Green ant architecture, bubbler crab art...
Today we went to Yepoon and went for a run on one of the fantastic beaches and then drove down past Emu Park over to Keppel Bay where we also saw a monument to Capt. James Cook, who discovered Australia more than 200 years ago!
One of the items of interest we saw at Yepoon was an ant nest in a low-hanging branch of a Eucalyptus tree near the trail. I took several photos and BB held one of the ants while I got a closeup... he also got bit but not stung. A local man told us they were green ants and if you sqeezed them you can smell and eat some kind of citrus-flavored fluid from them, but then... who really want to drink from an ant??! Here is the nest...
From Australian Ants Online -- http://www.ento.csiro.au/science/ants/nests.htm
"...the green tree ant (Oecophylla smarigdina) glues together individual leaves with silk produced by their larvae. The colony expands both by enlarging existing leaf nests and by adding new satellite nests. In other arboreal species, plant fibres are used to construct coverings which are attached to the surfaces of leaves. The ants live within the chamber formed by the covering and leaves."
And here is a closeup of the ant on BB's hand trying to bite him...
Next, we went down to the beach for the run and discovered an amazing thing... little balls of sand all rolled up and patterned around tiny holes in the sand. I have now - after a hard search online - found out that these tiny patterns are created by the sand bubbler crab. Here is some info from the Australian Gov't Web site at:
http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/species-bank/sbank-treatment.pl?id=77377
Scopimera inflata (Family Ocypodidae)
The Sand Bubbler Crab occurs on the east coast of Australia from southern New South Wales to northern Queensland.
"The Sand Bubbler Crab occurs on sheltered sandy ocean beaches and bays. It normally hides in vertical burrows in a narrow zone almost at high water mark. During daytime periods of low tide it burrows up to the surface, emerging to feed on detritus and other organic matter stranded by the retreating water. It may take up to 3 hours most to emerge, and 5-6 hours for the last few to appear. The first sign of an emerging crab is a near circular hole - the opening of the burrow - from which the crab checks several times to see if it is safe to emerge. Once satisfied, it re-enters the burrow and begins clearing it of sand. The sand is packed into rough balls and pushed out of the burrow from beneath, using the walking legs. The crab then picks it up by hugging it to its mouth with its claws, and takes it up to 20 cm away before dropping it. This clearing continues until the burrow reaches the water table in the sand.
"When the burrow is clear, the crab cleans itself and smoothes the sand around the entrance hole. It then begins to feed by scraping the surface sand with each chela (claw) alternately. The sand is spooned into the mouth and rotated, forming a net round pellet. Once the organic matter is taken from the sand, the pellet is pushed down into the tunnel formed by the walking legs, and pushed toward the back of the crab. In this way the crab moves away from its burrow in a straight line, marked by discarded pellets for 20-30 cm, before returning to the hole and repeating the same action on a different angle; the result is a very characteristic pattern of shallow trenches lined by small pellets of sand alongside, that form a star-like pattern radiating out from its burrow. While in its burrow, this crab stores water in its gill cavities beneath the carapace, to keep its gills moist, and also to assist in feeding. It has been suggested that the tufts of hairs between the leg bases may absorb moisture from the sand surface and help to replenish the crab's water supply."
I made the photo black and white 'cause it looks cool that way. :o)
Tomorrow I'll post on the monument to James Cook!
One of the items of interest we saw at Yepoon was an ant nest in a low-hanging branch of a Eucalyptus tree near the trail. I took several photos and BB held one of the ants while I got a closeup... he also got bit but not stung. A local man told us they were green ants and if you sqeezed them you can smell and eat some kind of citrus-flavored fluid from them, but then... who really want to drink from an ant??! Here is the nest...
From Australian Ants Online -- http://www.ento.csiro.au/science/ants/nests.htm
"...the green tree ant (Oecophylla smarigdina) glues together individual leaves with silk produced by their larvae. The colony expands both by enlarging existing leaf nests and by adding new satellite nests. In other arboreal species, plant fibres are used to construct coverings which are attached to the surfaces of leaves. The ants live within the chamber formed by the covering and leaves."
And here is a closeup of the ant on BB's hand trying to bite him...
Next, we went down to the beach for the run and discovered an amazing thing... little balls of sand all rolled up and patterned around tiny holes in the sand. I have now - after a hard search online - found out that these tiny patterns are created by the sand bubbler crab. Here is some info from the Australian Gov't Web site at:
http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/species-bank/sbank-treatment.pl?id=77377
Scopimera inflata (Family Ocypodidae)
The Sand Bubbler Crab occurs on the east coast of Australia from southern New South Wales to northern Queensland.
"The Sand Bubbler Crab occurs on sheltered sandy ocean beaches and bays. It normally hides in vertical burrows in a narrow zone almost at high water mark. During daytime periods of low tide it burrows up to the surface, emerging to feed on detritus and other organic matter stranded by the retreating water. It may take up to 3 hours most to emerge, and 5-6 hours for the last few to appear. The first sign of an emerging crab is a near circular hole - the opening of the burrow - from which the crab checks several times to see if it is safe to emerge. Once satisfied, it re-enters the burrow and begins clearing it of sand. The sand is packed into rough balls and pushed out of the burrow from beneath, using the walking legs. The crab then picks it up by hugging it to its mouth with its claws, and takes it up to 20 cm away before dropping it. This clearing continues until the burrow reaches the water table in the sand.
"When the burrow is clear, the crab cleans itself and smoothes the sand around the entrance hole. It then begins to feed by scraping the surface sand with each chela (claw) alternately. The sand is spooned into the mouth and rotated, forming a net round pellet. Once the organic matter is taken from the sand, the pellet is pushed down into the tunnel formed by the walking legs, and pushed toward the back of the crab. In this way the crab moves away from its burrow in a straight line, marked by discarded pellets for 20-30 cm, before returning to the hole and repeating the same action on a different angle; the result is a very characteristic pattern of shallow trenches lined by small pellets of sand alongside, that form a star-like pattern radiating out from its burrow. While in its burrow, this crab stores water in its gill cavities beneath the carapace, to keep its gills moist, and also to assist in feeding. It has been suggested that the tufts of hairs between the leg bases may absorb moisture from the sand surface and help to replenish the crab's water supply."
I made the photo black and white 'cause it looks cool that way. :o)
Tomorrow I'll post on the monument to James Cook!
Labels: animals, ants, australia, beaches, biology, crabs, entomology, james cook, photography, photos, queensland, running, wildlife, yepoon
posted by Joe at Wednesday, June 27, 2007
2 Comments:
Hi, Joe,
Just discovered your site.
I'm trying to identify some tiny floating balls of sand or clay I found washed up on a BC beach.
I have three questions to ask you; were these Bubbler crab balls bigger than pea-sized, were they hard or soft, and could they possibly float once they had dried out?
Thanks for any help you can give me.
Hi Weeta,
The balls of sand were slightly smaller than pea-sized of loosely packed sand and dissolved as soon as the tide came back in.
Can you tell what the ones you saw were made of?? Possibly seeds of some sort? Or perhaps even manmade. Without being able to see them I'm afraid I can't be of much help. If you have a picture could you post it online somewhere?
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