Steve's Nature Quiz # 27

Continuing from the explosive start of this week's #CreteNature blog which of the featured plants has an explosive method of seed dispersal?

a) Autumn Squill

b) Autumn Crocus

c) Squirting Cucumber

Autumn Squill (top), Autumn Crocus (Bottom)                                      Squirting Cucumber

The Autumn Squill has a very gentle method of seed dispersal; when their seeds dry out they are lifted by the wind and blown to pastures new. The Autumn Crocus, on the other hand, has its own delivery service; its seeds are taken away and buried by ants. The Squirting Cucumber is more self sufficient; those seed pods which you can see bottom right are filled with a mucilaginous liquid and when the fluid pressure reaches critical the pods explode squirting the seeds up to twenty feet away. So the answer is C.

More fascinating nature facts and tales of the Cretan countryside in this week's #CreteNature blog Sklavoi – Village of the Slaves

Steve's Nature Quiz #20

This is a male Common Darter dragonfly but where does the female drop her eggs?

In the soil?

In the water?

In the air?

Common Darter, Sympetrum striolatum

The male clasps the female as they fly through the air and they swoop down over the water in tandem. Then, at the lowest point of the arc the female releases her eggs where they scatter over the water. So, if you said water then you were partially right but she actually drops them from the air.

More fascinating nature facts as this week's #CreteNature Blog explores the area around the village of Stavrohouri in east Crete.

Steve's nature Quiz #19

Last week's #CreteNature blog featured butterflies, dragonflies and hoverflies but which one of these is really a type of fly?

Butterflies have four wings covered in tiny scales and, together with moths, form the order of insects called the Lepidoptera (originally from the Greek meaning scaly wings). Dragonflies also have four wings and, along with damselflies, form the order Odonata (again, originally from the Greek, this time for tooth - as is dentist - referring to their rather formidable mouth parts). Hoverflies, house flies, mosquitoes, midges and a host of others have only two wings and form the order Diptera (from the Greek again; di + ptera meaning two wings). So, whenever you see an insect with only two wings you can be sure that it is a type of fly.

More insect facts, some beautiful flowers and scenery as well as some rare Cretan frogs as the #CreteNature blog wends it's way up to the mountain village of Orino. http://bit.ly/2xRJuLH

Steve's Nature Quiz #12

How many Spotted Sea Hares can you see in this picture?

Sea Hares are a type of Sea Slug and are molluscs like the slugs and snails in your garden. They are called Sea Hares because of their large, hare-like 'ears'. They are not ears at all in fact but act more like noses. When Sea Hares want to make more Sea Hares they form mating chains and advertise the fact by sending out pheromones which other sea hares pick up through these chemosensory organs called rhinopores. As things can be a bit confusing in a mating chain sometimes the best way to determine the number of Sea hares in a chain is to count the rhinopores and divide by two!

I think that I can see ten rhinopores in this picture which makes five Sea Hares. Maybe you can see more?

Taken from this week's #CreteNature Blog:  Triton's Trumpet and Mermaids' Wine Glasses

Where Three Valleys Meet

Let me take you by the hand

To a far and distant land

Where peace and tranquility reign

Where bare winter branches

Form cathedral like arches

And the earth smells of soft winter rain

Where an old olive tree

Beckons quietly to me

Indicating the route I should take

And a bubbling rill

Is beginning to fill

With leaves floating down in her wake

Where silver branched thyme

Beneath redolent pine

Seductively draws me along

As I potter and dawdle

And the warblers warble

Filling the sky with their song

Turning damp logs

And searching for frogs

A scorpion hides from the light

Dreaming her dreams

Or that’s how it seems

As she waits for the falling of night

To where solid rock walls

Cause the water to fall

Amidst lichens of yellow and blue

And a kingfisher darts

As I say from the heart

That the only thing missing

Is you

The Extra Bit

After all the physics, biology and chemistry of the past few weeks I thought I’d give you a bit of a rest with this piece of doggerel. Sometimes, in our close examination of the natural world, we can overlook the sheer beauty of our surroundings. If you’re still looking for a New Years resolution for 2017 (or the original has already fallen by the wayside) then I’d recommend an hour or two each week just being at one with nature. There’s nothing quite like it for recharging the batteries and pushing the everyday niggles of modern life into the background.

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LINKS:

Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

See detailed pictures at http://www.inaturalist.org/login  (search - people-stevedaniels-observations)

The Nature of Crete  (Flipboard Magazine)

Cretan Flora

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Crete Birding

Greek Butterflies and Moths

Aquaworld Aquarium

Visit Greece (National Government Tourist Office)

Pine Die-back in Crete, Greece

Pinus brutia

Last Saturday (16/04/2016) amateur botanist Steve Lenton and I visited the heavily wooded area around Kato Symi (Crete, Greece). We were immediately alarmed by the state of the pine trees (Pinus brutia) in the area and I decided to investigate the cause or causes.

Thaumatopoea pityocampa caterpillar

The first suspect was the Pine Processionary  Moth, Thaumatopoea pityocampa due to the high number of nests which were visible. These cause massive defoliation of pine trees.

Closer examination of the trunks showed white, fluffy extrusions which looked similar to Pine Beetle pitch tubes.

Marchalina hellenica

The true culprit however was nearby in prodigious numbers: The Giant Pine Scale, Marchalina hellenica.

Honeydew (600x)

These produce the white fluff that is packed full of nourishing honeydew.

Apis melifera

 This honeydew is an important food source for the Honey Bee, Apis melifera, from which seems to “originate all the pine honey in Greece” [Portrait of an Insect: Marchalina hellenica http://www.friederikeerlinghagen.de/vita_2.php]. There were a lot of bee hives in the area and it is not unknown for beekeepers to deliberately introduce this pest (even if ultimately it is like killing the goose that laid the golden egg).

Meanwhile, at the base of the tree the Pine moth caterpillars were not having it all their own way as they were being trapped in sticky threads that appeared to be emanating from the ground.

My guess (and it is only a guess) is that this is some sort of fungal mycelium.If so, what is it and does it have any connection to either the caterpillars or the scale insects? There is still a lot of investigation to be done on plant/fungi relationships and I wonder if the tree could be ‘calling up’ a fungus as a defence mechanism or if the fungus is attacking an already weakened tree.








 The following photos show the threads at different levels of magnification and I welcome feedback from mycologists and entomologists on this fascinating (if destructive) set of interactions.

40x

150x

600x

 Steve Daniels, Crete, Greece, April 19th 2016.

I originally posted this on Facebook (Naturalsits Group) and LinkedIn (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology). As comments are coming in from both groups as well as Steve Lenton's Facebook Group (Cretan Flora) I have decided to publish it here complete with comments from all sides in order to keep the conversation in one place. SD 27th April 2016. 

The Asphodel Meadows (Welcome to the Underworld)

Common Grazing Land  near Ierapetra

"Erebus this is Erebus, gathering point for the recently deceased. Please take your tickets and form an orderly queue at piers one to infinity. Charon Ferries hope that you enjoy your brief trip across the river Styx and the onward journey to your final destination."

If you are related to a Greek god, or a mere mortal chosen by the gods because of your exceptional heroism or righteousness you can expect to have a blessed and happy afterlife lazing around in the Elysian Fields.  Murderers and people of an otherwise evil disposition have a nine day trip in a downward direction to the depths of Tartarus where novel forms of punishment, specifically tailored to their particular crime, await their displeasure.

Asphodel (Family: Xanthorrhoeaceae)

Ordinary folk like us can look forward to eternity in the Asphodel  Meadows which are neither heavenly nor hellish but pleasantly peaceful so if you’re curious about what awaits you on the other side come with me today for a sneak preview.

Here between Ferma and Ierapetra is a large area of grassland leading down to the sea and at this time of the year it is liberally punctuated with asphodels, if not with the souls of the dearly departed. Often connected with the pleasanter aspects of the beyond this flower has also been used at various times as a snake-bite remedy, a mouse poison, a preventative medicine for pigs and a cheese wrap with built in use-by-date (when the leaves wither, throw the cheese away).

Field Grasshoppers (Family: Acrididae)

As we stand here listening to the crash of the sea upon the shore, being buffeted by the breeze and generally admiring ‘ten thousand acres of sky’ I can hear a bird making a rather loud 'wheeping, call somewhere behind us so let us wander northwards and see if we can find out who it is. Notice how the grass seems alive as we walk across it with small insects bouncing out of our way. These are Field Grasshoppers, interesting little animals that can smell with their antennae and hear with their legs thus showing the infinite variety of design in the animal world. Together with crickets they make up the order Orthoptera who have been with us since the Carboniferous period some 300-360 million years ago.

European Green Toad (Family: Bufonidae)

I see we have a little winter water flowing through a slight depression here and a number of large-ish stones lying around.  Stone flipping comes second to log turning on my list of simple pleasures so let’s have a flip and see what we can find. The usual centipedes, millipedes and snails and here’s someone we were hearing but not seeing a few weeks back on The Road to Nowhere, it’s a Green Toad. The green markings are quite visible but the red has yet to fully develop. Wait until you see them in full mating livery, they really are most beautiful toads. He looks a little discomfited at being disturbed so we’ll gently replace the stone and leave him be.

Isabelline Wheatear (Family: Muscicapidae)

That 'wheeping' is getting closer so softly, softly now and we’ll see if we can find who’s calling. There, on those thistles over by the bushes, standing proud on little black legs. A female flycatcher? No, I think there’s a line of white above the eye (supercilium in ornithologist-speak). I do believe that it’s an Isabelline Wheatear. I’ve seen them up here before at this time of year. Wheatears are rather drab little birds in my opinion, best told apart by the patterns on the underside of their tails, but their name is more fascinating. It has nothing to do with ears of wheat at all but is a corruption of ‘white arse’ from a few centuries back. These misnomers occur quite regularly in the animal world which is why the white rhino can be slightly darker than the black rhino. “White” is thought to be a corruption of the Dutch “wijd” or wide in English referring to the width of its mouth although I understand that this is now disputed by linguists. Shame really, I rather like that story.

The wind is getting up a bit now and we’re rather exposed to it out here so I think it’s time to head for home and a nice hot cup of tea. You’re welcome to come back for a chat on my Naturalists Group page but if I don’t see you there; then until next week – happy hunting.

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LINKS:

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Crete Birding 

Add Blog at OnToplist.com

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Add Blog at OnToplist.com

- See more at: http://cretenature.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/the-road-to-nowhere.html#sthash.rLCW4iZQ.dpuf

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Thanks this week to: Cosmin Manci and Alexandru Pintilioaie at Coleoptera on Facebook

for their help with the identification of the Ground Beetle Licinus sp. and

Matt Wilson at Manchester Metropolitan Universtiy for his perennial help in all matters herpetological.

LINKS:

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Add Blog at OnToplist.com

- See more at: http://cretenature.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/the-road-to-nowhere.html#sthash.rLCW4iZQ.dpuf