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The Secret Lives of Insects #1

April 9, 2021 By crm

Aphids: Life at the Base of the Food Chain

By Judy Ferris, ACLT Guest Blogger

This is the first in a series of blog posts providing a glimpse into the secret lives of insects that live among us – some friends, some foes. The author, Judy Ferris, describes herself as a born nature-girl, a gardener since the age of 10, and a birder for 45 years. Judy volunteers at ACLT’s Double Oak Farm as a ‘Flower Girl’ – a small team that manages several Flower Gardens. According to Judy, “It’s hard to be around flowers without noticing the insects they attract!” Hence the recent dive into the world of insects. Though still an amateur, Judy delights in learning about insects and sharing with others, the stories of these fascinating and vital creatures.

Let’s start our exploration of the insect world at the base of the food chain – with aphids! As we know, aphids are sucking insects, with specialized mouthparts to access sugary sap in the phloem (vascular tissue) of plants. To our eyes, aphids are rather featureless; like miniature balloons of sugar water with legs.

To would-be predators, however, each plump, hapless aphid is a hit of sugar in an easy-to-open container – soft and rubbery on the outside, juicy and irresistibly succulent within.

Aphids have been on earth since before the age of dinosaurs and are still going strong. How have these walking sugar-blobs survived so long while other, mightier species died out forever? Turns out that these tiny bugs have quite a few tricks up their skinny little sleeves.

Here in Aphid World, we are at the bottom of the food chain. If you are an aphid, you are a featured item on the menu of many insect species. Thus, there is one thing you need to do really well; reproduce quickly! Aphids have made rapid reproduction into an art form. How do they do this? The solution is unconventional, yet its simplicity harkens back to the aphid’s ancient origin; cloning!

Here’s how it works. In spring, aphids emerge from over-wintering eggs. All are females. These original females generate more female offspring asexually, giving birth to live young rather than laying eggs. Why wait around for eggs to hatch when you can pop out babies right away? Second-generation aphids are also females and may even be pregnant with a third generation of daughters before they themselves are born! Yes, that’s right – mothers giving birth to daughters and granddaughters!

With this ‘telescoping’ of multiple generations, aphids can multiply exponentially. It is estimated that under ideal conditions, with no predators, pathogens, or parasites, a single female aphid could produce 600 billion sap-sucking descendants in a single season!

Another unique aphid talent is their ability to poop sugar water (also known as ‘honeydew’)! Yes, aphid poop is the basis for the famous win-win relationship between aphids and ants.

Aphids poop honeydew for sugar-loving ants. Ants, in turn, may serve as soldiers to protect their coveted aphid herd from predators. Through adaptations like cloned babies and pooping sugar, aphids have survived on earth for 280 million years and will likely be here long after we humans have vanished.

Lest you are now having nightmares about planet Earth inundated with aphids… Not to worry! There are plenty of insect predators who relish a sweet aphid feast; Lady Beetles, Flower Fly larvae, parasitic wasps, aphid midges, and even ‘aphid lions’ (the larvae of Lacewings). We will meet some of these predators in the coming weeks. Fasten your seatbelts. It may be a wild ride!

Now available! Read the next installment in The Secret Lives of Insects – “Lacewings: Beauty and the Beastly Babies”!

Read Other Posts In This Series

Frog Blog #1: Active Amphibians and Related Conservation Efforts at ACLT

March 29, 2021 By crm

By Nicole Stevens, Chesapeake Conservation Corps Member

O, I love to hear the frogs
When they first begin to sing;
How they vocalize the bogs,
And vociferate the Spring.
How they carrol as they croak,
How they mingle jest and joke
With their solemn chant and dirge
On the river’s slimy verge.
– Harry Edward Mills, “The Early Frogs”

This is the first in a series of monthly blogs that will showcase progress on ACLT’s conservation and research efforts as well as highlight currently-active frog species. Stay tuned to receive updates! You may also wish to subscribe to our blog here: www.acltweb.org

After weeks of rain, snow, and freezing weather, spring has finally begun for some of our amphibian friends! On Saturday, February 27th, spring peepers were heard during an evening guided hike at ACLT – the first frog calls noted in 2021. Soon, many more of Maryland’s 20 native frog and toad species will join in these nighttime songs as each of their breeding seasons begins. So, who are the frogs we hear calling in the evenings? And what is ACLT doing to conserve and research these important species?

The word “amphibian” means “double life” and refers to a group of animals that have aquatic larval stages generally followed by terrestrial, or land-dwelling, forms. The class Amphibia encompasses the orders Caudata or Urodela (the newts and salamanders), Gymnophiona or Apoda (the caecilians; a group of burrowing worm-like creatures with slimy skin and no legs), and the most commonly known: Anura (the frogs and toads). Many of these species utilize seasonal wetlands (often called vernal or woodland pools) as breeding sites since these pools are generally dry for part of the year, making them uninhabitable for permanent aquatic predators like fish. During their mating season, male frogs will “sing” to attract females who will then deposit fertilized eggs at these seasonal pools, or sometimes into more permanent ponds. Frog eggs are usually found in loose clumps, while salamander eggs are usually attached to surfaces (like sticks or leaves), and toad eggs resemble beads on a string.

Frog breeding periods vary slightly each year depending on weather conditions like temperature and precipitation. In southern Maryland, there are four active frog species you may be able to see (or hear) in March: the spring peeper (Pseudacris crucifer), the wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus), the upland chorus frog (Pseudacris feriarum), and possibly the pickerel frog (Lithobates palustris), though the latter will likely not be active until April. There also may be a chance to hear American toads (Anaxyrus americanus), but they also will most likely not be out until April and May. Links to hear the calls of these species and more information about them are included below! Try to figure out what species are in your neighborhood (though remember not to handle them as their skin is very sensitive and many species also secrete irritating toxins).

As one of the two Chesapeake Conservation Corps Members working at ACLT this year, I am focusing on amphibian conservation for the program’s capstone project. A few weeks ago, I was awarded grant funding by the Chesapeake Bay Trust to install two new vernal pools, create educational signage and activities, and perform drift fence and frog call biodiversity surveys. I am happy to say that with the help of six wonderful volunteers, including University of Maryland herpetologist, Dr. Christopher Rowe, the first vernal pool was installed on March 3rd! This site is near existing vernal pools along the PF2Bay trail that are heavily utilized by breeding amphibians, so it will offset breeding pressures experienced at these two sites.

A second vernal pool was installed on March 12th with the help of five volunteers! This seasonal wetland is slightly further from existing pools – creating a new breeding site to increase the range of these important species, many of which are threatened. Both manmade vernal pools were made by digging shallow depressions in naturally low areas and installing 15-foot by 25-foot pond liners. They will be filled with spring showers and may attract amphibians throughout the spring and summer. By installing pond liners, these woodland pools will serve as important breeding sites for frogs, toads, and salamanders for decades to come.

The first frog call survey was also completed on March 2nd and 3-4 spring peepers were heard calling, despite the weather only being 31˚F! Data for these surveys are reported to FrogWatch USA, a program run by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to form a nation-wide database for researchers, conservationists, and other interested people.

Southern Maryland Frog Species Active During March (click to enlarge photos)

Spring Peeper	Spring Peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) Spring peepers are the first frog species to emerge from hibernation each year, due to the natural anti-freeze in their blood that makes them especially cold-tolerant. They are quite small (only 1-1.5 inches long), usually brownish or greenish in color, and have a dark X-shape on their backs. Spring peepers are a type of treefrog with smooth, slimy skin and terrific climbing ability, though they generally remain hidden in leaves and brush on the forest floor. Listen for their high-pitched calls near waterways or forests at dusk. Each frog may call more than 20 times per minute! Click to hear the Spring Peeper call.
Wood Frog Wood Frog Eggs	Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) Another frog species to leave hibernation early is the wood frog, which emerges in late February or early March, depending on weather conditions. Wood frogs are tan with an area of dark brown behind their eyes that resembles a mask. They are much bigger than peepers, growing up to 3.25 inches in length, and are obligate vernal pool species, meaning that they require temporary wetlands to breed and cannot coexist with many permanent pond-dwelling species. Wood frogs are explosive breeders that only mate for a few days out of the year and produce many eggs at once. They were spotted at ACLT on March 10th and some wood frog egg masses are visible in the vernal pool along the PF2Bay trail! The coolest fact about the wood frog is that they are the only frog species known to live north of the Arctic circle and they survive the frigid winters using a unique series of adaptations. During hibernation, their hearts stop beating and they cease breathing as ice encases their bodies. They are able to survive using special compounds in their cells that prevent internal freezing and dehydration. In the spring, their bodies thaw and their breeding cycle begins. Listen for their quack-like calls in the evenings: Wood frog call.
Upland Chorus Frog-Photo Credit: Virginia Herpetological Society	Upland Chorus Frog (Pseudacris feriarum) The upland chorus frog is a small treefrog species that grows up to 1-3/8 inches and may begin breeding in late March in Southern Maryland. They are usually brown or gray with variable patterns, potentially including stripes or spots. However, they all generally have a dark stripe on each side of their bodies passing through their eyes and bumpy skin. Upland chorus frogs are more tolerant of anthropogenic disturbances than many other frog species, and may breed in human-generated habitats. Click to hear the Upland Chorus Frog call.
Pickerel Frog	Pickerel Frog (Lithobates palustris) The pickerel frog is in the family Ranidae, meaning it is a type of “true frog” that has many adaptations for life in the water, including webbed feet, long legs, and the absence of toe pads that facilitate climbing. Pickerel frogs are generally 2-4 inches in length and are green or tan with a number of darker brown splotches. The pickerel frog resembles the leopard frog (also found in this region) but can be differentiated by its square-shaped spots and the bright yellow markings near its hips (easily seen when the frogs jump). They secrete a substance that is dangerous to their predators and can be irritating to humans, but this species is very beneficial to the ecosystem by consuming otherwise-dangerous insects. Pickerel frogs hibernate in muddy pond bottoms and are usually most active in April, though if you’re lucky you may hear some at the end of March! Their call sounds a bit like a human snore: Click to hear the Pickerel Frog call (with a chorus of spring peepers in the background)
American Toad	American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus) The American toad is one of two true toad species found in southern Maryland. It is up to 4.4 inches long and has dry, bumpy skin and short back legs used for making small hops instead of the long leaps characteristic of most frog species. The American toad usually has 1-2 dark spots per colored patch on its body, differentiating it from the Fowler’s toad which generally has 3-4. In southern Maryland, American toads are usually active throughout April and May, though it is sometimes possible to hear them calling in late March. Look out for them in your nearby forests, or even your backyard! Click to hear the American Toad call.

For more information, check out these links:

Maryland’s Frogs and Toads (Order Anura) – Maryland DNR

Spring Peepers – The National Wildlife Federation

Wood Frogs – Animal Diversity Web – Virginia Herpetological Society

Upland Chorus Frogs – Virginia Herpetological Society
– Maryland DNR

Pickerel Frogs – Virginia Herpetological Society

American Toads – Animal Diversity Web

Click to Read Frog Blog #2

Controlled Burn at the North Side Trailhead

March 11, 2021 By crm

By Nicole Stevens, Chesapeake Conservation Corps Member

On Friday, February 26^th, two controlled burns were held near ACLT’s Northside trailhead. Five trained professionals from the Forest Service ignited several acres of meadow to reduce thick layers of thatch buildup and to aid in ACLT’s efforts to control Chinese lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata), a common invasive plant. As safety precautions, the parking area and trails were closed for a few hours and Forest Service staff wore protective fire gear, brought two Kubota RTV’s equipped with several hundred gallons of water, and used special flamethrowers to control the spread of the fire. ACLT’s Land Manager, Autumn Phillips-Lewis, was the first person to light the burn!

Before Picture

Land Manager Autumn Phillips-Lewis lighting the meadow burn

Starting Big Meadow Burn

Big Meadow Burning

Fire in Small Meadow

Burned Field

After Picture

Little Sweet Gum Trees in Smoke

Fire is a natural process that has shaped Maryland’s landscape for millions of years and has been a useful tool for modern-day humans as well as European settlers and indigenous people who have lived on the land for hundreds of thousands of years. Fire can also be GREAT for the ecosystem! While large, out-of-control wildfires can be devastating to both the environment and people alike, carefully-executed controlled burns help control dense underbrush, allow space for new growth, limit the intensity of unplanned fires, and increase soil fertility by rapidly returning nutrients to the soil. Some trees, including the Maryland natives Table Mountain pine and pitch pine, even require fire to reproduce. Many animal populations even benefit from regular burns!

The fires at ACLT were lit to restore this historic balance in the ecosystem, remove the thick layer of thatch (grass build-up on the ground), and help control the spread of invasive Chinese lespedeza. The fire was actually used to increase the germination of Chinese lespedeza seeds in the seed bank (the dormant seeds that have built up on the top layer of soil), which may seem counterintuitive to control efforts at first. However, this is just the first step of a multi-step control plan. Now that fire has been used to increase the germination rate of seeds that may have otherwise lay dormant in the soil for years, the new growth will be eliminated using herbicide and solarization (covering the area with large plastic sheets to superheat the soil and block the plants from receiving sunlight and oxygen) this summer. Using the fire to temporarily increase growth of this invasive will allow ACLT to reduce the size of the lespedeza seed bank and increase the number of lespedeza plants that will be killed by the herbicide application. This will reduce the number of applications that will be required to achieve the same level of lespedeza control and therefore reduce the overall amount of herbicide that will need to be applied. To put it simply, by increasing the germination of seeds in the seed bank using fire, ACLT will get more “bang for its buck” with an herbicide or solarization treatment this summer.

Come check out ACLT’s burn sites in the North Side Meadow from the Griffin Meadow Trail: a smaller patch behind the barn and the whole northern-most back field (a section that is currently closed to the public to limit the spread of invasive wavyleaf basketgrass, but you can look from the sign!).

Some Useful Sources:

Summer 2020 Edition of The Watershed Observer – ACLT’s Quarterly Newsletter (pg. 5)

The Ecological Benefits of Fire – National Geographic

Forest Fires: The Good and the Bad – WWF

Nature papers on fire ecology

Chinese Lespedeza – Ecosystem Gardener

Controlling Chinese Lespedeza – Missouri Department of Conservation

Insight into the Bald Eagles that Call ACLT Home

February 4, 2021 By crm

By Nicole Stevens, Chesapeake Conservation Corp Intern

This past year, our national symbol was caught on film at ACLT! Thanks to trail camera footage captured by ACLT volunteer Ian Messent, bald eagles have been taking over one of the feeder streams into Parker’s Creek. These majestic birds have been seen standing on logs, bathing in the water, flying, and even inspecting our trail cameras with great interest. Trail cameras provide us with the unique opportunity to see into the natural lives of wild animals, totally unaltered by the presence of humans. With this footage, we can really see what our local eagles are up to!

Several Founding Fathers decided upon the bald eagle for the US in 1782 as a symbol of strength and freedom, and Native Americans regard them as sacred and continue to ascribe them spiritual importance today.

Bald eagle numbers were greatly diminished in the early- to mid- 1900s due to hunting and pesticide use that decreased their ability to reproduce. However, bald eagle numbers have been growing since the 1970s and they transitioned from being classified as an endangered species to a species of least concern in 1995, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Bald eagles primarily eat fish that they either hunt themselves or scavenge from other birds, though they will opportunistically feed on birds, small mammals, and carrion. They generally reside near bodies of water where they construct huge stick nests in tall trees. The largest bald eagle nest on record was 9.5 feet across and over 20 feet tall!

At ACLT, bald eagles can be seen fairly frequently near Parker’s Creek, and Alyssa Matanin (the other CCC intern) and I recently saw quite a few flying there and landing in trees. Since bald eagles are common around larger bodies of water, their presence at Parker’s Creek is unsurprising as it is their ideal habitat and many birds migrate from northern regions to winter in areas like these. However, their presence shown by the trail cam footage was slightly more unexpected, as they are further from a large body of water and in a more densely forested area. It is very exciting to see the bald eagles using this space and to have the opportunity to capture their natural behaviors on film.

Sources:

Mindfulness in Nature – A Resolution for the New Year

December 29, 2020 By crm

By Alyssa Matanin, Chesapeake Conservation Corp Intern

As a child, I took the natural world around me for granted. On one hand, I gave it more attention than the average adult because of its newness and novelty- I was filled with wonder at the leaves changing color and the snow falling so heavily that I could (dangerously) jump off the roof of my friend’s rancher. On the other hand, however, I never noticed the impermanence of the seasons. I didn’t recognize that an autumn walk up my hometown block flush with hues of orange and red in 2016 might be the last time I saw the street again in that way, as years of strange weather occurrences could lead to many of the trees simply skipping that step altogether, forever forgetting the vibrancy its canopy once offered for all the years of my childhood. But I didn’t know at the time to cherish the season’s small changes – for they would soon slip away and become foreign to me – I only knew to enjoy them as they appeared.

When I visited Iceland in October 2019, my guide, a life-long resident of Iceland, discussed how he has watched as glacial lakes expand and glaciers recede, this pattern culminating in 2014 with the first “death” of an Icelandic glacier, Okjökull, due to climate change. It is predicted that all of Iceland’s glaciers will melt within the next 200 years; a sobering thought for anyone who has admired the splendor of Iceland and its glaciers. My heart aches for those in Iceland who must watch as these familiar bits of their local ecosystem slip away, and I often stopped to reflect on the sites I was seeing, as I knew that when I return, it may not be the same Iceland I came to love last October.

The plaque pictured, placed in April of 2019 at the location of Okjökull, reads in English and Icelandic “Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the next 200 years, all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and know what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it”. The plaque also lists the CO2 level in the atmosphere at that time, at 415 ppm, which is already over 100 ppm above the average CO2 levels we have on record in the last 800 thousand years before present. Our current yearly global average for 2019 is 411 ppm.

Unfortunately, the effects of this rise in CO2 levels are expected to continue to be seen, even if we were to stop emitting excess CO2 today, for anywhere between 100-300 years into the future depending on the model, due to the nature and speed in which global cycles function.

So, what then, is my point in telling you all of these things? With the onset of climate change becoming ever-the-more noticeable with regular record-setting temperature highs and abnormal and severe cloudbursts, I recognize that I should cherish the little things I enjoy in nature more, as I know now that they will certainly not always be a given. I hope to invite our readers to practice mindfulness in a similar way in order to truly appreciate what our mother has given us today and to track how we are changing her landscapes as we move forward. I think all of us in our postmodern, technology-filled, information- stressed lives deserve to take time to notice nature a little more. And she deserves the recognition. In order to guide our readers into mindfulness of nature, I want to point out a past culture of natural mindfulness, found in Japan.

Japan, as much of the “western” world, currently runs on the western Gregorian calendar; however, that has not always been the case. In fact, one of Japan’s ancient calendars was organized based off of seasons, and more specifically, changes in nature. Influenced heavily by the traditional Chinese Almanac, the year was split into 24 major divisions, called sekki, and then further divided into three parts in each sekki, coming together to create 72 microseasons, called ko. Each microseason has a poetic name to help describe exactly what is going on during these 5-day periods, with names like Silkworms start feasting on mulberry leaves, Rotten grass becomes fireflies, and Light rains sometimes fall. As you are reading this, Japan may be entering the season of Beneath the snow the wheat sprouts (January 1st – 4th), The water dropwort flourishes (January 5th – 9th), The spring water holds warmth (January 10th – 14th), or The pheasant first calls (January 15th – 19th).

To catch the changes in your environment every 5 or so days requires a sort of mindfulness that is rarely given unless you spend most days outdoors. Even as someone who works outdoors, I can get bogged down in the task-finishing mode and forget to take some time to appreciate the beauty of my surroundings at ACLT.

There are many ways to learn about and keep track of these microseasons, as there are calendars that follow the ko seasons, and an app that notifies you of the new season every few days (named appropriately, 72 Seasons). These methods offer insight as to what the microseasons in Japan are at the time, which is well worth it for noting the poetic simplicity of each season as it comes, but I think that we all could build our own 72 seasons if we take the time to do it.

Once a week, enter the natural world around you with intentionality, note the changes you see as the days pass, and mark them down in a planner, on your phone, or on the calendar. Go a step further and keep a journal, perhaps including photos of where your mindful moments happen. Jellyfish engulf the bay. Mist sits low in the valley. Monarchs migrate overhead. Ginkgo seeds begin their descent.

Find the things in your world that change in 5 days. Slowly, over the year, you will catch yourself noticing the little things in nature, and maybe have a keepsake to look back upon when the year has come and gone. Commit to a new year’s resolution that will improve your mental health and help you keep track of the health of the planet.

Every day, we experience something unique in nature, and every year, those experiences are bound to change. By noting the small things, we can not only find time to center ourselves and reflect, but also remind ourselves of how the planet ebbs and flows, and of how, if we do not take care, those small things may fall out of our sight.