Buprestis aurulenta the Golden Buprestid Beetle

A metallic Buprestid beetle

Posted on January 1, 2010 by admin

Buprestis aurulenta is also known as the Golden Buprestid Beetle.

This one is dead.

Buprestis aurulenta the Golden Buprestid Beetle

Pyrola picta

Posted on January 1, 2010 by admin

Pyrola picta
White-veined wintergreen or white-veined shinleaf.
Is just beginning to send up spikes at the end of May and will be flowering as we move into June.

Pyrola picta

Pyrola asarifolia subsp. bracteata

Posted on January 1, 2010 by admin

Pyrola asarifolia subsp. bracteata
Pink wintergreen

In 2015 these are just getting started now (last week of May). This is a preview of what we can expect in the next several weeks!

Pyrola asarifolia ssp. bracteata

Pyrola asarifolia ssp. bracteata

Pyrola asarifolia ssp. bracteata

Pyrola asarifolia ssp. bracteata

Pyrola asarifolia ssp. bracteata

Pyrola asarifolia ssp. bracteata

Corallorhiza maculata

Posted on January 1, 2010 by admin

Corallorhiza maculata
Spotted coralroot
This was noticed on 23 May 2015 but it has obviously been flowering for a while.

Corallorhiza maculata

Erythronium californicum

Posted on January 1, 2010 by admin

Erythronium californicum AKA the Trout lilly or the Fawn lilly

Erythronium californicum; the trout lilly

Typical habitat

Cardamine

Posted on January 1, 2010 by admin

The Cardamine species are known as Milkmaids.
They are among the first noticeable flowers appearing every Spring.

Not long ago I would have said this one was Cardamine californicum var. integrifolia (AKA the Coast Milkmaid; formerly Cardamine integrifolia) but apparently that species has been lumped and no longer exists except as Cardamine californicum.

Cardamine

Most of the year they look like this:

Iris douglasiana

Posted on January 1, 2010 by admin

Iris douglasiana, AKA Douglas’ iris, is a very common plant of the coastal forest in Mendocino County.
It is not clear to me how many are actually true and how many are hybrids with other local species.

Iris douglasiana

Iris douglasiana

Iris douglasiana

Eschscholzia californica

Posted on January 1, 2010 by admin

Eschscholzia californica is the California poppy.

Eschscholzia californica

Another slime mold

Posted on January 1, 2010 by admin

Yet another slime mold recently crawled onto a log to sporulate.

This one is tiny; a centimeter or so in diameter.

slime mold 13 may 2015

ticks

Posted on January 1, 2010 by admin

Ticks really suck.

That might be punny but it is also true.
No account of forest OR xeric life would be complete without mentioning ticks.

Amblyomma cajennense from Jim Hogg County Texas; male on left – female on right

Amblyomma cajennense
I encountered this pair, a male and a female, while doing field work in South Texas, rather than here.

adult male of Dermacentor occidentalis

Dermacentor occidentalis
Pacific Coast tick
This is the only one of these I’ve ever found here at home in over a dozen years of living here. This one, shown inside of a plastic bag, was noticed hanging spread-eagle from a blade of grass in June 2014. The mouthparts are considerably shorter than the ticks shown above or below.

Female and male Ixodes pacificus; ticks will feed on ticks.

Ixodes pacificus
One of the tick species from home. It MIGHT be the most common one that lives here.

Just cold, not dead.

Notice that barbed hypostome?

A male Ixodes pacificus from Mendocino County, California

It amazes me how small ticks can be. This is that last male Ixodes shown above; after it was dead.

Its feeding implements are the featured image.

Above is an adult male Ixodes pacificus.
Below is a larvae with six legs rather than 8 legs like a nymph or an adult. Larvae can supposedly only transmit Bartonella.
For a sense of scale, those are human hairs.