True gazelles, of the genus Gazella, are bewilderingly speciose in Arabia and North Africa. Each species is individually variable. Many of the species have local subspecies. Photographers tend to focus on males. As a result, identification from photos - particularly in the case of females - can be difficult even for naturalists with plenty of experience with ungulates.

In the case of two species of sand gazelles inhabiting the desert dunes, the confusion is aggravated by the indiscriminate use of similar common names derived from the Arabic. 'Rhim' refers to the Saharan Gazella leptoceros while 'rheem' refers to the Arabian Gazella marica, and the two seem to be mislabelled interchangeably on the internet even when the specimens are in zoos.

The name 'slender-horned gazelle' for G. leptoceros hardly helps because both species have long, slender, somewhat asymmetrical horns in most females.

In reality, the two can easily be told apart if you know what to look for, as follows.

All species of true gazelles have are more or less fawn with whitish ventral parts separated from the fawn by a relatively dark flank-band. All also have intricate markings on the face.

First, look at the fawn of the body, neck and legs. In G. leptoceros, this is the most uniform of any species of true gazelle, whereas in G. marica it is clearly carved into a pale upper flank-band, a pale lower-haunch, and pale legs. Another difference which I have never seen mentioned in field guides is that the feet of G. leptoceros are marked with subtle dark/pale contrasts near the hooves, whereas those of G. marica are the same plain pale as the legs.

Now look at the face. In G. leptoceros there is just the standard, inconspicuous pattern typical of gazelles, except for a small whitish patch above the nose in about half of all individuals. In G. marica, the whole face tends to be conspicuously whitened.

Allium tuberosm (Chinese Chives) is in the kingdom plantae, family Amartyllidaceae, and genus Allium. It is in subgenus Butomissa (Salisb.) N. Friesen.

An adaptation that nearly all the plants in our project share, is that they are brightly coloured in order to attract pollinators. For flowers to reproduce, they must be pollinated. Therefore, being brightly colored is advantageous.

A unique adaptation of Allium tuberos it blooms later in the season than many other flowering plants. This gives it a greater chance of being pollinated as there is less competition from other types of plants.

The species that I decided to locate on the phylogenetic tree is the American Elm (Ulmus americana). The tree is part of the genus Ulmus which includes all Elm trees. The most recent common ancestors of the species American Elm are the Wahoo tree and the European Elm.

One adaptation that all of the species that I observed have in common compared to other plants is that trees grow to extreme heights in order to be closer to sunlight which is needed for them to photosynthesize. The adaptation of height allows them to better soak up sunlight and not be covered in shade by other plants.
One adaptation that I noticed on the species Weeping Willow (salix x sepulcralis) was a thick scaly bark. This adaptation protects the tree from the elements and contains a plant hormone which can be toxic in large amounts.

In Montreal's popular Jeanne-Mance Park, I have observed an abundance of plants. One such observation represents what I believe to be Taraxacum officinale (or the common dandelion) based on OneZoom's descriptions. Taraxacum officinale resides in the Asteraceae family, Asterales order and Plantae kingdom. As my group's project focuses on plants, all of our observations share the ability to photosynthesize. This common adaptation allows the plants to utilize light to produce energy. However, the Taraxacum officinale species has a rather unique adaptation of a bright yellow flower. This flower, in attracting bees and other pollinators, allows the species to reproduce through pollination.

1) Borage (borago officinalis) is a flowering plant of the family Boraginoidae. Part of the eukaryotic branch diphoda, borage and humanity's most recent common ancestor lived about 1500 MYA.

2) Though our observations are very diverse, they all have one common adaptation: flowers. Most of our observations have brightly colored flowers which attract pollinators, leading to reproduction.

3) Morning-glories (Genus Ipomoea) have long flowers that flare out at the top, increasing surface area available to absorb the light necessary for photosynthesis.

In Montreal's popular Jeanne-Mance Park, I have observed an abundance of plants. The image linked to this post represents one such observation: a species I believe to be Taraxacum officinale (or the common dandelion) based on OneZoom's descriptions. Taraxacum officinale resides in the Asteraceae family, Asterales order and Plantae kingdom. As my group's project focuses on plants, all of our observations share the ability to photosynthesize. This common adaptation allows the plants to utilize light to produce energy. However, the Taraxacum officinale species (again, linked to this journal post) has a rather unique adaptation of a bright yellow flower. This flower, in attracting bees and other pollinators, allows the species to reproduce through pollination.

Of my 10 observations, I located the Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) on a phylogenetic tree using OneZoom. Before branching off into its own species, it shares a common ancestor with the Purple-blow maple (Acer truncatum) and the Acer pictum. It first begins at Eukaryotes, then follows the branch until pentapetalae, then rosids, then malvids, then sapindales, and then the soapberry family. Thereafter, each species begin to branch off into its own. The Norway Maple is found deep within the phylogenetic tree, thus a lot of evolution has taken place before it.
For our project, every observed species has leaves. The leaves differ in size and shape, while most leaves are green. They are green because they contain chlorophyll, which is an important molecule for photosynthesis.
The Norway Maple is unique from my other observations because it has 5 edges. Most of my observed leaves are oval shaped, and the other maples only have 3 edges.

Another hot day in the valley and I didn't feel like driving far so I set out for this small not quite pocket park in Sherman Oaks. Since I wasn't up to going down to the bottom since it would mean coming back up a hill in the oppressive heat, I stopped at some buckwheat and sawtooth goldenbushes and looked for insects.

I focused on finding very small bugs--from 1/4 of an inch to 3/4 of an inch long. It takes a lot of patience to not only spot these guys but also to photograph them. The advantage of looking for very small bugs is that you might find things that are not found very often--not too many people take the time to do this. The downside is that it can be difficult to get ID's on these things.

That being said, my two best finds for the day were a cute little brown and white weevil type insect and a small damselfly (surprised to find it here) that I think is an arroyo bluet but still awaiting confirmation.

While out observing birds and insects for this project, I saw many Dark-Eyed Juncos. I decided to find them on the phylogenetic tree using OneZoom. First the branch broke away from Eubacteria, then the branches separated again and I continued under deuterostomes to jawed vertebrates then to birds, turtles and crocodilians, then to songbirds. The Dark-Eyed Junco species can be tracked deep into the phylogenetic tree, meaning it has evolved quite a lot. I eventually found it close to sparrows. There are four species of Junco with the Yellow-Eyed Junco being the closest relative on the phylogenetic tree.
Every observed species in our project has wings. We chose our project theme to be “things with wings” because there is a wide variety of species that have wings. There are many reasons species have developed wings - they allow birds to easily migrate far distances and help both birds and insects evade predators among other reasons. A unique adaptation for the Pileated Woodpecker I observed is that it’s beak is formed extra strong and with a “chisel-like” tip in order for it to be able to make holes in the wood of trees so that it can find food. (www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/p/pileated-woodpecker/)

I’ve thrown away almost 2 dozen dead birds, unrelated to predators, in the last weeks. As of the last 2 days no sitings.

1. One adaptation that all observed species in the project have in common:
   All observed species do not have one common adaptation as we have 3 completely different types of organisms. Amongst our observations we have birds which feed on both the plants and the insects that we have observed. However, birds have adapted to their respective diets available to them in their habitats in different parts of the world. Beak size was a common feature observed whereby each bird had beak sizes in accordance to their diet, for example the Red Fody has a small beak allowing it to consume the small fig seeds while the seagull has a large beak allowing it to prey on fish.
   On the other hand, most the plants observed as bird diets, are tall trees, limiting their number of predators to animals with high reach, such as birds, bats etc.

2. One unique adaptation for the Pycnonotus jocosus (Red-whiskered bulbul)
   It is a medium-sized songbird with a sharp beak which is slightly bigger than smaller species. It's sharp, pointy beak allows it to easily pluck off and consume fruit seeds such as the seeds on a fig tree. It's slightly bigger beak size allows it to eat larger insects which smaller-beaked songbirds wouldn't have access to.

3. Phylogeny for Pycnonotus jocosus (Red-whiskered bulbul)

Animals-> Bilaterally symmetrical animals-> Deuterostomes-> Chordates-> Vertebrata-> Jawed Vertebrates-> Bony Vertebrates-> Lobe Finned Fishes including Tetrapods-> Lungfishes and Tetrapods-> Tetrapods-> Amniotes-> Sauropsids-> Birds, turtles and Crocodilians-> Birds and Crocodilians-> Birds-> Neognaths-> Songbirds-> Bulbuls and Tetrakas-> Greenbuls-> Red-whiskered bulbul

Прошли по Коржевским культурам и по тропинке наискосок от забора Химмаша на Лосином Острове. Пасмурно, мелкий дождь, +9С.

Нашли мёртвую птицу, с определением которой затрудняюсь, скорее самка Turdus merula. Размер скворца или мелкого дрозда, черная, без пестрин. Клюв коричневый, без пятен и светлых участков. Птицу обследовали слизни Arion vulgaris, насекомых на ней не увидели. Под хвостом следы жидкого белого помёта.

Видели самца чёрного дрозда Turdus merula, многочисленные следы пятнистого оленя Cervus nippon в виде отпечатков копыт и разрытых вдоль тропинок ям, стаю из трёх диких собак разной масти у входа КБ Химмаш, слизня Krynickillus melanocephalus, во множестве испанского слизня Arion vulgaris, зарянку Erithacus rubecula на высоте 1м и в 2м от дорожки, дрозда рябинника Turdus pilaris, дождевого червя (?).

Из грибов: биспореллу лимонную Calycina citrina, трутовик окаймлённый Fomitopsis pinicola, хлороциборию сине-зеленоватую Chlorociboria aeruginascens, дождевик Lycoperdon perlatum.

Hello everyone,
I am looking forward to your observations. Let me know if you have questions and remember you can post your discussions about one specimen of your choice and adaptations in this Journal
Daniel

Hello everyone!
These are really cool observations. I see a lot of ob different species to chose from! Keep in mind that you can use this journal platform to make your observations and discuss the adaptations of a particular species of your choice!
Looking forward to seeing more observations!
Daniel

Hello everyone,
This is a great start. Very cool pictures, focusing on flowers will help a lot on identification and you can focus on flower adaptations which are a really cool topic. Looking forward to see more observations!
Daniel

Find, photograph, upload and share an observation of:
1) Monarch
2) Woolly bear (aka Isabella tiger moth)
3) any animal belonging to the Class Insecta

Hello everyone!
I am looking forward to see your observations. I hope you are able to get cool pictures of plants around your area. Let me know how that is going!
Daniel

Hi eveyone,
This is a great start! Keep up the work. I edited the project to be specific to plants in Montreal as your title suggested. Some pictures are pretty cool I think it will help' you to look for adaptations. I am posting this also to try the Journal feature.
Daniel

Hi Bioblitzers,
Just over 7 days to our next event! I'm getting excited as we wrap up our last event and find out the top 3 in the various submissions categories!
In the meantime, if you'd like to check out the statistics in the previous events check out the link to the umbrella project here https://inaturalist.ca/projects/socially-distant-bioblitz-series .
See you all soon!

Margaret

Yesterday we drove out to DeKalb to visit an apple orchard. Along the way through Kane and DeKalb counties, I kept track of the birds we were seeing.

It was a beautiful, autumn-like day: cool temperatures and broken clouds. The fields are turning brown, but the roadside was punctuated with stands of goldenrod and other yellow composites.

The most abundant birds by far were starlings, and I observed several flocks that easily had several hundred birds in them. The flocks seemed to consist entirely of starlings: no blackbirds of any kind mixed in with them.

Mourning Doves were probably the next most common species, but I saw far fewer. Occasinally a pair or trio would fly across the road, and two or three times I would spot a small flock perched on utility lines.

Red-tailed Hawks were perched along the highway, and I saw a soaring Turkey Vulture in each county.

Canada Geese are assembling in flocks. I saw one of only a bout six birds in Kane County. Leaving DeKalb, there were another six feeding on the sides of Kishwaukee River.

The activity in my own yard has definitely declined. Goldfinches visit the feeder, and I can hear Blue Jays and Red-bellied Woodpeckers calling at at intervals. The most interesting sighting to me was a flock of six robins at the top of the spruce trees in the yard. I hadn't seen robins at the birdbath or in the yard for several days. The birds made their presence known by soft calls before flying off in unison.

Car@s INATURALISTAS,
aproveitem o fim-de semana para o esquenta.
Temos vários temas a serem explorados. Escolha os seus preferidos e teste.
1) Explore "o seu quadrado", ou seja, A SUA CASA: Tente encontrar 10 ou + organismos entre flores, plantas, formigas, borboletas, ervas daninhas, gramíneas, aranhas, lagartixa, etc..

2) Explore O SEU JARDIM: registre pelo menos 20 a 30 organismos, entre flores, inclusive flores de ervas daninhas, tipos de grama (com sementes), frutos, sementes, borboletas, abelhas, besouros, vespas, outros insetos, caramujos, lesmas, centopeias, lagartos, lagartixas, aves, sapinhos, etc.

3) Se prepare para a NOITE DA OBSERVAÇÃO DE MARIPOSAS, sábado dia 26 (em todo o hemisfério Sul): busque lâmpadas que atraem insetos anoite. Se quiser, pegue um lençol branco amarre debaixo de uma árvore (na vertical), e jogue uma forte fonte de luz nele, que deverão vir mariposas e insetos que se encontram na redondeza. em áreas urbanas menos que em áreas próximas a áreas verdes. É BOM FAZER O TESTE DO LENÇOL HOJE OU AMANHÃ, para verificar se o local e a estratégia de iluminação foi bem escolhida. Caso tenha sido fraca a atração de insetos, tem como mudar de local....

4) Domingo pela manhã é a hora da OBSERVAÇÃO DE AVES. Em razão da pandemia vá em duplas ou grupos pequeno nos municípios onde a visitação é permitida.
Ao registra as aves em foto ou som, tente identificar as árvores e plantas onde elas se encontram e/ou usam. Para a identificação de plantas, são necessárias 3 a 5 fotos:
a) planta toda, b) tipo de folhas, c e d) flor, fruta ou semente e e) em árvores o formato do tronco.

• Observação DE FLORES E FRUTOS NATIVOS. Pesquise no esquenta, quais as flores e frutos que ocorrem em fim de setembro em sua região. Vá a parques e Unidades de conservação, em duplas ou grupos pequenos e além das flores, frutos e sementes, registre também os VISITANTES (insetos, répteis e aves) que se alimentam e/ou são polinizadores e dispersores de sementes. Descubra interações ecológicas muito interessantes e importantes.

5) Observação de ORGANISMOS AQUÁTICOS/MARGINAIS. Quem gosta de canoar, velejar, fazer esportes aquáticos, ir a praias de rios, lagos ou mar, mergulhar, pescar, tire um dia para registrar plantas e animais nas margens, e se puder realizar observações sub-aquáticas. Opcionalmente, visite ambientes alagados em rios, lagos e lagoas, manguezais, etc. registre a bidodiversidade destes ambientes, sem necessidade de mergulhar.

6) Observação de MORCEGOS. Se você gosta de morcegos teremos a noite da observação de morcegos na sexta, 25.

A instalação de comedouros para aves ou morcegos, pode ser feita para o evento. O ideal é começar hoje, para os animais se acostumarem com a localização da comida, sempre voltando. Isto leva de alguns dias a uma semana. Então comece hoje.
Hoje é o DIA INTERNACIONAL DA LIMPEZA, Peque uma garrafa PET de 2 litros ou maior e construa comedouros temporários:
a) fure a tampa e coloque uma corda.
b) corte uma abertura na lateral por onde um passarinho consiga entrar. Deixe uma bordinha de 3 a 5 milímetros no fundo.
c) passe um graveto para servir de poleiro e está pronto o comedouro para sementes pequena, ou grandes, pedaços de frutas, ou até mesmo, para bebedouro ou banho. (para piscinas, aumente a borda inferior para 1 cm.

Bem, são muitas opções.

Assim, além da observação EM SUA CASA ou EM SEU JARDIM (no seu quadrado) que podem ter registros de sexta a segunda, ou seja todos os dias, escolha mais UM a DOIS temas para fazer durante 1 a 3 horas observações no fim-de semana.

BORA FOTOGRAFAR A BIODIVERSIDADE.
Organizadores Nacionais!

Although it didn’t cause national hysteria like the beetle invasion of 1964 (or was it Beatles in the British Invasion???), I did happen to hear about the Jorō Spider invasion of 2014. There were a few articles and blogs as this East Asian species was first found in Madison County, Georgia, not far from my home town of Athens.

© Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 59267584

A University of Georgia article wrote, "The Jorō spider, native Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan, belongs to a group of large spiders known as golden orb-web weavers that make enormous, multi-layered webs of gold-colored silk. [Researchers] suspect the Jorō spider arrived accidentally as a hitchhiker either in shipping containers or among shipped packing materials such as pallets and crates or even on live plant material."

© Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 59267584

Introduced and invasive species often impact the native species and can even upset the balance of an entire ecosystem, such as the pythons in the Everglades. While Jorō Spider pose no threat to humans, it is unknown if they will adversely affect the native Yellow Garden Spider by competing in the same niche.

© Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 59353542

In 2018 I began to see them pop up regularly in iNaturalist observations in Georgia. But it wasn’t until today that I found one in my own backyard. It was nearly impossible to miss. A strand of the thick web extended from the top of my backyard cypress, and about 15 to 20 feet at a downward angle and anchored to another lower bush. In the middle, suspended in a tangled web just above a Yucca, hung the ornately patterned female. A few days later I noticed a smaller spider “hanging out” with her. It was identified by other iNat users as the male of the species.

© Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observaton: 59357361

There are now over 300 sightings of the Jorō Spider posted on iNaturalist in Georgia, and two in South Carolina. Who knows how far and wide this invasion will sweep, or if it will have as long lasting an impact as the British Invasion that forever changed the music landscape of the world! ​​

Be sure to take a more general photo (not of a species) of your river visit on Sunday and then share it by posting it to our facebook event discussion https://www.facebook.com/events/933697410484572

Here, below, tell us all what river you'll be visiting, and where it's located (near what city, state, country).

While you're out collecting species data, get some land cover data too. Here's how.

Download the GLOBE Observer app to your smartphone. - https://observer.globe.gov/about/get-the-app
Create a unique account (you'll need an email address for this)
Join Wild Rose Education's Home River Bioblitz observation team using this referral code - GLIDRIKN (that's an i not a 1).
Take the tutorial within the app on your phone for the Clouds and Land Cover protocols.
Start taking observations everywhere you go!
More details at https://www.wildroseeducation.com/news

Please complete this short survey https://forms.gle/suXw6TKUsEfK7XmU6 by Sunday morning, before you head out to your home river. Grad student, Jens Benöhr's research aims to understand how citizen science can affect people’s attachment to local wildlife and ecosystems and therefore improve citizen-science initiatives. To achieve this, she's measuring place attachment before and after the bioblitz event.

Thank you for getting this done ASAP.

The first-ever Jericho Bioblitz is off to a great start. Many thanks to the people who have made it over to our project site at Mobbs Farm and made observations of nature for science. As of this posting we have noted over 213 species.

For this weekend we have several times when volunteers from the Conservation Commission will be hanging out near the kiosk at the Fitzsimonds entrance to answer questions. Those times are Saturday 9/19 from 12-2pm & Sunday 9/20 from 10-12am and again from 1-3pm.

The cool thing about posting our observations to iNaturalist (iNaturalist.org) is that it doesn’t require you to know exactly what you are looking at – just a decent quality picture of it. You can let the iNaturalist program's experts (human and AI) help you with IDs. For the best results try to get as close to the subject as possible, try to photograph the subject from a few angles (e.g. a mushroom ID is best with pictures of the top and the underside), and try to submit the entry to the most specific taxonomic level you are comfortable with – if you see a bug and you know it’s a bee, but don’t know what kind, choose a label such as “bee family” rather than a blank “question mark”, or if you don’t know if it’s a bee or a wasp then label it as “insect”.

Please check out our home page on the town website (jerichovt.org/bioblitz) for more ways to engage! We have created a virtual place for you to submit nature poetry and artwork. There’s even a map where you can pin the places in Mobbs that you really love to visit. The Bioblitz runs through Saturday, Sept 26th so there is still plenty of time to participate.

**Unique adaptation :
Pinkladies:
it is of high drought- resistance, being able to grow in most of the area in the world.
It blooms both day and night, but typically in the pre-dawn hours, closing when the full sun hits them, so it attracts moths especially.
*Common adaptation:
All the plants we observed are of broad leaves. the reason for that is all the plants are distributed in warm temperate and subtropical zones, with higher temperatures and more rainfall, so they are adapted into broad leaves
**Phylogeny placement:
Setaria viridis AKA Green Bristle Grass
Kingdom: Plantae-->Clade: Tracheophytes;Angiosperms;Monocots;Commelinids-->Order: Poales-->Family: Poaceae-->Subfamily: Panicoideae--> Genus: Setaria

On this day I visited both Zuma Canyon and Nicholas Flat. The heat and dry conditions are very evident on the trails. Zuma Canyon seems to have been hit hard as the habitat is definitely in pretty poor condition. Years ago this had a stream nearly year round. In the last few years, it has been nearly nonexistent except for 2019 when we had the great rains following the Woolsey fire.

However it was not completely bleak. There were probably a hundred broomsage plants blooming. Unfortunately, they were attracting hundreds of western honeybees. I looked in vain for other pollinators. There were a few but it was difficult to find them. I did find one interesting beetle on the buckwheat which I've highlighted here.

From there, I went to Nicholas Flat. I expected the pond to be almost dry but it looked quite good. It also had at least three big stands of water smartweed blooming. Surprisingly there were very few birds on the lake. Perhaps it was the time of day, but in general, I'm finding fewer birds out on the trails lately. I don't know if it has to do with the massive migratory bird deaths or just a general decline.

That being said, I have also noticed that though there are completely dead spots where nothing seems to be thriving, there are also hotspots where there is a lot of life. I didn't see a whole lot on the regular trails at Nicholas Flat but I wandered off on an animal trail and found 6 species of butterflies and a variety of other pollinators in addition to much more bird activity in just fifty feet of trail or so. My most interesting finds of the day is a beautiful collops beetle. And it was nice to see the resident northern harrier again.

On another note, I know we mentioned the decline in marine life and tide pool life as well as people's behavior with regard to marine life. I don't know if any of you saw this but they finally are starting to address the problem at White Point.:

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-09-17/45-charged-poaching-marine-life-san-pedro-white-point-tide-pools

The last time Chris and I were there a few months ago we found the behavior of others atrocious. Unless they start coming down hard on people, I guess this will continue.

There are few general adaptations that apply to the breadth of life in the Life Above Us project, but the fact that all animals within the project live in trees or in the air allows for some similarities: they must be light enough to lift their own weight vertically, relying on lift generated by wings or grip from limbs.

The spiny oak-slug moth larva (or spiny oak slug) is situated on the phylogenetic tree within the complete metamorphosis insects, specifically butterflies and moths. Within moths, there is an enormous diversity in genera, but the spiny oak slug is found in the Euclea genus alongside 48 other species. The larval stage (spiny oak slug) is considered venomous, and its barbs can cause severe allergic reactions in humans. This adaptation is superior to a similar adaptation in monarch caterpillars that makes them toxic to ingestion. By actively injecting a venom that deters predators, the spiny oak slug increases the fitness of its individual being, as opposed to relying on predators learning to associate bright colours with toxicity through trial and error and generations of disposition.