Seven Secrets of a Biologist

I recently noticed some damage to one of my shrub dogwoods (Cornus hesseyii Garden Glow).  Several leaves on one stem were completely destroyed.

See?

As a biologist and a gardener I wanted to know what was causing the damage.

Secret 1 - Biologist are ALWAYS curious about the natural world.

I scratched my head a bit and recalled that some leaf damaging insects will stay on the plant but will hide under the leaves.  So I looked under a half intact leaf and found these - Caterpillars!

Secret 2 - Biologist look under things.

Well, that didn't tell me what they ARE.  So I hit the reference books.

Secret 3 - Biologists have LOTS of reference books.

No luck in the books.  Caterpillars can be really hard to identify.  First off they can look different at different ages.  Second off there are few good identification guides.  Third off the guides organize caterpillars by family, not by shape or color.  It's a logical way to group them but when the book has around 450 pages it's not easy to flip through looking at all the images.

Secret 4 - Biologist look through all 450 pages anyway.

So I turned to the next best resource - one that can sometime be easier to look through.  The Internet.  I Googled several things - white and black caterpillar, white and yellow and black caterpillar, and such - before I hit on the right search - Dogwood caterpillars.

Secret 5 - Biologists know how to use Google.

Secret 6 - Biologist are persistent in their pursuit of knowledge.

Bingo!

These are Macromphytis tarsatus.  Say that five times fast.  Heck, say that once!  They are the larval stage of the Dogwood Sawfly.

See?  They aren't even caterpillars!  No wonder I couldn't find them in my books!  Caterpillars are larva of butterflies and moths.  These guys will grow up to be a type of wasp.

So what's the last secret?  Remember yesterday's mystery caterpillar?

I couldn't find it either in my books or by internet searches so I sent the image out to a group of butterfly people (the MassLeps listserve) and asked.

Secret 7 - Biologists ask a friend, an acquaintance or a complete stranger who is an expert in the field.

This guy is a Tobacco Budworm (Heliothis virescens) and it will grow up to be a drab looking moth.  These caterpillars vary in color.  It's possibly this color because the flowers of the snapdragon are red and it's eaten some of that pigment.

So there you go.  The Seven Secrets that separate Biologists from normal people.

Do normal people write blogs about caterpillars?

Just Because

After four days of much needed rain the sun came out this morning.  The windows are open.  I'm between semesters and it seemed like a great day to be out in the garden.

When the weather allows I drink my first cup of coffee while wandering the garden.  This morning as I was looking for spaces to put some irises I spooked up a rabbit.  It was hiding in this area, under the spirea and liatris.  I would never have spotted it if it hadn't moved.

[Why irises?  I just heard about a place called Rainbow Iris Farm that has some really unusual colors.  I don't usually like bearded iris but these beauties looks really funky and I'm willing to try them out.]

Then I went out to weed.  I like weeding.  It's relaxing.  See plant.  Identify plant.  Weed or don't.  Here's a dragonfly that was sheltering in my Mexican Feather grass - probably still cold from the four days of 60 something weather.

I was also deadheading.  I like to deadhead.  See plant. Decide if I like the looks of the seedheads or if I want more of that plant.  Deadhead, or don't.

I'm leaving the seedheads on my Penstemon digitalis Mystica because I like the look of them.

These seedheads are staying because I want more of this plant.  Can you recognize it?  That's right.  It's parsley.  I'll get more if the Goldfinches leave me any seeds!

I was going to deadhead these snapdragons but I looked closer and saw...  caterpillars?  Red caterpillars?  I'm working on identifying these guys but I don't know what they are, yet.  The snapdragons they are feeding on bloomed with a dark, velvety red so the color may be deceptive.  

Deadheading requires a slow and steady hand when working in my garden.  I have a bountiful bee collection.

And butterflies!  I'm slowly building up this population. At least two American Ladies were flitting around the butterfly bush and I saw (but didn't photograph) cabbage white butterflies and one rough looking Monarch.  I bet there will be more once the day really heats up!

And none of these shows the sounds of the birds flitting around the garden (including a very fussy fledgling Robin being fed by busy parents) or the sight of a garter snake slipping into the bushes as I turn the corner.  Or the neighbor stopping to admire the gardens and comment on how much work I must put into them.

Work?  This is PLAY.  I'd rather be doing this than work any day!

Miscellaneous Monday

It's another Monday on the Edge.  It's almost the end of the semester so I'm really busy with my teaching duties.  The final will be next Monday and then - BREAK!  Woo-hoo.  Bet you didn't know teachers looked forward to the end of the semester nearly as much as the students do, did you?

Between the end of the semester busys and the high winds we've been having for the past week I haven't been keeping up with this blog so here's a few tidbits to tide you over until the semester ends and the winds die down so I can get back outside with my camera.

The most disturbing sound ever.  Sorry, I didn't record it but this little thing is the cause of a lot of trouble up here.

It's the caterpillar of the winter moth (Operophtera brumata).  It's a European species that has become a major invasive pest here in New England.  The numbers of these brats are astonishing.  They can defoliate a good sized tree in less than a week (my neighbors beautiful 20 year old weeping cherry.  She noticed the caterpillars on Friday, called a company to come spray the tree and by the time they arrived on Monday it was too late - the tree had no leaves left.  They don't go after most trees this bad but they do a lot of damage).  I found this one on the sidewalk.  Did I mention it's been windy?

I've seen birds with beaks full of these guys, carrying them back to feed nestlings but I guess the caterpillars beat most birds.  We're only now getting Warblers (most of whom eat insects) coming through and it's still early in the nesting season so not too many baby birds to be fed.

The sound?  Oh, yeah.  There are so many of these guys that when I walked back into the woods last week I could HEAR them chewing.  Very disturbing.

Three dollar orchid.  This is the bloom from an orchid I bought at a big box store for $3.  It had quit blooming and was on sale.  The flash washes the color out of bit but if you look at the flower to the left you can see a bit of greenish color.  That's the color of the petals.  Very cool looking.

I noticed that both this Phalenopsis and another one I have blooming seem to have little sparkles on the petals.  I'm not sure what causes this but it's pretty cool looking.  I guess this is the effect they're trying to replicate when they spray glitter onto the bracts of Poinsettias at Christmas.

Not a plant thing but....  The Husband has a cousin who left this 120 gallon fish tank at his parents' house for years and years.  Finally (ok, so it only took asking) we convinced him to let me have it and voila!  Yes, it's dirty and yes the stand is showing some wear and tear but after some work it's a free (well, it cost us about $100 to rent a truck to move the tank -it's four feet by two feet by two feet - and the stand) large tank.  I will put plants in it.  Probably not till next winter, after outdoor gardening season is over for the year.  This will make a nice indoor water garden.

And now for some pretty pictures.  Just because.

Tulip is Tinka (from Brent and Becky) and the shrub is a Blue Mist Fothergilla gardenii

Cute little rabbit under the Epimediums. Excuse the soaker hose.

Remember the conjoined tulip buds?  They formed two normal sized and normal shaped blooms that share a stem.  This is Hollandia and is from Messelaar's

This tulip was advertised as a 55-mph tulip.  I prefer the close up where you can see all the different colors.  This is called El Nino and is from Brent and Becky's Bulbs

This is just a nice red tulip.  I think it's called Cum Laude (unless the purple one is Cum Laude in which case this one is Hollandia.  I didn't label them.  Bad Gardener, no compost!) and it came from Messelaar's (which is just up the road from me.  So much fun to wander in and select my own bulbs.  So easy to go overboard doing it).

I like the detail inside tulip blooms.  Too bad I haven't been able to get inside the purple blooms (did I mention the winds up here, it's very hard to photograph long stemmed flowers in the wind).  The inside of those has blues and greens.  Very neat.

Wish me luck on the final exam.  Writing and grading it, I mean.  I give it next Monday.