Naturalist Newsletter: Oct 2/ Leaf-Footed Bugs

[Robert W Neill Jr]

JIM CONRAD’S NATURALIST NEWSLETTER
Issued from Mayan Beach Gardens 30 minutes north of
Mahahual, southern Quintana Roo State, MÉXICO, at
N18°53'16.36", W87°38'27.26"

October 2, 2011

*****

LEAF-FOOTED BUGS
On Wednesday next to a passionflower vine I saw what's
at http://www.backyardnature.net/n/11/111002lf.jpg

Since I was a kid I've been familiar with leaf-footed
bugs but never have I seen a species with such hugely
expanded, colorful hind tibias -- leaf-feet. In the
picture the bugs are mating and the one on the right
has lost one of his leaf-feet, suggesting certain
disadvantages to being a leaf-footed bug with super
big hind tibias.

When volunteer identifier Bea in Ontario received the
picture she used the Google Image Search feature
searching on the keywords "leaf legged bug Mexico" and
the first page of results came up with several
pictures matching ours, labeled Affinis Leaf-footed
Bug, ANISOSCELIS AFFINIS.

But, Bea is a fastidious person in these matters and
when she checked around she realized that there are
similar species and genera, and in the end could only
be certain that we had a member of the Leaf-footed Bug
Family, the Coreidae.

However, the bugs in our picture match other pictures
of Anisoscelis affinis, plus the passionflower vine
our bugs were sitting on is listed as the host plant
for Anisoscelis affinis, and Anisoscelis affinis seems
to be fairly common from southern Texas through
Central America into South America, so I'm filing the
picture under that name.

By the way, the word "bug" often is used for all
insects, but technically it applies only to the
"Order" of True Bugs, the Hemiptera. Our bugs belong
to that order, so they're real bugs. Other true bugs
include cicadas, leaf hoppers and aphids, all with
mouthparts designed for sucking -- as opposed to
chewing -- plus they undergo "simple metamorphosis,"
during which no larval or grub stage occurs. What
emerges from the egg is a replica of the adult, except
it's far smaller, and wingless. When a true bug feeds,
its sucking, strawlike, "proboscis" is inserted like a
hypodermic needle into its host plant's tissue. You
can see our bug's sucking proboscis neatly stowed out
of the way beneath its abdomen while not in use at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/11/111002lg.jpg

On Wednesday I saw just our two Affinis Leaf-footed
Bugs but already by Thursday the species was common
along the white sand road, each and every individual
near or on a passionflower vine.

*****

OWL-BUTTERFLY
Bea had a harder time tracking down the identity of
the handsome, fairly large butterfly shown at
http://www.backyardnature.net/yucatan/mariposa/butt098.jpg

One problem was that we began with the assumption
that, with those conspicuous circular "eyes" on the
wings, we had a Buckeye butterfly or a close relation,
Buckeyes being common, eye-winged butterflies up North
also found here. But Bea looked at all Buckeye
variations and close relatives and none were exact
fits. Eventually she made a match under the name
Split-banded Owl-Butterfly, OPSIPHANES CASSINA, a
somewhat common species throughout much of the
American tropics, specializing in disturbed areas
especially near palms, which fits us exactly.

Adult butterflies feed on rotting fruits and wet dung
but the green caterpillars feed on palm fronds, and
it's true that ours was photographed on a Chit Palm
frond petiole. Females deposit one egg each at the
base of several palm fronds in late afternoon. When
the larvae hatch they crawl up the frond and begin
eating the leaves. When the caterpillar is ready to
pupate it builds a shelter by folding a frond section
over itself.

While here I've only seen this one Split-banded Owlet,
in monoculture oil-palm plantations the species'
caterpillars become so abundant that plantation
managers use chemicals to kill them.

The genus Opsiphanes is home to several species which
in general are considered to be almost mothlike in
behavior -- active nocturnally, and during the
twilight of dawn and dusk, when they are
"crepuscular." Ours was found in dim dawn light.

Owl-butterflies are closely related to the big Blue
Morphos we've admired so in the past, despite owl-
butterfly wings not being blue inside.

*****

WILD TURKEY DOMESTICATION
The other day Glenn outside Washington, DC wrote
asking what I knew about the South Mexican Turkey,
Meleagris gallopavo gallopavo, one of several Wild
Turkey subspecies, and one which most authorities seem
to regard as extinct in its native southern Mexico.
Subspecies are usually geographically isolated
populations displaying genetically based differences
between them and the rest of the species, but the
differences aren't so great that individuals from the
two populations can't mate and produce viable, usually
intermediate-looking offspring. The South Mexican
subspecies appears to have been smaller than all other
Wild Turkey subspecies occurring throughout North
America.

Glenn directed me to the Domesticated Turkey's
Wikipedia page where I read the following:

"The Aztecs domesticated the southern Mexican
subspecies, M. g. gallopavo, giving rise to the
domestic turkey. The Spaniards brought this tamed
subspecies back to Europe with them in the mid-16th
century; from Spain it spread to France and later
Britain as a farmyard animal, usually becoming the
centerpiece of a feast for the well-to-do. By 1620 it
was common enough so that Pilgrim settlers of
Massachusetts could bring turkeys with them from
England... "

No references were provided for the above story, plus
I knew that the Aztecs didn't domesticate the turkey,
since most of the turkey's domestication process took
place centuries before the Aztec culture formed.
Therefore, I need to confirm the story from other
sources. It turned out that the Mexico --> Europe -->
North America history is essentially true, plus I
turned up a little extra information.

First, Wild Turkeys in southern Mexico initially were
domesticated not to be eaten, but for their feathers,
which were used ceremonially and for feather robes and
blankets.

Also, the Anasazi of the US Southwest independently
domesticated turkeys from a wild subspecies in their
own area, but those birds -- both the wild and
domesticated ones -- appear to have gone extinct.

You might be interested in looking over the study
detailing the genetic methods used to discover that
there were two centers of domestication. It's online
at http://www.pnas.org/content/107/7/2807.full

*****

WHITE MANGROVE
Mangrove swamps are the Earth's main wetland ecosystem
found along tropical and subtropical coasts. The
dominant woody species in mangrove swamps -- usually
there's more than one -- vary from region to region.
In our part of the world four tree species are
regarded as mangrove indicators: Red Mangrove, Black
Mangrove, White Mangrove and Buttonwood. In mangroves
along the Yucatán's northern coast I've seen all four
species commonly growing.

However, here 20 kms north of Mahahual on the
southeastern coast, until this week I'd found only two
of those four mangrove species. In deeper water and
where water stands for longer periods there's the Red
Mangrove, distinguished by its flaring "stilt roots"
and fruits that germinate daggerlike roots while still
hanging on the tree. At the water's edge or on dry
land where the water table lies very close to the
surface, you find the second mangrove species,
Buttonwood, abundantly bearing pea-sized, cone-like
fruits.

This week I found a small population of a third
species, White Mangrove, LAGUNCULARIA RACEMOSA, a
member of the mostly tropical Combretum Family. From
just a few feet away, dense and much-branching White
Mangrove looks like a green wall, but up close you
begin seeing distinguishing features such as its
three-inch-long (7cm) leaves with rounded or notched
tips, and long, roundish petioles jutting from the
stem almost at right angles. Also there are clusters
of half-inch-long, thick-ribbed, leathery, roughly
wedge-shaped fruits. All this is shown on a branch at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/11/111002mv.jpg

At the top of many of the stiff petioles there are two
wartlike glands such as those seen at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/11/111002mx.jpg

In other species often such glands exude chemicals
that attract ants which protect the leaves from leaf
eaters, or maybe the glands produce chemicals that
themselves repel leaf-eating insects. However, I read
that the White Mangrove's petiole glands help the
plant excrete excess salt. In the above picture maybe
we see crystals of salt shining in the crater of the
nearest gland.

Last week we saw that Red Mangrove's seeds germinate
while the fruits still are attached to the stems --
the seeds are "viviparous." That's advantageous for
wetland trees where seeds can root and begin growing
as soon as they fall. With a White Mangrove fruit in
hand, I wondered if it might do something similar. You
can see a fruit, crowned by the former flower's calyx,
at http://www.backyardnature.net/n/11/111002my.jpg

A fruit with its top broken off, and another fruit
with one side stripped away, are shown at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/11/111002mw.jpg

The dark green item inside the fruit is the sprout's
future green leaves wrapped around one another. In
typical seeds we'd find a small, hardly noticeable
embryo that would remain dormant for a season but here
we have a living shoot that once it's formed never
stops developing inside the fruit on or off the tree.
This green-leafed shoot will have a head start rooting
and growing as soon as the seed is deposited on mud or
in water. Since the seeds aren't germinating while
still on the tree they're not viviparous like those of
the Red Mangrove, but some experts would say that the
White Mangrove's seeds are "semi-viviparous."

Our White Mangroves are only about eight feet tall
(2.5m) but I read that in Mexico they may grow up to
60 feet tall (18m).

Why are White Mangroves so rare in this particular
area? It may have something to do with Marcia's
observation that before the 2007 super-Hurricane Dean,
the fourth mangrove, Black Mangrove -- the one with
slender, pale, witch's-fingers-like "pneutamophores"
rising from the water to absorb air for the tree --
was common here, but now it's not to be seen.

*****

"WILD SAGE"
Just about any much-branched bush with aromatic,
crinkledy leaves is likely to be called "Wild Sage."
Dozens of species must go by that name, and that's the
case with a hippopotamus-size, woody-stemmed bush
commonly growing along the white sand road these days.
You can see the woody bush's leaves and flower heads
at http://www.backyardnature.net/n/11/111002lt.jpg

A close-up of a dog-faced, little corolla that when
fresh is practically white with a yellow center, but
pinkens as the day progresses or when broken off, is
at http://www.backyardnature.net/n/11/111002lu.jpg

A cluster of juicy, short-hairy, purplish fruits is at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/11/111002lv.jpg

We've seen shrubs, flowers and fruits like this
before, on lantanas and lippias of the Vervain Family,
but they were slightly different from what we have
here. The "Wild Sage" along the white sand road is
LANTANA INVOLUCRATA, differing from most other
lantanas by their small heads of white flowers.
Crushed leaves are fragrant with an odor like minty
marihuana.

A website dealing with modern herbal medicine claims
that Lantana involucrata is good for treating measles,
chickenpox and hypertension.

The species is native from southern Florida south
throughout our area into South America. It does best
on well drained "ridge soils."

*****

TROPICAL ALMONDS FLOWERING
Tropical Almond trees, TERMINALIA CATAPPA, are native
to the Old World tropics, but they're common street
and village trees throughout tropical Mexico and are
very common here in the Yucatán. You recognize them by
their large (±8 inches, 20cm), leathery leaves that
are widest above their middles (blackjack shaped), by
how leaves cluster at the ends of branches, and by how
the tree's branches are arrayed like horizontal fans,
giving the tree a layered look. Often some or many of
the older leaves are completely bright red, providing
a nice counterpoint to the background of deep, green
leaves. You can see a typical Tropical Almond tree at
http://www.backyardnature.net/yucatan/almond-t.jpg

A Tropical Almond's leaves and long, slender flower
spikes (±8 inches, 20cm) are shown at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/11/111002ta.jpg

A close-up of a single flower showing five whitish
calyx lobes (no petals), ten stamens, and a fingerlike
style arising from the flower's center amidst many
outward-pointing hairs is shown at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/11/111002tb.jpg

I'm guessing that the hairs dissuade insects from
entering the blossom to eat the ovary (future fruit)
exposed at the flower's base.

The flower in our picture bears both male and female
parts. The ten pollen-producing stamens are the male
parts, and the slender style in the center is the
female ovary's "neck," atop which -- on the stigmatic
area -- pollen from other flowers will germinate. Most
flowers in the spike are strictly male but a few
female flowers, which in the end will produce fruits,
cluster toward the spike's base. A study in Florida
found that most Tropical Almond flower spikes bore
about sixteen times more male flowers -- flowers
bearing only stamens, with no ovary and style -- than
"hermaphroditic" flowers bearing both male and female
parts.

*****

EATING TROPICAL ALMONDS
Tropical Almonds are NOT closely related to the
North's Almond trees. Northern Almonds are members of
the Rose Family while Tropical Almonds belong to the
Combretum Family, the Combretaceae, a family little
known in the North, and allied with the myrtles.

Despite their not being related, Tropical Almond
fruits are a lot like northern Almonds.

Beneath any mature Tropical Almond tree usually you
can find some rather shaggy, often dirty looking,
"almond-shaped" fruits. They're shaggy because the
seeds are encased in a fibrous husk so tough that the
fruits can lie around for weeks or months being trod
upon, gathering dinginess. As with northern Almonds,
to get to the edible kernel you need to break open the
seed inside the fibrous husk. And that seed is very
hard.

My Maya friends who grew up playing "crack-the-
tropical-almond-nut" make cracking the nut with a big
rock look easy, but it's not. If a beginner cracks the
nut at all, usually the kernel ends up so smashed and
mingled with dirty husk and shattered rock that it's
useless. Nevertheless, it can be done, as shown at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/11/111002tc.jpg

That picture shows a perfectly cracked fruit in the
hands of my Maya friend, Martín, who cracked it. The
edible kernel is the rusty-colored item nestled in a
cavity in the right half of the fruit.

That kernel looks like a northern almond, tastes like
one, and has a similar texture and oiliness. A paper
on the Internet reports Tropical Almond seeds as
containing 24% crude protein and goodly amounts of
minerals, especially potassium. Oil expressed from the
seeds contained high levels of unsaturated fatty
acids, and that's the good kind.

So, Tropical Almond seeds are good to eat and in most
towns and villages in our area they're free for the
having. The problem is getting through that hard
shell.

*****

TWEETING
At first I had no interest in "tweeting" -- of issuing
messages no more than 140 characters long to subscribed
"followers" via the twitter.com website. "Few thoughts
worth sharing can be expressed in only 140 characters,"
was my predictable first reaction.

But then I remembered Haiku, in which complex feelings
and insights are conveyed in 5+7+5, or 17, syllables.
Therefore, over a year ago I got a Twitter account.

"Inside my hut, up where the thatched roof crests, a
firefly flashes on and off, as a distant storm's
lightning flashes between my pole walls," I tweeted
early on, trying to get the hang of it.

"Turquoise-browed Motmot croaks MOWK! MOWK! looks over
shoulder, yanks tail sideways showering cold dew off
morning-glory vine into sunbeam," I added later.

After several months and over 80 tweets I'd gathered
only a handful of followers. In the spring I stopped
tweeting and all summer I haven't tweeted once. Then,
this week, maybe because shorter days stir up Li-Po
fallish feelings, I tweeted:

"Gray Fox on the white sand road, house-cat size but
long pointy ears and snout, sparkling eyes, wet nose,
so alert and alive... and GONE!"

Maybe tweeting is one of those Yin-Yang things; it can
be enormously wasteful of time, but also there's
something beautiful about the human urge to be
noticed, to be connected, to contribute. Maybe someday
regular tweeting will become more haiku-like. And
then, there's this:

Nature tweets. In fact, Nature is the original
tweeter, tweeting Her creative impulses in exquisitely
concise and delimited terms of birds, rocks,
neutrinos, fugues, rainbows and people, including
people doing their own tweeting. Throughout the
Universe tweeting seems to be the general direction
the evolution of things eventually takes.

My early attempts to tweet are still online at
http://www.backyardnature.net/j/twitter.htm

*****

Best wishes to all Newsletter Readers.
Jim

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