Tuesday, April 28, 2009

WVW survey sheet

If you're interested, this is what our survey sheet for West Virginia Whites looked like. More information about the butterfly and the plants that affect it, as well as extra survey sheets can be found at http://leapbio.org/west_virginia_white.php

Sunday, April 26, 2009

04-25-09 Girdled Road Butterflies

Today Lin of the Ohio Lepidopterists joined the Future Scientists in surveying for the increasingly rare West Virginia White butterfly at Girdled Road Reservation. Throughout the day, the group viewed five mourning cloak butterflies and one West Virginia White. Many good wildlflowers were seen, including the native mustards cut-leaf toothwort, two-leaved toothwort, and spring cress. Of course, other bits and pieces of weirdness were also observed along the way, some of which are pictured below. (Views of the butterflies were too fleeting for photo ops!)
The above photo is of a short-winged blister beetle. This beetle can secrete goo from the legs of its joints as self defense against pugnatious pests like ants...and people. The insect's common name is apt for its ability to cause blisters in people when enough concentration of goo is released. When disturbed, this insect is also known to play dead by lying on its side, as pictured in the second photo. These blister beetles do not bite people, but they do have a weird life cycle where they do parasitize bees. When the mobile larvae hatch, they climb plants seeking to catch a ride on bee passers-by back to their nests. There, the larvae transform into grody grubs and feast on their bee hosts before turning into vegetarian adults.
The red-bellied snake is also a critter that may play dead for safety, exposing its bright underside which can also be quite startling. Sadly however, this snake was not playing, as our friend the blister beetle was. Red-bellied snakes have many enemies in the wild, including birds, ground squirrels, raccoons, cats, shrews and other snakes. However, this one probably succumbed to an animal with more bone-crunching power: horse. Watch yourself on the bridle trail.

While not uncommon, the red-snake is not often seen, so this was a cool find! Check this page to see its range in Ohio.
We cannot end the blog with morbidity/mortality, so here's a picture full of hope and promise! The Future Scientists also stumbled across a goose nest. A quick photo was taken before leaving the nest as it was found. The young gosling-to-be just might be a lepidopterist some day...

Please stay tuned for awesome toad action in blog-to-come.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

04-18-09 Chytrid Testing

Naturalist Tim Krynak led the Future Scientists through amphibian chytrid testing this week at the North Chagrin Reservation. Chytrid (short for Chytridiomycosis) is a genus of water-bourne fungus that is thought to be a major player in the global amphibian decline. To read more about chytrid, a good overview can be found here. To read more about the Future Scientists' session, scroll down below!
Before testing, the Future Scientists found a garter snake. Jonathan got musked. Chuck-Norris style.
How to look scientific:
Clipboard: check.
Nets: check.
Fancy glove: double check.

Here's a pickeral frog we caught for testing. Note the rectangular spots and the yellow leg-flash.
This little piggy went to the market... This little piggy stayed home... This little piggy got tested for Chytrid.
Redback salamander. Looks menacing, doesn't it?

No, we are not measuring the perfect finger-to-thumb ratio of this lovely hand-model. Somewhere, there is a salamander whose snout-to-vent ratio is being scrutinized.
The Future Scientists also got to help put in some pool measuring posts!

Mount Union College will be running the tests for our Chytrid sampling. If you are interested in finding out the results, keep up with the blog and results will be posted as they come in.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Let's make some fish!

At the Linesville Fish Hatchery open house, we had the pleasure of seeing how fish are made!

Don't pick the males off the tree yet.

Males + Females = Eggs! If you look closely, you can see some of the babies (literally small fry) swimming around.
That's how many.
One of these guys is not in the Future Scientist program. Can you guess which one?
(Hint: radioactive skin)
Can you find the golden rainbow trout?

Speaking of golden rainbow trout, you can read more about the interesting selective breeding process that created this creamy delight at this Pensylvania Fish and Boat Commission page. Apparently, all golden rainbow trout alive today were derived from one oddly colored individual back in the 1950's. Wackygenes!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Newt treadmill video

You can view the newt treadmill video here.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Pymatuning spillway carp

No words needed.
If you pay attention to one of the videos, you can see that Eli is just about to be sucked into the ether by the Force.

Videos here and here.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Six spotted fishing spider

Remember this guy (gal)? It was caught back at the Grand River Terraces at the first pond we visited in the midst of the field. This is a type of fishing spider, aptly named for the six dark spots below its abdomen. Above its abdomen, there are twelve white spots. Whoever named this spider must've been an underside lookerer. If this spider were just discovered today, perhaps we would've named it a six-legged fishing spider.

Here is a site with more nice photos of this type of spider and some interesting information.

One cool fact about fishing spiders is their ability to trap air bubbles with the hairs on their body or their legs so that they can breathe underwater.

This six-spotty does not get as large as the fishing spider we found in the fall.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

04-04-09 Sad Shad

At the Northwest end of the Pymatuning reservoir, there was a great view of an eagle's nest. There were also views of dead/dying American shad. Click here for a video we shot of one of these fish struggling to survive.

A naturalist at the Linesville fish hatchery remarked that these fish were stocked in the reservoir, but were accustomed to a warmer clime, thus resulting in many deaths through the winter. You can check this Animal Diversity Web article for more interesting information on the American shad. The article mentions that 2-3 degrees C is the lower limit of temperature at which the fish can generally survive.
If you know your fish and determine that this is not a shad - please comment below or forever hold your peace. Jeff does not know his fish! This fish's personal identity has also been partially concealed by a strategically placed plant across the eye.

In the background of the above fish video, you can also hear spring peepers doing their thing (thang). There was a large pond with some open area in the back of the woods where the low rumbling call of leopard frogs was also heard.