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Maryland Biodiversity Project
Maryland Biodiversity Project is cataloging all the living things of Maryland. We promote science, ed
The Columbian Trig (Cyrtoxipha columbiana) is a distinctive orthopteran species likely found throughout Maryland. We have 71 records as I write this spanning June to October and about half of our counties. We're missing records for Garrett, Harford and Cecil, Charles and St. Mary's, and much of the Eastern Shore (we have QA and Worcester).
So what are we looking at here? An orthopteran is a member of the order Orthoptera, which comprises grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids. Trigs are crickets in the family Trigonidiidae with alternate common names like sword-tailed crickets and leaf-running crickets. This one is pretty distinctive in its eastern U.S. and Caribbean range. It's our only green trig and it generally has red eyes (sometimes yellowish). Also check out those very long antennae! Look for Columbian Trigs at lights and on foliage. You can add a new county record to the project!
📷: Photo by Frode Jacobsen - Baltimore Co., Maryland (8/12/2022).
More at Maryland Biodiversity Project:
www.marylandbiodiversity.com/view/8161
- Bill
#marylandbiodiversityproject #marylandinsects #orthoptera
😲 One of Maryland's most interesting rare bird records is this Southern Lapwing found by Mark Hoffman in Worcester Co., Maryland (6/17/2006) (#2006-051). Yes, June, like this month of the year. June has some of the craziest rarities.
Southern Lapwing has not yet been added to the Maryland or ABA checklists, but many believe acceptance is warranted based on expansion of this subspecies. Alvaro Jaramillo shared the following and summarizes the geographical variation in this species: "the bird looks to be clearly in the cayennensis group (long legs, long black crest, no dark line on breast, slim shape, dull bill color etc.). I also think that based on some of those features as well as the brownish rather than grayish face, that is cayennensis not a lampronotus from the south. The form cayennensis is the one in the north of South America, and the one that has expanded recently into Central America as well as Trinidad and Tobago. So it is the subspecies that would be expected as a vagrant in North America, or at least more expected than the other forms."
📷: Photo courtesy of Mark Hoffman.
More of Mark's photos at Maryland Biodiversity Project:
www.marylandbiodiversity.com/view/17003
- Bill
#marylandbiodiversityproject #marylandbirds #rarebirds #abarare #southernlapwing
The six photos Mark Hoffman took are wonderful, especially the one where it turned to look at the photographer, then lifting off, with its long legs dangling, and in flight, with its wings outspread. Such a nice visual story. ❤️
Wow, that is amazing
Omg too cool
Wow
Last night I ran lights at one of my favorite wooded areas in northeastern Dorchester County. One of the many highlights was my first of season (FOS) Carpenterworm Moth (Prionoxystus robiniae). These large distinctive moths have been recorded across most of Maryland, but are considered uncommon across much of their range. Larvae burrow into the wood of deciduous trees.
For more details on flight times in Maryland and quad distribution: www.marylandbiodiversity.com/view/9662
Photo of a Carpenterworm Moth by Jim Brighton.
Nice! I had one of those come to my UV light in my back yard last year. First one I had seen. An impressive moth.
i see them regularly in Charles and St. Mary’s county
Nature is often harsh and unpleasant. This photograph shows an Eastern Pondhawk trapped by a Spatula-leaved Sundew (Drosera intermedia). When the photo was taken the dragonfly had not met its imminent demise. The sundew will release enzymes that will break down the meat of the dragonfly, then glands on the leaves will absorb nutrients from the decaying insect.
Maryland has four different sundew species. All but six (Allegany, Washington, Harford, Kent, Queen Anne's, and Somerset) Maryland counties have records for at least one species of sundew.
Photo by Jim Brighton.
Interesting how the six counties aren’t all neighboring counties. I’m also surprised Garrett county has a population.
"Nature is often harsh and unpleasant..." In fact, Nature is blind and deaf. As nearly as any of us can tell, there is no entity in the Universe—except for some soft-hearted Homo sapiens—that knows or cares about the lives and suffering of living creatures.
A big meal for a little sundew
imminent, i think you mean.
Awesome Post! Thank you.
I hope someone will share this to Capital Naturalist!
Wow
Today's photo is this excellent image of a Striped Skunk by Mike Mosser in Garrett County (5/9/2023).
Striped Skunk is the common and widespread skunk species in Maryland. They are nocturnal omnivores found in a wide variety of habitats throughout the state. Although not frequently seen, their potent odor is familiar to most Maryland residents. Don't worry, they will generally flee or stomp their front feet before resorting to using their famous defense mechanism! 🦨
📷 (c) Mike Mosser, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC, creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
More at Maryland Biodiversity Project:
www.marylandbiodiversity.com/view/847
- Bill
#marylandbiodiversityproject #marylandmammals #mammals #mammalwatching #stripedskunk
So cute! I hear them regularly outside my bedroom window rooting through the leaf litter. They're gone by morning-no harm, no foul (smell)!
Or if you walk near one at night, unknowingly, you find yourself walking through the cloud. Sniffing, and thinking, that’s what that ghostly white apparition was that just walked by. Yep. Just been skunked. 😳😟🤣🤣🤣
a lil' Pepe le Pieu very kindly came by one night a couple summers back and neatly excised a mower's-ankle-nipping yellowjackets nest that I'd been unable to locate in the yard....such an exact spade-shaped crater I briefly wondered if my neighbor on that side had found it and used an old milspec/scouting camp shovel on it. skunks consider the yellowjacks delicacies, sniff 'em out & take them when dormant at night--thanks, bud! (some folks have made pets of them....)
My daughters were sitting around a camp fire one night on a weekend camping trip. They heard a lapping sound, looked and there was a skunk helping itself to the cup of coffee one of them had sat on the ground right next to her chair. They both just froze. When it had it's fill it just wandered off. no harm, no foul lol.
I've never seen one running around in broad daylight.
Look at that lil face 🥰
Adorable
😍😍😍