Nature Isn't Always Pretty

I have been visiting family in Ohio the last couple of days. When heading home from a hike in Southern Ohio, I spotted a dead fawn along the side of the road. As I got closer, I noticed that the fawn was covered with butterflies. I was saddened by the loss of the fawn, but at the same time intrigued by the butterflies and their resourcefulness. Nature provides, but sometimes it isn't always pretty.

Butterflies sometimes exhibit a behavior called "puddling". This is when they will congregate, usually on a mud puddle, to find salts, minerals and moisture. But sometimes they will use feces and, in this case, a carcass to access the needed nutrients.

Above is a Tawny Emperor, Asterocampa clyton. There were many of these attending the gory puddle party. Tawny Emperors rarely visit flowers, but like tree sap, rotting fruit, dung and carrion.This Hackberry Emperor, Asterocampa celtis, is related to the Tawny Emperor, but is duller in appearance. The name for this butterfly comes from the host plant for the caterpillars, the Hackberry tree. Like its cousin, it is also a butterfly that does not visit flowers very often. There were thousands, and I am not exaggerating, of these butterflies all along the road. Amazing!

A Great Spangled Fritillary, Speyeria cybele, also joined the party. These three species of butterflies, the two emperors and the fritillary, are members of the brush-foot family, Nymphalidae. The name brush-foot comes from the fact that the front two legs on these butterflies are greatly reduced or brush-like. They only use their back four legs for walking around and the front ones are almost non-existent.

This Tiger Swallowtail, Papilio glaucas, even went inside the carcass to find the nutrients it desired. Tiger Swallowtails are fascinating creatures. The caterpillars exhibit great camouflage techniques to keep from being eaten. As a young caterpillar, they look like bird droppings. When they become bigger, the caterpillars mimic a snake's head with large eyespots. Check out this site to view some great pictures of the Tiger Swallowtail caterpillars.

Another group of visitors to the decomposing fawn were Red-lined Carrion Beetles, Necrodes surinamensis . There were hundreds of these, most of them under the carcass. The adults mainly feed on fly larvae, but the beetles' young feed on the carrion.

If you enjoy butterflies as much as I do, and want to see them in a much more pleasant place, you might considered attending the Appalachian Butterfly Conference, August 8th-10th in beautiful Southern Ohio. Information about the event can be found here. Hope to see you there!
I also promise my next post will be much more pleasant :-)

Monarchs

On April 25th, we were walking around behind our building at Southeastway Park and noticed a lone Monarch Butterfly flying low near the dirt in our garden area. Soon we discovered what she was up to. She was ovipositing, laying eggs, on some of the small Common Milkweed plants that were just emerging from the soil.

Above is a shot of the monarch with her abdomen curled forward. Next to her is a small stub of a just emerging milkweed. She can "taste" the milkweed with their feet and can tell when she is on the correct plant.

A few weeks later, on May 12th I took this shot of the caterpillars. Tiny little guys just munching away. Monarch caterpillars and butterflies use milkweeds as host plants to insure their survival.

The milkweed has chemicals called cardiac glycosides. When the caterpillar ingests the leaves, the glycosides make it toxic to other animals. If a bird eats a monarch caterpillar or butterfly, it will not eat another, for it will become very ill. The warning colors or yellow and black on the caterpillar and orange and black on the butterfly alert birds of their possible bad taste and toxicity, so they usually will avoid them.

Just a few days later on May 16th, they have obviously grown quite a bit. I will post again next week to show how these little ones are doing. We are very excited about our new family!

First Day of Spring!

Since this year is a leap year, today, March 20th, is the first day of spring. Our Maple Syrup Season is over, so we spent the afternoon taking down the spiles and buckets. And while we were out there, Chris and I had an opportunity to look around a bit and see the first signs of spring.

The leaves of Spring Beauty are coming up. Their strap-like bright green leaves were poking through the carpet of dried leaves on the forest floor. The small tubers are actually edible and taste like radishes, if consumed raw, or potatoes if cooked.

Salt-and-Pepper or Harbinger of Spring, Erigenia bulbosa, was a sight for sore eyes. One of the first wildflowers, it always makes me think of spring. It was also used by the Native Americans to relieve toothaches. The condiment name comes from the dark stamens against the background of white petals.

Harbinger-of-Spring, I actually took this picture and it didn't turn out too shabby!

I could not get a picture of this guy, no matter how quietly I tried to sneak up on it. A beautiful Mourning Cloak was flitting around in the forest. It would rest for a bit, I would sneak up on it with my camera and poof, off it went. We played this frustrating game for a while, until I decided to give up. I am always amazed how it can sit perfectly still with its wings closed and look just like a dead leaf. What a great find on a perfect day!

Mourning Cloak, dorsal view. Photo by Wikipedia.

Mourning Cloak or dead leaf? Just quickly passing by, one would probably think it was a leaf.