SOME SEPTEMBER WILDLIFE

Took my camera out in the field one day this week and snapped some pics. Above is the tail of a Western skink. The young of the year have been out for a month or so, and their tails have the most amazing color. Here’s a very small walking stick that I’m not sure how to identify:

And here are some mantids that John got in a trap. The first is the European praying mantis, Mantis religiosa, displaying its characteristics eye-spots on its under-arms. I’m fairly sure the second is a minor ground mantid, Litaneutria minor, a California native. The only other thing it might be is the California mantid, but the California is supposed to have banding on its abdomen. They were both exactly the same color as the dead annual grasses where they were found. I’ve seen minor ground mantids at a scrub chaparral site and they were slate grey, like the nearby rocks and black chamise. I’d love to know if color variation is a individual or population-scale phenomenon.

And I went tidepooling on Wednesday with Ricka and Shawn. Sadly it wasn’t the lowest tide and the surf was high, combining to make the best pools flooded and too dangerous to visit anyway. Nevertheless, we saw the usual host of crabs, anemones, sculpins, and other higher intertidal species, plus opalescent nudibranchs, spotted triophas, and a new one for me, the leopard dorid (Diaulula sandiegensis)!