the slaughter continues!

[Frederick W. Schueler]

Everyone,

I haven't had time to total up the numbers, but the appalling slaughter
of baby Green Frogs continues on the streets of Bishops Mills - about 10
shredded crisp dry carcasses pried off the pavement each day.

We've had a couple of early Leopard Frogs, but so pounded that they were
only certainly recognizable when I soaked the fragments in soapy water
to rehydrate the patterns of the skin. We've also seen two big adult
Bull Frogs, both looking as if they were packed full of little Green Frogs.

Maybe the frogs are gagging them down, but there's also been a very
striking lack of Grasshoppers and Crickets.

fred.
------------------------------------------------------------
---------Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad ------------
Fragile Inheritance Natural History - https://fragileinheritance.ca/
6 St-Lawrence Street Bishops Mills, RR#2 Oxford Station, Ontario K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44.87156° N 75.70095° W
------------------------------------------------------------

[Bev Wigney]

Fred and all,

Here in Nova Scotia, I've noticed a lack of Grasshoppers and Crickets as well.  Also of house flies.  None at all this year.  Used to be that I would put up a few fly stickers over summertime, but I didn't even bother this year as there are no flies in my house -- it was like this last year as well.  Very odd.  We should be seeing well grown Grasshoppers around by this time of summer.  Also should be seeing Argiope and Araneus spiders starting to be noticeable with their large orbs.  Something I have noticed here is the lack of these large spiders around my yard and the little meadow behind my house.  Where are the spiders?  There should be lots of them and lots of Grasshoppers by now.  I have been hearing this about the flies and spiders from others in other places -- I communicate with a lot of entomology-naturalists online.  Many mention the lack of moths.  I participated in National Moth Week again this year.  My species total for the week was 103.  That's better than last year's abysmal 37 species, but nothing like my 2022 total of 178 species.  That year I had the highest species count for NS.  This year, I noticed that the highest count of anyone, and it was by someone who was obviously putting some effort into his surveys as he did several sites -- his total was 136.  I was 4th in the province for total species.  I noticed that a few of the people I was expecting to have pretty good counts had a lot less than I would have expected.  I should also mention that the actual number of moths that came to the sheet was very thin.  One or two of a species on most nights.  Three or four years ago, I would have seen several of each species.  As a person who has been photographing moths for years - going back to around 2003 -- I find it rather sad.  Another naturalist in Maine says that he barely sees moths anymore and he used to get quite a lot of the big silk moths like Polyphemus, Cecropia and Luna.  A couple of days ago, he posted a photo of a Gray Treefrog and said he rarely sees them anymore, when he used to see lots of them, and says their numbers also seemed to decline when the moths disappeared.  Other moth people are saying it is almost not worth putting out a moth sheet any more because of the lack of moths.  That's pretty scary.  Many people have no idea of how much pollination, especially pollination of particular plants, is done by moths.  
The other weird thing happening here.  I have a lot of Common Milkweed in my garden.  In past years, I've had at least 50 Monarchs eclose out of my patch.  Last year, I had NONE.  This year, a couple of Monarchs did show up and lay some eggs and there were a few caterpillars feeding on the Milkweed, but then they seemed to have been blasted away during a torrential rainstorm a few weeks ago.  However, another Monarch did show up about 3 weeks ago and laid eggs in the Milkweed patch.  I found a few of the first instar larvae just beginning to perforate the leaves of the Milkweed.  However, after a few days, I could find none at all.  I had been concerned that Earwigs would predate on them, so I had been collecting Earwigs off the Milkweed daily, so that should not have been the reason that the Monarch caterpillars disappeared.  So, I don't know what's going on.  Last year, many people in a Monarch group for Nova Scotia also had NO caterpillars on their Milkweed patches either and some have none this year or the larvae disappear after a few days (I assume either eaten by something or just dying and falling to the ground).  
I find all of this rather unsettling -- especially for someone like me who has been photographing insects for about 22 years.  

bev wigney

formerly of Osgoode, ON

Now at Round Hill, NS

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[rmb...@istar.ca]

Well it's the opposite here, I am seeing more insects this summer than
in the 2 summers following the big spongy moth infestations.
Dragonflies are the most notable, the past two summers we hardly had
any. I used to lounge in the lake and watch a couple dozen or more
cruising low over the water, last year I saw two. This year they've
rallied and I see about a dozen. A couple nights ago there were about
3 dozen cruising back and forth in front of the windows, I even
commented to George how happy I was to see them again.

Little toadlets are hopping around near my front door, tiny little
duffers about 2 cm long. There are also a couple of mid-sized toads
and one big Mama Toad. I haven't seen the scarface Mama Toad at all
this year, I'm sure she died of old age.

Cicadas are normal numbers, as I type this there are a few already
screaming in this heat. It's supposed to cool down tomorrow and
through the week, then I can finally get down to that swamp and look
for the pitcher plants. I just can't function in this heat.

Crickets and grasshoppers are normal numbers, I'm seeing a bunch of
them when I do mosey down to water my gardens and swim at the beach.
I always have to chase a couple of grasshoppers away from my garage
door when I go in there. When I checked my moth lights at 3:00 a.m. I
brought a tree cricket back in with me, when I sat on the chair it
kept hopping on my phone screen and forearms. Couldn't catch the
stupid thing to take it back outside, it's still in here somewhere.

I did find another Say's mantidfly on the window, it's in the bug box.
I will place that in the fridge for a wee while to get it cooled
down then take it out in good light to photograph and release it.

The moths are at about normal. There were fewer Ios, but I've had at
least a dozen or more Lunas, a dozen Polyphemus, and about 2 dozen
Imperials among the many smaller species. There's been about 4 of the
Barrens moths and as earlier mentioned the Epauletted Pitcher Plant
moth which is getting me fired up to look for the pitcher plants.

One thing I am really happy about is that the numbers of deer flies is
down this year. In the past few years every time you stuck your nose
out the door there was a swarm of the hungry varmints buzzing about
your head. They're still here but only a few at a time. The
dragonflies must be doing their job of gobbling them up.

There's not as many "sand" insects, I'm not seeing tiger beetles or
the sand burrowing wasps when I go down to the beach for a swim. The
lake barely has a ripple on it and the way these cicadas are screaming
I'm sure it's going to be a hot one and I'll spent a couple hours in
the water this afternoon. I get a lot of the crambids, water lily
boring moths, so I'll check the small patch of lily pads at the side
of the beach to see if I can find one of the caterpillars.

There were 6 loons swimming together on the lake this morning, looks
like the August gatherings are firing up.

Rose-Marie

> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/naturelist/CAD_MH0OsHBhYSGoFF-bPC9M-QkXc93HsdMnKzSf8KJ7GhjUrWw%40mail.gmail.com.
>

[V. Kirkwood]

I've noticed a distinct lack of spider webs in the grass this summer. Where normally I would see dozens in the grass in front of the barn, today I saw only three. These are the messy webs at ground level, not the artistic ones strung up between stems of tall grass. I haven' been out in the tall grass because I'm wary of ticks.

On another note, I have seen a very cute, thumb-sized toad in the barn, and a gorgeous 2 ft. long black and yellow snake in the shed beside the house.

Valerie Kirkwood

Acton's Corners

---

Visit my fine art photography page at http://valerie-kirkwood.fineartamerica.com/

[rmb...@istar.ca]

No lack of spiders here, except for the dock spiders that were just
about non-existant the past couple of summers. Had 2 mid size wolf
spiders on the balcony last night, chased them away, and knocked off a
couple of webs of the orb weaver type spiders. No, spiders, I am not
providing you with an easy banquet from the moth lights.

Rose-Marie

> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/naturelist/4e0950e21d5a7e55a0c946dfa9c02cc3%40xplornet.ca.
>

[I Macaulay]

I planted Echinacea years ago after Aleta said it cures something.  With Golden seal.

I no longer remember what the illness was but I have fallen in love with the plants.

Every year they were full of all variety of Insect, butterflies  etc.

The plants are blooming exceptionally well this year but have, so far that I noticed, only one or two little white spiders.

I have not seen any monarchs save one earlier in the spring. and that may have been something else.  Eyes not what they were.  No fruitilery butterflies that used to swarm these plants.

Ian

Senility has been a smooth transition for me.

Note New Hours

Ian Macaulay   Carp, Ontario

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[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 04-Aug-24 8:13 a.m., Frederick W. Schueler wrote:
> We've also seen two big adult Bull Frogs, both looking as if they were
> packed full of little Green Frogs.

* but tonight (no Greens or Leopards on the road for the first time) the
only Anuran was a medium-large Bull Frog freshly road-killed, and its
gut was packed with Cepaea snails.

[I Macaulay]

Do they manage to break down the shell or is it pooped out?

Ian

Senility has been a smooth transition for me.

Note New Hours

Ian Macaulay   Carp, Ontario

Open at 11:AM   Close at 5:00 PM

45.2397 N long: 76.0991 W Elv 137 M UTM
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[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 06-Aug-24 9:51 a.m., 'I Macaulay' via NatureList wrote:

> Do they [frogs eating Cepaea snails] manage to break down the shell or is it pooped out?

* the shells are pretty well digested. In the case of the recent Bull
Frog two adult and one juvenile snails in the stomach were cracked but
intact, the intestines were crunchy with shell fragments, but there were
only a few fragments in the poop in the colon.

This is a nostalgic interest for me, because it was Green Frogs lumpy
with Cepaea at the Crane River on the Bruce Peninsula in 1983 that first
alerted me to the importance of alien species in the diets of our herps.

fred.
===============================================

> On Monday, August 5, 2024 at 11:14:11 PM EDT, Frederick W. Schueler
> <bck...@istar.ca> wrote:
>
>
> On 04-Aug-24 8:13 a.m., Frederick W. Schueler wrote:
> > We've also seen two big adult Bull Frogs, both looking as if they were
> > packed full of little Green Frogs.
>
> * but tonight (no Greens or Leopards on the road for the first time) the
> only Anuran was a medium-large Bull Frog freshly road-killed, and its

> gut was packed with Cepaea snails. - fred.
> ------------------------------------------------------------

[I Macaulay]

Do you know whether the contents of the shells goes first or do the Shells digest to release the contents.

I doubt that the Frogs have the resources to catabolize the shell, but then again I am surprised that the ingesting of  shells doesn't cause them grief.  I am guessing that it would be similar to digesting bony structures.

Ian

Senility has been a smooth transition for me.

Note New Hours

Ian Macaulay   Carp, Ontario

Open at 11:AM   Close at 5:00 PM

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[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 06-Aug-24 5:58 p.m., 'I Macaulay' via NatureList wrote:

> Do you know whether the contents of the shells goes first or do the
> Shells digest to release the contents.

* the apertures of the Cepaea are open, so the stomach acid just goes in
there, as well as dissolving the shell from the outside.

> I doubt that the Frogs have the resources to catabolize the shell, but
> then again I am surprised that the ingesting of  shells doesn't cause
> them grief.  I am guessing that it would be similar to digesting bony
> structures.

* Unlike birds that barf up pellets of bones from their prey, Bull Frogs
have no trouble with the bones of the smaller frogs that are a big part
of their diet. None of the small road-killed Green Frogs have had snails
in the stomach contents I've been able to examine - but I'll catch a few
and put them in a cage with a bunch of juvenile snails, and see how
lumpy the frogs become. Certainly if a distended stomach could make a
frog uncomfortable the 1983 Green Frogs from Crane River would have been
uncomfortable.

fred.
==========================================