Monthly Archives: June 2015

TURTLES – continued

June 25, 2015Uncategorizedclydeccedm

In April two years ago I was cleaning up flower beds when I came across Jacob and Terry in their “Honey Moon” bower in the Vinca patch. Note: the “dimple” does work. Later in the summer I found Miss Terry digging a nesting hole near the fish pond, unfortunately a tropical storm hit our area and washed the site out.

In September of the year I was scouring G3A for snakes for the Zoo. We were scheduled to visit the NN Master Gardeners Go Green,Save Green Expo . I had captured a beautiful Ring Neck Snake.

As I was driving home I spotted something on the road. You guessed it. It was a large male Box Turtle headed for the I-64 embankment. I pulled off the road at the same time a truck was coming towards us. I waved frantically and he stopped. I grabbed the turtle and took him home. He had the vivid yellow coloration I have ever seen in the species. I named him “SMAUG the Magnificent” after the dragon in the Hobbit. He also went to the Expo. Both reptiles were the hit of the show and both were returned to G3A.

Last year I was raking up a drift of leaves by my backyard gardening work table, I had the help of one of our resident Gray Catbirds. He sat fearlessly on the table and as I uncovered an insect or a bug he would fly down and grab it. About half way through I uncovered Jacob in the leaf mold. I gave him a quick dip in the fish pond and fed him a night crawler worm. I finishing up raking when to my utter delight I uncovered our first ever Grand Child turtle. It was a little larger than a quarter. I guess Jacob and Miss Terry must have figured out the correct geometry. I took it inside and showed it to Miss Ellie who again fell in love with the little tyke. She decided to name it “Bee Tee” (Baby Turtle).

I fixed up a temporary home and took it to show the Poquoson 3^rd grade classes the following week. It generated and lot of ohs and ahs and had it been bigger might have ended up as the school’s mascot. As it was I returned it to my compost pile. Later on in the week Miss Terry emerged from the brush pile and followed Jacob into pond and a nice worm meal. I swear she has a “Did you see what I did” attitude.

Wikipedia says Box turtles lay clutches up to six eggs so I’m hoping Bee Tee has some siblings in the yard.

A Lenten Surprise 2015

Jacob and Terry Terrapin proudly announce the debut of another turtle hatchling – Miss Caroline. I found the youngster on Saturday March 28 by literally stumbling on her. Fortunately I didn’t harm her. I introduced her to Miss Ellie and the neighborhood children, She is too young to try and raise so I put her back into the leaf mold and Gaea’s care.

You can’t have too many turtles!

I must tell you about the juvenile Rough Green Tree Snake I collected on one of early excursions to G3A, I have a special place in my heart for these animals as I had a “pet” Green Tree Snake for a few years as a child.

Smooth Greensnake virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com

I made the mistake taking her ( she laid eggs in her cage several times) to my fourth grade class. I had her inside my shirt. After morning prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance she decided to crawl around my neck. The two ten year old girls sitting aside of me screamed and ran out the door followed by Mrs Horne our teacher and the rest of the class. I soon found my self in the Principal’s office awaiting my father’s appearance. I was suspended for a day plus a paddling. Things were different in the 1940s. Any how the snake now named MoJo has adapted to it’s terrarium and is voraciously eating crickets, worms and bugs. It has grown about two inches and is now approaching a foot in size.

So now I can say with pride that like Peggy Sue, “I’ve got my MoJo back”!

Ramblin Clyde

You Can’t Have Too Many TURTLES

June 23, 2015Uncategorizedclydeccedm

I would like to thank my good friend and fellow Master Naturalist Larry Riddick for educating me into the mysteries of Turtle ( especially Box Turtles) carapaces, plastrons, scutes and other sundry details. The Box Turtle male has a dimpled plastron, long hind leg claws, a long tail and usually red eyes. The female have a flat plastron,short hind claws, short tail and usually beautiful Brown Eyes.

You can get a good estimation of their age by counting the ridges on their segments called scutes.

Our first turtle was brought home by our daughter in 1988. She found it trying to cross Rte 60 near Busch Gardens and was afraid it would get run over. He lived in our backyard for several years until a hurricane knocked over our fence and he disappeared.

My Affair With Miss Brown Eyes

The is a 50s song that starts with” Beautiful, Beautiful Brown Eyes, I’ll Never Love Blue Eyes Again”. Brown Eyes have drifted in and out of my life many times since I became a VMN in 2006 (Cohort 1).

The first time involved the Sunday Snake and the Monday Turtle. In the Beginning the Zoo came into existence with forays into God’s Three Acres (G3A) aka our church’s wood lot. I was invited to a Monday Zoo visit at Poquoson Elementary School when a team from the Virginia Wildlife Magazine was doing a story about the school’s new eco-friendly facilities. I wanted to take along a small Earth Snake for the children to see. Sunday morning I told Miss Ellie I was going to skip Communion and look for a “specimen” in G3A for Monday’s visit. Usually I could find a snake almost immediately under any one of the numerous “Isabel” logs in G3A. Try as I might – no snakes. My final try was under a piece of plywood in the upper end of the lot. I could always count on finding a snake there.

When I raised the plywood I found a 4 foot Black Racer, one of G3A’s apex predators. It stood its ground repeatedly striking at me. I finally pinned its head down and picked it up, It immediately wound itself around the sleeve of my suit jacket. The adage “having a tiger by the tail” came to mind.

As I carried my catch back to the church parking lot I realized I didn’t have a container big enough to put it in. I briefly thought of going into the kitchen of the Parish Hall to look for one but the church ladies were setting up Coffee Hour and I realized I really valued my life and marriage. I sat down on a log and carefully unwound the snake and set it down. It immediately tried to eat my leg. As I scrambled to the other side of the log I tripped on something. It was the first of my Brown Eyes. A beautiful female turtle looked up at me. I am convinced the Guardian Spirit of G3A looked after me. Brown Eyes went to Poquoson on Monday and back to G3A on Tuesday.

My second affair came a few weeks later. Miss Ellie & I were spring cleaning our garage on a Saturday morning when a motorcycle came roaring up. A biker dude picked something out of his saddle bag and walked over to us, He said, “ I have something for you”. And handed me a small box turtle. Susie Blutz had entered my life. Miss Ellie took one look at her and fell in love. “she is so cute” ( Miss Ellie was sure anything that pretty had to be a little girl). She named her “Susie Blutz”. It seems in her childhood home town when a new girl moved in the kids called her Susie Blutz until they became acquainted.

female Box Turtle - Suzie Blitz — Susie Blutz

I was relieved to see Susie accepted as you don’t say no to a Biker Dude with the handle “Mad Dog”. Some time later Jeanette N. and I released her in Waller Mill Park after their Earth Day near the spot she was found by the Bike Club.

A little over seven years ago a big male Box Turtle took up residency in our backyard, We named him “Jacob”. Over the years we could see him looking for slugs and worms (especially after a rain).

In September of the same year I was doing some weeding in my flower beds and there in my Vinca patch sat a new turtle. She blinked her Brown Eyes at me and was immediately named “ Miss Terry”. I suspect Jacob is really happy to see her. – To Be Continued –

Miss Terry (Terrapene) Carolina

Butterfly Mimicry

June 17, 2015Uncategorizedclydeccedm

Mimicry In Our Butterflies

As Master Naturalists we were taught in Entomology about the mimicry involving the Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and the Vice Roy Butterfly ( Limenitis archippus). They were represented as the classic example of Batesian Mimicry – where a harmless ( and tasty) organism , for its own protection, resembles a poisonous or otherwise dangerous organism. It was long surmised that the palatable Vice Roy mimicked the unpalatable Monarch using the latter’s bright colors to protect itself from predators. This particular mimicry is also called Aposomatic Behavior where the coloration of certain unpalatable animals are characterized by bright conspicuous marking, which predators learn to recognize and avoid (think of poisonous tropical frogs).

The Monarch caterpillar host plant is Milkweed (Ascelpias) which contains cardiac glyosides . They accumulate in the caterpillar and then are transferred to the butterfly form. For you Wild Flower buffs this chemical is similar to Digitalis found in Foxglove.

In 1991 two Zoologists David Ritand and Lincoln Bower challenged the assumptions of the Monarch-Vice Roy relationship by suggesting that the Vice Roy was also poisonous and used its bright colors as a warning of the fact. In a previous 1958 study by Zoologist Jane Van Zant Bower, found that the Vice Roy caterpillars feed on Willow and Popular trees that produce bitter tasting Salicylic Acid (think aspirin) to deter herbivores from munching on them. She also found that the Vice Roy along with tasting nasty and being unpalatable to predators when attacked released Phenolic Glycosides which are toxic. The researchers proposed a new theory on the butterflies relationship. They believe it is an example of Mullerian Mimicry – where two unrelated nasty tasting organism resemble one another and as each interact in the same environment start to mimic each other to increase the benefits each exhibit.

This brings up an interesting conjecture- could the Monarch be actually mimicking the Vice Roy?

There is yet another amazing example of Batesian Mimicry tasty butterflies imitating foul tasting and poisonous ones that occurs in our area.

The Pipevine Swallowtail ( Battus philenor) caterpillar feeds on the Pipevine plant (Aristolochia). The Pipevine contains Aristolochic Acids which accumulate in the caterpillar and are transferred to the adult butterfly( sound familiar). This acid is highly toxic. Many species of local butterflies mimic the dark colored Pipevine Swallowtail including the dark morph form of the female Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glacucus) , both sexes of the Spice Bush Swallowtail ( P. troilus), both sexes of the Black Swallowtail )P. polyxenes), both sexes of the sympatric subspecies the Red Spotted Purple (Limennitis arthemis astanay) and the female Diana Fritillary (Speyeria diana(. It is again interesting to note that dimorphism in P. glaucus and S.diana exist only in the females leading one to speculate that the interaction between these two with the Pipevine Butterfly is relatively recent as compared to the other species where both sexes over time have taken on both the color and general form of each other.

Female Tiger Swallowtail Black Phase

Explanation of terms

The terms poison and venom are often used interchangeably, but they actually have very different meanings. It is the delivery method that distinguishes one from the other.

Poison is absorbed or ingested; a poisonous animal can only delivery toxic chemicals if another animal touches or eats it.

Venom, on the other hand is always injected. Every venomous animal has a mechanism to inject toxins directly into another animal. Stab with tails, Slash with spines, Pierce with fangs or stingers. Spike with spurs. Shoot with harpoons, Chew with teeth.

For example , frogs can be poisonous while snakes can be venomous.

Ramblin Clyde

Remember

If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies.