reidhardin's Favorites

The last picture is UV flora, aka Bee Vision

Thanks to @bacchusrock
Marshall F. Enquist, who first discovered this population back in 1997.

There were 25 plants back in 1997, I am glad this population is still thriving and there are more than 25 plants now.

I hope these pictures could help INat members in Texas to ID and discover more Prunus murrayana.

Here are some keys of P. murrayana from Flora of North America, since I am not a botanist, I translated some of botanical terms to layman's terms.

1. Shrub: suckering, thorny (the ones that I saw are not thorny). The tallest one is about 5' 5" (165cm).
2. Twigs: hairy, with axillary end buds.
3. Leaves: usually hairy on both upper and lower sides, sometimes only on upper side, usually glandular distally, glands 1-4, margins teeth blunt, glandular, underside smooth or hairy along mid ribs and veins.

4. Inflorescence: 1-4 flowered
   Pedicles: 4-14mm, hairy

5. Flowers: blooming at leaf emergence; hairy externally; sepals erect to reflexed, margins glandular toothed, lower side surface almost smooth or hairy, upper side surface densely hairy at the bases.
6. Petals: 4-8mm, ovaries glabrous (smooth)
7. Habitat: rocky stream banks, canyon, dry wash, fence rows.

Found stunned in the middle of the road after being hit by a car. I didn’t have anything to put it in so I put it on my passenger seat. Was driving it to the wildlife rehabber when it suddenly recovered and flew on my shoulder.

Blue-faced Ringtail
Erpetogomphus eutainia
female
Guadalupe River, Independence Park near U.S. 183 bridge over the river.
Gonzales, Gonzales Co., Texas
30 July 2003

A couple of folks have asked me personally and on iNat:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2735824
about Blue-faced Ringtail (Erpetogomphus eutainia) and the history of the population in Gonzales. I had never posted the initial record but will do so here and just give the history for those curious about it.

In June, 2003, Dr. John Abbott and I spent some time looking for dragonflies at Palmetto State Park in Gonzales Co., and he mentioned a small clubtail called Erpetogomphus eutainia (John did not speak common names in those days :-) which had last been seen in the 70s as far as he knew. He told me there were some records by Paulson, Dunkle, and others at Palmetto S.P. John had never seen the species and he hoped to find it sometime. I was fairly new into odonates at that time, and being retired from my law enforcement profession, I had the time to start really looking for this rare critter and I made it a mission to find it. I spent some time in the collection at U.T. looking at all the known Texas specimens of Erpetogomphus eutainia and made a list of all the locations where the specimens had been found. Essentially, all the Texas and U.S. records of the species at that time were from the San Marcos River in the general vicinity of Luling, Texas. During July, 2003, I went out to look for for this bug more than a dozen times. Finding places to access the San Marcos River was the most challenging issue, as most of you know that so much of Texas land is private. I scoured Palmetto S.P., boat launches and canoe launch areas between San Marcos and Luling, etc., and had no luck. I visited all the public parks in San Marcos which allowed access to the river as well as any bridge crossings, etc. The San Marcos River joins the Guadalupe River near Gonzales, so I started checking areas on the Guadalupe where I could get to or near the water. On July 30, 2003, I found a female clubtail on the south side of the Guadalupe River near the U.S. 183 bridge on the south side of Gonzales, and got a few photos of it. I was not certain this was the Erpetogomphus eutainia, but I thought it probably was. I was very eager to get home and look at my shots on a larger monitor. At home, after studying my shots, I felt fairly confident I had found a female Erpetogomphus eutainia.

Long story short, I sent John an email with images that I had taken in Gonzales. I called him on the phone and asked if he was at his computer and he said he was. I told him to check his email. He knew I had been looking for this species and asked me if I had found it. I said “you tell me”. He then saw my shots and said “You found it!” Two days later, on 2 August 2003, I took John back to the spot where we found several males and females and we both got images of a male eating a Powdered Dancer (Argia moesta):
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143390
From that time up until 2010 or so, the species was regularly found at many areas of Independence Park as can be seen on the iNat maps. On some visits I found 10-20 individuals on a single visit. In 2011 and 2012 the species became harder to find, but there were a handful of records during both of those years. It has been mostly absent since 2012 (one sight record with no photos in 2014) which I mentioned in the record I posted yesterday:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/3725913

So, that is the history of the bug at Gonzlaes as I know it. There have been a few records by some students of John’s another 20 or so miles down the Guadalupe River near Cuero in DeWitt Co., but I have never found them there. Ed Lam has photographed the species at Medina River Park south of San Antonio, but on two visits in proper season, I’ve not found it there either. There are a few other records along the Rio Grande in south Texas. This is a late season species with 95% of the records being between 1 July and 15 October. Why the species was relatively easily found 2003-2012, then mostly vanished for 4 years...I don't have a clue. Habitat seems pretty much the same as far as I can determine. But such population fluctuations certainly occur. As an example, in 2007 Carmine Skimmer (Orthemis discolor) was common to abundant in the Austin area and a dozen or more could be found in several areas in a short time. Since 2007 the species has been very rare in Austin and I can count the records on one hand that have occurred since 2007. No idea why.

Blue-faced Ringtail
Erpetogomphus eutainia
pair in copula
Guadalupe River, Independence Park near U.S. 183 bridge over the river.
Gonzales, Gonzales Co., Texas
18 August 2004

Image 2 shows a female Blue-faced Ringtail which has been captured by a robberfly. The robberfly is posted at:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1854025

Site now inundated by a man-made small reservoir. This was the westernmost known site for Sarracenia alata. I don't know if anyone has checked to see if there might be remnants upstream or on the lakeshore.

We had fun with this bird and concluded that it was some sort of a domestic hybrid. There were actually a pair of them. Neither INat nor Merlin could agree as to what this bird was. I tried various photos on both sites. This is the best photo.

Most northern specimen I have come across. The others are decently south in Washington Oaks State Park. This specimen is growing over a road in a live oak within a residential neighborhood along the estuary. It’s been the only specimen I have been able to locate.