I came out to my sit spot as I always do this time; it was Sunday, October 13, 2019, at 1:10 pm. I spent about 30 mins observing two organisms, but to understand the reason why I chose two and not one, we will start at the beginning.
As I was walking and setting up to sit down at my sit spot, I noticed something different about it. The purple flowers that I observed in my last blog post were disappearing. Most of the purple flowers have died or gone into a type of hibernation, but there were a few still standing. I found that exciting and was going to choose that as my one organism. Then, something extraordinary happened when I was walking around to look at all the bloomed purple flowers; there was a bug on one of them. I was trying to determine what it was; it was small, so I thought it couldn’t possibly be a butterfly; maybe it is a type of moth. So here we are not only doing one organism but two.
The bug on the flower was closer to the tree that I was observing, and I only got one photo of it because it then flew away. It had mixed colors on it, and I didn’t get close enough to it to tell exactly what it was. I first thought it was a black moth, but doing some further research realized it was not instead of a Gypsy Moth (Lymantria dispar dispar) (Kasbohm, J. W. (1994). Response of Black Bears to Gypsy Moth Infestation in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia.) Retrieved from https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/39530. The reason why I believe it is a Gypsy Moth is that there was an article written from Virginia Tech. That stated there was an infestation some years ago so that it would make sense, and that was my conclusion. As for the purple flower I am more confident in my findings that it is a New York Ironweed (Vernonia novebaraceriss) (Native Plants for Southeast Virginia. (n.d.). Retrieved October 14, 2019, from https://www.deq.virginia.gov/Portals/0/DEQ/CoastalZoneManagement/Native-Plants-for-Southeast-Virginia-Guide.pdf). I had never known weeds of any kind to look as beautiful as this one did. It was my favorite part of my sit spot. I found that it attracts butterflies and moths and so that makes sense why the Gypsy Moth was there. I identified the organism by looking online as I had little time to go and take a look at the hints in Dana 204. I had to look at the color of the object and go on google images first to see if what I described looks or fits to anything online. With the New York Ironweed, that was pretty easy as I found Virginia’s government website about flowers in the southwest portion of the state. I went down the list and found the New York Ironweed. That was lots of fun because not only did I learn about the New York Ironweed, but about other plants in this region like the Bloodroot or the Hyssop Scullcap. The moth was the trickier one to find, but I found a fantastic journal about the migration patterns of a moth’s in this area. It stated that the Black Moth is native to Alaska as the Gypsy Moths had a recent infestation in the Shenandoah’s, so it made more logical sense that it would be the Gypsy Moth.
Some of the observations I made about each of the organisms is with the New York Ironweed are again how some of them are slowly disappearing. I found that to be quite interesting as just two weeks ago there was a whole patch of them. That must be because last time I went, it was 90 degrees, and then this time, the high of the day was 67 degrees, it must be from the cold. I also touched the weed/flower while I was observing, and since it is going into hibernation, it was very soft and fell apart really quite quickly. Since the flower/weed comes from the roots of the tree, it could be an adaptation of how the sources can collect more water and or the weed is taking the water away from the tree itself. The moth I did not get all that close to, but what I overserved in the little time it was drinking or taking nectar from the flower, but after I retook the photo, it flew away.
The New York Ironweed is a new weed in which it has a bright purplish, reddish flower sprouting out of it. It averagely stands 3-6 ft tall, and it blooms between July-September and usually in the full sun or a partly shaded area. It is found in moist soils in the wild, but it often flourishes in dry soil(Native Plants for Southeast Virginia. (n.d.). Retrieved October 14, 2019, from https://www.deq.virginia.gov/Portals/0/DEQ/CoastalZoneManagement/Native-Plants-for-Southeast-Virginia-Guide.pdf). With the Gypsy Moth, they have a wingspan of about 1 ½ inch. The mature larvae are covered in light-colored puffy hairs with five pairs of little blue bumps and then six pairs of red bumps on the back (Kasbohm, J. W. (1994). Response of Black Bears to Gypsy Moth Infestation in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia.).
Overall, I thought the experience was an important one to have. I have never sat and looked at another organism for that long before, and it was interesting to use my senses for a straight 30 minutes. It also gave me a lot of field experience taking in the description and every change that occurred and how soft it felt etc. I enjoyed doing this blog very much!
Are Gypsy moths always the size you saw or do they get bigger?
The poor dying flowers noooo. I didn’t really see any insects at my sit spot-it seems like they’re all gone haha! I did see something that looked like a brown katydid, but I couldn’t sketch it fast enough to use it as an organism (bugs are so fast). I like how you talked about the possible scarcity of water to the flower in relation to the nearby tree. Perhaps the morning dew is all it needs to carry on through the day! I didn’t know that weeds could be so pretty. Do you think it’ll disappear before your next sit spot?