Arizona: Beetles, Bugs, Birds and more

A couple of weeks ago we received a new tag for our second youngest dog, Bilbo. To our surprise he will be eight years old in October 2014 according to the paperwork. Can that be? We still call him and Frodo 'the puppies'.

In December of 2006 our three older dogs, Tana, Cody, and Laika, had firmly established their pack and territory when they found two backpacks at our fence with the State Trust Land. Someone had gone out of his way to hide them there in a the place far away from any road or trail. Anyway, I heard loud squealing and found that Cody was roughly grabbing one of two small puppies that had been left out there with a little food and water. That afternoon we were about to drive to Tempe to set up my art booth for a three day show. No time to take care of puppies. So we called the sheriff. But in the meantime the male puppy ran away, probably because Cody was so aggressive towards him. The sheriff arrived and sat in his car with the female pup, waiting for the arrival of animal care officer, meanwhile fell in love with the pup and convinced his girlfriend to adopt her. We all searched for her sibling until we had to give up because it got dark. At night while we were setting up my tent in Tempe the temperature fell to a rare 19 Degree Fahrenheit. We couldn't stop thinking about the little guy out in the cold with only our resident coyotes for company. Randy drove back to Tucson in the morning. The pup had come back to his backpack!

When I came home three days later, the tiny dog was 'quarantined' in the old goat pen, living in what Randy called an igloo. To me the little structure of cardboard and blankets looked more like a miniature Native American sweat lodge. The pup was smaller than our cats, too short to drink from the cattle tank that the other dogs use, too short for the steps to the patio, too short to climb in Randy's lab, and short enough to walk underneath Tana, who had the shortest legs of the bunch so far.

But even though one of his legs still showed an ugly bump where Cody had grabbed him, the little guy was ready to join the pack! And the three older ones did tolerate him now under Randy's supervision. Their tails were still raised tensely and Cody wrinkled his nose, but soon enough the new kid joined the fun.

In 2006 Cody and Laika were still quite young and very much into rough-housing and wrestling. But when the dust cleared the pup was usually still (or again) on his crooked legs with those over-sized paws ... Tolkien's description of a Hobbit came to mind, and so 'Bilbo Baggins' it was ... The 'Lord of the Ring' movies came out some time later, but people who ask for his name still don't understand the reference.... it must be my accent.
Another question always comes up, but remains unanswered: what breed is he. When I take him with me to art shows, he is very much admired. He really is a good looking dog: The floppy ears finally stood straight up and the bow-legs stretched. He stopped growing at about 40 pounds. The coat is a rich brown with a slight hint of a ridge on his back, and he carries his tail in a nice curve. He is muscular and elegantly proportioned. At four years old his voice broke, so he doesn't really bark anymore, but he can howl with the best and makes low growling pleasure noises when he roles and wiggles to scratch his back. He is crazy about cattle, but he is no workaholic herder. He doesn't resemble any breed I know, but he looks like the ultimate, classical dog. You can find his likeness in frescoes of Egyptian pyramids, in Roman sculptures, in depictions of Australian Dingos and in kids drawings.

Randy calls him the motor of the pack who drives the others to run and play. Laika encouraged this from the beginning: when Bilbo was still tiny, she rolled over for him whenever he grabbed her throat, so they could play even though her wolf-legs were more than twice as long as his.

But his best friend was Tana: they spooned in her bed when it was cold, and every morning he thoroughly groomed her face. She had developed a wart on her forehead, a common skin problem in huskies. It was unsightly but harmless, so we hadn't done anything about it. After some time with her new groomer, the wart shrank and disappeared.

Bilbo didn't get to spend a lot of time as the spoiled youngest kid. In February of 2007 Frodo was born in a den in the desert, and three months later he joined the pack. For a short while, he looked up to Bilbo as his admired older brother, but very soon they became partners in crime: equals when it came to chewing shoes and pillows, un-potting lettuce plants, uprooting cacti, and terrorizing the cats.

We quickly learned to always keep one of them leashed during our walks, or we would have to wait at least half a day for them to come home. Together they would visit all our far-away neighbors, sit for hours with the cattle in the state land, drive squirrels into chollas, dig for lizards, flop down in puddles ... but they always eventually showed up together, happily panting and in time for dinner.

So Bilbo and Frodo became, and still are, simply 'the pups'.

The one thing that Bilbo gets to do more often than the other dogs, and without his alter ego Frodo, is booth-sitting at my art shows. He is easy going with other dogs and he likes all humans. He doesn't love everybody, as Cody might, but he is polite and entertaining and not too distracting from my art work, I hope.

watercolor painted from Apache Junction in 1995

A giant monolith, Superstition Mountain, rises to the height of 3,000 feet above the surrounding desert floor and dominates the eastern fringe of the Salt River Valley east of the metropolitan area of Phoenix.

When I lived in Scottsdale I loved hiking to Weavers Needle or up the Siphon Trail, but I always found the iconic shape of Superstition Mountain an intimidating and awkward topic for a painting. Last week I tried again to meet that challenge. It was the third time I think. With more distance, I'm living in Tucson now, I approached it after acquiring a little more background knowledge which always helps. But I think most importantly, I didn't try to sit out there in June to do a plein air study. I did that before: it's too hot for watercolors (and me). So I turned to my old slides for inspiration and did a studio painting.

Plein air study in June of 1997

From the web site of the Apache Junction Public Library I got a little more than the usual 'Lost Dutchman Mine Story'. To the Apaches the mountain was the home of the god of thunder. Having seen huge anvil clouds amassing around the mountain top before summer monsoons, I understand that notion.The Pima Indians called it Ka-Katak-Tami meaning "The Crooked Top Mountain." The Spaniards called it Sierra de espuma (Foam Montain? not quite clear to me). The Pimas had many fearful stories about it, which seems to have given rise to the name Superstion Mt. among white settlers. It appears under this name on military maps from 1870.

The website explains the geology of the strange shape that rises so abruptly out of the desert flats: 'This land of towering spires and deep canyons was formed by volcanic upheaval some 29 million years ago during the tertiary period of geologic time. Superstition Mountain was formed during a tectonic maelstrom which resulted in a massive caldera. The caldera was almost seven miles in diameter. After the lava cooled, magma pushed the center of the caldera upward forming a mass of igneous rock. The mass was slowly eroded for millions of years by running water and wind forming the mountain we see today. Superstition Mountain in the distant past was a thousand feet higher than it is today. Uplift, subsidence, resurgence and erosion have all played a role in shaping Superstition Mountain.'

Large studio painting, watercolor, 2014

Superstition Mountain close to Apache Junction is only the most well-known part of the Superstition Wilderness Area containing some 242 square miles or 159,780 acres of Arizona's rugged desert mountain terrain. Mountain peaks tower 6,000 feet above sea level and deep canyons dissect this vast wilderness region. The lower slopes are a great place to experience exuberant spring flower blooms in years with just the right pattern of winter rains. Down there, the summer heat can be brutal. But I did see my very first Collared Lizard there, running on two legs like a miniature Tyrannosaurus rex. The higher, more remote areas support even Ponderosa Pines and are the home to Bighorn Sheep, Black Bears and Mountain Lions.
This year I'll definitely be back for more exploration, hikes, and maybe paintings, who knows.

On January 26th, I found my first active (sort of) rattler of the year at the Santa Cruz River Path in Marana, Pima Co Arizona, USA.

When I was walking my 4 dogs, camera and binoculars around my neck, a lady informed me of a run-over little snake just ahead. I said: 'run-over on this path, what a pity'. She responded 'I'm only telling you so your dogs won't freak out.' When we found the little rattler it was stretched out and quite stiff, but seemed unharmed. He was obviously cold and trying to warm up on the sunny pavement. Only a little over one foot long he had already accumulated several rattle elements. By the way, it's a myth that one can tell the snake's age in years by the number of those. After a little coaxing with a piece of straw the rattler woke up, buzzed indignantly, and moved out of the bike path. My 4 dogs were staring at him with too much interest and too little fear for my taste.

Check out how his winter weight-loss shows at his tail-end: his skin is throwing two big folds there.

When I posted the story on fb, someone remarked that this might be a Mojave Rattler, and I think that is possible. Going back through my earlier slides, I found that there were always a few among all the Diamondbacks that I photographed. It's not too difficult to tell them apart conclusively, but you have to take a closer look at them than I sometimes do. Here is a link to a blog written when I did.

On the same walk we saw two Northern Harriers, both gold-brown, a Red-tail, a Cooper's, the territorial Kestrel, a group of Lawrences's Goldfinches, a Belted Kingfisher, several Abert's Towhees, some Mallards, and flying overhead, two clouds of thousands of birds. The first cloud consisted of sparrow sized birds and I couldn't tell what they were, the second was made up of Blackbirds, mostly yellow-headed, and grackles.A lonely Monarch was fluttering among the willows along the river.

My friend Carol and I used another beautiful, sunny Arizona winter day for a visit to a series of recharge ponds in Gilbert close to Phoenix. I think Carol was a little disappointed how crowded the park was with dog walkers, noisy kids and people yelling into their cell phones. No, wait that last one is my own peeve. But the birds were there, even if some species that I was expecting were hiding Love Birds and Osprey) or hadn't arrived this year (phaleropes), and the light was gorgeous after we finally got the sun behind us.

Black-necked stilts dominated the flat areas, some Avocets mingled with them.

Pin-tails and Green-winged Teals populated the only partly flooded fields.

There were more Canada Geese than we had ever seen anywhere in Arizona.

The Kestrel pair was in hot pursuit of a Cooper's Hawk.

I finally saw a nice group of Inca Doves again, in Tucson I am experiencing Inca-withdrawal.

Blue Herons were resting on the artificial platforms, Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets were showing off their wispy breeding plumage.
We enjoyed seeing Ring-necked Ducks dive into the depth of the deepest pond and pulled out Sibley's to find out that a group of females that stayed apart were Scoups, not Ring-necks.

I was using my little Canon that hasn't seen a lot of action yet. I am happy with the image quality when the lens was extended lens and also when I was shooting into the water without a pol filter. The coots feet here are submersed.

The introduced Sliders were a lot of fun even though it's a real shame that people just drop them in the wild when they outgrow the cute faze. Obviously no problem for the sliders, but the local ecosystem may suffer from it.

Not to forget the mammals: Cotton Rats and Bunnies were rather used to the milling humans but we missed the famously tame coyote.

The only photogenic insects were Variegated Meadowhawks that showed up as soon as it got nice and warm.

I smelled a nearly sickly sweet fragrance and heard lots of bees buzzing. Not equipped with the superior senses of an insect I had a hard time finding the source of the smell. No blooming citrus tree and way too early for the Queen of the Night. No visible flowers at all. So I followed a bee. It took me to a juicy green clump of desert mistletoe in an otherwise rather bare mesquite tree. Of course! The parasitic Desert Mistletoe Phoradendron californicum has to produce its tiny green flowers before the host tree leafs out and makes it invisible.

Desert Mistletoe flowers make up for their lack of visual appeal by sending out a very strong olfactory signal. The flowers were crawling with Africanized Honey Bees, several species of syrphids, and other flies. So obviously, both pollen and nectar were offered.

Syrphid Fly nectaring and Honeybee collecting pollen

Other mistletoe clumps in the vicinity were already several step ahead in the propagation cycle: ripening berries were changing from a whitish green color into a reddish blush: the next participant in the drama is a bird, and birds need optical clues.

Ripe Berries of Desert Mistletoe

Sure enough, our main mistletoe-berry eaters, the Phainopeplas had come back to the desert a while ago and the shiny black males were claiming mistletoe-carrying trees as their territories. Phainopeplas belong to the Silky Flycatchers, but like their relatives, the waxwings, they rely on berries as a major part of their diet. During his territorial display however, the singing male sits on an exposed branch, flying up periodically, flashing the white spots in his wings, and landing on his perch again. These motions are quite similar to the behavior of an insect-hunting flycatcher.

A Phainopepla male has claimed an Ironwood tree with a big mistletoe plant

Claiming and defending a territory in the Sonoran Desert flatland is part of the double life that these birds lead. They raise an early brood here in spring, in a solitary nest close to big mistletoe mistletoe bunches with ripening berries. When this food source is exhausted and the desert becomes hot and inhospitable, The phainopeplas move on to cooler mountainous and riparian habitats where they raise a second brood on a more mixed diet consisting of berries and insects, this time as peaceful colony breeders with several nests per tree.

in early April these fledgelings are ready to move to the mountains

But while in the desert, Phainopleplas are the main vector species for the parasitic desert mistletoe, meaning they are responsible for the distribution of the seeds to new host trees. Each mistletoe berry contains several large seeds. Like many seeds, they pass the digestive system of birds unharmed, maybe even stimulated to germinate.

piling all the seeds on one branch seems not be so good for dispersal of the parasite. Photo Ned Harris

A single Phainopepla eats over 1000 mistletoe berries per day. Since the bird usually perches in the upper branches of trees, it is likely that most of its droppings will land on lower branches. The seeds themselves are equipped with a layer of a very sticky glue (?) ensuring that they will stay in place on the bark. Not even our rare rains dislodge them.

Seeds from a bird dropping on a mesquite branch. Notice the little red roots

Very quickly each seeds sends out a root that searches for a crack in the bark to enter the trees tissue. The root tip divides into several 'suckers' that may produce chemicals to fool the cells of the tree to allow them to insert themselves without rejection. Many parasites use some kind of chemical mimicry. The suckers will eventually find the cambium of the tree and tap into the xylem, the water transport system. The tree will then provide the mistletoe with water and the essential trace elements that are carried with the water from the soil. Desert mistletoe resides nearly exclusively on leguminous trees (Palo Verde, Ironwood, Mesquite, Acacia) so it has also access to organically bound nitrates provided to the trees by their symbiotic root bacteria. Mistletoe leaves are reduced to scales but its branches are green and chlorophyll-loaded and able to photosynthesize all the sugar the plant needs. So mistletoe does not tap into the trees sugar transport lines, the phloem. This type of parasitism is called hemi (half) parasitism or partial parasitism.

A Foothills Paloverde carrying a big mistletoe plant. Note that the branches above the parasite is mostly dead

Parasites ideally do not kill their hosts. To do so would kill the parasite as well. But besides the water and nutrient drain, the multitude of drooping mistletoe branches that are up 1 meter long place a heavy burden on our small desert trees. After the frequent strong windstorms I often find branches with mistletoe that have been torn off the trees. Of course, Palo Verde trees are supposedly able to shed branches under adverse conditions to be able to survive. But to me those dying branches seem to indicate the impending death of the tree within the next couple of years.

Most old Ironwood trees are crippled and contorted with huge tumor like growths. This seems to start around mistletoe infestations. I cannot say whether the mistletoe itself causes the tree to produce these growths, or if the trees are trying to encapsulate the parasite, or if the parasite has caused a secondary infection by giving tumor inducing bacteria an entrance point. At any rate, the tumors usually seem to start as 'brooms' which appear when all the sleeping eyes of a branch begin to grow in an unregulated fashion. Mistletoe is usually mixed in with the trees branches.

'Broom' tumor on Ironwood. These usually contain mistletoe as well as Ironwood sprouts

Under the current conditions of continued drought many heavily mistletoe-infested trees will die. More than ever, water is the limiting factor in the desert, and water is what this partial parasite is sucking from the trees. But as usual, their is not only one reason for the decline. The quarry tailings in the background have contributed to a change in the watertable and the run-off from the mountains. Even though our desert trees are among the record holders in root length, old trees along washes that no longer run cannot adjust to those changes.

While I don't believe that mistletoe in natural areas should be managed (as many visitors to our parks request), on our own land where we enjoy a very limited number of old, big trees, we try to break the mistletoe bushes off the host plants every couple of years.

Seeds on a fence post

But we do not cut off the infested branches, and thus the parasites often grow back. We are just hoping to reduce the seed production and the spread to other trees somewhat. But we are also surrounded by state land with healthy mistletoe and phainopepla populations so right now seeds are not only germinating on tree branches but also on my car, in our window screens, on the roof, on fence posts ...

ps: I am surprised how few mistletoe plants are infesting the leguminous trees around Sweetwater in Tucson and the ponds around the Gilbert Water Ranch. While the banks are covered in mesquite and Palo Verdes grow along the paths, we found neither mistletoe nor Phainopeplas during our last visits.

pps: there will be a lecture about this topic at the Santa Rita Experimental Range this Saturday:

Discovery Saturday Illustrated Talks:

'Dung-on-a-twig': mistletoe studies at SRER are teaching us about ecology, evolution, and vector-borne diseases

· WHEN: Saturday February 8, 2014, 9:30 – 11 AM, followed by a potluck lunch

· WHERE: Florida Station, SRER headquarters, Classroom – Discovery Center

· WHO: Jennifer Koop, & Nicolas Alexandre, University of Arizona, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Too bad that I have an art show in SaddleBrook this weekend and cannot go!

Unexpected and frankly uninvited breakfast visitors dropping in literally from the sky. Turns out the pilot is an old acquaintance but the landing in our backyard was not at all planned.

The monster gets packed up, but by now my coffee is cold and I'm late for my show in SaddleBrook - luckily we set up yesterday and all I'll have to do is open my tent - after getting there, it takes about an hour.

A pretty little show with pleasant neighbors and appreciative customers. The guy across from me sells ocarinas and plants ear-worms into my head (does one say that in English? In German Ohrwuermer are songs that you can't get rid of anymore). Great discussion with a customer: So sad that rattlers now loose their rattles (she meant the behavior, not the body part). I: that's a myth. She: but it's in National Geographics! She leaves with her faith in our rattlers restored and her believe in everything printed shaken.

After closing the show for today, a photo stop at Catalina State Park to take the first reference photos for a painting of Push Ridge that a customer is interested in. There will be plain air sketches and visits under different light conditions before the final painting can be tackled.

By the time I cross the Tucson Mountains into Saguaro National Park on my way home, the sun is setting. Feierabend! (look it up. It's one of the most useful German words)

Not quite. At home the phone is ringing. A customer has decided (and gotten the OK from his wife) that he wants a big framed print of my team of Belgians. We discuss price, framing, the fact that there will be tax.... non-glare glass, a different mat....great, another sale! Now the printer is running, the double mat drying (they get glued together so the cuts stay lined up perfectly)....

I thought the pizza was cooking in the meantime, but it turns out that I had put all the ingredients on the pie, and turned on the oven, but never put the pizza in....Oh, well, that happens, but by now it starts to smell delicious.
Now I only have to cut the inner mat, mount the print, remember to sign it, frame it.... take it to the show tomorrow, and convince the customers that it really needs a companion piece ... well, at least I will take a matching frame with me.

Oh, and now eat the pizza and watch a movie, Randy just showed me our choices, I think we should go for ...I think I will sleep well through whatever we pick.

A pretty normal Saturday.

She's back! The dark-morph Red Tail Hawk that I introduced in this blog in 2011 and who every year successfully raised a brood in one of two saguaros in the state trust land next to our property is on her old nest again. In January I found some green boughs of creosote and mistletoe hanging from the one of the old nests, indicating activity. I also watched the distinctive dark hawk defend her territory against a visiting Harris Hawk. But that chase took her way south into Picture Rocks, miles from the old location, so I thought she might have moved? Three weeks ago, a very light hawk took off from the saguaro nest. Now I think that that was her mate, so they were already incubating. Hawks start that process after the first egg is laid, while some other birds, especially our Gamble's Quail in the chicken family, wait until the clutch is complete before the female sits down to incubate. Two different strategies: raptor chick hatch in sequence. That spreads the risk and allows the parents in bad times to concentrate on raising only the bigger first born(s). The precocious quail babies have to be ready to leave the nest together, so they need to hatch simultaneously.

Raptors should not be disturbed when they sit on eggs because they may leave them. They are much more devoted to the hatched chicks and not as easily discouraged at that time. So we waited until today with our next visit.
We stayed so far away that even with binoculars I couldn't tell whether there was a bird on the nest. I took some photos anyway and could then see in the blown up image that it is the dark female again! But even though I was at least 500 meters from the nest and in the cover of a wash she still took offense and flew up. But she did not leave the area.

Landing on a near by saguaro she scolded and screamed and then took to the air to follow my retreat closely, and Randy thought he saw the male high above in the sky. I did not get to peak at the nestlings. The dark female has always been extremely protective, and she really doesn't like human visitors. So no wonder that her nest is nearly exactly in the middle between the road, the quarry, and our land, as far as possible from each location. We will leave her alone again, most of the time. I wish her success and another pair of healthy chicks!

Our patio garden - a mix of local and exotic early bloomers

It's March, and the 'garden' part of our property is erupting in color. We plant a few exotics like aloes close to the house. They are succulent low water-users from Africa, so they do well here in Arizona. Hummingbirds, Gila Woodpeckers and Verdins love them, but as most imported flowers, they are rather useless for our endemic insects.

Anthophora sp. female at Penstemon flowers, their specialty. Photo Terry Stone

Anthophora sp. males visit the flowers rarely, and always early in the morning

In our backyard the exotics are mixed with locals like Penstemon, Brittle Bush and Creosote Bushes that are all in full bloom too. Each species is visited by a distinctly different group of endemic bees and flies.

Only Honey Bees go wherever they find pollen and nectar. They are imported from Europe and the Middle East, also from Africa, so no wonder that they like Aloes flowers

Andrena male (right) approaching a presumed female

On the yellow Brittle Bush discs, several species in the mining bee genus Andrena are extremely active. They were nearly completely missing last year after a severe freeze in late February. I am not saying that the bees had not survived, but their usual synchronization with the Brittle Bush bloom was totally off. Instead, last year we saw an abundance of Sand Wasps, that are usually much rarer.

Sand Wasp Steniolia sp.

After this very warm winter the Andernas are back in their usual high numbers. Especially the males contribute to the buzz around the bushes. They try to mate with everything of the right size. Pairs in copula are nearly impossible to photograph because most mating attempts end in an undignified tumble off the flower.

mating Andrena pair

Mating flies are much easier to capture, even though the next example is a tiny fruit fly. There are several species in this group, like the Sunflower Seed Maggot Fly, that lay their eggs into the developing seeds of composite flowers.


Euarestoides acutangulus

Several species in the syrphid genus Copestylum were feeding on Brittle Bush nectar, among them the huge Mexican Cactus Fly that is a convincing Carpenter Bee mimic.

Palpada furcata, Copestylum mexicanum (Mexican Cactus Fly), Eristalis sp.

Most Copestylum species in Arizona lay their eggs in dead or injured cacti so their huge maggots can develop in the unlimited resources of for example a decaying saguaro.

Copestylum avidum

The pair in the photo was actually flying around together and probably wasn't planning to use the perfectly healthy little Christmas Cholla as a larval host.


Eupeodes volucris (Bird Hover Fly)

Here is another syrphid fly. While the adults of Eupeodes volucris also like nectar, they are also drawn by aphid populations on the flower stems. Aphids are the main food of the larvae.

Nomada sp

Any place where many insects that collect and store food for their offspring regularly appear, like here Mining and Honey Bees, attracts also brood predators that want their kids to go along for the ride. These may lay eggs on the flowers or on captured males or females of the target species, or the parasite follows them home to then throws her own eggs into the open nest entrance. They are often related bees like the Nomada species above (Cleptoparasites of Andrena and others).

Eupompha elegans

Lytta auriculata (Red-eared Blister Beetle)

Blister beetles also lay their eggs on the underside of flowers hoping that their hatchling larvae will find their way into a bee's nest by hitching a ride on a flower-visiting adult. Lytta auriculata showed up for the first time on our Brittle Bush.

Hemipenthes sp.

Bee fly females can often be seen hovering over the entrance of a ground bee nest, tossing their eggs into it in a characteristic forward thrust.

Mecaphesa sp. Flower Crab Spider

Of course the flower visitors are also assaulted by a number of direct predators that are waiting close to the nectar sources. I would have completely overlooked the flower crab spider in its camouflage if I hadn't seen the contrasting spec of its prey.

Zelus renardii (Leafhopper Assassin Bug)

Ambush bugs may be much better hidden on flowers by color and shape than this assassin bug Zelus renardii, but her leafgreen color and stealthy approach give her a wider hunting range.

So I am looking forward to our Brittle Bush bloom every spring, and I don't mind at all that we find more young plants every year. They only grow on the artificial patio elevation anyway, I suspect that the caliche layer under the undisturbed soil does not agree with them. They pretty much dry up during between April and mid July and come alive again during the monsoon.

By the time the Brittle Bush flowers are drying up and the gold finches are beginning to investigate them for seeds, the first cacti are blooming, usually Beavertail Prickly Pear and Arizona Hedgehog.

But this year the Lady Finger Cactus (Echinocereus pentalophus) has beaten them by a couple of days. Little green sweat bees, Augochlorella sp. are buzzing the flowers

Even after the flowers are all wilted, Brittle Bush still offers something to the local bee population: Megachile Leafcutter Bees are cutting the tapestry for their nest chambers from the leafs.

I feel so lucky that I was able to make my two passions into working carriers. I studied biology and pursued that education through masters and Ph.D. Research and teaching positions took me to many different countries in Europe, New Zealand and the US. Right now Mexico and Central America are my great love. Parallel to being a biologist, I built my business as a watercolor painter. I could not imagine to live without this outlet for my creativity, and nowadays the income from my art allows me the freedom to follow my own interests in the scientific field. So I was able to shift from the rigors of research in physiology and teaching medical school to the pleasure of doing mostly field work in entomology.
Arizona proved to be the ideal place to sell my kind of art and happens to be in the heart of one of the riches areas of biodiversity on the globe. Luckily, my husband who grew up in California shares my love for the desert and was happy to move here. We bought enough land to have our own little nature preserve, allowing us a very intimate association with the Sonoran Desert and a house with ample studio space (at least we thought so at the time). Today my continued interest in insect macro photography is at the basis of most of my studies and even some of my art, and I am hoping that one day the result will be an illustrated field guide to Arizona's beetles and bugs.

I was surprised how much I enjoy selling my work at open-air shows. I love the contact with people who are drawn to my paintings. I actually managed to change from a shy introvert into a rather out-going person. Nothing is a good for your ego as a constant stream of happy art show visitors! And of course it doesn't hurt when their appreciation results in sales. We are a materialistic society, and when people spend their hard earned money on my work it is a validation of my art that I appreciate far beyond the monetary income. I know. I could also try to compete in national shows for ribbons and prizes awarded by educated jurors. But I like the popular vote for now.

The art shows take me to very pleasant parts of southern and central Arizona and even though they can be physically exhausting, there are worse ways to spend a weekend. Another reason that my two carriers work out well together is that the show season in southern and central Arizona lasts from October to April. Insect activity slows down even in Arizona during this period, except for a few winter active sand dune specialists in the Yuma area. I usually find some time to spend with them, too. Shows are just weekend affairs. While my small business is very time consuming, it allows me to freely manage most of my time.
A few select summer shows provide me with a good reason to get out of the heat and into the higher elevation breeding grounds of some very interesting insect species, so that works just fine, too. I have also found that is great to combine these shows with presentations and field tours for naturalists. So nature festivals have become another fun venue.

A big factor in all out-door shows is the weather. I began participating in tent shows in the mid nineties. Back then the winter rains were a reliable problem that forced me to upgrade my tent to industrial strength and weather-proof every aspect of my set up. We tried space heaters, spot lights, clear front walls to be closed when the rain blew in ... Even big shows in Tempe were apt to close down when Sky Harbor airport reported snowfall.
But over the last years, the climate has changed markedly. Excessive heat can be a problem in February. Winter rains have become so rare that they usually don't hit the shows. If they do, everyone is so happy to get rain that we aren't even sorry to see fewer customers. Professionally organized shows with seasoned participants hardly ever close down anymore.

But one problem is becoming more prevalent: strong winds. Arizona does not get hurricanes or tornadoes (although there are reports ever now and then) but there are some shows that are gaining a reputation for too much dust, blown over tents, and lost inventory. Although my tent is stronger and heavier than most, I tend to avoid those. But sometimes strong sales reports can make even those shows tempting. I don't gamble. I get my thrills elsewhere. So I booked the SAACA art festivl in March 2014. On Saturday I enjoyed the busy location and the gorgeous view of Push Ridge in the Catalina Mountains. A couple of tents of blew over in wind gusts, but they were unsecured and lightly built.
In the evening I tightened up especially well and drove home.

The US National Weather Service published this on March 9, 2014

"Very localized but strong east winds of about 45 to 50 MPH caused damage to numerous tents setup for the Oro Valley Spring Festival of the Arts at the Oro Valley Marketplace late Saturday night into early Sunday morning. Expect gusty east ...winds to continue today, especially this morning.

What is very interesting about this event is that some areas usually sheltered from strong east winds by the Catalina Mountains such as Oro Valley did see the strong winds this time. The meteorological mechanism for the east winds was different than usual as low pressure moved from north to south helping to enhance the easterly winds."

The picture of damage at the Oro Valley Marketplace was taken by an off duty NWS meteorologist at about 12:30 AM Sunday morning. I feel this is fair use it because I provided part of the subject....

Randy and I drove out to Oro Valley at 2:30 am because the wind was howling terribly at our house (about 40 mi west of the show). More than half the tents were down, some in the road... my own tent, a 'Trimline' was just fine when we arrived, but while we were still wondering what to do, a gust picked up another tent three spaces away, a very heavy 'Crafthut' including wall panels and weights and rolled the whole package on top of my neighbor and me. Glassed paintings went flying and hit my van (I ducked behind it) and my front tent wall was slid open. We got the upside down booth off my tent which stood still upright. In a break between gusts we were able to pack all my art ranging from big framed paintings to greeting cards as carefully as always. I let the tent roof fly lose rather than letting the wind rip it off. With this decrease in wind resistance we could break down and load the tent also without further damage. So I'm fine, my inventory is too, my van has some new battle scars, one tent wall needs fixing or replacing. I am just glad that it happened at a show close to home so Randy could help.

Now it's 2 weeks until the next show at 4th Avenue in Tucson.

Today I went out to photograph some small bee assassins. I find this species every in Saguaro National Park West when the Brittle Bush blooms. When I came home I looked up what had happened to the species name of this insect since I had first seen it in 2008. It was a somewhat convoluted story:
In April 2007 J. Dockens posted her observation of a small Apiomerus from the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior, Arizona, on BugGuide, and Eric Eaton identified it as Apiomeris cazieri.
A year later our most active Assassin Bug expert D.R. Swanson commented 'This has actually been bugging me (no pun intended) for awhile. There is no mention of Apiomerus cazieri in Henry and Froeschner's catalog (1988). I also have the revision of the genus by Costa Lima (1951) in front of me and there is no mention of A. cazieri there either. In fact, I cannot find a single literature record for this species. Now that doesn't mean there isn't one, of course, but it does have me curious and albeit it, a bit skeptical.'

So how did this discrepancy come up and who was right at the time?
Eric Eaton, then living in Tucson, had access to the University of Arizona Insect Collection, and there in the reduviid drawers were several Arizona specimens of a small bee assassin clearly labeled Apiomerus cazieri. But Carl Olson, the collection manager, told me the strange of those labels:
The specimens had been part of the type series of Leopold Szerlip's description of a new species for his doctoral dissertation. A Berkeley grad student at the time, Szerlip completed a biosystematic analysis of the Apiomerus of North and Central America in 1980 as the topic of his doctoral dissertation. Unfortunately other than qualifying him for his PhD, nothing more was done with the information; a paper was never published. As a result, the 19 new species erected within it were invalid.

But at the same time, no other scientist felt comfortable to do any work on the group because of this existing manuscript. At BugGuide and at the U of A specimens kept coming up that were carefully designated as Apiomerus crassipes species group (crassipes species group) with 'A. cazieri'added in quotation marks. We all knew that 'A. cazieri' was a 'good' species, easily recognizable by its small size and the early spring appearance of the adults, but we also knew that the name was invalid.

While we were still scratching our heads Ted C. MacRae got the ball rolling in 2009. He wrote:
'Dimitri Forero, a Postdoctoral Researcher in Christiane Weirauch's lab at University of California-Riverside, has just responded to my discussion about this situation on my website and informs me that it will be rectified soon. A Masters student in their lab is revising the species concepts of Szerlip and adding a phylogenetic analysis, while Dimitri is dealing with the rest of the fauna in Central and South America. Best of all, Szerlip will be a coauthor of the Masters student's work validating his names. I think this is a fantastic outcome - not only will Szerlip's names be published, but he will get the credit he deserves and benefit from a modern phylogenetic analysis. Soon, we will be able to say Apiomerus "floridensis" (and Apiomerus cazieri) without the quotation marks!'

Then, finally in 2011 Ted C. MacRae posted: Resolution!

'Apiomerus floridanus and several other species have now been formally described in the following hot-off-the-press publication:
Berniker, L., S. Szerlip, S. Forero & C. Weirauch. 2011. Revision of the crassipes and pictipes species groups of Apiomerus Hahn (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Harpactorinae). Zootaxa 2949:1–113.'

Anyone who is wondering how the validity of a species name is controlled and tested should turn to the code of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) and consult this scheme; names from Szerlip's unpublished thesis would have been disqualified in the second line.

With this blog, I would like to make one point very strongly: When research is done at a public university it not only takes the work of the one researcher. It usually also takes resources from tax dollars, lab space, a position that others would love to have.... But beyond that, keeping the research community in limbo needlessly by not publishing is unethical in my opinion. I understand that there are lots of reasons for delays, and I do not know what exactly caused it in this particular case, but still....

But what really surprised me most in this case was that this little Apiomerus that is so distinctly different from others in the crassipes group had been overlooked for so long and was not described before 1980. Of course, I have the advantage of living right in the middle of its habitat, so I see some of them every year when the Brittle Bush blooms in Saguaro National Park West. The reason for the late discovery may have been that early spring is not one of the most interesting times for all those collectors who usually arrive for the monsoon bugs. So keep your eyes open, Arizona still has more to offer!

Our house is built on sand. It sits on a little mesa (elevation) consisting of soil the excavated to put in the basement. Over the years I found out that we share this site with many sand loving, digging insects, tarantulas and scorpions. And please don't think that that is a problem. Some of these guys may even keep out others that we would like less.

The little dark parasitic bee, waiting close to the nest entrance

Yesterday I was reading at the bedroom window when I noticed a dark little bee zigzagging and descending repeatedly out of sight under the window. Time to investigate.
When I got outside, she was resting on a flat rock. In the soil around it were several small, round holes about 5 mm in diameter. Another bee buzzed closer, circled, landed next to one of the holes and slipped inside.

A mining bee exiting the nest entrance

This bee was larger, plumper, and lighter than the little observer. It stayed in the hole for a long time. While I was watching, two more bees arrived and crawled in. for over 10 min no bees left as far as I could see. Then the smaller bee flew up, circled shortly and also crawled into the hole. Several other bees of the bigger kind entered 5 other holes, all in an area of less than a square meter. Eventually bees also exited the hole that I was watching, but too fast to get any good pictures. Peak activity seemed to be around 10 to 11 am.
Today I came better prepared. For example, I found a way to sit instead of crouching over the hole for what turned out to be long waiting times. So I got some video of the larger bees that clearly shows that several bees are using the same entrance and are under ground simultaneously. Incidentally, the little bee was inside during that time as well. This time I trapped her and three exiting larger bees to get a closer look. I had an idea by now that I was dealing with mining bees and a clepto-parasite, but I found that I didn't have these guys in my photo collection yet.

Ancylandrena sp. Doug Yanega det.

Indoors, I put each bee into a white ceramic bowl and covered it with a clear plastic container. It took a while for them to calm down. If they had been beetles, they would have experienced a short cool-down in the fridge by now, but bees just don't look right when they are cold. So instead, I got the chance to take a few quick photos, some OK, some blurred and some out of focus, of each bee before she took off for the window. No harm done, they were easily coaxed back into the container.

Hexepeolus rhodogyne, Doug Yanega det.

In the close-ups, the parasitic bee looked somewhat beat-up. Maybe her life as an uninvited guest was not quite as easy as it seems. But her visits in the nest, concurrent with those of several 'owners' did not seem to create any disturbance.

Several of my Flickr and facebook connections are bee specialist, so I posted the photos there and on BugGuide.

From Doug Yanega came the response: "The latter is Hexepeolus rhodogyne, and it is a cleptoparasite in nests of Ancylandrena (the first bee). It wasn't until the 1990's that the host-parasite association of these taxa was confirmed, as I recall. The genus Hexepeolus contains only that one species".

John Ascher added a link to the 1994 paper: Biologies of the bee genera Ancylandrena (Andrenidae, Andreninae) and Hexepeolus (Apidae, Nomadinae) : and phylogenetic relationships of Ancylandrena based on its mature larva (Hymenoptera, Apoidea). American Museum novitates ; no. 3108

It turned out that BugGuide had an image of a mounted specimen of the parasite, but only an empty page prepared for the host. So I was able to fill in both with white backgound life close-ups and in situ shots:

BugGuide Info Page

As for the species id, in Discover Life I found a description of a rare Tucson specialty, A. rozeni, but it would be difficult to identify it without comparative material: A. rozeni - This is a rare species with records restricted to Arizona, specifically known from the Tuscon area - The male appears closest to that of A. larreae though slightly smaller, has a shorter clypeus, has shorter antennae, has smaller light markings in the paraocular area, is less densely pitted anteriorly on the scutum, hairs sparser in the anterior of the scutum, and has a greater proportion of dark hair on the upper areas of the head - The female appears most similar to that of A. timberlakei, although it may be differentiated by the presence of some degree of a tan or yellowish brown mound on the base of the mandible, a greater proportion of dark hairs in the upper areas of the head, the fact that all hairs anterior to the middle of the tegulae are white, and that there is a greater proportion of light-colored hairs on the scopa (2)
Anyway, I preserved a specimen.

So to summarize, Ancylandrena is a mining bee. In spring males and females emerge from underground cells. They mate, and the females dig nest burrows in sandy soil. Mining bees collect pollen in the long hairs of the tibial scopa of the hind legs. (They do not have a 'pollen basket' like honey bees and bumble bees). They construct small cells containing a ball of pollen mixed with nectar, upon which an egg is laid, before each cell is sealed. Although not social, several individuals seem to be sharing at least a nest entrance (Solitary, communal ground-nesting). As many insects do, they provide provisions for their offspring, but they are not around to guard the larvae while these are growing up. Clepto-parasites like the one I observed commonly make use of this arrangement to raise their own brood. Many of these clepto-parasites, like this one, are in the subfamily Nomadinae (Cuckoo Bees). They usually lack the hairs that are used by their relatives to collect and transport pollen. There use a number of strategies to get their eggs into the provisioned nest, in this case the parasitic bee just followed the host bees to get her eggs into the brood chambers before they were closed. In Rozen's study several eggs of Hexepeolus rhodogyne were attached to the inner wall of the brood chambers while the larger egg of the host bee was sitting on the pollen ball. This explains why she was around for several days entering the same nest repeatedly: she had to access the chambers that were just in the right stage of construction.

I try to join Ned Harris and his naturalists tours in Sabino Canyon at least once a month. It's nice to be in like-minded company, even though I usually don't last very long in the group because I stop too often and too long for insects that are too small for most participants' eyes or camera lenses.

This time, my first stop (before I met the group) was devoted to the resident Roadrunner. When I found the nest, very well hidden in a Chain Fruit Cholla, I got a glimpse of some chicks and some as yet unhatched eggs. Roadrunners begin incubating right after the first egg is laid so the chicks are as different in size as organ pipes. Many birds with nestlings that are born blind, featherless and dependent on their parents (altricial) follow this strategy. For the youngest ones, this can be perilous. Their only chance of survival is a year with plenty of food. Under poor conditions the parents can decide to raise only the older, stronger siblings to ensure at least their survival. There seems to be a tuft of fur from a bunny or a rock squirrel tail in the nest. So this pair is bringing in rather big prey. That probably means good chances for all the chicks.

When I checked again on my way back, I was greeted by the angry stare of one of the parents. Altricial chicks are rarely left alone, and that means that in many species both parents share the nest duties.

Two lonely, very young Mallard chicks were dabbling in the small pond by the dam. They were contently feeding on the willow seeds that drifted into the water. Very different from roadrunners, ducks are precocious birds. The female only starts incubating after she has laid the whole clutch. So the chicks all hatch on approximately the same day even though some eggs are up to 2 weeks older than others. The chicks hatch with feathers, open eyes and ready to go. And they have to. The family, which means mother and chicks, the father is not involved, leaves the nest and the dangers of sedentary living and moves out right away. The two in the picture seemed actually to be on their own, no mother in sight. And yet, they still have a chance to grow up.

Rhagoletis sp. (Maggot Fly)

The first interesting insect was a little fruit fly that I had never seen before in the Tucson area. Some of these flies can become invasive destructive pests of agriculture. That's what those controls between CA and AZ are about, to stop the cross border transport of infected fruit. So I sent this photo to a friend who works at USAD. Just in case. We all thought that it looks quite similar to the Apple Maggot Fly, Rhagoletis pomonella (which would not find a lot of suitable food in Sabino, I'd say, not many rosacean plants there). Unlike the apple Maggot Fly, it has no white scutellum. Martin Hauser then pointed out that it could be Procecidochares atra, in which case it would be a gall producer rather than a fruit maggot fly. As the common host, Golden Rod, doesn't grow at the elevation, I will be looking for similar galls on related plant species.

Dufourea sp. male on Brittle Bush, Encelia farinosa

Dufourea sp. female

In the canyon, Brittle Bush was still blooming where it thrives on water run-off from the road. The dominant bees here were Dufourea sp. in the Sweat Bee family Halictidae.

Red and yellow Trichodes ornatus

The bees were joined by a great number of Checkered Beetles, Clerids, who were feeding on pollen and trying to find mates. Both striking color morphs were present, the bright yellow-black and the red-black version. The two forms mate freely and either color-type occurs in both sexes. I have no idea how the genetics work in this case.

Haplorhynchites planifrons

A greenish black Tooth-nosed Snout Weevil occurs every spring on the brittle bush flowers in Sabino, but I have yet to find it anywhere else.

Acmaeodera sphaeralceae

The Metallic Wood-boring Beetle Acmaeodera sphaeralceae is also a springtime regular of Sabino Canyon, but before I've found it more often on Globe mallows.

Monoxia sordida

A leaf beetle on Brittle Bush leaves turned out to be a new species for my photo collection. The species is one of a few in this difficult western genus with 16 to 18 species that can be identified from a photo.


Trirhabda sp., probably T. geminata

This other leaf beetle is so common on Brittle Bush that I find it every year, but its wing coloration is very variable, so the identifications on BugGuide have triggered a lot of discussion. Some years ago, I collected some in the larval stage and watched them for a while after the metamorphosis to the adult beetle: The wing pigmentation kept changing for weeks, way beyond the usual teneral stage. T. geminata seems to be the most likely species id.

Some New Mexico Thistles were covered in Honey Bees, others hosted loads of Blister Beetles in the genus Nemognatha.

I don't think the beetles would cause a problem for Honey Bees, but the solitary Diasdasia bee above was certainly in danger of picking up a beetle larvae that would then live as a cleptoparasite in her nest and feed on the provisions that she had accumulated for her own brood.

On this beautiful spring day, larvae and nymphs were everywhere. One of my favorites is the young Mexican Bush Katydid. The adult Katydids are just green and have long wings.

I also found the first hatched clutches of Giant Mesquite Bugs, Thasus neocalifornicus, whose mother had left the eggs in a sheltered spot under the bark of a mesquite tree before the winter. These little guys will molt one more time and then, always as tight-nit a group of siblings, try to reach the freshly thriving mesquite leaves. I followed the life-cycle of Thasus in an earlier blog.

Lema daturaphila

Lema daturaphila eggs

Leafbeetles on the Datura plants in the shadow of the willows by the creek were starting the next generation.

Dolichodynerus tanynotus

Just when the wind was kicking up in unpleasant gusts I found a couple of specimens of a rarely photographed Mason Bee. I wished my photos had come out better, but by then everything was too windswept.

Ornate Tree Lizards were trying to warm up on light colored rocks to get ready to pounce on all those bugs.

It was after noon when I was finally back on the tram road approaching the entrance, and I remembered the turn circle for school buses where we usually found Ironcross Blister Beetles at this time of the year. Maybe it's still too early, although the little blue star flowers that attract them were blooming.

Walking along with my eyes on the ground I saw something hop that seemed to slender to be a grasshopper nymph. I found that it had to be a fulgorid planthopper, but one that I had never seen before.

Lois O'Brien confirmed it: It's Rhabdocephala brunnea, a species that is not common, even Lois has only 3 specimens in her collection.

So as always, Sabino Canyon was worth the long drive across town.

Fairy Duster seedpods with Santa Rita Prickly Pear background

Strawberry Hedgehog, Echinocereus engelmannii

Pencil Cholla, Cylindropuntia ramosissima

Hybrid between Beavertail and Santa Rita PP?

Texas Longthorn, Opuntia macrocentra

Another Hedgehog

Staghorn Cholla

Santa Rita Prickly Pear, Opuntia violaceae santa rita

Yellow Bird of Paradise


Ocotillo

Catclaw Vine

Hybrid Palo Verde

Teddy Bear Cholla

Today we celebrated Randy's birthday with an early morning walk to the Red Tail Hawk nest. Finally, a chick, still white and fluffy, was visible. Of course we had the dogs with us and they discovered some great new toys: Our rodeo-riding neighbor had brought in a fresh herd of cattle.
So luckily everybody was nicely tired out when we returned home.

During our unusually calm entrance I noticed a male quail quietly guarding the corner of our brick patio. It made me curious, because these guys are usually boisterous and noisy. When I saw him slipping into a small raised bed of Barrio Petunias I was fairly sure that I would find a quail nest full of eggs in there.

The Barrio Petunias are among the few plants in our garden that we water regularly and generously. But before flooding whatever was in there, I wanted to carefully check. Well, not careful enough, because mom took off with a shriek. But when she was gone, I kept hearing little voices.

Quail nest some years ago in nearly the same location

So I bent the plant stems apart. I didn't expect much of an actual nest. Quail really don't bother with a lot of nesting material, they just lay their many eggs in a tightly packed clutch on the ground. In this case, most or all of the eggs were empty shells already. But right next to them, something moved.

All the little hatchlings were still there, fresh out of the eggs but already dry and fluffy. I felt very privileged to witness this short moment that these precocious birds spend at the nest.

Can you see the little egg tooth on top of the beak? It's used to scrape open the eggshell from the inside, and is lost very soon after hatching.
The panicky exit of their mother had send some chicks hiding in the plants around the nest, but soon they all instinctively huddled together again in one tight clump. video click here

Being kids, they quickly forgot their scare and began pecking around, pecking at everything in their surroundings, including their siblings toes. I took some photos, resisting the idea to use the flash to brighten up the very deep shadows. The parents were calling close by, so I let them be. From a distance, I saw the female slip back under the Barrio Petunia. I know the family will not stay around the nest too long, they may be gone tomorrow.

Maybe I'll see them at the feeder or the bird bath, and hopefully in a bigger group than this one from last year.

When Randy checked the next morning, only broken egg shells were left behind. Empty Nest Syndrome!

(we all do :)

It's been a while since my last post. With a small business like mine, tax time means a lot of work, and then I had two workshops to prepare and present, one at Butterfly Wonderworld in Scottsdale and one at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. Both went over well, I think. I definitely enjoyed both locations for their spectacular beauty and the great groups they had attracted. While both events were a pleasure for me, the preparations too a lot of time. And on Saturday I'm off to a Mexico Expedition!
So here are just a few photos that I took during the Insect Photography Workshop that I taught in Phoenix.

Some of our group at work and a Chihuli glass sculpture. I had geared the class towards beginners with point-and-shoot cameras. Those were quite under-represented. But we did find that there is use for everything, even a smart phone.

Following is a series of highlights from the Gardens by the participants of the workshop and myself. (photos without attribution)

Beefly by Pete Moulton

Difficult Light and tiny Crab Spider, Mecaphesa sp.

Intimate moment in the live of bees. Calliopsis sp.

Green Lacewing Eggs

Convergent Lady Beetle Larva

Ashy Lady Beetle

Reminiscent of expressionist Emil Nolde. Pteleon brevicornis

The elusive Chrysobothris high up in a tree, but we got to watch some interesting behavior

Who turned the Cottonwood Leaves into lace?

More Chihuli


Oncopeltus sanguineolentus (Blood-colored Milkweed Bug)

This is a bug I really wanted to see: Apparently the host plant is Rush or Desert Milkweed - Asclepias subulata which is restricted to w. AZ, se. CA, and s. NV. in the U.S. In our area the Desert botanical Garden is the only place where this bug occurs. There were many of these and few Large and Small Milkweed Bugs. Were they out-competed?

Augochlorella sp.

My students wanted me to crop this more tightly, but I like the complete version, which is unusual for me.

Disclaimer: The title of this blog is of course tongue in cheek. We all loved Chihuli's work and it greatly enhanced our visit. I was also told that it looks even better in the dark when it's illuminated. But I think the natural beauty of the Gardens is just very hard to beat.

Many thanks to the great people in the Garden's Adult Education Program who made this event possible and kept it running smoothly.The computer room in the Archer building is awesome for photography classes.

In Costa Rica I watched Bullhorn Ants living in close association with their acacia. The ants live in the huge hollow thorns of the tree and in addition to housing the tree offers all kinds of incentives to the ants, who in turn defend the Acacia against 'pests' like caterpillars that would love to chew on those beautiful feathery leaves. If you lean too closely into the tree those ants get ready to attack even a camera or a human hand. Vicious Pseudomyrmex ferruginea.
I had great photos and lost them all to a computer bug that was even more vicious.

When the Velvet Mesquite is in bloom on the state land in Picture Rocks, Arizona, I spend a lot of time staring at the catkins. They are full of insect life, but most of it is both cryptic and tiny, including our smallest bees with the nice name Perdita, the lost one. To find one check the top of the catkin in the right half of the picture above.

Pseudomyrmex sp. and Lycaenid caterpillars

Today I saw an ant that was rather large and obvious by comparison. Its slim build and large eyes let me think of Pseudomyrmex apache that I had beaten off mesquite trees in Madera Canyon before. Drawn in by the ant I discovered two cryptic caterpillars of a Lycaenid Butterfly, probably a Marine Blue. They were sitting just as quietly as these guys usually are. Hard to tell if they were feeding or simply resting. The catkin was past its prime and probably not much of a resource anymore and the caterpillars big enough to pupate soon. The ant was standing above one of them, sometimes bobbing up and down, but mostly just excitedly trilling its antennae at the caterpillar.

Vanduzea laeta and Crematogaster Ants

Ants communicate with each other in this way, but I have also seen them 'talk' to other insects that serve them as honey-dew-cattle. Crematogaster (Acrobat Ants) can often be seen stroking Aphids or Leaf hoppers with their antennae. Those hemipterans suck fluid from the phloem of plants and eliminate the surplus as honey dew. Ants are crazy for sweets and tend and defend their hemipterans facefully.

But caterpillars? Dave Wagner states in his book Caterpillars of Eastern North America: 'It turns out that nearly half the worlds 5500 lycaenid species (blues, coppers, hairstreaks) is tended by ants. In some species the association is so tight that the ants even carry the caterpillars to and from their nests' (where some species turn into brood parasites) and back to the feedings site on the proper host plants. The caterpillars of ant tended species have dorsal nectar glands on the 7th abdominal segment. From those, they periodically release a sugary substance. Most feed on flowers or fruit so they have access to excess sugar. The caterpillars can even call for the ants by vibration, but I got the impression that my ant was also trying to stimulate the caterpillar. If predators attack the caterpillar the ants will probably defend it, but I think in the most primitive form of this symbiosis the caterpillar is simply paying off the ants who otherwise might be the most dangerous predators themselves. The six legged mafia.
I saw the ant leave a couple of times and climb deeper into the tree. Pseudomyrmex are arboreal ants so the nest was probably inside a hole of a tree branch. Even though it was close to sunset and the wind was gusting, again and again there was an ant sitting on the caterpillars. I never saw more than one, perhaps always the same individual.
To me it was a surprise that an ant of the same genus as the tree-garding Bull-horn Ants of Costa Rica would be in a close relationship with caterpillars in Arizona.

To see a video of the ant with the caterpillars. Please click!

A nearby Catclaw Acacia was still in full bloom and females of Marine Blues were depositing their eggs. I assume that my caterpillars are of the same species.

(part of a series of blogs about the Sky Island Alliance expedition to the Sonoran Sky Island Sierra Huérfana in Sonora Mexico)


Tropical Thorn Forest

On the way up, when we crossed the belt of tropical thorn forest that covers the lower elevations of the sky island, I knew that that was the most exotic habitat I would see. So I was eager to get down there again on our first full day. The area looked bleached and shockingly dry. Many plants had been badly damaged by a deep freeze that hit the area in February 2013. This was followed by an extended severe drought, as there was no rain at all since June 2013. So most of the expected monsoon and all of the winter rains missed the Sierra Huerfana last year.

Adobe building and corrals


Feather Bush Lysiloma watsonii, Kapok Tree Ceiba acuminata, Mexican Tree Ocotillo Fouquieria macdougalii, thorns of the Kapok Tree, Boat thorn Acacia Acacia cochliacantha

Even though many sat dry dry and lifeless, the plants were fascinating. Huge Tree Ocotillos were actually in bloom, Kapoc trees were full of fluffy white seeds. I think I saw a few flowers on Morning Glory Trees. A few Mesquites and Palo Verde relatives added some color. Organ Pipe Cacti and another tree cactus rose up among Boat Thorn Acacias Acacia cochliacantha and Feather Bush Trees Lysiloma watsonii.

Elegant Quail pair under an Organ-pipe Cactus

Dale with over 6 feet of Indigo Snake shed

A large tenaja still retained some water. Birds and insects were visiting to drink and collect minerals from the mud. Close by we found an enormous shed skin of an Indigo Snake.

5-striped Sparrow, Prickly Poppy, Common Ground Doves, Tarantula Hawk, Blackened Bluewing, Mexican Amberwing, Mexican Honeywasp

Roseate Skimmer and Mexican Amberwing

Hydrophilus triangularis (Giant Black Water Beetle), Cicindela sedecimpunctata (Western Red-bellied Tiger Beetle), and a leech

I saw a Giant Water Beetle surface to take up air into his plastron (physical gill) so I sacrificed the integrity of my butterfly net and leveled him out of the flat murky water only to discover several leeches as by-catch.

Atta mexicana colony, Major worker and refuse heap guests Bess BeetlePtichopus angulatus, female roach similar to Arenivaga sp.

Close by Dale found a big Leaf-cutter Ant Atta mexicana colony. With hardly any fresh leaves available, the ants were busily house-keeping, piling debris and dead colony mates on the huge refuse heap in front of the colony. We noted that the dead ants were dumped unceremoneously, but all in the same corner of the pile. Digging though the material we found interesting beetles (dead) and roaches (alive).

Century old cooking pits along the road indicated where agave (sotol?) hearts had been first cooked and then fermented to produce the local tequila like alcohol. For a long time, this activity was illigal, but who would have controlled these inaccessible mountain paths?

Desert Iguana, Ornate Tree Lizard, Clark's Spiny Lizard

Most of the participants of this particular trip were herpetologists. But the drought had not only diminished the insect fauna but also driven most reptiles into hiding. A few lizards, all old acquaintances from Tucson, obliged.

The little mining camp with Javelina jerky and chaps hanging in the kitchen tree

But my friends wanted to see snakes! So when we met a cowboy who said he had seen a big grey snake a couple of hours ago and several miles up a dirt road, we drove out to find it. Less enthusiastic and also doubtful that the snake was still waiting to be found, I decided to stay in a little camp where we left the cars. The two guys living there seemed happy for the company, even if the communication was difficult. First the showed me, in confidence, a bag of gold sand that the had dug up while digging a well. It wasn't shiny, just very heavy. Then they cooked coffee, to be served in cups that were hanging from a tree. We even had cookies! Also in the tree above the coffee table were pieces of a javelina, drying to become jerky. When Tom Jones returned from the unsuccessful snake hunt, he was very interested in the javelina meat, and our gracious hosts brought out the filet pieces and gave them to him. People can be so generous! They would not take no for and answer.

For more photos go to Doug Danforth's flickr album

La Sierra Sierra Huérfana in Sonora, Mexico is a beautiful sky island that concentrates enormous biodiversity in a very small area. But when we arrived at the end of April 2014, there hadn't been any rain since June 2013. So no real monsoon and no winter rains. The ranchers told us that they were embarrassed to have us visit at a bleak time like this. But the drier it is, the more life will concentrate around the few spots that still have water. During bird migration, the rings of green, blooming trees around cattle tanks and tejadas function as veritable magnets. Or 'migrant traps', more dramatically expressed. The birds are seeking water, of course, but insectivores also find food and many will directly take nectar from the blooming trees to replenish their energy resources.

Cattle tank and tenajas provide water. Green and blooming trees around them attract insects and scores of migrant and resident birds

Blooming Acacias Havardia mexicana and a few Mesquite trees were buzzing with Mexican Honey Wasps Brachygastra mellifica. This is a small paper wasp that builds basket ball shaped nests.

Campsomeris ephippeum left photo by Doug Danfoth. Specimen spread by John Palting

There were also a few huge scoliids of a species that has made it into Arizona in recent years, Campsomeris ephippeum.

But for most of our group, birds were the main attraction. During the first 2 mornings, we just waited by a pool close to the campground and were rewarded with a multitude of warblers, fly catchers, wrens, tanagers and sparrows. On the third day the stream began to trickle out. We had arrived just at the right moment.

Acorn Woodpecker, Black-headed Grosbeak, Western Tanager

My cameras and lenses are for macro photography, but I could not resist trying. Much better photos can be found in Doug Danforth's flickr album.

Hooded Oriole (in the Pueblo), Dusky Capped Flycatcher, Summer Tanager, Hermit Warbler

Eric Wallace, our Limnologist, sat out traps for turtles over night. They were baited with fat from the barbeque. On the first morning, he found mud turtles lined up in the entrance: most individuals of the locale species was to large to actually get into the traps.

Tom VanDevender, Enrique and Eric Wallace with Mexican Mudturtle Kinosternon integrum

Photo by Nikki Burns

Mud turtles can close their shells in the same way box turtles do, but when these did stick out their heads, they were very impressive. They also smelled very bad.

Cattle hoofs had churned every inch of the banks into bare mud, with no room for wet-land vegetation. The water was on the eutroph side, to say the least. But non of the pools I saw had reached the tipping point, and they are probably to shallow to become dangerously oxygen deprived.


Foothills Paloverdes at our neighbors palapa are in full bloom and buzzing with bees.

So are the saguaros flowers

I am happy to report that there are at least as many native bees as honey bees. Here is a Diadasia sp. malejust arriving, several Perdita Bees and on the out side some kind of a wasp. As for pollination, I think birds are doing the best job here, as we don't seem to get any nectar bats.

Our Ironwood trees are loaded with flowers this year

Many different species of Chollas are spectacular and very colorful. But we've certainly had years with more flowers.

This night-blooming climber came as a seed from the desert museum. Between Javelinas, packrats and bunnies, it never seems to reach climbing length here, but so far its circumference rivals that of the young mesquite tree it's leaning against.

Most of my potted Trichocereus cacti bloomed while I was in Mexico. But I got to see a few stragglers. Very pretty this year.

Quail couples are still showing up with very young chicks. Here the mother has to rebuff the advances of a bachelor male

This guy was trying to claim the area around the bird feeder as his territory. A sisyphean task. H was panting continuously even though we finally had some pleasantly cool temperatures in the seventies.

Many quail chicks have out-grown the phase of tiny cuteness and are now big enough to have better chances of survival.

Lately javelinas found their way under the dog fence. Frodo and Bilbo sit meters away, restrained by their electric collars, and watch them munch at quail block and nursery cactus

When there isn't much left, some try to hog it all to themselves

This female Solfugid turned up right next to Randy who likes sitting on the floor in the living room when we watch movies. She seemed to share our taste for old BBC stuff. It figures: at over 2 inches, she has to be an older lady.

Today, our morning walk began with a Harris Hawk on the telephone pole by our gate.

In the state land, the dark Red Tail female was perched on a blooming saguaro far east of her nest, but greeted us just as aggressively as always. Click here to follow this years brood from the beginning

Doesn't she look great with her wings spread wide and the morning sun behind her?

And now she's coming at me. Screeching constantly. What?

That's why: one of the chicks is out there. Not quite a third of a mile from the nest, but he must have been flying to get this far. He seems to be the smaller of the two youngsters. The nest is empty, no idea where the other chick is, hopefully around somewhere.

Randy kept his distance from the hawks and gave Frodo and Laika another good brushing

Dog stories: Bilbo

Superstitian Mountain, a challenge

The first Rattler of 2014

Gilbert Water Ranch January 2014

The Vector Bird: Phainopepla nitens

Weekend!

Our Dark-morph Red Tail Hawk is breeding again

Backyard pollinators in March

The bright side and the dark side of doing out-door art shows in Arizona

Apiomerus cazieri - a valid name at last

Mining Bees under the bedroom window

March 2014 in Sabino Canyon

Backyard Beauties in April

The first Gambel's Quail chicks of the year!

Who needs Chihuli?

The Ant and the Caterpillar

Decidous Tropical Thorn Forest

Cattle tanks and Tenajas

Just some Backyard shots from May 2014

The Red Tail Hawks have left the nest