How to Make a Great Discovery in Biodiversity ... The Easy Way

The Maryland Biodiversity Project (MBP) is a web-based citizen-science effort that documents the occurrence of living things in Maryland. It's a great resource for information on biodiversity and photos of cool creatures and plants. It's also a way to feel like you're a great biological explorer and discoverer. The MBP displays specimen records with two geographic formats, counties and USGS quads. There are over 250 quads in Maryland and it's still fairly easy to claim a first MBP record for some quad, even for fairly common species. It's tougher to capture a state or county record, but it is certainly possible. Lately, finding first MBP quad records has been my principal source of narcissistic fuel (Just how pathetic is that?) I recently found the first record of Veratrum viride (Green False Hellebore) in Montgomery County, even though it would surprise no one that I found it there. Impressive, eh?

The plants shown below were found near the south bank of the Patuxent River near the Hipsley Mill Road access to the Patuxent River State Park. The site is part of the Woodbine Quad, which encompasses a large part of Howard County and a tiny sliver of Montgomery County. The plant has already been recorded in the Howard County part, but my "discovery" occurred in the sliver of Montgomery County. Since no one else has sent MBP a picture of Veratrum viridis from Montgomery County, mine will be the first.  Am I splitting hairs? You bet. I take my achievements where I can get 'em.

 

Fresh specimens of Green False Hellebore (5 May 2018)

The plant has large leaves with parallel veins and grows to 4 to 5 feet tall. The inflorescence is a terminal stalk with several branches of green flowers, each with six petals. It likes wet soils with no or sparse tree cover. So, you'll see it on banks of rivers and ponds, moist meadows and ditches along the highway. It ages badly and gets ugly pretty fast; the inflorescence topples over, the flowers start turning black, the leaves shred and turn yellow. The specimens in my regular stomping grounds are pretty much toast by mid July. Plastic surgery does not appear to be an option.

Senescent green flowers of Green False Hellebore (17 June 2018)

The family to which it belongs, the Melanthiaceae or Bunchflower Family, includes several attractive Maryland plants with large clusters of flowers, but only the comparatively plain Green False Hellebore is common. In fact, the other Maryland members of the family are scarce to endangered.

All parts of the Green False Hellebore are poisonous due to a large variety of noxious steroidal alkaloids, a feature characteristic of the family, sometimes also known as the Deadly Camuses. In large enough quantities, it can kill livestock ... horses, cattle, goats ... as well as people. Still, as is often the case, such toxins can have beneficial effects in the right dose. Extracts of the plant were once used to lower blood pressure, for instance, but getting the dose right was tricky, sometimes blood pressure was lowered to zero. There are now safer alternatives, such as cats. Native Americans apparently used the plant for various ritual purposes. For example, some tribes valued intestinal fortitude so much that they selected a new leader by feeding a bit of this plant to each candidate. The last one to vomit took the helm. I seem to recall that they first tried something akin to our Electoral College but found the vomit challenge to yield superior results. In contrast, our system requires strong stomachs of the electorate. Anthropology is so interesting.

Going, going... Green False Hellebore. Right: 24 June 2018. Left: 15 July 2018

First MBP Records for the Damascus Quad 
... From My Yard

Northern Ring-necked Snake (Diadophis punctatus) (Family Colubridae). A small snake known from all counties in Maryland but not yet from all USGS quads. This is the first record from the Damascus Quad. I found it behind my house one evening, just sort of hanging out. Immatures sometimes get into my basement, they are usually playing dead or are really dead, depending on whether I find them first or the cats do. They are fairly common under objects (logs, boards, leaf litter, etc.), especially where the soil is somewhat moist. They feed mainly on earthworms and salamanders. They don't bite when picked up, by they may defecate or produce a musky smell.

Butternut Woollyworm (Eriocampa juglandis) (Order Hymenoptera: Family Tenthredinidae). I spotted a bunch of white masses on the leaves of a small black walnut growing near our driveway. At first I thought this had to be the weirdest fungus ever.  However, while taking photos, I noticed that the masses were moving. I scraped away a bit of the waxy material to reveal caterpillar-like larvae. After a bit of investigation, I found that these were the wax-covered larvae of a sawfly that specializes on the leaves of walnut, butternut and, to some extent, hickory, all trees in the family Juglandaceae. The wax must serve as a defense against predators, but the metabolic costs of producing so much must be pretty high. Follow the links for pictures of exposed larvae and adults.

A Dictyopharid Planthopper (Rhynchomitra microrhina) (Order Hemiptera: Family Dictyopharidae) on a senescent milkweed leaf. This is also an MBP county record.

Common Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) (Aquifoliaceae: Holly Family). This is a small tree or bush (usually 6 to 10 feet tall, but can get larger) that tends to grow in moist, acidic soils. Like the more-familiar hollies, winterberries produce red berries and individual plants are either male or female. They differ in
having smooth-margined leaves that are dropped in the fall. With their persistent red berries, they provide a touch of color during the long brown winter. Several cultivars are popular ornametals.

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I have lots of other examples of unsurprising first MBP records for the state, county and USGS quads, most of which were "discovered" in my backyard. Imagine what could be found near you. Just stay away from my quads!

A Rat Snake Has a Hissy Fit

The Eastern Black Rat Snake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis) must be the most common snake in Maryland. They seem to turn up everywhere, even on the University of Maryland campus. During the first year of Bug Camp, a summer day camp for kids 7-12 years, we took campers to the bank of the Paint Branch River in search of bugs. We turned a log over and exposed a big rat snake that immediately coiled up and adopted a threatening posture. I was pleasantly surprised that the kids were more curious than alarmed, and, in fact, one camper seemed intent on going nose to nose with the reptile. Concerned that one might bite the other, and not wanting to make a scene, I casually slipped my canvas sweep net between the contestants and defused the situation. I then transported Mr. Snake to the thick brush. (Well, to be honest, I had a graduate student do it. We can always get more grad students.)

Adult black rat snakes feed on rodents and birds, which they kill by constriction, and bird's eggs, which they don't constrict. (Imagine the mess!) They're great climbers, and the bane of those who tend bird nest boxes. The snakes readily enter buildings, including barns and houses, in search of mice or a sheltered place to overwinter. I think I'm safe in saying that if you live in a rural setting and don't have a cat or two, you will have rat snakes... and you may have rat snakes anyway. They can get fairly long. The ones I see around my house are usually about 3 to 3.5 feet, but the world record is over 8 feet. They are non-venomous and considered harmless, but they certainly strike out if really annoyed.

Just before my most recent encounter, I was puttering around outside the house and wandered toward the utility garage, where the yard-working junk lives. The snake had just emerged from a small space at the bottom of the garage door and was clearly peeved that there was a witness to his transgression. I whipped out my smart phone camera to capture and amplify his embarrassment and to gather evidence for any subsequent legal proceedings.

A Black Rat Snake gets all up in my face. Click for video.

He got increasingly bent out of shape that I was documenting his bad behavior. He bunched up several bends behind his head, elevated his front end and began rocking it to and fro. Lacking a middle finger, he began twitching the tip of his tail and began blowing a raspberry by vibrating some dried leaves! Well, if he was going to escalate to hissy fit level, I would up the ante by switching to video. By posting his misadventure, it is my hope that the resulting public humiliation will make him and his ilk think twice before ignoring the no trespassing signs. The strategy seems to have worked ... so far.

Breaking, Entering ... and Murder!

We went to Annapolis (our state capital) to visit the William Paca House, a restored 18th century mansion and garden. We'd been in need of a history infusion for some time and this seemed to fit the bill. Getting there required more effort than I had anticipated ... navigating a ridiculous network of narrow one-way streets, being confused by arrows pointing to parking that never appeared, and dodging hobos, not always successfully. We eventually found a parking garage, drove in dizzying circles for awhile and eventually found a spot. Our limbs creaked and snapped as we unfolded from an hour in the stress position. We stepped out of the iron maiden and took our first deep breath of the Chesapeake Bay air. It had the familiar taste of a tourist trap ... old grease, dung, hot dogs and taffy. (Did you know that hotdog is Mitt Romney's favorite meat? He's a fan of hamburger, too, but he likes hotdog meat best.) We concluded that the miasma must be breathable to support so many hobos. So, we exhaled and continued our trek through Funkytown on foot.

It was hot.. red-brick-oven hot. We tripped on loose bricks, but a sticky coating that covered most things also grabbed the soles of our shoes and kept us from falling. Or maybe it was the pure dread of not being able to extract ourselves from the stickiness that kept us upright.  As we slogged uphill, we tried to imagine what it would've been like to stroll by the 18th century architecture without sticky soles and a zillion Japanese cars lining the streets. Not easy.

We eventually arrived at the William Paca House, climbed the stairs and encountered a sign on the door: "Closed due to Special Event." I glanced at Janet ... dark clouds were gathering. After restraining her from heaving a loose paver through Paca's window, we made our way back uphill (again?) to the parking garage. While we didn't get to see the big garden, there was some consolation in seeing this little one ... but not much.

How do they know it's from the pets?

We re-located our car, engaged the wipers to remove remaining bits and smears of hobo, and careened (tires a screechin') out of the stinky parking hell hole. I would have preferred to be disappointed closer to home, thank you.

Several hours after leaving the house, we returned, historically unfulfilled and with a mystery awaiting us. One of the finials that adorn the posts of the deck guard rail had been vandalized or had exploded spontaneously from within. There were pieces of wood scattered about and, even weirder, bits of green leaves. As is my habit, I first turned to supernatural explanations. Perhaps a fairy salad factory ...sweat shops, really .. had blown up?  While this was plausible, all the fairy salad factories I've seen were located under stones in grassy meadows. So, that explanation seemed improbable. Besides there were no fairy parts among the splinters.

No fairy bits.

I moved on to human agency as an explanation. Given the news of the day, it seemed possible that illegal immigrants had been hiding marijuana or coca leaves in our finial and a rival gang (MS13, perhaps) destroyed the stash in retribution for some act of disrespect. ("Hey, hombre, your shoe laces don't match your tattoos!") Could all our finials be at risk?  I found no evidence of stashes in other posts. It didn't seem reasonable for a drug gang to use only one finial. Three or four, maybe, but one? Incomprehensible.

So, what criminal of  nature might be responsible? There's probably a fairly long list, but a couple of winters ago, I caught a vandal red-headed in the act of desecrating our finials. A Pileated Woodpecker was walking along the top rail, inspecting each finial. At one point, he stopped and struck one with his bill, and I saw a piece fly off it. He acted like he didn't even care and move on to the next one. This psychopathic instigator is the prime suspect.

A Pileated Woodpecker contemplating the destruction of our deck.

Now, if we put psychopathy and malevolence aside, why would a woodpecker want to destroy a finial? Clearly, there was something desirable inside, and the leaves provide a great clue as to what it was ... the brood of a leaf-cutter bee. The finial had been decaying internally and this resulted in a chamber and a small connection to the outside. The bees use such cavities as nests. They make cup-like cells with semi-circular pieces of fresh leaves that they cut from nearby plants. The bee then places a pollen-nectar cocktail in each cell, lays an egg on it and builds some more.

Left: A leaf-cutter bee showing pollen accumulating on the abdomen (Source). Right: Rose leaves with circular pieces removed by a leaf-cutter bee (Source)

There are several species of leaf-cutter bees in Maryland, so I can't give a specific name to the bee who built the finial nest. The leaf-cutter bees are all placed in the family Megachilidae and they differ in several ways from the honey and bumble bees (Family Apidae). The megachilids are pretty much all solitary and carry their pollen under their abdomen, rather than on their hind legs, the way apid bees do. The megachilids also include mason bees and resin bees, each group getting its name from some aspect of how they build their nests. 

Nests of three types of megachilid bees (Source). Upper: Leaf-cutter bee. Cells lined and separated using pieces of fresh-cut leaves. Middle: Resin bee. Cells lined and separated by with resin obtained from plants. (One species has been known to use caulk, which turns out not to be good for the bee.) Lower: Mason bee. Cells lined and separated with mud. In all cases, the bees use pre-existing holes. Each cell is provisioned with a mixture of pollen and nectar and the female lays one egg per cell.

I never saw the finial bee, but I recently ran across some mason bees, Osmia sp., that were nesting in the spaces between the tongue & groove joints of some stall boards. These are probably safe from woodpeckers.

Mason bee (Osmia sp.)

We have not yet decided how to memorialize the brood of the finial bee, but we will probably seal up the desecrated chamber with wood filler and repaint. I think that will be our tribute. It's the least we can do. Amen.

More Spring Wild Flowers from Northern Montgomery County

Here are some more wild flowers. I just can't seem to get enough of them. Perhaps you feel the same?

Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) (Berberidaceae: Barberry Family) Native (Patuxent River State Park, May 5, 2018). This is probably the most recognizable herbaceous plant of the forests in eastern North America. The plant may appear and flower in May but the "apple" doesn't appear until June. The flower emerges from the stem and is typically hidden by the parasol-like leaves. When ripe, the fruit is yellow rather than apple red and is apparently edible and tastes of lemon. However, one must take care with this plant. It has a potent toxin called phyllopodotoxin that has a lot of folk and medical uses.  One of the main effects of the toxin is the suppression of cell division, primarily breaking DNA and inhibiting enzymes associated with DNA replication. Derivatives of the toxin are used in chemotherapy for various cancers. Asian Podophyllum hexandrum has been over-harvested in the wild for their podophyllotoxin. Attention is now shifting the the American species. Hopefully, we will be wiser in our use of these plants.

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"The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed." 
Yahweh to Jacob, Genesis 28

Jacob's ladder (Polemonium reptans) (Polemoniaceae: Phlox Family) Native (Patuxent River State Park, May 5, 2018). This is my first encounter with this plant. It likes rich, moist forest soils, typically near streams, and this describes the place I found these to a tee. The flowers were not fully open. It's common name refers to a passage from Genesis where Jacob, pausing in his escape from his brother Esau (of crossword-puzzle fame), dreams of a ladder between Earth and Heaven on which angels ascend and descend. Interpretations vary. Anyway, the alternating pinnate leaves reminded someone of a ladder, I guess, with roots in the earth and a heavenly cluster of blue flowers on top. There is also a 1990 movie of the same name that I remember as being pretty good, although confusing and sad. My recollection is that it was sort of an updated, complexified, cinematic version of Ambrose Bierce's short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. [As an aside ... even further aside ... I think that Bierce is a very underappreciated writer of weird and horror fiction, with An Occurrence... being the one most fit for High School AmLit anthologies. However, his short story Chickamauga is one of the most affecting horror stories I've read and thus unsuitable for public schools.] So, what has this got to do with Maryland, nature or flowers? Nothing really, but it's my blog and I will drone on about stuff as I please. So, there!

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Virginia Pennywort (Obolaria virginianica) (Gentianaceae: Gentian Family) Native (Rachel Carson Conservation Park: May 7, 2017). These are peculiar little plants that pop up in moist forest soils. They look like they could be the ornamental shrubs in the yard of a doll's house. The flowers and leaves are tightly compact (at least early on). The flowers are white to pink and the leaves are green to purplish. The leaves are small and round and so resemble a penny.

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Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum) (Geraniaceae: Geranium Family) Native. One of 10 species of wild geraniums that one might encounter in Maryland, according to the Maryland Biodiversity Project.This a fairly common sight in the spring and early-summer woods of central Maryland: lilac-colored flowers projecting up to 2 feet with large palmate, deeply dissected leaves. If you can't get to the woods, there are possibilities for observing some kind of wild geranium closer to home ... in your lawn or garden, for example.

Left: Carolina Cranesbill or Carolina Geranium (Geranium carolinianum) Native (UMD Campus: May 15, 2018). Small plant with unimpressive pint-to-white flowers and three- or five-lobed palmate leaves, similar to those of G. maculata. Inset: ripening fruit of the same plant (May 18). Right: Doves-foot Cranesbill (Germanium molle). Introduced from Mediterranean Region (UMD: 5-15-18). These have tiny pink flowers with each petal deeply notched, thus giving the impression of having 10 petals. I guess the common name refers to the three-toed lobes that line the edge of the leaf, but a Google Image search of "dove foot" makes me think that someone was NWI ... naming while intoxicated.

The term "cranesbill" refers to the shape of the fruit, which looks like the head of a crane ... The NWI guy, again? ... The "head" is at the base and is composed of five seed capsules (mericarps), each with one seed. The "beak" projects upward and is composed of five long projections (awns) that are attached to each other along their margins. The "beak" is actually a catapult-like device that explosively propels the seeds once has dried to a critical point. It sort of works like the capsule of a touch-me-not or jewelweed.

There are three different approaches to "explosive" seed dispersal in the Geraniaceae. In all species depicted above, the "explosion " launches the seeds alone over 1.5 feet. There can be secondary dispersals by ants or water (the seeds of G. maculata are denser than water and tend to stay where they land, but those of G. molle are less dense and are probably transported by rain run-off.) Another mechanism launches the capsules with the seeds in them. The last mechanism launches all of the components of each of the five parts. This occurs in Red-stemmed Storksbill (Erodium cicutarium), a non-native plant also found in Maryland. When the "bill" dries, the half of the awn closest to the mericarp coils into a cork-screw shape. The seed-mericarp-awn apparatus (below) sits on the soil until it rains, when the awn soaks up water and begins to uncoil. This process essentially drills the mericarp into the soil, and the mericarp has slanted projections that keep it from backing out again. Even "weeds" can be cool. For more details follow this link.

http://idtools.org/id/table_grape/weed-tool/key/GrapeSeedKey/Media/Images/Entity_key_images/Ero_cicC139-09.jpg

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Rue Anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides) (Ranunculaceae: Buttercup Family) Native.The clover-like leaves that form a sort of understory to the anemones are those of Violet Woodsorrel (Oxalis violacea) (Oxalidaceae: Woodsorrel Family) Native.  Rachel Carson Conservation Park: May 11, 2018

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Showy Orchid (Galearis spectabilis) (Orchidaceae: Orchid Family) Native. Rachel Carson Conservation Park (April 29, 2017). These orchids occur in mooist deciduous forests in much of eastern North American, usually near streams or ponds. Each plant has two large and rather thick basal leaves that embrace a central stalk that bears several flowers. So, there are about six plants in this cluster. Each flower consists of a pink to purple "helmet" and a white "beard". The helmet is composed of three sepals on the outside and two petals on the inside. The beard is one petal and has a nectary at the top.  Bumble bees are a primary pollinator of this species. They land on the white beard and drink the nectar.

Spring Wildflowers (etc.) from Patuxent River State Park

It seems that spring has finally arrived in central Maryland. So, I ventured out this past weekend to see what was blooming in the northwestern part of Patuxent River State Park in northern Montgomery County. Here is some of what I saw. It was a very pleasant day and I felt reinvigorated.

Yellow trout lily (Erythronium americanum) (Liliaceae: Lily Family) Native. Commonly encountered in relatively moist woodland soils, frequently near streams. They can occur in dense aggregations, where most plants are simply small green leaves that don't ever seem to send up flowers.  There is also a species with a white flower, Erythronium albidium, but I have yet to encounter this one. The name "trout" lily is said to come from the splotchy color pattern on the leaves that resembles the color of some trout.  OK...whatever.

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Bellworts (Uvularia)

There are five species of bellworts in the world, all of which occur in the eastern and southern United States. Four species occur in Maryland, and the two pictured here are the ones most likely to be encountered in the central part of the state. They belong to the family Colchicaceae (Meadow Saffron Family), which is closely related to the Liliaceae. The family has a nearly world-wide distribution but Uvularia is the only genus native to the U.S.

Sessile-leaved bellwort (Uvularia sessilifolia) Native. The species gets its name from its "sessile" leaves, meaning the leaves arise directly from the stem rather than by a stalk (petiole). Two specimens from Patuxent River State Park (4/28/18)

Perfoliate bellwort (Uvularia perfoliata) Native. In this species, the stem passes through the leaf. Specimen from Rachel Carson Conservation Park (4/29/17)

 Not bellworts, but in the same family...

Colchicum sp. Non-native ornamental, not invasive. There are several species and varieties of meadow saffron that are used as ornamental plants. Most of these bloom in the autumn, but some bloom in the spring and are called "crocuses". However, these are neither true crocuses nor true saffron. Anyway, I saw a lawn full of these in Damascus, MD last year and stopped to take some pictures with my first (and so far only) smart phone. These were only the second and third photos I had taken using the phone (virtually all of the photos on this blog are taken with a phone).  The people driving by kept slowing down to see what I was doing and the people behind them would honk at them to get moving again.  I guess a guy taking pictures of flowers in a lawn can be a big deal in a small town.

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Small woodland evergreen plants. Left: Downy rattlesnake plantain (Goodyera pubescens) (Orchidaceae: Orchid Family). Native. A native orchid characterized by a low cluster of dark green leaves with distinctive reticulated pattern of veins. We will have to wait until June to see the long stalk terminating in an elongate cluster of compact white flowers. Right: Spotted wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata) (Ericaceae: Heath Family) Native. Tapering dark green leaves with sparsely toothed margins and a broad white midvein with small white lateral veins. This specimen has a stalked seed capsule from last year. Patuxent River State Park (4/28/18)

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 Every garden has its serpent

Eastern garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) (Family Colubridae). Native. Patuxent River State Park (4/28/18)

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Narrow toothwort (Cardamine angustata) (Family Brassicaceae: Mustard Family) Native. There are several species of toothworts in Maryland, and several other congeners called "bittercresses." Flowers each with four pink to white petals clustering near the end of long, erect stem. There are two kinds of leaves: broad basal leaves, each with three deeply lobed leaflets, and smaller, thin leaves higher on the stem. Specimens like those on the left were found growing on a dry woodland slope, and specimens like those on the right were growing in a less-wooded flood plain. Patuxent River State Park (4/28/18). 

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Yellow Corydalis or yellow fumewort (Corydalis flavula) (Family Papaveraceae: Poppy Family) Native.  I found large stands of this interesting plant on wooded slopes in Patuxent River State Park. To me, the leaves look like those of parsley. The yellow flowers are tiny, but the four petals have a complicated arrangement that kind of resemble jewelweed (touch-me-nots). But these are just superficial similarities. They are annuals and must germinate very early in the season to reach maturity so quickly. (4/28/18)

 WARNING!

Yellow corydalis is a lovely and harmless native plant. However, a close East Asian relative, the incised fumewort (Corydalis incisa), is an emerging invasive species. Its leaves are similar to those of yellow corydalis but the flowers are more tubular and purplish, not yellow. Its invasive potential was revealed by the discovery of 39 populations in the Bronx River Preservation Area in New York, but it has since been reported in several widely separated locations, including Montgomery County, Maryland.  It has the potential to spread throughout the eastern U.S. For more information about this plant, see this Weed Risk Assessment from the Maryland Department of Agriculture.

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Clubmosses (Division Lycopodiophyta, Family Lycopodiaceae). The clubmosses diverged very early in the evolution of land plants and still have the look of a "moss" about them. There are about 13 species in Maryland, with two of the most common depicted here. Left: Flat-branched tree clubmoss (Dendrolycopodium obscurum). Native. Right: Southern ground cedar (Diphasiastrum digitatum). Native. Forest floor, Patuxent River State Park (4/28/18)

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Left: Dwarf ginseng (Panax trifolium) (Araliaceae: Ginseng Family). Native. A small, common relative of the larger and much rarer American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius). American ginseng is increasingly rare due to habitat degradation and overharvesting for the Asian market. Right: Virginia spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) (Montiaceae) Native. This is one of the most common of the spring wild flowers in our area. It was in bloom everywhere in Patuxent River State Park last weekend. The blooms are highly variable in color, ranging from white to pink, with or without pink radiating stripes. Each flower usually has five petals, but the one shown above has seven.

A Presidents' Day Diversion: A Photo Travelogue of James Buchanan's Wheatland

 

Seeking knowledge and adventure, we traveled to Wheatland, the home of James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States. On paper, he seemed highly qualified for the job; he had been Ambassador to England and Russia, a US Representative, Senator and Secretary of State. Yet, he turned out to be a rather disappointing president. (It's hard to imagine the American people could make such a mistake!). So, off we went to Lancaster, PA!

This photo makes our visit official.

They put out the welcome mat for us.

 

The front door of Wheatland. It's maintained just as it was in the 1860s!

The back door of Wheatland.

Buchanan was always concerned about safety.

He was a lawyer, you know.

He was not much into gardening.

I imagined the President stacking these bricks.

He was ahead of his time in some ways.

Buchanan's Mutt Mitt is still in use today!

We were promised a frog pond in the pamphlet, but there were no frogs and no ponds. I settled for this odd ice house/smoke house combo.

Traffic in front of Wheatland. Cool convertible, dude.

The President was imaginative in parking his carriage.

The number of holes is proportionate to wealth and prestige. We didn't realize these were non-functional. Oopsie!

The gift shop had these tiny coffins. I thought there might be bits of Buchanan in them but was afraid to look.

Nature in Fragments: Vixen Screaming, Butt Rot Weeping and A Winter Centipede Mystery

Greetings, readers. It is I, A Maryland Naturalist, writing to you from the Information Technology Center of the AMN compound deep in the heart of Maryland. Today we offer a Whitman's Sampler from our vast archives. Please consume each chosen item completely. Do not return nibbled remainders to the blog. That behavior is beyond impolite; it leaves an unwholesome and sticky mess for those who visit after you. Be considerate.

The Vixen's Scream

There are a couple red foxes living near us, and it's always a treat to see them. They usually seem to be in a hurry to get somewhere, but it's hard to know what's going in those little red heads. Our house is built on a slope that descends to a stream. We have a great view of the woods on the opposite bank and the animals that traverse it. One day I saw a small herd of deer running through the woods paralleling the stream and a fox on our side keeping pace with them. The fox seemed to be having a great time. I wonder, did he think he was in a race? Was he lonely and imagining he was part of the herd? Did he have delusions of predatory grandeur? Mysterious creatures.

This beautiful fox was visiting our bird feeder, more for the seed than for the birds it seems. Janet, m'lady, saw him and watched him from the deck that overlooks the feeder. He looked up and she captured this photo. The fox was not overly concerned by her presence and continued his seed eating.

We hear foxes more than we see them. They make a variety of noises ... barks, howls and screams... usually at night. The sounds are rather high pitched and could be pretty eerie if you didn't know what they were. The vocalization we hear most often is called the vixen's scream. It seems to be a general purpose social call used frequently by vixens during the mating season but by both sexes for territorial or social encounters all year. One fox seemed particularly head up about something on the evening of November 24, so I recorded it. Click on the image of the trees to hear it.

Click here to listen to the vixen's scream.

Yet Another Case of Weeping Butt Rot

The polypores are a large group of basidiomycete fungi that almost always grow on living or newly dead wood. They include many of the fungi that produce shelves, brackets and conks. The name polypore refers to the numerous perforations on the fruiting body.

Upper left: Various stages of conks of Inonotus dryadeus, the Oak Butt Rot Fungus, Weeping Conk or Weeping Polypore. Upper right and lower: A young conk "weeping" a viscous amber fluid.

I mentioned the butt rot fungus, Inonotus dryadeus, in an earlier post (Pick Your Poison, 8/31/17), noting that the appearance of conks around a tree indicates that the structural integrity of the tree is probably compromised and that it may be prone to tipping over in high winds or during excessive administrative bloviation. I couldn't find a young conk for my first post, so didn't illustrate why it's called the weeping polypore. However, I later found one on the University of Maryland campus (see pictures above).  Note the numerous pores with viscous amber fluid oozing from them. I haven't found an explanation for the weeping, although it could be experiencing remorse for killing a beautiful old tree. Actually, I suspect this is the fungal version of crocodile tears.

The conks on the upper left are of different ages. The very dark ones are old and weathered and just don't understand the young whipper snappers, who are constantly whining about something or other. Snow flakes! The young ones think that the old ones are dried up and useless. Turns out that the young ones are wrong about the old ones. I recently ran across a research paper in ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering in which the author shows that the old, dark, dried-up conk of I. dryadeus is remarkably good at pulling petroleum, certain insecticides and other pollutants from water ... like a selective sponge. This ability is apparently related to both the physical structure and chemical composition of the conk. Once the fungus is saturated, it can be dried out and burned. So, it's possible that butt rot conks could be used in sopping up oil spills. You just never know.

A Winter Centipede Mystery

No sane entomologist would look for bugs in the depths of winter. This is where I have an advantage. During a March about a decade ago, I was knocking around in a woodlot in northern Montgomery County looking for snow scorpionflies. They were there a few weeks before, but I was having no luck this time, probably too late in the season. So, on a lark, I decided to turn some logs. Upon rolling one particularly rotten one, I glimpsed several large, red centipedes escaping at high speed into the surrounding frost-coated leaf litter. This was remarkable for a couple reasons. Centipedes aren't generally known for their winter high jinks and, even at a pleasant temperature, they don't tend to hang out in groups. I guessed that this was probably an undocumented behavior of Scolopocryptops sexspinosus, a rather large (up to 8 cm or 3 inches) orange-red woodland centipede that's found in much of the eastern and central U.S. during late summer and fall. Still, something seemed "off". They just didn't seem right... not the right time of year, not orange enough, not sure.

Scolopocryptops sexspinosus collected in October 2017 from Patuxent River State Park in Montgomery County.

Later I learned of a related centipede, Scolopocryptops peregrinator, another Maryland native. It's been collected only a few times, but the known specimens were found in late fall and early spring. Its existence wasn't officially recognized by science until the early 1950s from populations near Charlottesville, Virginia and Woodside, Maryland. Could this be what I saw running around in the cold?

This explanation seems unlikely at first blush. Scolopocryptops peregrinator is described as being about half the length of S. sexspinosus and yellow rather than orange-red. A couple weeks ago, I found a S. peregrinator in my backyard under a log I had used as a chopping block and several a week later. They all match the technical description. However, my myriapodological colleague Dr. Rowland Shelley has surmised that this centipede may be active during the winter, when biologists tend to stay indoors, and so they are rarely collected rather than being truly rare. Anyway, given that S. peregrinator is a little yellow fellow, it stilled seemed likely that the big red centipedes I saw 10 years ago were S. sexspinosus.

A specimen of Scolopocryptops peregrinator collected in early December 2017. This is probably the first photo of a live specimen. Thanks to Anthony Nearman for taking the picture as I attempted to wrangle the animal into a photogenic position on the back of my extremely dry hand. Centipedes don't like to have their pictures taken.

Lately, the plot has thickened. I was looking through a collection of centipedes and other critters caught in a series of year-round pitfall traps from the infamous Leakin Park of Baltimore. The preservation was not great (colors were bleached out), but the samples contain S. sexspinosus as well as a different and equally large species that looks like a giant S. peregrinator. So, is this a new species or, perhaps, a population of giants? My best guess at the moment is that the known specimens of S. peregrinator are actually juveniles. If they turn from yellow to red as they mature, this could explain my observation a decade ago and the existence of big "unknown" centipedes in Baltimore. It also means that the adult has never been described. [And, no, I don't think the size of the centipedes is related to unusual food sources in Leakin Park.]

To make the season a little more interesting, I've made a resolution to solve this winter centipede mystery this year. Stay tuned...