Habitats of the Llano Estacado
Sanddunes
Photoessay – Shinoak-Covered Sanddunes (Mid-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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Tumbleweed can be quite colorful in the fall.
Shinoak usually turns sort of brownish in the fall, but looking closer, many shades found on the red end of the spectrum can be found.
Gray sand sage and shinoak create a pleasing “blanket’ for the ground.
Sometimes the shinoak leaves can be quite red.
Mesquite will have fall color, too, always a bright yellow.
Many of the taller shinoak clumps found in the region form almost circular patches, leading a person to wonderif they are all clones, and if they are very, very old. (As in thousands of years!)
Once in a while, an astute observer will find mesquites with leaves much larger than normal, but the bigger leaves will only be on a few branches of one plant, while the rest of the shrub has normal sized leaves.
Since Nathan has recorded grasshoppers with orange coloration several times in the fall, the Sibley staff is more inclined to believe this is weather related, not genetic, but we have not found any remarks in scientific literature about the subject.
Horace’s duskywing butterflies deposit these eggs in the fall. They overwinter, to hatch in March, one of the earliest flying butterflies in the sand dune habitat.
Another orange grasshopper, this time a schistocerca or birdwing grasshopper, one of 6 or more species that live on the Llano Estacado.
What tied this shinoak leaf together? It only left frass (poop).
Red shinoak leaves contrasted nicely with green broomweed stalks.
What caused the bark of the shinoak to peel?
Notice the lobing on this shinoak leaf, and then...
...look at this one. It is easy to see why Nathan believes there is hybridization going on between shinoaks on the Llano Estacado and oaks off of the Llano (oak pollen can go many miles in strong winds.)
A broken sapling of soapberry had bright yellow fall foliage.
Fall witchgrass leaves turn red with cooler temperatures.
This is a stalked desert puffball from the top. It is the size of a marble.
Oaks get bacterial galls, too. Only one plant was covered with the galls. Like any good naturalist, Nathan wondered why!
Were these red harvester ants moving larvae, or moving a queen? One larvae can be seen, but there appears to be something large hidden by the biggest swarm of ants.
What is this black orange and white moth. Compare the side view with...
...the top view
What is this tiny metallic green grasshopper, and why does he have liquid coming from his knee? And look at those strange feet!
A brown skipper butterfly of undetermined species visited a pie melon bloom.
Green, yellow, and black wasps loved the pie melon.
The same wasp also visited an Indian blanket.
A pseudoscorpion ate a small soil mite.
Was this spider hiding under the bug, when the board was turned over and the light hit their dark world?
What a beautiful blue face on this grasshopper!
What is this pale spider on a dried up tumbleweed?
Puffballs eventually “explode” (in slow motion) to cast their spores.
Did this longhorned beetle die of old age?
Why was the tail of this glossy snake covered with dirt? Had it defecated to deter Nathan’s harassment?
A small scale insect was found on a soapberry branch.
Soapberries become translucent when they are ripe, and the dark seed can be seen inside.
What a weird way for a berry to be attached to the plant! No pedicel (stem), like most fruit.
What left these eggs on a soapberry? Soapberry trees are sometimes found in deep sand dune habitat.
A filaree had a fasciated bloom stalk.
Normally filaree blossoms are set down in the leaf crown.
London rocket (or alley mustard) is an exotic weed that normally blooms late January to March, but Nathan found one in mid-November.
Nathan is examining the southern prairie lizards and the fence lizards on his property closely.
A wolf spider darted into its hole as Nathan sought to photograph it. The hole does not have the usual turret this group of spiders usually make.
What is this weird growth on prickly pear? It is not wax. Nathan thinks it is resin. Why did green algae form, and why did sand get on the green algae? A plethora of mysteries!
Here the green algae has no sand. Master Naturalists have found similar exudations several places on the southern Llano Estacado.
Sibley staff has heard these called blister galls, but are unsure on what causes them, or if they are an early form of a larger gall that will grow later. Will the leaf hang on during the winter, or will it fall to the ground. Gall insects have incredibly complex life cycles.
What an amazing little moth with translucent wings! It is a male, and the species feeds on cucurbits (melon or squash family). Nathan has lots of pie melons.
Nathan broke open a shinoak gall to see what was inside.
Nathan took another look at the shinoak leaves covered with a cottony substance. Is every insect visible in this photograph an aphid?