Naturalism in Texas (and Sometimes Other Places)

Nature and wildlife of Texas | Texas Master Naturalist | Travis Audubon Society | iNaturalist | Website | Kofi | All photos are my own work

[nanonaturalist]

Art Heist

I have no idea which blog to put this in, so you’re welcome in advance.

My brother and I talk to each other approximately once or twice a year. Quality over quantity, you get the idea. We’re only three years apart, and our sense of humor and love for terrible things is identical. For example, we amused ourselves for years by reliving each other’s epic earwax stories (he won—I may have needed medical intervention for a pea-size blockage, but he had a photo that required a coin for a sense of scale).

Anyways, when I randomly got a text message from him out of nowhere yesterday, I knew it was going to be good.

That’s right

This beauty. I must have it. This must be mine.

My brother’s texts reappeared again today (amazing, two days in a row! We are truly up to something!), and he had talked to the curator for the art show at his work regarding the price of the piece.

The dimensions, first off:

36 inches tall by 48 inches wide

That is: 3 feet tall by 4 feet wide

Yes

The price is set at $900. For an original masterpiece? Of such magnitude? I HAVE to have it. This won’t be for sale for a year, that is plenty of time to justify spending $900 for a one-of-a-kind original artwork that transcends species barriers like this.

So I am currently attempting to intimidate the artist, via the curator, with my (super timid) brother acting as an intermediary, into agreeing to sell the painting to me after the show ends in a year, when I can have it shipped from Seattle to Texas, and have it form the centerpiece of my Disturbing Bird Art Wall, because I’ve got plenty of bird art, but oh boy it would all take on a new perspective with this in the center.

Stay tuned (?!)

May 30, 2019

[nanonaturalist]

WE HAVE A NAME

Tammie Dupuis! [link to website]

And our piece? Which we love? IS PART OF A SERIES!!!!

AND MORE! 

Let’s show some love! Instagram: tammie.dupuis [link] facebook: Dupuis Creative [link]

June 3, 2019

[nanonaturalist]

I owe the world an update. The original painting sold but my sib got me a print. I created the Bird Art Wall.

June 2023

[nanonaturalist]

Updates I guess

I'm still alive

I had to move to freaking Ohio to find a decent job but hey, I'm not poor anymore

Ohio sucks on an epic level I cannot adequately communicate

Caterpillars. Luna caterpillars. So many Luna caterpillars.

Anyways if you are in central Ohio and don't suck I need more queer nature friends to crawl through bushes and look for salamanders with

June 17, 2023

[floridensis]

i often wonder how @nanonaturalist is doing, they were a huge inspiration for me. i hope theyre doing alright

[nanonaturalist]

Suffered through Snovid 21 and survived. 7.5 inches snow, followed by 0.5 inch ice, followed by more snow. Four days no heat, three days no electricity, going on 3rd day with no running water. Have heat and power now (but for how long??) and it’s the Worst Apocalypse Ever.

I had a freezer full of bugs, but it all flooded when the ice in the freezer melted after day 2 no electricity, so I finally cleaned those out and I have a normal person freezer again.

I would say more, but while typing this heard my metal chimney snap off my roof so I better go check that out 

Also Perry can fall on a cactus for saying we want this. 

Feb 18, 2021

[nanonaturalist]

I haven't seen you around for a while, and I miss you! I hope everything is okay, and that I'll get to read your insect analysis posts again soon! 💕

Still alive, still unemployed, very scared about the future, etc. If I can find a decent job, I’ll be able to pick up blogging again. Right now I’m just trying to survive and blogging was a huge time-sink. I do still post a little bit on my facebook page [link], but I think we all know facebook sucks. It’s just easier for me to dump things into an album over there. I currently have over 30 imperial moth pupae. Those caterpillars drove me insane. They have an album on my facebook page, of course facebook drops the comments off the photos if you make posts but whatever. The eggs, each caterpillar stage, and one of the pupae are in the album.

Just look at them. 

Ridiculous.

Jan 22, 2020

For those keeping track, I was laid off Feb 28, 2019, and had started job hunting in September 2018 when I found out the company was moving. When I say stay away from Austin, really, I mean it. There are no jobs here.

[caterpillar-gifs]

Imperial moth caterpillar, now 4th instar! One more molt to go before pupation!

October 20, 2019

[nanonaturalist]

Still alive, still unemployed, still raising giant chonking caterpillars. Got 40 of these spiny sausages.

Save me

Also, hire me dammit

October 21, 2019

[floridensis]

Hey, how are we all doing? The scavenger hunt has been in for a little while now, but if you haven't started, theres still time for you to jump on in while still earning the highest level badges! Speaking of badges, for those who haven't noticed, I updated the badges page to make it easier for you to post the images. I had mine on my user profile page, but moved them into a journal post. In the comments of this post, I invite you all to post your lists, your favorite observations made during the challenge, anything like that. Here's my journal so far: https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/27056-my-scavenger-hunt-checklist I'm nearly done but still have a handful left. I also decided to add all the observations i used for the list as associated observations on the journal post. The tool to do that is located right next to the journal editing tool, but its very tedious. I, however, like tedious so I had fun doing it, but you don't have to do that. If you do, you just check off all the obs...

[platycryptus]

some authentic bumblebee sex for all you beefuckers out there

[glumshoe]

Glumshoe my Polyphemus silk moth jk just emerged and it's September! Should I release her now?

Oh hmmm… did you keep her indoors/near incandescent light? If they get too much unnatural light cycle, they’ll eclose from their cocoons early and not overwinter. I’m not sure where you live, but here it’s too late in the season for a new generation. You might have some luck keeping her in a wide-meshed enclosure outside at night, where any male moths still hanging around might find her… but I’m concerned that even if she laid eggs, there won’t be leaves on the trees long enough for the larvae to grow to pupation and overwinter.

So. Up to you. If you want to try for the slim chance of another generation, go for it… or release her and she may either get lucky on her own or serve as a meal for a hungry owl or bat or something.

A few years ago my mother tried raising luna moths but didn’t know about the light and temperature cycle, so she kept their cocoons indoors over the winter where they stayed warm and were exposed to incandescent light. They ended up eclosing just before Christmas—there was nowhere for them to go, so we just had ~20 giant green moths fluttering around loose inside our house for a week before they died.

[nanonaturalist]

@snagerdragon, Texas has multiple generations! A wild boy was on my window yesterday. We’ll have caterpillars until November down here!

September 11, 2019

[speciesofleastconcern]

I want to live where there are bugs in November but not in a place where someone asks me what church I go to

[nanonaturalist]

I have been here for 6 years and not a living soul has breathed the words “church” to me the entire time.

[glumshoe]

Glumshoe my Polyphemus silk moth jk just emerged and it's September! Should I release her now?

Oh hmmm… did you keep her indoors/near incandescent light? If they get too much unnatural light cycle, they’ll eclose from their cocoons early and not overwinter. I’m not sure where you live, but here it’s too late in the season for a new generation. You might have some luck keeping her in a wide-meshed enclosure outside at night, where any male moths still hanging around might find her… but I’m concerned that even if she laid eggs, there won’t be leaves on the trees long enough for the larvae to grow to pupation and overwinter.

So. Up to you. If you want to try for the slim chance of another generation, go for it… or release her and she may either get lucky on her own or serve as a meal for a hungry owl or bat or something.

A few years ago my mother tried raising luna moths but didn’t know about the light and temperature cycle, so she kept their cocoons indoors over the winter where they stayed warm and were exposed to incandescent light. They ended up eclosing just before Christmas—there was nowhere for them to go, so we just had ~20 giant green moths fluttering around loose inside our house for a week before they died.

[nanonaturalist]

@snagerdragon, Texas has multiple generations! A wild boy was on my window yesterday. We’ll have caterpillars until November down here!

September 11, 2019

[lloerwyn-deactivated20201104]

Oh to be the man in these stock photos...

[dykejokerr-deactivated20220726]

You guys are totally missing the best pictures from actual mycologists

[lloerwyn-deactivated20201104]

All That the Rain Promises and More! I have this book and I love it. It's so full of joyful pictures of people and mushrooms:

[nanonaturalist]

Yeah that book was the assigned text for my mycology class. Mycologists are very special people, I love them.

September 7, 2019

[nanonaturalist]

Live from my bedroom window: Obscure Bird Grasshopper 👌 Check out those pecs 😍 September 6, 2019

[montereybayaquarium]

Major Mola Moment: First Confirmed Hoodwinker Sunfish Photographed in Monterey Bay!!

Consider this your o-fish-al welcome to Monterey Bay, Hoodwinker Sunfish! You certainly had us fooled 😅

Divers in Monterey Bay have photographed two hoodwinker sunfish this year—the first confirmed sightings of this new species of sunfish in Central California!

A hoodwinker sunfish being cleaned by señorita wrasses off of Pacific Grove. Video: Joe Platko

Known to science as Mola tecta, the hoodwinker sunfish was officially described in 2017 by Dr. Marianne Nyegaard at Australia’s Murdoch University.

The word “tecta” is Latin for hidden—a perfect moniker for a hoodwinker. Mola tecta were thought to live mainly in the cold waters around Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Southern Chile. 

But then, earlier this year, a massive hoodwinker sunfish washed up in Santa Barbara! 

This sighting of Mola tecta was tantalizing for sunfish researchers: Are hoodwinkers new arrivals to the area, carried by Chile’s cool Humboldt current and somehow punching their way through the equator and into our temperate waters due to some climatic abnormality? Or have hoodwinkers been around these parts for some time, hiding in plain sight until Marianne’s discovery gave attentive observers the right clues to look for? Maybe a little bit of both? Something else entirely?

Mola mola, known as the common sunfish, in the Open Sea display at the Aquarium

Mola tecta found in Monterey Bay just offshore of Pacific Grove. This was the first confirmed sighting of a Mola tecta in Monterey Bay. Photo: Jr Sosky

Key characteristics of Mola tecta for identification. Photo: Jr Sosky/Marianne Nyegaard

A blessing in disguise

Whatever the case, there are now at least two more Mola tecta confirmed here in California, and the first ever identified in Monterey Bay.

In early August, a merry band of underwater photographers came across a large ocean sunfish being cleaned by señorita wrasses at Eric’s Pinnacle, a rocky outcrop off Lover’s Point in Pacific Grove. 

We shared an image on the Aquarium’s social media feeds by photographer Joe Platko under the guise of a “Mola mola Monday Motivoceanal Moment!” 

Our (erroneous) post on Twitter. More social media copy mistakes that lead to discoveries of new sunfish species in our backyard, please!

Mola mola is no stranger to the Monterey Bay—we see youngsters and heavyweights throughout the year just offshore of the Aquarium, and we’ve frequently had them on display in the Open Sea. 

(You may know Mola mola better from the expletive-ridden video of a Boston fisherman coming across a sea monster in this viral video https://youtu.be/r0IQCLQDfKw , or perhaps you’ve read the decidedly contrarian hate-click account of how “useless” sunfish are. )

Weighing nearly 5,000 pounds and spanning over 11 feet from tip to tip, Mola mola is one of the heaviest bony fishes in the sea (its Western Pacific cousin, the bumphead sunfish Mola alexandrini is just a touch heavier in the record books.)  

Something fishy about that fishy…

Content with our content, we looked to see what you all thought of this magical “Mola mola”—and that’s when things got exciting!

A comment right here on Tumblr by Drop Science mentioned that this fish looked more Mola tecta than Mola mola. The two are remarkably similar in appearance, but there are a few tells. Most noticeably, a Mola tecta caudal fin is is divided by a smooth band projecting backwards to the fin’s edge. 

Intrigued, we forwarded more images from Joe Platko and his dive buddy Jr Sosky to Senior Aquarist and resident mola expert Michael Howard. 

Michael has been instrumental in our ocean sunfish program at the Monterey Bay Aquarium over several decades, pioneering training methods, specialized diets and tracking programs for these megafish. The Aquarium is the only one to successfully display Mola mola in North America. 

Growing from just a few dozen pounds to several hundred, our resident sunfishes are released back to the wild. Once back in the bay, Michael’s satellite tags have revealed that Mola mola may migrate very far up and down the coast, and spend considerable time diving into the deep sea to feed on a varied diet of jellies, squid, crabs and other fare.

After reviewing the images, Michael thought there was certainly the chance that a hoodwinker had been found. He got us in touch with Marianne Nyegaard herself, and she confirmed that these were indeed the first images of a live Mola tecta in Monterey Bay! 

Then, just three weeks later, diver Wei Wei Gao happened upon another Mola tecta off of Cannery Row!! 

A hoodwinker sunfish filmed off Cannery Row. Video: Wei Wei Gao

A tecta-nic shift in our sunfish understanding!

In email exchanges that used up both of our yearly supplies of exclamation points, Dr. Marianne remarked that these sightings show just how little we know about one of the ocean’s most iconic fishes. 

Michael is now diving into our records to see if there’s a chance we have had a Mola tecta hidden in our studies. And as for us, we’re buzzing with excitement at the discovery of this neighbor in our backyard, pleasantly deceived by a hoodwinker sunfish, and awestruck by the limitless wonder and mystery of our beloved Monterey Bay.

The first-ever confirmed Mola tecta in Monterey Bay being cleaned by señorita wrasses. Welcome to the neighborhoodwinker! Video: Joe Platko.

[nanonaturalist]

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

September 5, 2019

[bogleech]

heya, i just wanted to ask how and where you get most of your info on arthropods/other "weird" critters. i wanna learn more about them, but idk where to start

Info on wikipedia is actually pretty great for that, people do add almost every known fact to most pages, although for more obscure species you have to dig to find much more.

Some great online blogs (some still updating, some not but with big archives!) include: Gwen Pearson (Bug Girl) on Wired

Catalogue of Organisms

Myrmecos (also a nature photography blog, and has special focus on ants)

Fly obsession - just flies!

[nanonaturalist]

I have found wikipedia to be littered with glaring factual inaccuracies for insects/arthropods on several occasions, and cannot recommend it as a resource for beginners for that reason. There was one time I was looking something up about a leaf-footed bug, and when I checked the wikipedia page, the page was so bad, and so wrong, that I ended up editing it (remember, I had gone there to look something up?).

Also, I would caution beginners against using blogs and non-academic websites as sources. There are SO MANY people that are putting out information that is just plain wrong! Even some big-name science communicators are spreading misinformation when they step outside their areas of expertise (there are two that have a huge following that claim all spiders have venom on their website? No... that is 100% not true, I don’t even know spiders well and I know that).

Of the above listed sources, I know off the top of my head that Gwen Pearson and Myrmecos (Alex Wild) are reliable because both are PhD entomologists.

For general arthropod info, your best starting point is Bugguide [link]. It’s a good general resource, unfortunately limited to North America. Beyond that, universities will have information posted online, sometimes museums will as well. If you live close to one, visit the museum, ask ahead of time if you can speak to the curator of entomology (or arachnology, or whatever), and view the collections. They’ll work with you and answer your questions!

There’s also... books? Check out the library, check out available publications online. There are entire books on entomology available electronially for free through the Canadian government. And yes, they focus on Canadian species, but many of the books cover all of North America.

Blogs can be great, but it’s good to have a handle on the basics so you can pick up on when topics are being misrepresented first. It’s hard to unlearn things.

September 5, 2019

[fihli]

this morning my starbucks is all women, so when i ordered it was all “i love your glasses!” “that drink is soooo good” “have a great day babe!” which is amazing showstopping incredible BUT yesterday the same starbucks was staffed by all guys and my interaction went kind of like this:

first guy, unprompted: we’re trying to help john name his scorpion

his coworker, leaning around him: here’s a list of names you should vote or write your own

me: …..what

john: AGGRESSIVELY SHOWS ME PICTURE OF BABY SCORPION

[cipheramnesia]

But… I need both of these interactions. Ideally combined.

[shabbytigers]

[nanonaturalist]

One of my friends had a (live) scorpion in his pocket at a Taylor Swift concert. No reason, he just happened to have one on him. He didn’t show it to anyone or tell anyone about it. Missed opportunity, in my opinion.

September 4, 2019

[barksbog]

They are back in their full wormyness! Velvet Worms!

get them in my shop spirellity.com

[thistlebackedwulver]

@glumshoe Big Ol Plush Velvet Worms!

[glumshoe]

I’m going to cry, I want one so badly...

[nanonaturalist]

Same

[floridensis]

theres some fun stuff going on in the iNatters of tumblr project!

for anyone interested, theres a scavenger hunt up, as well as badges for fulfilling objectives!

for those who dont know, iNatters of tumblr is a project stated by @nanonaturalist​ to encourage people to use iNaturalist. you can see the original post about starting the project here. i have since become a co-admin of the project.

if youre not already a part of it but want to be involved, we welcome you to join! create an account on inaturalist.org and let us (me, @pterygota​ or kuchipatchis on iNat, or @nanonaturalist​ or nanofishology on iNat) know you want to be included so we can add you to the project, because hitting “join” on the project page allows you to watch the project, but not to be included. that has to be done by us manually.

theres much more information you can see by following the link, but if you havent looked, the scavenger hunt will fun for the next two months, and heres the list:

An example of camouflage

A plant growing out from the water

A mushroom

A fish

A pupa

Something fuzzy

Something spiky

Something having a meal

A symbiotic relationship

Something growing on or out of a man-made object

An animal with more than 8 legs

An animal with no legs

Something that lives in a shell

Something yellow and black

Something brown and white

Something purple and green

Something really common in your area

Something not native to your area

A bee native to your area

Something classified as a threatened species

A feather

An animal track

Mating behavior

A plant gall

A leaf mine

you can post the scavenger hunt list with links to your corresponding observations for each item on your tumblr blog and/or iNaturalist journal. please note that posting your observations to tumblr may mean giving out personal location information to a larger audience, so use discretion if posting to there. we may make posts featuring observations from the scavenger hunt, but will check with you for permission before doing so.

feel free to shoot a message if you have any questions, and if you are reading this, we would LOVE for you to participate!

[nanonaturalist]

Fun Scavenger Hunt is underway!!!

Join us over on iNaturalist to participate, and let me or @pterygota know if you need to be added to the project (the join button just lets you watch it, one of us needs to manually add you!)

You can add the badges to your iNat profile page as you earn them :D

Have fun!

August 30, 2019

[nanonaturalist]

I’m not really participating, but here’s an oak gall wasp, Andricus quercusfoliatus:

Hint: it’s the thing that’s not an acorn, but is where one should be (lower left of the two non-leaf things).

This is on the live oak in my front yard. These are super common, and the wasps are teeny-tiny!

September 2, 2019

[nanonaturalist]

@jabercoll Ah, but you can’t see the wasp! This is a gall! The weird artichoke looking thing? Inside that is a wasp larva. A gall is plant tissue that develops due to another organism, typically an arthropod like a wasp, fly, or mite, manipulating it in some way to help it reproduce. For this gall, the wasp laid its egg inside the oak tissue, and instead of an acorn, the oak is growing a nice protective… artichoke thing… for the wasp larvae to grow up inside.

You have probably seen galls before, but thought they were seed pods! That’s what I thought until I learned about them! They will stay on the tree long after the wasp flies off, and eventually they’ll fall off. Oaks often have big brown ones. Look for them sometime!

September 2, 2019

[nanonaturalist]

Same for me, the first time I saw this type of gall! Here’s my iNat observation [link]:

Basically, I thought maybe it’s a weird little flower thing? Do oaks have flower things? Where do acorns come from anyways? Or maybe it’s a gall? But why does it look like a weird flower thing? Is it... a boy acorn???

One of my plant friends later on in the comments IDed the wasp for me! That’s where I learned abput these! This was all the way back in 2017!

September 2, 2019

[floridensis]

theres some fun stuff going on in the iNatters of tumblr project!

for anyone interested, theres a scavenger hunt up, as well as badges for fulfilling objectives!

for those who dont know, iNatters of tumblr is a project stated by @nanonaturalist​ to encourage people to use iNaturalist. you can see the original post about starting the project here. i have since become a co-admin of the project.

if youre not already a part of it but want to be involved, we welcome you to join! create an account on inaturalist.org and let us (me, @pterygota​ or kuchipatchis on iNat, or @nanonaturalist​ or nanofishology on iNat) know you want to be included so we can add you to the project, because hitting “join” on the project page allows you to watch the project, but not to be included. that has to be done by us manually.

theres much more information you can see by following the link, but if you havent looked, the scavenger hunt will fun for the next two months, and heres the list:

An example of camouflage

A plant growing out from the water

A mushroom

A fish

A pupa

Something fuzzy

Something spiky

Something having a meal

A symbiotic relationship

Something growing on or out of a man-made object

An animal with more than 8 legs

An animal with no legs

Something that lives in a shell

Something yellow and black

Something brown and white

Something purple and green

Something really common in your area

Something not native to your area

A bee native to your area

Something classified as a threatened species

A feather

An animal track

Mating behavior

A plant gall

A leaf mine

you can post the scavenger hunt list with links to your corresponding observations for each item on your tumblr blog and/or iNaturalist journal. please note that posting your observations to tumblr may mean giving out personal location information to a larger audience, so use discretion if posting to there. we may make posts featuring observations from the scavenger hunt, but will check with you for permission before doing so.

feel free to shoot a message if you have any questions, and if you are reading this, we would LOVE for you to participate!

[nanonaturalist]

Fun Scavenger Hunt is underway!!!

Join us over on iNaturalist to participate, and let me or @pterygota know if you need to be added to the project (the join button just lets you watch it, one of us needs to manually add you!)

You can add the badges to your iNat profile page as you earn them :D

Have fun!

August 30, 2019

[nanonaturalist]

I’m not really participating, but here’s an oak gall wasp, Andricus quercusfoliatus:

Hint: it’s the thing that’s not an acorn, but is where one should be (lower left of the two non-leaf things).

This is on the live oak in my front yard. These are super common, and the wasps are teeny-tiny!

September 2, 2019

[nanonaturalist]

@jabercoll Ah, but you can’t see the wasp! This is a gall! The weird artichoke looking thing? Inside that is a wasp larva. A gall is plant tissue that develops due to another organism, typically an arthropod like a wasp, fly, or mite, manipulating it in some way to help it reproduce. For this gall, the wasp laid its egg inside the oak tissue, and instead of an acorn, the oak is growing a nice protective... artichoke thing... for the wasp larvae to grow up inside.

You have probably seen galls before, but thought they were seed pods! That’s what I thought until I learned about them! They will stay on the tree long after the wasp flies off, and eventually they’ll fall off. Oaks often have big brown ones. Look for them sometime!

September 2, 2019