Spring's Shining Star

One of the things we most anticipate here at the Edge each spring is the emergence of early wildflowers. Who can blame us? After months of grays, browns, maybe some white if it snows, a body needs to see the delicate colors of spring ephemerals. Standard favorites of course include things like hepatica, spring beauty, and the diminutive harbinger-of-spring. 

Hepatica, Hepatica  nobilis

Spring beauty, Claytonia virginica

Harbinger-of-spring, Erigenia bulbosa

However, there is a special wildflower that one could argue is the "star" of early spring. Goldenstar lily, Erythronium rostratum, is an endangered species here in Ohio. Blooming at about the same time as the more familiar white trout lily, this golden beauty is only found in two counties, Adams and Scioto.

Goldenstar lily, Erythronium rostratum

Goldenstar lily just beginning to open up.

These pictures are from here in Adams county from a remote spot on the preserve. This population was found by the Edge's own Rich McCarty a few years ago. For that exciting story, click here. This link will take you to Andy Gibson's excellent blog, The Buckeye Botanist.

Posted by: Robyn Wright-Strauss

An unusual spider (part 2)

An update to the last post.  This week Rich Bradley made it down to try and video the spider, if she was in the tunnel.  We tried to coax the spider out of the hole and crossed our fingers for a pounce on the beetle we were offering.  Nothing happened as a beetle walked around the rim of the trap-door.  After realizing the spider, if present, wasn't going to attack, Rich opened the lid to see inside.  With a flashlight, he did see a spider in the tunnel, so he teased it out of the hole to see the occupant.  

 

Dr. Rich Bradley photographing the trap-door

Out came a female Ummidia trap-door spider.  The first female I have seen.  We photographed her from all angles and Rich put her back in the tunnel.  Maybe another day I can witness her using the trap-door as camouflage to catch prey.

Since the last post, I learned from others the occurrence of Ummidia spiders elsewhere in unglaciated Ohio.  Four other counties have records in the past few years including Ross, Perry, Vinton and Hamilton.


Female Ummidia trap door-spider

   

Photos of the ventral surface of the spider needed to age the spider.

 

Female Ummidia trap-door spider

Posted by: Mark Zloba

An unusual spider

Sometimes you just get lucky.  Look at the picture below and see if anything catches your eye (not the hickory nut with a hole chewed in it):

Can you see evidence of a spider?

Now look at the picture again (below), in the shape I first found it.  This is a burrow in the ground I have been trying to find for a very long time.  It is the hole, and lid of a cork trap-door spider (Ummidia sp.).  Almost everyone has heard of trap-door spiders, but I bet most people did not know they lived in Ohio.  In fact, they probably live only in the extreme southern part of Ohio where the preserve is located.  I remember many years ago, one of the states Arachnologist's, Richard Bradley,  was very happy to hear that these cork type trap-door spiders were part of Ohio's fauna, and gave me the challenge of finding it's tunnel.  Pure luck brought me to this one.

Here the trap-door is open and you can see the spider's tunnel.

I have encountered, and collected a few of these spiders over the last 17 years, but I have never seen the actual trap-door and/or tunnel.  And if the lid wasn't open as I passed by this day, I would never have seen this one.  I saw the hole in the ground and assumed it was a burrow made by Geolycosa missouriensis, a burrowing wolf spider.  For some reason, this hole caught my attention and I thought I might stick a grass blade down the hole and see if I could scare up the wolf spider.  As soon as I got close to the hole, a lid shut and the hole disappeared.  It's still unclear whether I hit something, or shook the ground which closed the lid, or if a spider in the hole closed the lid as I approached.  But either way, I knew right then it was not a wolf spider burrow.  And seeing the thickness of the lid, and the silk lining the lid and tunnel, it was one of the trap-door species.

Here you can see the perfect fit of the lid and some silk on the lid and in the tunnel.

I didn't want this spider to abandon its burrow due to my poking and prodding, so I left it alone, and hopefully Rich Bradley will make it down to observe this unique camouflage method of hunting prey.  After we get our team of spider harasser's together, experiments will be conducted to see which one of us can fool the spider into jumping out of its burrow to attack whatever decoy is presented.  More to come if this is observed and recorded.

Below are two pictures of adult male cork trap-door spiders, Ummidia audouini, found on earlier dates.  I typically see them in the summer wandering about, maybe looking for mates.  They are intimidating in appearance, but if there is a spider that would make you say "Cool Spider", this is the one.



Cork trap-door spider, Ummidia audouini,  found last summer with Cincinnati Museum Center Science Camp students.



 Cork trap-door spider, Ummidia audouini, crawling on the wall of a building on the preserve.  This is a scan of a  photo taken 17 years ago.

 

I hope to observe the spider in the tunnel, or catch a glimpse of the trap-door in use in the near future.  Of course a post will follow if more discoveries occur and/or footage of this incredible mechanism is captured.  Stay tuned!


If you'd like to learn more about spiders, a great new guide,  Common Spiders of North America, written by Ohio arachnologist, Richard A. Bradley, is available on Amazon.com.  It's the best illustrated spider guide I've used and it encompasses a wide variety of spiders one might encounter. Rich is a wonderful teacher and also has a spider website found here: http://spidersinohio.net/

Posted by Mark Zloba

Going to the pool in winter (Vernal Pool)

We've had some warm and rainy February days out here at the Edge of Appalachia Preserve, and that means its time to check the vernal pools and see what kind of amphibian activity has occurred.  Vernal pools are wet places that hold water in the winter and spring, but dry up in the summer and fall.  They can be ponds in a field, roadside ditches or any depression that holds a little bit of water half the year.  If a vernal pool has been established for many years, there's a good chance frogs, toads and salamanders have used it as breeding pools for egg laying.  They choose vernal pools because they hold water long enough for the presence of food sources  (i.e. insects, amphipods etc.), but not long enough for prey species to become established (i.e. fish).

 

This wet field in the winter is a great vernal pool for amphibian mating

I checked a couple pools on the preserve this week to see what has been moving.  There are a few salamander species that use these pools this early and couple of frogs as well.  Scooping a net in a pool produced a few inch-long salamander larva.  Any larva that large in a pool in February would have to be that of the marbled salamander, Ambystoma opacum.  And these were indeed marbled larva.  Marbled salamanders mate and lay their eggs in September within the pool boundaries when it's waterless.  Throughout winter, as the water fills the pool, the eggs hatch and the larva start growing before any other species lays eggs in the pool.  The adult pictured below was from the fall, only larva are found in the pool in February. 

 

Marbled salamander (Ambystoma opacum) from September.  Larva are now swimming in the vernal pools

Also within the pool were small clumps of gelatinous eggs holding Jefferson salamander, Ambystoma jeffersonianum, larva.  I did not find any adult Jefferson salamanders in the pool, but did find an adult under a rock at the edge of the pool.  Jefferson salamanders will move to the pools to mate at the first warm (>55F) rainy nights in the winter.  I have found eggs in pools as early as December 27th.  But February is the typical time for mass movements of these salamanders.  Years ago I was doing recruitment surveys for a state herpetologist. During this survey, I (with the help of Rich McCarty TNC) counted 270 Jefferson's, and that was only what was in the traps.  I can count the thumb on one hand, and that's the number of Jefferson salamanders I have seen in the wild that were NOT in or around a vernal pool.  So if you wanted to find one....now's the time.

 

Jefferson salamander (Ambystoma jeffersonianum) under rock at edge of pool

Also in February the spotted salamanders, Ambystoma maculatum, will be moving in mass to these same pools.  They are historically a little bit later than Jefferson's, but are due.  I just didn't see any this day.  All three of the salamanders mentioned above are often called mole salamanders because they spend most of their life underground.  This is why they are so hard to find, unless, you know about their breeding habits and when and where to look for the annual movements to vernal pool.

 

Spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) found in previous years but not from this week. 

 

Ambystoma salamander eggs in a vernal pool.  Much smaller clump than the woodfrogs.  Clump on the left looks like it was laid much earlier than clump on the right.

I couldn't help but notice a huge mass of eggs at the end of one of the pools.  This is typical of the woodfrogs, Lithobates sylvaticus.  The weekend before, woodfrogs were calling  all over the county.  Unlike the salamanders, the early spring frogs give you a signal that the time is here.  And you can hear it from far away, leading you to these vernal pools.  In February, spring peepers, Pseudacris crucifer, and woodfrogs are the only species tolerant enough to withstand the cold temperatures before and after the egg-laying.  Both were heard calling throughout the day.  But only the woodfrog leaves the massive amounts of eggs like these shown below this time of year.

 

Although under water, you can still see large numbers of clumps of woodfrog eggs.  Each black dot is one egg.

 

Woodfrog (Lithobates sylvaticus) eggs sticking to a branch.

Many spring peepers were found in and around one of the vernal pools, but their eggs are harder to find.  They also don't have as short of a breeding period as the woodfrogs.  You can hear spring peepers calling well into April and maybe May.  Woodfrogs are true winter breeders.  They even are adapted to freeze solid and still survive.  Even if the vernal pool freezes again this year, many of the eggs are structured to survive.  The black side of each egg faces the sun to absorb heat and keep from freezing.

Spring peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) hiding in the grasses near the vernal pool.
 

 



Woodfrog (Lithobates sylvaticus)

To hear woodfrogs and spring peepers calling in one of our vernal pools, listen to the video below.  The spring peepers  are the high pitched whistles and the woodfrogs are the quacking chatters in the background.

Some of these species are very hard to find in the wild.  But if you learn the life histories of each species, you can definitely learn the tricks of where and when to look.  Finding the eggs in the pools and hearing the calls of the frogs, to me,  represent the first real signs that spring is right around the corner.  The amphibians' annual ritual of visiting these pools have created an annual ritualistic hunt for myself and many naturalist that brightens up the long gray winter.

For more information about these vernal pool species, check out Amphibians of Ohio, 2013 from Ohio Biological Survey’s website here.  This book contains an enormous amount of information about all of Ohio’s amphibians.
  
Posted by: Mark Zloba

Five minutes under a rock

Curiosity is a funny thing and I hope I never lose it.  While walking through a field, I stopped to photograph a lichen growing on exposed dolostone rock.  Although locally common, statewide it is a very uncommon lichen called Psora pseudorussellii.  Pictured below, it is a squamulose lichen attractively colored with red apothecia (red discs which are the fruiting bodies of the fungus).  



Psora pseudorussellii

After photographing the lichen, I noticed a smaller rock nearby, a little bigger than a football.  Like a dog to a fire hydrant, I am attracted to rocks I think I can lift.  I can't seem to shake the curious question of "what is under that, and every rock"?   And of course, there is always the chance of finding something I haven't seen before, so why not take a look.



The rock.  A piece of Peebles dolostone.

So I took about five minutes to quickly look and see what animals I could find (at least visible to the naked eye).  Almost immediately, two critters disappeared into the cracks of the ground before I could get a picture.  One was a common exotic earthworm called Lumbricus rubellus.  Everyone has seen this worm before, and it is not too hard to identify if you can recognize its faint red wine color.  The second was a sowbug or wood louse (sowbugs can't roll into a ball like pilbugs, Armadillidium sp., but look similar) called Trachelipus rathkei.  T. rathkei is a fast, 2-tailed sowbug and also an exotic species.  Both of these are expected under rocks at the "Edge".

But a few animals stuck around long enough to photograph, or proof of the animals existence was there.  A female wood roach, Parcoblatta sp., stood still long enough for a pic.  A few leafhoppers showed up after I lifted the rock.  These little hoppers from the genus Erythroneura jumped into the soil under the rock, but I think were in the grasses beside the rock and not underneath.  All pictured below.





  Parcoblatta sp. of wood roach commonly found under rocks and logs on the preserve.

Erythroneura sp. leafhopper showing very attractive pattern.  Many leafhoppers are just as showy as the prettiest butterflies.........in my opinion.



Another Erythroneura  leafhopper, barely a millimeter in size

What got my attention in those few minutes of looking under that rock were the amount of micro-snails (<5mm) and/or snail shells on the rock or in the dirt underneath.  I quickly counted the species I could identify, and collected a couple of shells I knew would require a scope for identification.



If you look closely you might find snail shells under the rock

Most shells will blend in well with the soil or rock, so you need to search carefully.  Here a Catinella vermeta blends in.

Many small land snails can be found under rocks and woody debris on the ground as well as grass thatch where it meets the soil.  This particular rock had 14 individual snail shells found within this short search time.  None of them larger than 4 millimeters.  Luckily, land snails are easily identifiable by using their shell, so if the animal is dead, you can still identify it to species.  They were: the white-lipped dagger, Pupoides albilabris, 2, the armed snaggletooth, Gastrocopta armifera, 4, the minute gem, Hawaiia miniscula, 3, the suboval ambersnail, Catinella vermeta, 2, the wild hive, Euconulus chersinus, 2 and 1 small unknown Gastrocopta.  



2 snail shells.  The one on the right shows the "teeth" of the shell opening giving reason to the common name armed snaggletooth snail.

Armed snaggletooth, Gastrocopta armifera shell

 I wanted to take a closer look at the small unknown Gastrocopta. I was hoping it was the rare species Gastrocopta rogersensis, which was newly described in 2001 in Iowa, only to be found a couple years later here at the Edge by one of it's author's Jeff Nekola.  The range of this species is hundreds of miles west of the Edge, making his find a disjunct anomaly like so many other species found on this preserve.  Since his discovery of this overlooked land snail, I have found them in 2 other prairies on the preserve.  But it would be nice to extend its range within the preserve.


White-lipped dagger, Pupoides albilabris shell hiding in the mud.

Once back in the lab, and the few collected snails were placed "mouth up" under the dissecting scope, I could easily see "tooth" features in the opening of the shells.  My curiosity driving me to wonder what was under that rock has led me to an exciting find (at least to a small circle of maloco-phile folks).  I believe the mystery snail is Roger's snaggletooth (Gastrocopta rogersensis), the newly described species mentioned above.  This adds a fourth location of this snail on the preserve.



Here you can see the size difference in three of the shells. Gastrocopta rogersensis (>2mm), Hawaiia miniscula (2mm) and Pupoides albilabris (4mm).  So 4mm is a big snail under this rock.

These were just the larger animals I could see in a five minutes.  Just imagine how many creatures there really are if you could count the micro inhabitants under this rock.  I need to remember this when I am out looking under rocks and logs.  I should be a little more deliberate when putting a rock back in its place.  And maybe, hiding under the next piece of debris, an un-described species will be found, unknowingly waiting to be discovered.  Just curious.

Posted by:  Mark Zloba





Where does an Eastern box turtle go in the winter?

Two years ago, I decided to put radio transmitters on Eastern box turtles to track their movements, and use this as an educational tool with our Science Camps.  These transmitters were leftover from a previous project and had very little battery life left in them.  So instead of throwing them away, I thought it would be a fun way to learn a little bit about box turtle home ranges.  The students use a Yagi antenna and go in search of the turtle, and if found we would weigh it, record its sex and GPS where it was found.  Following individual box turtles has been interesting to say the least.  Sometimes they would not move for over a week, then all of a sudden travel a few hundred yards in a couple days.  Most days we would find the turtle we were after, some days it would be hidden so well that a half a dozen of us could not find it, even though the receiver attached to the antenna was beeping loudly (which meant we were close).



Student using antenna to track box turtles



In the winter of 2014-2015, I was lucky enough to find a turtle (EOA-2 it was labeled, but I call him Hoffa since he is hard to find) buried in the soil in its hibernation spot.  This was great because I had never seen where a turtle chose to spend the winter.  Nor did I know how deep into the ground it would go.  I was surprised to see that not all of the shell is under soil.  It must be deep enough to stay a constant temperature, warm enough to prevent freezing.  It was burrowed in a depressed part of the ground where a tree root had rotted.  The top of its shell was exposed and only leaf litter covered that part.  I don't know how it managed to cover itself with leaves like a blanket.  I guess it was that year's leaf fall from the trees. 

EOA-2 or "Hoffa" getting a new transmitter attached and weighing in at 442 grams

 In April of 2015 Hoffa (EOA-2) came out of his hole in the ground and moved about again.  Throughout the summer, Science Camp students tracked him again, giving us an idea of his home range.   One day, they went in search of Hoffa but they could not hear his "beep".  Each turtle has a frequency number associated with its transmitter that will beep when its number is plugged into the receiver.  And if it gets too far away, over a big hill or the battery dies, you will not hear a beep.  After weeks of searching and listening for the beep, we figured our time with Hoffa was over.  The battery must have died and I figured one day we will stumble upon him and take off the dead receiver.  Months went by and this did not happen.  So goes nature.
 

Some points where EOA-2 traveled in 2 years. Green tacks show where turtle was found.  Range measures 1500 ft. X 500 ft.

A few weeks ago, In December, I was thinking about Hoffa, and where he would hibernate this winter.  Some reptiles, like many snakes, hibernate in the same place each year, could Hoffa do the same?  How specific are box turtles to their winter burrows?  When I got to work, I went to the area he was hibernating in last winter. I re-found a tree that I thought he was near last year, and it had a depressed area where a tree root had rotted.  This was the same area as before.  I raked away some leaves and unbelievably, there was about 2 inches of a turtles shell showing through the soil.  I couldn't believe it, but there was a turtle, in the exact same spot as last year.  I dug a little bit of soil out to see if there was a transmitter, and it was there, still attached.  It was Hoffa.

"Hoffa" buried in the same location as last winter

Now, this may or may not be common knowledge to Herpetologists, but I did not know a turtle would return to the same location each year to hibernate.  At least this turtle did, 2 years in a row.  This March I will put a new transmitter on Hoffa, and hopefully we will get to track him for a third year, and just maybe, he will go back to this same root hole to hibernate.

Posted by: Mark Zloba

Spiny oak slug caterpillar video

 

Sometimes we find things that just don't look like the books tell us they should.  This caterpillar is usually not this color, and usually not found on lichens on a black walnut tree.  But there it was one September day.

  If you feel like sitting back and enjoying life at a caterpillar's pace you might enjoy this video of the spiny oak slug.

 

Posted by: Mark Zloba