northeast-flora-and-fauna

If you're an ectotherm like these Red Admirals (or an Northern Red-bellied Cooter ), nothing warms your heart like sunlight. Be careful about lumping all lepidopterans into the ectothermic camp though; some winter moths are actually considered endothermic . Back when I was a kid we were taught that all birds and mammals were endotherms and every other animal was some sort of ectotherm, which is a mostly-but-not-entirely true simplification. Red Admirals though do fall squarely into the ectotherm camp; they're not someone you'll meet in the winter. Note that these butterflies look fairly different, with the 2nd picture having faded coloring and somewhat ragged hind wings. It sounds like Red Admirals can brumate as adults, so it's possible that the 1 in the 2nd picture survived the winter while the 1 in the 1st picture may have emerged from its chrysalis within the last month. Remember, they got the "admiral" part of their name because they were admired , not...

If you're an ectotherm  (AKA cold blooded [1]) like this Northern Red-bellied Cooter , nothing warms your heart like the sun. By late May (I'd imagine) all turtles are out of brumation , but temperatures may still be cool, inspiring turtles to warm themselves in the sun quite often [2]. I'm thinking this individual is a female since the plastron looks way more orange than pink . (Yes, in this case pink is for boys.) May 25, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 292818095, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] It sounds like actual scientists don't use warm blooded and cold blooded since there are also mesotherms that regulate body temperature a little bit between ectotherms and endotherms . [2] Unfortunately, as eager as they might be to sun themselves, they're still more than willing to dive in the water if you attempt to take their picture.

The American Bullfrogs were out in force on this spring day. I met 6, and here are the 2 most photogenic. To you and me, these guys are handsome herptiles , but for many of the arthropods flying, crawling, and swimming around here, they are voracious predators. Of the herptiles of New Jersey, I probably see turtles the most, followed by frogs [1], then by snakes, and with salamanders far behind. Herptiles are an interesting classification of animals, comprising amphibians and reptiles . What's interesting about that? Well, mostly it's that reptiles aren't especially closely related to amphibians. Birds, which we think about as a rival group to reptiles, are taxonomically a type of reptile. And even mammals are more closely related to reptiles than amphibians are. But because historically people think about reptiles and amphibians together, the 2 land-based ectotherms are studied together, despite what we now know about relatedness. May 10, 2023 at Delaware Raritan Canal P...

This is the time of year when our turtle neighbors emerge from their winter brumation . (Though hibernation is officially dormancy in mammals, sometimes it'll be used for reptiles, insects, or even plants. Brumation is the term that applies specifically to reptiles and (probably) amphibians.) I suspect that logs/rocks sticking out of the water are a favorite of turtles for various reasons: These places are less likely to be shady, so the turtles get more benefit from the sun. Some predators won't even try to swim out to attack them. On the shore, if a predator shows up they have to amble into the water to escape. On logs all they have to do is fall in the water to be safe. As ectotherms , turtles need the sun to properly regulate their body temperatures. Many of them will do like these guys and climb out of the water to bask , but some prefer to be slightly underwater. April 13, 2021 at the Delaware/Raritan Canal