Scarlet pimpernel

Scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis).  This little plant was stretching over the curb on the new Cumberland Avenue between Highway 231 and Klondike Road.  Photos taken July 22, 2015.

Link to Anagallis arvensis:

Link to Anagallis arvensis:

Link to Anagallis arvensis:

Link to Primulaceae:

a small, insignificant flower -- The Scarlet Pimpernel

Flat-backed millipede

Flat-backed millipede, in the prairie restoration area at Prophetstown State Park.  It was crawling around in the open on a hot sunny day.  It had a distinct scent that didn't seem unpleasant.  Photo July 22, 2015.

A couple flat-backed millipedes, at Ross Hills County Park.  These were crawling on a piece of trash left on the pathway that leads to the Wabash River.  Photo July 27, 2015.

I don't know enough about millipedes to identify the species but seems to be in the family Xystodesmidae.

Link to Xystodesmidae:

Link to photos of Xystodesmid millipedes 

Glade mallow

Glade mallow (Napaea dioica).  Along Swisher Road between the I-65 overpass and the entrance to Prophetstown State Park.   This distinctive native plant was considered by Charles Deam to be one of the rarest of Indiana plants.  I have seen glade mallow along the Wabash River at Lyboult Park and at Davis Ferry Park.  This is the first time I've noticed glade mallow at this location although I have never seen it here before this season.

Photos taken July 22, 2015.

Link to previous post on Napaea dioica:

Luna moth

Luna moth (Actias luna).  West Lafayette, Tippecanoe County.

Photo taken July 17, 2015.

Link to Luna moth:

Link to Luna moth:

Rattlesnake-master and prairie blazing-star

Prairie blazing-star (Liatris pycnostachia) and rattlesnake-master (Eryngium yuccifolium) at the prairie restoration area at Weiler-Leopold Nature Reserve.   These species are native to Indiana prairies.

Most plants with long thin leaves with parallel leaf veins are monocots, like grasses, and lilies.  One might think from looking at the leaves of rattlesnake-master that it would also be a monocot, but Eryngium is really in the carrot plant-family (Apiaceae) and so is a dicot.

Photos taken July 16, 2015.

Link to Weiler-Leopold Nature Reserve:

Link to Liatris pycnostachia:

Link to Liatris pycnostachia:

Link to Liatris pycnostachia:

Link to Eryngium yuccifolium:

Link to Eryngium yuccifolium:

Link to Eryngium yuccifolium:

Link to Apiaceae:

Eyelash cup fungus

The very common eyelash cup fungus (Scutellinia, probably Scutellinia scutellata).  Growing on a rotten log in the woods at Cumberland Park.

Photo taken July 14, 2015.

Link to Scutellinia scutellata:

Link to Scutellinia scutellata:

Ripe gooseberries

Gooseberry bushes are common in our woodlands but I don't often see the fruit when it is ripe enough to show a dark color like this.  Usually when I see the berries they are still green.  Probably this is the common species Ribes missouriense.  I sampled the berry and it was rather tasteless.  This photo taken at Celery Bog Park, July 3, 2015.

Link to previous post on gooseberry:

Another link to Ribes missouriense:

Yellow slugs

Slugs on a fallen log at Prophet's Rock Woods.  The very damp conditions this day brought them out in the open. I've never before seen slugs of this bright yellow color.   I think these are likely a yellow form of the Arion fasciatus species-complex.

Photos taken June 30, 2015.

Link to Arion fasciatus:

Link to Arion fasciatus:

Link to the family of roundback slugs (Arionidae):

Ebony jewelwing

Ebony jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata) perched on a leaf above the main stream through Happy Hollow Park.  These were numerous here.  Ebony jewelwing is a kind of damselfly.
Photo taken July 4, 2015.

Link to Calopteryx maculata:

Link to Calopteryx maculata:

Link to damselflies:

Hoary vervain

Hoary vervain (Verbena stricta) at Conrad Station Savanna Nature Preserve, Newton County.

This is near the old railroad tracks just off County Road 725 N, east of US 41.  The yellow flowers in the background are hairy puccoon (Lithospermum canescens).

Hoary vervain is a common plant of roadsides and old fields.

Photo taken June 23, 2015.

Link to Verbena stricta:

Link to Verbena stricta:

Link to Verbena stricta:

Hairy puccoon

Hairy puccoon (Lithospermum canescens) at Conrad Station Savanna Nature Preserve, Newton County.  This on the County Road 725 N roadside just east of US 41.  Photo taken June 23, 2015.

Link to Lithospermum canescens:

Link to Lithospermum canescens:

Link to Lithospermum canescens:

Link to Conrad Station Savanna:

Terrestrial crayfish

Here is a crayfish crawling along the bicycle trail at Cumberland Ave. and US 231.  It was at about 4 a.m. on the morning of June 20, 2015.  About an hour earlier there was heavy rain here and my guess the crayfish felt it was wet enough to do some traveling outside of its burrow.

Link to burrowing crayfish of Indiana:

Link to Indiana crustaceans: