Observações de arbonius

This Western Toad (Anaxyrus boreas halophilus) literally popped its head out of the ground while Amelia and I were standing there. Seeing a strange face come out of nowhere all of a sudden to intently stare at us was startling...and then made us laugh! ;-)

The hind part of its body is still below the surface of the fluffy, dried mud. It must have been aestivating in the "foamy" dried substrate of this interesting hillside habitat. Guessing it felt footsteps of large creatures about to step on it, and erupted to avoid getting squashed?

See remarks under iNat obs 213068429.

[Note: Larger, higher-res images appear in the companion CalPhotos post here...click the "full size" link above the image thumbnails there, then click the image again after it loads.]

See remarks under iNat obs 213068429.

[Note: Larger, higher-res images appear in the companion CalPhotos post here...click the "full size" link above the image thumbnails there, then click the image again after it loads.]

After a minute or so in the field, sharp-eyed @alice_abela spotted the inconspicuous liitle leaf gall about 2/5 the way up the leaf at left in the 1st photo here (just below the sinus of the largest lobe).

A higher-res view of that leaf gall appears in the 2nd photo; and of the stem gall in the 3rd photo.

The other photos show the underside of the leaf, and other views of the same leaf & stem galls...together with higher resolution crops. As far as I know, these were the only two types of galls we (Joyce, Alice, & I) found on the Palmer Oaks (see iNat obs here) off the old jeep road to Alpine Mine across the canyon from Clear Creek Road.

I'm speculating that the leaf gall & stem gall here may represent the associated (sexual) "spring generation" and (agamic) "fall generation" galls, respectively, for the undescribed cynipid species on Quercus palmeri whose stem gall I've referred to as the "Chef's Hat" or "Hot Air Balloon" gall in the recent posts below:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/211291919
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/211303640
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/211327036
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/211333640
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/211342096
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/211336373
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/211312302

The hypothesis is, again, only speculation at this point...and presumes among other things that this undescribed species indeed undergoes alternation of generations (though not all Cynipini do). But note that there are a number of cynipid species that have a sexual spring generation leaf gall followed by an agamic summer/fall generation stem gall — for instance: Bassettia ligni; Disholcaspis cinerosa (scroll down to 2nd & 3rd paragraphs under "Gall Wasps" here); and also Heteroecus dasydactyli and H. pacificus per the discussions on pp. 134-135 and pp. 137-138, respectively, of Russo(2021).

"Chef's Hat" or "Hot Air Balloon" gall seen from above. Many of these galls were found on Quercus palmeri...for more details, see remarks accompanying iNat observation 211291919.

Note: In 2nd photo, "whiteflies" (actually hemipterans) appear on underside of leaf at left.

"Chef's Hat" gall. On the left a fresh gall; on the right an older gall (last year's?) with an exit hole. Both are about 6.5 mm high, and 6 mm wide on top.

Many of these galls were found on Quercus palmeri...for more details, see remarks accompanying iNat observation 211291919.

"Chef's Hat" or "Hot Air Balloon" gall. Many of these galls were found on Quercus palmeri...for more details, see remarks accompanying iNat observation 211291919.

"Chef's Hat" or "Hot Air Balloon" gall. Many of these galls were found on Quercus palmeri...for more details, see remarks accompanying iNat observation 211291919.

"Chef's Hat" or "Hot Air Balloon" gall. Many found on Quercus palmeri...for many more details, see remarks accompanying iNat observation 211291919.

These two galls, seen here on Quercus palmeri, seem to correspond to an undescribed cynipid gall-wasp species.

I had encountered what appears to be the same type gall on Q. palmeri at Fort Ord in May of 2019 (see this CalPhotos post) and afterwards was unable to find any closely matching candidate in the literature (e.g. Ron Russo's or Weld's books) or on the gall image gallery for California "Golden Oaks" (= "Intermediate Oaks" = Section Protobalanus) maintained by Joyce Gross.

Joyce informed me she had never seen this type of gall, and suggested it was probably a new & undescribed species. To my eye it seems closest in form to Heteroecus lyoni (see Fig. 5 of Dailey & Sprenger(1983), and their protolog on the following page therein)...but it's clearly different. While both are detachable, monothalomous, stem galls, with a roughly conical shape...this one is rounded above in cross-section (like a "Chef's Hat", a "Hot Air Balloon", or a dried fig); whereas H. lyoni has a flat-to-depressed top surface with a somewhat "crimped", circular margin.

These galls were quite abundant on the Palmer Oak in iNat observation 209481964, typically emanating from leaf axil or terminal buds...and seeming to "mimic" small 1st year or aborted acorns. Moreover, the same type of gall seems to appear on two of Tucker's 1974 vouchers from the same Clear Creek location: see 1) the tip of the short spur twig just left of the center of this voucher sheet; and 2) near the left-edge at mid-height on this voucher sheet.

It occurred to me such "mimicry" may help deter predation (at least by birds...though insect predators, parasitioids, and inquilines would presumably be guided by chemical scent more than visual appearance).

The presence of these galls...seemingly only known from these Clear Creek oaks and the Palmer Oak at Fort Ord is intriguing (and reinforces the ID of Q. palmeri here). Joyce was able to dissect out an adult cynipid from one of the galls.

[Note: Due to iNat's upper image-size limit of 2048 x 2048 pixels, I've made crops of some of the full-frame images here with their longest side adjusted to 2048 pixels, and then included those crops following their full-frame images to render views at the highest resolution I had.]

I think this is a cerambycid larva...or perhaps some other sort of wood-boring beetle larva?

As best I recall, it was found underneath outer bark and it's seen wandering on the now-exposed surface of the inner bark (for context, see tree section diagram here). I'm thinking the little brown pellets scattered on the surface may be frass from previously chewed & digested wood by it and/or various other sub-bark denizens?)

Scrutinizing the photos will reveal that this larva has impressive black mandibles; tiny antennae and palps; and also three pairs of tiny thoracic legs...each with 3 segments, the terminal one bristle-like.

In the full-size cropped images showing the abdomen, it's remarkable how translucent the cuticle is in some areas...and how clear the internal fluid is. Within the cuticle, one can see lots of white, pill-shaped blobs (fatty deposits? miniature organs? egg primordia?), and an intriguing network of fine, white, divaricating strands reminiscent of arteries. But insects don't have a vascular system for "blood" (i.e. haemolymph)...and I think those "arteries" are actually the tracheal system of branching tubes that lead from the spiracles to the interior, and provide oxygen via diffusion for cellular respiration. Spiracles are visable here as small orange ovals at "mid-height" on each abdominal segment...with a much larger one visible mid-way up the mesothoracic segment above the middle (mini)leg.

From the heft here I'm thinking this is a late instar (maybe final); and from the translucence, recently molted.

We came across this mating pair hovering in a "sun-speck" along the creek-adjacent, woodland trail/road though Mitchell Canyon. To the naked eye it wasn't entirely clear what it was, though I thought I could make out a foamy "nuptial gift" (suggesting a balloon-bearing empidid).

However, I didn't realize it was a mating pair until zooming-in on a photo on the camera display. We observed the two in (roughly) "stationary hover" for over two minutes...don't know how long they were hovering before we noticed them.

After posting this, I noticed @kueda made a very similar observation very nearby about 9 years earlier (with nice accompanying info, and a wonderfully sharp image!)...as did @abmdjoe about 3 weeks earlier here. Seems there's a stable population in the area :-).

This little Ceratina was resting calmly (and cooperatively ;-) on a flower of Lithophragma affine. It looks like some sort of (true) bug was perched on the upper-outside edge of the same flower. In the first photo, at full-size, one can discern the green-metallic sheen of the integument.

The presence of a bright-green squamulose thallus and podetia with distinct, avocado-green "apotheica cups" seems to clearly indicate genus Cladonia, but I couldn't arrive at a good species hypothesis (my best try was C. pyxidata...but that doesn't seem to fit altogether well).

Nectaring (and picking up a lot of pollen!) on flowers of buttercup (Ranunculus californicus).

The last picture shows the tip of its proboscis tucked under a fold/flap of tissue at the base of the petal that seems to represent a nectary-structure of R. californicus that I wasn't previously aware of.

Resting on a leaf of bee plant, Scrophularia californica...in a cool, shady, north-facing canyon woodland.

More info on the BugGuide species page here. Alice's observation (from east of Sacramento) show better detail for the upcurved, orange palps.

Powell & Opler(2009) indicate it's a "European immigrant" first found in California in an El Cerrito backyard in 1966, and reared the following year by Powell from black caterpillars found under bark of Quercus agrifolia in the Berkely Hills, 5 km from El Cerrito. By their 2009 publication date, Powell & Opler indicated it had been detected in Marin, Sonoma, and Napa counties.

The current iNat records map inset suggests it now reaches much further...i.e. east to Sacramento & beyond in Nevada City; north as far as Arcata; and south to Los Osos. And BugGuide currently has 2 Oregon posts from Corvallis & Portland. (But I'm not certain whether my and all the aforementioned posts are correctly ID'd...perhaps some represent similar-looking members of other species? Here's an enlarged version of the reference photo appearing in Plate 4.32 of Powell & Opler...and the "Moth Photographer's Group" species page.)

Based on attempting to photo-match using Sharnoff(2014) and McCune & Geiser(2009)...my best shot at ID here is Xanthoria parietina. Earlier I was thinking it might be the similar-looking Xanthomendoza hasseana.

Growing on a twig (of Quercus agrifolia?) in mesic, north-facing slope, canyon habitat. Appeared next to other lichens seen in 2nd photo...among which, I think, are Ramalina subleptocarpha (iNat obs 202609608)and Teloschistes chrysophthalmus (iNat obs 202611142).