ID help

Anyone know this one?
If I know correctly, this is a weed, it's constantly seeding, it's roots spread laterally, and it's able to grow in the cracks of building. according to nysidra.

I was only able to add that it appeared to be a "succululent" by which I meant succulent. Unless I'm wrong, and the photographer corrects me, the photgraph was taken near Pensacola Florida.

Spectacle Island

We had a great walk and a beautiful day on Spectacle Island yesterday. Pictures will follow, but I wanted to post and acknowledge the Urban Nature Walk participants who were present. I know some of you read this (or at least look at the pictures), so, hi! and thanks!

It was really great of Minona to arrange our meeting with Abby, a DCR ranger who gave us a history and natural history tour of the island. I got to enjoy being a participant, and let Abby do all the heavy lifting. On previous walks I've felt a like a little too much of a jabberjaw, and that I should let others take more control of the conversation. I feel a little bad that we didn't spend more time getting to know one another, but I hope that you can come to future walks, and we can say hi again.

If you've got no idea what I'm talking about, you should consider joining Urban Nature Walk. So far all of the walks have been in the Boston area, but it is my sincere wish that we are able to visit other cities.

Natural History Freakiness Links

Thanks to my coworker Debbie, who provides the most interesting spam in the form of freaky natural history stories and pictures

Dino-Era Vomit Fossil Found in England This story is from 2002, but it's pretty neat. "Vomit" is a little misleading. It's an Ichthyosaur "owl pellet."

Praying Mantis makes meal of a Hummer This appears to be from the summer of 2005, though it seems to be making the rounds again--I saw it at invertebrates, too. Someone managed to get a couple pictures of a mantis catching and eating a hummingbird. It's a little gruesome, as it always is when an invertebrate eats a vertebrate. But it's really cool!

Nice or nasty: in the genes Using artificial selection, scientists create two strains of rats--one tame, one not--recreating [warning: my hypothesis here, not science] the creation of domestic animals from wild stock. No word on whether the tame rats where black and white, but the picture of the non-tame rat in the article is agouti-colored.
(Note to cottonmanifesto: this article is much better than the Globe's version. It has more details about the silver fox experiments, and includes information about dogs' ability to pick up human cues.)

Spectacle Island

I haven't posted my Spectacle Island pictures yet, but cottonmanifesto has. You can look at her pictures here.

365 Urban Species. #212: Japanese Beetle

Photos by cottonmanifesto. Location: Spectacle Island, Boston.

Urban species #212: Japanese beetle Popillia japonica

I n 1916, America's most densely populated state (New Jersey) became the first place in North America where a certain exotic Asian scarab beetle was found. This beautiful but destructive animal is now well-known to gardeners in the eastern states, and is becoming familiar in more places every year. Increasing amounts of regulation and use of biological controls (a bacterium and parasitic wasps) are the official weapons in use against the Japanese beetle. Others may use a more hands-on approach, as my parents did in years past, hand-picking beetles by the hundreds, off of the raspberry and rose bushes, and dropping them into jugs of soapy water. Still they seem to have a robust population in areas where they occur, including urban centers that have the plants the adults feed on (over 400 species documented) and grassy soil for their grubs to overwinter in. And they continue to spread, being found in San Diego for the first time in 2000, and at an airport in Montana in 2002.

Japanese beetles are often encountered in what appears to be mating groups. Females produce sex pheromones that attract many males, who compete for the opportunity to mate in large clusters. According to one researcher, relatively little mating actually occurs in these groups. Males will guard their chosen female from other males until she is ready to lay her eggs. At least while clustered, they can be easily picked off of plants.

Skunks are known to make holes in lawns digging for Japanese beetle larvae, and moles and raccoons may eat some grubs as well. Other known predators of Japanese beetle larvae include ants and ground beetles. Few creatures seem to prey on the adults, though this observer has noticed at least one turkey seems to have a taste for them.