Dragonflies Predators and Prey

Dragonflies, like this Blue Dasher, are one of the insect world's most effective predators.  There were many when I took these pictures this morning in Springbrook's south prairie.

But dragonflies also get eaten, mostly by birds, who pluck thier wings off and then eat the nutritious bodies.  Cast off wings can be found beneath bird's perches, like this plucked wing I found this morning on this blade of grass.

Monarch and Viceroy Butterflies

 Viceroy butterflies taste good, to those that like to eat butterflies.  But they don't want to get eaten.  And time has favored those that look more like a Monarch butterfly to not get eaten as often, so today we have a Viceroy butterfly that looks more and more like a Monarch butterfly with each passing generation.  Evolution at work.

I took these photos today in Springbrook's south prairie about 100 feet apart from each other.

This Monarch tastes terrible because the caterpillar below eats milkweed leaves that are very bitter.  After trying to eat one most predators will not try to eat a second Monarch, and most are fooled into thinking the Viceroy is also a Monarch.  Mimicry works!

The Viceroy's hind wing stripe is not present on the Monarch as you can see in this picture.  This is a male Monarch, identified by the black "scent pouches" along the inside vein on the hind wing.  But the two butterflies do look a lot alike. 

The Monarch caterpillar chews a notch in the middle vein on the underside of a milkweed leaf so the leaf will fold down.  Then the caterpillar hangs from the underside and eats the leaf in relative hiding.  But the bright colors on the caterpillar tell all predators that it tastes bad and will make them sick if they eat it. 

This caterpillar was on the east end of Springbrook's south prairie this morning, shaking the raindrops off from last night's storms and eating as fast as it could.

Butterflies and Summer

I haven't had time to post anything for a few weeks as there has been no time to go out with the camera.  But yesterday this Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly was on the bergamont in front of the interpretive center and I was able to take a few photos.  They are large and beautiful butterflies that attract a lot of attention.

This Painted Lady Butterfly was on some thistle near by.  They are medium sized, quick flying butterflies with different colors on the underside of the wings than on the top side.

 This little skipper butterfly is one of the smallest around and was also on the thistle flowers.  These guys fly very fast and stay low in amongst the stems and leaves of the plants, for good reason, as I discovered.

Right after I took this picture a female Eastern Pond Hawk dragonfly swooped in and grabbed the little skipper and flew off to eat him for lunch.

So, life is not just fun in the sun for these pretty decorations in our gardens.  They are working hard to find mates and lay eggs before the needs of other critters intersect with theirs!

See dragonfly below enjoying lunch!!

Green Frogs Calling

 The large male Green Frogs were getting serious about territory and mating this past week at Springbrook as they called all through the day and night. Walking on the floating boardwalk I could see dozens.  30 years ago these frogs were not present at Springbrook but now are the most common frog. 

They are attractive frogs with bright yellow throats, green colors, and jewel like big eyes.  The large circular "button" behind the eye is the tympanic membrane of its ear.

 The frogs suck in air through their nose until they fill up like a balloon.  You can see this one looks like he is holding his breath--he is.  Then he blows it out quickly, expanding his yellow throat while relaesing the air, making a sound that is compared to a banjo string being plucked.

Other male green frogs hear the sound and see the throat patch size and determine if he is too big for them to take over his territory. Female green frogs hear it and determine if he is the one for them.

Notice the reflection of the boardwalk railing in the eye of the frog below.  Lay on your stomach on the baordwalk and you can get close up pictures of the frogs too.  But only for the next week or so.

Dragonflies and Damselflies

 I had the pleasure today of joining in as John Arthur took 25 of us on a hike to survey dragonflies and damselflies at Springbrook. While they are very pretty, identifying these little critters takes some skill and patience.  But good species diversity in an area is an excellant indicator of environmental health. And we saw many species today.

Damselflies fold their wings over their back when they are resting, as you can see the male Eastern Forktail Damselfly doing above.  Dragonflies cannot fold their wings, and leave them open when they are at rest, as this female Eastern Pond Hawk Dragonfly is doing in this picture.

In these groups of insects, the males and females often look very different, and even the young adults may look very different than adults a few weeks older.

Damselflies and Dragonflies are all carniverous, eating mosquitoes and anything else they can catch.  This Hagen's Bluet Damselfly is eating what looks like a young grasshopper.

This Horned Clubtail is a fairly large dragonfly, but still blends in with its surroundings so well that it is easy when walking on the trails to not see them even when only a few feet away.

Along with being predators, dragonflies and damselflies are in turn prey for many songbirds and are in constant danger of being eaten. 

The wet spring and summer have created a great year for dragonflies and damselflies. There are many more than usual.  Walk Springbrook's trails to see this female Blue Dasher dragonfly and the many more that can be found throughout the park.

I took these pictures and lots of others in the last few days while hiking the trails.  Take your camera with you.  Most point and shoot cameras can take great close up pictures.

Flies as Decomposers-Disgusting but Necessary

 Some of you may not want to look at all of these pictures. Seriously!

 A squirrel was killed by a car in front of my house this weekend, and I set it in the grass until I finished a short errand.  One half hour later there were flies all around it. 

So I set it on a table, like any normal person, so I could photograph the flies doing whatever they do.

I've seen this hundreds of times, but never really watched it up close.

 In this picture an alien-like fly peers over the edge and seems to say, "Are you dead yet?  Hurry up, I've got work to do!"

Squirrel fur is a thick forest to flies trying to find a place to lay their eggs. So they focus on natural entry areas, in this case, the mouth and nose. 

All of the flies present were the same species, as you can see in the pictures below, and the only thing they did was lay eggs.  For 6 hours.  In the nose and the mouth.

They pushed each other around and had no fear of the camera or me moving around.  It was like an affirmation of the CSI TV show.  One species of fly laid eggs for a few hours right after the squirrel died, then they left, and nothing else landed on the squirrel for the rest of the day.  How they knew the squirrel had just died is a mystery to me.

The female flies have a long tube at the end of their abdomen called an ovipositor.  The eggs travel down this "tube" and are placed where the female's instincts tell her to place them-in this case, inside the dead squirrel's mouth and nose. That will give her babies access to the soft tissue as soon as they hatch.

You can see the flies in these two pictures pushing their abdomens into the openings of the mouth and nose, and the following picture shows how these openings were completely filled with eggs. 

 In less than 18 hours all the eggs had hatched.  In this picture you can see the left over egg skins in the mouth.  The babies (maggots) have moved farther back into the mouth.  The larvae in the nose were actively moving around at 10 this morning.

While not a pretty sight, just think what it would be like if nothing ate these dead animals!  Flies are very busy cleaning things up for us and get very little credit for their unsavory jobs.

While the maggots were getting aquainted with their new living quarters, the flies returned, but not to lay eggs.  All day today, all the flies did was eat on the squirrel.  I didn't observe any egg laying.

Eating for these flies is not chewing out a chunk of flesh and chewing it up.  These flies have a fleshy appendage for a mouth with a sponge like blob on the end.  They push this around on liquidy surfaces and soak up their food.

You can see this fly doing just that on the squirrel's eye in this picture from 11 AM this morning.  These flies were wary and would not come close if I moved.

I took this picture at about 4 PM.  The baby maggots are packed into one side of the nose here like Penguins in the movie "Planet Earth."  What you see here is the tail ends of several hundred maggots all packed tight together.  I'm guessing they breathe through their tail ends, while the head end is chewing on breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  You can see two have been squeezed out and are trying to get back in.

I may not continue this investigation, as the smell will not be welcomed by others nearby, not to mention my own enjoyment of my yard.

Keep doing your stuff, decomposers, down wind if possible.

Toads and Butterflies

I found this American Toad hopping near the pond in the south part of the nature center a couple of days ago.  He did not look happy.  He was completely covered with cottonwood "cotton" seed "fluff."  I took most of it off before I took the pictures.  

              

You can see how dejected he looked here.  The cottony seeds clung like sticky paper.  I'm sure with every bug he ate a ball of this stuff ended up in his mouth. 

I have friends that have this same expression when cottonwood seeds are blowing around.





In the picture below a Prairie Ringlet butterfly has landed near a Prairie Smoke flower that has gone to seed.  These medium sized butterflies are only out for about two weeks in early summer then they dissappear until next year. I didn't notice the aphids near its feet until after I took the picture