Outside My Window

Two men holding an Atlantic sailfish caught off the coast of Port St. Lucie, Florida, 2010 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

The warming ocean has been in the news lately as the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes ever recorded — Harvey’s rain and Irma’s wind — slammed into Texas, the Caribbean, and Florida.  The ocean is hotter now than any time since record keeping began in the 1880’s and, though hotter water doesn’t cause hurricanes we’ve learned it makes them worse.  Uh oh!

There’s another sign the ocean is warming.  Fish are on the move.  A wide variety of species including sole, haddock, herring, and black sea bass have left places too warm for them and migrated to cooler water.

For example an enormous Atlantic sailfish (Istiophorus albicans), normally off the coast of Florida above, was caught in the Cape Cod Canal in August 2013.  It was the first Massachusetts record.

It’s not just temperature that makes fish move.  Warm water has less oxygen, so it’s harder to breathe, and more carbon dioxide so it’s more acidic.  Acidic water holds less calcium carbonate, the building block of sea shells including those of tiny copepods.  With fewer tiny organisms there’s less food all the way up the food chain.

Fish swim away from these “deserts” but some animals can’t move very far. Think of lobsters, now gone from Long Island Sound.

The changes in species affect both fishermen and nesting seabirds.  The old catch limits refer to fish that can’t be found because they’ve moved north, and baby puffins starve because the new species are too big for them to swallow.

From more powerful hurricanes to fish leaving home, we’re in hot water!

Read more in this article from Yale e360: Feeling the Heat: How Fish Are Migrating from Warming Waters

(photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the image to see the original)

Yellow garden spider female with prey, Virginia Beach, 5 Sept 2017 (photo by Kate St.John)

Last week in Virginia Beach my mother said, “Come see my spider.”  We stepped out the front door and there she was, an impressive yellow garden spider with a zig zag web.

Yellow garden spiders (Argiope aurantia) are very common orb weavers but we rarely notice them until late summer when the females have reached full size, about an inch long.   At this point their webs are also large with conspicuous vertical zig zags(*) giving them this alternate name in Virginia: the sewing machine spider.

My mother’s spider hid behind her web which in turn was camouflaged by the light colored brick behind it.  (Click here to see a more obvious zig zag.)  In these photos the spider is packaging prey in gauze or perhaps eating it.

Yellow garden spider with prey (photo by Kate St.John)

My mother pointed out a smaller web nearby with a smaller spider in it, only 0.2 to 0.3 inches.  It was the male who will eventually come courting, but he has to be very careful and quick.  His goal is to deliver both sperm packages without being attacked.  After delivering the second one he dies a natural death.  Then the female eats him.

Soon the female will lay 500 to 1,000 eggs in a small brown sac which will overwinter and hatch in early spring.  The tiny spiderlings are cannibals, too, but those who survive will play out the same story next year.

If you find a yellow garden spider you can enjoy it in peace.  Even though the females are large, they won’t bite unless you grab them (egads!) and their venom is harmless to humans.

Read more about these and other Pennsylvania native spiders in this fact sheet from Penn State.

(photos by Kate St. John)

(*) The zig zag is called a stabilimentum.

Antennae of an Agreeable Tiger Moth (photo by Chuck Tague)

What’s the difference between a moth and a butterfly?

The best clue is their antennae.

Moths have feather-like antennae with many branches.  Butterflies have smooth antennae with a knob at the end.

The feathery antennae above are on an Agreeable Tiger Moth photographed by Chuck Tague.  Yes, the moth is agreeing to have his picture taken and yes, that’s really his name!  Agreeable Tiger Moth (Spilosoma congrua).

The knobs on the antenna below are on a Pearl Cresent butterfly (Phyciodes tharos).

Pearlcresent butterfly (photo by Kate St. John)

For more differences between moths and butterflies see this vintage article from August 2010:  How Do You Know It’s a Moth

(photo of Agreeable Tiger Moth by Chuck Tague. photo of Pearl Crescent Butterfly by Kate St. John)

Green eggs on stinging nettle leaves (photo by Kate St.John)

Today, a quiz.

I found green eggs on stinging nettle on August 9 at Wolf Creek Narrows, Butler County, PA.

Are they eggs or something else?

And who laid them?

Post a comment with your answer.

I’ll reveal their identity later today.

THE ANSWER:  29 August, 3:15pm
This was a tricky quiz because the structures really do look like eggs. I thought they were butterfly eggs but they are too smooth. The likely butterflies lay very wrinkled eggs.  For instance, click here to see the eggs of the small tortoiseshell butterfly.

Mary Ann Pike correctly identified the green “eggs” as nettle galls of (probably) Dasineura investita.  The galls are the plant’s defenses against the larvae inside them.  The larvae are from midges so tiny that I can’t find photographs of the adult insects though these three photos may give you an idea.

Caterpillars of the Sordid Hypena moth (Hypena sordidula) eat these galls.  Click here to see it.

(photo by Kate St. John)

Schenley Park outing, 27 August 2017 (photo by Kate St. John)

This morning’s outing at Schenley Park was great for birds!

Though we saw only 26 species, plus a silent Empidonax flycatcher, we had good looks at some birds we don’t see every day including wood thrushes and a young Baltimore oriole.

Best Bird was a male pileated woodpecker, the first bird of the day.  😉

Best Insect — the one that got me excited — were some tiny flatid planthoppers, gray with blueish spots. To my untrained eye they looked like this, Metcalfa pruinosa, an insect native to North America.

Citrus flatid planthopper (Metcalfa pruinosa), photo from Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Click here for today’s eBird checklist, also listed below.

Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica)
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris)
Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)
Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)
Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus)
Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus)
Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus)
Eastern Wood-Pewee (Contopus virens)
Empidonax species (Empidonax sp.)
Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus)
Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata)
Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis)
Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)
White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)
Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina)
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis)
Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)
Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina)
Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus)
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus)
Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula)
Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula)
House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus)
American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis)

(group photo by Kate St. John. Insect photo from Wikimedia Commons via Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.)

Monarch butterfly on a zinnia (photo by Kate St.John)

It feels like a miracle.  After years of almost no monarch butterflies I’ve seen more in Pittsburgh this summer than I have for a long time.

Their relative abundance reminds me of the “old days” in 2011 when they were so plentiful.

Have you noticed more monarchs this year than last?

(photo by Kate St.John)

Male fall field cricket (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

On Throw Back Thursday:

There’s a Rule of Thumb that says you can tell the temperature –in Fahrenheit! — by listening to a cricket’s chirp.

Here’s how:  Read about the Thermometer

(photo of a fall field cricket (Gryllus pennsylvanicus) from Wikimedia Commons; click on the image to see the original)

Beech blight aphids, Butler County, PA, 9 Aug 2017 (photo by Kate St. John)

Last week Andy Zadnik and volunteer Tom Koehler from the Western PA Conservancy showed us amazing aphids on a beech tree at Wolf Creek Narrows.

Beech blight aphids (Grylloprociphilus imbricator) are nicknamed “boogie-woogie aphids” because they waggle their bodies when disturbed.  A puff of wind or a jolt to the branch will start them waving to ward off predators.  My photo is out of focus because the aphids would not stand still when I got close!

Like all aphids these suck the juice of their host, the beech tree, but their scary name (blight) is misleading.  Beech blight aphids rarely hurt the tree and are easily knocked off by a stream from a garden hose. Once on the ground the nymphs can’t fly up because they have no wings, though their mothers do.

Beech blight aphid colonies are sought by ants, wasps and a fungus for their sweet honey dew.  They’re also sought by predators that they mesmerize with their dance or sting with their tiny mouth parts too small to hurt mammals.

This video by the Capital Naturalist shows how they dance.

What’s the boogie-woogie all about?

Click on these links to see what really scares these aphids:  Harvester caterpillar eating aphids, Harvester butterfly ventral view (wings closed) and dorsal view (wings open).

(photo by Kate St. John)

Primrose moths on a primrose, Allegheny County,PA, 6 Aug 2017 (photo by Kate St.John)

Last Sunday I found a crowd of pink and yellow moths head down in a common evening primrose.  Bob Machesney identified them as primrose moths (Schinia florida).

I should have guessed their name.

Moths are often named for their host plant and so are these. Primrose moth caterpillars eat evening primrose, biennial gaura and other members of the Evening-primrose family (Onagraceae).  In July and August the adult moths fly at night and spend the day resting on their host plants.  That’s why there were so many on one flower.

Keep an eye out this month for beautiful pink moths on primrose and biennial gaura.  Here’s a common evening primrose (Oenothera biennis) without a moth in it.

Common evening primrose (photo by Kate St. John)

Click here to see biennial gaura whose flowers are actually quite small.

And here’s what the primrose moth looks like in a museum, mounted to show all its features.  Amazingly its antennae are pink.

Primrose moth specimen, mounted (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

(primrose photos by Kate St. John. photo of mounted primrose moth from Wikimedia Commons; click on the image to see the original)

Dead bee (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Today’s important message is late for this year’s growing season but we can always take action right now.

I’m sure you’ve heard about the dangers to honeybees from neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides used heavily in agriculture since 2008.  What you might not realize is that this pesticide may be in your garden whether you put it there or not.  Here’s why.

What are neonicotinoids?

Nicotine kills insects but it breaks down too quickly for modern agricultural use. Neonicotinoids (“neonics”) are chemicals similar to nicotine specially formulated to last a long time.

Neonics are nervous system disrupters that, depending on dose and exposure, cause confusion, hyperactive behavior, severe tremors or death in insects.  Low doses kill slowly through chronic exposure because the chemical lasts so long (5 months to years).

Neonics are “systemic” poisons because they are water soluble.  Plants suck up neonic-laden water and distribute it into roots, leaves, pollen, nectar, everywhere.  The entire plant is poisonous to a wide range of insects including “bad” insects that suck juices and eat leaves (aphids, stinkbugs and Japanese beetles) and “good” insects that collect pollen and nectar (bees and butterflies).  Bees and butterflies visit poisoned flowers and die elsewhere.

How do neonicotinoids get into your garden?

Neonicotinoids are primarily delivered via soil treatments and seed coatings.  Garden treatments contain doses 40 times higher than agricultural products.  These pathways may surprise you.

1. Pesticides you bought to kill bad insects, especially soil treatments. Check the label!
2. Potting soil:  If treated with neonics, the plants grown in the soil are poisonous. Check the label!
3. Plants or seedlings you bought at the store:  They’re already grown, but how? If their seeds were coated with neonics or the soil was treated, the plants you bought are poisonous.

What can you do?

Read the label. Ask questions. Here are the chemical names to look for.
* Acetamiprid
* Clothianidin
* Dinotefuran
* Imidacloprid (fact sheet)
* Nitenpyram
* Thiocloprid
* Thiamethoxam

Practice reading labels:  Many companies have neonic products. This example is from the “Bayer Advanced” product line containing Imidacloprid.  Scroll down below Quick Facts to see Active ingredients.
12-month Tree & Shrub Insect Control
2-in-1 Systemic Rose & Flower Care
2-in-1 Insect Control and Fertilizer

Labels tell you some of the insects the product kills but never all of the insects affected.

Don’t panic.

If you’ve learned something new, don’t worry, don’t blame yourself. Time is on your side. Start now to change your garden.  Remember this Chinese proverb …

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.

(photo of dead bee from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the image to see the original)

Additional Resources:
A blog for home gardeners: potting soil and nursery plants Skowhegan, Maine, 2013.
News about pesticide-laced potting soil WRAL, Raleigh, NC, 2003.
Backyard Pesticide Use May Fuel Bee Die-offs. WIRED, 2012.
Risk Assessments Are Missing Harmful Effects of Neonics on Honey Bees Union of Concerned Scientists, 2013.
How neonicotinoids affect honey bee queens. Sub-lethal effects. The Journal Nature, 2016.
Bayer sold Bayer Garden and Bayer Advanced product lines to SBM (based in France). October 2016.