Wednesday, July 10, 2013

The Monsoon of '13

Not to disrespect those parts of the world which have legitimate monsoons, with widespread property damage, enormous muddy floods, and even deaths, but we in the Upstate of SC are experiencing heavy rain and flooding. And no matter where such weather occurs, the world of insects and spiders is always put in danger when the water level rises. Fortunately the molluscan denizens of our yard suffered few, if any, casualties, even though the "slug hotel" was quickly submerged and the drainage ramp covering it floated away. In fact, some slugs used the ramp as a raft, and the rest simply crawled up the lattice and the walls. As far as I know, the spiders also weathered the storm quite well, though the wolf spiders have disappeared. I hope they and the jumping spiders found shelter in time. On the other hand, the worms lost many of their number, drowned before they could swim to the surface. Also, at least one cicada nymph got waterlogged and died before it could molt. On a more positive note, the newly formed wetlands did attract several tree frogs, males who decided to use the opportunity to bellow to prospective mates.

I took the following videos on the day of the worst rainstorm.



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