Clouded Sulphur

Order: Lepidoptera

Family: Pieridae

Genus: Colias

Species: C. philodice

Identifying Characteristics:

-The upper side of the male's wings is yellow with black borders. The upper side of the female's wings is either yellow or greenish-white with yellow- or white-spotted black borders. The underside of the male's wings is yellow while the female's is yellow or greenish-white, and both have a double hind wing spot trimmed in brownish-red. Its wingspan 32 to 54 mm

Special Adaptations:

-This butterfly may be encountered in fields, lawns, Alfalfa or Clover fields, meadows, and roadsides. Swarms of these butterflies will congregate at mud puddles.

-Clouded Sulphurs nectar at flowers such as Milkweed, Butterfly Bush, Coneflower, Alfalfa, Dandelion, Clover, and Tall verbena and many more

-The pale yellow eggs are laid singly on the host plants. The eggs turn red after a few days, then turn gray just before they hatch. The young larvae will eat one another. The larva is green with a white stripe running along each side of the body. The white stripes may contain bars or lines of pink or orange. The green chrysalis hangs up right by a silken girdle. Just beforeeclosion, the chrysalis turns yellow with a pink "zipper".

Horse Nettle

Order: Solanales

Family: Solanaceae

Genus: Solanum

Species: S. carolinense

Identifying Characteristics:

- This native perennial plant is up to 3' tall, branching occasionally.

- The stems have scattered white or yellow spines.

- The alternate leaves are up to 6" long and 3" across, and have short petioles. They are broadly lanceolate or ovate, but rather angular along the margins, which are slightly ciliate. There are white hairs and scattered spines along the central vein on the underside of each leaf.

- The upper stems terminate in small clusters of star-shaped flowers with hairy pedicels. These flowers are white or light violet, about 3/4 in across, and have 5 petals that are united at the base.

- round fruits develop that are a little more than ½" across and half-enclosed by a papery calyx. They become yellow when mature, but are not edible to humans. Each fruit contains numerous seeds that are glossy yellow and flattened.

Special Adaptations:

-The preference is full sun and moist to dry conditions. Horse Nettle grows readily in loamy or sandy soil, and probably other soil types as well. It is a rather weedy plant that can become aggressive at disturbed sites.

-Habitats include mesic to dry black soil prairies, clay prairies, sand prairies, openings and edges of woodlands, abandoned fields, areas along roadsides and railroads, yards and gardens, vacant lots, and other waste areas. This plant is most typically observed in disturbed areas, but can be found occasionally even in high quality habitats.

-Bumblebees visit the flowers to collect pollen

-The caterpillars of the day-flying moth Synanthedon rileyana (Riley's Clearwing) feed on Horse Nettle.

-The mature yellow fruits are eaten, to a limited extent, by the Ring-Necked Pheasant, Bobwhite, Wild Turkey, Eastern Striped Skunk, and possibly small rodents, thereby promoting the distribution of the seeds and spread of this plant. They are apparently more immune to the reduced toxicity of the mature fruit than humans.

Order: Myrtales

Family: Onagraceae

Genus: Oenothera

Species: O. biennis

Identifying Characteristics:

-This native biennial plant can be 8' tall, although it is often shorter

-There is usually a central stem with alternate leaves, but sometimes there will be multiple stems in open areas, creating a bushy appearance. The stems are light green or red, and are covered with white hairs.

-The light or olive green leaves are up to 8" long and 2" wide, but usually smaller. They are lanceolate and resemble willow leaves. The margins of the leaves are smooth or slightly dentate, and are nearly hairless. Smaller secondary leaves often appear at the axils of major leaves on the central stem.

- A panicle of pale yellow flowers occurs at the apex of the plant (or at the ends of major stems, if the plant is bushy). Each flower is about 1" across when fully open, with 4 petals and prominent stamens, and a long green calyx.

-Long narrow seedpods develop, which split open from the top to release many tiny, irregular brown seeds.

Special Adaptations:

- The flowers remain open from evening to early morning, but will remain open longer on cloudy days. They have a mild lemony scent, and bloom from mid-summer to fall on mature plants

- The preference is full sun, average moisture, and a soil that is somewhat sandy, but other growing conditions are acceptable

- This plant forms a stubby rosette during the first year, but becomes tall during the second year, at which time it flowers, sets seed, and dies.

- It is a common plant that is particularly conspicuous during late summer or fall. Disturbed areas are favored in both natural and developed habitats, including mesic to dry black soil prairies, sand prairies, thickets, glades, lakeshore dunes, abandoned fields, roadsides and railroads, slopes of drainage ditches, vacant lots, etc

- Moths pollinate the flowers, particularly Sphinx moths. Other occasional visitors include the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, honeybees, bumblebees, and Anthedonia compta (Primrose Miner Bee), the latter being an oligolege. These insects seek nectar, although some of the bees collect pollen. The caterpillars of several moths feed on the foliage.

Carolina Grasshopper

Order: Orthoptera

Family: Acrididae

Genus: Dissosteira

Species: D. carolina

Identifying Characteristics:

- This grasshopper is one of the largest in North America

- It has colorful wings that span 3 inches in males and 3.5 to 4 inches in females.

- The leathery wing covers (tegima) match the body color of tan, brown, or grey with speckles. The hind wings are black with a pale yellow margin.

Special Adaptations:

- Lifecycle:They begin life as eggs, from which the grasshopper nymphs emerge in June. After several instars, the nymphs develop into adults with functional wings, and disperse.

- Male grasshoppers court females by a producing a signal made by alternate stridulation, which is rubbing one hindleg against the tegmen, which produces sound.

- The Carolina grasshopper is found throughout North America. This grasshopper lives in rangeland grasses, where it is a minor pest.

- Because of its large size, it is able to consume a lot of food.

- It is often found in disturbed areas such as roadside strips and weedy fence rows. It feeds mostly on grasses, and weeds, but it may also damage crops such as wheat, alfalfa and tobacco in favorable habitats. It's local diet depends greatly on what plants are available in its habitat.

- Daily activity for the grasshopper includes sunbathing for a few hours in the morning and feeding. Males are more active than females, since they are searching for mates. Adult females spend more time feeding, grooming and resting than males.

Butterfly Weed

Order: Gentianales

Family: Apocynaceae

Genus: Asclepias

Species: A. tuberosa

Identifying characteristics:

- The magnificent bright orange flowers are concentrated in compact clusters at the top of branching stems

- 12-24 in tall

- The leaves are spirally arranged, lanceolate, 5-12 cm long and 2-3 cm broad.

- It has hairy stems that are not milky when broken.

Special Adaptations:

-This plant favors dry, sand or gravel soil, but has also been reported on stream margins.

-It requires full sun.

-It is commonly known as Butterfly Weed because of the butterflies that are attracted to the plant by its color and its copious production of nectar. It is also the larval food plant of the Queen and Monarch butterflies.

Flowering Spurge

Order: Euphorbiales

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Genus: Euphorbia

Species: E. corollata

Identifying Characteristics:

-This native perennial plant is unbranched, ranging from ½-3' tall.

-The central stem is light green and without hairs.

-The hairless leaves are about 2-3" long and ½" wide, broadly linear or narrowly oblong, and have smooth margins. They occur along the stem alternately, except at the apex of the plant, where they occur in whorls of three beneath the panicle of flowers

-Each flowerhead consists of a yellow cyathium of very small yellow flowers, which is surrounded by five petal-like structures (modified leaves) that are white, with a hint of green towards the center. These flowerheads are numerous, each one a little less than ½" across

-Flowering Spurge blooms during mid- to late summer for about 1½ months. During this time, the entire plant often leans over because of the weight of the inflorescence. There is no floral scent. Each flower produces 3 oval, finely pitted brown seeds, which are ejected outward mechanically.

Special Characteristics:

-The preference is full sun, and mesic to dry conditions.

-This plant will tolerate almost any kind of soil, including that which is sandy, rocky, loamy, or clayish. Poor soil is actually preferred because of the reduction in competition from other plants

-Drought resistance is quite high, and disease is rarely a problem when the soil is well-drained. This plant can spread vegetatively, but is not particularly aggressive. It is rather slow-growing, but easy to manage.

-It can be found in an exceptional variety of habitats, including mesic to dry black soil prairies, sand prairies, gravel prairies, and dolomite prairies; openings in upland forests and sandy forests; mesic to dry savannas, sandy savannas, and barrens; various kinds of hill prairies, with the soil consisting of loess, glacial drift, sand, or gravel; limestone glades and bluffs; sand dunes; areas along railroads and roads; and agricultural land in various stages of abandonment and neglect

-The flowers attract wasps, flies, and short-tongued bees primarily. Among the wasps are such visitors as Mud Daubers, Paper wasps, Spider wasps, Cuckoo wasps, Tiphiid wasps, Crabronine wasps, and Ichneumonid wasps. Fly visitors include Syrphid flies, bee flies, Tachinid flies, flesh flies, blow flies, and Muscid flies.

-Ants may help to distribute some of the seeds because of a small edible appendage at their base.

-The seeds are popular with some species of birds, including the Wild Turkey, Greater Prairie Chicken, Bobwhite, Mourning Dove, and Horned Lark. This plant is rarely eaten by mammalian herbivores because of the toxic white latex in the leaves and stems, which can kill cattle.

Dewberry

Order: Rosales

Family: Rosaceae

Genus: Rubus

Species: R. flagellaris

Identifying Characteristics:

- This native woody vine produces stems up to 15' long that trail along the ground; some of the flowering stems are more erect and up to 4' tall. Old stems are brown and woody with scattered hooked prickles. Young stems are green with scattered hooked prickles; they are also more or less hairy.

-Alternate compound leaves occur at intervals along the stems. They are usually trifoliate with 3 leaflets; less often, compound leaves with 5 leaflets occur. These leaflets are up to 3" long and 1" across; they are ovate, doubly serrate along the margins, and mostly hairless. The underside of each leaflet is pale green, rather than white or velvety. Most leaflets have wedge-shaped bottoms and tips that taper gradually.

-Young stems often terminate in a corymb of 1-5 flowers. Each flower is about 1" across when fully open; it consists of 5 white petals, 5 lanceolate green sepals, and numerous stamens that surround a green cluster of carpels. The petals are longer than the sepals and they often have a somewhat wrinkled appearance. The blooming period occurs from mid-spring to early summer and lasts about 2 months.

-Each fertilized flower is replaced by a compound drupe up to 1" long that is longer than it is broad. A fully ripened drupe becomes purple-black or black and has a tart-sweet flavor. This drupe does not detach from its receptacle easily.

Special Adaptations:

-This plant typically grows in partial sun and mesic to dry conditions.

- it tolerates different kinds of soil, including those containing loam, clay-loam, sand, or rocky material. Full sun is also toleratedThe flowers attract both long-tongued and short-tongued bees, including honeybees, bumblebees, Mason bees, Leaf-Cutting bees, Cuckoo bees (Nomadine), and Miner bees (Eucerine). These insects suck nectar or collect pollen. The flowers also attract butterflies, skippers, and various flies. Insects that feed on various parts of Common Dewberry

- The drupes of Common Dewberry and other Rubus spp. are an important source of summer food to many upland gamebirds and songbirds

-The Raccoon, Fox Squirrel, Eastern Chipmunk, White-Footed Mouse, and other mammals also eat the fruits, while the Cottontail Rabbit and White-Tailed Deer browse on the leaves and stems.

Black Swallowtail

Order: Lepidoptera

Family: Papilionidae

Genus: Papilio

Species: P. polyxenes

Identifying Characteristics:

-The black swallowtail is a black butterfly with yellow markings near the margins of the forewings and hindwings and more limited blue and red markings on the hindwings

-Its wing span can reach 4 ½ inches

-Full grown caterpillars can reach 2 inches in length and are smooth and green, marked with black bands and yellow spots.

Special Adaptations:

- the black swallowtail mimics the bad tasting pipevine swallowtail, Battus philenor (Linnaeus), which is all metallic black-blue on the upper surface of the wings, lacking the yellow and blue markings. Caterpillars feed on pipevines, Dutchman’s-pipe and Virginia snakeroot

-Winter is spent in the chrysalis (pupa) stage. Adults emerge in the spring and seek host plants. Females lay round, yellow to cream colored eggs on the leaves. Caterpillars hatching from eggs are initially black with a white saddle. After molting several times, each larvae transforms into a pale green chrysalis that is suspended from a plant stem by a thread.

-Caterpillars have chewing mouthparts. Adults have siphoning mouths. Host plants of the caterpillar include members of the parsley family (Umbelliferae) including carrot, parsley, dill, fennel and Queen Anne's lace and some members of the Rutaceae

Eastern Wood Peewee

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Tyrannidae

Genus: Contopus

Species: C. virens

Identifying Characteristics:

-Medium-sized flycatcher

-Adults are grey-olive on the upperparts with light underparts, washed with olive on the breast. They have two wing bars, and the primary remiges are long, giving the wingtip a slim and very pointed appearance. The upper part of the bill is dark, the lower part is yellowish

-The songs are basically a mournful whistled pee-a'wee given in a series, which gave this bird its name, and a "we-aww" with a rising note at the end

- Juvenile similar to adult, but wingbars buffier

Special Adaptations:

-Eastern Wood-Pewee: Breeds from eastern Great Plains to the Atlantic Ocean, ranging from southern Canada (Saskatchewan to the Maritime Provinces) to northern Florida, the Gulf coast and central Texas. Spends winters in the tropics.

-Preferred habitats include northern hardwood, pine-oak, oak-hickory, bottomland hardwood, southern pine savannah, and midwestern forests; also found in orchards, parks, roadsides, and suburban areas.

-One potential cause of their decline is the overpopulation of white-tailed deer in the Eastern forests. In areas with high deer density, the intermediate canopy is disturbed by browsing, affecting the foraging space of the flycatcher

Soft Arrow - Wood

Order: Dipsacales

Family: Caprifoliaceae

Genus: Viburnum

Species: V. dentatum

Identifying Characteristics:

- arrow- wood is a deciduous shrub (potentially a small tree) with slender trunk(s) and arching branches

- gets no more 6-10 ft (1.8-3 m) tall

- Arrow-wood usually has multiple trunks and expands its domain by sending up new shoots from underground runners

- dark green leaves are opposite, a little sandpapery to the touch, and coarsely toothed along the margins. A prominent lateral vein terminates at the tip of each marginal tooth. The leaves are oval and usually 2-3 in (5-7.7 cm) long.

- Arrow-wood blooms in mid-spring with showy flat topped clusters of little creamy white flowers. The flowers are about an eighth-inch across and the clusters are 3-4 in (7.7-10 cm) across.

- The bluish black fruits (1-seeded drupes) are ovoid in shape, a little less than a half-inch long, and the clusters can be quite showy. They are bitter to the taste.

Special Adaptations:

- The viburnums are similar to the dogwoods (Cornus) in that most members of both genera are deciduous shrubs with opposite leaves and tiny whitish flowers in rounded, flat-topped clusters.

- It occurs in mesic woods, usually growing in the understory of mixed hardwood forests of oaks, magnolias, maples, hickories, American beech and the like. Arrow-wood grows on both poorly drained and well drained soils.

- Arrow-wood thrives in partial shade and in full sun

- Arrow-wood is able to tolerate drought once it is established

- Viburnum seeds are difficult to germinate because they have a required period of dormancy and hard seed coats. Under the best of conditions, arrow-wood seeds will take a year to germinate.

Abbot's Sphinx

Order: Lepidoptera

Family: Sphingidea

Genus: Sphecodina

Species: S. abbottii

Identifying Characteristics:

- The young larva is white; The mature larva has two different color forms: tan or brown with greenish saddles on each segment or cream or brownish with darker strips along the back and sides.

- it lacks a horn but has an eyelid bump on its last segment

Special Adaptations:

- When disturbed the sphinx trashes its head and for-body from side to side as a protective measure.

- They feed on grape, Virginia creeper, and anpelopsis. It feeds at night.

- During the day, when it is still, the larva's coloration allows it to blend in with bark and vines near the ground.

Northern bugleweed

Order: Lamiales

Family: Lamiaceae

Genus: Lycopus

Species: L. uniflorus

Identifying Characteristics:

- height: 5-30 in

- Flower: 1/8 in long, white, out during July-october, native, axillary whorls; at the base of each flower are two small, subulate bracts-a smooth, straight, obtusely four-angled stem, with the sides concave, producing slender runners from the base

-leaves are opposite, toothed, entire toward the base, with glandular dots underneath

Special Adaptations:

- Habitat: Sun to partly shade; moist soil, along shores

- Bloom season: summer

- life cycle: perennial

Crane Fly

Order: Diptera

Family: Tipulidae

Identifying Characteristics:

-Crane flies are large tan-colored fragile flies with long legs

-Larval forms of crane flies are grey-brown cylindrical larvae which may bear fleshy lobes on the (posterior) end. Occasionally, the segments towards the end of the body can be greatly expanded.

- Adults are very slender, long-legged flies that may vary in length from 2–60 millimetres (0.079–2.4 in)

Special Adaptations:

-Larvae are often encountered under layers of decomposing leaves in wet locations such as ditch banks in December and January. Adults emerge in February and March.

- Larvae have chewing mouthparts. Crane fly larvae feed primarily on decomposing organic matter. Adults do not feed.

-They commonly occur in moist environments such as woodlands, streams and flood plains although some species inhabit open fields, dry rangeland and even desert environments

-In compost piles, they often occur on the soil surface below the pile of decaying vegetation. Some species have been reported to feed on roots of forage crops, turf grasses and seedling field crops.

-Despite their common names, as adults, crane flies do not prey on mosquitoes, nor do they bite humans

-Adult crane flies feed on nectar or they do not feed at all; once they become adults, most crane fly species exist as adults only to mate and die.