Hello again. The pandemic continues and so does the quiz.

These quizzes include a lot of natural history information and I hope many of you find them educational. However, they are mostly just goofiness to take all our minds off the world around us for a few minutes. Some of these questions require some biological expertise, others will require mostly just guesswork. Please don’t focus on whether you get questions right or wrong – just enjoy the distraction!

Also, stay safe, friends.

1) Which of the following are grasses? (you can click on any image in this quiz to get a closer look at it)

A. All of them

B. 1, 2, and 3

C. 1 and 4

D. Only 4

E. #2 looks like two Muppets

F. 2 and 4

.

2) What kind of insect is this?

A. Beetle (Coleoptera)

B. Bug (Hemiptera)

C. Fly (Diptera)

D. Wasp (Hymenoptera)

E. Tree Cricket (Orthoptera)

F. If you’d switched E and D around, the answers would have been alphabetical.

G. Not that I care.

.

3) Which of the following are grasshoppers and which are katydids?

A. 1, 3, and 4 are katydids.

B. 2, 3, and 4 are grasshoppers

C. 1 and 4 are katydids

D. Only 3 is a katydid

E. Only 4 is a katydid

F. There is no way to know because you can’t see their ears in these photos

.

4) Which of these is not the official common name of a moth?

A. Toadflax Brocade

B. Spotted Bounder

C. The Slow Poke

D. Glorious Habrosyne

.

5) Where does this bird species spend its winters?

A. Central America

B. Northern South America

C. Southern North America

E. Southern South America

F. Miami Beach

G. Gulf Coast

H. You skipped D

.

6) Which of these organisms obtains nutrition via parasitism?

A. All of them

B. 6

C. 1 and 6

D. 3 and 6

E. All but 5

F. 1, 3, and 6

.

7) Which of these is not the official name of a North American mushroom?

A. Satan’s Thumb

B. Destroying Angel

C. Earth Tongue

D. Devil’s Urn

.

8) Which of these creatures has a name that rhymes with ‘Hole’?

A. 1 and 2

B. 2

C. 1 and 3

D. 2 and 3

E. 3

F. How are we supposed to know what their names are?? Oh, you mean the name of the species…

.

9) True or False: (watch the video)

A. True

B. False

.

.

.

.

.

Answers:

1) The answer is C. Both 1 and 4 are grasses (sideoats grama and little bluestem, respectively). Number 2 is sun sedge (Carex heliophila) and number 3 is scouring rush, aka smooth horsetail (Equisetum laevigatum). Scouring rush isn’t a rush. In fact, it’s not even closely related to grasses, sedges, or rushes.

2) The answer is A. This is a longhorned beetle (Cerambycidae) feeding on the pollen of upright prairie coneflower (Ratibida columnifera). You can read more about these amazing creatures here.

3) The answer is C. The easiest way to tell katydids from grasshoppers is by the length of their antennae. If the antennae are as long as their body or longer, it’s a katydid. Grasshoppers have short antennae by comparison.

If you answered F, you can give yourself partial credit. Katydids have their ears on the ‘elbow’ of their front legs and grasshoppers’ ears are on their ‘belly’. Usually, trying to find the ear on an insect is much more difficult than just looking at their antennae. Far be it from me, though, to tell you how to go about identifying grasshoppers and katydids.

4) The answer is B. I think Spotted Bounder is a cool name for a moth, but I probably only think that because I invented it. Inventing moth names is pretty easy, actually, since the real ones all seem randomly assigned anyway. (The slow poke?? What kind of biologist names a creature ‘the slow poke’??) A moth biologist, apparently.

5. This answer is E. Most upland sandpipers nest in large grasslands in the Great Plains of the U.S.A (but also are found in a few other locations throughout the continent). Once they’re finished breeding, though, they take a very long trip south to the bottom half of the continent of South America where they hang out in pampas and llanos (grasslands).

6. The answer is E. As far as I know, the Woodhouse’s toad is not parasitic during any part of its life. Having said that, I’ll probably get a bunch of responses from herpetologists telling me that their tadpoles attach themselves to turtles – or something equally cool and crazy. Regardless, all of the other creatures shown are parasites. Ticks, of course are easy to categorize since they are external parasites on us. The tachninid fly (#1) has parasitic larvae that burrow into caterpillars or other animals.

The three plants are Great Plains Indian paintbrush (Castilleja sessiliflora), dodder (Cuscuta sp), and – I think – Elephant’s head (Pedicularis groenlandica), which I photographed in Idaho last year. The paintbrush and Elephant’s head both hook up to the roots of other plants and siphon nutrients from them but are considered hemiparasitic because they don’t rely fully on those other plants for food. Dodder wraps itself around other plants and steals their nutrients so efficiently that it doesn’t even need to photosynthesize.

7. Satan’s thumb is a mushroom name I invented so A is the correct answer. But wouldn’t you like to see what a Satan’s thumb mushroom would look like??

8. The answer is B. The Eastern mole (Scalopus aquaticus) pictured here was dead when I found it, put it in my pocket, and took it home to photograph. It was still dead when I took the picture you see here. It’s a decent photo, though, isn’t it? I bet you were impressed that I was able to get such a great shot of a mole, huh? Don’t be.

The other two species are a deer mouse and a prairie dog, neither of which rhymes with ‘hole’ unless they happened to be named ‘Joel’, in which case I guess you could make an argument. If I had a good picture of a vole I would have included it.

9. True. Crazy, but true. The same apparently works for ants. If you have a sustainably stocked prairie of bison (or cattle, for that matter), they have about the same biomass per acre as ants or grasshoppers. That’s a lot of bugs – I mean insects.

This post was written by Ashley Oblander, one of our Hubbard Fellows this year. Ashley came to us with strong experience in land management, including invasive plant control. She and our other current Fellow, Dat Ha, introduced themselves recently in a previous post. I hope you enjoy Ashley’s thoughtful essay about weeds.

Since beginning my career in conservation, I’ve had the opportunity to interact with people from different backgrounds. During those conversations, a topic that has stuck out and interested me is weeds. In my opinion, the definition is quite simple: a plant that is growing in a place where it isn’t wanted. What I find more compelling than a definition is differing opinions of what is truly a weed and how my perspective on that has changed.

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

As a young kid, I remember picking bouquets of dandelions to bring to my mom and urging her to put them in a vase in the windowsill. Since my dad kept a clean, short lawn, these pops of color seemed like a treasure. As I grew, I thought of them more as weeds and would pick them with the sole purpose of wiping the yellow color of its pollen onto my friend’s shirts. But now that I’ve become more educated on the topic, I see dandelions as a possible resource for pollinators.

In an urban setting where there are fewer floral resources, especially early in the growing season, the nectar from dandelions and other lawn weeds can be a crucial food source. A research project done on lawns in Kentucky found 25 species of bees visiting dandelions over two growing seasons. When I become a homeowner, not only will I opt out of spraying species like dandelions, but I plan to plant native species throughout my yard as well. If that is something that would interest you, there are great resources online, including lists of native species based on where you live from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. A few of my favorites from the Northern Plains Region handout are eastern pasqueflower, wild bergamot, and stiff goldenrod.

Velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti)

When I first saw this plant, I couldn’t believe how soft its leaves were! Walking through nature, I like to feel the textures of different plants, so this got my attention right away. On top of that, the seed capsules of this species are so strange looking (they’re the circular capsule with spines at the top in the image above). I really enjoy seeing plants that are unique. However, I learned recently that the positive view I have of this plant is not shared by everyone, and farmers may consider it a weed. Not having grown up on a farm, I had no idea that it was perceived this way. Farmers see this plant as a weed because it grows in their crop fields competing for light and moisture which can reduce yield. In a pasture it may grow in a space where grass could be instead, but in this case, I’d consider it more of an opportunistic plant. I think Chris covered this concept well in a past blog.

Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota)

Before working the Prairies for Agriculture Project (PFA), you could’ve shown me this plant and I would’ve thought it was beautiful! I’ve seen people stage senior photos by it, and it looks like it belongs on the roadsides. However, after working for the PFA for two years and hand pulling Queen Anne’s lace out of research plots, the sight of it makes me cringe. What’s interesting is that after working on other preserves with areas larger than 9x9m research plots, it doesn’t seem to be as a big of a concern. While it is still considered invasive, a plant with the ability to outcompete other species and diminish biodiversity, it’s not usually on the top of the priority list at most sites I’m aware of.

Crown Vetch (Securigera varia)

A species that is usually toward the top of priority lists is crown vetch. It may seem like any other pretty legume, but don’t let it fool you. Once it establishes, it can cover huge areas where it is the only species you’ll find. Not only does that negatively impact the other species of plants that it outcompeted, it also lessens the value of an area for wildlife. If there is only one species of plant around, animals that rely on a diverse diet or specialize on certain native species can’t thrive. I became very familiar with this plant while working for The Nature Conservancy in Iowa, and now it feels like I see it everywhere. I haven’t worked in a great number of places, but it seems like every preserve I work at has a species that I worked hard to control and that will follow me for the rest of my life. That’s the unfortunate reality of the battles of stewardship.

Musk Thistle (Carduus nutans)

I also learned from working in conservation about noxious weeds. A noxious weed is a plant that is particularly troublesome and could directly or indirectly injure or cause damage to crops, livestock, etc. A local example for Nebraska is the musk thistle. If this species is on your property, you are required to remove it. In Nebraska, the removal of this species is monitored by each county’s weed superintendent. So, although pollinators may visit it, the negative effects of this plant outweigh the good, and it has to go.

At the end of the day, the biggest lesson I’ve learned about weedy plants is that they are not all created equal. While they may not be ideal in the eyes of a human, they could be exactly what a pollinator or other critter need. It’s important to assess whether a species is being aggressive to the point of being invasive and pushing other species out, or whether it’s taking advantage of preferable conditions this year and while it may flourish, may be gone or not an issue the next. I think it all comes down to perspective. And perspective comes from what you have experienced previously and how long you’ve been in the weed-killing business. It’s a nice reminder that someone’s opinion may be different than ours, but that doesn’t always mean they’re wrong.

I would love to hear about a weedy species that you have later found value in, one that has frustrated you, or one that you can’t help but love even if it is a “weed”.