Amazing Adaptations

Hi, everyone -

We arrived at the Pearl River Wildlife Management area last night, and after spending the morning grocery shopping and setting up the lab, we headed out to the field for our first collection session.
Here is a picture of the whole team. From the left we are Lisa, Tony, Katy, Georgia, Brenda, Rebecca, me, and in the front is Becky. So far none of us has been stung or bitten by anything, but Brenda has poison ivy - it is ALL OVER THE PLACE!!!!

Tony cooked both lunch and dinner today. He made stromboli and thai chicken with coconut sauce and vegetables. It was really good - tomorrow is my turn to cook and I'm afraid I won't meet his high standards. Stay tuned....

The day was full of incredible examples of adaptation, so I thought this would be a great theme for today's blog. Remember ---

ADAPTATION is a behavior or physical characteristic that allows an organism to live sucessfully in its environment.

Fall Webworm - Hyphatria cunea
See it on the leaf in the bottom right hand corner? There is also a gecko crawling out of the picture on the left - tell Dot I miss her!!

Adaptations - It lives in a giant tent community with zillions of other caterpillars. Can you see the tents in the picture below? This helps them survive for many reasons. First, the tents get really warm during the day. At night, when it's cold, the caterpillars all crawl into the middle and that's how they make it through the increasingly cold nights.

They also forage (look for food) communally. A scout goes out looking for food, and if it finds food and eats until it's abdomen is full, it drags it's big giant stomach all the way back to the nest. While it's dragging, it smears the trail with a pheromone (a smelly chemical signal). That smell trail is like a big neon sign to the other caterpillars in the colony that says: "Hey, there's mighty good eatin' over here!" So finding food is easier for everyone.
A disadvantage, however, is that the large colonies have a really strong smell from the pheromones and also from all that collective caterpillar frass (poop). This makes them more vulnerable to parasitoids like the wasps, and also to predators like birds.
The long hairs are an adaptation that help against the birds. The hairs don't sting, but they are very irritating if you try to eat them..... I did not try any, but I'm sure it's true.


Orb Spider - Nephila Clavipes
Here you see a female and her relatively small mate. There are a couple of reasons why their size helps them survive as a species.
First, because of her big size, the female can produce mega numbers of eggs. Really - remember the end of Charlotte's web when her babies hatch and there are approximately ten gazillion little spiders? The Orb spider females put Charlotte to shame! She can also make a ginormous web that snags lots of food.
The males' small size is an advantage because he competes less with the females for resources - if he eats less, there's more for her! It sounds mean, but it helps them survive as a species and that's what it's all about!




Adaptations aren't just for animals, you know. It's hard work to take all that energy from the sun and turn it into food through photosynthesis. Plants have to come up with clever survival strategies. Take for example...

Mistletoe - Viscum album
Yes - this is the plant that inspires all the kissing at Christmas time. This plant is actually a parasite! See in this picture how the branch has two different kinds of leaves? That's because the mistletoe on the left grew right out of a Sweet Gum Tree (Liquid Ambar) - see the sweet gum branch coming out of the bottom and going off to the right? The mistletoe sets up camp in its host tree and then sucks it's nutrients right out - SCHA - WEET!




TODAY'S HOMEWORK CHALLENGE: The two trees below have evolved adaptations to help them overcome a specific challenge in the swamp environment. What is the challenge and how do the characteristics described help the trees overcome the difficult living conditions?

Try looking here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatophore
and here http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/forest/htmls/trees/N-aquatica.html
HINT: Look at the picture of the Tupelo - what is it growing in?


Cypress - Taxodium distichum
The cypress tree grows "knees" (knobby things) out of it's roots. You can see them in the foreground of the picture - the tree is right behind them. The knees are about a foot high, the tree is way up there.


Tupelo - Nyssa aquatica - Can you see how big the trunk is compared to the top of the tree ?


Well, that's it for today. Make sure to write up your answers for Mr. Griffin to check tomorrow. Also, I was very glad to get e-mail from RH who told me VK won the cheerleading competition - GO VK!!!

How is the magazine drive going? Has anyone earned a caterpillar?
Miss you!!
Mrs. Feynman