@dandelion@dresden.network
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dandelion

@dandelion@dresden.network

IT Professional by day, biologist at heart. Staff to cats.

Interested in interactions and patterns wherever they are found. Will stop for flowers at the roadside. Also love speculative fiction.

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dandelion, to random
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dandelion, to random German
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Zum Groß und Klein: Eine Feldwespe (Polistes spp), von einer winzigen Schlupfwespe (vermutlich) umschwirrt. Die letztere entdeckte ich erst bei der Nachbearbeitung des Fotos - sie ist deutlich kleiner als auch nur ein Auge der Feldwespe. Die Vielfalt der Natur bringt mich immer wieder zum Staunen!

jaybaeta, to random
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"What Can We Learn When a Green Snake with a Red Tail Bites a Cat?"

A video on a recent incident in and what we can learn from it. Incorporating my interview with herpetologist, Donan Satria, it covers (1) the different ways we get bitten and dealing with them; (2) how we're probably underestimating bites of animals and don't know much about it, outside USA/Australia; and (3) the of Java's tree vipers and the impact of the Wallace Line.

https://youtu.be/dATvKMKdtjw

dandelion,
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@jaybaeta I learned about the Wallace Line from your video, and literally two days later I found them mentioned in the book I was reading (Otherlands by Thomas Halliday) 😄 What beautiful snakes though.

dandelion,
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@jaybaeta The book is a history of Life on Earth from an ecosystem point of view - he used the Wallace Line as a contemporary example of how geographic history shapes the migration of species and thus whole ecosystems. (I can highly recommend the book btw!)

dandelion, to spiders
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White-banded Crab Spiders (Misumenoides formosipes) lurk in flowers and snatch unwary critters trying to snack on nectar. Females can reversibly change their color to optimize camouflage (not as quickly as cuttlefish or chameleons though). They like to appear white with some green or even bold red on white or purple blossoms and a perfectly matched golden yellow on flowers like goldenrod.

A white and purple crab spider huddling in a leaf, its pattern breaking up its outline into a zigzag. It is feeding on a Cabbage White butterfly.
A yellow crab spider with greenish markings on its cephalothorax is consuming the stinkbug it caught lurking in the flowers of a Horseweed plant
A male crab spider with a yellowish abdomen and brown cephalothorax/legs is perching on the top of a leaf, its front legs spread wide in a threatening pose.As is typical with spiders, it is much smaller than the females and also can't change color.

dandelion, to random
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Zum einen wichtigen Bestäuber der späten Blütenpracht: der Goldruten-Soldatenkäfer (Chauliognathus pensylvanicus) auf dem Blütenstand einer Goldrute. Er zieht zwar angeblich gelbe Arten vor, ist aber hier auf fast allen Blüten zu finden.

dandelion, to random
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Wild pollinators contribute an estimated $1.5 billion to the US economy each year. Honeybees are generalists with a large range and easy to keep at scale. They are not always very efficient at pollinating though - a gap filled by wild species if they can find living spaces nearby.

https://knowablemagazine.org/article/food-environment/2023/underappreciated-benefits-wild-bees

dandelion, to random
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Hlauuma, Taos Pueblo

dandelion, to random
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There are several species referred to as "hummingbird moths" due to their large size and hovering flight patterns. These are two North American examples - a Snowberry Clearwing and a White-Lined Sphinx.

A large moth with a thick body and wings with a black, beige, white, and pink pattern hovering and feeding on lavender flowers.

dandelion, to wildflowers
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Forest find: Fire-on-the-Mountain or Painted Leaf (Euphorbia cyathophora), a relative of the Poinsettia, enjoys the dappled sun where the canopy is thin.

dandelion, to random
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Zum ein paar Besucher goldgelber Sommerblüten. In Nordamerika gibt es etwa 4000 Bienen- und gut viermal so viele Wespenarten. Da lasse ich mich immer überraschen!

Zwei Wespen auf einen Sonnenblumenblüten - eine schlanke schwarz-gelbe und eine kleine blass-rosafarbene.
Eine schlanke schwarze Welpe, mit gelb-gestreiften Hinterleib auf Goldrute.
Zwei sich paarende schwarze Wespen mit faden-dünner Taille auf gelben Korbblütlen.

berndchen, to random German
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Guten Morgen,
der Phlox (Phlox paniculata) blüht.
Die abgebildeten Phloxpflanzen sind übrigens alles Sämlinge, die sich selbst verbreitet haben. Da hat man keine Sorge, ob die Sorte robust genug ist oder der Standort passt.

dandelion,
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@berndchen @Siebenschlaeferin Die Wildform blüht auch gerade am Waldrand.

Nähere Aufnahme der Blüten.

dandelion, to random
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Six weeks ago, the rosinweed flowers stood tall above the foot-high grass - now they are barely visible. Tallgrass Prairies covered much of the Midwest where woodland systems transitioned to grasslands. Relying on regular fires and occasional intense grazing to maintain their biodiversity, they now usually require human intervention for maintenance.

The pictures below were taken at eye level - just to give an idea of the height of the grasses.

An eye-level view through 5-6foot tall grass . In the distance, the yellow blooms of Silphium integrifolium can be spotted among amongst the flowering grasses.
Another view at three flowering stems of Silphium integrifolium in the midst of tall grass.

jerzone, (edited ) to animals
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It's , and if it's also change the bedding day, this is what our cat looks like.

dandelion,
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@jerzone Wonderful to see that other felines out there are taking their bedding change duties as seriously as our kitties! I don't know how cat-less people can do without 😄

dandelion, to wildlife
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Chance encounter in the forest yesterday: a raccoon family.

Mama raccoon is nearby observing the situation.

dandelion, to Mushrooms
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Today's could come straight from the set of a Studio Ghibli movie - tiny white pinwheel mushrooms growing on an old oak leaf and a delicate looking earthball that might release a cloud of spores any moment now.

A small white porous - almost mesh-like looking ball shaped fungus with a hole at the top. Earthball (Scleroderma)

dandelion, to random
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Something for today although it's not a moss at all but just as cool! Like mosses, liverworts don't have a vascular system and spend most of their lifecycle as gametophytes with a single set of chromosomes. If we humans did that, our eggs and sperm would grow into independent organisms who then would do the mating and growing babies instead of us.

Liverwort sprawling on a moist wall at a drainage ditch.

dandelion, to random
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dandelion, to random
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Zum heute zwei Schwalbenschwänze, die unser Feuchtgebiet besuchen...

Papilio glaucus, Östlicher Tiger-Schwalbenschwanz, auf einer Seidrnpflanzenblüte.

dandelion, to random
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A few days of rain in our otherwise extreme drought has all kinds of fungi sprouting from moist deadwood... Jelly fungi are especially common right now, mostly White Kelly Fungus and Jelly Tree Ear, but in very moist forest hollows I've discovered some Witch's Butter, too.

An irregular shape of golden yellow lobs and curls on a dead hardwood log. Likely a species calles Witch's Butter.
Clumps of off-white jelly-like lobes growing from dead wood (White Jelly Fungus)

dandelion, to random
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Eine Hummel zum ...

dandelion, to random
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The drought and drying up of the lake also brings a little hope: Even after over a decade, some of the lotus seeds in the ground are still ready to germinate. The beautiful stands of American Lotus were destroyed by Asian Carp introduced into the lake when the river flooded in 2011. If this round of drought can eradicate the carp, the lotus may even make a comeback.

jaybaeta, to animals
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Scabby cat update: he has an appetite. 😊

Still 50/50 on the eye, and he was depressed when we visited him this afternoon (I think because of the loud dogs in the adjacent cages).

A cat in a cage, with a surgically repaired eye, eats eagerly from a metal bowl.

dandelion,
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@jaybaeta Poor cat... Hopefully he can move to a place where he feels safer soon! It is so hard to see a creature suffer - especially when they can't understand.

dandelion,
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@jaybaeta Absolutely!

dandelion, to random
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One of the easiest plants to spot on the prairie - Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa). This showy plant is native to open and dry grasslands of much of North America, but is now popular in flower gardens worldwide. Like other members of its genus - and true to its common name - it is an insect favorite.

The same clump of Butterfly Milkweed from further away - a bright orange spot between the prairie green.

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