wash

 Biology is a constantly evolving process where many things interlink at once to keep the machinery of life moving.

I have said many times before that wasps are fascinating creatures and incredibly diverse. This particular species, the pelucinid wasp is locked in an evolutionary arms race with June bug prey. The wasp is a parasitoid and finds grubs of the June bug beetle to lay its eggs inside. The grubs become better adapted to digging deeper into the ground for protection, and the wasps evolved longer ovipositors to reach them from the surface in response.

We have numerous large black beetles in the bosque, the warrior beetles or the darkling beetles, but this one's long antennae marked it out as something else. A species of long horned beetle, related to the sometimes seen California root borer beetle, which is impressively large when it comes to the surface.
 

During periods of moisture, many ant species swarm around their nest entrances. The invasive Argentine ants do this for reasons not related to nests or mating strategies. I put up this link (next line) in hopes that even a few people will learn a little ant behavior and act more responsibly around ant poisons.

The rains has made many little pools that a wide variety of wildlife will quickly colonize. This is a predaceous diving beetle. It flies to new puddles, found by the polarized light reflected by shallow water. They are among the first insect life to be found and they quickly start eating anything that moves underwater.

The surface of the water in heavily vegetated pools will usually have a few of these huntsman spiders on them. They eat gnats and other egg laying insects arriving at the water surface. Larger streams and shady pools will attract water striders instead.

 

This is not a dead insect, but the molted exoskeleton of a small praying mantis. Many insects develop faster during the wet periods as their lifestyles and environments alter radically.

I have not yet seen many crayfish, even though I know there must be many around. This one died of unknown causes.

This murky fish is a small mouth bass. It shouldn't be here, like most of the wildlife in Corrales it is not native, but there it still is. I am not a fish afficionado but am pretty used to the more common fish around here, and I don't think it is one of the usual suspects.

Tiny gambusia fry are growing in the ponds, hopefully to keep the mosquitos away, but I have my doubts that they are any good at that job. Of course, it could also be a silvery minnow. Its kind of hard to tell when they are this size.

Tadpoles are hard to identify, and when I knew nothing I was a lot more confident about identifying them. I am happy to say that I don't recognize this species. I think it is a spadefoot of some kind, but am not sure.

 

This is a little woodhouse toadlet. There are many around wherever it is wet and quiet. They blend in perfectly until they move.

Toadlets are not poisonous until they grow much bigger, so they are at risk from just about every creature out there. This garter snake eats small frogs and also fish and is not very fussy about what type they are as long as they are the right size.

Gartersnakes are docile and kind creatures. Because of that I am more than happy to return the favor and NOT handle, prod and disturb them. Snakes all have their own personalities and some freeze, some run away, while a few posture. This one tried the first strategy and played at being a twig.

These cattle egrets are waiting for the cows to get moving through the long grass so they can snap up the insects that fly up. This strategy saves the birds a lot of work.

The recent floods have moved a lot of material through the rivers. These foam-bergs were floating down the river. This could be a indicator of human pollution (we use a lot of detergents) or protein from decaying material (hopefully natural)

Corrales ditches are made from material that is available, which is clay and sand. While these are cheap and available, they are not very good at resisting rain on a slope. Strangely, on a flat surface, sand is quite waterproof (think driveway puddles), but on a slope of more than 20 degrees, it moves easily.

The damp allows algae to grow on the tree bark (the trunk in the middle). The moisture is rare and so the bosque does not have many systems for breaking down organic matter like wetter forests have slugs and worms. This is the main reason why dog poop becomes petrified, rather than being broken down by bateria and washed into the river system.

 

The cloudy weather definitely lends the scenic mountains a brooding air. They also help with those spectacular sunsets. A nice change from constant sun.

The moisture has finally stopped the non-stop "snow" from the cottonwood seeds. The fluff now changes roles and acts as a moist sponge to help the little seedlings grow in an hospitalable environment until they can get that vital taproot down into the water table.

Yerba mansa is a common plant that grows in small spots of wet soil under heavy shade. I hear they can be made into a tea, but not being a tea person I am happy to take their word for it.

 

This is two generations of cockleburr. The green leaves of this year's short growth versus the mature seeds and brown stems from last year. These amazing plants have been covered in the several previous blogs, but I still have so much to learn.

This is prostate vervain, a common plant that covers the ground quickly where it has been disturbed.

The flowers of the vervainare not the prettiest, but are unusual enough for a second look. The bright yellow flowers of the competing goatheads will be a bane for everyone soon enough.

Another plant that gets noticed is this tiny century plant which shoots out a huge stalk for reaching up into the sky. this will bring in the moths that are needed to complete specialized symbiosis pollination in what seems like an unnecessarily complicated reproductive cycle. Kind of like that last sentence.