{"id":1123,"date":"2013-09-27T23:12:08","date_gmt":"2013-09-28T03:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/?p=1123"},"modified":"2014-04-07T01:18:40","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T05:18:40","slug":"arboretum-encounter-with-a-snake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/arboretum-encounter-with-a-snake\/","title":{"rendered":"Arboretum: Encounter with a Snake"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, I heard something rustling in the grass near the Arboretum’s hickory collection. Turned out to be this garter snake<\/a> (Thamnophis sirtalis<\/i>), a skinny fellow who was quite afraid of me.<\/p>\n

\"Garter
Garter snake<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n
\nThese snakes have yellow and black stripes, a red and black tongue, and usually yellow dots on top of their head. Their scales are keeled, which means each scale has a ridge running through it.<\/p>\n
\"Scales
Scales on a garter snake<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although these snakes are harmless to humans, they look vicious when flicking their forked tongue.<\/p>\n

\"Garter
Garter snake flicking its tongue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not too far away, an eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus<\/i>) scurried next to the stone wall, its cheeks full of food. This chipmunk should watch where it goes; it could become the garter snake’s next meal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Eastern
Eastern chipmunk with food in its cheeks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A very colorful leafhopper stood still on a leaf. This is the red-banded or candy-striped leafhopper<\/a> (Graphocephala coccinea<\/i>). It has yellow legs, a blue and orange thorax, and blue and red stripes on its wings.<\/p>\n

\"Candy-striped
Candy-striped leafhopper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A side view shows the yellow head with a dark stripe running through the eye. Its wide throat looks very alligator-like.<\/p>\n

\"Candy-striped
Candy-striped leafhopper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Also hanging out was this black scavenger fly<\/a> (Sepsidae<\/i>), which feeds on decaying matter. Thanks to v belov on BugGuide for the ID.<\/p>\n

\"Black
Black scavenger fly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another shot of this fly reveals a curious behavior. It flaps its wings while walking so that they end up stationary, perpendicular to the ground.<\/p>\n

\"Black
Black scavenger fly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A black nightshade plant (Solanum nigrum<\/i>) looked to be in bad shape, its leaves curled up, with holes and brown spots. I saw this black flea beetle (Epitrix<\/i>) on the plant. Members of this genus are pests on potato plants<\/a>; black nightshade is in the potato family. Thanks to v belov on BugGuide for the ID.<\/p>\n

\"Flea
Flea beetle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few white wood aster (Eurybia divaricata<\/i>) plants grew close together, raising numerous white flowerheads.<\/p>\n

\"White
White wood aster plants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These aster flowers are still going strong, attracting pollinators.<\/p>\n

\"White
White wood aster flowers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A number of bumblebees (Bombus<\/i>) took turns collecting pollen from the flowers.<\/p>\n

\"Bumblebee\"
Bumblebee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nearby, the osage orange tree (Maclura pomifera<\/i>) had started dropping its large fruit. The fruit is wrinkled on the surface just like the human brain. There’s a theory that osage oranges are as large as they are because they were dispersed by large mammals<\/a> which have gone extinct.<\/p>\n

\"Osage
Osage orange fruit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Arboretum has some exotic trees as part of its collection. The epaulette tree (Pterostyrax hispidus<\/i>) is one of them. Native to Japan and China, its fruit hang in twisted garlands, with rust-colored hair giving it a fuzzy feel.<\/p>\n

\"Epaulette
Epaulette fruit (accession 2843-76*B)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Epaulette
Epaulette fruit close-up (accession 2843-76*B)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, I scared up a moth hiding in grass. I think this is another clover looper, but its markings aren’t as distinct as the last clover looper that I saw. Perhaps it is a forage looper.<\/p>\n

\"Possible
Possible clover looper moth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, I heard something rustling in the grass near the Arboretum’s hickory collection. Turned out to be this garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis), a skinny fellow who was quite afraid of me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,224,284,190,231,411,237,86,331,9,101,493,266,433,43,432,120,430,431,5],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1123"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1437,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123\/revisions\/1437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}