<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4Tfv9o_1G20k1ZG00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4Tfv9o_1G20k1ZG00" width="1374" height="1205" ><figcaption>A tussock moth caterpillar. Creative Commons photo via Flickr from Jenny Pansing</figcaption></figure>There are more than a million acres of wilderness in the Adirondacks. The park’s wildest places are home to alpine plants and elusive animals like moose and black bears.But you can find plenty of wilderness right beneath your feet. In this episode of Adirondack Selections, Emily Russell and Dr. Curt Stager explore the intricate ecosystem of his front yard.Emily RussellAdirondack Selections: Observing tiny wilderness in your own backyardEMILY RUSSELL: So we're sitting here in the meadow in front of your house and we're just going to sit and look and observe and once you just kind of sit and look around you, you notice a lot more, huh? CURT STAGER: Yeah, I think the stereotypical nature walk is where you have something in mind, like going to go look for a kind of bird or a kind of insect or a kind of plant and instead we’re just go and sit down and sit still for a change and shut up and listen.Then things start happening and you never know what it's going to be. So I'm looking down here on the ground, and we have little strawberry plants, wild strawberries. We got a little goldenrod right here. We have a grass stem. I just saw an ant go by. One thing I like to do is imagine being in this little spot right here as an ant and how different it would look. So for me, I'm sitting here. I've got my hand and I'm going to put it on the ground.Okay, that's I don't know what few inches across, right? So that's the distance between this goldenrod plant and that little hawkweed plant right there, the hand length. Well, if I were the ant and I was going to walk across that, I've got to go over that leaf, under that fallen clump of pine needles; it's like going through a blowdown. And for me to go that distance, I've got to go up, down, around, and around. So there is no short distance. It's a long hike.So that's kind of interesting, and yet, they cross that distance quickly. Which then you think, wow, they're moving really fast. There's that little ant. And it's hard to follow them because they're going under things.RUSSELL: Yeah, there it is.STAGER: But just think of how fast that would be if they were our size. They'd be like a gazelle running. It's like, wow, they're actually not going slow like you think, oh, they're little, and it takes a while. No, like that's wicked fast.RUSSELL: Oh, here. Look, there's a caterpillar. You see that?STAGER: Oh my gosh. Oh yeah, look at this. Okay. So right near us... now this is weird. It's the length of a finger section, hairy, black hairs with little white tufts. What else would you say?RUSSELL: And orange, like tiger stripes on its back, orange and black.STAGER: Yeah, exactly like tigers. Okay. So that's a caterpillar of a tussock moth. And there's a little clue on there: having orange and black markings like that is really, really common with insects that live around milkweed. Like monarch butterflies. And there are other insects on there too. So this is not on a milkweed plant. The milkweed is, for us, a short distance away, right? My arm's length is the nearest one.That's pretty far for this. How does that tussock moth larva know where to go? And why are they on the ground in the first place?RUSSELL: Right.STAGER: They should be on one of these milkweeds because that's where their mom laid the eggs. So why would that one have left? So there's a mystery.RUSSELL: Do you have a theory as to what it's up to?STAGER: All right, so tussock moths are kind of like monarch butterflies in a way. The babies have to live on milkweed and they share the milkweed resources with monarchs. The monarchs get the milkweeds early in the season when the leaves are fresh and everything. And these get the leftovers. So if I'm looking at these milkweeds now, it's September while we're doing this and they look yellow and curly and they look unhealthy. That's actually what the tussock moths like.So my guess is maybe the plant that the tussock moth was on was not in just the right ripened, dried-up condition that they wanted. And they're wandering around looking for another one. But how do they know where to go? And how come it doesn't just wander out to the pond or to the do they smell them? That's really interesting. We would have walked right by that.RUSSELL: I see another one, I think, inching along this blade of grass here. Oh, there it is.STAGER: Wow. Look at this. We’ve got to do this more often. I'm missing all this stuff in my own yard. I don't know what that one is. That is beautiful. Okay, there's a fleshy little thing that looks like a caterpillar. So that tussock moth, you can tell moth caterpillars sometimes because they tend to be the really hairy ones. This was a naked brown one, and I dropped it. It's about the size of a grain of rice.RUSSELL: Crawling underneath the brush there.STAGER: Yeah. So that's some kind of a larva, but who knows? Maybe it's even a fly larva of some kind. But that was beautiful. It was earthy brown with a yellowish stripe on it. And now it's falling down into the depths as an ant races over it. Now I'm seeing the ants everywhere. I didn't see any before. And it's just this is the same little tiny plot on the ground between us. And now I'm noticing these little flakes. That must be lichens right there.So imagine if lichens were as big as trees. If you're an ant, that's what it's like. You're in this fungus and plant jungle. It's wilderness by any definition. And there's wildlife in it and exotic plant life and other things like giant fungi all happening right here in this one tiny little place.So if you're ever worried about wilderness going away or the natural world being completely at risk of being destroyed by our evil ways, be reassured that there will always be some kind of life like this, even underfoot in your own backyard.</div></body>

Block Source: North Country Public Radio

Misinformation

Clickbait

Old or repetitive news

Explicit content

Location not relevant

There are more than a million acres of wilderness in the Adirondacks. The park’s wildest places are home to alpine plants and elusive animals like moose and black bears. But you can find plenty of wilderness right beneath your feet. In this episode of Adirondack Selections, Emily Russell and Dr. Curt Stager explore the intricate ecosystem of his front yard.

Adirondack Selections: Observing tiny wilderness in your own backyard

NewsBreak

There are more than a million acres of wilderness in the Adirondacks. The park’s wildest places are home to alpine plants and elusive animals like moose an

Adirondack Selections: Observing tiny wilderness in your own backyard

Comments