Carnivorous Encounters
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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.
Lizard Wars!
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See the entire sequence of Lizard Wars
It is not uncommon to see a male green anole asserting his territorial rights. You’ve probably have seen a male displaying his brightest coloration, “puffing up” to look larger, and doing “push ups” Until this year, I had never seen two male anoles progress beyond these warning signs to actual combat.
This spring, my wife and I were walking through some woods when the trees were just beginning to bud out. As I was walking along, I saw a flash of bright green on a tree branch. Two male green anoles were circling the tree, each trying to get the best strategic position to fight. Then their jaws were locked on each other. The one lizard was actually biting down on the other lizard’s head and neck and it surely must have hurt the victim. The wrestling match continued for quite some time. When it appeared to me that actual harm might be occurring, I did try to separate the two, but after a few moments, they resumed their wrestling match. The fight was still ongoing when I left.
Rose Trees and Pinxterblooms
Springtime is always a wonderful time to visit your local botanical garden, park, or arboretum. While there may be an unending succession of blooming flowers in the spring, it is almost a ritual in some areas to visit the gardens when the azaleas are blooming. Possibly the most renowned azalea gardens are found on the plantations surrounding Charleston, South Carolina. After enjoying the azalea spectacle at Middleton Plantation, Magnolia Plantation, and Cypress Gardens, many of the crowds proceed to Summerville, a town just outside of Charleston, where my parents lived. For one or two weeks each year, this small town swells in size as thousands of people come from all over the United States to see the azaleas that grace the old houses and gardens of “Flower Town.”
Today azaleas figure prominently in the landscapes of gardens throughout the United States. A walkway in the Arboretum at the University of Washington in Seattle meanders through a breathtaking collection of red, pink, and white azaleas. Our National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., has a glorious hillside covered by azaleas. While the relentless heat of central and south Florida’s long hot summers precludes the inclusion of azaleas in most people’s yards, they are still a crowd-pleaser in many of Florida’s public gardens. Bok Tower, Cypress Gardens, and Maclay Gardens are just some of Florida’s gardens which have imposing plantings of azaleas.
It may be hard to visualize a landscape without the familiar azaleas, but, in fact, none of these azaleas are native to North America. They are cultivated hybrids of Old World species collected in the Himalayas, China, and Java. In the early eighteenth century, North American azaleas such as the Pink Azalea (Rhododendron clymenoides) and Mountain Flame Azalea (R. calendulasceum) were exported to Europe where Belgians and Britons crossed them with Oriental species. Due to the popularity of the azalea in Flanders, it became a Flemish symbol. By the 1820’s, azalea hybrids were sought by gardeners worldwide and were imported into the United States. Read more
The Praying Mantis and the Gulf Fritillary
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We were walking along a trail with our friends and had stopped to admire a nice batch of pickerelweed that was growing in the water near a small wooden bridge on a trail. We were enjoying and photographing the many butterflies that were nectaring on the pickerelweed. Then I looked down into the water and say many butterfly wings floating on its surface. I knew then that a praying mantis had to be nearby.
In fact, she was directly above the floating wings on a pickerelweed, lying in wait for her next butterfly meal. This praying mantis had lost part of one of her forelimbs, but the abundance of buterfly wings showed that it did not seem to greatly impair her hunting skills.
Several Gulf Fritillaries and sulphur butterflies landed on her pickerelweed, but either sensed danger and left or were just lucky and escaped with their lives. But finally the praying mantis’ arms reached out and snagged an unwary Gulf Fritillary. We watched for over half an hour as she consumed every butterfly morsel except for the scaly wings which fell off as she finished her meal.
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Image of the Week
Red-bellied Water Snake
