Yearly Archives: 2013

Eastern Forest Snail

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Snails are best known for their shell. The shell is made by the snail by a part of the body called the mantle. Snails secrete an acidic material from the sole of their foot that dissolves calcium in the soil and allows its uptake, so the shell can be created.

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Eastern Forest Snails are our most common land snail. They grow a large shell, sometimes over an inch wide. The shell is fairly flat and tan with darker blotches. There is a flared opening leading into the shell.

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They are herbivores, eating living or dead plant material. They are very important for controlling plant populations and breaking down plant materials.

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These snails can move several inches in a minute. They release an orange slime as they crawl. The slime gives them a “cushion” to crawl over. This cushion protects their soft bodies from sharp things. Snails can also use old slime trails as paths back to food or shelter.

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Land snails can be considered one of the many building blocks for the ecosystems in which they reside; providing not only a food source but accessibility to calcium. I enjoy looking at the unique, interesting patterns on their shells.

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Ironwood

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This is a tree with a few different common names. One is Blue Beech, in reference to the blue-gray, smooth bark that looks similar to American Beech. It is also known as American Hornbeam; “horn” means “tough” and “beam” means “tree” in Old English.

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It is noted for both its interesting bark and interesting mature fruits, as well as its Fall leaf colors. When found in the open, it may reach 30 feet tall and 20 feet wide. Though I’ve seen it more frequently as understory tree in mature forests.

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The smooth gray bark is one of the most distinguishing features of this tree. It has a sinewy surface resembling a muscled arm.

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Ironwood has separate male and female flowers that emerge in early May. The resulting fruit, known as a nutlet, begins to form in late May, and is surrounded by bracts. These clusters hang downwards and are another attractive aspect of this tree.

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An additional appealing feature of Ironwood is its fall color. It turns from green to yellow to a brilliant orange in late October. After finally turning brown, the leaves tend to stay on the tree well into Winter.

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Ironwood is strong and hard, but because the tree is so small, it is rarely harvested for the manufacturing of wood products. Nevertheless, it is useful for tool handles, levers, and mallets.

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This tree provides an important food source for Gray Squirrels in bottomland hardwood forests.

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Song Sparrow

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The Song Sparrow is one of the most successful and widely distributed sparrows. This well-named bird is among our greatest songsters for the complexity, rhythm and emotion of its rhapsodies.

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This bird truly lives up to its name, being one of the most persistent singers throughout the Spring and Summer. Other birds such as Mockingbirds are not able to effectively imitate their song.

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This is a rich, russet-and-gray bird with bold streaks down its white chest. It can be found all across the United States, including Alaska, though species size and color varies depending on the region where it is found.

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Look for Song Sparrows in open habitats, such as marsh edges, overgrown fields and backyards (they often visit bird feeders and build nests in residential areas).

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This bird is rather shy and hard to see unless it is singing, so sometimes in order to find one, you must look closely. The species name, melodia, is testament to this bird’s beautiful and tranquil song.

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Bumble Bee

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The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting colder. Insect life here in northeast Ohio is much harder to come by as November approaches. But on days like today it’s still possible to see Bumble Bees while hiking. The remaining Thistle and Aster flowers provide the last opportunities for them to eat until next year.

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These are large, social bees which produce annual colonies. Mated queens overwinter in the soil and emerge from hibernation in early Spring, when they feed and search for a suitable location, such as a former rodent burrow in the soil, to begin their colonies.

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Though they have a severe sting, these are beneficial insects that pollinate many native and ornamental plants. In some cases a pollen basket on the hind legs of female bees can be seen. Bumble Bees rely entirely on flowering plants for food.

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Bumble Bees have the rare physiological capability (among insects) to choose to thermoregulate. They are able to generate heat in their muscles, by shivering, to reach the required minimum temperature needed for flight.

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The length of the insect’s tongue governs its food-plant choices, with bees preferring flowers with a similar depth to their own tongue length, as this tends to maximize the rate at which they can gather nectar. Tongue length varies among species, so different Bumble Bee types with different tongue lengths tend to visit different food-plant sources.

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These insects are significant pollinators of many flowering plants throughout the native ranges with which they co-evolved mutually beneficial relationships, receiving food in return for providing pollination.

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Bumble Bees are also extremely important pollinators for agriculture. Unlike Honey Bees, their ability to thermoregulate allows them to forage under cold, rainy and cloudy conditions. This makes them excellent pollinators for a variety of crops in temperate regions.

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The common name of “Bumble Bee” possibly comes from their rather large, clumsy appearance and loud buzzing sound they make as they fly. Despite their awkward movements, scary buzzing sound and painful sting, Bumble Bees are one of the most beneficial animals in nature and they make our lives better every day.

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October 2013 Herp/Leaf Combos

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The last reptiles and amphibians of the year seen this month, along with the changing colors of Autumn leaves.

Two-lined Salamander/Red Maple
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Common Snapping Turtle/Shagbark Hickory
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Black Rat Snake/Red Oak
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Green Frog/Cottonwood
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Midland Painted Turtle/Sycamore
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Redback Salamander/Tuliptree
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Slimy Salamander/Sugar Maple
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Bonus Non-herp: Mantis/Catalpa Tree
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Turtlehead

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Turtlehead is also known as balmony, bitter herb, codhead, fish mouth, shellflower, snakehead, snake mouth and turtle bloom.

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Its scientific name is Chelone glabra. In Greek mythology, there was a nymph named Chelone who insulted the gods; in punishment, she was turned into a turtle. The flowers of this plant are said to look like the heads of turtles. In Latin glabra means smooth, because of the texture of this plant’s stems and leaves.

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I found these examples on the Ohio Erie Canal Towpath. Turtlehead is usually found along stream banks on damp ground and typically grows to a height of 2 to 3 feet. Turtlehead serves as the primary host plant for the very rare Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly, Maryland’s official state insect.

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Its flowers are in a densely packed spike at the top of the main stem. It has narrow, sharp-toothed, opposite leaves.

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This member of the Figwort/Snapdragon family has distinctive, two lipped tubular flowers are 1 to 1-1/2 inches long. The upper lip arches over the lower lip, creating the resemblance to a turtle’s head.

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American Giant Millipede

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Although the name millipede means “thousand legs,” most millipedes have more like 300; a California species, Illacme plenipes, holds the record at 666 legs.

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It’s hard enough for us to just count these legs, so it’s a real wonderment that a millipede is able to coordinate them all and move about so effortlessly by night on the forest floor.

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To prevent dehydration, they are confined to moist habitats in soils, leaf litter, or beneath stones and wood. If disturbed some millipedes protect their heads by curling into a tight spiral.

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Most millipedes feed on decomposing vegetation or organic matter mixed with soil. Millipedes are very important, because they help put nutrients back in the soil for plants and other organisms to use.

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This particular type of millipede can get to 4 inches long, making it twice as big as any other millipede native to the United States.

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In the Fall these can be seen migrating across roads, seeking places of shelter to wait out the Winter. They are not particularly common in northern Ohio, but become easier to find as you head south.

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Blanchard’s Cricket Frog

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Around here these small (about 1 inch), warty-skinned amphibians can be quite common. They are usually brown or grayish with darker banding on their legs and often have a dark triangular mark between the eyes.

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The Blanchard’s Cricket Frog is usually found in the open sandy or muddy areas around streams and ponds. They also can utilize temporary water bodies if near permanent water. I usually see them around large puddles.

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If startled, they end up hopping into the water. Though unlike most frogs which dive when alarmed, cricket frogs usually get a few feet out into water and then turn back around and head back to the shore.

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This tiny frog gets its name because it resembles a cricket while hopping along through the grass.

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It has a distinctive breeding call consisting of a rapid series of metallic clicks, similar to the sound made when two pebbles or marbles are tapped together.

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Unfortunately this species is declining rapidly across much of its entire range. I am glad to have encountered them on this trip.

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