30
6:00pm - While walking through bottomland forest, a Texas rat snake (Pantherophis obsoletus), 6 ft. 4 in. male, moving along a fallen log. At the same time, choruses of Green treefrogs (Hyla cinerea) at call index 2, as well as Cricket frogs (Acris crepitans) at CI 3, and S. leopard frogs (Lithobates sphenocephalus utricularius) at CI 1. As we walked to the edge of the marsh, we observed a Great blue Texas Field Notes k A journal of wildlife and wild places in Texas k July, 2018 Volume 9, No. 1 Inside This Issue Editorial ………………….. 2 The Reptiles & Amphibians of Palo Pinto Mountains State Park - A Pre- Development Survey ……. 4 Challenge Accepted - At the Southwest Nature Preserve .. 10 Storms, Herps, & Insects in Late May on the Rolling Plains 17 What Good Are Snakes? …. 28 Bucket List Places 30 Matador Wildlife Management Area

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Page 1: Texas Field Notes Jul-2018 - WordPress.com...Texas Field Notes July, 2018 Page !2 Texas Field Notes Vol. 9 No. 1 Texas Field Notes is a quarterly e-journal of the wildlife and wild

6:00pm - While walking through bottomland forest, a Texas rat snake (Pantherophis obsoletus), 6 ft. 4 in. male, moving along a fallen log. At the same time, choruses of Green treefrogs (Hyla cinerea) at call index 2, as well as Cricket frogs (Acris crepitans) at CI 3, and S. leopard frogs (Lithobates sphenocephalus utricularius) at CI 1. As we walked to the edge of the marsh, we observed a Great blue

Texas Field Notesk A j o u r n a l o f w i l d l i f e a n d w i l d p l a c e s i n Te x a s k

July, 2018 Volume 9, No. 1

Inside This Issue

Editorial ………………….. 2

The Reptiles & Amphibians of Palo Pinto Mountains State Park - A Pre-Development Survey ……. 4

Challenge Accepted - At the Southwest Nature Preserve .. 10

Storms, Herps, & Insects in Late May on the Rolling Plains 17

What Good Are Snakes? …. 28

Bucket List Places 30

Matador Wildlife Management Area

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Texas Field Notes Vol. 9 No. 1

Texas Field Notes is a quarterly e-journal of the wildlife and wild places of Texas, available for download from greatrattlesnakehwy.com and from https://issuu.com/texasfieldnotes. The purpose of Texas Field Notes is to explore the natural history of Texas, connect people with nature, and share what that connection looks like.

Editors: Michael Smith & Clint King

Design & Layout: Michael Smith

All photos taken by authors except as noted otherwise

Advisors

Rob Denkhaus Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge

Travis LaDuc University of Texas at Austin

Ann Mayo Weatherford College

Jesse Meik Tarleton State University

Suzanne Tuttle (Retired) Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge

Marianna T. Wright National Butterfly Center

Our advisors provide valued input and assistance, but responsibility for the content of articles remains with the authors.

Our website and blog is:

The Great Rattlesnake Highway

www.greatrattlesnakehwy.com

which contains information about Texas’ ecoregions and articles that do not appear in Texas Field Notes.

© 2018 All rights reserved, except that ownership of photographs and articles remains with the contributor.

Here we are in the year 2018, with the weather reflecting a shifting climate,1

Texas population growing faster than anywhere else in the nation,2 and resource

extraction scarring the land3 with pipelines, fracking, and gas flaring. Texas’ ecoregions and wildlife seem to be under assault, while people have less and less

connection with the land and water that sustain them.4 At the same time, there are lots of encouraging efforts to conserve nature, including organizations

dedicated to preserving and caring for the land (the Nature Conservancy in

Texas5 and the Native Prairies Association of Texas6 are two good examples), those that train, study, and volunteer for nature (like the Texas Master Naturalist

program7), and the nature centers across the state that provide events for the public to experience and learn about nature. Their successes are undeniable, but

it’s not clear whether the pace of good works can keep up with the pace of

destruction, and this seems like an “all hands on deck” moment. All of us who can help should do whatever we can, and we (Michael Smith and Clint King)

want to be part of the effort.

Among our past efforts to share nature and encourage conservation was the

publication of Texas Field Notes (TFN). The first issue of TFN appeared in 2003

and a few others followed, but it was in April, 2010 that Clint joined Michael in

writing an issue of TFN, beginning a long and productive partnership. Our goal was to share our travels across the state looking for herps and get readers

“hooked” on the experience of being out there in those wonderful places and

seeing amazing wildlife. Perhaps through our words and photos, some readers would visit some of these preserves and refuges for the first time, and then

maybe come to feel a connection to those places that was like home – a place where they felt at peace, where they belonged, and a place they would want to

protect. Perhaps we could increase readers’ understanding that everything in the

woods, prairies, wetlands, and deserts had an important role to play, even if it

Michael Smith

Editorial: The Return of Texas Field Notes

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was not obvious to us. Even the lowly and misunderstood have value and would be missed if they were gone. Our goal has been this – get out there, experience all you can, and treasure the natural world like a beloved member of

your family.

After 2014 we ended TFN while we were involved in other things for the next few years. Now seems like a good time to revive that publication, as a companion to our blog, The Great Rattlesnake Highway

(www.greatrattlesnakehwy.com). There is something to be said for a publication that you can print and hold in your

hands, and one that can be downloaded and saved (or read at the Issuu website, www.issuu.com/texasfieldnotes). We hope that readers will share it with others, and that schools might make use of it. We strive to make TFN

engaging and accessible for readers, while making sure that its scientific accuracy is solid. And as it was before, it is a

free publication.

We would also like to include other voices. In 2012, Thom Marshall beautifully described a trip to the Big Bend

where he saw three rattlesnake species, other nonvenomous snakes, and alligator lizards in the mountains. For this issue, we are fortunate to have an article from Ed Barnes describing his herp survey of the Palo Pinto Mountains

State Park, combining scientific findings with an engaging narrative of what it is like to be out in the field doing a

herp survey. We would love to receive articles (ideally with photos) that describe visits to interesting places in Texas, encounters with wildlife and discussion of their role in plant and animal communities, or conservation issues with

Texas wildlife and wild places. If you are interested, you can reach me at [email protected].

We really hope that you enjoy this, the first issue of Texas Field Notes since 2014. If you like it, or if you have

suggestions for what would make it better, please get in touch with us. We would really like to hear from you.

h

1.National Geographic. Climate Change Now Impacting U.S., Government Report Warns. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/climate-change-government-draft-review-usa-environment-spd/ (accessed 4/14/18)

2. U.S. Census Bureau. Texas Has Nation’s Largest Annual State Population Growth. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2017/08/texas-population-trends.html (accessed 4/14/18)

3. CNBC. Fracking boom: US shale oil output to top 6 million barrels a day in August and September https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/14/us-shale-oil-output-to-top-6-million-barrels-a-day.html (accessed 4/14/18)

4. Soga, M., Gaston, K.J., Yamaura, Y., Kurisu, K., & K. Hanaki. 2016. Both Direct and Vicarious Experiences of Nature Affect Children’s Willingness to Conserve Biodiversity. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4923986/ (accessed 4/14/18)

5. The Nature Conservancy: Texas. https://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/texas/index.htm (accessed 5/7/18)

6. Native Prairies Association of Texas. http://texasprairie.org (accessed 5/7/18)

7. Texas Master Naturalist. https://txmn.org (accessed 5/7/18)

Editorial: The Return of Texas Field Notes (continued)

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It’s just after 9:00pm on a surprisingly cool 60-degree May evening as we approach the pond. The frogs quickly go silent as we near the shore. Falling into the routine they know well, my experienced team quickly whispers the

data they have been assigned to collect.

“Ambient temp 15.5”

“Water temp 21.5”

“Humidity 55%”

“Wind zero”

“Location 542097, 3602482”

“Okay, red lights only, recording,” I say as quietly as possible.

The Reptiles and Amphibians of Palo Pinto Mountains State Park: A Pre-Development Survey

Ed Barnes

Ed Barnes’ survey team

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As the team switch their headlamps to red and try to silently find a place to sit, I turn on the audio recorder and

we settle in. The frogs we seek slowly grow accustomed to our presence and begin calling. First only the few brave

ones but slowly the pond erupts; northern cricket frogs (Acris blanchardi), Rio Grande leopard frogs (Lithobates berlandieri), grey tree frogs (Hyla versicolor), and western narrow-mouthed toads (Gastrophryne olivacea) fill the air

with sound. After 5 minutes, I call out, “okay, recording done” and turn off the recorder. The team discuss what

frogs were heard and in what quantity as I log the team’s conclusions. The recording will be examined later back at the university to determine if there were any that escaped notice on site.

As part of my thesis project for Master’s Degree in Biology at Tarleton State University, I conducted a

herpetological survey at Palo Pinto Mountains State Park, Texas Parks and Wildlife’s newest acquisition, from the late winter of 2016 until late October of the same year. Only an hour and a half west of Fort Worth, the 4,400

acre park is located at the junction of southwestern Palo Pinto County and southeastern Stephens County, just outside the small town of Strawn, Texas. Though the land was purchased in 2011, the park is not slated to open

until 2020 due to funding issues.

As development has not yet begun, our year-long survey will serve as a baseline

for reptile and amphibian activity in the park. By using specific, repeatable

methods, this study could be performed

again 3-5 years after opening to determine what impact the development and visitors

are having on the herpetofauna within the park.

A secondary objective of the study is to

examine detection method effectiveness. In conjunction with data collected at a

second study site in Brown County, we are tracking various detection methods

based on per-unit effort and taking

environmental data while performing these tasks. In simpler terms, we are

examining how best to detect these animals to help future researchers be more efficient with their field time.

The first audio survey complete, the team loads up into the Polaris® Ranger and moves on to several additional

ponds to conduct surveys. En route, any herps that are seen are logged along with their location and

environmental data such as ambient temperature, surface temperature where the animal was sitting, humidity, and wind speed. We count every herp sighted, no matter how common. By the completion of the survey at the end of

October of 2016, thirty-five species of reptile and amphibian were discovered inside the park. Among them were two frog species, the Gulf Coast Toad (Incilius nebulifer) and the Rio Grande Leopard Frog (Lithobates berlandieri), that were found outside their known range.

The Reptiles & Amphibians of Palo Pinto Mountains State Park (continued)

Rio Grande leopard frog

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Moving on to the next task

of the night, we begin the nocturnal road surveys. This

consists of driving slowly

and searching the roads and adjacent vegetation for any

herps that may be crossing the road or using it to bask in

the residual warmth.

Quickly, my field assistant, Ryan, calls out “snake!” and

flies off the Ranger. Before I can get the vehicle stopped,

the team has grabbed their

snake hooks, leapt from the Ranger, and surrounded the

snake, a gorgeous broad-banded copperhead

(Agkistrodon laticinctus). With

one team member wrangling

the snake, the others call out their assigned data to me. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” as they say, so we take a bit of time to

marvel at this magnificent animal and take photos. Surprisingly, despite reports from an ornithology crew telling us of numerous sightings, we saw no rattlesnakes at this site but copperheads are abundant, especially along FM

2372 which runs along the northern border of much of the park. As the night progresses, we spot more frogs;

northern cricket frogs (Acris blanchardi), Rio Grande leopard frogs (Lithobates berlandieri), Strecker’s chorus frogs (Pseudacris streckeri), red-spotted toads (Anaxyrus punctatus), western narrow-mouthed toads (Gastrophryne olivacea)

and Gulf Coast toads (Incilius nebulifer), snakes; copperheads (Agkistrodon laticinctus), rough earth snakes (Virginia striatula), and western ribbonsnakes (Thamnophis proximus), and lizards; Common spotted whiptails (Aspidoscelis gularis), and ground skinks (Scincella lateralis). Around 2:00am, the team calls it a night and settles in for a few

hours of rest.

Up at dawn the next morning, we start with checking our cover boards. Six pieces of 2-foot x 4-foot plywood were set out in December to settle and weather. Ten arrays of cover boards are set along a packed-earth road in the

eastern portion of the park. These boards serve as refugia for our target animals. Literature indicates that they disproportionately attract gravid and shedding individuals. Under the first board, we find evidence of this, a young

coachwhip (Coluber flagellum) only 3 feet long (adults of this species commonly reach 6 feet), its eyes pale blue

indicating it is just coming into shed. As with our other study methods, environmental data is gathered at each sighting and under each board even if no animal is lurking beneath. This gives us the preferred ranges of

temperature for each species. As we check the remainder of the boards, additional snakes are found; Texas

threadsnake (Rena dulcis), a juvenile eastern yellow-bellied racer (Coluber constrictor), Dekay’s brownsnake (Storeria

The Reptiles & Amphibians of Palo Pinto Mountains State Park (continued)

Broad-banded copperhead

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The Reptiles & Amphibians of Palo Pinto Mountains State Park (continued)

Table 1 - Species found 3/4/2016 through 10/23/2016

Turtles False Map Turtle Graptemys pseudogeographica

Red-Eared Slider Trachemys scripta

Spiny Softshell Apalone spinifera

Frogs American Bullfrog Lithobates catesbianus

Plains Leopard Frog Lithobates blairi

Rio Grande Leopard Frog Lithobates berlandieri

Gray Tree Frog Hyla versicolor

Northern Cricket Frog Acris blanchardi

Green Toad Anaxyrus debilis

Gulf Coast Toad Incilius nebulifer

Red-Spotted Toad Anaxyrus punctatus

Woodhouse’s Toad Anaxyrus woodhousii

Spotted Chorus Frog Pseudacris clarkii

Strecker’s Chorus Frog Pseudacris streckeri

Western Narrow-Mouthed Toad Gastrophryne olivacea

Lizards Common Spotted Whiptail Aspidoscelis gularis

Four-Lined Skink Plestiodon tetragrammus

Little Brown Skink Scincella lateralis

Texas Spiny Lizard Sceloporus olivaceus

Snakes Chihuahuan Nightsnake Hypsiglena jani

Coachwhip Coluber flagellum

Eastern Yellow-Bellied Racer Coluber constrictor

Eastern Patch-Nosed Snake Salvadora grahamiae

Western Ratsnake Pantherophis obsoletus

Great Plains Ratsnake Pantherophis guttatus

Dekay’s Brownsnake Storeria dekayi

Diamond-Backed Watersnake Nerodia rhombifer

Western Ribbonsnake Thamnophis proximus

Rough Earthsnake Virginia striatula

Ring-Necked Snake Diadophis punctatus

Western Groundsnake Sonora semiannulata

Flat-Headed Snake Tantilla gracilis

Texas Threadsnake Rena dulcis

Broad-Banded Copperhead Agkistrodon laticinctus

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The Reptiles & Amphibians of Palo Pinto Mountains State Park (continued)

dekayi), and an eastern patch-nosed snake (Salvadora grahamiae). We also find the occasional frog; western narrow-

mouthed toad (Gastrophryne olivacea), and Gulf Coast toad (Incilius nebulifer), and lizard; common spotted whiptail (Aspidoscelis gularis), and Texas spiny lizard (Sceloporus olivaceus).

Cover boards complete, we travel to nearby Palo Pinto Creek where we’ve set three turtle traps. These hoop traps

are baited with sardines and checked daily. As has been the pattern throughout the study, we find no turtles. Our

luck changed in the latter half of the survey in which we started to capture numerous turtles, but all were red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta). In retrospect, we believe our traps were inappropriate for a broad survey as the

smaller turtles, such as the mud turtles,

could escape though the large mesh. We saw numerous softshells but never

caught one in a trap. The only one we were able to lay hands on was an

incidental sighting as it crossed a dirt

path. A turtle expert from UT-Arlington says that, unless you put

divers in the water, you aren’t doing a real turtle survey. Lesson learned.

The remainder of the day is spent doing

time-constrained visual surveys, what we like to call good ol’ fashioned

herping. We select an area of likely herp habitat, typically a pond, rocky

area or terrain with downed trees, and

begin searching everywhere we can think to search, under rocks, in trees,

along shorelines, in crevices, under fallen logs. Environmental data is

gathered as before at the start of the

search and at each sighting. The start and end time are recorded to determine

our success on a per-person, per-minute effort.

The team begins searching a stream along the base of a cliff that is littered with concrete construction debris.

Along with the expected frogs, several snakes are found including a rare treat, a gorgeous Chihuahuan nightsnake (Hypsiglena jani) hiding beneath a large, flat rock. As the name implies, this small, beautiful snake is nocturnal

making the discovery a real delight for the crew and a huge boost to team morale. Like birders, many of us keep

sighting lists and it’s always great to add a new species.

Chihuahuan nightsnake

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The Reptiles & Amphibians of Palo Pinto Mountains State Park (continued)

As the heat of the afternoon peaks, our quarry goes to ground to avoid the hot Texas sun. Wisely, we too take a break from the midday heat. Tonight we will begin again.

Ed Barnes completed an MS degree in Biology in May, 2017, having studied under Dr. Jesse Meik. All photos by Ed or his team.

Ed, with a spiny softshell turtle

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There is a wonderful community of naturalists in Fort Worth and surrounding areas, and some of us got together on April 28th to do two important things: add a little bit to our knowledge of natural history, and enjoy each other’s

company. Together with Nic Martinez, we had offered to lead some activities at the Southwest Nature Preserve, a 58-acre patch of eastern Cross Timbers in Arlington. Nic knows a lot about the fish and other aquatic life of ponds,

rivers, and other wetlands. He was there with several nets, ready to help participants take a look at what lives in the

ponds at the preserve. As so often happens in these events at Southwest Nature Preserve, other people who specialize in plants, birds, and other things were there as well. That’s the best thing about it. As we walk along,

somebody mentions the odd presence of farkleberry, a shrub whose little flowers tend to hang downward, “like chandeliers,” someone says. The thing is that we are a little bit west of where farkleberry naturally occurs, but here it

is anyway. Then at the lovely whistling call of a bird, someone else says, “Listen – it’s a chuck-will’s-widow!” And

later, as nightfall comes to the pond, we point out the calls of cricket frogs and bullfrogs. We all learn from each other.

This all happened on the weekend of the City Nature Challenge,1 a friendly competition held annually to see who can document the most wildlife and plants on citizen science platforms like iNaturalist. Among major U.S. cities,

Dallas-Fort Worth turned in the most observations last year, and we came in a very respectable second place this

year. People with tons of experience and people with little or no experience got out there, took photos of plants and animals, and posted them on iNaturalist, where the camera’s or phone’s metadata provided the location and time,

Woodland at Southwest Nature Preserve

Challenge Accepted - At the Southwest Nature PreserveMichael Smith & Clint King

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and experts confirmed the identities of critters, flowers and trees. While technology took care of those details, we

were free to re-connect with old friends and make new friends.

Clint began seeing and documenting insects before he could even get past the information board at the trail head. The rays of the late afternoon sun cast metallic jade shards of light off of the elytra – the hardened wing-covers – of

beetles zipping and darting about in a delicate rosy-white bed of evening primrose. They caught Clint’s eye, and he veered from the trail and knelt among the flowers to observe them. At this closer level he could identify these insects

as far as the tribe Agrilini, a group of wood-boring beetles whose exoskeletons generally have a metallic sheen. They

emerge from the bark of various trees in late spring after spending many months as larvae, where they feasted on the fibrous tissue beneath the bark. 

These beetles were members of the huge family Buprestidae, which contains thousands of beetle species. The

buprestids weren’t the only invertebrates moving on this warm Saturday at the tail end of April. A rotund black and white scarab with dense golden setae (hairs or bristles) was rolling around in the center of one of the primrose

blossoms like a drunken bee. This was a Texas flower scarab (Trichiotinus texensis), a common species this time of

year. It detected Clint’s presence and buzzed away on veined amber wings. The bright contrasting colors of black, yellow and white were suggestive of a bee or wasp, which the beetle mimics quite splendidly whether in flower or

flight. 

Another nearby insect also watched the scarab go, somehow wise to its true identity,

for had it been an actual bee the creature would have followed. This was a bee

assassin (Apiomerus spissipes).  In spite of its

small size, it is a formidable predator, as its name suggests. Dressed in a mosaic pattern

of maroon, yellow and dark brown that,

when viewed from above, somewhat resembles a tribal face, it is well-concealed

among the grasses and flowerheads. This is a member of the true bugs, and it is usually an

ambush predator, perching in sunny patches

in open areas, concealed amid the blooms of wildflowers as it waits for a visiting

pollinator. The bug’s proboscis acts as a hypodermic needle, injecting a paralyzing venom that slows the victim’s movements before converting into a vacuum

tube and sucking up its juices like a grim smoothie.

Meanwhile, Nic began gathering a few things that live in the ponds. Frogs had been calling and breeding, and he captured tadpoles that were probably going to be cricket frogs and leopard frogs (tadpole identification is not a

simple thing, and can involve examining mouth parts and tail shapes, and so we could not confirm their identities). He also netted up the larvae of dragonflies and damselflies, tough predators with little of the grace and beauty of the

Horse-crippler

Challenge Accepted - At the Southwest Nature Preserve (continued)

Bee assassin

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adults – though we realize that “grace and beauty” are in the eye of the beholder. Behind us the newly emerged adult dragonflies tried out their new wings over the pond surface. One of them, a common whitetail, perched on a

reed at water’s edge. 

Later, at the pond with the boardwalk and fishing dock, Nic netted several sunfish. Don’t let the fact that they are common (“it’s just a sunfish”) distract you from the beauty of these fish with tall, disk-shaped bodies and spines in

the dorsal and anal fins. Sunfish have scales that are green or bluish in places, yellow or orange toward the chin and breast, and all manner of blue or green squiggles or spots around the head and gill cover, that is, the

operculum. Most of those caught were bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus), one of our common sunfishes. Near the

fishing dock, sunfish gathered in a large group of thirty or so, just below the water’s surface and probably hoping

to steal a little bait off someone’s fishhook.

Around the pond’s edges there are other species we did not want to miss. One was Blanchard’s cricket frog (Acris blanchardi), a common little frog whose basic grayish color may be marked by a few tiny patches of green or rust-

red. One that Michael netted had patches of this rust color on the snout and just behind the head. Among the plants found at the margin of the pond and out in the water is a species of water primrose, with rounded, spoon-

shaped leaves connected by red runners.

A flash of Halloween black and orange caught Clint’s eye, and he watched as a Monarch butterfly winged its way across the clearing, soaring over the top of an Ashe juniper. If it were a female it was likely in search of a

milkweed, the species’ host plant, where she could deposit her eggs. In a few weeks the sausage-shaped, tiger-striped larvae would be munching on the toxic leaves, absorbing the cardenolides and rendering themselves

poisonous as well. At the edge of the meadow, Clint slipped into the woodlands, where the sunlight fell in warm

bright patches across his face. A Texas spiny lizard scurried around the trunk of an oak in the “barber pole” manner in which these lizards move. It went up and around in a spiral, hooked toe claws allowing it perfect

vertical traction. In a moment it was out of sight. 

Further into the woods there was a place where possumhaw grew at the base of a blackjack oak, and a little red

weevil with a black snout sat perched on one of its leaves. This was Homoelabis analis, a beast that goes by the more

Challenge Accepted - At the Southwest Nature Preserve (continued)

Bluegill

Blanchard’s cricket frog

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colorful name of leaf-rolling weevil.2 They are small, generally

around 6 mm in length, and are usually found in association with

oaks, so the presence of this one beneath the blackjack was not surprising. Like the buprestids, these weevils pupate over the winter

and emerge the following spring. In a complex process that is remarkably technical for such a tiny creature, the weevil picks a

choice, soft leaf and measures it precisely, then selects a spot along

the midrib, severing it to dam off the water supply to the leaf ’s lower part. It then moves to the other side, where it repeats the process.

After the leaf begins to wilt and lose strength the beetle notches the leaf on the bottom of the midrib, preparing it for a smooth, easy roll.

The extending veins are then cross-cut in a determined, painstaking

process where every cut is precise. The leaf is folded in half and then rolled. The female weevil then lays an egg or two in the center with her ovipositor and tucks in the flaps like a tortilla, to prevent unrolling.

Among the deadfall Clint found another nibbler of oaks, the ant-mimic longhorn beetle, Euderces pini.3  These are mimics of carpenter ants and

are similarly colored in bands of maroon and black. This, coupled by

their comparative size, renders them quite inconspicuous among their

armed lookalikes. As Clint watched, a pair of them raced up and down the tangled, leafless branches of a severed post oak limb. 

The group of us took a late afternoon walk, with several members of the Friends of Southwest Nature Preserve4 as well as urban biologist

Rachel Richter. Clint and his family caught up with the group at the top

of the ridge, and they had found a rough greensnake (Opheodrys aestivus), which Zev held as several of us took photos and admired its

graceful, lime-green body. A pale orange tongue and golden eyes round

out the beautiful colors of this inoffensive predator of spiders and

caterpillars. The snake was then taken back and released on the same bush on which it was found. We made our way around a small trail at

the top of the hill, photographing standing cypress, the farkleberry mentioned earlier, and, lo and behold, R2D2 hiding behind some of the woodland understory. We did not post the

photo of the little robot to iNaturalist, but we did have fun imagining what he was up to, out there in the woods.

Clint brought along a canvas beating sheet, sewn around a wire hoop in the form of a basket and suspended on a wooden pole to make a sort of “net.”  With his free hand he gently rapped one of the branches of the overhanging

oak, holding the basket as a catch-all beneath. The goal is to dislodge resting insects, which fall into the basket and can be observed, or, in this case, recorded for iNaturalist. This method works surprisingly well, and seldom fails to

turn up a wide variety of insects and arachnids. On this day it would produce a little green stick insect, Diapheromera femorata. The kings of mimicry, walkingsticks virtually disappear among the foliage of their choice (oaks are one of

their favorites), looking like a small green or brown twig.

Leaf-rolling weevil

Challenge Accepted - At the Southwest Nature Preserve (continued)

Ant-mimic longhorn beetle

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The evening walk was a highlight, in part because

of the mix of experts and non-experts. One of the folks who joined us was a young lady who offered

the opinion that she would just as soon not see

spiders and snakes, thank you very much. Since these were two of the things we specifically

planned to see on this walk, it promised to be an interesting time. Michael mentioned his own

history of spider phobia that began with the time,

as a child of about eight, when he gently maneuvered something soft out of a hole in the

ground and it turned out to be a tarantula. We’re not sure that story helped a lot, but this brave

person stayed with us for the walk. Right away,

down by the biggest pond, Clint and Zev came up with a juvenile plain-bellied watersnake (Nerodia erythrogaster). Their flashlight beams played across

the water and mud, and the snake cut across the shallow water like a black ribbon in the late

twilight. As daylight faded, we examined this little

snake by flashlight, and talked about the habits of this harmless species. This particular little snake

took the handling and examination good-naturedly and was soon returned to its wetland. As it became

really dark, we spotted a few spiders here and

there, including a slender little one Clint identified as a long-jawed orb-weaver. We also saw a couple

of six-spotted fishing spiders sitting on floating vegetation a foot or so from the pond’s edge. The

larger females may reach nearly two-and-a-half

inches in length, and they can rest on the water’s surface or even dive beneath to catch some unwary

prey. A year or so ago, during a similar event at the preserve, Nic discovered a six-spotted fishing

spider munching on a cricket frog, so these are

pretty formidable spiders (though not dangerous to us). We suspected that a certain member of our

party might be re-thinking her decision to come along on this night walk, but she hung in there like

a champion.

Challenge Accepted - At the Southwest Nature Preserve (continued)

Rough green snake

Walkingstick

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Challenge Accepted - At the Southwest Nature Preserve (continued)

We climbed up from the pond and walked around to the yucca

meadow, listening to that chuck-will’s-widow as well as a screech

owl. And on the way back,

Michael found a Texas threadsnake (Rena dulcis, until

recently known as a Texas

blindsnake) crossing the trail. Nighttime is when they are apt to

be seen moving around on the ground’s surface, and the last

time Michael led a night walk at

the preserve, somebody found a small one beside the trail. During

the day, these primitive little pinkish-silvery serpents are

prowling through ant or termite

colonies, helping themselves to the soft-bodied larvae. We showed this one to the participants, and Clint talked about the snake’s secretion that repels ants and incidentally gives it that silvery sheen. We talked about its

vestigial eyes, looking like small vague dots beneath the protective scales of the head, so that it can sense light and dark but probably not much else. Who needs good vision when you spend your days in the darkness of

insect colonies? Someone also talked

about the habit some screech owls have of taking live threadsnakes to their nests,

where the snakes presumably eat tiny invertebrates that would otherwise

bother the owls.

Another member of the party discovered a striped bark scorpion (Centruroides vittatus), the only native scorpion species

to occupy the cross timbers. In spite of

its inch-long size, it bared its pincers and arched its tail, the curved sting on the

end of the telson at the ready. We admired its bravery and then saw it to

the safety of the trail’s edge to resume its

hunt for small arthropods. 

Back at the parking lot, we all said

goodbye. The woman who had said she

Plain-bellied watersnake - juvenile

Threadsnake

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didn’t want to see spiders and snakes thanked us, and we

think she meant it. We hope she had fun, and that she was

left with the perception that these are harmless and useful critters that can be admired from a few feet away without

much worry. And all the other folks, the naturalists and nerds, we all went home with that satisfied feeling from

being in the company of others who share an intense love

of wild places, even on small preserves surrounded by urban development.

h

1. City Nature Challenge, 2018. http://citynaturechallenge.org (accessed 5/3/18)

2. University of Florida. Featured Creatures, Leaf-rolling weevil. http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/beetles/H_analis_P_ovatus.htm (accessed 5/9/2018)

3. Evans, A.V. 2014. Beetles of Eastern North America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

4. Friends of Southwest Nature Preserve. http://www.swnp.org (accessed 5/7/2018)

Challenge Accepted - At the Southwest Nature Preserve (continued)

Striped bark scorpion

“Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobe, you’re my only hope”

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Visiting Matador WMA - Michael

The drive to Matador Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in Cottle County was longer than we thought it would

be, and as we left Vernon on the way to Paducah (the town closest to the WMA), a blue smudge on the western horizon had grown to a series of storm clouds. Not that a spring thunderstorm was going to keep us from visiting

Matador; it had been on my wish list for some time, ever since I read about Chip Ruthven and others studying

Texas horned lizards and tracking the population of ornate box turtles out there on the Rolling Plains. On this trip, the plan was to meet Ruthven and learn from him about the WMA and about how the horned lizards and box

turtles were doing. We would then spend the evening and part of the next day exploring a little of this 28,183-acre property, which has been managed by Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) since 1959.

But first, we were evidently going to have to plough through a big storm cell. As we approached the big gray-green

wall of water, the winds began to pick up and then big drops of rain began smacking into the windshield, sounding like small hail. The outflow winds from the storm buffeted the truck back and forth, and a big curtain of

rain fell on us, limiting visibility greatly. We crawled along the road, hoping for no oncoming traffic. We went through pockets of hail that hit the windshield with loud pops, and we watched closely for flash flooding that

might have carried us off into the creek and ended the trip right then. By the time we reached Paducah, the cell

had moved on and we watched some minor flash flooding along the streets of downtown. After navigating through that and heading northward, we were on our way with no harm done.

Storms, Herps, and Insects in Late May on the Rolling Plains

Michael Smith & Clint King

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Storms, Herps, & Insects in Late May on the Rolling Plains (continued)

The headquarters of the WMA includes a couple of offices and a meeting room in a little house that undoubtedly was there before TPWD bought the property. When we met Chip Ruthven, he looked exactly like a man who has

lived on the Plains of west Texas, spent years among the mesquites, red dirt and cactus, and understood all the secrets of this ecoregion. We talked about the land, the lizards and turtles, and he said that the horned lizards are

common and seem to be doing well. On the other hand, since the drought years of 2011 and 2012, the ornate box

turtles show up less frequently and may be declining. These turtles don’t bounce back well from die-offs, and it remains to be seen how they will do. Ruthven said that they do quite a bit of restoration work, principally using

prescribed fire in an attempt to control the honey mesquite (which easily begins to take over the landscape if it is allowed to). Given the rainstorm we had just experienced, we thought it was particularly relevant to ask about tiger

salamanders which may emerge after spring storms and breed explosively in parts of the Texas plains. He said that

in their monitoring activities they may catch tiger salamanders in pitfall traps but he has not seen them on the roads after rains at Matador. Finally, Ruthven cautioned us that the storm may have produced washouts in some

of the roads on the WMA, so we should be careful not to become stuck out there!

We thanked him and headed out to get a first look at the place before darkness set in, staying on a gravel-based

loop road in the eastern part of the property. Rainwater had collected in pools in a few places, and the

temperatures were considerably cooler than they had been before the storm, but it was not cold.

Road-cruising from Childress to the Great Rattlesnake Highway - Michael

We planned a night drive down U.S. Highway 83 all the way to Aspermont, hoping to get south of the storms where a barometric pressure drop, but not a big temperature drop, might be bringing out the snakes. As it turned

out, a big line of storms was pushing eastward, and the radar showed large red storm cells sliding from southwest

to northeast. It wasn’t at all clear that we could get to the south and ahead of all those storms, but we were going to try. As we drove down the highway, the sky to either side of us was lit by nearly constant lightning, from distant

flashes in the clouds to bright nearby bolts straight from the hammer of Thor.

After a first sighting (a Woodhouse’s toad),

we passed something at about 9:08pm that

caught Clint’s eye, just a little something in an irregularity of the pavement. It turned out

to be a baby western massasauga, born last year only to be run over in the spring storms

while crossing the road. We took it for the

collection of specimens maintained by UTA.

We did not see much for many miles, but

then, in northern Stonewall County, we found an 18 to 20-inch bullsnake making its

way across the wet pavement. This juvenile

tolerated being picked up, admired, and photographed without protest. Bullsnakes

are known for putting on a loud and Bullsnake - juvenile

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Storms, Herps, & Insects in Late May on the Rolling Plains (continued)

convincing bluff routine, with tail-rattling and

loud hissing, but this one was as nice as could be.

No more than five or six minutes later, at 9:57pm, Clint’s sharp eyes detected a very small

snake moving across the road between the

storms. It was another baby, and this one was a glossy snake. The species can be very common

in west Texas, and they are handsomely blotched burrowers that eat lizards and mice.

We reached the town of Aspermont and turned

onto U.S. Highway 380, dubbed by Clint as “The Great Rattlesnake Highway” after spending

seven nights along this and nearby roads on a trip several years ago. The last few nights of that trip were phenomenally successful, due to a series of storm fronts

that dropped the barometric pressure throughout the region and brought out the snakes in droves. Here we were on

that very road, and here were storms such as Clint saw on that trip. The difference was that we were in the middle of these storms, our smartphone weather radar showing great red thunderstorms sliding from southwest to

northeast.

A few miles to the east we found a Texas toad who was out enjoying the rain and thunder, and possibly seeking a

temporary pool to take advantage of this opportunity to breed. Toads living out on the Plains have to endure hot

and dry spells while dug into the soil to escape the heat and preserve moisture, and then emerge quickly during rain storms that are their opportunities to breed, lay eggs, and have tadpoles develop into land-dwelling toadlets

before the temporary pools dry up.

At 11:00pm, we pulled up on an adult western diamond-backed rattlesnake that nervously doubled back as we

stopped the truck. It disappeared into the grass at roadside, and when we found it – we only wished to get a look

and had no intention of collecting it – the snake headed off in quick, serpentine undulations. It was not irritable, just active and a little edgy, maybe because of the storms.

About five minutes later there was a live massasauga on the road. We were grateful to see one that had not been hit, and after a quick photo we got the little snake into the relative safety of the roadside grass. At 11:52pm we

found a bigger massasauga, also alive. This was such a strange evening, seeing snakes like this moving in the light

rain between storm cells, with almost continuous lightning around us. Ordinarily, the best snake activity is near the storms, in an area of dropping barometric pressure but before rain arrives. We could hardly remember a time when

we had seen so many snakes out either in light rain or in a lull in the rainfall.

We headed back up Highway 83 and pushed on through some very heavy rain with high winds. It felt a little like a

flight through bad weather, and Clint talked about how his dad had taught him to cope with hydroplaning,

Glossy snake - juvenile

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Storms, Herps, & Insects in Late May on the Rolling Plains (continued)

steadying the steering wheel with the palms of his hands so that he would not too actively pull against the slipping

wheels.

After we got through the storm, more herps turned up in the light rain toward Paducah. At 12:43am we saw the

first of several checkered gartersnakes that were probably searching for dinner, in the form of the various

amphibians coming out after the storm. Those amphibians were definitely on the move, including a green toad seen just a little after 1:00am, and then a Plains spadefoot at 1:27am.

By the time we were between Paducah and Childress, the lateness of the hour and the cold air in the storms had brought the temperatures down quite a bit, so that it felt good to get out of the light rain and into the warmth of

the truck. It was late, and we hoped to get out to the WMA in the morning, so we wrapped up this very strange,

stormy, and delightful road cruise.

Little Victories at Matador Wildlife Management Area - Clint

The morning found us returning to Matador, the tires of the truck splashing through large puddles that had accumulated in dips in the road from the previous night’s intense band of storms. We stopped to check in at the

station as per Chip Ruthven’s instructions, and while Michael filled out the necessary paperwork I poked around

outside the kiosk, looking for signs of life. It was still fifty-eight degrees, with a chilly, damp wind blowing across an overcast sky of ashen grey, a far cry from what most naturalists would deem “profitable weather” for finding

wildlife, let alone photographing it. At first glance my prospects appeared dismal at best, as I walked among the soaked grass, caked red mud, and dripping vegetation.

Then I spied a small pile of

mesquite logs someone had stacked against the back wall of the kiosk.

Perhaps something was to be found beneath, trying to stay dry. I flipped

the first log and experienced that

well-known phenomenon in which the first piece overturned contains

something of notable interest, followed by a succession of cover

with nothing under it. This day was

a textbook example of this mysterious rule of the field, but the

creature beneath the first log more than made up for the lack of

productivity beneath the rest.

Under that first log was an enormous beetle, shiny black and

deep maroon, with a coarsely pitted

Great Plains giant tiger beetle

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Storms, Herps, & Insects in Late May on the Rolling Plains (continued)

elytra and massive set of serrated mandibles. At first glance I mistook it for a fighting ground

beetle (genus Pasimachus), a species I have found

to be quite common on the Rolling Plains, but as the fine details of its body structure came into

view it slowly dawned on me what I was looking

at. It was Amblycheila cylindriformis, the Great

Plains giant tiger beetle, whose very name provides an accurate description of its size,

habitat, and predatory habits. As a collector of tiger beetles going on eight years now, it was like

hitting some small coleopteran lottery. I had

never seen one before in the wild, although I had planned a trip to the Panhandle this coming

August to search for them, as this is reported to be their optimal active season, at least according

to museum records. The Great Plains giant tiger

beetle is huge as far as tiger beetles go (the individual before me was 3.5 cm in length).

While not exactly rare, they are very secretive, hiding in self-constructed holes or mammal burrows by day and venturing out only at night. Beetle collectors have been known to plan week-long trips and travel great distances,

scouring the plains by headlamp and flashlight for nights on end in an attempt to locate this impressive beetle, and

many go home empty-handed in spite of their efforts. And yet here one was, in the middle of May, on a cold, wet, overcast morning, taking shelter beneath a mesquite log of all places. We hadn’t been on the property five

minutes, and already my day had been made.

I reached down and picked up the beetle to show it to Michael, and after admiring it we set off into the heart of

the refuge to seek our fortune, realizing that if we saw anything at all we should count it as a blessing. We drove

past the campgrounds and through an open gate that marked the entryway to the gravel/dirt loop that would provide us a tour of the area. Chip had warned us the day before not to try any secondary dirt roads without a 4 x

4, and though I have taken my beaten old two-wheel drive Ford through some unsettling areas, one look at the condition of these roads spelled out certain misfortune. The last thing either of us wanted was to be buried up to

the axles in sandy loam miles from nowhere with no cellular service. Besides, the mostly gravel scenic loop had

plenty of opportunities for exploration, if those lingering storm clouds would only head out and let a little sunshine through.

The forecast did call for a slight warmup, but this wasn’t scheduled to happen until two o’clock in the afternoon, which coincidentally was the latest possible time we could stay. So it looked like we were going to have to make

the best of it, a feat Michael and I have little trouble doing in all of our many adventures afield. Over the years we

have spent days holed up in hotel rooms, watching helplessly as seemingly never-ending downpours held us at bay. We have been challenged by unforeseen cold fronts that dropped temperatures to the freezing point, stilling the

wildlife and causing us to don jackets and traipse fruitlessly through otherwise promising terrain. We have driven

Face and mandibles of Great Plains giant tiger beetle

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Storms, Herps, & Insects in Late May on the Rolling Plains (continued)

weary hours of backroads without a creature to be seen in the wake of our hungry headlights as a high pressure

system caused temperatures to soar, driving our beloved herps deep into unreachable subterranean shelters. Ever at the mercy of mother nature’s indifferent elements, we have always managed to persevere and enjoy our trips to

the wild places on the simple level of being present there, for good or ill. As I have often stated, “It beats a day

stuck in traffic on I-35, no matter the outcome.” It is days like this that teach us to appreciate just being there to soak in the solitude and oneness with the wilderness on some intangible spiritual and beautifully satisfying level

inexpressible with mere words. It is the true essence of what keeps us coming back for more; a feeling you can’t get from merely reading about these places in books or watching nature documentaries, no matter how vivid the

high definition is these days. It is a feeling that cannot be duplicated, synthesized, or mass-produced. It is the

driving force behind our desire to see these rapidly diminishing wild places protected and preserved. And so we go and we experience and we photograph and write and share, hoping to pass this sacred torch on to others and

instill in them too a passion for conservation and preservation of what little we all have left to enjoy.

We consider the woods and deserts and prairies as sanctuaries, and access to them an inalienable right, as vital to

our spirits and health as food and water and oxygen. If I must be addicted to something, then nature is my drug

of choice. Unlike all of that deceitful trash offered by the streets and pharmacies of this world, it will never let you down or cause you to lose your real identity once you become hooked. In fact, it is quite capable of achieving

the opposite. All these thoughts came to mind this day as we parked the truck, grabbed our cameras and snake hooks and butterfly nets, and set off across the untamed plains in search of little victories. The cold wind cut

through our clothes, but we ignored it, refusing to surrender, and slowly but surely our persistence began to pay

off.

At our first stop my numb fingers pried

at the charred and peeling bark of invasive honey mesquites in a spot

where there had been a prescribed

burn. This is a strategy that the WMA uses to control this thorny, fast-growing

tree, which can easily overtake the landscape in a surprisingly short

amount of time if allowed to

reproduce. The day before, Chip had explained to us the historical impact of

overgrazing by cattle, which was detrimental to many of the native

grasses while simultaneously allowing

invasive plants such as the mesquites to dominate the landscape. To add insult

to injury, the droppings of the cattle helped spread the seeds of these and other nonnative plants1. Now one would be hard-pressed to travel across the

plains without seeing literal “forests” of mesquites to their right and left, and the land managers at Matador must

remain vigilant if they are to keep them at bay.

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Storms, Herps, & Insects in Late May on the Rolling Plains (continued)

Behind the bark I found numerous invertebrates seeking shelter from the storm, including striped bark scorpions,

southern black widows, and the bulbous-headed larvae of Cerambycid beetles, their segmented soft white bodies

responding to the sudden flood of daylight upon their otherwise dark world by instantly freezing, then searching blindly for a place to hide. Gently, I replaced the bark as best I could, not wishing to further intrude on their tiny

world of single-minded consumption of dead mesquite wood.

Another creature I found in their midst beneath the charred bark was not so gracious. It was a checkered beetle

(Enoclerus quadrisignatus). These voracious little predators are apparent mimics of the velvet ant, an insect with an

imposing sting and venom that is actually a type of solitary wasp. The females are wingless, and checkered beetles

are marked similarly, offering them some degree of protection as they themselves hunt down smaller insects to devour. They are often found in association with wood-boring beetle larvae, which their own larvae specialize in

preying upon. Adult checkered beetles have surprisingly strong jaws for their small size, and this one gave me a nip that sliced right through my epidermis, causing me to instinctively let it go, whereupon it immediately released

its hold and dropped safely into the obscurity of the grass.

From somewhere to my left I heard Michael call out that he had found a large

beetle, so I gently laid the bark back on the burned mesquite and headed in his

direction. At the base of a tuft of grass, a

large dull-colored black beetle with a deep red stripe down its middle was doing a

headstand, its spindly legs splayed out as if it were bracing itself. I recognized it

immediately. It was Eleodes suturalis, a

large member of the darkling beetle family. Unlike many other species of beetles,

darkling beetles cannot fly. Their elytra are

fused, sealed to the body, restricting them to the ground, trees, and the tight dark

spaces beneath rocks and logs. Members of the genus Eleodes are collectively known as desert stink beetles, and for

good reason. Typically found in arid regions of the southwest, these generally uniform black creatures assume the head-standing defense position when they feel threatened, as this one must have. If their attacker continues to

make advances, the beetle will squirt a toxic jet of viscous dark brown liquid syrup from the tip of the abdomen that will sicken whatever predator that happens to get a mouthful of it.

From there we returned to the truck and continued down the road, where we drove through the rolling red dirt

hills lined with the twisted trunks of sugar hackberry and honey mesquites, the catkins of the latter resembling plump, fuzzy yellow caterpillars.

In a short time we stopped again for another survey of the landscape, for we were fully aware that our time here was short, and we wanted to make the most of it by exploring as much of it as we could. As is often the case

Eleodes suturalis, a type of “desert stink beetle”

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Storms, Herps, & Insects in Late May on the Rolling Plains (continued)

when out on our adventures,

Michael and I ended up parting

company, branching off in different directions. This ups the chances of

making interesting discoveries as opposed to following each other

around in single file. On this day

the strategy worked out well. We met back up about a half-hour later

on the road. I regaled Michael with tales of a yellow mud turtle I had

come across near a small ephemeral

pond, and he showed me photos he had taken of a prickly poppy blister

beetle (Lytta fulvipennis) he had

found on its host plant on a hillside. It was a species I had only found

once before, so I opted to hit the hillside and look for more specimens, while Michael set off to find the turtle.

When we met up again we had both enjoyed success. The prickly poppy blister beetles were fairly common on additional prickly poppy blooms (they are seldom found elsewhere) and Michael had located and photographed

the mud turtle.

We did a bit more walking in this area before

venturing onward, and in a small dead bush I

dislodged two small buprestids by striking the branches with a stick over my canvas net. These

were the striking metallic aquamarine species Chrysobothris purpureovittata. Anyone who has spent

any time with me in the field knows of my often

unhealthy obsession with buprestid beetles. Were it not for their habit of being active during the hottest

parts of the day in their peak season of June through

August, perhaps I would have more takers when setting out to find them. Needless to say I do most

of my buprestid hunting alone, but on this day both Michael and I got to appreciate these beautiful specimens, and came away with some great photographs.

In spite of the forecast’s delayed warm-up, the sun had found a way to pierce through, and by ten o’clock the

temperatures were in the upper sixties and quite comfortable for men and beasts alike. The Rolling Plains are broken here and there with shallow streams that run west to east from the Panhandle area towards the Edwards

Plateau to the south, and the deposits from these are responsible for the high percentage of sandy loam that makes up much of the area’s terrain around Matador, as Chip explained the previous evening. This substrate makes for

Prickly poppy blister beetle

The buprestid beetle Chrysobothris purpureovittata

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Storms, Herps, & Insects in Late May on the Rolling Plains (continued)

much more favorable growing conditions than the deep red flaky clays that much of the Rolling Plains is known

for, and thus the area around Matador is blessed with a broad diversity of flora, including sand bluestem grass, Indian grass, and yucca that grow beneath hardy trees and shrubs such as red berry juniper, wild plum, and

various sages. At one point we came across one of these streams crossing the road, the Middle Pease River. Its banks were choked by a thick verdant growth of jade-colored reeds. We decided to get out and do some more

exploring in this place, and while Michael busied himself videotaping a large female red eared slider (Trachemys scripta), I walked among the fragrant pinkish-white, wooly blooms of Baccharis looking at pollinators, and

discovered a brilliant blue-black Scolopendra heros, the giant red-headed centipede, beneath a section of discarded

railroad tie.

The next spot we explored was a bit of upland rolling red dirt hills, where the juniper replaced much of the

mesquite that grew at the slightly lower elevations. Here live oak and bumelia thrived as well, and we spotted several types of cacti, including horse crippler, lace cactus, and cane and Christmas tree cholla. After scaling the

crumbling steep sides of the mesas with only minor difficulty, we photographed little mesquite cicadas, which

were mating and buzzing their high-pitched calls from seemingly every tree and shrub. It was here, beneath dried cow dung, that I flipped up a tiny pale scorpion that I assumed to be just another young Centruroides vittatus, which

I erroneously thought to be the only species native to the area. But after posting a photo of the beastie on

iNaturalist, it was determined that the thickened pincers and tail of this creature was not a bark scorpion at all, but rather an example of Chihuahuanus coahuilae, a member of a totally different genus of scorpions that was formerly

The Middle Pease River

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Storms, Herps, & Insects in Late May on the Rolling Plains (continued)

known as Vaejovis2. It was a new

species for my lifelist, and I had treated

it with all the indifference of the

common scorpions I shoo out of the front door as they run across the tile of

my living room back in the Cross Timbers!

We had one last stop to make, as time

was nearly up. By now the clouds had all been chased away by a more typical

late May day, and while we had failed to find a box turtle as per Michael’s

wishes, we had definitely been blessed

by more than our fair share of little victories. This, coupled with the highly

successful night of road cruising we had experienced the night before, had

kept our spirits high. At this last site,

with no more than twenty minutes to spare, we browsed through the lower

regions of several flowering mesquites like shoppers at some strange natural

garage sale, finding a wide variety of

invertebrate species attracted to the pungent aroma coming from the

catkins. I found the beautiful longhorn beetle Plionoma suturalis, and Michael

pointed out a congregation of netwing

beetles (Lycus fernandezi) whose

stunning black and orange color sequence is a classic example of

aposematism, an adaptation by certain organisms where the combination of

contrasting bright and dark color

combinations or other warning colors or traits warns predators of the potential harm or distastefulness of the species3. Texas soldier beetles (Chauliognathus scutellaris) were even more common here and were prime examples

of aposematic coloration as well. It seemed everything was enjoying some level of protection from the birds and

lizards that doubtlessly had their eyes on this arthropod smorgasbord. But none seemed so brightly colored or breathtakingly obvious as the uncommon checkered beetle Trichodes bibalteatus, a single specimen of which turned

up on a low-growing mesquite by the roadside. We took turns photographing this coleopteran marvel before

Michael checked the clock and informed me that at last our time had run out. Reluctantly, we climbed back into

Giant red-headed centipede

The scorpion Chihuahuanus coahuilae

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Storms, Herps, & Insects in Late May on the Rolling Plains (continued)

the truck and finished off the loop, doubling back and heading out of the Matador Wildlife Management Area toward home, a mutual feeling of satisfaction at how that initially cold, dreary day had suddenly blossomed into

another exciting treasure trove of natural wonders for us to enjoy and remember.

h

1. Texas A&M Forest Service: Trees of Texas - Ecoregions/RollingPlains. (Internet) http://texastreeid.tamu.edu/content/texasEcoRegions/RollingPlains/ (accessed 6/11/18)

2. Jackman, John A. 1999. A Field Guide to Spiders and Scorpions of Texas. Houston: Gulf Publishing.

3. BugGuide. Lycus fernandezi. (Internet) https://bugguide.net/node/view/168379 (accessed 6/23/18)

Netwing beetle Longhorn beetle Plionoma suturalis

Checkered beetle

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Lots of people fear snakes, and too many hate them and kill them if they get a chance. If asked “what’s so bad about snakes?” many people would say it’s because some kinds of snakes are venomous and their bites can be dangerous or even deadly. Some might just say, “they’re creepy,” without really saying why they react that way to snakes. Other people love snakes,

and don’t think they’re creepy at all. Is one group of people right, and the other wrong? So how could we answer the question, “what good are snakes?” Is there an answer that would make sense to the average person?

Let’s start with a couple of things snakes do for us. First, a number of snake species eat rats, mice, gophers, and other rodents in large numbers. We don’t like living around rats and mice, and these rodents can carry several dangerous diseases. Also, you might be surprised to learn that rats and mice can do serious damage to cars by chewing through wiring. Ratsnakes, bullsnakes, rattlesnakes and other species provide a sort of free pest control.

Venomous snakes are good for more than just pest control. Snake venoms have been used to produce life-saving medicines. A protein from snake venom was instrumental in developing the ACE inhibitor drugs that help dilate blood vessels and lower blood pressure. Jim Harrison, Director of the Kentucky Reptile Zoo, extracts venom from snakes kept at the facility and supplies it to researchers and pharmaceutical companies. He talks about a wide range of medical uses for venom, including recent work that may lead to a treatment for breast cancer. “They’re working on how to put it (the substance derived from venom) into the (tumor) cell so it destroys the cell, and then destroys itself” so that it cannot hurt healthy cells. And so, if I see a copperhead while out on a walk, I might feel thankful that these snakes are alive (while being careful not to step on the snake).

What Good Are Snakes?Michael Smith

Great Plains ratsnake - harmless

The Basics

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Snakes are not the only ones helping us out. Lots of reptiles and amphibians eat insects and other “creepy-crawlies.” Lizards like the Texas spiny lizard work hard every day to spot insects and gobble them down. Toads and frogs come out at night to continue the job, snapping up large numbers of beetles, crickets, spiders, and other invertebrates. It’s likely that a few healthy toads and lizards in the garden might take the place of the insecticides we might spray on the plants.

Of course, some of you would say, “now wait a minute – spiders help to keep the numbers of insects down, and so if the toads are eating the spiders, that cancels out some of the good that they do.” That’s a great point, and it reminds us how complicated nature is, once we really start thinking about it. If we try to decide what lives and dies based only on our likes and dislikes, we’re going to make some mistakes. Every animal has a job to do, and we don’t always understand exactly what that animal’s job is. It eats some things and also serves as food for other things. It contributes to nature in ways that we might not be aware of.

As you can see, all animals can be important, even if it’s not obvious how they benefit us. If we don’t like some animal and we are able to get rid of it altogether, this is like randomly taking out part of your car while driving. Maybe the car can keep going, but it might run badly or overheat or ruin the brakes. It’s best to leave all the parts in the car so it will run right. In the same way, it is risky for us to interfere very much with natural systems that are working. If we get things too messed up, it is hard for us to predict the harm that we might do.

I don’t know about you, but the next time I see a turtle, a frog, or a snake, this is what I’m going to think to myself: “I’m not completely sure why you’re here – what your job is. But since you’re here, you must play some part in keeping the natural world going. Thanks!”

h

(This article was adapted from one which appeared in Frog Calls in June, 2015.)

What Good Are Snakes (continued)

Woodhouse’s toad

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Texas Field Notes is a quarterly publication, with stories about wildlife, conservation news, and color photos, all focused on preserves, refuges, and other places in Texas. It can be downloaded from greatrattlesnakehwy.com and from https://issuu.com/texasfieldnotes.

We hope you will share Texas Field Notes with friends, schoolteachers, scout groups, and others who may enjoy it and learn from it. We also hope that those of you who are writers and herpers, birders, etc. will consider contributing something that describes Texas’ natural history in a relatively nontechnical way and includes a photo or two.

For questions, ideas, or comments, please email: [email protected]. In fact, please consider emailing us just to let us know how you think we’re doing. We would love to hear from you!

Bucket List Places Places You Don’t Want To Miss

Matador Wildlife Management Area - https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/hunt/wma/find_a_wma/list/?id=15

Located at 3036 FM 3256, Paducah, TX 79248 (watch for FM 3256 or you’ll miss it!). All visitors 17 years or

older must have an Annual Public Hunting Permit or a Limited Public Use Permit. Bring water and plan on primitive conditions. This may be one of the best places to see wildlife and plant communities of the Rolling

Plains. At times, the WMA is closed for special permit hunts, so call (806) 492-3405 before going!