A Whole New World

If today is the first day of the rest of the earth's life, well then Happy Earth Day everybody.

4/25 UPDATES FROM THE LARGER WORLD:

1. How the environmental president spent Earth Day 2006, in words and picture.

2. Here's the house of representatives' official, taxpayer funded Earth Day website, and commentary on that from here and there and beyond.

3. Thanks to my sister for forwarding me these uplifting Earth Day stories! Yes, Earth Day IS everyday, especially when everyone is pitching in to extract resources and wealth from the environment.

A good day to see a butterfly

I was talking to Aaron on the phone about his new house, the president of China, and the best route to Santa Cruz in a Lotus when a very particular kind of shadow caught my eye as it slid past the office door. I said, "gotta go", because only a butterfly makes a shadow that flutters like that. And there have been precious few butterflies around here so far this spring.

This was a mourning cloak, Nymphalis antiopa, that had alit on a perch high in the melaleuca linarifolia tree while waiting for me to get the camera. It's a 2006 hatchling, offspring of the adults that were flying (briefly!) back in January. The wings look really fresh; if it were an overwintered adult, they would be battered. Mourning cloaks live for almost a year. This creature has already weathered some unseasonably cold and wet weather as a caterpillar, so here's hoping for more sunny butterfly days just like today to make its long/short life a bit easier.













The adult butterflies preferred food is tree sap and rotting fruit, but they do also take nectar. This one looks like it is tasting the melaleuca flowers.

Carpenter she bee

The female valley carpenter bees, Xylocopa varipunctata, have been flying for weeks now. I just haven't gotten any photos until now. Hey, they fly pretty fast and erratically. Here's one feeding on a cape mallow (anisodontea x hypomndarum) flower. These bees are important agents of pollination for fruit trees and such. They also have a habit of boring nests into wood such as the eaves of your house, or your patio cover. In spring the adults emerge from these nests to feed and find mates. As I said, the all-black female bees have been flying for weeks. Today I saw the first golden brown male. I never see as many males as females, so if I don't post a he-bee photo here it's because I'm not lucky not because I'm sexist. Once they mate, the males spend time protecting the nest but don't live as long as the females. The female bees can sting, but typically don't. The males, lacking the oviposition equipment, can't sting.

Picture wing fly ovipositing

Getting started on the next generation, this picture wing fly lays eggs in a developing tagetes lemonii flower bud.

These cute green-eyed flies (Trupanea nigricornis) are related to the flies that spawn the maggots that make the semi-bad tasting holes you often find (too late, after you've already bitten into them) in sunflower seeds.

Window ledge morgue

So I was cleaning the mini blinds yesterday, and couldn't escape the bugs. The top valance thingy had about 20 tiny beetle carcasses in it, sucked dry by my friendly crack spider. On the top of the bottom sash were many who went toward the light; but never made it through the glass to the great and free outdoors. Among them, this crane fly and polistes wasp.

Fremontodendron

John C. Fremont was a late 19th century explorer/adventurer enlisted by your federal government to write home about the wild west in the hopes that easterners would become enraptured by his descriptions of vast fertile valleys, go there, settle, and eventually provide the proper demographics for another Walmart or Home Depot.

Fremont also sent many botanical specimens to experts back east to classify. They ended up naming quite a few species after him: including Fremont's cottonwood, Fremont's death camas, Fremont's indigo bush, Fremont's wolfberry, and the flannelbush genus Fremontodendron. The genus is comprised of two species (californicum and mexicanum--Hah!) and many hybrids between and among the two. I presume the one growing in my backyard is a hybrid. It likes it there, has been living and working providing beauty to me and sustenance to insects for over 3 years. It would be a shame to lose it now.

But after a recent very wet storm, I found the tree's trunk (mine is a tree form, not a shrub) bent over at a 90 degree angle so the canopy was on the ground. The trunk had not cracked at all; I was able to push it back up and prop the tree more or less upright after removing much of the leaf mass and some major limbs. I read on www.calflora.net that flannelbush is subject to sudden collapse (!!) and death (no!!) probably as a result of excessive wet or from the plant failing to ripen its wood. Huh. So far so good . . . my tree hasn't wilted and is still putting out new growth.

I'm glad I got some photos before the fall, when the fremontodendron was literally dripping with flower-laden branches; and some photos of its visitors.












John C. Fremont went on to do a bunch of things: He was convicted of mutiny; then received a presidential pardon; he ran as the Republican Party's first candidate for POTUS. He made a bunch of money in gold, then lost it all in badly managed business deals. He died of peritonitis in NYC a poorish man. Another interesting side note: one of Fremont's early mentors was Joel Poinsett, the first US ambassabor to Mexico for whom the poinsettia is named.

Sensory organs

Eyes, ear, and antennae of forktailed bush katydid.

I wonder, did she sense the coming storm that dumped a whole bunch of rain on our little kingdom last night and today?

Bee flight

Here's an article about bee flight. Specifically, how their legs act as additional lift generating surfaces. Neat photos and links you may enjoy.