Robber Fly

Posted on March 29, 2024 by tspuckler

I have seen this cool insect from as close as just outside my back door, to both the East Coast and West Coast – and a number of places in between.

Also known as “Assassin Flies,” their common name reflects their aggressive predatory behavior; they feed mainly on other insects that they catch in flight.

Robber Flies are powerfully built. They attack their prey by stabbing it with their short, strong, pointed tubular mouthpart. They have long, strong legs that are bristled to aid in capturing prey.

The mouthpart, known as a proboscis, injects the victim with saliva containing neurotoxic and proteolytic enzymes which very rapidly paralyze the prey and soon digest the insides. The Robber Fly then sucks the liquefied material through its proboscis.

These creatures hunt a very wide range of prey, including other flies, beetles, butterflies and moths, bees, ants, dragonflies and damselflies, wasps, grasshoppers and some spiders.

Robber Flies often establish a “perching zone” in which to locate potential prey. The height of the perch may vary, but they are generally in open, sunny locations.

Though they vary widely in appearance, Robber Flies have a characteristic divot on top of the head, which is located between their especially prominent compound eyes.

Different species vary in appearance and some types mimic wasps and bees. Most species are gray-to-black and have a long, narrow, tapering abdomen containing segments that may be banded or contrasting in color.

It is fun to come across the many different types of this very interesting invertebrate wherever I go.

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Beavertail Cactus

Posted on March 22, 2024 by tspuckler

While hiking through the Arizona and Nevada desert, I often seen this classic arid-land plant. Found in the southwestern United States, it occurs mostly in the Mojave, Anza-Borrego, and Colorado Deserts, as well as in the Colorado Plateau and northwest Mexico.

Beavertail Cactus looks like the Prickly Pear Cactus, but does not have long spines. This is a medium-to-small species that grows to about a foot tall, with pink-to-rose colored flowers. This plant can be found in chaparral, desert and grassland. It grows in well drained soil composed of sand, gravel, cobble and even on boulders.

A single plant may consist of hundreds of fleshy, flattened pads. These gray-green, jointed stems are wide and flat resembling the tail of a Beaver. Although they lack spines, they have many small barbed bristles, called glochids, that easily penetrate the skin.

The Cahuilla Native Americans used this plant as a food staple. Its buds were cooked or steamed, and then were eaten or stored. Its large seeds were ground up to be eaten as mush. The Desert Tortoise enjoys eating the juicy pads and the magenta-colored flowers of this plant.

Beavertail is usually the first cactus in the Mojave Desert to bloom, flowering as early as February and through May.

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Louisiana Swamp Crayfish

Posted on March 15, 2024 by tspuckler

I have found this brightly colored crustacean while visiting both southern Nevada and southern California.

The Lousiana Swamp Crayfish is found in rivers, bayous, swamps, ditches, ponds, lakes, and rice fields throughout the southcentral United States and northeastern Mexico. It seems to prefer flooded wetland habitats with periodically flowing, well-oxygenated water. This species retreats into burrows when surface water dries up.

This creature is a physical ecosystem engineer, constructing burrows consisting of a single opening, which may be covered with a mud plug or raised above ground level in the form of a chimney to reduce evaporative loss further from the water’s edge. The opening leads to a tunnel which widens to an enlarged chamber at the end.

Crayfish are opportunistic omnivores. They can detect small amounts of blood and decomposition scents in the water to track down and feed on partially decomposed plant material, living soft plants, and virtually any type of animal matter.

The Lousiana Swamp Crayfish is a very successful invasive species. Not only can it be found in many parts of the United States where it is not native, but can also be found in inland waters on all continents except Australia and Antarctica. In the United States it is readily available though the biological supply trade and specimens and is sometimes released following classroom or laboratory use. It is also popular among anglers as bait for Largemouth Bass.

Part of the reason it is now found in other countries is importation for crayfish farming. Eating freshwater crayfish is common in many countries. The first known introductions of this species took place in the 1920s: 1924 in California and 1927 in the Hawaiian Islands, 1927 in Japan, and 1929 in China. In the mid-1960s, a batch of crayfish was sent to Uganda and Kenya, and soon afterwards, to other African countries.

The life cycle of the Louisiana Swamp Crayfish is relatively short, with an onset of sexual maturity occurring in as few as two months and a total generation time of four and a half months. Although they look attractive (for a crustacean), this species competes aggressively with native crayfish species for food and habitat.

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Black-headed Grosbeak

Posted on March 8, 2024 by tspuckler

While hiking on Mount Charleston, Nevada (near Las Vegas), I spotted a bird which I have never seen before. In western North America the sweet song of the Black-headed Grosbeak caroling down from the treetops sounds like a tipsy American Robin welcoming Spring. The flashy black, white, and cinnamon males and the less flamboyant females sing from perches in desert thickets, mountain forests, and suburbs.

This bird eats pine and other seeds, berries, insects, spiders and fruit. During the Summer, it mostly eats spiders and insects, switching to seeds and berries in the Fall and Winter. At feeders they effortlessly shuck sunflower seeds with their heavy bills.

The Black-headed Grosbeak is one of the few birds, along with the Black-backed Oriole, that can safely eat the poisonous Monarch Butterfly. This species consumes many Monarchs, perhaps over one million per year in the overwintering colonies in Mexico. They eat them in roughly 8-day cycles, apparently to give themselves time to eliminate the butterfly’s toxins.

This bird prefers to live in deciduous and mixed wooded areas. It likes to be in areas with large trees and thick bushes, such as patches of broadleaved trees and shrubs within conifer forests, including streamside corridors, river bottoms and suburban areas.

The Black-headed Grosbeak’s scientific name is well-suited. Its species name, melanocephalus, means “black-headed.” And its genus name, Pheucticus, refers either to the Greek pheuticus for “shy” or phycticus meaning “painted with cosmetics,” fitting for a showy bird that forages in dense foliage.

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Indian Paintbrush

Posted on March 1, 2024 by tspuckler

While hiking on Mount Charleston in Nevada I came across a number of wildflowers; this one was particularly distinctive.

Indian Paintbrush is a hemiparasite, meaning that although it is green and can photosynthesize, it also has the ability to sequester nutrients from other organisms, in this case, perennial grasses.

Despite being parasites for part of their lives, these plants, like other flowering plants, rely on pollinators for reproduction. A variety of insects visit Indian Paintbrush flowers, especially bees. This is somewhat surprising since the color red is difficult for insects to see.

However, like most red flowers, it is especially adapted for pollination by hummingbirds. Hummingbirds have long bills that allow them to reach the nectar rewards at the end of long, tubular flowers.

Ironically, this plant was used by Native Americans as both a love charm in food and as a poison used to against their enemies, as this species is known to have toxic properties.

Indian Paintbrush generally prefers sunlight and moist, well drained soils. Their root systems connect with and grow into the root systems of other planets to harvest nutrients from their host plants. For this reason, they are not able to be transplanted easily.

That red color we so often admire is actually bracts, or specially modified leaves, as opposed to flowers. The plant’s true flowers are actually smaller, slender green growths hidden among the bracts.

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Monthly Archives: March 2024

Robber Fly

Beavertail Cactus

Louisiana Swamp Crayfish

Black-headed Grosbeak

Indian Paintbrush