המועדפים של carolblaney

Walking down the Cobal Canyon Trail in the Claremont Hills Wildernss Park. The bobcat was first headed away from us, started to go off the side of the trail, changed its mind, and turned around and came toward us for a ways before going off the side of the trail in up the hill.

A few days ago, a took a few photos of a Pompilid on Narrowleaf Milkweed that seemed rather unusual – it had red on the thorax but was otherwise all black. (The head wasn't visible in the photos.)

Today I went back to see if I could find some and get better photos. In my experience, this approach is often futile, but in this case, it panned out! There on the exact same clump of milkweed was one of the interesting wasps, and it was very cooperative about being photographed. Although it hasn't yet been reported in LA County either on iNat or on BugGuide, I think with this color pattern, this wasp can only be Notocyphus dorsalis.

Spotted in the non-native grasses in the Johnson's Pasture area of the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park.

The iNat Computer Vision suggested Caenurgia togataria, and this seems right to me. We see this species frequently in the non-native grassland at the Bernard Field Station.

On Johnston's Honeysuckle in the Johnson's Pasture area of the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park.

Not a great photo, but identifiable. This is the first Clearwing Moth reported in the Park, but I would expect there to be others.

In Johnson's Pasture Road in the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park. I think this is a Texas Range Grasshopper (Psoloessa texana), and iNat's computer vision agrees.

I wonder why it's called the "Texas" Range Grasshopper? On iNat, there are more than 10 times as many observations from California as from Texas. Of course, that might reflect the abundance of iNat users, rather than the abundance of the grasshoppers. On BugGuide, there are about equal numbers of observations from California and Texas.

This owl flushed while we were mapping invasive plants in Sycamore Canyon, in the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park. It flew silently into this eucalyptus tree and proceeded to keep an eye on us until we left.

While looking for something else, I stumbled on this area with So. Many. Plummer's Mariposa Lilies. There were probably several hundred of them in a small area. It was hard to walk without stepping on them. Wow!

After the copious recent rains, water was rushing in the little seasonal stream that runs next to the Pomello Trail in the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park. At one point, a little dam of sorts blocks the flow of water, and these newts were in the resulting pool. I'm not sure how many were there – at least half a dozen or so. The photos are not all of the same individual – I gave up trying to keep track of who was who.

Recently the question was raised as to whether all the Clematis in the Wilderness Park were C. lasiantha, which is the only Clematis identified to species in the Park, or whether other species were also present.

In the last week, several observations of Clematis have been reported along a little informal trail that loops out to the west from Johnson’s Pasture Road, and identifiers wondered whether two observations were C. pauciflora instead of C. lasiantha .

I went out today to see if I could resolve this question. So far as I could tell, there are just two Clematis plants along this trail – one near the westernmost point of the trail, and one on the north side*. Both plants are quite large and extend something like 15 ft along the trail, so observations of one plant may not be in exactly the same location. I photographed close-ups of the fruit of both plants and conclude that we have two different species.

According to the Jepson key, the two species in question are distinguished by this couplet:

1. Sepals hairy abaxially, adaxially; fruit body hairy —> C. lasiantha
   2' Sepals hairy abaxially, glabrous adaxially; fruit body glabrous —> C. pauciflora
   The sepals are long, but fruits are present, so we can look at the fruit body.

The observation shown here is of the plant near the westernmost tip of the path. As you can see, there are no detectable hairs on the fruit body. I conclude that this plant is C. pauciflora.

Two other observations (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/114279431 and
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/114280127) are also near the westernmost tip of the path. Questions were raised about the identity of both. I believe they are the same plant as this observation and are thus also C. pauciflora.

The observation of the plant on north side, which definitely appears to be C. lasiantha, and its discussion are here - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/116379445.

*There is one additional Clematis observation that appears to be down the slope from the westernmost tip of the path, and I did not check this one out.

@keirmorse, @grmorrison, @carolblaney, your thoughts?

I was excited to see two 4th instar Monarch larvae on this Narrowleaf Milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis) in the Johnson's Pasture area of the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park.

At first glance, I thought the larva in the second photo was 3rd instar, but then I realized I was looking at the tail. The head is at the bottom of the photo.