Habitats of the Llano Estacado
Sanddunes
Photoessay – Shinoak-Covered Sanddunes (Early November, 2009)
Nathan Taylor’s family farms cotton west of Lamesa. In 2009 Nathan was 15 years old. He is homeschooled, and before or after lessons, or while he is working on the farm (hoeing or driving the tractor) he explores his homestead. His family’s house sits in the middle of shinoak covered sanddunes. His photography records the changing seasons, and through the year he discovered a number of organisms (both plants and animals) that had not been recorded in western Dawson County before his observations. In November 2009 he was elected Vice-President of the Llano Estacado Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists.
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As grasshoppers grow they shed their skin. Nathan found one in the middle of the process. Holy mackerel! What an observer!
The brown area on the back of the katydid should allow for easier identification. Hopefully someday we can have a crew of folks working on the identification of all the insects in our photoessays!
Say’s phoebes like the shinoak sanddune country.
A true Oenethera of the evening primrose family has this sort of style…a cross or x.
What in the world? Is this a grass? Or something else?
Why did this amaranth grow in such a tight clump, instead of being gangly and weedy like the rest of its kind?
Is this a vesper sparrow? Sparrows from the back are hard to identify. Vesper sparrows spend the winter on the Llano Estacado, sometimes in great numbers.
A morning glory bloomed when it was only 2 inches tall.
When this bordered patch butterfly emerged from its chrysalis, something damaged it, but it was able to fly enough to move around.
Threadwaisted wasps have egg burrows, which they close up, using a small rock to tamp the soil. They later return several times, to place small caterpillars for the young as it grows. They are able to remember where they placed all of their babies, and know when to return.
The orange legs on this grasshopper are not a usual fieldmark. It is the second documentation of orange coloration on grasshoppers on Nathan’s place. Why is there this genetic anomaly at his farm?
What caught the grasshoppers and pulled them into its burrow, and then tossed out the inedible parts?
Nathan is researching why some shinoaks will reach heights of 9 feet or more. He is trying to search out previous papers written on the question, and see if there has been work done on hybridization between shinoaks and other oaks.
Yellow rumped warblers spend the winter on the Llano Estacado, but leave to nest elsewhere.
A passing monarch rested on a soapberry twig. This one was a month later than the big migration hordes, so it may not have been of the migrating generation and was doomed to die when it began to froze.
Why are so many shield bugs forming a conclave on a tumbleweed. Was this a mating swarm?
Twice stabbed lady bugs are often found on the Llano Estacado.
Grasshoppers can hide in tumbleweed rather well, and probably enjoy a meal as they hide.
A southern prairie lizard closed its eyes when held.
Is this a fence lizard, another subspecies of the southern prairie lizard? Nathan has two forms of the lizards. Do they interbreed?
Or is this a fence lizard? Or a hybrid? Or…
Two small spiders were on one web on a sunflower. Is this species communal? This would be very unusual, if so.
A lynx spider ate a longhorned beetle.
Several species of grasshopper have the white slash on the shoulder, so Sibley staff gets confused when trying to identify the speceis.
Another reddish grasshopper was found… is this coloration an effect of the cold?
A group of just hatched plant bugs hung out on Nathan’s greenhouse. One was a little bit older, and its coloration was different.
A ladybug crawled around on a groundsel.
A gray walking stick was almost invisible on dried plant stalks. How many species of walking sticks can be found on the Llano Estacado?
A tiger moth had dirt on it…had it just emerged from an underground pupa case? Usually the pupa cases are found on twigs.
Jackrabbits are very scared of tractors, and sometimes choose to freeze and look very worried when one passes by.
The big dunes are formed by wind erosion. The field in the foreground was farmed for many years, but is now in CRP, but will likely be taken out of the program in another year, so the dunes may grow again.
Arphia psuedonietiana is one of the easiest grasshoppers to recognize, and is known as the redwing cracker by some folks, for the way its wings crepitate (make noise like a rattlesnake) when it flies.
Is this a velvet ant on a trompillo leaf? If not what is it? A spider that mimics an ant?
This is a dark gray grasshopper with a ridge on its neck like a crested grasshopper that is green. Hmmm… oh, to know the grasshoppers. A hundred species or so to learn! How many species have all of the Sibley photographers now photographed? Another job for a volunteer…collating all the photos!
Red harvester ants prefer loose sandy soil. Pogomyrmex rugosus is what Sibley staff believe is the name of the species, but we could be wrong. According to Texas Tech grad students and their master theses, there are probably about 50 species of ants on the Llano Estacado. Another group of organisms to collate!
Camphor daisy is a common fall flower. Some references say that it is an exotic, native to Eurasia, but it is very common in the sanddune regions of the Llano Estacado.
Is this a box elder bug, a milkweed bug? This shape of bug has a number of species on the Llano Estacado, and most have some sort of coloration that is a mixture of red and white.
The arphia grasshopper’s showy wings are only able to be admired when the critter is held, for it is a fast flier.
What is this gray spider?
This tiny beetle is often found on tumbleweed.
What a showy shield bug! What amazing color! Nathan found it at two different locations 70 miles apart.
It must be a plant sucker…look at that snout! Dirty fingernails are the sign of a true field scientist, by the way…
Nondescript grasshoppers with no obvious fieldmarks are frustrating!
This species of artemisia is only found in the shinoak sanddunes.
Why does one species of shield bug have coloration to make it stand out? And why does this one have coloration for camouflage? The brightly colored one probably tastes bad and feeds on new growth that is visible to passing predators, while this one skulks in the depths of a plant and relies on being hidden.
Longhorned beetles are “bores,” laying eggs in woody plant material, where the larvae leave tunnels of many shapes. The adults are often strikingly colored. There may be a hundred or more species on the Llano Estacado.
Is this some sort of insect caused gall on kochia?
Amaranths will bloom when very small, if there is not enough moisture or nutrition.
Is this a beetle, or a spider, on a trompillo berry?
Trompillo berries are miniature Christmas ornaments, and easy to spot when the freezes have turned the landscape sere.
Illinois bundleflower is commonly introduced into CRP farmlands. Before the program, Midland botanists only found it along the railroad tracks. It is native to areas with more rainfall, and probably was not native to the Llano Estacado originally.
Another longhorn beetle found a fading cowpen daisy.
This form of mutation can often be found on composite (daisy flowers). This is a groundsel.
Buffalo bur (yellow nightshade) has a berry within a spiky case.
Grasshoppers continued mating into November. We assume it is two males and a female. Why did the smaller one never grow as large as the other male? These are members of the bandwing grasshopper group, of which there is probably 10 species on the llano estacado.
What a colorful tiny bug! Maybe someone will make a piece of jewelry to mimic this species.
Another groundsel had another genetic twist. This one had very short ray flowers.
Spiny yellow aster, when covered with seeds, looks like a patch of snow, and is like a forwarning of the season soon to follow!