northeast-flora-and-fauna

Last weekend at Duke Farms the Outdoor Education topic was "Nature's Nasties", mostly focusing on stuff to avoid like Poison Ivy , Stinging Nettle , and Deer Ticks [1]. We weren't exactly sure what to make of the pinkish growths on some of the Poison Ivy growing nearby. (While 1 of the staff theorized they could be some sort of galls - which turned out to be correct - some sort of fungus also sounded feasible.) Of course there's a natural reluctance to handle Poison Ivy to try and figure out what the stuff was, which didn't help the investigation. After getting home, a quick search showed me a webpage with Poison Ivy with almost exactly the same condition, which they attributed to Poison Ivy Gall Mites. (FWIW iNaturalist uses the name Poison Ivy Leaf Mites.) Although I can't imagine that covering a leaf with these galls doesn't have some impact on Poison Ivy's ability to photosynthesize, this article suggests that the galls aren't particula...

Meet an Eastern Calligrapher , an insect I probably haven't shown you before. (At least I hope it's an Eastern Calligrapher; some of its relatives look similar.) Eastern Calligraphers are part of a very large group of insects sometimes called hover flies (the males will hover around, either defending a territory from other males or just hoping to get the attention of a female), sometimes called flower flies (the adults feed off of the nectar and pollen of flowering plants), and sometimes called  syrphid flies (pronounced SUR-fid, which appears to come from Greek and Latin words loosely meaning "descended from gnats"). These flies have a waspy look, are considered wasp mimics, and since they can't sting, they're a good example of Batesian mimicry . Notice though that as flies, they have only 1 pair of wings whereas wasps, bees, and most flying insects have 2 pairs of wings.  They're considered pollinators , though they're probably not as effective as...