Corymorpha's Place

I bought these beaded spider ornaments last year in January, and finally have a chance to put them on my Christmas tree.  They’ve been crawling upon some fossils on a bookshelf for the rest of the year.  I’d wanted some spider ornaments since I read The Legend of the Christmas Spider on buggirl’s blog.  I got these off of ebay from a user called jumperpony.  I’m rather pleased with the way they look.  The abdomens are flat sheets, and while they look good they aren’t 3D.  From the upper left (clockwise): Gold & Garnet, Gold, and Silent Night Beaded Spider Ornaments.

...or how to make a new jellyfish.  The picture below shows the white stationary phase (polyp) of a Scyphozoan medusa (jellyfish) taken during a SCUBA dive in Puget Sound near Seattle, WA..

  Scyphozoan jellyfish reproduce sexually, and release a small free-swiming larva called a planula.  The planula larvae usually settle out onto a hard surface (usually under a ledge or under man-made structures such as floating docks) and develop into a polyp stage.  A diagram of the life cycle of a scyphozoan jellyfish can be found in the diagram below.  The polyp stage will bud off small ephyra, which are essentially baby jellyfish.  These polyps, called scyphistomae (scyphistoma when they are feeding, strobila when they are budding baby jellyfish), are factories for making new jellyfish.

The polyp stage has tentacles with stinging cells called cnidocytes.  Cnidocyte contain an interesting structure called a cnidocyst or nematocyst.  Cnidocysts contain a coiled up tube which is often armed with spines or barbs.  When the cnidocysts is trigger by prey brushing the tentacles, the top of the cnidocyst pops open and the coiled tube inverts, shooting out into the flesh of the unsuspecting prey.  Cnidocysts often contain poison, so the prey an be quickly subdued before they have a chance to break free.

The polyp stage of a scyphozoan jellyfish is called a scyphistoma.  Some scyphistomae are long lived an will reproduce asexually to produce a mat of many scyphistomae connected by a stolon.  As an individual scypistoma grows it will often begin to look segmented as it begins to bud to create new baby jellyfish.  The end of the scyphistoma becomes analogous to a stack of cups, with the uppermost cup being the most developed baby jellyfish.  When jellyfish are ready, they break away from the top of the scyphistoma and swim away.  Budding of jellyfish is usually seasonal, coinciding with yearly peaks in plankton production.

The scyphistomae in the top picture were (probably from the moon jellyfish Aurelia aurita) found in Puget Sound near Seattle, WA.  The largest ones are about 1.5 - 2 mm in diameter.  The picture below is from a settling plate on display at the Birch Aquarium at Scripps.  The pinkish/peachy fuzz on the plate are the polyp stage (asexual, scyphistomae) of the Moon Jellyfish.  You can see how they’ve reproduced asexually to cover nearly the whole surface of the plate.

Many jellyfish can sting people, and a few (such as the Sea Wasp) are potentially deadly.  There is even a Sherlock Holmes story where the “murderer” turns out to be a Jellyfish (Cyanea capillata - The Lion’s Mane Jellyfish).  Others have stinging cells too small to penetrate human skin and are completely harmless.  The Moon Jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) is one of the harmless jellyfish.  It is often cultured at public aquariums and on display.  The photo below is from the Birch Aquarium at Scripps.  The large oral tentacles (around the mouth) are extended at the side as the jellyfish sinks in the tank, and the tiny fringe at the base of the jellyfish are the marginal tentacles.  Unlike most jellyfish which capture their food by stinging their prey, Moon Jellyfish capture their small prey (such as copepods and barnacle nauplii) using mucus and transfer it to the mouth by the help of cilia.  The horseshoe shaped objects in the jellyfish are the gonads. 

References

Buchsbaum, R., Buchsbaum, M., Pearse, J., and Pearse, V. (1987). Animals Without Backbones. Third Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.

Doyle, A.C. (1926). "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane" from the Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.

...but they could.  This animal is a type of click beetle.  Click beetles are in the Family Elateridae, a family that has over 9000 species world wide.  This particular click beetle (Elater lecontei) doesn’t have a common name, though it is rather large (nearly 30mm).  The species name “lecontei” comes from the Greek word for plate or dish “lekos”.

Click beetles have a fascinating behavior for righting themselves on smooth surfaces.  Unlike most beetles, click beetles have a flexible joint between the first and second thoracic segments (between the first and second pairs of legs).  There is a spine (prosternum spine) on the bottom of the forward segment.  

When the beetle is placed on its back on a smooth surface, it will arch its back till the spine slips into a catch on the second segment. The beetle then pulls hard with its muscles to straighten out, but the spine prevents the beetle from bending and stores a lot of elastic energy.  Eventually, the spine slips off the catch with an audible click and the beetle is flung into the air up to 30cm.  Typically the larger the click beetle, the less high it can "jump". If it lands right side up, it wanders off about its business.  If not, it repeats the process again.

  The beetle undergoes a huge amount of acceleration when it “jumps” (on the order of 400g).  This is a lot of acceleration.  The maximum acceleration in a fighter plane doing extreme maneuvers is a bit over 10g, so this nearly 40 times what a pilot would experience.  The click beetle acceleration is over very quickly: less than 0.5 milliseconds.  The beetles muscles can’t contract that fast, so they can only “jump” by storing the energy in the elastic catch system and explosively releasing that stored energy.

Of course, leaping like that is sort of blind faith, since you don’t know where you are going to land.  Given a chance (and a rough surface like a rotting downed tree) the beetle will reach out with its legs and try to hook its “feet” to pull itself over.  That’s what happened with the one I found.

In this picture  of the beetle on its back you can see the prosternum spine extending behind the first pair of legs on the mid line of the body.

Here it’s hooked the “feet” of its first and second right legs on the rough tree trunk and has is turning over the old fashioned way.

Nearly back on its feet in this picture.

Click beetles will also do the clicking motion if you hold them between two fingers.  The “click” and snapping feeling is supposed to startle you and make you drop the beetle.  I suspect its pretty startling if you pop it in your mouth and it “clicks”.

This click beetle was found under a rotting log along the Santa Margarita RIver near Temecula, CA, which is about 1.5 hours north of San Diego.

Most click beetles feed on plants as adults. The tough click beetle larvae look like long, thin mealworms and are called wire worms. Wireworms are usually found in rich soils or decaying wood where some species feed on fungi, others on small insects and some (which can become agricultural pests) feed on roots.

References

Schmidt-Nielsen, N. (1981). Animal Physiology: Adaptation and Environment. Second Edition Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Evans, A.V., and Hogue, J.N. (2006). Field Guide to Beetles of California (California Natural History Guides). University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Mitch the rattlesnake goes to the doctor. (I suspect the name “Mitch” comes from the species name Crotalus mitchellii)

This video is from the San Diego Natural History Museum down in Balboa Park (which also houses the San Diego Zoo).  The video shows them treating “Mitch” for an infected pit organ with antibiotics.

... nor a carpet of thorns, it's just what you make of it.

Today’s picture isn’t of a rose, nor is it in the rose family (ROSACEAE), and it also doesn’t have thorns (though technically, the things we call thorns on a rose are actually prickles, not thorns or spines).  It does however have spines, though they are rather tiny (as is the entire plant).  Spines are derived from leaves, and thorns are derived from shoots.

This Fringed Spineflower (Chorizanthe fimbriata, POLYGONACEAE) was living on dry rocky soil on a ridge top in Poway, CA near San Diego.  You can see the small reddish spines that give it is name, as well as the fringed petals on the flower.  It is a common plant in Southern California and Northern Baja California growing on dry rocky slopes at elevations less than 5000 ft.  It can be nearly 1 ft tall, but is often growing recumbent across the ground.  It typically flowers from March to July. 

References

Lightner, J. (2011). San Diego County Native Plants, third edition. San Diego Flora, San Diego, CA.

...but mom is doing all the work.  This picture illustrates maternal care by the wolf spider (Family: Lycosidae - Lycos comes from the Greek word for “Wolf”), as well outstanding camouflage.  When most people think about maternal care in animals mammals and birds come to mind, by parental care is hardly restricted to those groups of vertebrates.  Since some types of wolf spiders do not make permanent burrows, when they make an egg case the mother carries the egg sac around attached to her abdomen.  When it’s time for the eggs to hatch, the mother will help open the egg sac so the babies can crawl out.  The babies crawl out and up onto their mothers back and coat the top of her abdomen clinging onto the bristle on the mother’s back.  The baby spiders can’t distinguish their mother from other spiders and will crawl onto the backs of male spiders or even spiders of different species if they are present.  These mistakes are nearly always fatal for the spiderling as they become a tasty snack.While the mother is carrying the babies she doesn’t eat, and the spiderlings use their remaining yolk.  The mother carries the tiny babies around for about a week, then they crawl off to make their own way in life.

This picture was taken near the Tecolote Canyon Nature Center in San Diego.  Wolf spiders are relatively common here, provided you are willing to stop and take notice.

References

Foelix, R.F. (1996). Biology of Spiders. Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

...though some might call it the McCooki Monster. Today’s picture is one of the wolf spiders (Family: Lycosidae) Schizocosa mccooki.  This spider is common along the west coast of the US from Washington to Southern California and across the US to the east coast.  This lovely girl was wandering around on the floor of my living room in San Diego.  These spiders do not dig burrows (as some other wolf spiders do) and are often found wandering around on the ground looking for food and/or mates. They are completely harmless to people, and while they can bite it's really unlikely they would bite you.

Below isn’t my work: its a YouTube video of courtship and mating in Schzocosa by Rachel Gilbert.  Its kind of cool to watch the male tapping to send vibration signals and waving his legs to attract the the female.

References

Adams, R.J. and Manolis, T.D. (2014). Field Guide to the Spiders of California and the Pacific Coast States (California Natural History Guides). University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

..it just keeps getting the shelves all wet.  There are two families of worms where the front end of the worm is modified into a crown of ciliated tentacles (the feather duster): the Sabellidae, and the Serpulidae. Both types of worms live within a tube that they make themselves.  The Sabellidae make their tubes out of a parchment like material, and the serpulidae make their tubes out of calcium carbonate (the same thing that makes up sea shells).  Both families use their ciliated feeding tentacles to filter tiny plankton from the water for food. Both sabellid and serpulid worms are polychaetes (which means “many hairs”, or in this case many bristles) which are cousins to the earthworms (which are oligochaetes - “few hairs”).  Polychaetes and Oligochaeates are both segmented worms in the phylum Annelida.

The bright red and white feather dusters above are the feeding tentacles of the worm Serpula vermicularis which is a member of the Serpulidae family.  This calcareous feather duster worms makes white, random, snaky  tubes cemented along one edge to a hard surface (in the picture below it was a pier piling in Puget Sound near Seattle, Washington).  When this worm pulls back into its tube (and they can do this remarkably fast) they close off the end of the tube with a red plug called an operculum.  This makes it harder for predators to eat them.

Serpula vermicularis has a huge range. It is found on the west coast of the US from Alaska to San Diego, along the European coast, and many parts of the western Pacific and Indian Oceans.

References

Morris,R.H., Abbott,D.P., and Haderlie, E.C. (1980). Intertidal Invertebrates of California. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.

This beetle with rather ornate sculpture in the elytra (outer wings) is called an Diabolical Ironclad beetle (Phloeodes diabolicus) and is in the family Zopheridae.  Ironclad beetles have incredibly hard exoskeletons.  There are supposed to be extremely hard to pin for an insect collection. I'm not sure why this animal is called “Diabolical” as they are a remarkably calm and docile beetle.

The Ironclad beetle in this picture lived under a rotting oak log in Hollenback Canyon near San Diego.  The adults and larvae feed on the fungus that helps decompose the rotting logs.

When disturbed, this beetle plays dead, laying motionless and sometimes raising its legs up like it had been partially crushed.

References

Hogue, C.L. (1993). Insects of the Los Angeles Basin. Second Edition. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA.

Evans, A.V., and Hogue, J.N. (2006). Field Guide to Beetles of California (California Natural History Guides). University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

This late night visitor was out back messing around in my tiny pond.  It was totally unafraid of me.  They live in the canyon near me and raid the houses looking for snacks.  I put some cat food out so he would hold still for a picture.  

Here’s a video of a California Trapdoor Spider (Bothriocyrtum californicum) having a Mealworm beetle (Tenebrio molitor) as a snack.  The video was taken in Tecolote Canyon Natural Park in San Diego.  It’s amazing how fast this spider is when it pops out of the hatch.

Trapdoor spiders are fairly common in portions of Tecolote Canyon.  Some of the trapdoors are beastly difficult to spot, particularly if they are hidden in the grass.  Trapdoor spiders build their homes in the ground after heavy rains when the soil is soft and easy to dig.  They build a burrow up to 30 cm (1 ft) deep with a thick D-shaped cork lid, hinged along the flat edge of the "D”.  The door is a perfect fit for their home, as the spider pull on the door from the inside while it is still flexible till the door and tube are a tight fit.  The spider also makes a handle in the still flexible silk of the trapdoor that it will hold onto with its chelicerae (fangs).  The spider can hold the door shut with a remarkable amount of force, making it difficult to pop the door open if the spider doesn’t want any visitors.  

Males seem to be less common than females, and will leave their homes in the fall to find females as mates.  The female spider lays her egg mass in the bottom of her tube, and will keep and feed her babies with her in the tube till they are ready to leave.  The young spiders leave after heavy rains when the soil is soft enough to make a new burrow.

References

Passmore, L. (1933). California trapdoor spider performs engineering marvels. National Geographic Magazine 64(2): 195–211.

Adams, R.J. and Manolis, T.D. (2014). Field Guide to the Spiders of California and the Pacific Coast States (California Natural History Guides). University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

...and also as a female (so maybe more like Mary Ann).  Today's butterfly is a Common-Checkered Skipper (Pyrgus communis).  Skippers are a group of butterflies in the family Hesperiidae. Pyrgus communis is one of the Spread-wing skippers (Subfamily: Pyrginae) which hold their wings like most other butterflies, rather than in the "jet-plane" pose as many of the common (at least in the city) skippers.  This is another far-ranging butterfly species.  Its range extends from southwestern Canada, though the whole US, and as far south southern Mexico.  Adults fly from March through October or November.  They are medium sized skippers, ranging from 25 to 38 mm (body length). The males patrol in low areas/swales most actively in the afternoon.  Females lay their eggs on the tops of leaves and on leaf buds.  Their caterpillars use silk to make a "nest" from a folded over leaf for feeding/hiding.  They hibernate as full grown caterpillars. Pyrgus communis caterpillars feed on a number of Mallow species (MALVACEAE) including Cheeseweed (Malva parviflora, MALVACEAE).

These pictures were take at Hollenbeck Canyon in San Diego County.  The picture above shows a female Pyrgus communis laying an egg on the leaf of a Cheeseweed plant.  Cheeseweed is not native to California, but rather from Europe and the Mediterranean region.  Cheeseweed grows wild in many disturbed areas and Pyrgus communis is more than willing to use it as a food source for its caterpillars.

References

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s a Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus).  Hair streaks are butterflies in the Family Lycaenidae (Blues, Coppers and Hairstreaks). This is a pretty common butterfly in Southern California, probably because it has a some what devil-may-care attitude about host foods for its larvae (caterpillars).  Unlike many species of butterflies which use a small handful of closely related plant species as a host, Strymon melinus uses over 120 different species of plants in 40 different families.  It ranges from Canada down most of North America, and down into South America as far south as Venezuela.

These pictures are of a female Strymon melinus on flower pods of Black Sage (Salvia mellifera, LAMINACEAE).  This picture shows most of the upper wings of the Gray Hairstreak as well as the orange patch on the head.

A view into the upper wings showing the fairly uniform battleship gray ground color, the “eye” spots and tails.

This picture shows a bit of the upper wings as well as the lower wings.

This side view clearly shows the Gray Hairstreak depositing an egg on the Black Sage.

The picture below shows the abdomen flexed downward to deposit an egg on the flowering pod of the Black Sage.

Hairstreaks have a habit of moving their hindwings when they are at rest, possibly to attract predators to the spots at the trailing edge of the wing.  The spots coupled with the “tails” makes it almost appear as an insect head with eyes and antennae.  The picture below shows the right hindwing slid forward over the forewing to uncover the darker gray color of the upper wings.  It also shows the butterfly laying an egg on the Black Sage.

Interestingly, there are only two species of lepidoptera listed as using Black Sage as a host plant: The Gray Hairstreak, and a Geometrid moth Pherne subpunctata found in California and Oregon.

These pictures were taken in the native plants section at the San Diego Botanic Garden in Encinitas, CA. It used to be called Quail Botanical Gardens before September 2009.

References

HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants - Cool database that lets you look up using either the plant or the butterfly/moth.

Stewart, B. (1997). Common Butterflies of California. West Coast Lady Press, Patagonia, AZ.

Emmel, T.C., and Emmel, J.F. (1973). The Butterflies of Southern California. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA.

The sea slug in this picture is the nudibranch Tritonia myrakeenae, which was first described in La Jolla, California in 1986 and named after a famous biologist/malacologist A. Myra Keen (She was a professor at Stanford University).  It is usually very tiny (5-10 mm) though it can reach up to 18 mm.  In La Jolla, it feeds on the octocoral Clavularia. Tritonia myrakeenae has the same peachy color as its prey Clavularia and is hard to spot.  The Clavularia colony grows using creeping stolons and the polyps arise at regular intervals from the stolon.  The extended polyps of Clavularia look rather like gill tufts on the back of the Tritonia.  The only hole in this Tritonia’s camouflage are the two what spots on the usually present on the dorsum.

Tritonia myrakeenae ranges from Santa Barbara, CA through Isla Cedros, Baja California, Mexico and has been found in Costa Rica.  With a range this large it seems odd that it wasn’t described till 1986. In parts of its range outside of California, it feeds on other octocorals and gorgonians.

This picture was taken at South Casa Reef (Hospital Point), La Jolla, CA.  Tritonia myrakeenae is in the suborder Dendronotacea (Trapania velox below was in the suborder Doridacea.)

References

Behrens, D.W., and Hermosillo, A. (2005).  Eastern Pacific Nudibranchs: A Guide to the Opisthobranchs from Alaska to Central America.  Sea Challengers, Monterey, CA.

Bertsch, H. and Mozqueira, O.A. (1986). A new species of Tritonia (Nudibranchia) from southern California and Baja California. The Nautilus 100(2): 46-49.

These are pictures of the nudibranch Trapania velox. A nudibranch is a type of marine mollusc (snail) that loses its shell during metamorphoses from a planktonic larvae (veliger) to a baby sea slug. The word velox from the species name means “swift”, though this slug doesn't seem all that swift.  This nudibranch lives on the west coast of North America, from Carmel, California to Bahia Tortugas, Baja California, Mexico.  Trapania velox feeds on tiny colonial animals called entoprocts that often grow on top of encrusting sponges (epizoic).

Trapania velox is a dorid nudibranch that cannot retract its gill (phanerobranch).  The gills are feather-like projections near the top-middle of the body just behind two black and yellow appendages.  There are two other black and yellow appendages near the rhinophores.  The rhinophores (which means nose-bearer) are white and yellow and are perfoliate.  Rhinophores are used as chemical sensors, so “smell” underwater.

The eggs of Trepania velox are in laid in white ribbons.

This species of nudibranch was first described in 1901 by T.D.A Cockerell from La Jolla.  The animal in these pictures was photographed at South Casa Reef (Hospital Point), La Jolla, CA.

References

Behrens, D.W. (2005).  Nudibranch Behavior. New World Publications, Jacksonville, FL.

Behrens, D.W., and Hermosillo, A. (2005).  Eastern Pacific Nudibranchs: A Guide to the Opisthobranchs from Alaska to Central America.  Sea Challengers, Monterey, CA.

Cockerell, T.D. (1901). Three nudibranchs from California. Journal of Malacology 8:85–87.

The neighbors dogs were going wild, so I stepped out back to see what was going on.  It was too dark to see anything (might have been the coyotes up on the hill), so I went back inside to my cup of peppermint tea and my book.  A few minutes later, a moth (that had slip in unannounced when I checked on the dogs) comes fluttering towards the light, then detours down to land on the rim of my tea cup.  I thought my cup was an accidental landing port, so went to get the camera for some  pictures.  When I returned, the moth appeared to be gone, since it wasn’t on the rim anymore.  As I sat back down, I noticed the moth had crawled down the inside of the cup and had its proboscis extended and was slurping up my tea.  I took some pictures before I released her back outside.  She looks like one of the Geometrid moths.  I'd never have expected a moth to like tea.  Maybe it is a British immigrant.