Green Darner Dragonfly

Order: Odonata

Family: Aeshnidae

Genus: Anax

Species: A. junius

Identifying Characteristics:

-The Green Darner is one of the largest dragonflies existent: males grow to 76 mm (3.0 in) in length with a wingspan of up to 80 mm (3.1 in)

- They have a green head and thorax. The abdomen is yellow and brown on females; long, slender and bluish on males. They have large compound eyes, strong jaws, and spiny legs. Their wings are clear with a yellowish tint toward the tips and are strongly veined with net-like pattern.

Special Adaptations:

-Females oviposit in aquatic vegetation, eggs laid beneath the water surface

-Nymphs (naiads) are aquatic carnivores, feeding on insects,tadpoles and small fish. Adult darners catch insects on the wing, including ant royalty, moths, mosquitoes and flies.

-Common green darners prefer permanent and temporary ponds, lakes, bays, estuaries and slow-moving streams and riparian areas

Long Dash Skippers

Order: Lepidoptera

Family: Hesperiidae

Genus: Polites

Species: P. mystic

Identifying Characteristics:

- Wing span: 23-29 mm

- Male: upperside is bright orange brown with a wide dark brown border covering the outer third of each wing. It has a dark patch along the outer edge of the black stigma and another wide rectangular one near the wing tip, which make the stigma appear much longer and wider than it really is, and giving the species its common name.

- Female: upperside is mostly dark brown, with varying amounts of dull orange or straw-colored shading on the costa.

- Both sexes have a pale orange medial patch on the hindwing above crossed by the dark veins, and a crescent-shaped band of pale medial spots on the underside, parallel to the outer margin of the wing

Special Adaptations:

- Caterpillar host: bluegrass

- Females deposit eggs singly on or near the host plant. Caterpillars feed on leaves.

- Habitat: open, moist areas including meadows, marshes, wood edges, and prairies

- Flight season:It flies from early June to late July in the east, into mid-August on the Prairies; there is one generation each year throughout its range.

Monarch Butterfly

Order: Lepidoptera

Family: Nymphalidae

Genus: Danaus

Species: D. plexippus

Identifying Characteristics:

- wingspan ranges from 8.9-10.2 cm. The upper side of the wings is tawny-orange, the viens and margins are black, and in the margins are two series of small white spots. The fore wings also have a few orange spots near the tip. The underside is similar but the tip of the fore wing and hind wing are yellow-brown instead of tawny-orange and the white spots are larger

- Male: has a black patch of androconial scales responsible for dispersing pheromones on the hind wings, and the black veins on its wing are narrower than the female’s. The male is also slightly larger

- Like all insects the Monarch has six legs, however it uses only four of its legs as it carries its two front legs against its body

- The eggs are creamy white and later turn pale yellow. They are elongate and subconical, with approximately 23 longitudinal ridges and many fine traverse lines

- The caterpillar is banded with yellow, black, and white stripes. The head is also striped with yellow and black. There are two pairs of black filaments, one pair on each end of the body. The caterpillar will reach a length of 5 cm

- The chrysalis is blue-green with a band of black and gold on the end of the abdomen. There are other gold spots on the thorax, the wing bases, and the eyes

Special Adaptations:

- The Monarch ranges from southern Canada to northern South America

- Monarchs are especially noted for their lengthy annual migration. In North America they make massive southward migrations starting in August until the first frost.

- A northward migration takes place in the spring. The monarch is the only butterfly that migrates both north and south as the birds do on a regular basis.But no single individual makes the entire round trip. Female monarchs deposit eggs for the next generation during these migrations

- Monarch butterflies are poisonous or distasteful to birds and mammals because of the presence of cardiac glycosidesthat are contained in milkweed consumed by the larva.

- The Monarch can be found in a wide range of habitats such as fields, meadows, prairie remnants, urban and suburban parks, gardens, and roadsides

Wool Grass

Order: Cyperales

Family: Cyperaceae

Genus: Scirpus

Species: S. cyperines

Identifying Characteristics:

- Consists of a clump of low vegetative shoots, from which arises one or more flowering stalks about 3-5' tall.

- The stout culms of the flowering stalks are unbranched, bluntly 3-angled or terete (round in cross-section), medium green and glabrous.

- Each culm has 5-9 alternate leaves along its length. The blades of the leaves are up to 12 mm across and 2 in long.

- Wool-grass is a bulrush sedge

- Stems are erect

Special Adaptations:

- Found growing in marshes, swamps, and ponds

- Blooms from summer to fall

- grow in dense clumps in saturated or boggy soils with partial shade

- shallow water is tolerated

- several leaf beetles and caterpillars feed on the foliage of the wool-grass

- Wool grass are an important source of food and cover to many vertebrate animals such as, ducks, geese, many species of bird, muskrats.

Hemiptera

Class: Insecta

Order: Hemiptera

Identifying Characteristics:

- mouthparts that form a beak or rostrum which are capable of piercing tissues

- The hindwings are entirely membranous and are usually shorter than the forewings

-The antennae are typically five-segmented

- oval, hard body, 14 mm or less

Special Adaptations:

- True bugs

- Do not undergo metamorphosis between a larval phase and an adult phase

- Most hemipterans are phytophagous, feeding on plant sap such as aphids, scale insects, and cicadas.

Opossum

Order: Didelphimorphia

Family: Didelphidae

Identifying Characteristics:

- Small to medium-sized marsupials, the largest can be the size of a house cat and the smallest can be around the size of a mouse

- long snouts, narrow brain case, and prominent sagittal crest

- Opossums have more teeth than any other land mammal

- prehensile tail (can grasp or hold)

Special Adaptations:

- Their unspecialized biology, flexible diet, and reproductive strategy make them successful colonizers and survivors in diverse locations and conditions

- opportunistic omnivores with a very broad diet

- They are usually solitary and nomadic, staying in one area as long as food and water are easily available

Great Blue Heron

Order: Ciconiiformes

Family: Ardeidae

Genus: Ardea

Species: A. herodias

Identifying Characteristics:

- Large wading bird

- height: heard to tail it's 91-140 cm (36-55 in), wingspan of 167-201 cm (66-79 in)

- Notable features: slaty flight feathers, red-brown and black stripe up the flanks; the neck is rusty-gray, with black and white streaking down the front; the head is paler, with a nearly white face, and a pair of black plumes running from just above the eye to the back of the head. The feathers on the lower neck are long and plume-like; it also has plumes on the lower back at the start of the breeding season.

- bill/beak: dull yellowish, becoming orange briefly at the start of the breeding season

- legs: lower legs are gray, becoming orangey at the start of the breeding season

-stride: around 22 cm, almost in a straight line. Two of the three front toes are generally closer together. In a tack the front toes as well as the back often show the small talons

Special Characteristics:

- The Great Blue Heron is found throughout most of North America

- Habitats: found in either fresh and saltwater marshes, mangrove swamps, flooded meadows, lake edges, or shorelines

-usually nest in trees or bushes

- Diet: small fish,shrimp, crab, aquatic insects, rodents, other small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and small birds.

- Herons locate their food by sight and usually swallow it whole. Individuals usually forage while standing in water, but will also feed in fields or drop from the air, or a perch, into water.

- Herons usually breed in colonies, in trees close to lakes or other wetlands

- They build a bulky stick nest, and the female lays three to sex pale blue eggs. One brood is raised each year

Green Frog

Order: Anura

Family: Ranidae

Genus: Rana

Species: R. clamitans

Identifying Characteristics:

- Adult: range from 2-4 in in body length (snout to vent)

- Males: have a tympanum (external hearing structure) twice the diameter of the eye and the bright yellow throat. Throat is bright yellow

- Female: tympanum diameter is about the same size as the eye.

- Color: green to greenish brown above, dark brown or grayish dorsal spots/blotches. White on the stomach and usually some dark spots or mottling under the legs and head. Throat is bright yellow

- dorsolateral ridges, prominent, seam-like skin folds that run down the sides of the back

Special Characteristics:

- Live where there is shallow fresh water: ponds, road-side ditches, lakes, swamps, streams, and brooks. They are most often seen resting along the shore, they leap into the water when approached and they yelp "eeeeeepppp"

- breed in semi-permanent or permanent freshwater. They breed from April to August

- Males call to defend their territories. Their call sounds like a plunked banjo string

- Fertilization takes place in the water where the eggs and sperm are released and then the sperm chases those eggs. It is a fun little game

- A single egg clutch may consist of 1000 to 7000 eggs, which may be attached to submerged vegetation

- Green frog tadpoles are olive green and iridescent creamy-white below

- Metamorphosis can occur within the same breeding season or tadpoles may overwinter to metamorphose the next summer. Males become sexually mature at 1 year, females may mature in either 2 or 3 years

- Green frogs will attempt to eat mouth-sized animals they can capture which are: insects, spiders, fish, crayfish, shrimp, other frogs, tadpoles, small snakes, spiders, birds, and snails

Clinton Fern

Order: Polypodiales

Family: Dryopteridaces

Genus: Dryopteris

Species: D. clintoniana

Identifying Characteristics:

- Height: 2-4 ft tall

- Location of spores: underside of fronds (leaves)

- Color: bluish-green, light green

- Leaflets: The lowest pair of leaflets are each shaped as a broad-basd triangle

- Fronds: are up to 20cm wide, 90-135cm long; they are "lanceolate," which means they are lance-shaped with long, tapered apex and a short, tapered base; "bipinnatifid," which means that the leaflets and pinnules are both deeply lobed

Special Adaptations:

-Habitat: swamp woods, deciduous forest

- shade tolerant

Leafhopper

Order: Hemiptera

Family: Cicadellidae

Genus: Varies

Species: Varies

Identifying Characteristics:

- Adults: elongated, wedge shaped and somewhat triangular in cross section

- Size: range from 1/8 - 1/2 in

- Color: bodies are yellow, green, gray, or they may be marked with color patterns

- Nymphs: resemble adults but they are wingless

Special Characteristics:

- Adults can jump and fly off readily

- Nymphs can run rapidly, occasionally sideways, and hop

- Overwinter eggs are inserted into leaf veins, shoots, or stems or host plants

- Leafhoppers can be somewhat specific to certain host plants

- As a group they feed on leaves of a wide variety of plants including many types of grasses, flowers, vegetables, fruit trees, shrubs, deciduous trees, and weeds

- Leafhoppers are one of the largest families of plant-feeding insects

- Found almost anywhere because there are so many different species of leafhoppers

Bur Oak

Order: Fagales

Family: Fagaceae

Genus: Quercus

Species: Q. macrocarpa

Identifying Characteristics:

- Large deciduous tree, 30 m (100 ft) tall

- Trunk: massive, 3 m (10 ft) diameter

- Bark: medium gray and somewhat rugged

- Leaves: 7-15 cm long; 5-13 cm wide; variable in shape, with a lobed margin

- Flower: greenish-yellow catkins

- Acorns: very large, 2-5 cm long and 2-4 cm wide, with a large cup that wraps much of the way around the nut, with a large overlapping scales and often a fringe at the edge of the cup

Special Adaptions:

- typically grow in the open, away from the forest canopy

- often found near waterways, rich woods, prairie borders

- fire-resistant tree

- One of the slowest-growing oaks

Prickly Ash

Order: Sapindales

Family: Rutaceae

Genus: Zanthoxylum

Species: Z. americanum

Identifying Characteristics:

- Shrub, thicket-forming

- Height: 15-20 ft tall

- Spread: 10-15 ft wide

- Paired prickles

- leaves: compound, with 5-11 toothed egg-shaped leaflets and often prickly leafstalks

- Flower: small, greenish, clustered

- Fruit: small, dry, reddish-brown, 1-2 seeded pods

Special Adaptations:

- Found in old fields, fertile woods, and riverbanks

- Leaves have a lemon-like odor

- Known as the toothache tree

Jack in the Pulpit

Order: Alismatales

Family: Araceae

Genus: Arisaema

Species: A. triphyllum

Identifying Characteristics:

- Leaves: trifoliate, with groups of three leaves growing together at the top of one long stem produced from the corm (underground stem)

- Height: 65 cm tall

- Flowers: irregular shaped, 8 cm long, green with purple/brown stripes

- Fruit: cluster of bright red berries

Special Adaptations:

- Habitat: moist woods, swamps

- Herbaceous perennial plant

- Contains calcium oxalate crystals in all parts of the plant. Consumption of the raw plant material will result in a powerful burning sensation. Irritation to the mouth and digestive system.

- Often confused with poison ivy

Royal Fern

Order: Polypodiales

Family: Osmundiales

Genus: Osmunda

Species: O. regalis

Identifying Characteristics:

- Dark green

- Sterile fronds: 60-160 cm tall and 30-40 cm wide

- bipinnate, with 7-9 pairs of pinnae up to 30 cm long

- each pinna have 7-13 pairs of pinnules (real little leaves on the pinna), 2.5-6.5 cm long and 1-2 cm wide

- pinnae have densely-clustered sporangia

Special Adaptations:

- deciduous herbaceous plant

- sometimes known as the flowering fern

- found in wet soil along streams and lakeshores, in bogs, and in wet meadows

- sporangia help capture sunlight

White Tailed Deer

Order: Artiodactyla

Family: Cervidae

Genus: Odocoileus

Species: O. virginanus

Identifying Characteristics:

Fur Coat: reddish-brown, spring and summer time; grey-brown, fall and winter time

Tail: white on the underside

Male: 130-300 lbs, antlers

Female: 90-200 lbs

Special Characteristics:

- The make deer re-grow their antlers every year

- White-tailed deers are herbivores

- They can be found in southern Canada and most of the United States, except for the Southwest, Alaska and Hawaii

- Their habitat is primarily wooded areas

Green Darner Dragonfly

Order: Odonata

Family: Aeshnidae

Genus: Anax

Species: A. junius

Identifying Characteristics:

- one of the largest dragonflies

- resembles a darning-needle

- grow 76 mm in length with a wingspan of up to 80 mm

- Green head and thorax

- the abdomen is yellow and brown

- large compound eyes, strong jaws, and spiny legs

- the wings are clear with a yellowish ting

Special Adaptations:

- Females ovipoist in aquatic vegetation, eggs laid beneath the water surface

- Nymphs are aquatic carnivores, feeding on insects, tadpoles, and small fish

- Adult darners catch insects on the wing, including ant royalty, moths, mosquitoes and flies

- common throughout North America

- Prefer permanent and temporary ponds, lakes, bays, estuaries, and slow-moving streams

Box Elder

Oder: Sapindales

Family: Sapindaceae

Genus: Acer

Species: A. negundo

Identifying Characteristics:

- Height: Small, usually fast-growing and fairly short-lived tree that grows up to 10-25 m tall

- Trunk: 30-50 cm in diameter

- shoots: green, often with a whitish to pink or violet waxy coating when young

- Branches: smooth, somewhat brittle, and tend to retain a fresh color rather than forming bark

- Bark: on the trunk is pale gray or light brown, deeply cleft into broad ridges, and scaly

- Leaves: pinnately compound, 3-7 leaflets

- Leaflets: 5-10 cm long and 3-7 cm wide with slightly serrate margins. Translucent light green

- Flowers: small, 10-20 cm long, with a 2-3 cm incurved wing, yellow green

Special Adaptations:

- Prefers lots of sunlight

- grows on flood plains and other disturbed areas with ample water supply

- Soft wood

- May occur as a weedy species in urban areas where its seeds are able to germinate

Black Cherry

Order: Rosales

Family: Rosaceae

Genus: Prunus

Species: P. serotina

Identifying Characteristics:

- Height: 15-30 m tall

- Trunk: 70-120 cm in diameter

- Leaves: simple, 6-14 cm long, with a serrated margin

- Flowers: small (10-15 mm diameter), with 5 white petals and about 20 stamens, and are

fragrant

- Fruit: drupe, 1 cm diameter, green to red at first, ripening black

- Bark: very broken, dark grey to back

Special Adaptations:

- Can grow in a wide range of climate conditions

- variety of soil conditions, cool and moist

- intolerant of shade

- very intolerant of competition

Pin Oak

Order: Fagales

Family: Fagacceae

Genus: Quercus

Species: Q. palustris

Identifying Characteristics:

- Height: medium-sized, 60 - 70 ft (18 - 22m)

- Trunk: 3 ft in diameter and 25- 45ft spread

- Leaves:

• 5-16 cm long and 5-12 cm broad
• lobed, with five or seven lobes. Each lobe has 5-7 bristle-tipped teeth
• Sinuses are typically u-shapped and deep cut
• Hairless
• Green and glossy

- Acorn: 10-16 mm long and 9-15 mm broad, green maturing pale brown about 18 months after population. Unpalatable because the kernel is very bitter

- Flower: brown, inconspicuous and not showy

- Bark: thin

Special Adaptations:

- Wetland tree

- Grows primarily on level or nearly level, poorly drained floodplain and river bottom soils with high clay content

- Develops nicely on moist, acid soils and is tolerant of compaction, wet soil and urban conditions

- Monoecious

- Intolerant of shade

- Usually grows in even-aged stands of dominant and co-dominate trees

Northern Cardinal

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Cardinalidae

Genus: Cardinalis

Species: C. cardinalis

Identifying Characteristics:

Size and Shape:

• Fairly large, 21 cm
• long-tailed
• short, very thick bill
• prominent crest

Color Pattern:

• Male: red all over, with a reddish bill and black face immediatly around the bill
• Females: pale brown overall with reddish tinges in the wings, tail, and crest. Some black face and red-orange beak

Special Adaptations:

- Sit low in shrubs and trees or forage on or near to the ground, often in pairs

- Habitat: woodlands, gardens, shrublands, and swamps

- Nest: dense tangles or shrubs and vines

- Male bird behaves territorially, making out his territory with song

- Cutch size: 2- 4 eggs are laid and 2 - 4 clutches are produced a year

- diet: weed seeds, grains, and fruits

Field Sparrow

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Emberizidae

Genus: Spizella

Species: S. pusilla

Identifying Characteristics:

- Adult description

• Small sparrow
• Dully marked
• Unstreaked chest
• Reddish cap
• Gray face with thin white eyering
• Pink beak

Special Adaptations:

- Habitat: shrubby fields across eastern North America

- Nest: is an open cup on the ground under a clump of grass or in a small thicket

- Forage: on the ground or in low vegetation, mainly eating insects and seeds

- Clutch size: 2 to 5 eggs

Indigo Bunting

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Cardinalidae

Genus: Passerine

Species: P. cyanea

Identifying Characteristics:

- Adult bird description:

• Small songbird
• short, conical bill/beak
• Male: dark blue plumage, with a darker crown which verges on purple (breeding season), the wings and tail are black with blue edges.
• Female: dull brown
• 11.5- 13 cm in length
• wingspan: 20 - 23 cm
• Feet and legs: black or gray

Special Adaptations:

- Habitat: brushy forest edges, open deciduous woods, second growth woodland, and farmland

- Communicates: through vocalizations and visual cues

- Migration: April and May and then again in September and October. Often migrates during the night, using the stars to direct itself

- Generally monogamous but not always faithful to their partner

- Nesting sites are located in dense shrub or a low tree

- Forages on insects, seeds, and berries

American Goldfinch

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Fringillidae

Genus: Spinus

Species: S. tristis

Identifying Characteristics:

- Size and Shape:

• Small finch
• short, conical bill
• small head
• long wings
• short, notched tail

- Color Pattern:

• Adult males: in the spring and early summer are bright yellow with black forehead, black wings with white markings, and white patches both above and beneath the tail
• 
  
• Adult females: duller yellow beneath, olive above on the back
• 
  
• Winter birds: drab, unstreaked brown,with blackish wings and two pale wingbars

Special: Adaptations:

- Active and acrobatic that cling to weeds and seed socks

- mill about in large numbers

- fly with a bouncy, undulating pattern and often call in flight, drawing attention to themselves

- Their habitat are weedy fields and floodplains, where plants such as thistles and asters are common

- Also found in cultivated areas, roadsides, orchards, and backyards

- Conical beak is used to remove the seeds

- Agile feet are used to grip the stems of seedheads while feeding

- American Goldfinches are social bird, and will gather in large flocks while feeding and migrating

-This species is generally monogamous, and produces one brood each year.

White Pine

Order: Pinales

Family: PInaceae

Genus: Pinus

Species: P. stobus

Identifying Characteristics:

-Leaves: needles that are in bundles of five. Flexible, bluish-green, finely serrated, and 5-13 cm long

-Cones: Slender, 8-16 cm long and 4-5 cm wide when open, they have scales with a rounded apex and slightly reflexed tip.

- Height: 160 -188 ft (50 - 57 meters)

- Bark: darkening and thickening as tree ages, smooth and gray on young growth, becoming gray-brown, deeply furrowed with broad ridges of irregularly rectangular, purple-tinged scaly plates

Special Adaptations:

- White Pines prefer well-drained soil and cool, humid climates, but also grow in boggy areas and rocky highlands.

- Dominates over all other trees in a mixed forest

- It provides food and shelter for forest birds and small mammals

- Moderately fire resistant; mature trees survive most surface fires due to thick bark, branch-free trunks, and a moderately deep rooting habit. (Younger trees are not as fire resistant.) Needles have relatively low resin content so are not highly flammable

Poison Ivy

Order: Sapindales
Family: Anacardiaceae
Genus: Toxicodendron
Species: T. radicans
Identifying Characteristics:

- Poison ivy are trifoliate with three almond-shaped leaflets

- Leaf color ranges from light green to dark green

- The leaflets of mature leaves are somewhat shiny

- The leaflets are 3 to 12 cm long, rarely up to 30 cm.

- Each leaflet has a few or no teeth along its edge, and the leaf surface is smooth.

- Vines growing on the trunk of a tree become firmly attached through numerous aerial rootlets

-Poison ivy is dioecious; flowering occurs from May to July. The yellowish- or greenish-white flowers are typically inconspicuous and are located in clusters up to 8 cm above the leaves.

- the fruit is gray to whitish

- no thorns

Special Characteristics:

- Has the ability to produce urushiol, a skin irritant that causes an itching rash for most people

- Poison ivy grows throughout much of North America

- is normally found in wooded areas, especially along edge areas. It also grows in exposed rocky areas and in open fields and disturbed areas

- somewhat shade tolerant

- Poison ivy rarely grows at altitudes above 1,500 m (4,900 ft), although the altitude limit varies in different locations

Wolf Spider

Order: Araneae
Family: Lycosidae
Genus: unknown
Species: unknown

Identifying Characteristics:

- They have eight eyes arranged in three rows. The bottom row consists of four small eyes, the middle row has two very large eyes and the top row has two medium-sized eyes.

- Coloration for their habitat: light brown to dark brown

- Stripped and hairy legs

- about 1/2 inch to 2 inches in length

Special Adaptations:

- They are robust and agile hunters with good eyesight
- Some are opportunistic wanderer hunters, which means they pounce upon prey as they
find it or chase it over short distances.
- Others lie in wait for passing prey, often from or near the mouth of a burrow.

- They live mostly solitary lives and hunt alone

- They carry their egg sacs by attaching them to their spinnerets

- nocturnal
- depend on camouflage for protection

- lurk most of the time in their burrows

- venomous

- Wolf spiders can be found in a wide range of habitats both coastal and inland. These include shrublands, woodland, wet coastal forest, alpine meadows, and suburban gardens.

Tall Bellflower

Order: Asterales
Family: Campanulaceae
Genus: Campanula
Species: C. americana

Identifying Characteristics:

- Leaves: Narrowly egg or lance-shaped, tapering at the base

- Stems: erect, herbaceous, milky sap

- Flowers: Light-blue, star-shaped, 5 lobed, flowers are in a leafy spike

- Height: 2-6' tall

Special Adaptions:

- Blooms from June to September/October

- Found in moist ground, open most woods, stream banks

- Native the U.S