I got up around 5:00 AM to get Esteban and myself ready to go on an outing with my friend Roxanne to Sailor Bar. We were there to check out whatever galls we could find.

We stopped to get coffee and put gas in the car first. The sun was just coming up through stripes of clouds; lots of “god-light” to be seen. Pretty. The sky continued to be pretty throughout our walk.

When we got to the park we got waylaid, when we first arrived, by a live oak tree sporting some of its summer spiky galls near the side of the road. Then we noticed other plants and shrubs in the vicinity, including little blue oaks with urchin galls on them, some tarweed, vinegar weed and chamise. I don’t think I’ve ever had the chance to see chamise so closely. Usually, I see it at a distance from a car window as we’re driving through the foothills.

We saw a few, very few, insects including some crab spiders and some Bordered Plant Bug nymphs. One of the crab spiders, a Running Crab Spider, was one I’d never seen before. So that was cool. We also came across some Cabbage White butterflies and Gray Buckeye butterflies.

On the oak trees, we found quite a few different galls including Crystalline galls, Live Oak Apple galls, Saucer galls, Pumpkin galls, stem galls, Erineum mite galls, Cluster galls, Plate galls, Hair Stalk galls, just a few Gray Midrib galls, Club galls and Red Cones. Phew!

CLICK HERE for the full album of photos.

We also found some Willow Pinecone galls, and some Bud Galls on Coyote Brush bushes.

Near the pond, we saw some Mallards and some Wood Ducks, and a Red-Eared Slider Turtle in the water. I could hear a bullfrog croaking nearby, but couldn’t catch sight of him.

On the way out, we stopped by some Datura plants, and Rox checked out some of the seed pods that had already cracked open. I was fascinated by the elaiosome on the seeds. Elaiosome is a fleshy bit on the end of some plant seeds that is rich in protein and fatty acids (lipids). Insects, like ants, are attracted to the seeds and carry them off to eat the elaiosome and feed it to their young.

According to the article Exploring Myrmecochory: Does Elaiosome Presence Affect Ant Seed Choice? by Alex Karnish: 

“…To test whether elaiosome presence and size impacts ant choice, seed choice experiments were carried out with the harvester ant Pogonomyrmex barbatus and Datura wrightii (Solanaceae). In the field, wild colonies of harvester ants were presented with D. wrightii seeds with and without elaiosomes attached, and seed removal rates were recorded in order to test whether elaiosome presence increased the rate of dispersal. Unexpectedly, contrary to the general understanding of myrmecochory, rather than bringing the seeds to the colony, the ants picked up the seeds and moved them away. This happened regardless of elaiosome presence or absence. Furthermore, seeds with and without elaiosomes were moved away at the same rate (0.2 seeds per minute, p=0.79). These counterintuitive results raise the possibility that the seeds are coated in chemicals, such as oleic acid precursors, that may induce corpse-carrying behavior in the ants. These results also indicate that the interaction between D. wrightii and harvester ants may be a parasitic relationship, in which the ant is bearing the cost of carrying the seed without gaining the benefit of a food reward, rather than the mutualistic interaction that ant-mediated seed dispersal is widely considered to be…”

            How interesting is that?!

We were out for almost 5 hours (stopping a few times to sit and rest). This was hike #48 in my #52HikeChallenge for the year.

Species List:

1. Azolla, Water Fern, Azolla filiculoides
2. Amazon Frogbit, Limnobium laevigatum [water plant]
3. Blackberry, Armenian Blackberry, Rubus armeniacus [red canes]
4. Blue Elderberry, Sambucus nigra cerulea
5. Bushtit, American Bushtit, Psaltriparus minimus
6. Cabbage White Butterfly, Pieris rapae
7. California Bordered Plant Bug, Largus californicus [nymphs]
8. Chamise, Adenostoma fasciculatum
9. Club Gall Wasp, Atrusca clavuloides
10. Clustered Gall Wasp, Andricus brunneus
11. Coffeeberry, California Buckthorn, Frangula californica
12. Common Sunburst Lichen, Golden Shield Lichen, Xanthoria parietina
13. Coyote Brush Bud Gall midge, Rhopalomyia californica
14. Coyote Brush, Baccharis pilularis
15. Crab Spider, Goldenrod Crab Spider, Misumena vatia
16. Crab Spider, Running Crab Spider, Family: Philodromidae
17. Crown Whitefly, Aleuroplatus coronata
18. Crystalline Gall Wasp, Andricus crystallinus
19. Flat-Topped Honeydew Gall Wasp, Disholcaspis eldoradensis
20. Fremont’s Cottonwood, Populus fremontii
21. Frog, American Bullfrog, Lithobates catesbeianus [heard]
22. Grasshopper, California Rose-Winged Grasshopper, Dissosteira pictipennis
23. Gray Buckeye Butterfly, Junonia grisea
24. Gray Midrib Gall Wasp, Cynips multipunctata
25. Great Egret, Ardea alba
26. Green Shield Lichen, Flavoparmelia caperata
27. Hair Stalk Gall Wasp, Andricus pedicellatus [thread gall on blue oak]
28. Hooded Rosette Lichen, Physcia adscendens [hairs/eyelashes on the tips of the lobes]
29. Irregular Spindle Gall Wasp, Andricus chrysolepidicola [on white oaks, Blue, Valley, etc.]
30. Lily Stem Gall Midge, Lasloptera sp. [on Utherial Spear’s in the spring]
31. Live Oak Apple Gall Wasp, Summer, asexual generation, Amphibolips quercuspomiformis [spiky ball]
32. Live Oak Erineum Mite Gall, Aceria mackiei
33. Live Oak Folded Leaf Aphid, Stegophylla essigi [in live oaks, folds the leaf over itself; sometimes the leaf turns red/reddish]
34. Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos
35. Mullein, Turkey Mullein, Doveweed, Croton setiger
36. Non-Biting Midge, Cricotopus sp.
37. Nuttall’s Woodpecker, Picoides nuttallii [heard]
38. Oak Apple, California Gall Wasp, Andricus quercuscalifornicus
39. Oak Ribbed Casemaker Moth, Bucculatrix albertiella
40. Oak, Blue Oak, Quercus douglasii
41. Oak, Coast Live Oak, Quercus agrifolia
42. Oak, Valley Oak, Quercus lobata
43. Pit-Gland Tarweed, Narrow Tarweed, Holocarpha virgata virgata
44. Plate Gall Wasp, Andricus pattersonae
45. Pumpkin Gall Wasp, Dryocosmus minusculus
46. Red Cone Gall Wasp, Andricus kingi
47. Red-Eared Slider Turtle, Trachemys scripta elegans
48. Round-Gall Wasp, Burnettweldia washingtonensis [round, fuzzy, on twigs]
49. Ruptured Twig Gall Wasp, Callirhytis perdens [on live oaks]
50. Sacred Datura, Datura wrightii [seeds have elaiosome on them]
51. Saucer Gall Wasp, Andricus gigas
52. Spined Turban Gall Wasp, Cynips douglasii [summer, asexual generation, pink, spiky top]
53. Striped Volcano Gall Wasp, Andricus atrimentus, asexual, summer generation [looks like a tiny volcano]
54. Tall Flatsedge, Cyperus eragrostis
55. Urchin Gall Wasp, Cynips quercusechinus
56. Vinegar Weed, Trichostema lanceolatum
57. White-Breasted Nuthatch, Sitta carolinensis [heard]
58. Willow Beaked-Gall Midge, Rabdophaga rigidae
59. Willow Pinecone Gall Midge, Rabdophaga strobiloides
60. Willow Stem Sawfly, Euura exiguae
61. Willow, Interior Sandbar Willow, Salix interior
62. Wood Duck, Aix sponsa
63. Woolly Oak Aphid, Stegophylla brevirostris [lots of white fluff, honeydew]
64. Yellow Star-Thistle, Centaurea solstitialis
65. Yellow Wig Gall Wasp, Druon fullawayi