Wayne's Trivia Notes #35
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 Wayne's Trivia Notes #35   © W.P. Armstrong    All Facebook Notes & Images   
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Wayne's Trivia Note #764 (10 October 2021)

Threat posture of a sowbug killer (Dysdera crocota) I rescued from ant pitfall trap. Her massive jaws and long fangs are most impressive!

Wayne's Trivia Note #765 (14 October 2021)

Another female mantid at my sunroom door. I guess the word is out: Wayne's Word is a good place for female mantids to get food and find a short-lived mate.

Wayne's Trivia Note #766 (16 October 2021)

A fall wildflower native to Twin Oaks Valley that is related to beautiful, widely distributed Alaskan wildflower called fireweed. The species names have changed depending on reference. I am following the scholarly Kew Plants of the World Online.

Wayne's Trivia Note #767 (20 October 2021)

This morning's Hunter moonset in the west behind my neighbor's house. It really was that orange!

Wayne's Trivia Note #768 (21 October 2021)

Last night's Hunter Moon was very bright over my house. This morning's Hunter moonset in the west was not orange so I used yesterday's moonset in comparison image.

Wayne's Trivia Note #769 (23 October 2021)

One of my passions is photographing freight trains while searching for different & unusual ant species. Several hundred thousand shipping containers are held up in record-breaking, pandemic gridlock in cargo ships & docks at LA & Long Beach harbors.

Wayne's Trivia Note #770 (24 October 2021)

My resident Cooper's Hawk is waiting patiently for me to fill up my bird feeder.

Wayne's Trivia Note #771 (29 October 2021)

I finally identified these little balls in my Camelia Garden that resemble rabbit droppings. They develop into something resembling a minute bird's nest! Hint: The inner peridium resembles a fluted cupcake liner. Click Here   More Information

Wayne's Trivia Note #772 (2 November 2021)

I identified a jumping spider (Salticidae) for some nice ladies in my neighborhood. In return they made me delicious Halloween spider cookies!

Wayne's Trivia Note #773 (4 November 2021)

One of my favorite Central American shrubs dating back to my days of teaching plant ID! It is sometimes called "mala mujer." I don't know why the common name is gender specific! The undisputed "mala mujer" of Baja California, southern Arizona and mainland Mexico is Cnidoscolus angustidens, a member of the large and diverse euphorbia family (Euphorbiaceae).

  Plants With Stinging Hairs  

Wayne's Trivia Note #774 (11 November 2021)

I always remember my father Paul Armstrong on Veterans Day & Memorial Day.

Wayne's Trivia Note #775 (12 November 2021)

The Campus & Arboretum of Palomar College are truly marvelous botanical gardens. I have written pictorial articles about some of the noteworthy species and recently prepared an index that appears on Wayne's Word & the Palomar College Arboretum home page. My latest is a South African Gardenia pollinated by long-tongue moths and dispersed by large antelopes called kudus.

  Plants Of Palomar College Arboretum & Coastal Sage Scrub  

Wayne's Trivia Note #776 (15 November 2021)

A minute Pheidole minor worker & random grains of table salt on my electric cooktop.

Wayne's Trivia Note #777 (24 November 2021)

In 1959, the famous paleobotanist from UCLA, Daniel Axelrod, described the 1st vascular plants to colonize Earth 400 million years ago. The "living fossil" Psilotum nudum was considered a modern-day representative of that ancient flora. This plant was just located on the Palomar College campus, probably introduced with nursery stock; however, new DNA revelations may change its ancestral history.

  Psilotum On Palomar College Campus  

Wayne's Trivia Note #778 (28 November 2021)

Native coyote brush at Palomar College. Like people, this species is dioecious with separate male & female shrubs. A fuzzy female shrub covered with silky-haired seeds near Science Building. Early CA settlers called this shrub "fuzzy-wuzzy." I once found amazing stem ant living inside hollow stem on nearby Owens Peak. Related acacia ants of Costa Rica live inside swollen thorns.

  Coyote Brush On The Palomar College Campus  

Wayne's Trivia Note #779 (3 December 2021)

From time to time, I may draw from my Botanical Record-Breakers Lecture for Facebook Trivia Notes. A bristlecone pine named "Methuselah" was the oldest living tree based on tree-ring dating in White Mtns of CA. It was 4853 yrs old, although there are unconfirmed reports of trees exceeding 5,000 yrs. By way of comparison, I once dated a Sierra Juniper that was only 1400 years old. Another bristlecone pine named "Prometheus" on Wheeler Peak, NV was 4862 years old. Unfortunately & tragically, it was cut down by geographer doing climatological research (with permission from Forest Service).

  Botanical Record-Breakers Part 1  

Wayne's Trivia Note #780 (5 December 2021)

Poke (Polk) Salad: This native plant of the SE U.S. grows in my neighborhood in Twin Oaks Valley. For those of you who remember the song "Polk Salad Anne," this is the plant that Tony Joe White was singing about. In the 1970s in a dormatory at Oregon State Univ. the students in adjacent room played this song over & over, day & night. I finally moved my bedding to a cubbyhole in the basement!

  American Pokeweed & Related Species  

Wayne's Trivia Note #781 (4 December 2021)

Got up at 4:30 AM this morning. My praying mantids hatched and were escaping from their 2 egg cases into my house. They are reasonably safe from predators here but there is no food for them indoors. It took several hours to round them up. I hope they have a good life, but hatching in early December is not the best time. I thought they would hatch in the spring.

Wayne's Trivia Note #782 (6 December 2021)

What To Feed Baby Mantids? Argentine ant & fruit fly from my composter too large for baby mantid. I ordered springtails (soil microorganisms in insect order Collembola) from Amazon--stay tuned!