Wildlife Wednesday - June Drips Dry

After the big wetting down our area experienced last month I'll venture everyone in Central Texas, gardener or not, has begun keeping a closer eye on the weather long range, and the skies, short term.

We've all turned to various sources for updates and information in attempts to understand what happened and why.  All except for the wildlife, that is.  Long lived denizens or one season wonders, the various populations of wild creatures in our area are all coping as best they can with fluctuating local conditions, one day at a time.

Native bee populations have been significantly shifted due to the ongoing presence of standing water where usually there is nothing but dry ground. Carpenter bee numbers seem relatively unaffected, and I've seen many of them out and about whenever the sun shines.

This one, a male judging by the large size of the eyes, is probably Xylocopa virginica.  It seemed to be satisfied to simply hang in mid air, without working nearby flowers.  Perhaps it was eyeballing fence posts for potential new habitat, or was simply stretching its wings after having spent days cooped up in brood galleries while heavy rains fell.  I empathize.

After recent rains I could not wait to get back outside, but once I did I was not always happy with the welcome I received.  Mosquitoes in particular seemed happy - SO happy! - to find me.  I was surprised to read that there are several different species of "flood mosquitoes" (Psorophora, Ochlerotatus, and Aedes genera) who lay eggs well above normal water lines.  The eggs wait in dormancy up to several months until waters rise and trigger immediate hatching.

These mosquitoes emerge swarming and hungry, but are not typically the carriers of any serious illness.  A second wave of flood mosquitoes can be expected 10-14 days after the initial rise of waters, so we have that to look forward to.  I'll warrant there is currently not a single flood mosquito egg left high or dry in all of central Texas.

Though it is significantly annoying to be relentlessly attacked by biting insects with each foray outside, this "bloom" of bugs serves as a boon to all the many insect eating creatures, who are all working with rain scrubbed habitat and the potential depletion of many of their other ground dwelling meal tickets. Mosquitoes as a silver lining to recent clouds?  It all depends on what you like for dinner.  Or who...

Recently my eye was caught by a flash of white in a patch of Virginia creeper (Pathenocissus quinquefolia).

What I believe to be an Achemon sphinx (Eumorpha achemon) caterpillar is carrying the spun silk cocoons of developing larvae of a parasitic wasp, Cotesia congregata.  

While I was vaguely aware that some wasps utilize caterpillars as hosts for their developing larvae, I had the idea the caterpillars were paralyzed as part of the process.  That meant I was especially startled when this caterpillar began to move slightly after I relocated it into a sunnier spot for close-up examination.

Achemon cats are one of several "hornworm" caterpillars, and are known for a defensive whipping back and forth motion, used to startle predators into dropping them to the ground.  This caterpillar was exhibiting a very faint version of that defensive mechanism but if I'd have been holding it up, I'm pretty sure I would have dropped it in a big hurry.  Realizing the caterpillar was not only alive but responsive, and seeing that the creeper stalk it attached to had been chomped on fairly recently, I knew I had some information gaps to fill.

What I found out was equally disturbing and fascinating.  Cotesia congregata wasps inject their future nurseries with genetic material that seems to both slow the host's metabolism, allowing it to eat (and eat) without moving forward in the metamorphic process, and to simultaneously provide interior hosting space for the wasp's eggs without triggering an immune response.

Some caterpillars reportedly reach relatively enormous size before succumbing, never reaching their reproductive moth stage.  Talk about arrested development.

After a period of time the wasp eggs hatch and the larvae exit the caterpillar, attach, and spin themselves a silk cocoon for pupation. Eventually the adult wasps emerge from the end of their silk cylinders and fly off to begin the cycle anew.

As hornworms can cause major damage to vulnerable cultivated crops, these wasp hitchhikers are considered beneficial insects, one of nature's many checks and balance systems.  I'm not growing tomatoes this year and though we have wild grapes they all fruit high in surrounding treetops, so these hornworms have been welcome to feast undisturbed, except for this one.  After taking a closer look I carefully relocated the caterpillar back into the creeper undergrowth, where the wasp cycle will complete without further interruption by curious humans.

Nearby a backlit small garden spider, (Argiope aurantia) had established its web for the day.  Notable for the stabilimentum, or stabilizing denser zig-zag silk center, these spiders reweave that portion of their web each day, after having consumed the silk, potentially to recycle the chemical components.

If she has chosen well, this spider will continue to use this location for the entire season.  I'm looking forward to having this lovely spider as company in the garden, weaving her daily web centers in amongst the inland sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium).  

Not so beneficial, Aztec spur-throated grasshopper babies (Aidemona azteca) are numerous and causing damage to leaves and blossoms all around the gardens again this year.  While I've managed to capture and dispatch a couple of the dowdier brown adults, these brightly colored early instars often perch like tiny insouciant jewels, glittering in amongst the holey damage created by their incessant eating.

Also appearing in larger numbers than ever before, snails of every size and shape have been taking full advantage of a temporarily wet and therefore more easily traveled world.

It has been impossible to walk around the paths without accidentally crushing some with every other step, the telltale crunch giving them away even when their size is too small to easily detect.

Well hidden by placement and coloration rather than size, this fritillary chrysalis continues to develop, whatever the weather.  Watching this one develop during the course of some of our rainiest hours, I am encouraged that native populations have developed good coping mechanisms for all the worst the Texas weather has to offer.

And here is a mystery yet to be revealed, or perhaps unraveled...  This tiny ball of what appears to be an insect silk of some sort, might harbor spider eggs, or it might be silk cast off and set aside for some other purpose.  After admiring it I resisted the impulse to open it for inspection, choosing rather to try and check it daily to see what develops.  Anybody seen one of these before?

We've had the usual assortment of avian visitors, many of them overheard more than seen.  Wrens, mockingbirds, blue jays, cardinals, woodpeckers, tufted titmice, golden finches and chickadees, all are out and about, enjoying a return to more normal circumstances.  Including this non-feathery familiar...

 who joins me in wishing you a most pleasant June!

Thanks to Tina, of My Gardener Says for hosting Wildlife Wednesday, the first Wednesday of each month.  Please visit her site to read her post and other contributors as linked to in the comments section. In fact, we'd love for you to join in all the fun.  Please consider sharing a post of your own, as we observe and salute the myriad wild creatures who so generously share their spaces with us.  Rain, or shine.

Local excitement

I'd written previously about my big plans for the beds out back this year. I wanted to go on the record so this wouldn't be one of those situations where I ended up being all talk and no trowel.  Truth be told, I occasionally come up with big plans that never get off the drawing board.  Not this time though.  I'm already on my way!  Here's what the first bed selected for revisions looked like before I got started.

There's nothing really wrong here, but this is one of my few sunny spots out back and it had been taken over by non-native plants.  Jewels of Opar, Rosemary, Ox-eye daisy mounds, garlic chives and a Meyer lemon tree are all happy as clams here but most of them don't support native pollinators and that's not in keeping with what I want for our spaces.  So.  Deep breaths taken, one hot and sweaty work session later, and the bed now looks like this:

I left one daisy clump in the far left corner.  I worked around two verbena plants, two clumps of liriope, a patch of bristly mallow, wire grass and a grocery store mini rose bush, leaving them all where they were.  I also left a small clump of garlic chives in place as they are in bloom right now and support pollinators when not much else does.  

I'm a little on the fence about the liriope.  I really like how it is evergreen and I love the subtle flowers. At the moment I plan to leave the clump behind the bird feeder pole because they suppress bird food seed germination a bit, but before long the other clump is destined to take a little trip over to the compost heap.  

I trimmed back the lemon tree a bit, the rosemary a lot, removed the rest of the daisies and all but one Jewel of Opar (hidden behind the lemon).  A giant cosmos growing in the far right corner came out.  I carefully moved a coneflower mound to a more open spot.  I transplanted an orange day lily clump into a place of pride where hopefully it will respond to the lack of crowding and sunshine with a lovely display of blooms.  Eventually.

Here's a look from another angle.  There is room in the bed now for new sun loving native flowering plants to join the party.  And I find that super exciting. The prospect of new native plants (and maybe a little seed scattering too) just makes my day.

And then? This!  It rained a little!

The precipitation didn't last long and the totals weren't significant, but it sprinkled multiple times after I'd gotten the bed cleared out and all my transplants relocated.  I'm not big into portents but it felt like a beneficial sign.  And the rain gave me a great excuse to stop and drink some water while the plants were doing the same.

Finally?  As I was drinking that water, take a look at what I spied from my front door:

An orb weaver.  Isn't she a beauty? Most of the garden spiders out back seem to have decamped since the largest female disappeared.  This lovely lady is currently setting up shop out front.  Maybe she heard about the dicey conditions out back.  Word of web? Anyhow, I'm quite happy to welcome her to the garden.  When it comes to these beneficial spiders, the more the merrier.

I'm calling it quits for the day but I still have big plans for three other beds out back.  I'd prefer cooler weather for both garden and gardener's sakes, but I don't want to waste time now that August is behind us.  Next on the list? Moving variegated liriope sprigs into position to give the edge of a back bed a more finished look.  Because, hot or not, I've got work to do!

All tangled up

I am absolutely obsessed with the black and yellow garden spider and her cohort that set up shop days ago in the bromeliad patch out back.  After reading Argiope aurantia spiders consume the central stabilizing part of their webs at the end of each day only to reweave a new one the next, I've gone out every morning first thing, rushing to assure the colony is still there and past that to admire each new day's webbed handiwork.

On the third morning I was shocked to find the large female's web unoccupied. I gasped involuntarily and asked aloud "where did you GO?".  I didn't think a bird or other predator could have grabbed her without disturbing the web and as it remained intact, I fervently hoped this lovely lady had only stepped out to grab a few things...

I watched and I waited while taking photos of the other smaller webs in close proximity.  Just as I was about to give up and declare her disappearance a tragic garden mystery, after a few spasmodic lurches, the web was quickly recentered with its queen.  Losing no time, the immature female spider began to re-spin the upper portion of the stabilimentum with movements so quick I wasn't able to capture them well with my camera in the morning light.  

Relieved and honored to have witnessed what might be routine to the spider but seems miraculous to this gardener, I got ready to retreat and return the space to her and her retinue of teeny tiny companions.

As I was turning to leave, I noticed a new installation across the path.  A smaller immature female built her own web in the bromeliads on the right hand side of the walkway to the greenhouse.  Queen Charlotte has a lady in waiting.

This young lady is about half the size of Charlotte.  There I stood, admiring her stabilimentum, wondering why I'd never seen these spiders in our spaces before. It seems suddenly this year, CandyLand is prime real estate. As I watched, the spider began to push on the silks and purposefully vibrate her web.  Before I could even try to get a photo, she dropped to a far reach of her web and began working furiously to wrap a captured insect in silk.  She was moving so quickly all I managed to catch was a blur.  

Once she'd neatly wrapped her package she brought it back up to the center of her web, where she continued with a few finishing touches.  I could see the tiniest bit of motion from within - whatever she'd caught was still struggling.  

Frankly, some days I wander around the garden and don't find a single novelty to capture my interest.  Today has been the precise opposite of that, courtesy of the newly established resident orb weavers.  I'm reminded so much goes on right under our noses without our ever knowing, if we don't know where to look.  Or how to see.

I'm making a case to The Hub to stop watering the bromeliad cups with the hose wand, asking him to use a watering can so as not to disturb these beauties arranged on their silky structures.  He was a little noncommittal.  He's not as entranced with the spiders as I am, nobody here is.    

Regardless, I find these beneficial insects fascinating.  I don't know what is different about this season or the space that has them showing up in numbers this year, but I do hope they'll find good reason to stay. I think they make lovely companions.  

Webbed Relationships

I am fascinated by spiders and their webs.  I love it when I find them in the garden, though quite not so much when I literally stumble across one. Watching the way spun silk catches and holds the light can stop me in my tracks long enough to forget where I am and what I was doing.

That said, the attempt to capture a good image of a spider web with my camera is my photographic stumbling block.  I try various techniques, I try in various lights at various times of day, but I rarely get anything I'm happy to share here.

Today I spotted a clutter of spiders and webs all securely anchored to various plants on the left hand side of the walk running through Candy Land.  I figured with all the angles and sizes represented it was a rare opportunity to give my web photography a true workout.

I started with this shot of the far reaches of a web.  Its hard to see I know but once you recognize the pattern your brain will "see it" for you.  It was very fine, moving in the breeze, and twinkling when the light hit it just so.  I tried every angle imaginable but couldn't quite get the edges to stand out.  So I moved into the center for another shot.

The spider in this web was about the size of a spent staple.  Teeny tiny.  I was able to capture a bit of the stabilimentum to show you but nothing I could do would bring the spider itself into sufficient focus.  Too small!

I got closer to a good shot with this slightly more mature, larger version of the little spent staple spider.  This one is still tiny however - those "huge" green leaves in the background are asian jasmine ground cover, barely two inches long.  I could tell these spiders are all some form of orb weavers, with their striking stabilimentum (the technical name for the thickened patterned webbing in the center) especially noticeable in the larger spider's web..  

I had another go at these later in the day, hoping the angle of the sun would help.  Here's another male (I'm guessing) that was just around the corner from the others.

You can't see details on him much better than the others but the web stands out a bit more.  Here is his web in its entirety from further away.  It is a bit tattered, reflecting the natural wear and tear of a day in garden traffic. Aren't these wonderful?  (the spiders and their webs I mean, not my photos!)

The big payoff however, was quite near by.  And when I say big I mean that literally.

Gorgeous, isn't she?  I'm totally smitten.  Though this specimen is an immature female, yet to develop the larger rounded abdomen of a fully mature spider, she is a fine example of a young Argiope aurantia, otherwise known as a black and yellow garden spider.  Her "common" name hardly does her justice.

Unlike the other smaller webs scattered nearby, hers is about 14 inches square, limited only by the space between the anchor leaves she has chosen.  The spider herself has a body about an inch long, with her legs reaching out another inch and a half to either side. Quite impressive. Here's a view of the under side.  I think she's beautiful from every angle.

This large web is in a well traveled area where I'd certainly have noticed if it had been there before today. Reportedly, if left undisturbed, this spider will keep her web in place overnight and will reuse it for the remainder of the summer.  Charlotte (what, you don't name your spiders?) will consume the stabilimentum silk in the center at the end of each day. It is speculated those consumed silk components will then be recycled into a fresh new stabilimentum for each day's hunting.  Or for writing messages, perhaps?

It could be the surrounding smaller orb weaver spiders are immature males of the same species.  They certainly all appeared to set up shop at the same time.  I read that male garden spiders are often two to three times smaller than the females but most of these guys are barely a quarter inch to the female's inch.  There are so many of them, too.  Is Charlotte keeping a male harem?  Will she choose one male preferentially?  I've no clue, but I'm certainly going to keep my eye on this burgeoning little community.  

If the orb weavers stay alongside the path (and oh I hope they will!)  I ought to have plenty of chances to hone my photography techniques.  For now, I'll leave you with one of my favorite spider "quotes", from comedienne Ellen DeGeneres:

“Our egos tells us we're the only ones that have any kind of feelings. We're the only ones with a relationship. We're the only ones with family. You know, I think that if you kill a spider, there is a relationship that you're ruining. There's a conversation going on outside with the other spiders. 'Did you hear about Chris?....Killed yeah....Sneaker. And now Stephanie has nine hundred babies to raise all alone. Well, she's got her legs full I'll tell you that right now. Chris was so kind, wouldn't hurt a fly. It's just been tough for them lately. They just lost their web last week. Those humans think they're so smart. Let them try shooting silk out of their butt and see what they can make.'”

Postscript:  It isn't that I don't believe what I read, it is just that I am curious to see things for myself.  I went back out the next day, after the sprinklers had run, wondering if the spider had returned to her nest and built in a new stabilimentum for the day.  She did and she had.  Here's Day Two's web center: