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Texas Days 2/3 – Fort Davis
Oh right, Texas! It already feels like so long ago, we’ve been so busy here in the lab.
Dedication.
Our second stop in Texas was Davis Mountains State Park, in Fort Davis. It was another long drive across flat, desert-like land. We saw several hundred (thousand?) wind mills, which created a very eerie landscape. Fort Davis provided an emotional refuge of mountains and trees. We arrived late afternoon, and promptly went for a hike to stretch our legs.
The sky was very blue.
Everyone we had talked to said that west Texas was experiencing a several-year-long drought. When we arrived at the park, it became quite clear they were telling the truth. Trees were clinging to old, tough leaves. Grasses were brown and crunchy underfoot. Wildlife seemed scarce. Aside from a couple whiptail lizards, a ground snake, and some unruly javelinas, the landscape seemed eerily deserted.
By the time we set up camp and settled in it was getting dark, so we set up a blacklight. Not much came in other than micro-moths and midges. Disappointed, we hoped the next day would be more fruitful.
In the morning we got up early for some caterpillar hunting. Well, I went for a run and a workout first, but then we armed ourselves with beating sheets and sticks and began wandering around the campground. There were only a few other people in the park, so the park staff didn’t mind.
One of the many geometrid caterpillars.
Abilene sure was lush in comparison! But we did not give up hope, and searched as many branches as we could reach. Each tap of a tree branch released plumes of dust, pollen, and dead leaves. Surprisingly, we found a bunch of geometrid caterpillars. I wonder why they were the most abundant?
Acronicta sp. (afflicta? brumosa?)
After an hour of not-very-productive searching, Ben shouted “Brigette, I have a present for you!”. Sure enough it was a little Acronicta caterpillar on an Emory oak tree! Despite our renewed enthusiasm and re-doubled efforts, we did not find any more Acronicta in the park. This little caterpillar grew up to be quite interesting – it’s the one featured in this post.
After a quick lunch (which became our classic: gluten free wrap with sliced turkey and a dill pickle) we drove a few miles down the road to the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center. A place so wonderful it deserves its own post, coming soon!
Texas Day 1: Abilene
To keep costs down, Ben and I decided to camp for the entirety of our Texas trip (aside from two nights at a colleague’s house). This made our trip feel even more adventurous. We’re used to showing up to a research station with dorms, a kitchen, and a laboratory with supplies. This trip was quite different! We brought my tent, and bought some cheap sleeping pads and sleeping bags at Walmart when we arrived. We also bought some batteries to run our lights, and parts to build a light trap.
We arrived in Dallas, loaded up the car with supplies and food, and drove out to Abilene State Park. I truly did not believe we would fit all of our supplies into a compact rental car, but we did.
Ben at the campsite
The area seemed scrubby, a little dry, and an odd mix of forest, scrub, and almost-desert habitat. The air was hot and humid. There were only a few other people in the campground, as this is not an ideal time to be camping in Texas. As soon as the tent was set up, we set off to explore.
Adorable little mantis!
We saw a few caterpillars just by walking around – like this little notodontid.
Lochmaeus bilineata caterpillar
Our daytime caterpillar search wasn’t terribly fruitful though, so we held out hope for the night. We weren’t too impressed with what the light brought in (our campsite had electricity!), but we did have fun (and strained our necks) looking for caterpillars. We were spooked by a few raccoons, but otherwise didn’t run into any trouble.
Ben at the sheet
Our first big find turned out to be an Acronicta caterpillar! I spotted it sitting on a branch just above my head. I instantly recognized its fuzzy gray body as belonging to Acronicta lobeliae.
Acronicta lobelieae
But I wasn’t prepared for what happened next. After taking this photo, I reached toward the caterpillar to pick it up. It instinctively dropped to the ground, where it landed directly into an antlion pit! It thrashed around as the antlion tried dragging it under the sand. I quickly scooped up the caterpillar but it appeared paralyzed or dead – frozen into a half curled position.
I kept the poor guy anyway, and within about an hour it was back to normal. Whew!
Here are some other pretty caterpillars we came across:
Ianassa sp.
Asterocampa sp.
We weren’t blown away by our first night, but I was quite happy to have an Acronicta caterpillar in hand. We stayed one night, and the next day continued our journey west, to Fort Davis.
We’re back!
Ben and I are back from our Texas adventure – and what an adventure it was.
I have lot of photos to sort and lots of stories to tell. Hopefully I’ll get Ben to help with some of the posts.
Summary: we didn’t get the rare species I was looking for, but we got lots of other goodies and met some amazing people.
I also have some grand plans to separate my caterpillar life from my sewing/weirdbuglady life. I want to make separate flickr accounts, deviantart accounts, twitter, etc. I feel like I should make my presence less of a mish-mash of everything in my life, and organize into the two main camps: research vs. art. There will be overlap at times, sure, but I’m going to try my best. So… we’ll see how that goes.
I’m going blacklighting and gas-station hopping tonight, so I’ll get started with Texas posts tomorrow!
Texas
Well, we’re off! Ben and I are going to spend 10 days traveling across Texas. We’re armed with several permits (for Big Bend National Park, Texas State Parks, and one National Forest), several suitcases full of vials and lights and other collecting equipment, camping gear, and enough homemade beef jerky to sustain us for several days if we get lost in the wilderness.
Our main target is the species Acronicta valliscola, a species only known from Big Bend. I want to snag it for DNA and hopefully raise the caterpillars, since they have never been seen before! It’s the right time of year and right weather, so hopefully we stand a good chance.
Acronicta valliscola
When I return, the beginning of intensive research (and blogging) season will begin. Lots of pictures, lots of caterpillars, lots of discoveries.
While I’m gone the lab will be tended by a few faithful labmates, and my bunnies will be tended by my wonderful boyfriend. So now all I have left to do is… get on a plane before I think of another thing to cram into one of my bursting suitcases.
Wish us luck!
It’s official
I got permission to do some of my research! Woohoo!
Specifically, I will be collecting in Big Bend National Park, Texas, in a couple weeks. There is one Acronicta species, Acronicta valliscola, which was discovered within the park and has only been found there. All of the specimens I have seen in collections (and there are only a few) have been 30+ years old. So in order to get DNA for my phylogeny, it’s off to Texas I go. The time of year is right, the plane tickets have been purchased, and we’re starting to gather our field gear (trying to figure out how to carry a tent, sleeping bags, UV lights, caterpillar jars, etc).
I will be going with a student who started in our lab as an undergraduate helper, then stayed a year to work for us in the lab, and now he is accepted to be a masters student in the fall. He knows his way around some caterpillar frass, let me tell ya. We will be traveling to Big Bend as well as some other locations in south-central Texas to collect moths and caterpillars for my project.
If anyone knows of good collecting spots in south-west or south-central Texas, please share! Even better if you live in the area and would be willing to host a couple of caterpillar-crazy entomology students for a night.
I’m sure my excitement won’t fully materialize until we arrive. For now I mostly feel relief that at least part of my project is going as planned.
caterpillarblog 