Author: Andrea Liberatore

Andrea Liberatore was the Director of Education at the Stokes Nature Center from 2010 - 2013. She loves spending time outdoors in just about all ecosystems, terrains, continents, and weather conditions. Learning about the intricacies and wonders of nature, and sharing them with others, is her lifelong passion.
Posted on

Sphinx Moths

Sphinx Moths; Big Poplar Sphinx, Pachysphinx occidentalis, Courtesy Whitney Cranshaw, Colorado State University, bugwood.org
Big Poplar Sphinx
Pachysphinx occidentalis
Courtesy Whitney Cranshaw
Colorado State University
bugwood.org

White-lined Sphinx
Hyles lineata
Courtesy Whitney Cranshaw
Colorado State University
bugwood.org

White-lined Sphinx Caterpillar
Hyles lineata
Courtesy Whitney Cranshaw
Colorado State University
bugwood.org

I vividly remember the first time I saw one – a small winged creature whirring from flower to flower in the evening light, its long tongue dipping for nectar within tube-shaped blooms. I was mesmerized, and struggled for a closer look.Sphinx Moths

If you’re thinking that I must have seen a hummingbird, you would be making a very common mistake. A mistake, in fact, that has given this critter one of its many nicknames. The winged wonder I saw that summer night was a sphinx moth, also called a hummingbird or hawk moth because of their large size and bird-like characteristics.

In all stages of their life, these insects are large. Caterpillars grow to a robust 4 inches in length and adult wingspans can measure more than 5 inches. Sphinx moths are also some of the fastest insects on earth and have been clocked flying at over 30 miles per hour. Their size, speed, and flying ability reflect those of the hummingbird so closely that they are commonly misidentified.

Sphinx moths are a beloved sight in many Utah gardens. However, they also hold a bit of a devious surprise. The larvae, or caterpillar, of one common species of sphinx moth are well known by vegetable gardeners. They are large and bright green with a distinctive horn near their hind end. Like the adults, these larvae go by many names, the most common being the tomato hornworm. Hornworm caterpillars, unlike their adult counterparts, are not beloved by gardeners. They are voracious beasts with the ability to strip the vegetation off a tomato or pepper plant in one day.

Aside from our garden plants, young hornworms of other species feed on a variety of vegetation including willow, poplar and cottonwood trees. Adult moths rely on a host of flowers such as columbine, honeysuckle, larkspur and evening primrose. Here in Utah you might come across one of a handful of different species in the sphinx moth family including the five-spotted hawk moth and the white-lined sphinx. Look for them in the late summer evenings as daylight begins to fade. But be sure to look twice to avoid mistaking them for something they’re not.

And the next time you find a hornworm on your tomatoes, maybe just relocate the little bugger so that you can enjoy it once metamorphosis changes the beast into a beauty.

For more information and pictures of our native sphinx moths, visit our website at www.wildaboututah.org. Thank you to Rocky Mountain Power Foundation for supporting the research and development of this Wild About Utah topic.

For the Stokes Nature Center and Wild About Utah, this is Andrea Liberatore.
Credits:

Photos: Courtesy Whitney Cranshaw, Colorado State University, Bugwood.org
            Images licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
Text:    Andrea Liberatore, Stokes Nature Center, logannature.org

Additional Reading:

Cranshaw, W.S. 2007. Hornworms and “Hummingbird” Moths. Colorado State University Fact Sheet 5.517. Found online at: https://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05517.pdf

Buchman, Steve. 2010. Pollinator of the Month: Hawk Moths or Sphinx Moths (Sphingidae). US Forest Service. Found online at: https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/pollinator-of-the-month/hawk_moths.shtml

Posted on

Fitting the bill

Fitting the bill

Fitting the bill: White-winged Crossbill, Courtesy and Copyright Paul Higgins, www.pbase.com/phiggins/
White-winged Crossbill
Copyright © 2009 Paul Higgins
More photos at pbase.com/phiggins/
and utahbirds.org Photo Gallery

Fitting the bill: Red Crossbill, Courtesy and Copyright Paul Higgins, www.pbase.com/phiggins/Red Crossbill (female)
Copyright © 2009 Paul Higgins
More photos at pbase.com/phiggins/

Few among us would choose to eat a steak with a spoon or soup with a fork. And in the world of birds, it’s the same story – you need the right tool for the right job – and you can tell a lot about a bird by paying attention to its beak.Fitting the bill

Physiologically, beaks are a specialized extension of the skull and are coated in keratin – the same material that makes up our fingernails. And like our fingernails, the cutting edges of the beak can be re-grown as they are worn down by use.

Birds use beaks for a multitude of tasks including preening, weaving nests, and defending territories. However it is the task of eating that seems to dictate beak shape and size. Envision the hummingbird, for instance. Its long, thin beak – and corresponding tongue – is designed to reach deep into flowers to collect the nectar within. A hummingbird beak would not work for a woodpecker or a great horned owl. Likewise an eagle’s beak needs to be sharp and strong for tearing flesh, and wouldn’t suit the lifestyle of an ibis or a sparrow.

One Utah native, the aptly-named red crossbill, has one of the most unique beaks around. When closed, its curved top and bottom bills overlap crossways in what looks like an awkward and uncomfortable pose.

French naturalist Count Buffon, first laid eyes on a crossbill in the mid-1700’s. The bird was collected in the Americas, then shipped abroad for examination. Without observing the crossbill in its natural habitat, Buffon labeled its beak “an error and defect of nature, and a useless deformity.” More than 50 years later, Scottish-American naturalist Alexander Wilson observed a crossbill in the wild and determined that its beak ‘deformity’ was in reality a magnificently adapted tool. The crossbill’s diet consists mainly of the seeds of conifer trees, and it turns out that the bird’s curiously crossed beak is perfectly adapted to prying apart the scales of pinecones to get at the seeds within.

Members of the finch family, these birds are often seen in flocks and occasionally visit backyard feeders. They are easily identified by their unique beaks, which serve as a reminder that the right tool for the right job can sometimes seem a bit unconventional.

For more information and photographs of crossbills, visit our website at www.wildaboututah.org. Thank you to Rocky Mountain Power Foundation for supporting the research and development of this Wild About Utah topic.

For the Stokes Nature Center and Wild About Utah, this is Andrea Liberatore.
Fitting the Bill-Credits:
Fitting the Bill
Photos: Courtesy & Copyright Paul Higgins(phiggins)www.pbase.com/phiggins
Text:    Andrea Liberatore, Stokes Nature Center, logannature.org

Fitting the Bill-Additional Reading:

Benkman, Craig W. 1987. Crossbill Foraging Behavior, Bill Structure, and Patterns of Food Profitability. The Wilson Bulletin 99(3) p. 351-368 https://www.uwyo.edu/benkman/pdfs%20of%20papers/benkman_1987_wilsonbull.pdf

Conniff, Richard. 2011. The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth. W.W. Norton & Company: NY https://www.amazon.com/Species-Seekers-Heroes-Fools-Pursuit/dp/0393341321

Pearson, T. Gilbert (ed.). 1936. Birds of America. Garden City Publishing Company, Inc. Garden City, NY https://www.amazon.com/T-Gilbert-Pearson/dp/1331531268/ref=pd_lpo_14_t_0/144-1525643-4789824

Fitting the bill
Fitting the bill
Fitting the bill

Posted on

Trilobites

Asaphiscus wheeleri
Cambrian Period
House Range, Millard Co., Utah.
Copyright 2001 Val & Glade Gunther

Athabaskia bithus
Ordovician Period
House Range, Millard Co., Utah.
Copyright 2001 Val & Glade Gunther

Modocia typicalis
Cambrian Period
Wellsville Mountains, Box Elder Co., Utah.
Copyright 2001 Val & Glade Gunther

Pseudocybele altinasuta
Cambrian Period
House Range, Millard Co., Utah.
Copyright 2001 Val & Glade Gunther

Five hundred million years ago life began to flourish and change in ways not seen before on Earth. Long before people and even before the dinosaurs was the Paleozoic Era, when much of the United States, including most of Utah, could be found at the bottom of a warm, shallow sea.

One of those changes was the arrival of a class of animals called trilobites. The word ‘tri-lob-ite’ means ‘one who has three-lobes’ and refers to the way the animal can be organized into three sections, both lengthwise and widthwise. Trilobites were marine animals that occupied various niches in the sea’s shallow waters. These fascinating creatures were incredibly diverse, with individuals from more than 20,000 different species ranging in size from less than half an inch to more than two feet in length. Some species swam free in the open water, either as predators or filter-feeders, while others were restricted to crawling along the sea floor or burrowing down in the mud. Some trilobites could curl up for protection like the modern-day pill bug, with a few even exhibiting skeletal spines and bumps for added defense. Our region seems to have been a hotbed of trilobite development – the Utah Geological Survey reports that more than 500 species of trilobites have been identified from fossils found in Utah alone!

Trilobites were one of the first creatures to exhibit two important traits that eventually became standard for most animal life on earth: complex eyes and multiple appendages for the purpose of locomotion. Although trilobites went extinct around 250 million years ago, their legacy has lasted, not only in fossils, but also through a genetic link to some of their modern-day relatives, including insects, spiders, ticks, crabs and lobsters. Just like these critters, trilobites have been classified as arthropods, due to their segmented bodies, jointed legs, and hard exoskeletons. And like the arthropods we know today, trilobites went through regular molting periods, during which they grew a new exoskeleton and shed their old one. In fact, most trilobite fossils we have today are actually the fossils of molted exoskeletons and not of the animal itself.

For more information and photos of ancient Utah trilobites, visit our website at www.wildaboututah.org. Thank you to the Utah Geological Survey for content assistance, and to the Rocky Mountain Power Foundation for supporting the research and development of this Wild About Utah topic.

For the Stokes Nature Center and Wild About Utah, this is Andrea Liberatore.

Credits:

Photos: Courtesy & Copyright 2001 Val & Glade Guntherwww.geo-tools.com

Text:    Andrea Liberatore, Stokes Nature Center, logannature.org
Additional Reading:

Fortey, Richard. 2000. Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution. New York: Random House https://www.amazon.com/Trilobite-Eyewitness-Evolution-Richard-Fortey/dp/0375706216

Alles, David L., 2009. Trilobites (web paper). Western Washington University. Retrieved online from: https://www.biol.wwu.edu/trent/alles/Trilobites.pdf

Posted on

Grow Native!

Fire ChaliceCopyright 2010 Annalisa Paul
Stokes Nature Center

With the beginning of summer at our doorstep, many of us look out over our green grass yards and dread the coming heat that will endeavor to turn it brown and stale. One might begin to ponder if there is an alternative to these plants that fill our yards and demand so much of our water. In fact, there is.

Utah may be a desert, but not one naturally devoid of vegetation. Many plants have evolved to live within the bounds of the climate, insect pests, microbes and soil types specific to our region. Once established, many native plants need minimal irrigation beyond normal rainfall. And because they have coexisted for eons, natives have developed their own defenses against many pests and diseases, resulting in minimal pesticide use.

Backyards, gardens, parks, and roadsides planted with native plants also provide wildlife with a “bridge” to the natural areas that remain, interspersed among our heavily developed communities. As the cornerstone of biological diversity, native plants also do the best job of providing food and shelter for our local animals. Ready to get planting? Here are two natives that would be easy, attractive, and low-maintenance additions to many Utah yards or gardens.

Littleleaf Mock Orange is a compact shrub which produces clusters of wonderfully fragrant white blossoms. In the wilds of Utah, it is often found growing in rock crevices and dry, gravelly areas, so it will likely do well in those bare, difficult parts of your yard. It is browsed by mule deer and also provides shelter for native birds.

Little leaf Mock Orange
Philadelphus microphyllus
Image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Photographer: Stan Shebs

Fire Chalice, alternately known as hummingbird flower, is a low-profile plant with bright red tube-shaped flowers. The plant’s nectar is irresistible to hummingbirds and can help attract a number of native pollinators to your yard.

As with all plants, the right native must be matched with the right spot. Thankfully, there are native plants that thrive in every habitat imaginable. And the best thing is, natives include all different types of plants from mosses and ferns to wildflowers, shrubs and trees. A little bit of research should help you find the best species for your hot, dry slope, that wet swale in the back, or the dry shade under your trees.

For those interested in learning more, the Alterniscapes Garden Tour on June 25 provides an opportunity to view gardens in Millville, Nibley and Providence that feature water-wise and native plants. For more information on native plants or the Alterniscapes Tour, please visit us online at www.wildaboututah.org.

For the Stokes Nature Center and Wild About Utah, this is Andrea Liberatore.

Credits:

Photos: Courtesy & Copyright Annalisa Paul, Stokes Nature Center, logannature.org
Courtesy & Copyright: Intermountain Native Plant Growers Association, inpga.org
Little leaf Mock Orange image licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Photographer: Stan Shebs
Text:    Andrea Liberatore, Stokes Nature Center, logannature.org
For more information about the upcoming Alternascapes Garden Tour:
Cache Master Gardeners, Alternascapes Garden Tour, Saturday, Jun 25 – 11:00AM to 4:00PM, https://extension.usu.edu/cache/files/uploads/Alterniscapes%20Handout%20Bi-fold%20for%20Web.pdf

For more information about Utah’s native plants:

Utah Native Plant Society: https://www.unps.org

Utah Master Gardeners: https://extension.usu.edu/mastergardener/
Additional Reading:

United States Department of Agriculture, Plants Profile: Littleleaf Mock Orange. Found online at: https://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=PHMI4

United States Department of Agriculture, Plants Profile: Garrett’s Fire Chalice. Found online at: https://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=EPCAG