Bird Guides
Check-List of North American Birds. American Ornithologists’ Union.
Bull, J., and J. Farrand. The Audubon Society Field Guide to Northern American Birds — Eastern region. Alfred A. Knopf.
Chapman, Frank M. Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America. D. Appleton and Co.
Ehrlich, Paul R., David S. Dobkin, and Darryl Wheye. The Birder’s Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds. Simon and Schuster, Inc. 785 pp.
Farrand, ed., J. The Audubon Society Master Guide to Birding. 3 vols. Alfred A. Knopf. Read more
Books About Ferns, Mosses, and Liverworts
Batson, Wade T. A Guide to the Genera of Native and Commonly Introduced Ferns and Seed Plants of Eastern North America. John Wiley and Sons.
Cobb, Boughton. A Field Guide to the Ferns and their Related Families. Houghton Mifflin Co.
Conard, H. S. How to Know the Mosses and Liverworts. Wm. C. Brown Co.
Keator, Glenn, and Ruth M. Atkinson. Pacific Coast Fern Finder. Nature Study Guild Publishers.
Nelson, Gil. Ferns of Florida. Pineapple Press.
Perl, Philip. Ferns. Time-Life Books.
Shaver, Jesse M. Ferns of the Eastern Central States with Special Reference to Tennessee. Dover Publications, Inc.
Books about Mammals
Blair, W. Frank, Albert P. Blair, and Pierre Brodkorb et al. Vertebrates of the United States, 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Burt, William Henry, and Richard Philip Grossenheider. A Field Guide to the Mammals Giving Field Marks of all Species Found North of the Mexican Boundary. Houghton Mifflin Co.
Hamilton, William J., and John O. Whiataker, Jr. Mammals of the Eastern United States. Cornell University Press.
Harrison, Richard J., and Judith E. King. Marine Mammals. Hutchinson University Library.
Murie, Olaus J. A Field Guide to Animal Tracks. Houghton Mifflin Co.
Books about Mushrooms and Other Fungi
Krieger, Louis C.C. The Mushroom Handbook. Dover Publications, Inc.
McKnight, Kent H., and Vera B. Mc Knight. A Field Guide to Mushrooms - North America. Houghton Mifflin Co.
Carnivorous Encounters
|
|
 |
|
You walk through the savannah looking for the trumpets of pitcher plants that are poking through the grasses. You peer into each pitcher’s trumpet with the expectation of finding a pitcher plant caterpillar or moth (Exyra sp.) that lives in the trumpet of the pitcher plant.
More often, you only see caracasses of other insects that have fallen to the base of the trumpet. During love bug season, the trumpets can be filled to the brim! After a doomed insect slides down the slippery side of the trumpet, it cannot escape and dies. Its carcass is “digested” by the carnivorous plant.
This praying mantis was our reward for investigating the savannah. Perched atop the trumpet of a Yellow Pitcherplant (Sarracenia flava), she was waiting patiently for her next meal. The pitcher plant provided her a high vantage point to use her very keen eyesight to spot approaching prey. The praying mantis may spend hours perched motionless waiting for a chance to grab an unsuspecting insect between her powerful front legs.
The praying mantis (Stagmomantis carolina) is quite common from Virginia to Florida in the autumn. Look for this insect in the upper clusters of flowers, especially those in the aster family. The flowers attract butterflies and other insects that feed on the flowers’ nectar.
Find Articles by Subject
About the PhotoNaturalist
Galleries
Image of the Week
 | ||