The Drought is Over

SWF

The drought is over but Mother Nature has played a harsh trick on the best-laid plans of men. The boardwalk area of the Ft. Worth Nature Center and Refuge is now surrounded by fast-growing Sesbane (about 10' tall).

Click on the photo for a better look.

Compare this photo to an earlier photo and post(click here) during the drought.

Leave a comment.

For other SWF posts,
see the SkyWatch site here.

Troy

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Hot Texas Sun

SWF

It was hot this day, 100+ °F. in the shade.

I was on a Nature Hike at the Ft. Worth nature Center & Refuge with Michelle Villafranca. We were in the "Prairie Barrens" area and I was interested in studying the plant communities on the 'barrens' a little more closely. This photo is near the edge of a barrens area approaching some glades.

click on the photo for a better view

This photo is an example of a statement that I have said in previous posts. When you take a photo, try to remember not only what it looked like, but the weather, what birds you were hearing (titmice, or other sounds), time of day, what smells were in the air (dry hot grass in this instance), any breezes stirring the air, anything unusual about the geology, etc.. It will enhance the pleasure of viewing the photo later.

Note the characteristic color of 'Little Bluestem' on the left.

Google 'prairie barrens' for more information.

For other SWF posts,
see the SkyWatch site here.

Troy

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Wild foxglove

Digitalis is found in some
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We were out looking for Celestial to photograph when we found this lone Wild Foxglove. Alas, the Celestials were long gone, but there were some interesting wildflowers and insects to photograph. More of these to come over the next few weeks. Click here to see last year's Celestial.

Click on the photo for a better view.
Leave a comment if you like the photo.

Penstemon cobaea Nutt.
Wild foxglove, Prairie penstemon, Foxglove penstemon, False foxglove, Large-flowered beardtongue, Large-flowered penstemon, Prairie beardtongue, Cobaea penstemon
Scrophulariaceae (Figwort Family)
USDA Symbol: PECO4
USDA Native Status: Native to U.S.

When in bloom, large, tubular flowers line at least half of cobaea beardtongue’s 1-2½ ft. stems. It is typically found on rocky, calcareous soils in the Hill country of Texas. The flowers are white with dark purple lines inside the floral tube. One to three stout stems rise from a woody rhizome and bear thick, 2-3½ in. paired leaves which become smaller up the stem. The leaves have a waxy, shiny luster and are coursely toothed. The lower leaves have often withered by the time of flowering.

Perennial

This penstemon attracts a variety of moths.

Ft. Worth Nature Center & Refuge, May 2, 2009.
Canon G10, f/4, 1/125 sec., ISO 100, 11:30 AM

REFERENCES:

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Native Plant Database.

Marshall Enquist. 1987. Wildflowers of the Texas Hill Country. Lone Star Botannical, Austin, TX, 275 pp.

PS: There is an interesting internet reference on digitalis obtained from two other species of Common Foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, found here.

Troy and Martha

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Ft. Worth Nature Center Marsh

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Sky Watch
Looking for the Rain

120° Panorama

Boardwalk at the Marsh

Click on the photo and scroll back and forth
to see the receding water and drying marsh.

A skywatch for a serious reason. Looking for needed rain.

For other SWF posts,
see the SkyWatch site here.

Troy
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The Sad Story of a Weevil

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or "A Good Photography Refresher Tip"

First, The Good News......
I made a nice photograph of a cool weevil while on an insect walk with Laura Veloz,
at the Ft. Worth Nature Center & Refuge. A broad-nosed weevil at that.
At first glance, I tentatively ID'd this as an Ophryastes sp., maybe varius.

Click on the photo for a really close view

Now, The Bad News......
After posting on one of my favorite sites, 'Bug Guide', the ID is now in doubt.
v.belov, a contributing editor of 'Bug Guide', tends to think it may be Epicaerus texanus.

Poor weevil. Now he/she will never be a famous star in an Entomological journal.
Without a proven bloodline or lineage, no acceptance.
You know how picky these Editors are.

The moral to the story, or lesson learned, is.....
Always take several photographs from various angles.
According to v. belov, a plain dorsal photo may have decided the confirmed idenity.

It doesn't cost any more to make twenty shots than one. I was just lazy.
I took 3 shots (all from the same angle) and all looked in focus.

Have you ever done this?
Leave a comment

Troy

Cryptic Camouflage

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One of the examples of camouflage is cryptic camouflage or 'blending into the background'.

Cryptic camouflage is an attempt to blend into the environment and become effectively imperceptible. To do this, the camouflaged object must minimize observable differences between itself and the background with respect to the senses of the target observer.

The definitive example of camouflage is a cryptic camouflage designed to match the visual appearance of the expected background, generally using a mottled pattern of greens and browns to match ground and foliage color and break up the outline of the camouflaged object.

This Catocola Moth is Catocala maestosa. The pattern is very well adapted to dim lighting. This photo is a much clearer image than seen by the eye in the subdued light along the forest trail. My flash seems to bring out the colors and separate her(?) from the bark.

Click on the photos for a closer look,

Discovered while on a trip to explore the Prairie Barrens at
Ft. Worth Nature Center & Refuge with Michelle Villafranca
The moth is the piece of bark in the center of the tree trunk between the vines.

The overall pattern simulates bark texture and grain.
Notice how the dark semicircles break up the overall wing shape,

An older name found in many books is Catocala viduata.

Troy
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Three-banded Grasshopper

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Hadrotettix trifasciatusBe sure to click on the photo for a better view
of the network pattern in the wings and the colors

According to the 'Wyoming Agricultrial Experiment Station Bulletin 912,

"The Three-banded Grasshopper ranges widely in the grasslands of the West in the middle third of the continent. It is a common species of the shortgrass, desert, and mixedgrass prairies. It is less abundant in other prairies and is rare in grass-shrub communities of the intermountain basins. In the tallgrass prairie it occupies areas of sparse vegetation on gravelly hilltops and slopes. This particular species is not considered a serious agricultural pest.

Its feeding on good forage grasses would tend to give it pest status, but research has shown that it feeds more heavily on poor forage plants and plants poisonous to livestock (death camus, milkweeds, some milkvetches, and others). It feeds on grasses, forbs, sedges, dead and weakened insects, plant litter, and dry cattle dung. It feeds chiefly on forbs, with as many as 40 species recorded from analyses of crop contents and direct observations in nature. Examination of 152 specimens collected from several habitats near North Platte, Nebraska revealed that 75 percent of crop contents consisted of forbs, 21 percent grasses and sedge, and 4 percent arthropod parts."

This one was photographed at the Ft. Worth Nature Center and Refuge.
Lower prairie setting close to the West fork of the Trinity River.

I have been seeing a lot of band-winged grasshoppers and tons of slant-faced grasshoppers there, but this is the first of this species that I have seen this year. Maybe I haven't been looking closely enough.

Leave a comment (if you like hoppers) and tell me what you think.
Photo with my Canon G10 'point and shoot'

Troy
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Fall Approaches

SkyWatch Friday
Day and Night

Fall approaches

Red and Orange rises,
From the depths of Verdant masses,
Drawn by a Blue sky

. poem by Troy

Virginia Creeper
scene found by Martha
Saturday Oct. 4, 2008


Ft. Worth Nature Center and Refuge
A 5000 acre oasis of Prairie, Mixed Hardwoods, and Bottomland
Where the West Begins

Be sure to click on the photo for a better view

Bonus update:
I was out tonight looking at some of the craters along the terminator of the Moon
and grabbed this hand-held shot (poor quality) through the eyepiece.
Photo about 10PM Central time zone.

The large crater along the central portion of the terminator is Copernicus.

66.6% Illuminated
Note: The terminator is where the shadow begins
Updated photo

At the suggestion of Michael Palmer,
I went back and applied single frame, .jpg, HDR compensation
using Bibble Pro and Photomatrix HDR
Thanks Michael!

For other SWF posts,
see Tom's new SkyWatch site here.

Troy and Martha
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Punctured Tiger Beetle

A Summer/Fall Tiger Beetle

Punctured Tiger Beetle
Cicindela (Cicindelidia) punctulata


Additional photo

We were enjoying a walk at the Ft. Worth Nature Refuge when Martha spotted this Tiger Beetle on a walkway. This was our first find of this species at the Nature Center. We have seen the Six-Spotted Tiger Beetle there occasionally. I know two things about this new (for us) Tiger Beetle. One, they have good vision. Two, they are wary, as the information below states. I never could get closer than about five feet and I could never get to the front or side of this bug. I shot a lot of poor quality photos, all from the rear. Every time I tried to get closer, he would fly about two to three feet. The flight distance was always about the same. I took my eye off of him for one instant, and you know the rest. I estimated his size at about 5/8 inch.


Some information about this Genus and species.......

Common Tiger Beetles, Genus Cicindela

This genus includes almost 900 of the 2600 known species of tiger beetles worldwide. Adults range tremendously in size (5-25 mm) and color and live in habitats from forest and alpine to desert grassland and ocean beaches. They occur on every continent except Antarctica and all but the most isolated oceanic islands. A great variety of soil-surface types are used as foraging habitat by adults and larvae. Adults of most species in this genus forage for food and mate in open areas with little vegetation, but some live on the floor of tropical rain forest. Others are so specialized that they occur only on cliff edges, large boulder tops, or on fallen logs in moist forest. They quickly respond to predators and danger by flying short distances, although a few are flightless.

American Tiger Beetles, Subgenus (Cicindelidia)

Confined to the Western Hemisphere, this subgenus contains perhaps 80 or more species, most of which occur in Mexico and Central America. Twenty-one of these species occur in the United States and Canada, and an additional species is hypothetical for its occurrence here. The characters of the subgenus include eyes less protruding and legs shorter than most other groups within the genus Cicindela. Many of the species expose contrasting red-brown to bright orange abdomens when their elytra are spread in flight. Most species of Cicindelidia are active as adults only during the summer.

Punctured Tiger Beetle, Cicindela (Cicindelidia) punctulata

Description: Length 11-13 mm; a highly variable species, it can be black, brown, olive, or metallic green to blue-green above with maculations absent, reduced to small spots and short lines, or rarely complete. The tips of the closed elytra come to a broad point. The body is narrow, espe¬cially the thorax. Below it is metallic green, blue, and copper. Two rows of shallow but distinct pits run parallel along either side of the inner elytral edges.

Distribution and habitats: One of the most widely ranging species in North America, the Punctured Tiger Beetle in the east is found mainly in upland habitats with dry, hard-packed soils and sparse grasses present. These habitats include dusty roads, old trails, pastures, roadside ditches, strip mines, eroded gullies, city lawns, gardens, crop fields, sidewalks, parking lots, rock hillsides, sand pits, and dunes. In the west it occurs most regularly in the vicinity of water, such as the edge of rivers, lakes, marshes, irrigation ditches, temporary ponds, and alkali mud flats from lowland prairies to mountain tops.

Behavior: A solitary species in dry upland habitats of the east, it tends to be more gregarious around limited wet areas in the west. It is wary but is a weak flier with short escape flights. It is commonly attracted to lights at night. Because it so regularly occurs in agricultural areas, there is some evidence that some populations may have developed resistance to pesticides.

Seasonality: A summer active species, adults can be found from April to November, but are most active from July to august. In the southwest, summer rains limit activity to July-September. It over winters as larvae and has a one to two year life cycle.

Information taken from:

A Field Guide to the Tiger Beetles of the United States and Canada
By Pearson, Knisley, and Kazilek
For information and pricing on this book at Amazon.com, Click here.


For a great article on Missouri Tigers in the Missouri Conservationist Online, Click here.
It’s a great article about Tiger Beetles in general.


Two of my favorite blog sites for Tiger Beetles are:

Beetles in the Bush and
Gossamer Tapestry

Click on the links

If you read this far down the post, and found it interesting and informative,
Please leave a comment. Did you follow the links? Did you enjoy them?

Troy and Martha