Hunter

Spinne

Brachypelma albopilosum

Variegated Fritillary

Check out this neat butterfly I saw last week.  First time I've seen this.

The larval host plants include mayapples, violets, and stonecrops.  Check out the gorgeous caterpillar and chrysalis and learn more here.

Camouflage?

Monarch Update!

This year we tagged 100 Monarchs as they passed through Lancaster, PA!

On our top day we tagged 81 monarchs in 2 hours!  They came through an abandoned lot so fast we had to put them in a holding container because we couldn't work fast enough! 

Holding the butterfly gently near the body.  When it's wings are closed it calms down.  The tag (sticker) is placed precisely where recommended by Monarch Watch (monarchwatch.org).  Then the butterfly is released to continue on its way!  

  

Monarch Butterflies

You’ve probably heard that Monarch butterflies travel all the way to Mexico in the fall.  Did you know everyday citizens are tagging the monarchs to help scientists research this magnificent journey?  Do you know how to tell a male from a female Monarch or how to spot a Monarch look-alike?  
Monarch butterflies have adapted a remarkable and complicated life cycle.  Just like many migratory birds, Monarchs complete part of their life stages in the Eastern United States, and part of their life stages in Mexico.  Why would they evolve to travel so far?
Monarchs begin to migrate south as soon as the weather starts to get cold, usually in October.  In Mexico each year the new generation of Monarchs finds Oyamel Fir Trees to rest on all winter long.  In the Spring, they have to return to the Eastern United States (as far North as Canada!) to lay eggs where their larval host plant, milkweed, is plentiful.  Here a new crop of caterpillars turns into butterflies and prepares to migrate south once again.

If you’re paying special attention to the butterflies in your yard, attempt to differentiate the Viceroy, a Monarch mimic, from a real Monarch.  Monarchs are poisonous to birds because the caterpillars feast on poisonous milkweeds.  Their orange and black coloration serves as a warning to predators.  Once birds taste one Monarch, they remember that coloration and never go near it again.  Other butterfly species take advantage of their fellow butterfly’s defenses by evolving a very similar coloration.  A careful observer can tell the difference between a Viceroy and a Monarch butterfly by looking for a black line across the bottom of the lower two wings.  If it has a line, it’s a Viceroy.  Other orange and black butterflies that are found on the east coast include the Baltimore Checkerspot, the Queen, and the Red Admiral- of which the Queen is also poisonous.  

You can follow the migration of Monarch butterflies back to the Eastern United States on the website MonarchWatch.org, where citizens send reports when they spot their first Monarch of the season.  

Lacewing Larvae

I'm admiring the gorgeous bark of a tree and looking at the ants running up and down the bark terrain when I notice a tiny lump of lichen.  Moving.  

The poor thing took a vacation from it's tree for my team of naturalists to stare at it under a microscope, take a thousand pictures, and throw out random theories of what this could possibly be.

When scared they curl up like pill bugs. 

After a while, I just google lichen covered insect and figure out it's a lacewing larvae.  Some do even cuter things than this one!  Like attach mini snail shells and ant body parts to their debris pile!  If you are having a cute attack, we should be friends, if we're not already.  Cutest insect I've ever seen. 

Searching for Horseshoe Crabs on the Delaware Bay

We were on the hunt for the horseshoe crab.  A creature that has survived on our planet for hundreds of millions of years, and due to our mass collection for conch and eel bait, had recently been declining.  Due to regulations on crab collection, their population on the Atlantic coast seems to be stabilizing.  However, as we observed, they still have many man-made obstacles to overcome, as do the migratory birds that depend on their eggs as a stop-over food source.  Each May and June horseshoe crabs gather on beaches of the Delaware Bay to breed at high tides during the full and new moons.  

First stop, DuPont Nature Center in Milford, DE.  www.dupontnaturecenter.org

An aquarium with baby horseshoe crabs!  They are smaller than a pinky fingernail.  The light green balls are the eggs.

In the parking lot, fiddler crabs!  Bonus arthropod!

More fiddler crabs in a puddle in the parking lot. 

Second stop, Slaughter beach.  The entrance has a great picnic area.

Mating pairs left on the beach from the past nights full moon.  Most were dead, but many were just stranded as the tide receded and had managed to keep their gills moist enough to survive a few hours into the daytime heat and predators (gulls).  

A male crab covered with Atlantic slipper shells.  It's mouth is visible as a fuzzy looking spot where it's legs meet.  It's front hooked legs identify it as a male.  It uses the hooks to hold onto the shell of a female.  All the claws, legs, and mouth are completely harmless.  The only dangerous aspects of the crabs are stepping on the tail barefoot, or putting your fingers between the hinges of the shell.  The crabs are super strong, and could squish your fingers by accident.

Third stop, Port Mahon Road off of Rt. 9.  Walking along Port Mahon Road where boulders and the road strand horseshoe crabs as the tides recede.  They can't climb over rocks, but still return here expecting the natural beaches that must have been here historically.  

A stranded female horseshoe crab.  She's probably at least 11 years old to be mature enough to lay eggs.

Washed up blue eggs on the shore, a staple high protein food source for migrating shore birds like red knots, sanderlings, rusty turnstones, plovers, sandpipers, and willets.  

The boulders along the shore cause hundreds of crab deaths.  It was heart-breaking to see.

Luckily we were able to find some survivors and return them to the waves.

We came across a few spots on Port Mahon Road that were covered in a foot or more of a peat moss consistency mud.  I tried to reach the crabs that were stuck, but I sunk right in and lost my shoes.  We had to keep off these spots.

Horseshoe crabs buried in a thick wet soil that was washing up on shore.

Here's a male still holding onto the female despite being stuck between rocks suffocating in the sun.

Here's a crab that was still alive, but bleeding.  The thick blue blood is excellent at fighting off bacterial invasion so I imagine it will survive the injury.  We found many crabs with holes right through their shells that had healed.  "The horseshoe crab plays a vital, if little-known, role in the life of anyone who has received an injectable medication. An extract of the horseshoe crab's blood is used by the pharmaceutical and medical device industries to ensure that their products, e.g., intravenous drugs, vaccines, and medical devices, are free of bacterial contamination. No other test works as easily or reliably for this purpose."  -www.horseshoecrab.org

The "hairiest" crab we found.  It was covered in seaweeds or algae.

We found a huge female diamond-back terrapin looking for a good nesting site.

Learn more about these amazing creatures by exploring www.horseshoecrab.org, and visiting Dupont Nature Center, www.dupontnaturecenter.org.