NEWSLETTER

ROLLING PLAINS

CHAPTER

Vol. 3, No. 11 November 2011http://txmn.org/rollingplains

LOCALE V E N T S

ROLLING PLAINS CHAPTER — 1 — TEXAS MASTER NATURALIST

TEXAS MASTERNATURALIST PROGRAM

ACCOMPLISHMENTSThe Texas Master Naturalist program began as a statewide initiative dur-ing 1998. The program is jointly sponsored by the Texas AgriLife Exten-sion Service and the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department and is supported by more than 300 additional partnerships through local chapters state-wide.

• Through December 2010, with combined efforts of 42 recognized local chapters, the Master Naturalist program has trained 6,737 volunteers.

• Master Naturalist volunteers dedicated over 256,157 service hours in 2010, directed toward natural resource community projects, research, and outreach resulting in a cumu-lative total of 1,482,329 hours of service to date.

• The economic impact of Texas Master Naturalist volunteer service throughout 2010 is valued at 4,995 Million and $29 Million to date.

• These 6,700+ volun-teers also obtained 37, 980 advanced training hours in 2010.

• TMN volunteers conducted over 2,700 outreach, education and technical guid-ance events in 2010

November 1: Rolling Plains Chapter monthly meeting is at Riv-er Bend Nature Center. Location: 2200 3rd Street, Wichita Falls, Texas. Time: 7:00 p.m. Program: Bryan Rupp from KFDX channel 3 will be speaking on the Climatol-ogy of the Rolling Plains.

November 5: Wildscapes Workshop presented by Mark Klym Location: Lake Arrowhead State Park dining hall. Time: 9:00 a.m. This is a 3 hour advanced training opportunity.

November 11: The North Texas Master Naturalists are sponsor-ing a seminar by Dr. Tom Boutton on The Carbon Cycle and Global Change. It will be held at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Urban Solutions Center on Coit Road in Dallas. For more informa-tion and registration visit: http://ntmn.org/CarbonCycleWkshp/ Cost: Pre-registration $40.00 after November 4, $50.00 This is an advanced training opportunity.

November 19: Don’t forget we have another opportunity for vol-unteer hours November 19 from 4-8 p.m at the Museum of North Texas History Walk on the Wild Side exhibit during the City Lights event downtown.

Below from the left: Jane McGough, Paula Sav-age, Larry Snyder, Lorie Hall and Terry McKee

Above: Jane McGough and Terry McKee proudly show their 1000 volunteer hour pins.

Report from the 12th Annual Statewide Meeting

TPWDE V E N T S

November 5, 2011— Caprock Canyons SP and Trailway— The Texas State bison Herd—The park is home to the official Texas State Bison Herd. Learn all about these magnificent creatures. Held in the amphitheater at Caprock Canyons State Park and Trailway, 3 miles north of Quitaque on FM 1065, Quitaque, TX 79255. Con-tact Phone: (806) 455-1492

November 10, 2011— Palo Duro Canyon SP— Full moon Hike—Join the Park Interpreter for a full moon hike on the Juni-per Riverside Trail. Listen to park history and stories. No guarantees of what one will see, but expect to have a good time. Group size limit of 25. Park in the large dirt parking lot on Park Road 5. No pets, please. Reservation required, deadline Nov. 8. Time: 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Contact Phone: (806) 488-2227, ext. 106

DeCember 10, 2011— Fort Richardson State Park and His-toric Site— Ghosts of Christmas Past—Enjoy old time refreshments and observe “ghosts” of cavalry soldiers and their families as they celebrate Christmas in an 1870’s U.S. military post. The public may also stroll through the historic buildings by candlelight. Event

is free but park entry fees still apply. Time: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Contact Phone: 940-567-3506

ROLLING PLAINS CHAPTER — 2 — TEXAS MASTER NATURALIST

Don’t Forget! Turn your hours into Jane mcGough. A form for keeping up with your hours is available on the web site. Hours needed for recertification are: 40 hours of public service and 8 hours of advanced training. Advanced training MUST be approved in advance. Fill out the form and submit along with any other information about the class to the Executive Committee at least one week before the event.

with over 70% of those events being direct contact programs where vol- unteers provided hands-on outreach, education or consultation to nearly 170,000 youth, adults and private landowners.

• To date Texas Master Naturalist volunteers have made over 2.5 Million public contacts through their volunteer service while spreading a conser-vation and natural resource message.

• Program volunteers have impacted or conducted projects on areas of land that involved roughly 155,000 acres of habitat while also develop-ing or maintaining some 1,350 miles of interpretive trails.

• 30 International, National, State and Local Awards have been received for Texas Master Naturalist program, chapter and indi-vidual volunteers’ efforts to date.

• Over 70% of Texas counties (178 Counties) are served by a recognized Texas Mas-ter Naturalist Chapter.

2012 Statewide Annual Meeting and Advance Training

October 26-28, 2012Camp Allen, Navasota, Texas

This and ThatTexas Horned Lizard Pins As the year begins to wind down, we need to order the re-certification pins for 2011. To do that, we need to know who will be getting one of the little “Texas Horned Lizard” pins. Please send Jane McGough any hours you have added--Volun-teer and/or Advanced Training--so it will show up on your sheet at the November meeting.

Monarch Tagging SheetsPlease bring your monarch tagging

sheets and any leftover tags to the November 1, 2011 meeting so they can be returned to Monarch Watch.

Thank you note from the Wichita Master GardenersThe Rolling Plains Chapter re-ceived this thank you from Texas Master Gardeners, Wichita Falls Chapter. Our chapter donated a door prize for the symposium.

“Thank you for your generous donation to the Wichita Master Gardeners for the Living Well With Less Water in Texoma 2011’ Conference held on Sat-urday, October 1, 2011. This all day event was a huge suc-cess with over 100 attendees from all over Texoma. Without your help, it would not have been possible.

Warmly,Mary J Barryand the Wichita MasterGardeners”

As I walked into the house to retrieve my camera I hollered at Judy, my wife, to come look at this thing in our backyard. In our small patch of lantana was what looked like a hum-mingbird. I knew it wasn’t a hummingbird although it sure looked like one. Instead, it was a hummingbird moth or sphinx moth. I snapped several pictures and offered to send Paula an article. Here’s what I stole from Wickipedia.

Sphingidae is a fam-ily of moths (Lepidoptera), commonly known as hawk moths, sphinx moths and hornworms, that includes about 1,200 species. It is best represented in the trop-ics but there are species in every region. They are moderate to large in size and are distinguished among moths for their rapid, sustained flying ability. The nar-row wings and streamlined abdomen are adaptations for rapid flight.

Some hawk moths, like the hummingbird hawk moth, hover in midair while they feed on nectar from flow-ers and are sometimes mistaken for hummingbirds. This hovering capability has evolved only three times in nectar feeders: in hummingbirds, certain bats, and these sphingids (an example of convergent evolution). Sphingids have been much studied for their flying ability, especially their ability to move rapidly from side to side while hovering, called ‘swing-hovering.’ It is thought that this evolved to deal with ambush preda-tors that lie in wait in flowers.

Sphingids are some of the fastest flying insects; some are capable of flying at over 50 km/h (30 miles per hour). They have a wingspan of 35-150 mm. Antennae are generally not very feathery, even in the male. They lack tympanal organs but members of the tribe Cho-erocampini have hearing organs on their heads. They have a frenulum and retinaculum to join hind wings and forewings. The thorax, abdomen, and wings are densely covered in scales. Sphingids may have a re-duced proboscis, but most have a very long proboscis. They use it to feed on nectar from flowers. Most are crepuscular or nocturnal, but some species fly during the day. Both males and females are relatively long-lived (living 10 to 30 days). Prior to flight, most spe-cies shiver their flight muscles to warm them up, and, during flight, body temperatures may surpass 40°C.

In some species, sexual dimorphism (differences in form between the sexes) is quite marked. For example, in the African species Herse convolvuli (the Convol-

vulus or Morning Glory Hawk Moth), the antennae are thicker and wing markings more mottled in the male than in the female. Only males have both an undivided

frenular hook and a retinaculum. Also all male hawk moths have a partial comb of hairs along their antennae. Females call males to them with phero-mones. The male may douse the female with a pheromone before mating.

BehaviorSome species fly only

for short periods either around dusk or dawn, while other species only appear later in the evening and oth-ers around midnight. But such species may occasion-ally be seen feeding at flowers during the day.

Food Plants and LarvaeSphingid larvae tend to be specific feeders, rather than generalists. Compared to similarly sized saturniids, sphingids eat soft young leaves of host plants with small toxic molecules, and chew and mash the food into very small bits. Some species can tolerate quite high concentrations of specific toxins. Tobacco horn-worms, Manduca sexta, detoxify and rapidly excrete nicotine, as do several other related sphinx moths in the subfamilies Sphinginae and Macroglossinae, but members of Smerinthinae that were tested are sus-ceptible. The species that are able to tolerate the toxin do not sequester it in their tissues; 98% was excreted. However, other species, such as Hyles euphorbiae and Daphnis nerii do sequester toxins from their hosts, but do not pass them on to the adult stage.

AdultsMost adults feed on nectar, although a few tropical species feed on eye secretions and the Death’s-head Hawkmoth steals honey from bees. Night-flying sphingids tend to prefer pale flowers with long corolla tube and a sweet odor, a pollination syndrome known as ‘sphingophily’. Some species are quite general in visitations, while others are very specific, with the plant only being successfully pollinated by a particular species of moth. Orchids frequently have such specific relations with hawkmoths, and very long corolla tubes. The Comet Orchid, Angraecum sesquipedale, a rare Malagasy flower with its nectar stored at the bottom of a 30 cm long tube, was described in 1822 by Aubert du Petit-Thouars, and later Charles Darwin famously predicted that there must be some specialised animal to feed from it. That animal was a sphinx moth. There are around 1200 species of hawk moth, classified into around 200 genera.

LARRy SNydER ENCOUNTERS A SPHINX MOTH

ROLLING PLAINS CHAPTER — 3 — TEXAS MASTER NATURALIST

Photo by Larry Snyder Text by Larry Snyder and Wickipedia

ROLLING PLAINS CHAPTER — 4 — TEXAS MASTER NATURALIST

RESOURCECO

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ERExploring the Edgesof Texasby Walt and Isabel DavisHardback: 280 pagesISBN-10: 1-60344-153-0Cost: $24.95

Koalas, doll-sized marsupials that climb trees with babies on their backs, have fingerprints that are almost identical to human ones. Not even

careful analysis under a micro-scope can easily distinguish the loopy, whirling ridges on koalas’ fingers from our own.FU

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Although crocodile teeth are pointy, they aren’t sharp. Rather than biting through their prey, the reptiles perfo-rate it. This means the female croc can safely carry eggs in her mouth.

A firefly flashes when oxygen, breathed in through the abdominal tracheae, is allowed to combine with a substance called luciferin under the catalytic effect of the enzyme luciferase. This reaction produces a very efficient light, with almost no energy lost as heat. The timing of the firefly’s flashes is controlled by the abundant nerves in the insect’s light-making organ. The duration of the flashes depends on how long the lucifer-in takes to oxidize.

InvadersofTexasJapanese Privet vs. Glossy Privet: the common name conundrum

The misidentification of Japanese Privet (Ligustrum japonicum) and Glossy Privet (Ligustrum lucidum) is a common mistake made by citizen scientists. Although quite similar in appearance, the misre-portings are usually a result of the common name vs. scientific name conundrum. It is common to hear people call Ligustrum lucidum Japanese privet when, in fact, it is not Ligustrum japonicum. Do not assume that because the species

name is similar to the common name, it must be the same.

Ligustrum japonicum escapes in Texas, but Ligustrum lucidum is much more common. For more information about identifying Ligustrum species check out Guy Nesom’s key, and an ID guide put together by Jed Aplaca, a forester for the City of Houston.

The border of Texas is longer than the Amazon River, run-ning through ten distinct ecological zones as it outlines one of the most

familiar shapes in geography.

Each of this book’s sixteen chap-ters opens with an original drawing by Walt, representing a segment of the Texas border where the au-thors selected a special place—a national park, a stretch of river, a mountain range, or an archeologi-cal site. Using a firsthand account of that place written by a previous visitor (artist, explorer, naturalist, or archeologist), they then identi-fied a contemporary voice (whether biologist, rancher, river-runner, or paleontologist) to serve as a modern-day guide for their journey of rediscovery. This dual perspec-tive allows the authors to attach personal stories to the places they visited, to connect the past with the present, and to compare Texas then with Texas now.

Whether retracing botanist Charles Wright’s 600-mile walk to El Paso in 1849 or paddling Houston’s Buffalo Bayou, where John James Audubon saw ivory-billed wood-peckers in 1837, the Davises seek to remind readers that passionate and determined people wrote the state’s natural history. Anyone in-terested in Texas or its rich natural heritage will find deep enjoyment in Exploring the Edges of Texas.

Chapter Contacts:Terry McKee, President 766-4097; Jim Hensley, Vice President 569-4713; Penny Miller, Secretary 691-7273; Bill Setzler, Treasurer 692-4466 Committees Chairperson:Leslie Fernandez, RiverBend Liaison 767-0843; Paula Savage, Newsletter 691-0231; Unfilled, Social Com-mittee; Patsy Petcoff, Grants/Fundraising 940-923-4478; Dian Hoehne, Communication Chair 692-7234Advisor: