Nom nom nom.

This startling image of a brown anole (Anolis sagrei) munching on a cloudless sulphur (Phoebis sennae) butterfly was taken by garden visitor Julie Wright who is also a member of the MOSI Outside Flickr group. This great picture leads to a very common question in the butterfly garden: What eats butterflies?

The answer: Darn near anything that can catch them at any stage of the game. Here's a short list of predators: ladybugs (eat eggs), ants, spiders, wasps, parasitic wasps, parasitic flies, birds, rats, toads, frogs, lizards, praying mantis, snakes, children. The list of species that attack butterflies in their various life stages is pretty long and we will suffice it to say that butterflies have LOTS of predators.

To combat this, butterflies have a wonderful array of mechanisms to hide, taste bad, or look like they taste bad.

• Eggs laid under leaves are harder to sport for predators.
• Striped caterpillars are hard for black-and-white seeing predators to pick out and ones that look like poop (giant swallowtails for instance) look appetizing to no one.
• Many chrysalis look like dead leaves, twigs, or leaf buds.
• Many butterfly have bad flavors to predators which are determined by poisonous host plants and some other butterflies will mimic these distasteful ones.
• Some butterflies have large eye spots to scare off predators.
• Some butterflies are more inventive like the Mourning Cloak. When threatened, they will let go of their branch and fall to the ground like a dead leaf, never trying to fly away. They will lay on the ground until danger has passed and then move on.

Tilapia at MOSI

A regular question in the butterfly garden is "Why are there tilapia in the pond?". The answer is a story that involves John Glenn, NASA, aquaculture, and the tale of a fish born in space.

On October 29, 1998 the 92nd NASA space shuttle launched from the Florida Kennedy Space Center carrying seven astronauts and a great number of science experiments. Aboard the shuttle Discovery, John Glenn was returning to space for the first time since the Friendship 7 orbital mission in 1962. It was a much heralded mission as John Glenn became the oldest human to travel into space.

Also aboard that shuttle were tilapia and killifish fish eggs. Seems like an odd cargo to send into space but it did have excellent commercial applications. Previous study in space showed that the eggs of brine shrimp developed at an accelerated rate in space. This idea could have great commercial application for use in aquaculture fisheries, and ever increasing source of our on planet fish supply.

One of the tilapia eggs aboard the shuttle hatched into a tiny fry while still in space. Thus, A.M.I.G.O. (Aquaculture in Microgravitational Orbit) was born. After his return to earth AMIGO was studied to see what effects microgravity might have had on his fishy form. HCC (Hillsborough Community College) researched AMIGO, studying how space had effected the tilapia and worked to determine if tilapia would be appropriate to use for aquaculture in space programs that might lead to the production of food on extended space flights.

AMIGO came to live at MOSI and was given a mate named Marie whom he liked quite a bit. Together they produced a brood of over 100 young tilapia, which is a lot of fish! The happy family resided in tanks in the GTE Challenger Learning Center at MOSI where thousands of students studying space got to meet (and tap on the glass of) this incredible fish family. AMIGO grew to 17-18 inches in length, much larger than the standard 12-14 inch size of average tilapia. AMIGO died in 2000 of ammonia poisoning after a building power failure turned off the filters to the tanks. Due to AMIGO's huge size, toxic quatities of ammonia built up in his body even though other fish in the same take were not affected.

No known negative effects were discovered from AMIGO's incredible microgravitational birth. His mate Marie and his remaining babies remained at the museum and were eventually moved out to the enginered marsh area in the BioWorks Butterfly Garden. 11 years later we still have second, third, fourth and successive generations of AMIGO's descendants swimming about the pond.

On Tilapia

AMIGO was a blue tilapia (Oreochromis aureus) native to the freshwater rivers of Africa. Tilapia are cichlids that breed readily with females carrying 160-1600 eggs at one time. After the eggs are fertilized, tilapia females will hold the fertilized eggs in her mouth until the hatch, which is known as mouth brooding. This safe spot allows the tilapia eggs to develop without being eaten by predators. After the eggs hatch the female will remain fiercly protective of her young, chasing after anything that wanders into the water near her nest. The young fish (fry) will still take refuge in the mother's mouth when danger approaches until they become to large to hide.

Tilapia can live in fresh to brackish water and are highly adaptive to a wide range of temperatures. By being so very adaptable, breeding so readily and producing young that are kept safe, tilapia are excellent fish to use in aquaculture.

On Aquaculture:

Aquaculture is the cultivation of aquatic populations under controlled conditions whether in net enclosures in natural bodies of water or constructed tanks or tubes. Aquaculture is a huge business and ever developing science.

STS 95 Mission CGBA (Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Aparatus) press release.
Aquaculture: Previous research on the shuttle has shown that the development of brine shrimp was accelerated when initiated from rehydrated cysts (eggs). On STS-95, investigators affiliated with the Florida
Aquaculture Association will see if this holds true for Tilapia and Killifish eggs as well. If so, further research
will be done to determine the reason for this increase and to apply it to terrestrial fish hatcheries, which are
becoming an increasingly important source for supplying the commercial demand for fish.

Special thanks:

• Ira Monko: photographer and member of the MOSI Outside Flickr Group, thanks for permission to use the excellent tilapia image taken at MOSI


• Lisa Adkins: MOSI alumni & former tilapia caretaker for additional AMIGO information that helped me to finish this article

Olustee Longleaf Pine: The Civil War in North Florida

The Historic Tree Grove at MOSI offers a unique timeline of America's history as it was viewed by silent witnesses, trees. Our 17 trees in the grove are all seedlings of trees that witnessed amazing historic events or were associated with famous historical people. Imagine the sycamore that grew from seeds that went to the moon, a pine that watched a battle of the American Civil War, the sweet gum that saw the flight of the first airplane. What wonders those trees witnessed and those same trees still live long after the events of history have passed. We can still lay our hands on their bark, sit beneath their boughs and take a few minutes out to learn and converse about great deeds and fantastic people which shaped our world.

One of the trees in the frontage of the tree grove is the Olustee Longleaf Pine. With it being so near to the anniversary of this battle, February 20th, it was suggested that this might be a timely tree to highlight.

The Battle of Olustee, also known as the Battle of Ocean Pond, was the largest of the few battles of the American Civil War fought in Florida. On February 20, 1864 Union forces on an expedition into Florida to secure Union enclaves, sever Confederate supply routes, and recruit black soldiers met with a force of 5000 Confederate troops.

The battle was a rout for Union forces with nearly 2,000 casualties after the four hours of battle. Many combatants involved in the battle were veterans of larger battles of the Civil War but many of those soldiers reported this battle to be particularly fierce fighting and inhospitable terrain. Fleeing Union troops were mostly unpressed in their retreat and returned to Jacksonville which remained a Union stronghold in Florida until the end of the war.

The Battle of Olustee was fought upon an open pine barren with swampland as a border for the Union battle lines. Many stands of pine remain at the site of this battlefield which is now a Florida state park which hosts a battle reenactment each year in February.

For more information on events leading up to the battle, commands for both armies, the accounts of the battle and the aftermath of nearly 3,000 people left dead in North Florida after the battle please check out the award winning Battle of Olustee website. There is a great compilation of letters, wills and firsthand accounts on that site that speak to the state of Florida in that period of American History.

Olustee Lithograph pictured above: From Wikipedia- The lithograph ... was printed by the firm of Kurz and Allison in 1894. It depicts soldiers of the 8th U.S. Colored Troops advancing against Confederate entrenchments. While frequently used in media about the Battle of Olustee, it is inaccurate as the artist knew little about the battle. The Confederates troops during the battle were well in advance of their prepared positions, and neither side fought from behind fortifications as the battle took place in a pine forest (see map). Plus, there were very few large cleared areas (as also shown incorrectly in the lithograph). The annual reenactment begins in a pine forest so that reenactors can experience fighting as the soldiers did in 1864. However, it then moves into a large cleared area so that spectators also can view the battle.

Flower = Smile

For a recent grant I authored, the foundation required a multimedia presentaion to accompany the usual grant questions. The presentation needed to address how gardening makes me feel, and had to be non-verbal. With the help of my imagination, an intrepid film student, a young actor, and the graphics designer in the next office this is my answer to that question. I call it "Flower = Smile"






I'll let you know later if this helps the garden win a grant!

Imperial Moths, a scrapblog

Volunteers, a Scrapblog

Mimicry

Mimicry

Mimicry occurs when one group of organisms (mimics) evolves to share percieved characteristics with another group of organisms (models) through selective actions. There are many varieties of mimicry complexes that exist with varying results, but let's look at two particular types of mimicry that exist in the wonderful world of Lepidoptera and the scientists who are attributed with their discoveries.

Müllarian Mimicry

Johann Friedrich Theodor Müller (March 31, 1821 – May 21, 1897), better known as Fritz, was a German biologist and physician who emigrated to Brazil and spent his life studying the sub-tropical Atlantic forests south of Sao Paulo. Müller's discovery in the field of mimicry concerned resemblences between unpalatable species which helps to protect those species from predators capable of learning.

We can see a case of Müllarian Mimicry among the Monarch (Danaus plexippus) and Queen butterflies (Danaus gilippus) in Florida. Both species consume milkweed and sequester toxins from the plants in their bodies, making them both distasteful to predators such as birds. Both species utilize a aposematic or warning coloration of bright orange and red tones that generally warn of toxic qualities in prey. Both species resemble each other so strongly that they are often misidentified by people.

A bird that tastes a monarch will learn and remember that the bright orange coloration and pattern of decoration on a monarch butterfly is a signal of the unpalatability. A queen butterfly flying past later will likely be viewed as 'not food' since it bears

such a striking reseblence to a creature which tasted very bad to the bird.

Thus the two species gain an advantage against predators by each offering the same bad taste to the predators and reinforcing that bad taste with a very similar appearance.

Left: monarch / Right: queen

Batesian Mimicry

Henry Walter Bates (February 8, 1825 – February 16, 1892) was an English naturalist who traveled to the Amazon with Alfred Russel Wallace (credited with the co-discovery of natural selection). Bates spent 11 years in the Amazon, sending home some 14,000 specimins of which about 8,000 were entirely new to science. With no formal education in science, Bates was an auto-didact (self-taught) scientist whose observations have helped to shape moden biology. If you have the opportunity, take a look at Bates' work The Naturalist on the Rivers Amazons which tells of his travels in the Amazon.

While in the Amazonian rain forest, Bates noted that noxious species of butterfly in one family of butterflies were often counterfieted in appearance by members of the Pierid (sulphur) family of butterflies. Bates work traced butterflies in the Danainae (milkweed)and Heliconiinae (longwing) families who feed on milkweed and passionvines respectively. The butterflies of these families sequester noxious compounds from their host plants within their bodies and therefore taste bad to predators.

In this minicry complex, the Danaids and Helaconids become the models. Their minics, members of the Pierid (or sulphur) family gain protection from predators by mimicing the visual appearance of the distasteful models. Even though they would be quite tasty to predators, the mimics appear to be noxious butterflies and thus are left alone by predators who have already encounted the noxious butterflies and learned that they are bad to eat.

Here in Florida there is an example of Batsian mimicry visible with the Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) and Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucas). The Pipevine Swallowtail is the model, a butterfly that tastes noxious to predators because of chemicals consumed in its host plants, pipevines (aristolochia spp). The Tiger Swallowtail, a normally bright yellow butterfly with tiger-like striping has a black form that occurs in females of the species in areas where the Pipevine Swallowtail is present. This black form mimics the look of Pipevine Swallowtails and gains protection for these female butterflies to mate and lay their eggs without being eaten. Probably very handy if you are a female Tiger Swallowtail.

Left: Pipevine male / Right: Tiger female, black form

Etymology of Mimicry
mimetic 1637, "having an aptitude for mimicry," from Gk. mimetikos "imitative," from mimetos, verbal adj. of mimeisthai "to imitate." Originally of persons, attested of animals or plants from 1851. Online Etymology Dictionary

Fort Matanzas Red Cedar: Watching Florida Settle In

The Historic Tree Grove at MOSI offers a unique timeline of America's history as it was viewed by silent witnesses, trees. Our 17 trees in the grove are all seedlings of trees that witnessed amazing historic events or were associated with famous historical people. Imagine the sycamore that grew from seeds that went to the moon, a pine that watched a battle of the American Civil War, the sweet gum that saw the flight of the first airplane. What wonders those trees witnessed and those same trees still live long after the events of history have passed. We can still lay our hands on their bark, sit beneath their boughs and take a few minutes out to learn and converse about great deeds and fantastic people which shaped our world.

The tree first on the timeline in the Historic Tree Grove is the Fort Matanzas Red Cedar, a tree that watched as Florida was settled and tamed.

Ft Matanzas Red Cedar
245 French Huguenots were stranded in an inlet just south of the new village of St Augustine and were massacred among the dunes by Spanish forces led by Menendez in 1565. The inlet was named Matanzas which is the Spanish term for “slaughter”. This incident initiated Spanish control of Florida for some 235 years. Long the site of wooden watchtowers, Ft Matanzas began construction in 1740 to guard access to this unprotected inlet that could allow pirates or foreign forces to reach the now well established city of St Augustine.

The Fort at Matanzas still stands on Rattlesnake Island amidst a lush preserve of barrier island ecosystem. The preserve boardwalk is a great walk if you are ever in the St Augustine area and there are some great bits of nature just waiting to be visited and photographed. (My better half snapped some great shots of purple spiderwort flowers growing along a path there!)

Fort Matanzas is host to many live oaks of over 150 years of age and also boasts a red cedar tree that is over 260 years old. Our red cedar is a seedling from that amazing tree at Ft Matanzas.

Learn more about Ft Matanzas at the National Park Service website

Next time you are at MOSI, drop by the Historic Tree Grove and take a few minutes out to wonder: What would it have been to live in wild Florida in those early years of settlement? War, piracy, wild life threats, poorly growing crops, famine, hurricanes and fear of attack were constant themes in the ever changing and politically charged landscape of the early centuries of Florida's inhabitation by non-native settlers. To settle on this peninsula even now is to accept an entirely different set of plants and animals and a climate like no other in this country. Imagine Florida before air conditioning, refrigeration and modern travel.

The Fort Matanzas Red Cedar is a very tall, conical evergreen tree that stands at the enterance to the Historic Tree Grove.

For my butterfly enthusiasts, Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) is a host plant for the Sweedner's Hairstreak butterfly. You knew I would sneak a butterfly in here somewhere!

Photo credits: L. Chandler -- NPS Photo