Back on June 29th (Day 210), I photographed the nymphal form of the Leaf-footed Bug (Acanthocephala terminalis). Today, I am delighted to announce, I encountered the same insect, only this time in its adult form, perched motionless on a leaf of American Dogwood (Cornus florida). Despite its imposing size and form, the Leaf-footed bug is a placid herbivore, content to sip vegetable juices.
On this afternoon’s walk, I encountered quite an array of invertebrates — insects and spiders — as I wandered from plant to plant along the edge of Piney Woods Church Road. Rather than highlight just one, I am offering this post as an exploration of the rich diversity of a modest country lane in the Georgia Piedmont. I saw, and photographed, even more than these on my wandering, in fact. Most of the critters below are new to my blog, except for the Rough Stink Bug, who easily makes up in charisma what it lacks in novelty.
The first critter, hiding on the underside of a leaf while dining on an aphid (I think) was a tiny jumping spider, only about a quarter-inch across. I am fairly confident it was a female Bronze Jumper (Eris militaris). I love this image with all of those eyes gazing out furtively from her hiding spot.
Across the road, on the unopened blossom of American Burnweed (Erechtites hieraciifolia), was a half-inch crab spider, most likely a female Goldenrod Crab Spider (Misumena vatia), frozen with front legs outstretched, waiting for a would-be pollinator or nectar thief to wander by.
Down the road a short way, I saw a Rough Stink Bug (Brochymena quadripustulata) repeatedly tapping its proboscis against an oak leaf. A red orb near its eye is probably a mite of some kind.
I continued until I arrived at the Mountain Mint, which amazingly enough still bore a few blossoms. Lurking nearby was a Carolina Mantid (Stagmomantis carolina), hanging upside-down and waiting for prey to amble near. With all these spiders and mantids out there, it must be rough to be an herbivorous insect….
Close by, on the Mountain Mint blossoms, an inch-long wasp was feeding enthusiastically on nectar. She (most likely a female) had an abdomen with distinctive yellow and red markings. I am fairly certain she was a Digger Wasp (Scolia dubia), a solitary wasp that paralyzes June beetle grubs and lays eggs on them. The larvae feed on the grub, but adults dine on nectar instead. Unless disturbed, Digger Wasps will not sting humans.
I noticed this pair of caterpillars taking on what looked like a ritual stance on a roadside weed during my walk today. I was reminded of Tai Chi, or perhaps Yoga. The two remained perfectly motionless while I took this photograph and several other ones. I am not sure why this particular pose is favored; perhaps it helps the caterpillars look more like twigs and less like dinner.
Today I encountered one of the most gaudy, clown-like of all the unusual insects I have seen along Piney Woods Church Road. When first I saw it among the branches of a roadside weed, it had its proboscis down, and looked like it was feeding on the juices of the plant. I assumed it was a harmless, brightly-colored herbivore of some kind. When I zoomed in on the digital image, though, I discovered that it was actually feeding on some sort of insect larva, possibly a tiny caterpillar. After inadvertently interrupting its breakfast, the insect began wandering the plant, and I embarked on a micro-safari, photographing it as it did so. After a few minutes of this, I continued on my way. Returning to the same weed twenty minutes later, I found it again an a different branch, and photographed it yet again.
I suspected that a bug so non-conventionally attired would be easy to find in an online search. Indeed, all it took was “bug black and white striped legs” to retrieve dozens of other images of it. The insect is almost certainly an Orange Assassin Bug nymph, Pselliopus barberi. In keeping with the account of this bug in the National Wildlife Federation’s Guide to Insects and Spiders of North America, it was occupying an open habitat near a woodland edge. “They are active from late spring through fall, when they hunt for insects during the day on shrubs and herbaceous undergrowth.” In the middle photo, the Orange Assassin Bug appears to be stalking a small aphid near the bottom of the image, having had its breakfast (top photo) so rudely interrupted by a nosy photographer.
It is muscadine season along Piney Woods Church Road, but the grapes are fairly few and mostly out of reach. I suspect that most of them get snatched up by the white-tailed deer, like the pears on my tree usually do — but that is another story.
This evening I set out for Piney Woods Church Road a scant hour before sunset. The air was a bit cooler, though still rather warm and muggy. About halfway down the road, beside what was once a mule barn, I noticed a lean and wary Eastern Cottontail Rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus). It stood motionless in the grass, probably hoping to escape unnoticed. It was completely alert, ears raised — though not quite “all ears”, as it apparently lost a couple of pieces of one of them in some past mishap. I was able to approach to within eight feet or so of this rabbit before it turned tail and hopped a short distance away. We parted company, and I continued on my walk.
I know, yet another photograph of the Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia)…. I was on Facebook yesterday, and saw an entire discussion thread loaded with everyone’s photos of this enormous spider. I can understand why, of course — this spider is easily among the most dramatic and photogenic of our orb-weavers. Practically no other spider in the Southeast approaches it in size, and its vivid yellow coloration is quite conspicuous against the greens and browns of a forest edge. Then there is its huge web, with its carefully-stitched “zipper” that helps to prevent wayward birds from crashing into it.
For a slightly different take on Argiope aurantia, I am including photographs of a moderately-sized female I saw along Piney Woods Church Road today, taken both from both the front and the back. Her underside is not quite as visually stunning, but still imposing enough. And this particular one was only an inch and a half across.
This time of year, there are precious few flowers coming into bloom along Piney Woods Church Road. I was elated to encounter diminutive pea-like blossoms in a small gully beside a neighbor’s driveway during my walk earlier this afternoon. I am fairly confident that the quarter-inch blooms belong to Creeping Lespedeza, also known as Smooth Creeping Bush Clover (Lespedeza repens). Like all members of the Pea Family (Fabaceae), this perennial, common to open woods and roadsides throughout the Eastern United States, enhances soil quality by fixing nitrogen. Plus, it adds lovely tiny splashes of pinkish-purple to the roadside that I can enjoy on my daily walks during the hot and humid days of early September in Georgia.
On my way to Atlanta on an errand, almost as an afterthought I stopped at Piney Woods Church Road this morning to take a few photographs. The dew was still heavy on the grass everywhere, and it had rained heavily overnight, too. As is so often the case, I found myself gravitating toward droplets of water. Along the way, I also photographed a pair of reddish-brown leaves (probably pin cherry) at the end of a naked branch. The result is these four photographs, and I simply couldn’t choose one picture among them to single out above the rest. I find delight in the watery marble on a grass blade in the first image; the reflected sunlight in the drop of water on the tip of a sassafras leaf in the second (is that actually a heart I see?); the brilliantly backlit red-brown of the pair of dead leaves against the forest background in the third; and the elegance of the grapevine tendril necklace and with its watery pendant in the fourth. I was blessed four times today, with such moments of stillness and delight.
(As an addendum, I did, in a sense, pay later for my morning. Arriving home from Atlanta with ankles burning, I removed my shoes and socks to find chiggers everywhere! They may have been lodging in my shoes (which I have since run through the washing machine) or they were waiting in the short grass just beside the road this morning to dive onto my feet. Either way, I am beginning to get a bit terrified of the local chigger population this year.)
I photographed this muscadine (Vitis rotundifolia) grape hanging from a vine alongside Piney Woods Church Road earlier this afternoon. And then I ate it.
