Eye of Newt

Eye of newt, and toe of frog

Wing of bat, and tongue of dog,

Adder's fork, and blind worm's sting

Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a Hell-broth, boil and bubble

Shakespeare doesn't normally show up on my morning walks, but He did this morning. These are one of my favorite little guys in the fall. They are really around all year long, but the heat and undergrowth keeps them hidden under logs and such. In the fall, they start to show up, brazenly walking along the dirt roads of Rutland State Park. They can be brazen too... because they're poisonous. There really aren't too many poisonous animals in New England, but these guys are. They are pretty special little guys actually. Several myths, other than Shakespeare's nice archaic addition, exist surrounding salamanders. One is that they are oblivious to fire. This probably comes from the fact that they live in wet logs... which may repel the heat of a fire for a while. When the fire finally gets too hot, the salamander leaves and crawls (hopefully) out of the fire. Also, they tend to be brightly colored or spotted with bright colors. This little guy certainly is.

The Eastern Red Spotted Newt. This is it's land phase, and when they're in their land phase, they're called an even more ethereal-greek, Narniac, Harry-Potterish sounding name, an Eft. Sounds like they should be hanging out with Mr. Tumnus. I know they're poisonous, but it certainly doesn't stop me from picking them up every time I see one. There is something about their little feet... I don't know... just so cute! They don't bite, like a snake, and even if they did I would be fine. The poison isn't in their saliva, it comes out of their skin when they are attacked. That's one of the reasons that they are so brightly colored when in their land phase. If a naive Robin were to take one for a meal, he would probably not forget the stomach problems he would have after. No more bright orange salamanders for him. When the EFT is in either of its water phases, it is green with a yellow or orangeish belly. The bright  red spots on its back remain. 

They live a pretty long life, upward of 15 to 25 (one actually lived in containment for 25) years. The first few years they live in the water, they are an undeveloped juvenile. They then move to their land phase and can stay on land for seven years. When they are fully adults and ready to mate, they move back to the water and live out their days there. 

Shakespeare's witches in Macbeth weren't far off in their potion making. I mean they are poisonous, and if they really needed an eyeball to make the thing especially piquant, then a newt would probably be a good choice. They can grow them back. Newts have a layer of cells hugging close to their "rods and cones" called a retinal pigment epithelium. This is pretty much a series of stem cells that convert new growing cells into those necessary to grow the whole thing back. Scientists are obviously picking out their eyes by the hundreds and harvesting the cells. Actually, they are being contained in a nice building in Rensselaer, New York.  

I don't pick out their eyeballs. I just think they are about the cutest thing you could probably pick up in New England in the fall. 

db

Blue Fairies

Ever try to catch a fairy? It's actually not that hard. They move pretty slow, but trying to take a picture of one in the air, well that is a different story altogether.

They are out there. Sky blue, sitting on a little cloud of fluff, drifting slowly here and there. They are tiny little guys. Most of the time I see them in the fall. I remember being visited by them when I was waiting for the bus at my neighbor's house. We would get a little bit ahead of them, (they move pretty slowly) and cup our hands around their forward trajectory. Inevitably, they would fly right into our hands and happily land for a little while. They aren't picky or timid. It seems that their lives are pretty carefree.

So... what are they. Well, they go by a couple common names, some of which are "fairy flies", "angel flies", and for the less romantic, "fluff bugs." The real name for these girls is "Eriosomatinae." Broken apart and translated roughly, it means "Wool Body."  Leave it to latin for taking all of the fun out of things.  This is a Woolly Aphid. Bright blue and tiny, they are really aphids. They suck the juice out of plants and exude this syrupy liquid called "honey dew" (I wonder if "Honey Dew Donuts" realizes they are named after aphid excrement.) This liquid is like gold in the insect world. Ants guard farms of green aphids... (really, they milk them like cows) and drink the honey dew. Wasps flock to the stuff and can even become a hazard to humans because they gather in such numbers.

The Woolly Aphids are the only aphids to surreptitiously float around like in the picture. The others seem much more down to earth and serious about their eating and exuding. Woolly aphids have another gland that exudes a wax-like substance that makes up the little cloud of fluff that they wear like a skirt. It is thought that the wax might provide some sort of protection from predators (no one likes a mouthful of wax), or it might help them to float about as they do. A sub-type of the Woolly Aphid, the Apple Woolly Aphid, can present a problem to farmers as they gather in great numbers to suck the juice from apple trees. Together, their fluff looks like some sort of mold, a form of camouflage that may be another way the wax protects the aphids. Whatever the reasons, they are striking in their tiny appearance. Fragile and sweet, oddly feminine, they are a little magical and unassuming presence in the early Autumn.