emergent asymmetry

2007-09-14T19:15:00.001-07:00

prickly pears

2007-08-13T11:13:00.001-07:00

Extremely abundant,

extremely pink,

We decided to make...

prickly pear syrup!

2007-08-13T11:07:00.001-07:00

This looks a bit repetitive when placed above the previous post. I made the black and gray skirt and am quite proud of it.

One of various patterns...

Skeleton man.

Playing the saw

2007-07-21T16:16:00.001-07:00

I decided that a musical saw would be a fine addition to our band, so I bought a $14 model at Ace Hardware. Playing the saw is actually trickier than I expected, but it's fun.

2007-06-26T16:56:00.001-07:00

We adopted another cat. A friend found it in her neighborhood, and we agreed to take it in.

We named him Steve. Here, Steve is settling in to his new home.

Steve is a very sweet cat. For a long time, we thought Steve was a girl. Even the vet wasn't sure at first. It must be all that eyeliner.

Steve and Toby are getting along well, considering. Hopefully they will become friends.

And now... the Pink Wonder is fitted, greased, adjusted, restrung, and ready for action! Amazingly it sounded better than it was before painting, even before I added the Dominant strings. It's not half bad.

The Pink Wonder

2007-06-24T01:35:00.001-07:00

The Pink Wonder- a crummy pink violin found in the free bin by one of our band members. (Did I mention that I play in a band?) Despite its poor construction and thick pink coating, this violin actually sounds half-decent, especially when hooked up to the amp.

The violin Andrew's father gave to me condescends to pose beside it here.

Although it's not exactly mine, I hope to play this beast a lot in the future. It would be especially good for venues that might be dangerous for my finer instruments. But... Aaaagh the pink!! It clearly needed a face-lift.

I started by sanding it, to remove the glossy finish. Then, I added designs with my high-tec design-making tool [sharpie].
Next, I applied several coatings of semi-transparent acrylic.

Finally, the Pink Wonder is painted and ready to be re-strung! (My other fiddle has kindly posed next to it again.)

A detail of the finished Pink Wonder, sans tailpiece and chin-rest. Once I fix the pegs, fit the bridge, and re-string it with Dominants I can see how it sounds.

Southern Sonora

2007-06-07T23:09:00.000-07:00

I spent the last week in a very remote part of southern Sonora, Mexico, near the town of Alamos, doing biologist stuff. Here are some pictures, with minimal text.

5AM: Alamos. There are about five roosters per person in this town.

Hibiscus.

The lower ranch house, in the tropical deciduous forest.

Part of the kitchen.

The rest of the kitchen.

This mare was purchased for $600 that morning, for the purpose of breeding mules.

Walking to one of the insect trap sites on a neighboring ranch.

Typical wildlife on the ranches. Note the giant fig in the background.

This is what the tropical deciduous forest looks like.

The pool at the mouth of the slot canyon, where we swam.

The slot canyon from above.

A spider the size of my hand looks for fish.

An ant trail carries my fluorescent-dyed cookie crumbs up a tree.

An attempt at night photography: the moon rises over the hill.

Setting out the next day for the upper ranch.

The upper ranch house.

We examine barrel cacti on a rock.

In fact, these cacti only grow on rocks.

If you look closely at this vertical cliff you will see about 20 barrel cacti.

Ephebomyrmex(?) visits a cactus nectary.

A very exciting Cephalotes ant shows up as well.

Another attempt at night photography at the upper house.

Moonlight on the neighboring ranch house.

Hiking through an oak and pine forest.

Agave.

Coral Bean Tree.

Remote canyon.

Me, holding a gigantic oak leaf.

Blacklighting for insects.

Lobo (a.k.a. Bozo) the dog.

The ride down.

Backpacking

2007-05-22T23:03:00.000-07:00

The wonderful thing about backpacking is that it reminds you of the really important things in life- food, shelter, and companionship. Worries about bills, plans, and academia fade away, replaced by more important concerns like warming up cold feet and finding comfortable rocks to sit on. Minds that are accustomed to staying up all night suddenly crave sleep when the sun sets, and stomachs that were barely hungry for months start demanding 900-calorie lunches.
A backpacking trip was just what I needed to put this long and miserable semester behind me. So, last weekend Andrew, Becky, Cal the dog, and I set off into the Chiricahua Mountains for a four-day trip.

We were eager to escape the rising temperatures in Tucson, so we planned to take the crest trail along the top of the Chiricahuas. This trail winds along the backbone of the mountains at an elevation between 8000 and 9000 feet, visiting various springs, peaks, and meadows along the way. We had heard that the flowers were blooming, and we expected cool spring-like conditions and perhaps ripe strawberries. The hailstorm during the drive up the mountain should have been a sign that all was not as we expected. As we set off and trudged along in the rain, the trail began to look more and more ominous.

After several miles we began to notice that it had hailed along the ridge as well, and that some of the hail had not yet melted. Piles of hail began to appear, and soon we were slipping and stumbling through two inches of remarkably snow-like hail.

Although our planned campsite was only six miles from where we parked, we had not been on a long hike in a while and walking through the slippery snow/hail was particularly tiring. When we finally arrived that evening we were cold, wet, and hungry, ready to sit around a nice fire and roast the steaks we had brought. Unfortunately, all of the combustible materials in the area were also very cold and wet. As the wind picked up and the sun set, we spent two frustrating hours trying to coax a fire from wet wood and damp paper. Just when we were loosing hope we managed to start a nice warm fire to cook our dinner and warm our feet. In this picture, you can see Andrew attempting to dry his socks over our precious fire.

The sunset that night was cold, but beautiful.

The next morning began with sunshine, and I was even optimistic enough to begin cooking pancakes on my stove. Our hopes for a nice day were dashed, however, when a large hailstone punched a crater into the middle of my fourth pancake. We decided to try our luck at lower elevations, and packed up to head for the van.

Cal had his own pack, in which he carried his food, bowl, blanket, and Becky’s tent poles. He also had special dog boots to protect his feet.

Once back at the van, we drove down the mountain. We made a brief stop at the Portal house to get the forks and spoons we forgot, then headed for the South Fork trail at 6000 feet. In the gathering dusk we walked in two miles and camped at Maple Camp. Although it was still raining it only took us 20 minutes to start a fire.

After such a long day, the campfire burritos were delicious and the fire was mesmerizing.

We awoke to a warm and sunny day in the canyon, and made many successful pancakes. We sat under the lovely Maple Camp maple trees and had real maple syrup from Andrew’s parents.

Although we initially planned a long trek up the canyon that day, we were distracted by things like nice deep swimming holes.

We ended up going only three miles before coming to a spot so lovely we were forced to camp.

There were thousands of cicadas in the canyon, singing in the trees and occasionally landing on us.

I picked up this newly-emerged cicada and watched it pump up its wings on my finger. Here, it is almost finished.

We found a variety of interesting things, including this beautiful fungus growing on a rotting log.

That night we had no trouble starting a fire, and because we had eaten so much food it was easier to hang it out of reach of skunks and bears.

The next morning we hung around camp and then headed back to the van, stopping to swim along the way in a very cold and deep pool called ‘the bathtub.’ Even Andrew jumped in.

All in all, it was a very nice, very relaxed backpacking trip. We hiked a whopping total of just 22 miles, and we carried all sorts of luxurious and heavy foods like steak, gouda, and potatoes. The extra weight was definitely worth it. I would like to do more backpacking this summer, on more difficult trails. I will not, however, be carrying freeze-dried food.

Night Hike

2007-05-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

meow

2007-05-01T12:59:00.000-07:00

We went hiking Sunday on the more remote eastern side of the Rincons. While we were resting along the trail partway up the mountain, something started calling in the canyon below us. It sounded like a very large, very loud cat and my first thought was "mountain lion!" even though I've never heard one call before. It was on our mind as we hiked back down through the canyon, but we didn't see any tracks and didn't hear it again.
When I came home I searched for recordings of mountain lion calls, and sure enough, this is what it sounded like.
This is the second time we've encountered a lion since moving to Tucson, though admittedly less dramatic than the last time. I'm glad to live somewhere wild enough to still have lions. (I'm also amused that such large cats still essentially say "meow.")

2007-04-09T16:50:00.000-07:00

pastels

2007-04-07T22:09:00.001-07:00

Today on a whim I decided to draw with pastels for a couple hours. I haven't done any pastel drawing for a long time. I thought I would try sandpaper so I walked over to the hardware store and bought five sheets of 320 grit sandpaper. Here are the results:

Not so bad, and I'm sure I will improve if I keep doing them.
Unfortunately, I do like to smear and blend pastels using my fingers. This is a problem when working on sandpaper- right now my left pointer finger is unnervingly transparent.

hanami

2007-04-06T16:43:00.000-07:00

It's palo verde blossom season here in Tucson, and everywhere trees are erupting in brilliant yellow. It seems to me that this occasion should be celebrated, as the cherry blossoms are celebrated in Japan. But no picnickers spread out beneath the golden trees, and no one strolls through the parks admiring their beauty. In fact this would be quite impossible, as the city of Tucson prefers to plant palm and olive trees in parks. Instead, the palo verdes line road medians, parking lots, and yards. People seem to go about their business oblivious to the beautiful trees, their perfume, and the carpet of yellow petals on the ground.

Many, Many Markers

2007-01-09T17:08:00.001-08:00

Andrew gave me a fabulous Christmas gift- many, many Prismacolor markers.
Although the markers have proved to be fabulous for color drawings of all sorts, they are especially conducive to doodling.
The interplay between the different inks is especially striking on thick, high quality drawing paper (which I just happen to have a pile of).

Different colors, when layered on top of one another, react in different ways.

These sorts of effects only work on thick, sponge-like paper.

Anyway, I'm having fun.

Sycamore Canyon

2006-11-17T17:52:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Kim, MJ, and I went hiking in Sycamore Canyon again. We ventured farther than we ever had before. There were deep pools of clear water, orange leaves overhead, and fabulously sculptured cliffs.

During our hike we came across two guys sitting by a shady pool. They seemed friendly, so we said hello. Soon we were deep in conversation.

One of them works for the Sky Island Alliance, a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting our beautiful desert mountain ranges. The other is a lobbyist in Washington DC, working to help preserve wilderness areas.

We talked all afternoon, about politics, the environment, life, academia, bugs...
Eventually it got dark and it was time to go.

It was a real treat to feel such a connection to people we met randomly on the trail. Andrew and I may go hiking with one pf the people we met and some other SIA people tomorrow.

All Souls

2006-11-05T23:19:00.000-08:00

Tonight was the All Souls Procession, one of the most creative, unique, and beautiful events in Tucson.

This is me.

This is Andrew.

This is the burning of the urn.

This picture is for you Jess, from last week. Now he's a puddle of pumpkin goop on the porch... pumpkin goop full of awesome little Histerid beetles, that is.

Now I'm tired! Sorry for abandoning this blog for a while. The dissertation proposal is sucking my brains out.

Sycamore Canyon

2006-09-14T18:46:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I organized an insect-hunting trip to Sycamore Canyon. This canyon is along the US-Mexico border, east of Nogales in the Pajarita Mountains Wilderness. These mountains are part of the larger Tumacacori Highlands, which need protection as a wilderness!! The area is extremely diverse, and it is the only place in the United States where many subtropical plants and animals can be found. There have been occasional jaguar sightings.

We planned to hike about halfway down the canyon, but there were so many fabulous insects, plants, fungi, and amphibians that we didn’t make it very far. We turned around when ominous clouds began to rumble.

There were so many wonderful things in the canyon that I’ll need to break my report into multiple installments. I will start with caterpillars, which were abundant in all sorts of crazy shapes, sizes, forms, and colors.
Caterpillars are not my forte, so I will leave these unidentified except to say that the fuzzy ones are probably in the family Arctiidae.

Adult butterflies were also tremendously abundant, and huge clouds of orange and yellow sulfurs lifted off around us as we walked. The butterflies clustered around damp patches on the path, looking like piles of yellow leaves.

If you look carefully, you can see that the butterflies have extended their probosces to suck liquid from the mud.

This mud-sipping behavior, called puddling, provides the butterflies with much-needed nutrients and salts to supplement their nectar diet.

Backyard Ants

2006-09-08T23:29:00.000-07:00

I realize that although my primary research interest is ants, I have yet to write about them here. Today I thought I'd start close to home and write a little about the ants in my backyard.
On Wednesday I watched several small colonies of Solenopsis aurea, a native fire ant, in my flower bed. They were preparing for a mating flight in response to the heavy rains.

The female alates (winged reproductive ants) climbed carefully up a dry piece of grass, preparing for takeoff. In the photo above you can also see a medium-sized worker, who has follwed them up.

As the twig became more crowded, the alates at the end either took off or were knocked to the ground, forced to start the arduous journey up the twig again.

A large colony of a second species of ant, Forelius pruinosus, dwells under our brick patio. They are small, fast ants that can be quite active at high temperatures. Out of curiosity, I mapped their foraging trails across the backyard. This is the result:

The nest has multiple exits, all located in the area of greatest trail density. The ant highways are anything but random- one takes the most direct route to the garbage can, a second leads to a wheelbarrow full of yard debris and compost, and a third heads to a flower bed.

I leave you with one last picture of a very beautiful and cryptic grasshopper on my mallow plant. True, it's not an ant, but it's nice anyway.

Beautiful Beetles

2006-08-26T13:15:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday I went blacklighting with some of the other students in Insect Systematics. We set up in Box Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains. The lights brought in a fantastic selection of insects.

This is a male Dynastes granti, one of the largest beetles in the United States. I was standing near the blacklighting sheet when I heard a large crash behind me. It turned out to be this guy landing. A female Dynastes came to the light a little later. One of the other students has both of them in a terrarium now, where they happily munch on bananas. In the wild they strip bark from ash trees to eat the sap.

In this photo Dynastes is posing with another charismatic Arizona beetle. The gorgeous green scarab on the right is Chrysina gloriosa. They feed on juniper leaves and are fairly common in the mountains at this time of year.

After packing up the blacklight equipment, we went and found spadefoot toads, a diamondback rattlesnake, a tarantula, and a gopher snake. However, I had volunteered to videotape some of our activities for an educational program so I was too busy using the expensive video camera to take any pictures of my own. Maybe I'll get another opportunity to write about snakes, tarantulas, and toads in a few weeks. They're certainly plentiful right now.

And finally, a mockingbird update. The babies all fledged, and flew away. The parents were extremely hostile toward humans and cats on the first day.

A smattering of topics

2006-08-22T00:32:00.000-07:00

In case you were wondering, the baby mockingbirds are doing great. As far as I can tell there are three of them.

Toby has become less interested in harassing the parents, but he is happy to defend the yard against neighbor cats. I may need to supervise him more once the young birds start leaving the nest.

The monsoon is a wonderful time to be at home in Arizona. As I sit and write this a sudden rainstorm has begun and the sound is amplified by the sheet metal over the porch. Monsoon storms often bring wonderful sunsets. We watched this one from the roof.

In other news, the weeds in the front and back yards have finally been vanquished! It even looks rather nice. Now if only the weeds in the back-back yard were under control.

I mentioned before that I remembered the orange flowers in our front yard from last year at the Santa Rita Experimental Range. Last Saturday we were pleased to discover that the range is again knee-deep in a carpet of orange. I took this picture on what I hope will be my future study site.

Datura creatures

2006-08-22T00:03:00.000-07:00

There are several sacred datura (Datura wrightii) plants in our garden, thanks to N&M who gave them to us as seedlings. This beautiful but poisinous native plant has large, fragrant white blooms at night, which attract hawkmoths.

This is one of our 8-inch flowers that bloomed last week.
Manduca sexta hawkmoths are one of the main pollinators of the plant as adults, and one of the main herbivores as caterpillars. I could go on in detail about this interesting interaction (after all, it's one of the main research focuses in our lab), but instead I thought I'd write a little bit about another peculiar herbivore I found on the datura in my yard.

What could this be?

I must admit that even with my background in insects, I was puzzled when I first saw them. Here's another shot. The green creature is holding a dark, crusty object up as a shield, quickly blocking me as I poke it with a piece of grass.

The answer is that these are Tortoise Beetle larvae (family Chrysomelidae, subfamily Hispinae.) The larvae use special appendages on their hind end to hold an 'umbrella' of excrement and shed skin above their bodies. They use this shield to quickly block predators like ants and biologists with pieces of grass.

I was very curious to find out what the pupal stage of these bizarre creatures would look like. I waited, and this is what I found:

Very attractive, isn't it! But certainly not as attractive as the adults, which have the advantage of being gold and shiny.

The fun I've had with these guys has been well worth all the small holes in my datura plants. Unfortunately, I noticed yesterday that I also have several young Manduca caterpillars now. Manduca are voracious during their last instar, and can easily eat an entire plant down to the ground. I may decide to save my plants and bring them in to the lab (where they can grow fat on lab diet and maybe participate in some pollination behavior studies).

Aha!

2006-08-13T16:25:00.000-07:00

The reason for the recent anti-cat campaign by the mockingbirds became clear today, when I found a nest with three or four baby mockingbirds in the jasmine. This is the best photo I could take- I didn't want to upset the parents so I quickly held the camera up and snapped a picture.

Here is a picture of mom (or dad?), who came to scold me as I ate my lunch on the patio. Very ferocious, indeed.

So far I've seen them bringing caterpillars, grasshoppers, and this small lizard to the nest.

I'm not sure what to do about the cat. On the one hand, the mockingbirds clearly don't like him around and are probably stressed out by his presence. I saw one actually swoop down and smack him on the head today. However, when Toby is in the yard he will confront the neighbor cats (Max and Abby) and chase them away. Toby can't climb the trellis to the nest, but it would be very easy for any self-respecting cat with four legs. If I keep Toby inside it will only be a matter of time before Abby discovers the mockingbirds.

Return from Japan

2006-08-12T22:37:00.000-07:00

I have been battling jet-lag for several days. I am completely incapable of sleeping until 2 or 3 am, despite my best efforts. My mind races with a million ideas. But by 3pm, I can barely keep my eyes open. So far I have reached a sort of compromise with my jet-lag, in the form of a bimodal sleep pattern. I sleep from 3 to 9, and then have a nap from 3 to 6. This is obviously not a good permanent solution, especially since I start my teaching duties next week.

We returned to Tucson after our week abroad to find our garden transformed. A jungle of green covered every inch of space, filling beds with a profusion of flowers and weeds. The grass (which we were so certain we had killed for good last spring) had become an impenetrable, tangled mass. Apparently it is possible to have a lawn in Tucson for a few months of the year without wasting any precious water on it.

Those of you who have seen our yard in other seasons will appreciate this photo:

Toby (our little 3-legged kitty) seems to especially enjoy the change in the yard. He loves to lurk in the thick vegetation and roll in the grass. Over the last two days the resident pair of mockingbirds have started a new campaign to taunt and harass him (they know he can't jump or climb, and make the most of it). Toby regards their animosity as free entertainment, and spends hours rolling under their tree and meowing at them.

The burst of monsoon vegetation brought a particularly nice surprise in the front yard. The previous owner (who was an avid and talented gardener) had apparently sown the yard with senna, orange mallow, and some kind of native large orange flower. The same plant bloomed profusely last year on the Santa Rita Experimental Range, but I'll need to pull out the plant books to find out what it is. While most houses on our street have fresh green weeds or nothing at all (depending on the diligence of the owners), our house is graced by a carpet of orange blooms.

Of course, all this new growth means that we must act quickly before the lovely garden becomes completely out of control. Before he left for the conference Andrew mowed the grass (a task that almost overwhelmed our thrift-store push mower, not to mention Andrew). I have spent many long hours on hands and knees, pulling weeds. There is something very satisfying about pulling weeds, and I have many blisters to show for it. Pulling weeds becomes particularly tempting whenever I think I should be writing my dissertation proposal. I have compromised by pulling a few weeds every time writing becomes too frustrating.

In case you are wondering, we had a fantastic time in Japan and I do intend to write all about it, with pictures. I am hoping to collaborate with Andrew on it, when he returns.

2006-07-29T23:08:00.000-07:00

I love it when the Big Red Fuzzy Mites come out. This fellow was nearly a centimeter long, found at Desert Station.

We went for another walk this evening in Saguaro Park East. There has been so much rain in the last few days. Even though it was clear, we could see big storms moving across the horizon.

We had no flashlight for our walk back to the car, so we enjoyed the dark and listened to the owls. We were mindful of rattlesnakes, especially since I found a nice big fat one yesterday.

The road back was covered in toads, most of whom we hopefully missed. It was also covered in debris, sand, water, and medium-sized rocks in low places where flash floods had passed over it. A troupe of javelina crossed in front of us, with babies.

2006-07-29T00:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I found an army ant on one of my cacti, presumably drinking nectar. This may not sound strange (unless you are simply surprised that we have army ants in Arizona, as many people are). However this is kind of like finding a mountain lion eating grape popsicles. I'll see what Alex has to say about it.

It is pouring rain again. I went for a long walk in the desert this morning and it was green, beautiful, and creosote-scented. The hills were draped in mist and curtains of lightning-lit showers. It never got higher than about 80 - a tremendous relief after days 107 degree highs and sun so bright it bakes your retinas white. The ants were out and about, drinking cactus nectar. At the very top of a rocky hill we found leaf-cutter alates mating in a frantic, boiling column.

Next Monday I go to Japan.

2006-07-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

Well, since I had to sign up for this to comment on Jessie's blog, why not post something? Here's an entry.
I went out blacklighting for moths with the lab last night, and stayed out until 2 AM. When I wasn't catching hawkmoths I had a great time trying to track ants back to their colonies. My new method: mix fluorescent powder with cookie crumbs, and place a pile on the cacti. Then come back in half an hour with a hand-held blacklight and follow the trail of glowing yellow cookie crumbs as it moves to the nest. Tremendous fun, and an added benefit is that I can easily find lots of cool scorpions at the same time (their bodies glow under UV).
While I was out there, we had typical Arizona monsoon weather. These are a few of the photographs I took.

It is always startling to come across a cow while walking in the dark.

This is why I love living here.