Yesterday, I had the greatly appreciated help of several individuals that came along with the Tropical Biology OTS course. Pictured in the foreground are Abbie and Amanda, and in the background, Justin and Stevland. Not pictured is Mo Donnelly.
They fearlessly helped collect living Eichhornia at the crocodile-infested waters at the Catalina sector wetland for placement in competition enclosures in Palo Verde. The bags full of hyacinth are shown in the other picture.
Again, while photographing plants for a personal identification guide, I noticed there is much more going on in the photograph than plant identification.
I wonder what these flies are doing on this Echinodorus paniculatus flower. There is a pair for each petal; are they a breeding pair? If so, will they lay eggs and form a gull or otherwise use the Echinodorus has habitat/food? Are they simply attracted to the white?
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I’ve set out 200 mesh plastic bags to examine decomposition rates and changes in litter chemistry of four types of litter: freshly killed Eichhornia crassipes and Typha domingensis (or dominguensis depending on what paper you read), and the past seasons accumulated litter from both aforementioned species. The bags sit, baking in the sun, attached to 3-m poles of PVC, which actually may be too short given the height of Typha (cattail) around here. The two photographs of bags below show some test bags I set out a few days ago, with tadpoles skimming around the surface of the bag… potentially attempting to enter and process the litter themselves. The other photo is designated site E1. |
By the way, check out the excellent sewing job on the bags below… I can pump those out at a rate of 50 in 4 hrs now, although I started out at a much slower rate.
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When I downloaded this photograph, I noticed that there is alot going on in it.
I have taken a few photos of wetland plants for identification purposes, and I keyed this little floating plant (well, the larger one of the two…. I think the smaller one is either Lemna aequinactialis or Spirodela polyrhiza [Duckweed]) to Limnobium laevigatum. After I keyed it out, I noticed the aphids or other sucking bug, and then I noticed the fly in the upper left. It was hard enough to key the one plant out… now I have two plants in one picture, potentially competing, a herbivore concentrated on one plant, and another spectating insect that could itself and/or its larva be a predator on the herbivore!
The holes in this snail’s shell may be a result of limpkin predation.
I hope this is my plant, because that’s what I’ve been looking for.
It is a sensitive plant, which means that when it’s touched, the leaves fold inward.
Measuring snail shells (Pomacea flagullata) from Snail Kite perches. Umm… escargo.