Day 4 of advanced
summer camp at the Audubon Center at the
Francis Beidler Forest involved catching and identifying insects and herps (amphibians and reptiles). The
wildlife lists at Beidler Forest are complete for
birds,
mammals,
reptiles, and
amphibians, but scant for others in the animal kingdom. In the morning, the campers worked hard with their nets to help add insect species to our list.
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| Collecting insects at power line - Mark Musselman |
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| Native plants under power line - Mark Musselman |
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| Great Blue Skimmer female that appears to have lost her head during mating - Mark Musselman |
The male dragonfly clasps the female behind the head and can puncture her eye or, as in this case, decapitate the female! Does not seem like a successful mating strategy.
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| Common Whitetail - Mark Musselman |
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| Mating Gulf Fritillary Butterflies - Mark Musselman |
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| Mating Gulf Fritillary Butterflies - Ricky Covey |
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| Appalachian Brown - Mark Musselman |
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| Unidentified moth - Mark Musselman |
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| Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - Ricky Covey |
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| Chinese Mantis - Mark Musselman |
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| Chinese Mantis - Mark Musselman |
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| Chinese Mantis - Ricky Covey |
Reading about itself on the computer, the Chinese Mantis (
Tenodera sinensis) learned that it was introduced into North America around 1895 as a pest control. Although they primarily eat insects, their large size allows them to dine on small vertebrate prey, mainly reptiles and amphibians, but also hummingbirds!
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| Chinese Mantis - Ricky Covey |
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| Grasshopper - Mark Musselman |
Near the outdoor classroom, we found a young Redbelly Snake away from its leaf-litter habitat where it dines on slugs. The snake was less than 3" long.
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| Young Redbelly Snake - Ricky Covey |
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After lunch, we headed to the bluff by Mallard Lake to explore the seeps and look for herps. We were not disappointed. We quickly found the first of many Three-lined Salamanders under a log. We searched in vain for a Marbled Salamander and missed capturing several frogs, including a healthy Bronze Frog.
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| Three-lined Salamander - Mark Musselman |
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| Possible Gray Treefrog - Ricky Covey |
With all the color variability, this may or may not be a young Gray Treefrog.
We had to keep our head up as there were plenty of webs, including the one belonging to the Red-femured Spotted Orbweaver, stretched between the trees.
On top of the bluff in the dry, sandy habitat we encounter a half a dozen Six-lined Racerunners. The one shown in the images was not quick enough to escape Ricky and his minnow net.
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| Six-lined Racerunner - Mark Musselman |
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