black on the wing covers can be quite variable in this species.  All of those I found last week on the Indian Hemp had black patches that extended the full length of the wing cover.  These just have black tabs.

Bees were the most frequent visitors to the Butterflyweed.  The Honeybees moved slowly from flower to flower.  They must have been taking every drop of available nectar.  Since they are not a native species, but don’t cause any particular problems, Honeybees have no status in the Blue Jay Barrens management plan.

A couple of these small green bees left the flowers and took sweat from my hands as I moved foliage aside in my search for larvae.  I’ve found these same bees on about every flower species I’ve looked at during the past week.

This bee was the most active of the different species I observed.  Its head would just pass low over the flower as the bee crawled across the bunch.  This looks like the same species that I saw swarming back in March.  Oddly, I didn’t find any butterflies visiting the Butterflyweed.

I’ll keep watching for the Tiger Moth larvae.  The Butterflyweed is still producing new clusters of flower buds, so suitable larvae food will be available for quite some time.  Hopefully the plants will once again support a good population these unusual larvae.

Spider in Turtle Shell

I was lucky yesterday to have a pleasant visit with a cute Jumping Spider.  I’m not sure of the species, but I believe it’s some type of Phidippus.  Members of that genus have to be the friendliest and cutest of all the spiders.

The remains of a turtle shell are what first caught my eye.  I was checking to see if there was any physical evidence to the cause of the turtle’s death.  It’s always sad to see that a turtle has died.  I just hope that there are enough young turtles coming along to act as replacements.

I found the spider hiding beneath the shell.  This is certainly a dry and relatively safe place to seek shelter.  I felt kind of bad about treating its home so rudely. 

The spider wouldn’t stay still and kept running to the back side of the shell.  I was busy trying to rotate the shell with one hand and operate the camera with the other.  The spider’s colors were a very close match to those of the turtle shell.  A fast approaching thunder storm was encouraging me to get back to the house, so I shooed the spider back to the underside of the shell and replaced it as it had been.

The scutes were still laying around, so I pieced them back onto the skeleton.  There’s enough of the pattern left that I may be able to match it to one of my box turtle mug shots if I happened to take its picture while it was alive.

Jumping Spider Tries to Fly

This little jumping spider sat on a milkweed leaf outside my front door and patiently watched as I carried loads of miscellaneous items from the house to the car. It would face me as I approached, pivot as I walked past and continue watching in my direction until I returned. I thought he might be a cooperative subject for some photos.

As I approached with the camera however, he turned and fled. He ran down the midrib of the leaf, around the milkweed stem and out to the point of the opposite leaf. The only shots I could get were posterior views.

With nowhere left to run, he turned to face me.

Now, if I was dealing with a canine I would consider this to be an act of submission.

It wasn’t submission. The spider lifted high its abdomen and began to release long strands of spider silk. Caught on the edge of the leaf with nowhere left to run, the spider was ready to try a daring escape. Produce enough silk and it would act as a sail to carry the spider safely away with the wind.

Unfortunately, the plan had a fatal flaw. Being trapped between two sides of the L shaped house, the winds were too erratic to successfully carry the spider aloft. The sail was set and the spider launched. Instead of heading up into the sky, the spider proceeded straight earthward. It’s a lucky thing that spiders always have a safety line attached. The spider was able to halt its decent after falling less than a foot. It wasn’t a hard climb back up to the leaf.

All that was left was the cleanup. When I moved away, the spider was still pulling in his silken sail.

A Camera Critters submission.

Jumping Spiders

A few months ago I posted about some Jumping Spiders, Phidippus audax, that had produced nursery webs in the folds of my marking flags. I didn’t want to disturb the clutches, so I stuck the flags at the edge of the field near the barn to give the spiders a chance to hatch and go off on their own. Yesterday I decided to bring the flags in, but found that they were not deserted.

The first flag I checked had a spider looking out at me. Just how long do these spiders stay in one place?

I found some of the flags to be unoccupied. Maybe the spiders were just out hunting and would soon be returning.

Several of the flags contained single specimens of a smaller brown colored jumping spider. I’m wondering if this could be an immature audax.

A couple of the flags contained adult audax. The green area below the eyes is the iridescence of the chelicera, the parts to which the fangs are attached.

Sunlight backlighting the red plastic flag gives the spider a menacing look by drawing attention to the hairy body and the curved fangs. It’s unfair to make this guy look threatening, when the species is just plain cute. The way they come out to investigate my presence reminds me of inquisitive little monkeys. If they could be grown to the size of a house cat, I’m sure they would be a very popular pet.

Jumping Spider

I said earlier that I would be through with the flags by June 1, so why haven’t I pulled all the flags and put them away? I did complete my spraying activities on schedule, but as I was pulling the flags, I found that some were being used as a home. The dark mass showing inside this rolled flag is one of the creatures that thought red was a super color for a house.

Here’s that dark shadow, now out in the open. This is a female Phidippus audax, a type of jumping spider. When seen at a distance, they are a velvety black with white spots. This is a very common spider that I seem to see everywhere. When I was younger, I used to keep them as pets. They would associate the opening of their cage with the appearance of food and would come out of hiding and stand ready to receive supper.

This is what she was doing inside the rolled flag. The flag must make good protection for the silken egg case. Plenty of babies were hatched here.

As I collected the flags, I kept the spider flags separated from the others and stuck them in the ground at the edge of the field near the house. I had a total of about 40 spider flags, so the edge of the yard is going to have a spider population explosion. Most of the females and young have left. The females often hunted on the flags or dropped on a thread the hunt in the vegetation below. They have amazing eyesight and would scurry back into their flag nests as soon as I approached.

I suppose you think I’m going to do something cute like put “The End” here. You would be wrong to think that, even though I did just put “The End”. There I did it again. What I intended to show is the pattern on the top of the abdomen. The spider ID books normally make some type of reference to this pattern, so it pays to make note of it. I actually got a lot of shots like this. The spider kept running from me and I had a tough time getting it to stay still long enough to get a full body shot.