Eastern Dobsonfly, Corydalus cornutus

Eastern Dobsonfly, Corydalus cornutus

These lovely critters are Eastern Dobsonfles, Corydalus cornutus, one female (horizontal bug in photo; short mandibles) and one male (diagonal; long mandibles).  These insects are 4-5 inches in length, impressive in appearance, but harmless.

This year I have sighted them more often than in previous years, and I saw a similar comment on What's that bug? leading me to believe their population has been improving.  In the larval stage, they are aquatic as well as predatory (and, if possible, more creepy looking), and likely owe any resurgence to the same source as the increasing numbers of frogs, eagles, etc.  Though I'm sure the populations of none of these are what they once were, I think there are definite improvements.  I'd like to think people are starting to take responsibility for water quality and habitat preservation, but it may be nothing more than the days of willy-nilly spraying of DDT is now far enough behind, allowing some ecological recovery.  A great review article about dobsonflies on the Univeristy of Florida website mentions that dobsonflies have been suggested as a good indicator for environmental monitoring studies.

The article mentions above also explains many other interesting facts about the species.  They spend 1-3 years as larva, living in clean water, under rocks and such, feeding on other insects.  They then pupate about 3 weeks to reach their adult stage, shown above.  As adults, they live 3-8 days to mate and finish out their life cycle.  Seeing one, therefore is a rare treat, like seeing a luna moth.  I feel exceptionally lucky to have seen this pair together.

Praying Mantis babies!

This post is overdue, I took the photos at the end of May.  They still may be educational.

Look closely!  What you are seeing is newly hatched praying mantises on strawberry plants.  They were about a centimeter long.  There are two in the one below, but the second is blurry.  Sorry about that.

I was able to tell they were newly hatched because there were so many among the plants.  Within a day or two after hatching they begin to disperse throughout the area in search of food.  They grow rapidly and reach adult size by the end of summer.  In this area, around September or so they lay their eggs, which are housed in a foamy-looking papery case, usually attached to a twig.  See below.

Be on the lookout for these in your garden while pruning.  If you find one, leave it in place and prune that section the following summer.  You want these guys in your garden.  Not only do they look awesome, but they are predatory insects, making meals of such undesirable things as grasshoppers and stink bugs when larger, as youngsters of course they must select bugs more appropriate to their size.

Predatory insects you should be kind to:

• Lady Bugs and several other tiny round beetle like critters that eat aphids, mealybugs, etc.  Familiarize yourself especially with what young ladybugs look like - nymphs are very different.
• Praying mantis
• Assassin Bugs or Cog Bugs - do look this one up, they are very creepy looking
• Centipedes and Millipedes - I generally want to mash centipedes, but I have personally witnessed them at the hunt, so I tolerate them.
• Spiders of all kinds!  Seriously, spiders are awesome, and contrary to paranoid beliefs of many they are not out to get you.  Do, however, feel free to mash black widow and brown recluse spiders, but familiarize yourself with how they look to prevent unnecessary deaths.

There are many others, of course, and likely you are aware of some or all of these.  But it bears repeating - these will be of assistance to you.  Encouraging them takes time, and pesticides can kill your friends as well as undesirables.  Also meadow and other 'wild' garden spaces provide the territory for them to establish and thrive.  A "well tended" lawn is essentially a desert.

A visitor

Unidentified Crab Spider

This little lady was found laying in wait on some mounted plants.  Due to her color, she is nearly invisible when she is curled up on the back of a piece of cork.  On the front, she is more visible.  I was unable to figure out what species she is, but due to body type and her habit of sitting down and folding her legs up so that she looks like a wee spot of mud on the cork tells me she is a crab spider.  These are hunting spiders, like jumpers, and don't weave webs.  Crab spiders are also often called flower spiders, as many species are colored to blend in well on flowers, and prefer to hide among petals to wait for a chance to catch bugs.

To see more cool bugs and learn about them, I recommend visiting What's That Bug?

I hope she eats stink bugs.

In Bloom: Pumpkin Colors

Three lovely orange flowers, for your enjoyment.

Clivia cyrtanthiflora

Clivia cyrtanthiflora, a natural hybrid between miniata and nobilis.  I don't know if this particular plant is a natural hybrid or a man-made "remake," but the effect is largely the same.  A large, beastly plant, it already has 3 pups, one of which bloomed for the first time this year.  Division of this plant would likely require a hacksaw, the root mas is so solid.  Clivias tend to tell you they want a bigger pot by pushing themselves up out of their current pot an inch or so.

Lc. Jungle Eyes

Lc Jungle Eyes (Jungle Elf x aclandiae) is a compact cattleya bearing thick, spotted flowers heavily influenced by aclandiae, which makes up 75% of it's ancestry (example flower photo shows C. aclandiae). The rest of Jungle Eye's heritage comes from a miniature yellow laelia species, esalqueana. Both species are small, and Jungle Eyes matures at about 6 inches tall.  This is the first of a batch of seedlings to bloom.  Younger plants of the same cross are available here.

S. cernua

Sophronitis cernua is an awesome little miniature plant, popping buds out of a maturing growth as it finishes out its growth.  Its a creeping plant, easiest to manage on a mount due to its habit of hugging its substrate.  They grow perhaps a little brighter than a Phalaenopsis, otherwise similar requirements, but are highly tolerant of lazy watering habits.

Also, a couple orange bugs - some woolly bears I found hiding under an empty pot outside.  They were grouchy about being disturbed, and vacated shortly after this photo was taken.  These are ground-dwelling caterpillars that eat grasses and weeds, and hibernate during the winter, then spin their cocoons in the spring.  Good luck little fellas.

A proper web

Argiope aurantia, or yellow orb weaver, is possibly my favorite spider.  The females are large, dramatically colored, and spin the most impressive webs.  When they are young, if you get close to their web they freak out a little, and rock their bodies to make their entire web flap, making themselves more visible in hopes that you won't destroy their careful weaving.  Males are much smaller and easily overlooked, but sometimes you'll see one actually hanging out on the female's web in an unobtrusive spot.  I enjoy monitoring their progress throughout the summer, occasionally helping out by tossing them a grasshopper.  I count myself lucky that these accomplished pest control agents can be found in my yard every year. 

Pest control: Meet "George"

Meet "George", my new pest control manager. George: Keeping our Cattleyas safe from stink bugs since... yesterday.

Notice the discarded leg on the petal below. George does a good job, but he's a bit sloppy at the table.

Baltimore Wildlife: Fledgling Kestrel

For a densely urban area, Baltimore has a pretty decent diversity of wildlife. Much of it is likely owing to the tree count and proximity to water, but just as many critters have adapted to the city itself. From our building in downtown Baltimore there is just such an example. For two years in a row, we have witnessed pairs of kestrels nesting in two different locations within 2 blocks of our building in the nooks and crannies offered by the old architecture of the city. I have on several occasions sat on this very balcony and watched them come and go, tending their chicks, sometimes witnessing one passing within ten feet as it buzzed past the building.

Yesterday evening, I got to meet the next generation. This handsome young fellow, a fledgling chick by the look of his still visible downy feathers peeking out all over his head and body, rested his wings for a while on the very balcony from which I often watch his parents. From inside the building I watched and snapped some cell phone photos to share.





Good luck, little buddy, and thanks for stopping by!

In Bloom: Clivia nobilis

I have been quite pleased lately with a flush of blooms from my resident blooming size clivias recently. Among these was this first bloom Clivia nobilis, which was a gift a while back from my favorite plant cruising sidekick, The Larry. I remember it well. He said, "Do you want this?" To which I replied, ::SNATCH:: "Yes, thanks."

The plant is a little different from other clivias in terms of leaf texture - darker green, sturdier, more strap-like, with a hint of serration like texture on the margin, and very orderly and upright. It is quite attractive. The inflorescence is stout and bears a good number of tightly arranged flowers. And what's better? It is now sending up a second inflorescence.

We also recently had a vising black snake. Well, he was black, and he was a snake. I assume therefore, a "black snake". Quite an attractive young fellow. Lucky too. He narrowly missed being stomped by one of the horses. We hope he eats lots of field mice.

Spiderman, Spiderman!

Kids! Soup's on!

This nifty wasp, decked out in spiderman colors (her wings are metallic blue at the correct angle) isn't doing battle with that wolf spider who is three times her weight. That spider is paralyzed. He will be dinner for several youngin's. Blech. Creepy thought - getting eaten alive.

I don't know where exactly she was going with her prize, but he was certainly in a hurry. She was also quite flustered when she dropped the meal, but soon found it again and resumed the climb. Soon there will be little eggs destined to eat that spider.

By the way, I think what you are looking at is a Spider Wasp (Tachypompilus ferrugineus or related) with Rabid Wolf Spider prey.

Flora and Fauna in Covington, VA

This past weekend we went to visit with family in Covington, VA. We spent most of a day at Roaring Run park, some of which found us skittering up the semi-billy-goat trail along the creek up to the falls. We saw lots of cool stuff! For example, this Goodyera pubescens. We saw several colonies of the little guys, some in bloom, some not. Isn't it just adorable? I was very excited to see them. They were growing mostly on the 'up' side of the path, 10 - 20 feet uphill of the water line in heavy leaf litter and deep shade. I'm also curious about the little thing living with it that has the lily pad shaped leaves. These also in some places had tall thin spikes with little white flowers.

Incidentally, I recently came across the website for the Connecticut Botanical Society. I'm already finding it a wonderful resource for identifying wildflowers and passive plant browsing.

We were also fortunate enough to see several small patches of Monotropa uniflora, or Indian Pipe herb, a very rare parasitic plant. This wiki has a pretty good discussion of the species and its peculiarities. I understand the plant is used in herbal medicine, but I don't know for what, and given its rarity I would venture it isn't used very often. I have only ever seen this plant in the Covington area, and the last time I saw it was probably 20 years ago when my aunt first pointed it out to me.

We also saw a few colonies of this little lithophytic fern, assicated with nice moss colonies. I think it might be Pleopeltis polypodioides (Resurrection Fern), but I sort of remember the fronds on that species being thicker (adaxial to abaxial) than what we saw on this plant, so I'm not sure about the identification.

I would really like to know what this is but I'm not even sure where to start - fern, mossy thing, flowering plant? I saw several individual colonies, generally round in shape, hugging bare rock no more than 1 or 2 feet above water level in areas where they would get frequent spray and possibly occasional flooding. The tissue was very crocodilian in texture and each fish tail was perhaps an inch wide. Please leave a comment if you know what this is!


....I don't know what these are either. Left is a little creeping plant with leaves about 2-3 inches long, very leathery, and fairly spaced out on the rhizome. They were in the standard leaf litter or on somewhat bare clay, like this one. It looks fern-ish to me. On the right is a small, glossy plant with architectural trefoil leaves. Diameter of each leaf was approximately equal to a standard peanut butter cup. I only saw one of these.

Cool bugs!!



Cool fungus!











"Bob Ross Moment" Finale

A visitor: Corn Snake Joe

We were recently visited by this most handsome fellow whom I believe to be a corn snake. I have named him "Joe". I hope he sticks around. I like snakes but have not seen many around our place.