This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we’re focusing on one of our resident waterfowl, the Wood Duck (Aix sponsa).
The Wood Duck is a medium-sized species of Duck native to the Eastern US. In South Carolina they are a common species and permanent residents. Many individuals are non-migratory but they may be joined by northern birds in the winter months. The species is strongly sexually dimorphic, meaning males and females have distinct and obvious differences. Males are beautifully patterned with bright red eyes, pink bills, and a complex plumage of brown shades accented by greens, blues, and white. Females have a very drab and camouflaged appearance, sporting only a distinct white eye patch over a plumage of light brown and white. Both males and females have a crest of feathers on their head but it is more pronounced in males. Wood Ducks feed primarily on vegetation, especially Duckweeds, seeds, and nuts.
Wood Ducks, as the name implies, live in the woods. More specifically, they inhabit swamps, floodplain forests, and vegetated ponds surrounded by woodlands. The reason for this preference is three fold. First, flying through the woods is dangerous. This means Wood Ducks have little competition for food from other duck species since those other species would rather avoid the hazard. Second, it’s hard to see through trees. This means Wood Ducks are better protected from aerial predators like Falcons and Eagles that other Ducks must avoid. Third, Wood Ducks nest in tree cavities. It’s hard to nest in trees without any trees around. Cavity nesting helps protect a nest and its mother from predators like Raccoons, Rats, Snakes, Bobcats, and Alligators.
Wood Ducks are one of only two species in the genus Aix. The other is the equally handsome Mandarin Duck, native to East Asia. This means they’re fairly weird compared to most of our species of Ducks. To name a few: they have that crest, they have claws, they roost in trees, they prefer to feed on the water’s edge rather than open water, they nest in cavities, they don’t migrate, and they don’t quack, instead they whistle and scream.
Wood Ducks are a conservation success story. Their numbers were in rapid decline at the turn of the 20th century due to habitat destruction and unregulated hunting. Thanks to federal intervention and a shift in American hunting culture, their numbers today are completely recovered. Being fairly large, cavity nesting birds means Wood Ducks are very susceptible to habitat degradation from logging. They require large standing dead trees over standing water that Pileated Woodpeckers have already nested in. Much like Eastern Bluebirds, their recovery has nest boxes to thank. It takes decades to grow trees large enough for Wood Ducks to nest in but it only takes an afternoon for a conservation minded citizen to build and install a Wood Duck box on the edge of a swampy farm pond or fishing hole. Sometimes that little bit of effort from enough people is all it takes to make a real impact.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, in celebration of Halloween, we’ll be talking about a ghostly vampire of the forest understory. An ephemeral hand of an unlikely parasite that pushes its way into our realm of view every Halloween season. Today we’re looking at the Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora).
The Indian Pipe is a member of the Heath family, Ericaceae. This is the family that Azaleas, Rhododendrons, Blueberries, and Mountain-laurels belong to. This family is known for its evergreen shrubs with pinkish, bell-shaped flowers. Indian Pipes possess the latter but the former is nowhere to be seen. That’s because Indian Pipes are a subterranean, nonphotosynthetic, achlorophytic, parasitic, myco-heterotrophic angiosperm. In other words, they’re a flowering plant that lives completely underground and feeds by stealing nutrients and sugars from soil fungi, instead of photosynthesizing. They bloom in mid fall, right around the end of October. This is the only time they’re visible to us.
Now, let’s go in depth on how Indian Pipes go about parasitizing their host. First we need to talk about mutualistic mycorrhizal associations. A mycorrhizal association is a partnership between a plant and a soil fungus where both organisms benefit. So what does each stand to gain? The plant gains increased access to mineral nutrients. The fungus is rewarded with sugars. Why form a partnership? Soil fungi are excellent at breaking down organic matter and mineral deposits in the soil, in order to have access to the mineral nutrients within them. This requires some complicated biochemistry, microscopic body structures, and a lot of calories. Thus, fungi need to seek out and breakdown organic material that’s high in calories in order to keep themselves fed. Plants are excellent at turning water, air, and sunlight into raw sugars. However, their rigid cell walls and vascular structures restrict how efficiently they can pull available mineral nutrients out of the soil. On top of that, they’re not able to access most of the nutrients that are locked away in soil organic matter. So, plants and fungi have allied and the two prosper because of it. The plant has access to more mineral nutrients and the fungus has a steady and dependable supply of calories. This sort of alliance is most fruitful in trees and shrubs due to their high demand for nutrients and high photosynthetic output. The fungi will form a sheath around the roots of a plant or sometimes embed itself within the skin of the plant’s roots.
Indian Pipes cheat this alliance by parasitizing the fungus in a mycorrhizal association. The fungus provides the Indian Pipe with mineral nutrients but instead of rewarding the fungus with sugars, the Indian Pipe steals the sugars the fungus was given by its partner. The fungus, as a result takes more sugars from the tree to make up the deficit. So really, the Indian Pipe is parasitizing both a fungus and, indirectly, the plant. This theft is so efficient that the Indian Pipe has completely lost the ability to produce chlorophyll, the pigment that allows photosynthesis. This leaves their flesh a ghastly white and their flowers with only a faint wash of red.
This Indian Pipe was parasitizing on the roots of an exotic Azalea. They seem to prefer hardwoods in our area. Indian Pipes are not alone in this lifestyle. They have a sister species known as Pinesap (Monotropa hyopitys) that specialize in hosting on Pines. Many species of Orchid will do the same. If you’re wandering the autumn forests or traversing the haunted woods this Halloween, you may stumble onto these pallid vampyric fingers rising from beneath the Earth to pierce the shadow soaked forest floor.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, we’re briefly talking about the most ecologically and economically important species in Coastal South Carolina: Smooth Cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora).
Smooth Cordgrass, or more commonly just called Spartina, is a species of grass that’s specially adapted to growing in salt water. This is by no means a trivial feat. Black Needlerush (Juncus roemerianus) is the only other vascular plant in our area that comes close and even its roots can’t handle more than a few hours of saltwater inundation each day. Mangroves in the tropics can accomplish this too but they can’t survive freezing temperatures. Spartina is a perennial grass that spreads via roots and disperses with floating seeds. It dies back to the roots each winter, grows all spring and summer, and flowers in early fall. The processes by which Spartina can survive being submerged for half the day, dry the other half, and exposed to extreme salinity levels throughout its lifespan are downright fascinating and ingenious.
I’ll try not to be long winded but I need to give a little background into plant physiology. Plants are in a constant war with each other over water, sunlight, and nutrients. Losing this competition means death. The best way for a plant to avoid competition and ensure it has enough of all of these resources is to carve out a “niche”. An ecological niche is a stable combination of habitat and resources that an organism is best suited to live within. These niches can be very specific or fairly broad. Spartina fills a rather narrow niche environmentally but it has no competition. With no other plants to compete with, Spartina is bathed all day by sunlight, its roots are submersed in a nutrient rich tidal soup twice a day, and it has more water than it could ever need. In fact, there is such an excess of resources in this habitat, that the conditions are deadly to any other plant. That’s what makes Spartina special. Excessive sunlight can cook a plant alive. Excessive water will drown a plant’s roots. Excessive nutrients will “mummify” a plant from the outside in. Spartina thrives in the extreme of all three.
What makes Spartina an ecologically and economically critical species is its ability to fill this niche. Without Spartina there would be no Salt Marsh. The Salt Marsh is a critical habitat for thousands of species of animals, many found nowhere else. This includes economically important species like Red Drum, Sea Trout, Oysters, White Shrimp, and Blue Crabs. Not only does the Salt Marsh provide direct economic benefits in the way of food resources, it also provides a myriad of indirect benefits to humans. Spartina, and the Black Needlerush that grows in its wake, slows down waves. This reduces the severity of storm surges and prevents erosion. Both of which can cause extremely costly damages to the infrastructure of human coastal communities. When these waves slow down, they deposit the sediments they’re carrying. The roots of Spartina grow in and over them, holding them in place. This slows erosion and can even reverse it. In this process of sediment collection, Spartina also captures and stores huge volumes of Carbon from the atmosphere. A good portion of this sediment is composed of tiny bits of organic matter (most of which is last year’s stalks of Spartina) and it settles out to form the fragrant slate-gray goop we know as pluff mud. With each generation of Spartina, the roots of the previous get buried in the sediment, trapping more and more Carbon. Storing Carbon is important to the regulation and stabilization of our global climate.
This is why it’s important to protect the Salt Marsh. As sea levels rise, the band of Spartina along the coast will become increasingly narrow. It will never completely disappear but we will lose most of the ecological and economic benefits it provides in its current state. So every acre we can protect now will help mitigate our losses in the future. So, the next time you’re crossing the McKinley Bridge, appreciate that one of a kind view and everything the Salt Marsh does for you.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, we’re looking at the largest and most widespread of the North American Wading Birds: the Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias).
The Great Blue Heron is an aptly named species. Their impressive size and gray-blue plumage make them difficult to miss or to even mistake for anything else in the USA. They stand a little over 3 feet tall and have a wingspan of over 6 feet. That impressive wingspan is only matched by Eagles and Pelicans in the Eastern US. Like most herons, the Great Blue Heron has long legs, a long, dagger-like bill, and a long, curved neck. All of that lankiness is necessary for how Herons feed. The Great Blue Heron is an ambush hunter. It stands still, almost statue-like, using its excellent vision to spot prey. When it acquires a target, it will retract its neck against its body, lean forward, and poise itself for attack. When the prey wanders into range it will launch its head forward with great speed and precision, grabbing or spearing its meal with that pointed bill. This is similar to how constricting snakes hunt.
Great Blue Herons are found throughout southern Canada, the United States, and Central America. This wide range is due to their large size and extremely versatile diet. Most Herons are fairly specialized in what kinds of habitats they hunt in and what foods they’ll eat. Many are restricted almost entirely to brackish or saltwater habitats. However, not the Great Blue Heron. The Great Blue Heron readily hunts anywhere there is water and eats anything it can catch. They will also hunt in fields, lawns and floodplains surrounding bodies of water. Their large size and long legs allow them to hunt in deeper water and eat larger prey than any of our other Herons. Their legs also allow them to hunt in fairly tall grass and their larger size allows them to tolerate colder temperatures than most Herons. They primarily eat fish, ranging in size from 2 inch minnows to 20 inch Bass and Carp. (They’re notorious for de-Koi-ing Koi ponds.) However, Great Blue Herons also eat: Snakes, small Turtles, hatchling Alligators, Frogs, Toads, Salamanders, Tadpoles, Eel, Mice, Rats, young Muskrats, Gophers, Squirrels, Rabbits, Grasshoppers, Crayfish, Shrimp, Crabs, and even Ducklings. I wasn’t exaggerating, they’ll eat pretty much anything they can swallow whole.
Down on Edisto you’re most likely to see Great Blue Herons in the salt marsh at low tide, hunting for minnows and shrimp along the tidal streams or on the edges of farm ponds stalking frogs and bream. Keep an eye out the next time you’re passing the marsh and you’ll likely see this steel-blue statue standing erect on the pluff mud or knee deep in brine with eyes on a crustacean.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we’re examining a roadside flower that’s in full bloom this time of year. You’ve probably seen it all along HWY-174 these last few weeks. Today we’re putting the spotlight on the Swamp Sunflower (Helianthus angustifolius).
The Swamp Sunflower is a common fall flower on Edisto. Its common name comes from its love of wet, sunny habitat. With their moist soil and regular but widely spaced mowing schedule, ditches in rural roadsides are a preferred habitat for Swamp Sunflowers. It’s a plant that can be quite variable in appearance. Plants in shadier areas or those that are cut backed more frequently, may not even reach two feet in height. Where ornamental plantings in ideal conditions can reach 10 feet in height. Swamp Sunflower gets its scientific name, Helianthus angustifolius, from its narrow leaves and large, bright yellow flower. Helianthus angustifolius directly translates to Narrow-leaved Sun-flower (which is another common name for the species). The most easily recognized feature of this plant are those large, vibrant yellow flowers that bloom high off the ground. The flowers look much like a Black-eyed Susan or Coreopsis but the flattened, black disc in the center distinguishes it as a Sunflower. These flowers are a big pollinator attractor, especially for butterflies. Their seeds are also a source of food for Goldfinches and Sparrows. Swamp Sunflowers are perennial but they die back to the ground each winter. From the first frost until spring, Swamp Sunflowers are only visible by last year’s flower stalk and what’s known as a basal rosette. A basal Rosette is simply a whorl of leaves laying directly on top of the soil. This is a common adaptation many perennial wildflowers deploy. It allows the plant to continue to photosynthesize a small amount throughout the winter while keeping the leaves out of the cold, dry winds and within the warm layer of air right above the surface of the soil. From mid-spring, they grow slowly through to the end of summer before finally putting out a foot or more of flower stalk around the beginning of fall. They bloom for about a month, usually late September until Halloween. Sunflowers have a behavior know as heliotropism. This is the act of a plant or animal moving or orienting itself in response to sunlight. In Sunflowers, they orient their leaves and flowers to face the sun, slowly moving throughout the day so that the plant is always facing the sun. Plants do this by altering the internal pressure of their cells, causing uneven pressure in the leaf or flower stalk and bending the plant towards or away from sunlight. In Sunflowers, the plants face towards the sunlight. This is called diaheliotropism. It allows the plant to maximize its photosynthetic potential by catching as much sunlight as possible. Sicklepod, a plant I talked about back in August, is also heliotropic but in a different way. Sicklepod, and many other species of plants, orient their leaves edge on with the sun. This is called paraheliotropism. They minimize the amount of sunlight that contacts their leaves to avoid overheating. Plants typically only do this during the hottest part of the day, where the surface of the leaf can reach dangerous high temperatures when there is no breeze or the soil is dry.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we’re talking about: the American Mink (Neovison vison).
Minks are members of the Weasel family, Mustelidae. We have three species of Mustelid in our area: the Long-tailed Weasel, the North American River Otter, and the American Mink. (We’ll likely touch on Otters another time.) The American Mink is found throughout the United States and Canada, excepting the Southwestern US. There are currently 15 recognized subspecies. Here in coastal SC, our one subspecies is the Atlantic Salt Marsh Mink (Neovison vison lutensis).
Our Mustelids are characterized by their long, slender bodies, short legs, and agile movements. Mink have a thick, fluffy, chocolate-brown coat, white chin, small ears, and thick tail. They can get up to two and a half feet in length, with the tail making up about a quarter of that. You’re most likely to see them at dawn or dusk, hunting on the edges of ponds and marshes. On land they move with a playful bounding and they are quite agile underwater. Mink are solitary animals and only interact during their breeding season. They live in burrows on river banks or berms.
Like most Weasels, Mink are fearless predators. They will attack anything that strikes their fancy including: fish, crustaceans, sea birds, rats, ducks, squirrels, chickens, frogs, and even snakes. The one in my photos below caught a Shellcracker, or Redear Sunfish, from a freshwater pond and was taking it back into the saltmarsh to eat. They will hunt in a variety of habitats including: burrows, fields, ditches, marshes, forests, rivers, ponds, and they’ll even climb trees. Don’t let their cute appearance fool you, Mink are ruthless. Weasels don’t use ambush tactics like other mammal predators, they charge their prey head on. Mink with their soft fur, large feet, short legs, and slender body have a stealthy approach. Their feet and fur dampen the noise they make on brush during their approach, masking their size. Their short legs and slender body keep them low to the ground and out of sight while allowing them to squeeze through rocks, roots, and into tunnels while in pursuit. Counterintuitively, the constant subtle noises they make when approaching fools their prey’s instincts into thinking the Mink is not a threat until it’s too late to react. This is because most predators are much heavier than a Mink and make as little noise as possible when stalking prey until using a sudden burst of speed to close the gap. Upon capturing prey, Mink grab their prey by the back of its neck while holding onto its back with their feet. They control the struggle with their serpentine bodies while they try to sever the animal’s spinal cord. Mink often kill more prey than they can ever hope to eat and will store the leftovers for later. This can give them a terrible reputation with anyone who maintains a chicken coop, as they can kill an entire flock overnight and not eat a single bird.
Mink have also been semi-domesticated. These domestic breeds are used in fur farming or as a hunting companion. In some regions, Mink are commonly used as ratters instead of cats or terriers and are trained to hunt Muskrats. The domestic breeds not only retain their ruthless hunting instincts but are even more fearless than their wild cousins.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we’re taking a look at a group of oddball plants that you can find right here on Edisto: Duckweeds.
The Duckweeds, subfamily Lemnoideae, are a small group in the Arum family. At least one species from the five genera found in North America can be seen in our area. All are tiny, light green, floating aquatic plants that are planktonic in nature. Meaning they survive entirely within the water column and have no roots anchoring them to the soil. They live their entire lives drifting on the surface of a pond or wetland absorbing nutrients dissolved in the water. They are flowering plants so they can reproduce with seeds but they predominantly reproduce asexually via budding.
The most common species in our area is Dotted Duckweed (Landiolata punctata). This is the larger species pictured below. Individual Duckweed plants are small, light green, and roughly the size and shape of a Flax seed. Each plant has several roots of roughly a half inch long. Several plants can remain stuck together until they are ready to bud apart. They form dense, expansive mats on the surface of freshwater ponds. This species’ origins are unknown. It is certainly native to both Southeast Asia and Australia but it is unknown if it is native to the United States. Researchers don’t know if it was introduced by migratory birds or by humans. Regardless, the species is well established across the Southeast.
The most diverse genus in our area is Lemna. There are several species native to our area and all are very similar in appearance. Although they can’t be easily told apart, they can easily be separated from other members of the subfamily by having only one root per plant. The species I tend to encounter the most in our area is Lemna valdiviana.
Common Duckmeat (Spirodela polyrrhiza) is the only member of the Duckmeat genus, Spirodela, native to North America. This species is very similar to Dotted Duckweed in appearance and habitat but is a little larger and more round in shape.
Brazilian Watermeal (Wolffia brasiliensis) is our one representative of the Watermeal genus, Wolffia. Brazilian Watermeal is the smallest plant in South Carolina and the genus contains the smallest flowering plants in the world. Wolffia also hold the record for smallest flower and fruit of any plant in the world. This miniscule plant is maybe a third the width of a mustard seed. You can’t quite appreciate how small they truly are until you see them in person. These plants are rootless and float entirely above the surface of the water. They can thrive in the gaps between other Duckweed plants. Even the densest mats of Lemna, Landiolata, or Spirodela.
Florida Mudmidget (Wolffiella gladiata) is our one member of the Bogmat genus, Wolffiella. This plant is different from our other Duckweeds in its appearance and ecology. Instead of a disc that floats on the surface of the water, it resembles a sparse mop-head hanging just below the surface. These tiny floating plants are rootless and consist of only a floating rosette of thin green leaves. They are larger than our other Duckweed species but would still fit on the tip of your finger. You can just about make out a few of these in my photos below, floating beneath the Duckweeds and Watermeals.
To many, our Duckweeds are nothing more than a nuisance. That green mess covering up their backyard pond. However, Duckweeds provide a slew of benefits to fish, waterfowl, water quality, restoration ecologists, and the farmers of the future. Duckweed is insanely high in protein and has a fairly high fat and starch content. This makes it an easy and nutritious meal for many species of fish and waterfowl. Since Duckweeds have no link to the soil, they must draw all of their nutrition from chemicals dissolved in the body of water they inhabit. This makes duckweed excellent at cleaning water systems that are contaminated with sewage or agricultural runoff. As the plants grow they absorb these chemicals and process them into yet more Duckweed. Duckweed grows at an extremely rapid pace. This makes it a useful tool to restoration ecologists seeking to remove an excess of dissolved nutrients from a water body, particularly Nitrogen and Phosphorus. Duckweed will also outcompete algae for sunlight, preventing algal blooms that are dangerous to fish populations. However, if you want to clean up a body of water, you have to remove the Duckweed at the same rate it grows. Otherwise the plants will simply die, decompose, and return their nutrients back to the water. What use is there for piles and piles of Duckweed? Livestock and fish feed of course! That high nutritional content makes them a great source of food for fish farms and as a protein supplement in the diets of most livestock, especially ducks, geese, and chickens. Did I mention that all species of Duckweed are edible to not only fish, fowl, and livestock, but humans as well? Their rapid growth, high nutritional yield, ability to clean wastewater, no need for agricultural land, and counterintuitively low water requirements have led Duckweed, particularly members of Wolffia, to be touted as a potential superfood for future human civilization. I’ve never tried Duckweed myself but it apparently has a taste somewhere between watercress and spinach.
I won’t recommend that you start eating Duckweed scooped from your local swamp, not without a thorough washing at least, but Duckweed salads may make their debut in a restaurant near you sometime soon.
Since I missed a week due to the Hurricane, this week for Flora and Fauna Friday I’ll talk about my favorite group of animals: Pond Turtles (family Emydidae).The Pond Turtles are a diverse family of turtles. We have six species in the coastal plain of South Carolina: the Diamondback Terrapin, Eastern Box Turtle, Chicken Turtle, Southern Slider, River Cooter, and Spotted Turtle. They’re typically flat bodied turtles with a ridge running along the back of their shell. However, this group has quite the variability in body shape and these traits aren’t always apparent. They’re all omnivorous and partially aquatic.
The Diamondback Terrapin stands out from the rest of our Pond Turtles, both in appearance and ecology. The individual scutes of their carapace, or top of the shell, have many concentric circles, their skin is a bluish-white with small black spots, and their beak is edged with yellow. They can live in freshwater, brackish, or saltwater where they hunt for small fish and crustaceans in the marshes and estuaries.
The Eastern Box Turtle, just like the Diamondback Terrapin, stands out from other Pond Turtles in both appearance and ecology. These turtles have high domed shells and a double hinged plastron, or lower half of the shell. This allows them to fully retract their bodies within their shells, leaving nothing exposed to danger. This is where they get the name of “Box” turtle from. These turtles are primarily terrestrial and can be found in almost any woodland habitat but they won’t hesitate to forage in a shallow wetland for small fruits, invertebrates, and amphibians. Females are typically a drab shade of tan or dark gray. Males are beautifully patterned in yellows, oranges, and reds. No two turtles are marked the same. Both males and females have red eyes, but males have a white base color to their iris which can make it appear a shade of pink.The Chicken Turtle gets its name because it’s said to taste like chicken, but so do a lot of things apparently. They’re a fairly small Pond Turtle with a yellow plastron, flat shell, a net-like pattern on the carapace, and a very long neck. That long neck is great for grabbing small fish, crayfish, or the fingers of un-careful herpetologists. They live in shallow, vegetated wetlands where they hunt for small animals.
The Southern Slider is our most common Pond Turtle. When you think of an aquatic turtle, this is probably the species that comes to mind. They’re also the most common turtle sold as pets. They are a fairly large turtle that can reach over a foot in length. They usually have a yellow underside and dark back. They exist anywhere there is permanent standing water. That includes lakes, slow moving rivers, Carolina Bays, and parking lot retention ponds. They will eat anything they can catch as well as aquatic plants. The Southern Slider has two subspecies in South Carolina: the Yellow-bellied Slider and the Red-eared Slider. The Red-eared Slider is native to the Mississippi River basin but has been spread extensively due to the pet trade. They’re more common in the upstate and around human development. They are easily identified by their namesake “red ear” but this can fade with age. The Yellow-bellied Slider is our native subspecies. They are best identified by their yellow “sideburns”. This is a thick, yellow, vertical band just behind the eye. Males are smaller than females and have long claws that they use to court females. During courtship the male will swim backwards in front of a female while rattling his claws in her face. (How romantic.)
The River Cooter is very similar in appearance to the Southern Slider. It’s a large aquatic turtle with a dark back and yellow underside. However, Cooters differ in habitat from Sliders. They prefer open water with some degree of flow. They are best adapted to life in large river as their flatter shell allows them to better fight the current. They are primarily herbivorous but won’t shy away from an easy meal.
The Spotted Turtle is a small, flat, black Pond Turtle covered in sparse yellow dots. They live in backwaters, blackwater swamps, bottomland hardwood forests, Carolina Bays, and even ditches. They are mainly carnivorous. They’re a federally endangered species. The primary reason for this is habitat degradation and a low reproductive output. I’ve only seen a couple myself so I don’t have any photos on hand to share.
This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, we’ll be showcasing the butterfly walk we hosted yesterday, led by Dr. Dennis Forsythe.
Thanks everyone who attended the walk and a big thank you to Dr. Forsythe for leading the excursion. We had a great turn out and saw some great butterflies. We had a total of 21 species for the day. I’ll put the list at the end of the post for anyone curious.
We started at the Edistonian for a brief introduction and to survey their flower garden along the highway. We got to see 9 species up close here and got an introduction into the different groups of butterflies from Dr. Forsythe.
From here we headed to Botany Bay WMA where we saw 18 species of butterfly. Notable butterflies of the day were a pair of Zebra Longwings near the main entrance, 3 White Peacocks around the SCDNR office, and a swarm of Skippers and Sulphurs along the beach parking lot.
Palamedes Swallowtail 1
Giant Swallowtail 1
Cloudless Sulphur 2
Common Buckeye 1
Long-tailed Skipper 1
Horace’s Duskywing 1
Ocola Skipper 1
Whirlabout 2
Dun Skipper 2
Cloudless Sulphur 15
Sleepy Orange 13
Little Yellow 3
Gulf Fritillary 8
Zebra Longwing 2
White Peacock 3
Common Buckeye 1
Phaon Crescent 3
Carolina Satyr 6
Long-tailed Skipper 1
Horace’s Duskywing 4
Tropical Checkered-Skipper 4
White Checkered-Skipper 2
Ocola Skipper 2
Salt Marsh Skipper 4
Clouded Skipper 5
Whirlabout 2
Fiery Skipper 3
For this week’s Flora and Fauna Friday, in preparation for our morning Butterfly Walk with Dr. Dennis Forsythe next Thursday, August 31st, we’re taking a less “specific” look at some of our wildlife. I wanted to introduce you guys to a few of our more common butterflies and give a brief introduction to the 5 taxonomic Families of butterflies found in our area.
To start off, the way you tell a butterfly from a moth is the antennae. Moths have feathery antennae. Butterflies have clubbed antennae. Butterfly antennae look like a honey dipper or half of a cotton swab.
The first family I’ll talk about are the Swallowtails, Papilionidae. The family gets its name from the thin projections on the bottom of their hindwings, which are reminiscent of the tail feathers of a Barn Swallow. These “swallow-tails” and their pointed forewings make the family easy to recognize. The Swallowtails are our smallest family but largest butterflies. We have 5 species in our area. All of whom are over 5 inches in wingspan and varying degrees of black and yellow.
Second are the Whites and Sulphurs, Pieridae. This family is named for its species’ vibrant and consistent coloration. In our area we have about 10 regularly occurring species, all of which are some shade of bright yellow or white. They range in size from the quarter-sized Little Yellow to the Cloudless Sulphur which can sport up to a 6-inch wingspan.
Third are the Gossamer-wings, Lycaenidae. This family is named for how petite and fragile many of its species are. We have about 15 regularly occurring species in our area that are split into two groups: the Blues and the Hairstreaks. The Blues are tiny and pale gray, with a blue iridescence on the inside of their wings. The Hairstreaks are also very small, but not as much as the Blues, and generally gray with prominent bands and orange markings on the outside of theirs wings.
Fourth are the Brushfoots, Nymphalidae. Some species in the family have specialized hairs on two of their feet, giving those feet a brush like appearance, hence the family name. This results in members of the family typically only using 4 of their 6 legs to hold onto a surface while perched, keeping their “brush-feet” against their body. An easy way to identify the family is by this 4-legged behavior. Nymphalidae is a family of butterflies with very diverse patterns and body shapes. The Zebra Longwing, Monarch, and Pearl Crescent are all in this family. There are about 25 common species of Brushfoots in our area.
Last are the Skippers, Hesperiidae. The family is named for their rapid, jerking flights when moving between plants. Skippers are shaped very differently from our other butterfly families. They have a very triangular, streamlined appearance and are mostly small. This is because they’re built for maneuverability. Those small thin wings let them to beat their wings much faster, allowing them to accelerate rapidly and fight wind currents. You can sometimes even hear them fly past your head. Their compact shape allows them to take advantage of smaller and more widely spaced flowers. Which is good because that active lifestyle means they need to eat more than other butterflies their size. Skippers are very diverse in our neck of the woods. We have roughly 35 regularly occurring species. Much to the chagrin of beginning butterfly enthusiasts, most of them look pretty much the same.
