Observations: August 28, 1997 Time: 12:30 pm Weather: Sunny and Warm

Stinging Tentacles Lifting up seaweed near the edges of tidal pools often reveals a fascinating animal, the Silver-Spotted Anenome (Bunodactis stella). The base of this anenome stands up to 4cm high, with a ring of tentacles around the mouth that may be up to 5cm wide. The tentacles are covered with special stinging cells called nematocysts. These cells may be used for defense or to capture prey. When a small animal swims close by, the stinging cells shoot out, stick in the animal and inject a toxin that will stun or kill the prey. The tentacles then pull the animal into the mouth of the anenome. An anenome does not produce enough toxin to be felt by humans but its close relative, the jellyfish, can give a person a painful sting. The Silver-Spotted Anenome is nearly translucent and has a silver-white spot at the base of most tentacles. They are usually buried in sand up to their tentacles.

Insect Eaters When walking through moist, boggy areas keep an eye out for small, glistening, reddish clusters of leaves. The Roundleaf Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) is the only carnivorous plant in the nature park. Each leaf is very small (6-10 mm) and is covered with bright-red, hairlike glands. Each gland has a sticky secretion at the tip which looks like a drop of dew. When an insect lands or crawls on a leaf it becomes trapped by the sticky liquid. The glands then bend into the centre of the leaf where enzymes digest the unfortunate insect. In the summer a small cluster of white or pink flowers can be found on a single stalk (5-15 cm high).

Paper Nests When having a summer picnic in the park you may encounter some uninvited guests. "Yellow jackets" or "hornets" belong to the Vespidae family and are the most familiar type of wasp. Along a trail will be a paper nest hanging from a branch. The nest houses both adult wasps and the queen's eggs. The wasps make the paper for these nests by chewing wood fibre (dead trees, house siding, cardboard boxes) into pulp. This pulp is spread to make combs where eggs will be laid, and then the combs are covered with thick layers of paper. In the summer, these nests are protected by the female wasps of the colony, because only they have stingers for defense. A colony is usually started by a single queen, and the first batch of female workers develops in the spring. Over the summer the queen may lay up to 25, 000 eggs, only a few of which will receive enough food as grubs (the wasp larvae) to grow into new queens. Males, or drones, develop from unfertilized eggs at the end of the season as mates for the new queens. Nests are abandoned in the fall and the new queens winter in protected areas such as rotten logs or trees. The female workers and the drones also attempt to winter in the same manner but their bodies do not contain enough energy reserves to survive until the next spring.

The Naturalist's Notebook is published quarterly. If you have any questions or topics that you would like to see addressed, please call John Gilbert, Manager, Fish and Wildlife, J.D. Irving, Limited, (506) 632-7777.