Megaweapon: Nature Notes

Anders and I were taking a walk around the back yard and found some interesting signs of insects. There are lots of bugs that change the shape of leaves, make tracks or tunnels on the leaves, and lay their eggs on leaves, but this is one of the coolest changes I have ever seen. It almost looks like a flower. It is on a walnut tree that has volunteered in a most unfortunate spot - in between our house and our neighbor's house. Unfortunate because it is only about 12 feet from our house to theirs and that isn't enough space for a great big walnut tree, so alas, it will have to go. I did a cursory search online but don't have time to do an in depth search to figure out what did this to the leaves. I will have to watch for the bug...

Here is more of the damage or art depending on how you look at it. I think it looks pretty cool, but Will is creeped out by it. I feel bad taking the tree down as I am not only killing the tree (and we all know we need more of them) but also the insect's habitat.

These next three shots are from our elm tree. When we moved into the house, the tree was about two feet tall and about the circumference of a pencil. It was obviously a volunteer in the middle of a peony. We let it grow and now it is taller than our house (35-40 feet) and at least 10" in diameter. This is our 10th year in the house. Elms grow quickly. I think that is why they were so popular. We are hoping that this one is super special and resistant to Dutch Elm Disease. Anyway, these bugs rolled up the leaf. I'm 99% sure this picture is damage from the Woolly Elm Aphid, though there are insects known as leaf rollers, this is not leaf roller damage - the leaf is too messed up.

Here are some eggs under the surface of the leaves. I haven't figured out what they are from, but they aren't from the Woolly Elm Aphids, as they lay their eggs on the bark.

This picture is out of focus, but you get the idea - lots of Woolly Elm Aphids. These give me the creeps. Poor tree. I think it also has some sort of scale.

Yesterday when I came home from Pennsylvania Will had two caterpillars in a jar in our kitchen. There were several in our yard - all climbing our house for some reason. Apparently to find a place to pupate. I wish I had taken a picture of this one earlier in the day. I found it in the morning and it spent about 5 hours just hanging out with all of its legs touching the bottom of the gutter from which it hangs now. I knew it was getting ready to pupate, but failed to get a picture of the early stages. This is what it was doing when Will got home from work.

I imagine this is one of it's siblings. I suspect that tomorrow it will also be hanging upside down. It is on our garage door, which seems like a bad place for two reasons - we go into the garage daily and the sun does beat down on the door for several hours per day. I wonder if cocoons are insulated?

Same one, different angle. These caterpillars are Spiny Elm Caterpillars which will become Mourning Cloak Butterflies. We haven't noticed these before, but we have seen the butterflies around. It seems like we should see lots of butterflies this summer. We will try to keep up with their life cycle over the next few weeks - too bad Anders isn't older.

Ok and now what you all have been waiting for: Anders. He dressed in his camo outfit so that he could hunt for insects without being detected.

These next few pictures are from while I was gone. I went to Pennsylvania for work EARLY Monday morning. Will and Anders seem to have really enjoyed the time they had together, which is good because I have one more trip in August.

Will was a really good husband and sent me a picture of Anders every morning. This one was my favorite. Anders is 9 months old today - can you believe it? It seems crazy. I can see how people forget the rough times in those early days. I haven't forgotten them, but I don't feel them anymore. Does that make sense? In those first few months we were so tired from the night wakings and he was cute and all, but I just was tired and emotional and unsure of what I was doing. Now he sleeps through the night (most of the time) and is way more fun than he used to be. He is crawling tons and stands up at things so quickly is it amazing. He eats likes crazy - today he tried cranberry-orange muffins and went crazy for them - and he laughs and smiles tons. I suspect he is still on the small side for his age - we will find out on Tuesday, but he is healthy.