The Daily R-r-r-ibbit

Close Encounters in Frog Pond Holler

                                                                                   Treehopper (Photo by me.)

Lots to celebrate this 4th of July! Besides the usual Independence Day stuff, I'm celebrating a new computer system and liberation from dial-up Internet! Woohoo! This will allow me to do a lot more (with less frustration) to share photographs and experiences with some of the other residents of Frog Pond Holler.

I decided to start with the little treehopper above because my close encounter with her (or him!) is representative of the ordinary magic of life in the holler. The diversity of creatures on Earth never ceases to amaze and delight me. On the day I came across this treehopper, I was just enjoying a break, taking the opportunity to photograph some of the flowers around the yard.

I had taken this photo of some white flowers on a tree -- which I later identified as most likely a common elder. As I made note of the leaves and flower structure so that I could identify it later, I noticed a dark thorny-looking spot on one of the branches. It was hard to tell what it was. It looked so much like part of the stem that I almost moved on, but something -- maybe intuition that this object was not what it seemed -- kept me in the exploratory mode. I put my camera on macro and poked the lens down near the spot. Once I had it focused, it was clear this was not a thorn or dead tissue.

It had feet! And maybe an eye and some wings! It was a little hard to tell by the smaller image on the camera screen. By the time I'd taken several frames, the tree hopper started moving along the stem, confirming that it was indeed an insect of some kind.

Once I uploaded the images and saw them on a full screen, I had to let out a couple of woohoos. What an amazing creature in the detail!

With the images on the screen it's also easy to get out the old bug book and translate the visual info to key in on the family trees, so to speak -- in this case I had a tree and a bug to identify.

(The first image I saw on the screen -- definitely had feet. Photo by me.)

For any bug fans out there, I'd say this is indeed a treehopper, otherwise labeled order Himiptera and family Membracidae. The book I use (Insects, Spiders and Other Terrestrial Arthropods p.98) says this family has about 2,500 species. I'm just happy beyond measure to have found this one.

Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing more close encounters with life in Frog Pond Holler.

UPDATE: 7/5/09

I didn't realize what a great resource I'd hit upon when I snagged a link for the guide book I use. The site, BugGuide.Net, has "Identification, Images, & Information For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin For the United States & Canada." You can register to create an account and make comments on entries or even contribute your own images.

Check out a really great photo of a similar-looking treehopper at BugGuide. I learned a lot by reading the notes with the photos. From now on I'll be sure to note what kind of plant I found the bug on. In the case of this genus (Enchenopa), the species can sometimes be narrowed down by what plant the treehopper was on. I'll have to verify where mine was. I thought it was on the elder, but there is kind of a tangle of limbs in the vicinity of the photo due to a recently fallen peach tree (boohoo!) and it might actually have been on the redbud that is close by.

If you do a "treehopper" search at the BugGuide site you'll find lots more species and notes made by the person who took the photo. This is a fantastic resource for bug people, or anyone who just wants to know what crawling (or flying or hopping) around out there.

 

New Dog in the Holler

 

Two weeks ago today, Celie and I went to the spring with two empty water jugs and came home with two full jugs and a puppy...

While I was filling the jugs I kept hearing a sound I could not place. At first I thought it was a bird of some kind but I couldn't track the sound visually to its maker. I was about to get back into the car when I saw some movement in the grass. A few seconds later a small puppy stumbled out of the tall grass and onto the gravel pullout.

He was a mess -- skinny, and much of the hair he still had was matted with something that smelled really gross. He came over to me. I picked him up and put him in the car with Celie (my Walker hound) who took one look at him and slunk into a rear corner of the dog-car space. Since I was not sure how long the next piece of the adventure would take, I decided to take Celie and the water jugs home before I took the puppy to the vet.

By the time we got home, he had slipped down to the floor and had dropped a huge turd on the floor mat, but the poop didn't smell near as bad as he did. After I let Celie out, I took him in for a quick bath because I wasn't sure I wanted any more of whatever smell it was to penetrate the interior of Soloman (yes, I name my cars) or the interior of my nose.

Dr. Babbi and the crew at Jacksboro Veterinary Services did a great job checking him out. For one thing, his temperature was fairly low. It had been raining for about a week and he didn't have a lot of hair to help keep the heat in. Dr. Babbi confirmed the mange and explained that the smell and matting of his hair was a result of the puppy having been dipped in motor oil -- a common "home cure" for mange around here in the hills and NO: IT DOESN'T WORK!

She estimated that he was about 6 weeks old. We put him on the scale and he was only 3 and a half pounds or so. The poop sample showed two kinds of worms. While they got treatment started and cleaned him up, I went to lunch -- by that time I was REALLY hungry, as I'd been ready for lunch before we even went to the spring. I planned to use the time to decide what to do next. I think I had already committed myself to go through with the rescue but start looking for a home for this little dog.

By the time I finished lunch I had a name for him -- Shadow -- and had decided to try to integrate him into the household with Celie and the two cats, Buddy and George. Now, two weeks later, everyone is adjusting to this little guy. Buddy in particular took an interest in him and has been helping him learn about how to be around cats...an interesting proposition for the relationship between this little Border collie mix and the cats, who are known for being difficult to "herd."

Shadow is now 6+ pounds. His hair is coming back after just one dose of Revolution, but we got a second round of it today, since the mange is still there -- at least he's not scratching or growling while he scratches any more. He got his second de-wormer today, too, and has a few more antibiotic doses to go before the bottle is empty. And he was strong enough that Dr. Babbi started the puppy vaccinations today. Right now he's crashed out in a cat bed down by my feet.

We've already had some interesting adventures -- Celie found a huge rat snake on our walk today -- but I'm gonna go watch Rachel Maddow now, and do some more stories and photo uploads later.