Small

Small things are amazing. Megafauna like vultures or bison are charismatic but not enlightening. Creatures in nature are used for careers, industries or distractions, but they can also just be small lessons. Lessons about ourselves. Things round us are not objects that represent other things, yet they are things that represent the essential human condition.

In the rains that began after the official start to the monsoon season in Corrales, the night-time ground erupted on the bajada to the west of the river. Out of holes there came these cute little frogs with large eyes; Couch's spadefoot. The painter Renoir contrasted the impressionist early career style with the classic strict style of his dry period. This frog, showing a calm, warm milieu also models the hidden drives of a desperate struggle to survive and breed both as an individual and a species behind a warm and soft expression of calm.

This leafhopper (Texananus lathrami) is a strange creature that lives on the widely available but nutrient poor diet of plant sap. Renoir showed the world how to represent shadows and texture not as a matt color, but as an impression. These insects have been using impressionistic themes to blend into their background and process plant juice in peace for literal eons. They take the dilute liquid and process though a filter chamber to concentrate the material, essentially using a kidney before the digestion. They pee out the sugary liquid and then use specialized bacteria to predigest and build the essential amino acids from the raw materials in the slurry. There are many species of these amazing insects, the diversity comes because they need to develop niches to reduce competition in a food poor environment were most of their time is taken up with producing food.

Magritte said a pipe is not a pipe. It was a bold statement. This picture also contains something that is not what it seems. This wasp is a velvet ant that is actually a wasp, but not the kind most people know. Genus Odontophotopsis. There are 100,000 species of wasps and many more not known. The vast majority are parasitoids and don't chase children around picnic tables in the summer. These wasps have unique projections on their jaws and chest plates that fit like a lock and key to allow copulation, allowing very specific identification to the few who can read them.

Magritte, the surrealist, was fond of painting leaf birds to explore "elective affinities" the connection between things. This is the greater purple hairstreak butterfly (Atlides halesus). The hairstreak has a neat trick; the butterfly uses to put two fake antennae on the end of the wings. In studies, these appendages fool 100% of jumping spider attacks into attacking the hindquarters. The butterfly even wiggles these after landing to entice a jumping spider to stalk to the rear of the butterfly instead of the vunerable head.

Phoratoxins in the mistletoe help the butterfly inchworms thrive. This plant is the exclusive food for greater hairstreak caterpillars. While the plant is a poor choice over all, the lack of competition means the symbiosis is as locked in as milkweed is for monarchs. During Magritte's "Renoir" period the painted a bouquet of flowers weirdly growing from the ground like a tree. This is a great way to describe the Haustoria that mistletoe uses to grow into the tree's xylem and Phloem transport system.

The geometer moths break all the rules. Most moths have soft and fuzzy fringes and muted colors but these have bright contrasts and lines marking them. Renoir fought against this rigid style in the Parisian art scene his whole life, claiming sharp lines were unnatural, before reversing his opinion in the severe period after a trip to Italy and its examples of Renaissance abstraction.

Magritte wrote his aim was to "make the most everyday objects shriek aloud". And while this Physella acuta is a very common place, ordinary thing. There is an unusual feature. The coiling is left handed. This is odd as almost every other snail species spirals the opposite way. The term is chirality and in some circumstances this gives the species an advantage.

The jumping spiders seem to become much more active once the weather increases. Webs are actually pretty uncommon, but these spiders do make silk as a safety tether for when jumps go wrong. While those two big eyes grab the attention, there are actually another set of smaller eyes to the side like indicator lights. There are then another set behind and another two at the back and to the side.

This looks like a typical bee grubbing around the flowers. But as Magritte always tried to do, an observer should look closer. But this is a Digging wasp (Dielis pilipes). The females hunt beetle grubs to paralyze and lay egg in. The males need flower nectar to buzz over the ground to try to be the first to intercept a virgin female as they dig out in the early summer. 

While this looks like just a fly, there are several features worth remarking on. The most obvious is the size, this fly is huge. The eyes are almost a single visor, showing it is a male (Tabanus atratus). This is good news because the females have scissor like jaws with which they lap blood from mammals. The Malpighian tubules work in tandem with the hindgut to pull this massive rush of water out of the hemolymph (insect blood) and dump it out, leaving the midgut packed purely with a dense, highly concentrated paste of red blood cells and protein.

The adult antlion (Brachynemurus signatus)is often seen in late spring. They are quite poor fliers and look nothing like their juvenile phase, which has huge jaws and ambush tactics in the loose soil.

It can be quite breathtaking to see the size of some of the carpenter ants found in Corrales. The enlarged thorax suggest this is a new queen, looking to establish a colony. The winged drones can be found outside as well but only for a short while. Renoir went through several stage of his life that seemed very different, from the impressionist, to the dry period to the hybrid and eventually his senescent red period. Similarly the ant queen goes from a Pharate, to an Alate, to a Foundress with nanitics, and then a mature queen Claustra. This last stage processes vitellogenin protein that can halt cellular aging, allowing her to live over 25 years.

Asters are a diverse group of plants developed to be adaptable for conditions found near wetlands. Their big open flower faces attract all pollinators, and also human gardeners. This species; Spiny Chloracanthas is monophyletic and unique. It adapts to dry conditions by shedding its leaves quickly, prroducing chlorophyll in the stem to reduce leave water loss. The lateral branches are modified into thorns that allow the stems to grow tall into dense thickets that deter grazing animals. A dicot learning the evolutionary tricks of an opuntia (cactus), truely not a pipe as Magritte could have commented.

This is Idaea gemmata, another geometer moth like the one above. Except this one is much more fuzzy and subdued, blending in perfectly with light stucco. That edges of the wings are fringed, breaking up the body edges but also absorbing and reflecting bat echolocation signals. These moths have a discal spot on their wings in a contrasting orange, red hue that disappears as they age. The older Renoir used vibrant cochineal red pigments in his late paintings. These pigments have also faded out over the years to muted browns and oranges.

Bumblebees come with a lot of myths. They are not anatomically impossible flying marvels but they do use a different form of lift than modern planes. They also pollinate differently than honeybees, using vibrations and static electricity very precisely. In desert willow/Catalpa hybrids they have another trick of biting a hole in the base of the bloom to bypass the throat and pollen collecting stamens. This hole is often then exploited by hoverflies and honeybees.

Nature is wonderful and an amazing restorative to the weary soul. It allows us to observe and take away from the encounter just what we need. The beauty is that nature also never reaches an end, there will forever be more to be seen. The endlessness of it is what many painters such as Renoir and Matisse sought to express in their studies. Renoir sought to express light and shadow in color, while Matisse looked at the nature of reality itself in specific detail. Both sought to express the medium of colors as a sensation or experience. An abstract experience all of us could probably do well to emulate, if we start small.

Heat

College students are usually required to study a few iconic figures of history. Two of these are Salvador Dali and Sigmund Freud. While most come away from the experience feeling that Freud was misguided and Dali was deranged, some notice that these men developed amazing insights in their own way

The spadefoot frogs are almost an impossibility. These soft creatures break out of the tough hardpan as the rains gather above. That gaze of "distracted fixation" is exactly what Dali wrote in his 1937 book titled "Metamorphosis of Narcissus" as he dove into the world of "paranoiac-critical method" as he studied the Freudian field of dream analysis.

In Freudian dream analysis ants represent repressed feelings that "boil" out of the inscrutable earth. Dali was fascinated with dreams and used the motif of ants in his paintings to symbolize feelings uncontrolled and the erosion by nature. This carpenter ant seems to be a bit stereotyped by these avatars of creativity. Everything ants do is controlled and directed to definite goals. We just don't understand it. Right now the ants are swarming and spreading their fertilized queens.

Narcissus in legend was a vibrant youth who was brought low by the goddess Nemesis for an indifference to the attentions of the water nymph Echo. This Western Pondhawk dragonfly is a beautiful predator that is often found gazing at its reflection. This is a female, the males are powder blue. Unlike most dragonfly, this species perches close to the ground and hunts damselflies and smaller dragonflies.

This is a water scavenger beetle. It keeps a silvery air bubble in hairs against its abdomen while underwater. Freud postulated that the delicate human ego expresses guilt as a defense against subconscious desires that are uncivilized. Both Freud and Dali were deeply flawed individuals who brought some illumination on the dark recesses of the human mind. Where most people were interested in, but also glad to avoid. The scavenger beetle goes where other beetles cannot for these same, very good reasons. There are few predators in the oxygen poor depths of wetlands, and none of the effective ones like birds or lizards. There is a form of freedom in the solitary.

There are universes in the human condition that we hopefully never need to experience, even as we want to learn of their existence. I still am quite unsure what this critter is I found in a droplet of pond water. Looking at the world through a microscope is time consuming and very frustrating without a map. In London in July 1938 Dali and Freud sat down for tea. Freud had just fled the Nazi Austria and Dali had been displaced by the Spanish civil war. Their meeting was a colossal misunderstanding of two inerlectual giants. The microscopic world can often seem like that, where nothing seen makes any sense, and often, there is no reference to consult (no, not even the internet)

This is  Tetragnatha laboriosa it is very delicate web creating spider always found above still water, where its delicate webs collect emerging water insects like gnats, or mayfly. Being this lightweight allows the spider to mimic dry grass, as well as to run across the surface of water. In Freud's book, the interpretation of dreams, condensation is how the mind hides meanings behind confusing symbology and dream interpretations. This spider just wants to avoid confrontations, but the mimicry is the exact same.

 

After the detonation of the Atomic bomb, Dali became obsessed with "Nuclear mysticism" and turned his impressive technical painting skills to trying to capture themes of the invisible power of interatomic force. He also explored the themes of classic faith as a shield against the horrors of war. This is the velvet ant, actually a type of parasitic wasp armored against basically everything. Its shell is so strong entomologists have to use thickened pins to mount them. Its short stiff red hairs prevent ant bites from getting close enough to grip. The curved surfaces on its thorax resist gripping by rodent teeth and its stinger deals with anything that manages to engulf it, like a toad's mouth.

Here are several eggs of a house finch laid in a nest under eaves of our house. Several bird species have learnt they can raise more broods using human structures. Barn swallows are named for them. The egg is a well known motif for rebirth. In Dali's famous "Metamorphosis of Narcissus" the egg symbolizes growth of the self. House finches are likely developing into a different species as the evolutionary pressures are very different. While urban finches have different beaks, better designed to handle the sunflowers found in bird feeders, they are known to be better at problem solving and are able to solve while humans are nearby. In the double plane style of Dali the two styles of finch exist side by side in the boundary between humans and wilderness.

Brachycistis genus species. The males are delicate and winged. It is designed to travel and detect females. The females dig, looking for beetle grubs to parasitize. Freud interpreted insect phobias as a manifestation of internalized traumas and anxieties that society represses for the temporary individual social gain. It can we weird that while humans know there are more species of wasp than any other group, yet individual people always assume every wasp is a eusocial paper wasp.

Spiders exist in many types. In the summer season the most common genus is the active, muscular jumping spiders. The reason for this is actually uncanny. Specifically it is "Das Unheimliche" as written about by Freud in 1919. Without human activity, the sensitive senses of smell and vibrations are the best hunting strategy. However, with heavy vibration sources such as sound, vehicles, AC units, and shouting, the delicate vibrations of insects walking on a leaf are drowned out. This gives a huge advantage to spiders that hunt using sight, like the jumping spiders. Solitary spiders are kept in check by ant species that work as a super orgainsm, not by direct killing, but by a method of "ecology of fear" Freud completely explained this around world war 1, just for humans, not insects.

"Je suis fou du chocolat Lanvin!" This was a famous advertising slogan for snail shaped chocolates sold by Salvador Dali and is a quasi economic artistic banner that surrealism showed up so well. These leafhoppers are processing plant fluid and excreting sugars that the ants crave like chocolate. In return the ants protect the insects from predator such as jumping spiders. Leafhoppers are very active, so the ants produce chemical tranquillizers such as dendrolasin to keep them tranquil. There are many chemical signals that allow communication and control of these insects.

in 1974 Dali illustrated a poem by Tristan Corbiere entitled "Le Crapeau". In typical Dali fashion it looked like the crazed doodling of a purile minded adolescent, but there is a suggestion of a toad. The poem wasn't very good, either. But on deeper inspection the detailed workmanship in gold leaf borders on amazing. 300 copies were produced (many destroyed in accidents) and today they sell for several thousand dollars each. The toad is common and named after the famous naturalist Samuel Woodhouse who first collected a specimen in 1851 that currently resides in the Smithsonian

Polyphylla decemlineata is a common beetle found in the Summer in Corrales. Those huge antlers are scent organs designed to detect pheromones of buried virgin females beneath the soil. Dali's personal obsessions often revolved around his "muse" Gala who was the anchor that made a possible manic sociopath into a highly successful Spanish artist.

For a few weeks in the year the crickets can be heard and seen. This is a Spring Field Cricket. Like most of the summer insects, they are attuned to the night soundscape. Freud was famously afraid of unfiltered Id as expressed in music. It made him anxious because he couldn't rationalize the emotions evoked. Crickets have adapted to music and it shapes their activities. These crickets exploit the dawn when other insects like katydids and cicadas are winding down to be heard better and communicate with their species. Their noise is both territorial andd alluring, depending on the gender of the listening cricket.

Studying the microscope world usually creates more questions, which is usually the first step to greater understanding. Taking two steps back to move forwards is an odd way of progressing. Late Dali was interested in how matter could be composed mostly of empty space. I think about his explorations in that field often when I'm trying to figure out whatever it is this animal is found in a drop of pond water.

Coyotes are a very polarizing creature in Corrales. I notice that animals people think they know well are often the most difficult to understand. People's beliefs get in the way of their understanding. Pankejeff was a famous patient of Freud who after being cured continued to have neurosis but then had to see other practitioners because Freud had no further use for a patient who was "not ill" decades later. His nick-name was "the wolf-man" and most of the therapist's conclusions have been disputed by the patient himself. The coyote is likewise very misunderstood and stories are confused about what they do and their intentions.

One of the coolest things about Corrales by the river is the holes. All sorts of things make holes in corrales and they are not all obvious. This one is a mini-eruption from something coming out from below, cracking the hard clay surface. What could it be?

Cicadas spend most o their lives underground eating tree roots. This particular one died as it couldn't escape from its final pupal stage into a winged adult. The term is dysecdysis and happens when the emergence from the old shell takes too long. The inner structure hardens before the molt is able to fully escape. Usually because the temperature was too high, or the humidity too low, or there is a genetic defect.

Kafka wrote how a person manifested as a beetle, his outer appearance now matching his inner sense of worth. This doesn't say much about beetles, and that is the point. Kafka went to quite some lengths to prevent the focus of the book being about the insect exterior. This click beetle species is in the genus Glyphonyx is surprisingly well defined for an insect that humans don't persecute. Its Latin name is referenced for the fine hooks on the legs designed for climbing vegetation.

Most of these animals are very unique and interesting. Like people such as Dali and Freud these creatures are weird and odd, but on close inspection they are also amazing and impressively nuanced. Also, sadly they seem very unrelated to the everyday world most of us live in currently.

Monsoon

 

The snowpack no longer exists in a meaningful sense. It used to provide summer water down the Rio Grande where some was impounded behind dams like Heron Lake and Lake Abiqu. The El Vado dam is closed until around 2032. No matter the expert, the truth is we are not really sure what the new normal is going to mean for the future. Likely there will be unexpected outcomes, with winners and losers. Much of which will actually depend on events that seem completely unconnected. But it will help to be informed.

Many people have noticed insects increasing. Some have appeared as a result of the return of a monsoon. Water from the sky is an unusual even in the Southwest lately, but carpenter ants like this one use the moisture as a trigger to create new swarms, using winged drones like this one to spread out across the landscape.

Insects that are far more photogenic include this hairstreak butterfly Strymon melinus. Those tail streaks confuse predators into thinking the rear is the head, misdirecting the travel and maybe buying the insect more time to escape. These butterflies use many host plants, allowing them to adapt to human altered ecosystems.

While it can be very difficult to identify freshwater microscopic organisms, this one is likely a rotifer. The outer case is a protein shield called a lorica. They are part of a quite complex ecosystem that breaks down organic matter in treated wastewater. These creatures are eaten in turn by animals such as mosquito fish

I'm still not 100% sure this is a mosquito larva, most likely it is a midge larva. These macroinvertebrates are surprisingly complex, with  internal swim bladders and fine filters

Not often seen, these planarians are a type of flatworm that feed on small creatures in treated wastewater that flows into the Rio Grande. These specialize on snails, digesting them using specialized enzymes and a muscular sucker, a lot like a starfish

The wastewater pipe at the Harvey Jones BioSwale contains a whole beach of Physella snail species to support the flatworm populations that hunt them. Flatworm in turn are eaten by small freshwater leeches. These snail gorge on the algae and diatoms films that use the high phosphate and dissolved total solids of treated wastewater to grow lushly in shallow water and on volcanic rock used as substate.

Tadpoles are amazing survivors and the amphibian life cycle is quite complex and amazing. These juvenile woodhouse toads breed in the Rio Grande in spite of the large number of predatory hazards, by staying in the fish free zone of backwaters, where the depth is often only a few millimeters. They use those flagellant tails to excavate a depression to stay in a pool for as long as they can. They only need a survival rate of  .008% to keep a stable population, so can often persist in spite of incredible odds

Many flowers are beginning to bloom now. Plants have to invest quite a bit of energy into flowers, so wait for favorable conditions such as warm temperatures, moisture  and bright sunlight.. Different plants use different strategies to divide up the niches. Asters like this one use general styles and often use ants in a mutualistic system, encouraging them to deter caterpillars and other tissue destroying insects. The interaction is complex, however, and ants also contain a strong defoliant like formic acid, while also using aphids to milk the natural sugars of the plant

The silver leaf nighshade is a beautiful bloom that is very attractive to bumble bees in the late summer. These plants are insanely tough, with deep roots, spines that also keep out the cold, and berries containing solanine to deter browsing. This same chemical is also found in the humble potato, albeit at much lower levels

Bindweed is a pretty remarkable plant with many little tricks. The petals can close up, protecting the valuable reproductive organs from wind and rain as well as wasteful generalist insects. Solitary bees have widely spaced hairs that are best for capturing coarse pollen grains. Metallic sweat bees also visit and can find the flowers in the most marginal of environments.

Solitary bees can be found in mallows, but chimney bees are often found sleeping in the blooms. These bees (Diadasia) are oligolegy and only use the Globemallow flowers for their young. Actually, only the males are found in the blooms, and they are not there so much for the nectar as to be the first to intercept a receptive female arriving on a flower.

There are three invasive crayfish species in New Mexico, but there is also three endemic species. This one might be a Conchas crayfish (Faxonius deanae), but is about 190 miles away from where its supposed to be. The pincers, when closed, are more shaped like needle nosed pliers than the more typical shovel shape of the other species

The warm temperatures seem to bring out the bold jumping spiders. These arachnids are very photogenic, not just because of their large pair of forward facing eyes, giving them anthropogenic features, but they also have green, glittery fangs and an engaging alert, personality.

Many lizards in the wild have behaviors related to their environmental needs. This skink has the smooth surface of a mostly fossorial life, but they come out on cool morning to warm up in the sun quicker.

The lack of water in the drainage ditches show the snapping turtles more easily. These large Chelonia are also looking for sunny, sandy banks to excavate a nest. Most of these will be sniffed out and raided by some mammal, but enough survive to continue their ancient lineage that formed (as Chelydridae) as they have since before the great extinction event 60 million years ago

This juvenile wheelbug is showing off its rostrum which is used both as a dagger and a straw to feed on other insects. They control insects to some extent, but their ambush tactics are too slow to make much of a dent

Last year there was a large number of Cottonwood leaf beetles present. This year there are also many, but noticeably fewer. This is likely partly due to their predators increasing in numbers as a response

This is an adult Arizona beetle. A newcomer to the bosque for me. They occupy the same niche as the other leaf beetles but mature sooner and can also handle the slightly older leaves higher up the tree. 

The bosque attracts many birds that do not want to stay in just one place. This turkey vulture has migrated from further south. It is quite cool blooded for a bird and uses it's large black wings to absorb heat from the sun on cold mornings. This "horaltic pose" actually has quite a few different functions. I noticed the brittle old branches of the tops of cottonwoods actually broke off quite a few times under their weight.

This is a Putnam's cicada, an adult molt. They are stimulated by the humidity and temperatures to leave their life of sipping root juices underground and climb up into the foliage. They leave behind a shell called an exuviae as they become a winged form. Those wings are actually a sound device that they slap against the branches to call for mates in the forest

The number of moths is slowly increasing, but it doesn't seem like an explosive breeding year. This is maybe due to a good growth of mold in the moist warm leaf litter which are attracted to the moth larva and grow prolifically

Coyotes will always be loathed or loved by people, for the simple reason that they are now almost ubiquitous across the country. Their range has expanded as the natural checks on their numbers have been removed. Couple of little known facts: they have a weakness for fruits like mulberry and apples, and they stay near humans when predators such as mountain lions are nearby. In spite of all the experience, most people know much less about canid habits than they think.

The drastic changes in water in the middle Rio Grande valley; from floods to droughts actually benefit many native species. When water is pooled, damned or channeled the invasive, feral or parasitic species benefit most. Native or migratory species often adapt with behaviors such as increased mobility. Here a small flock of white faced ibis taking advantage of an acequia flooded field.

Flooded fields often bring more than just extra water. This owlet moth caterpillar was flushed out of hiding by the unexpected water and is an easy snack for just about any bird in the area.

Lizards are usually very difficult to catch, except when the cold water slows them down and reduces the number of hiding places for them. This is a NM whiptail, they are specializes for a highly active and inquisitive lifestyle. This leaves little time for reproduction and this lizard species is all female.

Another common species is the Southwestern fence lizard. These lizards are better at ambushing insects and are more relaxed and observant. They have a lower body temperature than whiptails and are more generalist in behavior overall

Freshwater snails use reproductive strategies to explode in numbers when conditions are best for plant growth. Snails in warm water lay many more egg batches and these incubate for only 3-4 days. The snails formed this way are much smaller, more likely to die and reach sexual maturity twice as fast but will quickly dominate a local area if there is room and food resources.

Garter snakes require warm sun to bask in or they are unable to digest food properly. Garter snakes use polyphagism, meaning they can adapt their diets. They can occasionally use a clumsy type of constriction, and often hunt in water for small creatures such as tadpoles or leeches. They can hunt the numerous small lizards in the area, especially the incautious small ones.

This western poplar sphinx moth has caterpillars that feed on cottonwood. These large moths are not often seen up close and many people mistake them for a hummingbird. But the adults have no mouthparts and die after a few days surviving only on the fat reserves collected as a caterpillar. They are the embodiment of the very hungry caterpillar.

There are two or three species of hummingbirds that take over the bosque environment. They will harass and divebomb large birds, especially raptors like hawks and owls. Their arrive can completely change the birds found in the riparian habitat by the river. They use nectar and sugar for energy, but also feed on small soft bodied insects like gnats or small spiders. Spider silk is also used to produce their thimble sized nests. Apparently they are very partial to water misting to clean residue from their feathers.

Fruit is found in abundant around Corrales, but supply is often erratic. The apricot trees produce early, but often they are too soon and the whole crop is damaged by a late frost. Most fruit trees use a "chill hours" internal counter. These are a range of mechanisms from callose plugs, abscisic acid, and chromatin remodeling of genes. None of this helped the fruit when NM late a late cold snap around April 17-18 after an unusual early warming that prompted the trees to begin fruiting too soon.

Bagworm moths can form intense and local swarms of insects. Most people only notice them once they are about the length of a fingernail, but they start off the size of a comma. They build a portable tent of chewed leaves as camouflage and protection from desiccation and predation. 

While many insects simply lay eggs and die (like the bagworm), allowing the next generation to continue, there is a lot of different strategies out there. These yellow eggs are likely ladybug eggs that are laid and hatch quickly from adults that overwinter is a torpor called diapause. As the water cycle changes, many different insects will be affected and develop in unpredictable ways. The natural world is going to have some surprises for us. What we do with those surprises will depend on the knowledge we have stored and how we spend it.