Polistes carolinus at Lunch

Normally when Polistes carolinus (pc) is present at a photographed gustatory event, the pc is the meal. That’s right, pcs are a favored treat for Mallaphora robber flies. The robber flies know the pcs nest in the clothesline poles. So the robber flies sit on the clothesline watching the pole hole. When an unwary wasp exits, the robber pounces. Green lynx spiders also eat up plenty of pcs.

But this time the table is turned, the shoe is on the other foot, the horse is a different color, the pot is called black, what’s good for the gander, etc. Yes. Here we see a pc chomping down on a black swallowtail caterpillar (bstc). Because the CB has tons of Apiaceae this year, the bstcs are going crazy. And for a long while, it seemed nothing would keep them from eating the Polytaenia down to the ground. Then suddenly, Crumby began to espy shriveled husks of bstcs. What was sucking them dry? Well, the pcs and possibly others. Yes. Druids believe in balance.



Here we see our pc finishing up its meal. This was the last in a series of six photographs recording a minute or two of time and space.

More Lactuca ludoviciana Ecology

Hmm. Well maybe Lactuca ludoviciana flowers may not be primarily cleistogamous. Yesterday, at any rate, the flowers were open for business. No takers though that Crumby noted.

These flowers are little, about 5mm across, as opposed to the much bigger, yellow flowers of Lactuca serriola (see far below).



However, did you know the stems of Lactuca ludoviciana are hollow? Check this out.




Then suddenly, along comes a bee carrying a rolled up petal. What the heck? It’s a Megachile with a nest in the hollow stem of the Lactuca. Cool as a mule!

Druid Holiday, Proposed

Druids already celebrate a great many holidays, both ours, general secular and other religious. Hey, even worthless CMJ* holidays, anything to get off work! But maybe we need another holiday. Yes. We need an old people holiday, a general codger day. So Crumby has decided that next Monday, May 31 of the Julian, is Codger Day.

On Codger Day, all the old farts get appreciated and given nice presents like a new dslr and an expensive lens or twain. Whatever they desire! Because, praise the Goddess, they may soon expire and go to hell where they shall rot for a long time. They won’t, however, as some believe, rot for eternity. Nothing, rots for eternity.

Here's an old fart, Hemaris diffinis.

Hold it. Crumby! Yer out of control. Monday is already a secular holiday. Monday is Memorial Day.

OK. That's good. Then Codger day can be Tuesday for a four day weekend. Praise the Goddess!









*CMJ - Christian, Muslim or Jew

Another Sport Rudbeckia

On June 7, 2007 we published a picture of a Rudbeckia sport at the CB. Now we have another sport, albeit less sporty than the former sport. This sport, as may be seen, has two whorls of ray flowers rather than the multiple whorls of the first sport.

Potty Moth

Remember that great song, I Want to be Your Potty Moth? Yes. Crumby is pretty sure there was such a song, set to a rock-a-billy style tune. Doot-de-doo! Potty moth. Doot-de-doo! Potty moth. I wanna be yer potty moth.

Potty moth say gimme a light; I shall stay richeer tonight
Honey let me be yer potty moth

This particular potty moth has been a regular in the Boy’s Comfort Station all this week. It is a small moth, about a cm in length which is at the low end of what the CB point & shoot can get on shutter priority with flash, the easiest way to photograph moths in your favorite restroom or comfort station, anywhere, any time.

What is incredibly interesting about this particular moth is its saddle like profile. Crumby figured that a saddle like profile might be a group characteristic of these particular moths. Maybe, maybe not.

Anyway, we have temporarily consigned this moth to the Subfamily Oleuthreutinae.

Cirsium Thistle Seed

Sufferin’ succotash! Have you ever tried to collect the seed of Cirsium texanum, the smallish flowered pink thistle of these parts? Crumby has. Last year Crumby decided to reintroduce the thistle we are discussing to the CB from which it had died out. Well, we never had many in the first place.

The easiest way to collect thistle seed is to get yourself a bag and some hand snips. Then you just cut the flower heads off your thistles and toss them in the bag or sack. If you are lucky, when you poke around in the sack a few weeks later, there will be plenty of ripe seeds inside. Yet chances are, your bag will contain mostly awns, chaff and mush. That’s because, apparently, every vermin under the sun eats thistle seeds.

Yet, because Crumby collected quite a lot of seed heads, he did manage to get a little seed from which five plants subsequently developed. Crumby didn’t bother to separate the good seeds from the mush. He just buried the lot of it.

This year though, deeming the previously employed methodology wasteful, Crumby has set about examining the seed heads in the field, cleaning the seed by hand, head by head, and storing the good seed in an old pill jar. Finding good seed is hard work. Generally speaking, when an average amateur botanist like Crumby first approaches a seed head, it looks something like the adjacent. Mercy! Covered with Leptoglossus phyllopus teenagers. Then once you shoo off the vermin, the insides are filled with more vermin busily eating, pooping and fornicating on the seeds. Merciful heavens! Plus, your fingers get all stuck by the thistle prickles. Nevertheless, Crumby is determined to persist and make forward progress until he has in the neighborhood of 200 seeds.

Ratibida

Nobody much likes Ratibida. Historically, a widely used common name was problematic and racist. The browsers and grazers eschew it. Snooty botanists abhor it. Want it in your lawn? Want it featured in your wildflower patch? No! Yes. Ratibida is common and vulgar.

But then Crumby read that there is a bee that exclusively relies on Ratibida for nectar and pollen. Crumby’s ears laid back once he heard that. Dern! Hold it. Anything the deer, cows, and Booblicans hate, can’t be all bad. Ratibida must be just like coyotes, (Canis latrans).

Then we had a meeting at the CB. Everybody agreed that we needed to give the Ratibida some breathing room. After all, if it is fixing to get out of hand, you can always mow it.

One interesting fact of life kissing up to Ratibida ecology is vermin visitors. Nobody, wants to stand out.

OK. We may have seen the Ratibida bee, but we have no picture of the bee yet.

OK. This is an important update. There may not actually be a Ratibida bee, per se. Although, bees certainly do visit the Ratibidas. No. Crumby, with his head crammed full of facts, sometimes gets mixed up in the noggin. What Crumby got mixed up about this time is Andrena rudbeckiae. For some reason, Crumby translated rudbeckiae as ratibidae. But everything is OK. We have plenty of rudbeckiae at the CB too. What we probably don't have, though, is a bee species that is an oligolege of Ratibida columnifera.

Purty Peektures

Many have asked, Crumby, is art for art sake a high priority for Druids. Easy that to answer, no. No, no, no! A thousand times, no. Yet while reviewing the two uppermost photos below and comparing them to others of the same approximate subject matter contained in our extensive files of bug photos, even Crumby wondered why the photos, especially at the full crop demanded by this venue, are uglier than usual.

However ugly they are though, those photos impart lessons. So they stay. Yet to balance out the ugliness, and remember, Druids are super into balance, we decided to put up a purty peekture that’s almost art for art’s sake. Except that it shows a green lacewing on our new poison hemlock with a green background also. Why it looks like dang Eire!

Nomognatha Blister Beetles

Hi! It’s the Pistrums, Ray and Rayetta, or Rayetta and Ray. And well, these Nemognatha blister beetles are freaking us out. Here’s two of those Nemognathas on the same thistle. Plus we have pictorial evidence of another species/morph/changeling//whatever besides these twain.
Hark! Babies, don’t let your mothers grow up to be entomologists.

What is going on with these crazy blister beetles? They are supposed to be fixing to parasitize solitary bees with their nasty, incomprehensible spawn. But no solitary bee would ever land on a thistle occupied by these vermin. Get real. If you were a bee, would you try to squeeze in here, knowing full well you were fixing to pick up an especially nasty parasite. Not likely.

The thistle is a Tejano Booblican thistle (Cirsium texanum).

Hairstreak and Buckthorn

Crumby is forever on the look see for flora /insect relationships that appear as more than random events or encounters. You may see that the most common insects are generalists, using what’s available and relying heavily on the most common floral elements. Which may explain why some plants do way better than others.

But here we see something else again. This is one of many banded hairstreaks (Satyrium calanus) sighted on a CB Carolina buckthorn (Rhamnus caroliniana) yesterday afternoon. The fact is, there was a banded hairstreak on nearly every flower cluster. Plus, there were only a couple of flies and the inevitable honey bee besides all the banded hairstreaks. No other butterflies were present. Although, Crumby has previously observed the ubiquitous gray hairstreak on Carolina buckthorn. But not yesterday. The banded hairstreaks dang near had a monopoly.

Many may wonder how the thornless members of the genus Rhamnus acquired the moniker, buckthorn. Well, nobody knows. But naturally, Crumby has a theory.

Is everybody ready for Crumby’s theory? Ready or not.

Once upon a time there was a poor mountaineer named Jed. Jed could barely keep his family fed. Thus Jed spent all his waking moments hunting and gathering, always a step or two up on the next famine.

Jed was always fixing to try some buckthorn berries. But the dang deer always beat him to them. That’s right. The dern deer would eat the flowers so there could be no berries. Or the deer would eat the berries. Or the deer would eat the whole shrub or small tree down to the bare twigs. Then that crazy deer would thrash the defenseless shrub or small tree practically to death with its antlers. Jed would shoot a deer doing his shrubs that way if Jed happened to be a sober witness and could draw a bead.

Course, once the shrub was denuded and its twigs all antler whacked, one might assume those twigs were thorns, whittled by the antlers of a buck.

Many wonder, are the berries edible? Some say they are, edible and delicious. Some say they taste bad. Some say, those dern berries tasted good enough to give me diarrhea. The fact is, I got a bad case of projectile diarrhea.

Uh! Is there any kind of diarrhea besides projectile diarrhea?

At the CB we keep the buckthorns fenced off. It’s the only way to be sure.

The Search Engines are Working, All Righty Then

Gracious sakes alive! I'll swan! Once we took down the voluntary admission of wicked content, it only took the twain search engines, Yahoo and Google, this little while to find us again. Moral: If you don't want to be found, do possibly adult content on your blog.

A Short Ecology of Lactuca ludoviciana

The big bounce for this humble plant came early. Yes. This species was named for King Louis X. Uh. King Louis X was the tenth king of France named Louis. He was pretty famous even for a king.

So getting named after a famous French king should have been a great promotion for the species, that plus edibility. But no. Try to find a picture of Lactuca ludoviciana on the internet. It’s not easy. All you get are line drawings.

Crumby mentioned that Lactuca ludoviciana, a wild lettuce, is edible. Deer, for example, super love it. That’s why at the CB we encourage plenty of Lactuca ludoviciana, believing the deer will eat the Lactuca instead of other weeds the Druids would rather the deer did not eat. Does that make sense?

Also, Lactuca is probably a direct competitor with Taraxacum, the sow thistles. We would lots rather have wild lettuce than sow thistle any day.

Here we see a bud and some ripe achenes.

Karl the Tracker Druid told Ray about one time when he had this tracker job in northern Louisiana. It was terrible. They ran out of food because at that time, all three of the principals involved in the tracking event were vegetarians. And as everyone knows, the only food humans vend in northern Louisiana is fried meat.

For upwards of seven days and nights, Prissy, Ajax and Karl had nothing to eat but a little Lactuca ludoviciana. But just that little bit of lettuce sustained all three of them, a smart horse, a mighty mule and Karl. Yes. They were sustained by the Goddess and a little lettuce until that mission or tracking event was entirely accomplished.

But then the CB also features Lactuca serriola, an additional wild lettuce. Lactuca serriola is apt to actually flower, whereas L. ludoviciana must be mostly cleistogamous. Anyway, it’s way easier to take photos of the former's flowers, Lactuca serriola, than the latters.







Insects do come to wild lettuce. Here is a beetle, likely Trirhabda sp. on L.ludoviciana.









And here is a sweat bee on L. serriola. Mercy. Yes. Insects come to the flowering lactuca, too.








Finally, let the druids leave you with this thought. The achenes are sposed to blow about in the breeze, attached to those nifty parachutes. Sometimes, s* don't work out. Do it?








For goodness sakes! Crumby nearly forgot the comparitive peekture of Lactuca serriola achenes. Here those are. See, more ribs, hairier.








But Crumby, you forgt the L. ludoviciana in flower. It blooms in the afternoon, whereas L. serriola blooms of a morning. Goodness gracious! Temporal separation. But so what considering this bodacious flower. Uh. The discriminating might wish to compare this picture of an actual L. ludoviciana flower to the flowers depicted in the line drawings available on the internet and even in learned botanical texts.

Outdoor Moths or (Muths)

Many have queried, Crumby, do moths live anywhere at the CB besides the Men’s Comfort Station? Well, they do. This particular moth for example is often seen flitting through the weeds in broad daylight. Yet it is a difficult moth to photograph. The average amateur photographer is likely to blow the highlights on this particular moth.

Many figure that moths are nocturnal. If that’s so, where do they go during daytime? Is there a special place moths go where nobody can find them during the day? Maybe, but more likely those moths are just sneaky. Yes. Many times Crumby has observed just how sneaky a moth can be. What those moths do is fly along to a flower. But then when they get to the flower, instead of landing on top of the flower, they land under the flower. Then, hidden under the flower, they stick their nasty sucker straws over the top of the flower to drink, while simultaneously remaining concealed.

This moth though, is cryptic. Supposedly it looks like bird poop. So it can sit right out in the open, fearing naught, because everyone thinks it’s a turd. Tarache aprica

Where you been, Rayetta?

Yeah! Rayetta been slackin’ off. So first thing, she comes on here and makes me look bad. That Rayetta! And to think I was fixing to get her a free ride to botanical fairy land with Karl. That’s out now. O-U-T!

Just to disprove Rayetta’s BS, check this out. It’s an unknown tiny beetle on the Hymenopappus. Just to prove we got more. On yes. We got plenty more.

Update on 23 May, 2010 of the Julian. The tiny beetle may be a false flower beetle of the Family Scraptiidae.

It’s Phyllophaga Time

Crumby spilled the milk on the Hymenopappus. Because, Hymenopappus may not exactly be a whole feature. Turns out, we don’t really have much on it or of it. I think, Crumby may have just been amused over the baby named Hymeno. Hymeno, according to Crumby is the name for a baby boy. Hymena would be the equivalent for a baby girl.

Goodness gracious sakes alive! You know Ray and I never knew our grand parents. That’s sad but correct. Unless you count the elderly moles that showed scant interest in us. No. They would not count.

Thus, scant input went into naming Ray and me. Hmm. I wonder if more thought went into naming me, versus Ray. Hard to say, though probably not. Dr. Swineherd could just as easily have named me Raylene or Raylou. Or Hymena. And Ray could be Hymeno. For goodness sakes!

But never mind that. Let’s discuss June bugs. Crumby likes to tell everybody how his granny once swallowed a June bug. The June bug flew into her open mouth while she was fixing to slug down a cool drink of ice tea. Yes. Ice tea. The kind of strong ice tea with plenty of ice and fresh mint that everyone enjoys in the summertime. You just don’t expect to get a June bug with it.

So tonight, the metaphorical CB spotlight is on June bugs which are only now fixing to appear in good numbers in these parts. However, the CB may not have many June bugs. That’s because Crumby and Ray have a little dog for a pet. And that little dog detects June bug larva in the ground. Once detected, she digs them up and eats them. Last winter, she ate hundreds of white grubs, another name for the June bug larva. Now, the CB may not have many June bugs. Amazing but true!

Last night we decided to rig a light outside. I put a lamp on Crumby’s new astro table with a pillow case covering the table top. Then we all settled back to watch the bugs.

It was a slow night. Very few insects came to our light. Yet we did espy this solitary June bug, in the spotlight, a lucky survivor of the winter massacre. The technique is, hold a flashlight in one hand. Aim the camera with the other hand. If the bug is big, like a June bug, you can shoot at full zoom. And the camera, set on shutter priority, will employ flash synced to any shutter speed up to 1/1000. Too bad there’s only a 4x zoom.

Well. There are at least eight species of Phyllophaga dwelling among us in these parts. Who knows this one?

What Shall be the Next Feature?

That’s what we were debating just now. Some wanted thistles because thistles, just like Silphium, is fun to pronounce with a lisp. Others wanted to do Hymenopappus. Does anybody agree with Crumby that Hymeno would be a great name for a baby?

Well. The plain fact is that we have more new plants surviving at the CB this year than maybe ever. Maybe, the paintbrush has produced some seed. There’s lots more Nemophila this year than ever before. For the first time there’s Tinantia. We have tons of Onosmodium. This year, we have two populations of Hymenopappus scabiosaeus and not all the plants have been eaten. We got some seed already. Then also we have reintroduced Cirsium texanum and that is fixing to set seed too. Goodness! You just can’t beat a Cirsium thistle when it comes to lisping.

Say Cirsium thistle!

But in the end, Crumby got his way. So we decided on Hymenopappus, another superb plant genus for the bug lover. Also, Crumby wanted to show how his camera lets him down when the clouds, cloud Ogma’s visage so to speak.

Cyodisia atrivitta, the Halloween moth, on Hymenoppaus scabiosaeus

Merciful Heavens!

A while back, Crumby decided to voluntarily flag this venue for adult content. That's because Crumby felt like the little children might get warped by the occasional foul language and totally unbooblican views. Crumby still feels guilty about the cussing. But on the other hand, Crumby did not realize when he voluntarily flagged the venue, the search engines would quit on the CB. Merciful heavens!

Crumby thinks the search engines ought to have to search the CB. It's their job. So Crumby has taken down the adult content (whatever that means in this day and age) flag.

Now. How long will it take the search engines to find the Cow Barn again?

more Cimbex americana and Arge humeralis

These twain elm sawfly larva are fooling around at the base of an American elm (Ulmus americana). There are a good many more in the tree (not shown). For some reason, possibly the bald heads, these remind Crumby of water engineers.

Maybe these two know that water flows down hill. Maybe they are fixing to pray for rain. Maybe they are fixing to prove evolution is a hoax. Why is it that many of the Creationists are water engineers or dentists?

But getting back to saw flies. Not long ago, about the time this picture was taken, Crumby was unaware that any saw flies occurred in these parts. Yet here one is on the CB tickle tongue. This is the poison ivy saw fly (Arge humeralis).

This shot makes Crumby wish he had a close focusing 8mm fisheye. Also. Check out the fly just to the left of the red and black saw fly. Also, maybe those white larvae with black spots are Arge larvae and not beetle larvae. Hmm!

Ray’s Nuisance Caterpillar

Mercy! It’s not like I don’t have plenty to vex me at work already, but in addition to the rest of the aggravation, all these caterpillars get on me lately. Whoa! You feel something going along on your sweaty red neck which you got from werkin’ in the sun. Whatever it is, it tickles like mad. Then you reach around to scratch. Only instead, you come up with a handful of caterpillar goo. Great Goddess!

The dern caterpillars we are considering are all over everything. They are on my wheel barrow. They are on my cart. They are on the pots. They are in the trays. They are down my overall bib in a flash, headed south.

These particular caterpillars are about as long as a yellow wooly bear, but less stout. They are athletic caterpillars, moving along at a good pace. They are ready climbers. Once they have climbed up, they may fall or jump onto your hat or head.

It’s a good thing these caterpillars lack the venom of the asp. Still, a caterpillar or two in your boxers can’t be all that good. Ugh!

Hark! Now my bosom companion, Crumby, has some sociological commentary.

Thanks Ray. Yes I do.

OK. Do you remember how great it was when you first learned to read? Man, I do. It was like a big deal to get to read the Sunday funnies.

Back then I was an ignorant child so practically all the funnies were about equally interesting. What were some of the ones I liked. Easy that; Red Ryder, Prince Valiant, Popeye, Tarzan, Superman, Dick Tracy, Alley Oop. Huh-huh. Why did all the cave men have big calves. It always amazed me that the dudes had big calves yet the dudettes had normal calves. Man! I especially liked Alley Oop. Especially, I liked the shaman with the bird hat.

Gradually though, down through the ages, Crumby found himself reading less funnies. Like when Far Side subsided, Crumby seriously cut down on the funnies. And for many moons now, the only comic Crumby followed was Dilbert. But now Crumby has given up on Dilbert. So now, Crumby no longer espies the funnies.

What do we make of that?

A Profusion of Polytaenia

Pronounced or sung as pol-lee-tain-ya’ with emphasis on the final syllable. Yes. Ray enjoys singing the proper noun Polytaenia over and over. It’s like something Moe used to sing. Which reminds Crumby of botanical humor in general. Botanical humor is primarily, low humor. Like pronouncing Silphium with a lisp.

But what if you only have one Polytaenia? Yes. You only have one. One you raised from a tiny seed or pup. Then along comes an ungulate. And that ungulate guzzles up your only Polytaenia.

Boo-hoo-hoo! That’s not funny. But it is ironic. Yes. An important Druid dichotomy involves distinguishing between funny and ironic.

This year at the CB we have so dang many Polytaenia, the ungulates can’t keep up. Oh mercy! And Polytaenia is beloved of the flies and wasps, not to mention the Apiaceous browsers. So with all the Polytaenia this year, there is no irony. That’s good.

Polytaenia is a total mystery genus. That’s because all the famous botanists that knew about the different Polytaenia species are dead now. Yes, dead and gone to that botanical fairyland where all good or even mediocre botanists eventually wind up. Yes. Gone to fairyland prior to any general agreement regarding the various members of the genus.

Karl the Tracker Druid has actually been to the botanical fairy land once or twice, tracking down even the dearly departed. And actually, Crumby wants Karl to go again, hoping Karl can find some of the dead Polytaenia experts. But Karl isn’t much of a botanist so Rayetta or Ray would need to accompany Karl. That way, one of those twain could talk botany with the dead Polytaenia experts. Then once the CB Polytaenia was identified, the responsible Pistrum could bring the resulting interesting information on back to Crumby.

Cimbex americana

There goes Ray. Ray is pulling his cart along when suddenly Ray espies an apparent caterpillar hustling along the cart path. But it’s not one of the hairy caterpillars. No. Those hairy caterpillars are everywhere. But what they like to do is jump out of the hackberry trees on to Ray. Then they crawl under Ray’s overall bib or down the neck of his shirt. Goddess damn it! No. This is a bald caterpillar type.

The procedure is, when Ray finds an interesting vermin at work, that vermin is captured, stuck in an inflated plastic sack, brought to the CB, identified, photographed and released. If it can’t be identified, Ray takes it back to work.

In this case, we were able to identify the vermin and establish that we have some habitat for it at the CB. Here it is going along on the CB basswood (Tilia americana).

Man alive and boy howdy! It’s a shock to the system having this picture in the Hymenoptera folder. At first we thought it was a baby skipper.

The Patch

Achtung!!!! This article features cussing.


The fact that Crumby labored with salary for three years in the patch speaks volumes. Crumby had zero interest in the patch and was only in it for the money. Sound familiar, patchnoids.

There is so much that can go way wrong on a rig. The fact is, stuff goes south daily. It’s like if you have to let a service company on the pad, everybody knows, everybody is probably fixing to get fucked except the OT hounds. But if the BOP is 5000 feet down under in the salty sea, you may be seriously fucked, like fucked dead. Where’s the helicopter, dude? I need off this shit!

Why are there plenty of Okies and Coon Asses on the rigs? Easy that, expendable. Trouble is, there are always too many worms on the rigs. That’s how it is. That’s how it’s always fixing to be, forever.

So good buddies, drill baby drill.

Nature in a Bucket

OK. Let’s say that you are too old, poor, stupid, lazy or crazy to go to nature. Yet you yearn for nature with all your black heart. But not just any nature. No. You yearn for some specific unattainable nature. But you are incapable of getting to the nature because you are too old, etc.

If you are in that boat or situation, try nature in a bucket. What you need is a large bucket to put your nature in. For example, the climate, the soil, the soil saturation at the CB, all combine to keep us from enjoying non-jurisdictional wetland plants at home. Solution? Easy that, grow those plants in a bucket.

The only thing you have to remember in this situation is that: If your bucket got a hole in it, it don’t work no more. So what you need is a bucket with no holes or holes that you can plug up. Like Ray plugged a hole in a bucket with a wine bottle cork. Don’t know what to do with your old wine bottle corks. There you go.

Like Sartre once spelled: All holes must be filled. Uh. Was that Sartre? Isn’t he dead?

OK. Here’s a typical example of nature in a bucket. This nature in a bucket features the large Silphium occasionally encountered on creek banks in these parts. Notice that Crumby is not providing a specific epithet. There’s a good reason for that. Others may have strong opinions, but not Crumby.

Actually two guys know what this particular Silphium is. But one of those guys is dead. So the living expert has no one to argue with. Isn’t that sad?

This particular blue bucket in the picture costs six dollars and comes with no holes. So all you have to do is fill it up with the kind of dirt that your plant prefers or can tolerate, stick in your plant, water it in, and watch it grow. Nature in a bucket!

OK. You may need to punch some little holes for drainage in the unlikely event it rains too much. Yes. You can punch in some little holes for drainage, then tape them over when the weather returns to its old miserable hot dry self.

There you go. Nature in a Bucket! Notice that our nature in a bucket is also inside a fence. The fence is not deer proof. However, the deer don’t go in. It’s too tricky for them.

Triodanis coloradoensis

So today, Ray is out espying the miserable Valburn dirt patch. And the Triodanis coloradoensis is going, like dude, take my picture. Well. It's like five feet tall as compared to the runt, Triodanis perfoliata. Ray took the picture.


By the way. Triodanis coloradoensis is a Tejano endemic maybe.

The Last Squirt of Spring Migration, DY 4

Well. Today’s bird squirt moved these parts up to a pitiful few migrants from hardly any. Yes. Perhaps four yellow warblers are in the backyard.

How do any birds get through this killing field alive? Mercy! This sora didn’t make it. Run down by a great vehicle on Jones Road.

Do the Rich and Powerful F*** with the Poor and Weak for Fun?

Crumby knows he swore off politics. And this here is not politics. No. This may be slightly related to politics. But it’s not entirely politics or political. That’s right. It’s more like sociology or social science. Social science. Huh-huh.

Anyhow. Recall that the rich and powerful Jeffe of the Booblican Republic, sissy, licky Ricky, recently lied to the Falangist Daily about shooting a coyote. That lie, automatically printed up in the paper, naturally produced a few outraged responses from the usual clavern of good government, environmentalist, animal lover types. Yet those tiny minority types are the very sort that sissy, licky Ricky meant to provoke. Yes. Sissy, licky Ricky meant to provoke a reaction from a despised minority.

Once provoked, sissy licky Ricky and all his rich and powerful friends got to sit back and laugh at or make sport of the miserable, impotent coyote lovers. Plus, the nature haters with which the rich and powerful are closely allied, can’t wait to vote for sissy, licky Ricky, one more time.

Course, some might wish that the gun allegedly employed might have been a bigger caliber. Uh. But actually, the caliber of the gun is part of the fun. Like real men don’t pack sissy 380s. So all those types, real men, get to feel superior to sissy licky Ricky because they pack real guns. Yet by a strange coincidence, the real men, having been assured that their guns are bigger than Ricky’s 380, are even more likely to vote one more time for their slightly effeminate jeffe. It’s like reverse psychology. Or another name might be hairpin sociology. But no matter what you call it, the rich and powerful get to f*** with the poor and weak for fun.

Red Aphids, Where are the Dern Ants?

Well. Ray and Crumby have been watching the red aphids on the verb virgin for a piece. So far, no ants have come to the aid of the red aphids. Yet the red aphids reproduce far in advance of the predators. Like it would be impossible for the lady bugs to keep up. Those lady bugs would need to be super pigs to keep up even marginally. Mercy! Here’s what we mean. Goodness gracious sakes alive!




Lady bug larva sucking a big, fat, juicy aphid dry.












Cycloneda munda is the most common aphid predator in this part.











Yet. Keeping these red aphid vermin in check is a multi-species effort. Hopeless nonetheless.

More Crab Spider BS

Man! This picture makes me wish for a Canon or Nikon crop body. Mercy! Anyway, those crab spiders even eat beetles. Goodness!

Crab Spider Shows No Mercy

Seems like at the CB, crab spiders are the most efficient of all the many predators. There they sit amid the flowers, invisible. Yes. The hard work is all in the long and arduous journey to a nice feeding spot. Once socked in on the spot though, it’s all gravy. From then on, all gravy.

No need to spin a web. No need to jump around like a track star. Nope. None of that. Sarcophaga sp. on Lindheimera texana

Gone to Seed

Is gone to seed a good thing or a bad thing? Nearly always when a humanoid is said to have gone to seed, that’s bad. Sometimes, very very bad.

But your crop going to seed. Well. That may be good or bad. Depends.

Remember the beautiful field of crimson clover. Now that crimson clover has gone to seed. And actually this picture does not do it justice. It looks much worse in real life.

I bet very few boys would take a date with them to this crimson clover patch. Cause hardly any dates would roll over and over in it.

A reminder. If you wish to view the crimson clover in bloom. Type crimson clover in the search box.

New for the Record Bee for the CB

Hark! Here it is or 'tis Beltane and we have a new bee for the record. Now we have all three of the Xylocopas likely to be found in these parts, all recorded at the CB. This last bee to be discovered is Xylocopa micans, the secesh carpenter bee. Look! That's Salvia farinacea. And the dern bee is going in the front door.

This one makes five large bees for the CB. The others are Bombus fraternus, Bombus pennsylvanicus, Xylocopa tabaniformis (the most common, littlest and most interesting) and Xylocopa virginica.

Mercy, It's May Day

That's right. May Day, that the Druid's call Beltane, is upon us. Also, May Day or Beltane is when the workers of the world celebrate and take a day off from weary labors. All except for the many scabs and scissorbills. They don't take off.

Crumby toasts all the honest workers. Workers of the world, unite!

If you don't know what a scissorbill is, then you probably don't know what a full looper is either. Anyone refusing to continue as an ignoramus may wish to read further and espy the picture.

A full looper is a caterpillar with prolegs located only on the 9th and 13th somites. Thus, all its apparent legs are located at the anterior and posterior ends with no legs or prolegs in the middle. The other vulgar name for these particular vermin is inch worm.

Moths in the Men’s Room

Karl the Tracker Druid sometimes gives Ray the low down on some of his more interesting cases or missions. Karl tells Ray. Then Ray tells Crumby. Ray and Crumby are bosom companions.

So this one time Karl gets a visit from a beautiful young lady. This particular young lady is distraught. Yes. Mighty distraught. She suspects her beloved younger brother is sneaking off at night. Yes. He is sneaking off. Plus, the probable purpose behind this weasel little brother’s sneaking off may be homosexual trysts. Yes. She fears her younger brother may be ruining his chance of splitting their inheritance.

Naturally, because the young lady is tearful, beautiful and a paying customer, Karl takes the job. Karl takes the job, even though, these type jobs bore Karl a little, because they are so easy. But these are also just the kind of cases that are Karl’s bread and butter.

Sure enough, Karl easily tracks the lad to a well known city park restroom. And there, the particular lad Karl is tracking meets up with another similarly inclined lad, youth, or young man.

Uh oh. Karl needs to get ready in a hurry. He needs to make sure all his equipment is ready. Like he needs to switch on his camera and sneak on over to the park restroom.

But then, to Karl’s surprise, the twain youthful iconoclasts don’t head into the actual restroom. No. Instead, those young fools seem fixated on a well-lit wall of the restroom exterior. What are they doing?

Karls’s binocular observation reveals they are catching bugs. Hour after hour goes by. Karl wearies of his lonely task or job, watching those young men catch all the bugs that come to the outdoor security lighting at the restroom. Karl falls into a deep slumber. When Karl finally awakes, day has broke and the boys are gone. Mercy!

But on the sunny side, Karl is on the clock. Three more lonely nights, for a total of four lonely nights, Karl tracks this boy to the park restroom. On the fourth night though Karl is plenty speeded up so there’s no chance he can fall asleep again like he did the other three times.

Finally, after what seems like maybe a billion years to Karl, because he is so speeded up, the subject of Karl’s investigation and his equally important companion head into the facility itself. Karl sprints on over to the facility himself, toting his low light certified photo gear. Where, Karl gets plenty of shots of the boys catching moths in the Men’s Room.

The beautiful young lady didn’t want to pay Karl his fee. But eventually, Karl got his fee anyway. But that’s another story Karl may have told Ray.

twirler moth, Metzneria maybe?

Crumby Swears Off Politics

Here's how that works. For example, Crumby reads an article in a newspaper like the Falangist Daily. The article pisses Crumby off. So then, Crumby types up a response which Ray dutifully submits to this venue. It's sort of an exercise in talking, or actually typing, to oneself.

But the trouble is, this venting process may be bad for Crumby, insuring he stays pissed off longer than if he just immediately forgot most of the details of what pissed him off in the first place. Crumby means, what's the point of chronicling all this aggravation?

So periodically, this morning is an example, Crumby swears off politics because it is usually a political type article or commentary that pissed Crumby off in the first place.

Later though, after a few days or weeks go by, Crumby may encounter some atrocity so atrocious that he forgets he has entirely sworn off politics. Then, there you go. You have got yourself another pirouette. Yes. It's like a pirouette which mimics or apes the great wheel of life eternal. Praise the Goddess!

There now. Crumby feels good or at least better. It's not every day that Crumby gets to spell chronicling and pirouette in the same document or documink.