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American Oystercatcher
There were a few pairs of American Oystercatchers (Haematopus palliatus) out on the Jacob Riis and Fort Tilden beaches the other day.
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Got Galls?
Phylloteras poculum, no common name, is a tiny gall wasp. They lay their eggs on a white oak leaf, and the tree responds by building this structure, which envelops the egg. The larva inside is protected from the elements, including, to a certain extent, predators, and has plant material to eat in there.
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Dazed
The paralyzed prey will be dragged underground. The wasp will lay an egg on it. Once hatched, the wasp larva will have an enormous meal to eat before pupating into… an adult wasp who will emerge next year to go hunting cicadas. After yesterday’s post, a friend sent me this quote from Thoreau’s journal from…
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Dog Daze
An annual dog day Neotibicen cicada. Not to be confused with: A periodical Magicicada cicada, like this one from Princeton during this spring’s Brood X emergence. These annual cicadas are seen every year, but “annual” is a bit deceiving. The dog day cicadas spend several years underground sucking on tree roots, just like the periodical…
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Trypoxylon politum
If you look under eaves, bridges, tunnels, and, in Green-Wood, around the nooks and crannies of mausoleums, you might very well find some of these mud tubes. After all this construction work, the female Organ-pipe Mud-dauber hunts for spiders, which she paralyzes and stuffs into chambers within each tube. Each chamber gets an egg. The…
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Backyard and Beyond 