New creosote bush project
In the process of searching for creosote bush galls I stumble upon many other creatures that utilize creosote bushes. It occurred to me to set up a companion project to the creosote bush galls project focusing on those miscellaneous creatures. Organisms Associated with Creosote Bushes is a place to put those observations. Spiders, grasshoppers, tree hoppers, caterpillars, beetles, ants, galls (except for the known species of Asphondylia gall) and other creatures can be included there. For obvious reasons this is a traditional project to which the observations are added manually (rather than automatically as with the creosote bush gall project). There is one required field, Type of Association with Plant; select the most appropriate response from the menu.
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I love this idea, Steve! I just spent a few days in a creosote-bush landscape covering thousands of acres and was wondering how many organisms use these bushes. Can't wait to see what shows up!
Excellent! I look forward to contributing :-)
I added a lac insect observation from Death Valley to this project. I’m so curious about these because I’ve only seen it once for all the millions of creosote bushes I’ve walked past. I’m hoping that more show up.
Yep, it's in there, Nancy. That's one I've never seen myself.
I wonder if they were actively cultivated by the first peoples and have declined since those people are not working on the land as much. I read that the lac was heated and used to seal baskets. Where other lac insects are grown for harvest the trees are deliberately infested. (The Wikipedia article about shellac production has some details).
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