Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park

I had never heard of Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park but I wanted a campground close to Zion NP for a few days so I checked it out online when I was planning my trip.  I was thrilled to see that is the home of the Coral Pink Sand Dunes Tiger Beetle found no where else in the world.  Tiger Beetles are named for their fierceness like the 12 Spotted Tiger Beetle common to my area. There are a little more than 100 species in the US.

This tiger beetle, Cicindela albissima is one of the rarest insects in the United States and has been on the Endangered Species list since 1996.  It has one of the smallest geographic ranges of any insect and is only found within a small protion of the seven-mile long Coral Pink Sand Dunes ecosystem.  Armed with lots of information about this beetle I really had no trouble finding several but one does need to know what to look for. The photo below is truer to the real color.

Besides the Tiger Beetle the sand dunes here are very beautiful to look at. The one draw back for me is that there is a lot of off road vehicles allowed in the park in restricted areas but the sound is still everywhere.  During the week it wasn't so bad. It is such a popular activity and at times I too wished I had access to one so I could explore more. It is one of those issues that give conflict with my own values and thoughts.

Here area a couple of lizzards I found.  I think the first one is Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) and the second is a Sagebrush lizzard.

I even found a jumping spider in this desert but I haven't figured out what species it is.  If someone had asked me if there were jumping spiders here I probably would have said no, but I learned something new every day.

Here is a Juniper Titmouse I spotted in the campground.

One on afternoon as I was walking along the road I saw this Striped Whipsnake crossing the road.

I think it has a very pretty head.

If you have trouble finding a campsite at Zion National Park I recommend this state park near by.

Red Milkweed beetle (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus)

Red milkweed beetles (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus) are one of my favorites and I think they along with weevils should be featured in a Disney movie. Although it may have to be X-rated because they are forever mating.

They are in the beetle family Cerambycidae, the longhorn beetles. Actually they have long antennae and not horns. Anyway, I just read that the binomial genus (Tetraopes) and species (tetrophthalmus) names are both from the Latin for “four eyes”. Quoting Wikipedia, “As in many longhorn beetles, the antennae are situated very near the eye - in the red milkweed beetle, this adaptation has been carried to an extreme: the antennal base actually bisects the eye.” Now that fact just blew me away, since I have been looking at and photographing these cute little guys for years and never noticed. But there you have it. Look at this photo below and you can see that the round black eye is cut in half with the antenna in the middle. I just wonder what it is actually seeing out of that split eye.

They feed on milkweed as the common name suggests and get the benefits of the toxins that the milkweed provides as does Monarch butterflies.

The bright red and black colors announce to the predators that they are yucky to eat and hopefully they will be left to live another day. This advertising is called aposematic.

A couple days ago I found one that was crawling up a skinny stem and I actually had the quickness of mind to start recording it as a movie. You can see how interesting its tiny legs work as they climb up the stem and how when it gets to the end of the leaf you can see it debating whether to fly or take another route. It’s wings almost open up and then the decision is made to turn around and take another route.

 Hope you enjoy these insects as much as I do.

Butterfiles and Weevils

The second week in May, the Naturalist (Jane) and I drove down to Canaan Valley to attend a couple training sessions and the Wildflower Pilgrimage. On the way we made several stops to collect (photograph) butterflies. Our first stop was at the Shale Barren where we found Juniper Hairstreak in the past. This day we were looking for Columbine Duskywings. We found lots of Columbine but I think we were too late for the butterfly.

I did find this nice little male Zabulon (Poanes zabulon) nectaring on Multiflora Rose.

And here is a female Zabulon that I caught to take a photo. Isn’t it amazing how they can hang upside down clinging to practically nothing?

I also found a Question Mark butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis). Most people think you need to see the “?” on the underside but you can actually look at the top and know it is a Question Mark by looking for the dash like spot I have pointed out. The Comma (Polygonia comma) does not have this; it only has the three spots. For the most part this works well but I’m sure there might be exceptions as there are to almost everything in nature.

I found a weevil cling to the grass and I think it is a Lixus concavus commonly known as a Rhubarb weevil. I'm rather fond of weevils so I took a special interest in this one.

I couldn’t get a good photo so I decided to pick it up and it immediately decided to play dead and flopped over onto its back.

After a couple of photos I flipped it over and it just laid there for a moment and then eventually decided all was save and got up on all 6 legs and began to move about.

It has scales on it that give it a powdery look and actually do come of easily.

Late summer walk in the woods

My latest trip up to Sleepy Creek WMA was one of variety. It was like I was finding one of everything. At the hair pin turn I stopped to see what was on the Joe Pye Weed and was rewarded with this Great Spangled Fritiliary (Speyeria cybele).  I have photos of it showing the back side but I liked this one showing it's eyes the best. They are a member of the Brush-footed butterflies, family Nymphalidae. It lookes like it only has 2 pair of legs but that brisly looking stuff under its face is the 3rd pair that it gets it's name from. You can also see it's proboscus dipping into the nectar of the flower. This is a large butterfly sinilar in size to a Swallowtail.

Along the side of the road I spotted some early blooming asters.  These are Aster schreberia at least that is what I think they are. It is a light purple flower with a yellow center that turns redish and that is how my field guide described them.  This one had one of those little green sweat bees (Halictidae) feeding on it.

Crossing the road was a Buck moth caterpillar (Helimeuca maia). I usually see a couple of these a year, in fact I see the catpillar more often than the moth. This is definately a caterpillar you don't want to pick up.  In David Wagner's book, Caterpillars of Eastern North America, he wrote, "Stings that I received on the back of my hand from a Buck Moth caterpillaer were visible 10 days later...."  You got to give them credit though, they do give fair warning.

There were lots of yellow composits but for the life of me I cannot really tell one from another.  But I did see Dogbane that was old and beginning to go to seed and of course it had this lovely Dogbane Beetle (Chrysochus auratus) chomping away. That reflective color is really amazing isn't it.  It is missing one of its beaded shaped antennae, a type that is common to beetles. Day flying insects have shorter antenea because they can also see well, unlike the night insects that need to "feel" their way in the dark.

Speeking of night flyers I found this moth hanging upside down, I guess it was trying to look like a dead leaf but not really succeeding. It is female Imperial Moth (Eacles imperialis). Looks like she had a rough night.
 

I thought it was dead and when I touched it she dropped to the ground which was really a better hiding place because she just blended in with the few old and dead leaves.

As I walked up to this large mushroom I noticed the nauceous odor and the insects buzzing around it. I guess they thought it was rotting meat. I had seen this one before but for the life of me I couldn't remember what it was so I took this photo and went back to the car to look it up. 

It looked similar to a few others but still I wasn't sure so I got out a small trowel I use for collecting mushrooms and trotted back to dig it up and sure enought there was the answer: Carrot-foot Amanita (Amanita daucipes).  It even had the ring that had fallen off the stalk laying at the bottom near the base just as describe in my field guide. With a root like that it was easy to stick back into the ground.

Of all the species I saw that day this one was my favorite.  Like Luna Moths, the Praying Mantis seems special to me.  There are several species of mantis in my area but I think this one is a young European Mantis (Mantis religiosa) the one that the common name comes from.  I say it is young because you can see it's wings are not fully developed. I imagine it saying, "Oops, sorry, I didn't mean to bite your head off".  I think that would make a nice card don't you?

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Afternoon at Sleepy Creek

The heat dome over the east coast was getting to me so I drove up to Sleepy Creek Wildlife Management area. It is about 5 degrees cooler and at that point every degree counted. Besides I hadn’t been up there for a while and I was hoping to find some butterflies.

Great Spangled Fritiliary

Driving down the dirt road toward the lake I was finding a lot of flowers in bloom but not as many butterflies as I expected. So since I am trying to learn summer wildflowers I took the opportunity to look at them without being distracted. First up was Spotted Knapweed.

Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea maculosa)

Goldenrod (Solidago juncea) and

I also noticed this goldenrod bunch gall. Usually I don’t notice them until the fall.

Below is Yellow stem Agrimony (Agrimonia gryposepala)

Agrimony (Agrimonia gryposepala)

St. Johns Wort (Hypericum perforatum)

Deptford Pink (Dianthus armeria)

But most impressive of all was this tiny flower called Yellow Goat's Beard (Tragopogon pratensis).

It doesn’t look impressive here but take a look at the seed head below. It was like Gulliver in the Lilliputian world of dandy lions only it isn’t a dandy lion.

Here is a few of the seeds.

As I drove on down toward the lake I passed a lot of White Sweet Clover (Melilotus alba) at least I think that is what this is.

White Sweet Clover (Melilotus alba)

Finally at the like is where I found most of the butterflies.

Spicebush Swallowtail

Of course there were some nice Odonata as well.

A couple of damselflies mating.

The female is in the back and lifted her ovipositor up to collect the sperm from the male.

I'm not sure what this dragonfly is because it just hatched and in a stage called "teneral". The wings are shinny and still soft which makes them very vulnerable at this time because they fly so slow.

Calico Pennant (Celithemis elisa)

Dogbane Beetle (Chrysochus auratus)

Here is a delightful youtube video about Dogbane beetles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dtUXO90MHA

On my way home I stopped to pick some wineberries. Yummy!

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