This young Virginia opossum was skulking around the bushes near a house at night, as opossums often do. Despite sometimes being mistaken for large rats, they aren’t closely related to rodents at all. They’re North America’s only marsupials, and in common with other members of this ancient line of mammals, have a number of weird traits. These include resistance to snake venom (and who knows, maybe to dinosaur venom – marsupials date back to the Cretaceous), a tendency to feign death and ooze foul smelling green liquid when cornered, and (in females) the possession of pouches, inside which their bee-size newborn joeys nurse. You can sometimes see older joeys riding around on Mom’s back.
People sometimes find opossums scary, especially because of their impressive fangs, but they aren’t aggressive. They feed on small prey such as insects, frogs and snakes, and they also eat a variety of plant matter. This time of year, we often find them in orchards, noshing on ripening apples. Here’s a recent Outside Story article by Susan Shea, describing her experience caring for a young opossum.
If you examine a stand of goldenrod (multiple species), you’re likely to find all kinds of insects. Among the most striking of these are locust borers, so named because their larvae feed on the wood of black locust trees. Declan McCabe focuses on these insects for his Invertebrate Bestiary column in the soon-to-publish autumn issue of Northern Woodlands magazine, which is why we know what the insect in the photo is doing: feeding on the goldenrod’s pollen, and perhaps also waiting for a mate. By the way, despite its similar appearance to a yellow jacket, this beetle doesn’t sting.
There are so many dragonflies flitting around now. One common species is the cherry-faced meadowhawk, which you can often find in sunny areas near streams, swamps or (in this case) still-wet vernal pools. Unlike darner dragonflies, which one usually sees in the air, meadowhawks spend a lot of their time perched, and they are relatively tolerant of people getting close to them. They feed on small insect prey, including mosquitoes.
Recently, we’ve been seeing many clumps of ochre jelly club, also called jelly babies. These fungi have a similar texture and look as gummy candies, and appear to grow in a variety of different habitats, including on the ground and from rotten wood.
Finally, we found this fifth (final) instar glowing green luna moth caterpillar, which measured well over two inches in length. It was crawling on the forest floor, perhaps on its way to pupate. After they’ve finished their last meal, luna caterpillars wrap themselves in leaves, which they secure with silk. Within this cover, they form a pupal exoskeleton, and wait out the winter. Next summer’s adult moths will have the sole purpose of mating; adults don’t eat and depend entirely on the calories that they consumed in caterpillar form.
What have you noticed in the woods this week? Submit a recent photo for possible inclusion in our monthly online Reader Photo Gallery.