The Ant and the Caterpillar

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.

Who needs Chihuli?

(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.

The first Gambel's Quail chicks of the year!

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!

Backyard Beauties in April

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   

Chenille Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia aciculata).

Yellow Bird of Paradise

Ocotillo

Catclaw Vine

Hybrid Palo Verde

Teddy Bear Cholla

Orange Bells, Tecoma alata

Bougainvillaea

Barrio Petunia

Cat claw Vine

Texas Longthorn, Opuntia macrocentra

Oleander