Unusual Shaped Moths

Lately I have had some very unusual shaped moths come to the porch light.  What they lack in color they make up for in shape.  I suspect that they are trying to mimic something but I am clueless as to what. Maybe torn leaves or bark, who knows the mind of a moth. 

Here are some for your viewing pleasure and curious minds.

Acrolopophus sp. (Grass-tubeworm Moth)

It is his mohawk that caught my attention. I haven't been able to identify it down to species. If anyone knows what it is please let me know.

Calledapteryx dryopterata (Brown Scoopwing)

Looks like something took a bite out of this one. Not. This is the natural shape. Is it me or do the holes look like eyes and the center of the back look like a pointed nose?  I've had about 3 of these show up this month.

Palthis angulasis (Dark-spotted Palthis)

Now this one looks like a paper airplane that I would have made in grade school and flown across the room when no one was looking. Of course my aim was to hit a friend in the head. The folded up part is characteristic of Palthis species. The point at the end is actually a pair of elongated libial palps used as sensory organs and they are particularly long in this genera.

Datana angusii (Drexel's Datana)

From one extreme to another, this guy almost doesn't have a face. I call them cigar butt moths. The larva like to feed on oak and apple leaves.

Geina periscelidactylus (Plum Moth)

I think they are trying to mimic dried grass or dead stems. I have never seen them in the daytime so I think that strategy must be working or I haven't looked in the right place.

Visit other interesting creatures at Camera Critters.

Cape May Birding Weekend

Every year Horseshoe Crabs come to the shores of the Deleware Bay to lay their eggs and every year Red Knots, Ruddy Turnstones, Gulls and other birds come to eat them. The strategy of the crab is to lay as many as possible and hope that some survive. The strategy of the Red Knots it to eat as many as possible so they can continue their long long migration to their breeding grounds in Canada and Alaska. And my strategy was to see as much as possible and experience the wonder of this phenomena. I think we were all successful. Let me explain.

My friend Trillium and I arrived at Cape May on a Friday evening and began looking at birds right away as we strolled down the beach and explored the nearby sights. The next day we were scheduled for two bird walks. I saw my first Chat while on the first walk!  The birding was really good but I didn't get many photos...you really need a much more powerful camera that my little point and shoot.

The afternoon was spent with Pete Dunn who is a world class birder. He took us out toward the beach were we saw a couple of good sites. The first was Mute Swans and you are probably thinking oh how pretty. Well, one was very aggressive as you can see here.

Can you see the wake in front of him as he heads towards the other swans.

This guy was intense.

Finally the lunge

and the flee.

We saw a mother Piping Plover and her baby chicks in a fenced off area. The babies were like little balls of dandelions on two tall legs.  They were too far away to get a photo but I have great memories.

By far the highlight of the trip was going to the bay side where the horse shoe crabs had laid their eggs. They come in at night to lay their eggs so we were seeing the previous nights work. The birds were there by the thousands. At first it just looked like gray sand and then I realized that those were the Red Knots in mass.

The Red Knots are the small dots in the background of the photo above. They kept flying in as the evening drew to a close.

Lots of Laughing Gulls were also feeding with the Red Knots.

One our way back to the hotel we saw where banding was going on so we stopped the car and got out to take a looks. Lots of people were helping and some were just watching like we were.

This one is being banded and then handed off for blood samples and then eventually let go by the two young girls helping.

Passing the responsibility and stewardship from one generation to the next.

About this time someone came up and asked for volunteers and our hands shot up almost before they could explain what we were volunteering for. We didn't care...we just wanted to help. So we were taken over to another spot where this gentlemen explained to us how to band Ruddy Turnstones.

First you hold them like this...firm but not too tight.

Next someone will place a metal band on them and another person will place this larger band that can be read with binoculars. Next the wing length was measured...that was my job.

Trillium measured the head

and the bill.

and someone else weighed them and another person recorded the data.

Here is a view of a Turnstone for the camera.

I was a happy camper as I measured the wing...

 and was even proud of the bird poop left on my pants after we banded 30+ Ruddy Turnstones.

It was one of those experiences that I will never forget. The combination of feeling the heart beats of these birds and the opportunity to make a contribution was awesome!

Be sure to visit Watery Wednesday for more insteresting photos and stories.

Moss at Cathedral State Park and the surrounding area

At last here are the photos of the moss from the "moss walk" at Cathedral State Park in West Virginia.  As I mentioned before I was on two walks with Sue Studler so this is the best photos from both trips. Her enthusiasm was contagious and I hope my photos do her justice because her knowledge of bryophytes is just incredible.

Moss are tiny little plants that are often over looked but once you focus in on them you can see them everywhere.  At first I was just enjoying finding them and looking at the diversity. Now I am a little more interested in their names and learning about their life history. Wikipedia said there are 12,000 species world wide and Annotated Checklist of the Hornworts, Liverworts, and Mosses of West Virginia by Studler, Stephenson and Harmon lists 270 species found in my state so far.

Moss grows on dead trees, live trees, rocks, soil, buildings, concrete, well just about anywhere. Above and below is a little gem called Hypnun imponens (Flat Plait-moss). The leaves reminded me of Native American bead work especially when it sparkled in the sunlight. You can click on all of the photos for  closer views.

Hypnun imponens (Flat Plait-moss).

Other than the fact that they are wonderful to look at moss is also important to the ecology. In a cool forest like Cathedral the Hypnum imponens provides a habitat that is favorable to the establishment of conifer seedlings, such as hemlock and yellow birch.

Hypnun imponens (Flat Plait-moss).

Moss reproduce by means of spores and require water for the whip-like tails of the sperm cell to swim to the female organs for fertilization. It is a fascinating process and I encourage you to look it up and learn more. It is way too complicated to explain in detail on a blog like mine.

Below is a moss that grows on rocks and is called Dicranum fulvum (Boulder Fork-moss)

Close up of Dicranum fulvum (Boulder Fork-moss)

The name refers to the forked peristome teeth. You can read an explanation of peristome on my previous post called Discovering Moss.

Dicranum montanum (Mountain Fork Moss)

This one is Dicranum montanum (Mountain Fork Moss) growing on the base of a tree. The Dicranum family have that windswept curly hair look. The tiny microscopic males are very hard to find among the larger females of this group. Robin Kimmerer in her wonderful book "Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses" says, "When a fertilized female produces spores, those spores are without gender. -- If a spore drifts to a new log that is unoccupied, it will germinate and grow up to be a new full-sized female. But should that spore fall onto a patch of Dicranum of the same species, it will sift down among the leaves of the existing females and become trapped there, where the female will control its fate. The female emits a flow of hormones which cause that undecided spore to develop into a dwarf male, a captive mate that will become the father of the next generation in the patriarchy."  There is certainly more going on in the moss world than meets the eye.

Below is another Dricanum called Dicranum scoparium (Broom fork moss) and is probably familiar to many of you because it's large size. It was one of the first ones that I learned to identify.

Dicranum scoparium (Broom fork moss)

Close up view of an individual Dicranum scoparium (Broom fork moss)

This next one I found interesting because it grows in the water but it lacks the beauty of the land loving mosses. Fontinalis novae-angliae (New England Water Moss) name refers to springs or "fountains."

Fontinalis novae-angliae (New England Water Moss)

The mats of Fontinalis novae-angliae are an important habitat for stream invertebrates and even a protective site for fish eggs. So even though it looks disgusting it is doing an important job in our streams.

Neckera pennata (Feathery Neckera)

This one seems to spiral around the tree and I believe Sue said that is only grows in old growth forests.

Neckera pennata (Feathery Neckera)

Rhodobryum ontariense (Ontario Rose Moss)

The generic name Rhodobryum translates into the common name, Rose Moss, and refers to the flower-like arrangement of the leaves and the red tinges.

Well, that was a pretty good sampling of the mosses I saw that weekend. I will save the others for another time because they were all so interesting. We saw Sphagnum fimbriatum (Ragged Hair peat moss), Sphagnum palustre (Common Spoon peatmoss),  Thuidium delicatulum (Delicate Fern Moss), Ulota Crispa (Cushion Moss),  Bartramia pomiformis (Apple Moss), and Leucobryum (White Cushion Moss).

This was a close up view of the outdoors, for the longer view please check out Outdoor Wedensdays.

Common Polypody (Polypodium virginianum)

Common Polypody (Polypodium virginianum) is one of the few evergreen ferns found in West Virginia. Like the Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) it had fronds that are once divided but the over all size of the Polypody is smaller than the Christmas Fern.

Each of the lobes has a prominent central vein with 4-10 pairs of sori on either side. These sori are found about half-way between the central vein and each margin. When they are immature the sori are greenish white and later they become redish brown as seen below. Only the upper to middle lobes have sori and won’t be found near the base of the frond near the root.

Common Polypody grows from wood underground rhizomes that can be found stretching horizontally on the ground. Each frond grows along the rhizome and makes the entire group look linear.

You can see the old knobs still on the rhizome from head fronds.

Below you can see the fiddlehead.

Liverworts

Again I have combined the fern foray with the Cathedral State Park walk to show some of the liverworts found in the area around Blackwater Falls.  I live in the eastern panhandle and it is relatively dry so I don't think we have as many different liverworts as found in Tucker County. But I could be wrong since I am just beginning to recognize this interesting plant. I think I have been mistaking it for moss. Liverworts are small delicate plants that are related to mosses and together they are referred to as bryophytes. They share a similar life cycle. Liverworts may have leaves but the leaves are not in spirals like a moss but most often are in two rows and flat like.  As I see and learn more names of liverworts I will learn more of their life history, otherwise it is all theory to me. I need to really see the parts to better understand what is going on so as I learn I will share more information. In the meantime I am enthralled by the variety that I am seeing.

I have been using "Outstanding Mosses and Liverworts of Pennsylvania and Nearby States" by Susan Munch as a guide. I don't currently know of any other guides that are affordable.  I have found that if I look at enough photos and read about them, I am then able to recognize one when I see it and have some idea where to look.

Bazzania trilobata (Common Bazzania liverwort)

The branching pattern into two equal pieces in a Y-shape has helped me to remember this liverwort. It is not like some of the other liverworts in that it almost grows upright forming a thick matt. They can be found in moist shaded ravines near a continuous supply of water like a creek. I think I have found it on a large rock near the Shennadoah River but I haven't confirmed that yet.

Nowellia curvifolia (Rusty Nowellia liverwort)

This liverwort forms a matt on old logs with it's reddish color in the cooler months of the year. In the summer it is green but since Cathedral State Park is high elevation and cool it was still red when I took this photo. Susan Munch wrote, "Though most leafes of liverworts are flatted in one plane, Nowllia leaves are so curved that they stand out around the stems".  Sue Studler told us that it was named after a nineteenth century British amateur bryologist.  

Closer look at Nowellia curvifolia (Rusty Nowellia liverwort)

Pallavicinia lyellii (Ribbonwort liverwort)

The thallus (leaf like structure) is about a fifth of an inch wide and an inch or two long. I think the little bumps on the midrib of the leaves are the egg producing organs. They grow on the banks of small shaded streams and on rotting logs across spring runs or seeps.

Scapania undulata (Water earwort)

This was growing on a rock at the edge of the stream that flowed through Cathedral State Park.

Closer view of Scapania undulata (Water earwort)

Conocephalum conicum (Alligator or snake skin liverwort)

We found this one along the river while on the fern walk. It is the biggest liverwort I saw that weekend.

Here you can see the snakeskin like look on this Conocephalum conicum.

So that's it for now until I find and learn more about this interesting little plant.