Moth Mania

The last full week of July was National Moth Week, and I'm finally getting around to posting about mine. I did moth programs this year and last, and I'll be sharing photos of moths from both events, plus some of moths that I've found at my porch light at night, or just wherever. But first, I will obviously have to educate you non-moth-ers about moths and why they rule. (If you already know why moths rule, feel free to jump ahead.)

Butterflies get all the attention. They're pretty, and they fly during the day when us fellow day-dwellers are likely to actually see them. Moths, on the other hand, are mostly nocturnal and often drab by comparison. But there are way more moths than butterflies, and many are just as stunning as their butterfly brethren. Moths and butterflies are really two sides of the same coin. There isn't even a hard and fast rule to separate them, but here is an infographic I made to provide some general guidelines.

Of those rules, the one about the antennae is most reliable. Butterflies have thin, filamentous antennae that are club-shaped at the end, while moth antennae are feathery or filamentous and unclubbed. The only exception to this rule that I know of in North America north of Mexico is the genus Hemaris, also known as hummingbird moths. Fortunately, they are very distinctive.

A hummingbird clearwing, Hemaris thysbe, nectars on
wild bergamot, Monarda fistulosa. Moths in this genus have
clubbed antennae and are active during the day.

The pollination services of moths are invaluable. We think of butterflies as important pollinators, but consider this: there are at least eight species of moth for every species of butterfly. Many plants are pollinated only by certain moths with which they have co-evolved. My favorite example of this is Darwin's orchid and Morgan's sphinx moth. Charles Darwin was studying insect pollination in January 1862 when he received a package containing his namesake orchid.

Darwin's orchid, Angraecum sesquipedale
Photo by Brian [license]

Seeing the foot-long spur that forms the nectary of each flower, Darwin remarked, "Good heavens, what insect can suck it?" He then surmised the orchid was pollinated by an undiscovered moth with a proboscis of unprecedented length. That moth is Morgan's sphinx moth, but it was not discovered until 21 years after Darwin's death. Today, this postulated pollinator has become one of the celebrated predictions of evolution.

Morgan's sphinx moth, Xanthopan morganii
Photo by Esculapio [license]

Moths also serve as an important food source for countless animals, including bats, birds, and spiders. Silk moth caterpillars produce over 140,000 tons of silk each year, worth $250 million. And last but not least, to defend against hungry caterpillars, many plants produce chemicals that we use in our everyday lives. One such chemical is the most widely-consumed central nervous system stimulant: caffeine. So, next time you enjoy a nice warm cup of drugs coffee, thank immature moths and butterflies.

Finding moths is easy; you can see dozens of species just by checking your porch light each night. Here are a few moths I found by doing just that.

Walking across any lawn in the summer is likely to flush small grayish or brownish moths that fly a short distance and then dart back into the grass. At rest, they look like very short sticks. They are the grass-veneers, and not all of them are drab. Some, like this double-banded grass-veneer (Crambus agitatellus), look quite lovely on close inspection.

The barberry geometer, Coryphista meadii, makes brown and black look good.

The large maple spanworm, Prochoerodes lineola, is pleasingly geometrical.

The virgin tiger moth, Grammia virgo, has a straw-like pattern on its forewings that helps it blend in with dry grasses. When disturbed, it flashes its bright hindwings to warn predators it is toxic.

While porch lights do attract plenty of moths, serious moth-ers use additional methods: light trapping and sugar-baiting. Light trapping simply involves hanging a white sheet and illuminating it with ultraviolet or sodium-vapor bulbs.

This is our moth sheet from last summer's Moth Mania program, and I set it up the exact same way this year. The sheet is held up by two beams tied to the back of a park bench, and is illuminated by a black light and our painted turtle's UVB light, because she doesn't need it at night. Here are some of the moths I've found with this method.

The delicate cycnia, Cycnia tenera, is usually seen during the day on or near the blossoms of its host plants, milkweeds and dogbane. It is also called the dogbane tiger moth, and is in the same family as the virgin tiger moth above.

The green leuconycta, Leuconycta diphteroides, becomes nigh invisible during the day by resting among lichens on tree trunks.

This mint-green beauty stole the show last year. It's a green marvel, Acronicta fallax.

And this one took the cake this year. It's a zebra conchylodes, Conchylodes ovulalis.

Sugar-baiting targets moths that are attracted to sap or rotten fruit. It doesn't yield as many moths as light trapping, but it could attract some that your sheet doesn't. The idea is to create a fermented, sugary glop that can be painted on tree trunks (not decks, walls, etc., as it can leave stains). Overripe/rotten fruit and beer/booze are usually used. The mixture I use is peeled baked bananas, flat beer, molasses, brown sugar, and a dash of yeast, aged for a few days to increase in potency. I may make a future post detailing the process, but for now, here are some moths I've baited. 

This black zale, Zale undularis, would have been pretty hard to see if it hadn't been partially sitting on my lovely orange bait. That cryptic coloration is epic.

A Virginia creeper sphinx, Darapsa myron, flutters in front of my bait.

The azalea sphinx, Darapsa choerilus, looks similar to the Virginia creeper sphinx, but note the straight rather than curvy edge between light and dark regions of the wing. This one was found near a baited tree, but for some reason became more enamored with a visitor's shoe.

There are also moths that can be found visiting flowers in the daytime, just like butterflies. I've already mentioned a couple: the hummingbird clearwing and delicate cycnia. But here are a few more.

The chickweed geometer, Haematopis grataria, is probably the most frequently encountered moth in Ohio. You could mistake it for a butterfly as it flutters away from you when you walk across your lawn, but unlike many butterflies, it usually only flies a short distance and then alights.

The ailanthus webworm, Atteva aurea, is actually not native to Ohio, but to South Florida and the tropics. It has spread by adapting tree-of-heaven, an invasive tree from China, as a host plant. It resembles a beetle, which probably makes it less likely to be eaten by predators who have learned that brightly-colored beetles taste bad.

Another moth that is often mistaken for a butterfly is the eight-spotted forester, Alypia octomaculata. But behold the knobless antennae. The black wings with light spots serve as disruptive coloration, making it seem to disappear as it flits through areas of dappled sunlight and shade.

There. If you didn't already appreciate moths, I hope you do now. Moths are easy to find, and never cease to amaze with their endless diversity.

I'll end with a freshly-emerged adult luna moth, Actias luna, that I helped raise from an egg. ^_^

A Trip to Cedar Bog

On Thursday, I made a visit to a longtime destination of mine: Cedar Bog Nature Preserve, located 4 miles south of Urbana, Ohio in Champaign County. The 450-acre state nature preserve is actually a fen, not a bog, left behind by retreating glaciers over 10,000 years ago.

Bogs and fens are both a type of mire (an open wetland dominated by peat-forming plants), but they get their water differently. Bogs receive almost all of their water from rainfall, while fens are fed by surface and/or ground water. Water in a bog is trapped and only leaves via evaporation, while the water in a fen trickles out. You can remember this with the following handy mnemonic: "Bogs clog, fens flow." 

So why is it called Cedar Bog, then? The unsatisfactory answer given to me by an interpretive sign was that "people are slow to change." Well, Cedar Bog, then why don't you speed up the process by changing your erroneous name? But I didn't go there for a nomenclature argument; I went to see some of the rare flora and fauna Cedar Bog is known for, and I wasn't disappointed.

The 1-mile boardwalk passes through a variety of wetland habitats.

The boardwalk cuts through a wet forest (swamp).

A wet prairie bordered by hardwoods.

A sedge meadow dotted with white cedar, Thuja occidentalis.

In the forested areas, the ground was dominated by skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus. The flowers are gone—they bloom as early as February because they can melt the snow and ice around them—but not the huge leaves.

It's the motherleaf!

Here's another cool plant: bittersweet nightshade, Solanum dulcamara. It's in the same genus as the tomato plant, but you wouldn't want to eat it (hint: it's poisonous).

But the real botanical prize was the showy lady's-slipper, Cypripedium reginae. Cedar Bog is the best place in the state to see this rare orchid, which is listed as threatened in Ohio.

Note the tiny katydid nymph on the right blossom. :3

And now, on to the critters!

Well, what do we have here? A bumble bee? Think again! This is a fly; see how short the antennae are? It's Laphria thoracica, one of the "bee-like robber flies." An apt name for the genus, I would say.

Here is the beautiful ebony jewelwing damselfly, Calopteryx maculata.

This is probably my favorite damselfly, and I saw dozens of them. They are easily identified and sexed at a glance. Both males and females have all-black wings and iridescent green bodies, but females are duller in color and have a white spot (stigma) at the end of each wing.

A female ebony jewelwing.

Depending on the light, they can also appear blue or even bronze.

A male ebony jewelwing rocking electric blue. That wad of
snuff in his mouth was formerly a gnat or other small insect.

Beautiful, but deadly (if you're an insect). That's why I love odonates. Here's a dragonfly, and this one's a first for me:

It's an arrowhead spiketail, Cordulegaster obliqua.

Moving on to larger fauna, I had read of the climbing prowess of the eastern ratsnake, Pantherophis alleghaniensis, but now I've seen proof. As I came into a small wet prairie edged by trees, I looked up at one tree and saw this:

Yep, just a snake chillin' in a tree cavity, probably a good 30-40 feet off the ground. To give you an idea how high up it was, here is a zoomed-out shot with the snake circled.

And it climbed all the way up there without any arms or legs! Snakes are awesome.

But now to my main reason for this trip: skinks! I had been wanting to visit Cedar Bog ever since a friend told me that skinks just jump off the boardwalk in front of you as you walk. She wasn't wrong.

Close-up of a juvenile common five-lined skink.

The skinks in question are common five-lined skinks, Plestiodon fasciatus. As their name implies, they are Ohio's most common lizard and can be found throughout the state. Despite this, I had never seen one, or any wild lizard, in Ohio before, so you can understand my excitement.

Juvenile five-lined skinks have bold, dark brown or black stripes and a bright blue tail.

The tail is brightly-colored to make it more appealing to predators. If it is grabbed, it will break off, leaving a predator with a mouth full of wriggling tail while the skink makes a speedy getaway. Eventually, the skink's tail will grow back, but it won't be as long or brightly-colored as the first one.

As the skink matures, both its tail and its dark stripes fade, leaving it brown overall, but the head of the adult male turns red during the breeding season. The one adult male I saw wanted to stay hidden, but he couldn't resist poking his head up between the slats of the boardwalk to show me his color.

"Yes. My head is fabulous."

Skinks are among the fastest reptiles in the world, and it was fun to see and hear them darting over and under the boardwalk as I sauntered along. My only regret is that I didn't see the threatened spotted turtle or the endangered massasauga rattlesnake, both of which call Cedar Bog home. Nonetheless, a rare orchid, a new dragonfly, and my first lizard made for a great trip.

World Pangolin Day: Meet the Pangolin!

Today marks the fifth annual World Pangolin Day, a day created to spread awareness about my favorite animal, the pangolin. What the heck is a pangolin? You probably have no idea, which is why that’s the first thing I’m going to tell you, followed by why it’s endangered and what YOU can do to help save it.

This is a pangolin. A ground pangolin, to be precise.
It lives on the ground.
Photo by David Brossard [license]

This is a tree pangolin. Guess where it lives...
Photo by Bart Wursten [license]

Despite being called a "scaly anteater" and wearing armor like an armadillo, the pangolin isn't related to anteaters or armadillos; it's in an order all its own. It's the world’s only mammal that is covered with overlapping scales, which are hard and made of keratin (the same stuff as our fingernails).

These scales are on a mammal. Believe it!
Photo from Leeds Museums and Galleries [license]

These scales are a double-edged sword for the pangolin because they protect it from predators, but also make it desirable to humans. While its scales are its most recognizable feature, the pangolin boasts numerous other weird and wonderful adaptations. First and foremost of these is a long, sticky tongue, which is anchored near the pangolin's pelvis and can exceed the length of its body! The pangolin uses its tongue to lap up ants and termites—nearly 200 thousand a day! While dining, it can seal its nostrils and ears shut to keep out insects. It locates ant and termite nests with its acute sense of smell, then burrows into them with massive, shovel-like claws.

Dragon foot? Nope, pangolin foot.
Photo from The Children's Museum of Indianapolis [license]

Wow, with weapons like that, the pangolin must be able to really mess up would-be predators, right? ...Actually, no. It prefers to use its numerous sharp teeth to... just kidding. Pangolins don't have teeth; they use gravel and keratinous spines in their stomachs to break up insect chitin. Some species are adept tree-climbers, such as the cleverly-named tree pangolin, which can hang from branches with its prehensile tail like a monkey. But pangolins aren't fast enough to run for the trees when faced by a predator, what with all those heavy scales (which can account for a fifth of their body weight). So, what do they do for protection? They use their scales as armor and roll up into a ball, of course!

A pangolin curled up for defense.
Photo by Wildlife Alliance [license]

"There must be a door here, or a zipper, or SOMETHING."
Photo by David Bygott [license]

This is even how the pangolin got its name. The word "pangolin" comes from the Malay word "pengguling," which means "one who rolls up." However, while this behavior can and does protect pangolins from being chewed on by big cats and hyenas, it is no defense against humans, who can simply pick up the scaly balls and carry them off.

The pangolin is threatened by a rampant illegal international trade in scales and meat.

There are eight extant species of pangolin—four in Asia and four in Africa—and all of them are threatened with extinction due to poaching. In fact, an estimated 100,000 pangolins are snatched from the wild each year. Why? Because their scales are thought to have magic healing powers. Yep. Their keratin scales, made of the same stuff as our nails and hair, are believed in Asia to be able to cure everything from acne to cancer.

Of course, their meat is also eaten. In Africa it's bush meat, but in Asia it's a delicacy. Wealthy patrons of certain restaurants in China and Vietnam can pay to have a smuggled pangolin brought out and killed in front of them (to guarantee the freshness, of course). They'll often take the blood home in a jar. It's a supposed aphrodisiac. And did I mention pangolin fetus soup, because that is unfortunately a thing.

This happens despite pangolins being protected under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), and it continues to happen due to lack of public awareness, low levels of information about the illegal pangolin trade, and lack of political will.

But you can help!

Education and awareness are key to stopping pangolin trafficking.

The pangolin is the most trafficked mammal on Earth, but most people in the Western world don't even know it exists! Polar bears, tigers, and rhinos are endangered, but at least they have the benefit of being well-known. You can help pangolins just by telling people about them. Post about pangolins on social media, make a piece of pangolin art, bake a cake that looks like a pangolin, or come up with something all your own. Just get the word out, and mark your calendar for World Pangolin Day, the third Saturday in February, so you know when to do it again. You can also like World Pangolin Day on Facebook.

Here are some bonus facts to make you love pangolins even more:

• A mother pangolin carries her baby around on her tail. D'aww.
• Besides humans, pangolins are the only mammals to walk primarily on two legs. Watch this gif and tell me it doesn't remind you of a little T. rex.
• When pangolins drink, they get bubble beards. See a video here.
• Pangolins love to play in the mud. See a video here.

To find out more about the eight species of pangolin, check out pangolinsg.org/pangolins.

Happy World Pangolin Day!

Synthetic Safari

Sorry for my extended absence. I've been busy graduating from Ohio State and stuff, but now that's done and my seasonal work as a naturalist will be resuming in the spring, so I should be able to get back to a semi-regular posting schedule. With my return, I have decided to rename this blog from "Dragons, Flies, and Dragonflies" to "Cameron's Critter Blog." While I do love dragonflies (as my first post can attest), this is not strictly a dragonfly blog, but a general critter blog.  

Now that that's out of the way, here is a photographic series from the photography class I took during my final semester:

Did any of those fool you at first?

As you've no doubt figured out, the subjects of these photos are all inanimate figurines, which I placed in natural environments to try to bring them to life, if you will.

Stay tuned; next month, I'll be back with a big post about a real critter, which just so happens to be my favorite animal!