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Trish and I both are fascinated by insects. We're also fascinated by evolutionary phenomena like Batesian mimicry (when a harmless living thing has evolved to look like a dangerous living thing for protection). Like a harmless scarlet snake resembling a venomous coral snake. Or a harmless viceroy butterfly resembling a toxic, nasty-tasting monarch butterfly.
One of our favorites is the flower fly, also called the hoverfly. They are harmless flies, but each species closely resembles a stinging bee or wasp.
These critters rarely sit still, so it's not easy to get a photo, but THE FIRST PHOTO is a narrow-banded pond fly (a type of flower fly) that I photographed recently on our trip to Minnesota.
Notice the cream-colored markings on the black abdomen, which resembles that of a bald-faced hornet (trust me, you don't want to mess around with bald-faced hornets).
When flower flies are in the air, they even hover and maneuver about like stinging bees do. It's quite convincing, and it's difficult to tell what they are until they land. Then, if you look closely, you'll see that flower flies, like all flies, only have two wings. Bees and wasps, on the other hand, have four wings. Also, when at rest, flower flies normally hold their wings outward like in the two photos, whereas bees and wasps fold their wings down the length of their back.
But the illusion obviously works. Numerous controlled experiments have shown that predators do indeed avoid flower flies far more than they avoid harmless other flies that are not examples of Batesian mimicry.
THE SECOND PHOTO is a black and yellow striped flower fly, which resembles a ground hornet (also called a yellowjacket... again, not a critter you want to mess around with). But again, notice it has only two wings, and they are held outward while the insect is at rest.
What about you? Have you seen any cool examples of harmless animals or plants that resemble harmful ones (Batesian mimicry)?
Photo Credits:
- Narrow-banded Pond fly - Stan C. Smith
- Black and yellow striped flower fly - DepositPhotos
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A few ruby-throated hummingbirds still come to our feeders, but most of them have moved on south in their migration. As one of them headed out, it pooped while zooming away, leaving us a nice artistic gift on a vertical surface of our deck railing.
I call it "Hummingbird Self Portrait."
If you see it, you see it. If not, it might help to squint.
Art can be found wherever you look for it.
Photo Credits:
- - Ruby-throated hummingbird - DepositPhotos
- - Bird poop art - Stan C. Smith
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Lately, I’ve become fascinated by cool examples of animal camouflage. One that came to my attention recently is the Vietnamese mossy frog. Take one look at this frog, and you can easily guess where it spends most of its time: near edges of water where there is an abundance of moss.
They are found in northern Vietnam, especially on the banks of rocky streams in the forested hills. Like most frogs, they are predators, feeding on insects like crickets and cockroaches. They usually hunt at night, and during the day they sit very still on the moss or clinging to rocks, looking very much like a clump of moss.
Have you ever tried to locate a creature that is capable of “throwing its voice”? I suppose the more official term is “acoustic ventriloquism.” Some animals, such as bullfrogs, cicadas, and some birds, can direct their calls away from their own body, making it extremely difficult for predators to precisely locate their location. Numerous times, I have tried to zero in on a calling (buzzing) cicada, only to fail… even when I’m only a few feet away from the darn thing. Well, Vietnamese mossy frogs can “throw their voice” up to four meters (13 feet). This confuses predators, and it also confuses rival males who are looking for a fight.
Okay, one more exceptional fact. Like most frogs, Vietnamese mossy frogs lay their eggs in water. Interestingly, the gender of the tadpoles that hatch from the eggs is mostly determined by the temperature of the water. In warmer water, nearly all the frogs will be male. Cooler water will produce mostly female frogs.
Photo Credits:
- Frog sitting on green moss - DepositPhotos
- Frog on white background - DepositPhotos
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A young woodchuck has recently been making daily visits to the area right behind our house. Maybe it's interested in the sunflower seeds the birds haphazardly fling everywhere while at our feeders.
It has been scampering away whenever I go out there, defying my efforts to get a good photo... until recently. Finally, it let me get reasonably close for a few photos (FIRST PHOTO).
Let's dig into this woodchuck business.
First, what the heck is a woodchuck, anyway?
Sometimes, people get confused about woodchucks because they are called by so many colloquial names: groundhog, marmot, groundpig, whistle-pig, thickwood badger, monax, weenusk, land beaver, and Canada marmot, among others. Regardless, the scientific name is Marmota monax. It is one of several species of marmots. Two other species, the yellow-bellied marmot and hoary marmot live in mountain areas of western North America, but not here in the Midwest.
Woodchucks are rodents. Specifically, they are a very large type of ground squirrel. They grow up to 14 pounds, making them the second largest rodent in Missouri... the beaver is the winner, growing up to 90 pounds!
Wanna know something cool? Baby woodchucks are called chucklings (SECOND PHOTO).
Woodchucks did not get their name from wood or from chucking things. The name actually comes from the Algonquian name for this animal, wuchak.
Still, the name has resulted in my all-time favorite tongue-twisty, rhymey question and answer:
How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
A woodchuck could chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
I won't bother talking about Groundhog Day, which is a kind-of holiday based on a rather silly superstition. After all, I'm sure you've seen the movie... again, and again, and again...
I could go on and on about woodchucks (because they're awesome), but I'll wrap it up with my admiration for woodchucks as master burrowers. Whenever these chubby rodents dig a burrow, they bring about six cubic feet of soil to the surface (which is actually very good for the soil). The burrows are often over twenty feet long, with side chambers for various purposes, including a pooping chamber. The nest chamber is lined with dried grass and leaves to make it comfy. And, wisely, woodchuck burrows not only have a main entrance hole, they also have a spy hole (which doubles as an escape hole when necessary).
Next time you see a woodchuck, tell it Trish and I said hello.
