The Ozarks

 Last month I visited family in Missouri. I'd been through Missouri many years before, and remember it being mostly flat. I was travelling out of St. Louis towards Kansas City then. This time, I went southwest out of St. Louis. The road was like sailing the ocean over the waves. Up down one hill then up the next. I always thought the Ozarks were in the southwest corner of the state. It turns out pretty much the whole southern half of Missouri is Ozarks. The undulation leveled out a bit once I reached the Springfield Plateau in the southwest. But it was nowhere near as flat as Illinois.

The wildlife in the Ozarks is different from what I'm used to in Pennsylvania. However, I didn't get to see very many new critters. There are freshwater clams in Stockton Lake. I saw plenty of armadillos, but they were all dead. No roadrunners, no rattlesnakes, no scorpions, and no tarantulas. I saw some insects that I have at home, like a wheel bug, a milkweed bug, and the ubiquitous deer. Southern leopard frogs in a spring house at a Civil War battlefield was a nice surprise.

Wheel bug

Bird poop moth

Milkweed beetle

Black swallowtail

Freshwater clam

There was more forest than I expected to see. I got to check out some oak savanna. Most of the land in the Springfield Plateau that I saw was farmland. There were some crops, mostly corn, but the majority was cattle pasture.

It was nice to see some butterflies finally. Compared to last summer, I haven't seen very many this year. Apparently once you leave Bucks County they are everywhere. The Flight 93 memorial in western Pennsylvania has quite a few grasshoppers too. Turkeys flew across the road ahead of me somewhere in that area. Elsewhere, the sky was full of turkey vultures and hawks that I couldn't identify. A fox ran across the road ahead of me in Indiana.

Dead luna moth

Fence lizard

Fritillary (left) and buckeye (right) butterflies

Southern leopard frogs

Dead armadillo

Even though I didn't set out to explore nature on this trip, it still happened. It happens everywhere I go now that I've been trained to see things everywhere. Next time you are out and about, take a look around and notice what you see.

Tiger swallowtail

Oak savanna

Species of the Month

August’s Species of the Month is our first insect to be featured. A frequent sight during the summer is the differential grasshopper. There are many species of grasshopper around the world, this one is widespread through the US, although it is absent from some states. If you live in most of the US, odds are good that you’ve seen one. While we often think of them as a hopping insect (hence the name) they also fly. Here in Washington we don’t have the differential, but a large grasshopper here makes a clacking sound as it flies past. Along with crickets, the grasshopper is one of those critters I associate with the shortening days and cool nights as we begin transitioning into fall.

Adult differential grasshopper (from Bug Guide)

Scientific name: Melanoplus differentialis

Kingdom: Animalia (animals)

Class: Insecta (insects)

Order: Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids)

Range: Mexico to Alaska via the Midwest and Prairie Provinces, southern New England to North Carolina, American Southwest

Habitat: Grassy areas

Lifespan: About a year

Diet: Grasses and forbs           

Predators: Mites, nematodes, bee flies, blister beetles, Scelionid wasps, Tachinidae flies, Sarcophagidae flies, skunks, shrews, moles, salamanders, snakes, toads, passerine birds

Conservation Status: Species of least concern

Grasshopper eggs (from ID Tools)

Other Information: The differential grasshopper is a crop pest in many areas where it is found. When congregated in large enough numbers, a swarm can be devastating. Egg packets are laid in soil, a half to two inches deep. Larvae hatch in spring and go through a series of molts before reaching adulthood in 40-60 days. They are noted for the dark chevrons on their jumping legs and come in many color morphs, ranging from to olive green to black to almost white. They are edible for humans and make good fishing bait.

Differential grasshopper nymph (from Cape May Wildlife)

This week’s information comes from Texas A&M, Insect Identification for the Casual Observer, and University of Kentucky. Photo credits: Bug Guide, ID Tools, Cape May Wildlife