Currently in flower

  

Red-flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum var. glutinosum) photographed on 11 February 2023.

P.S.  Other Ribes species are sometimes called gooseberries. There's a fun resemblance between their fruit and the "sea gooseberry" (a ctenophore, or comb jelly).  See for yourself in one of my earliest NHBH posts back in 2012 -- "A two gooseberry day".

Predictability

While my family is enjoying record-breaking snow in New England (can you tell that I'm jealous?), and predictions in Boston are for a wind chill of 25 below zero tomorrow, air temperatures reached 62-64°F in Bodega Bay today.

I had 45 minutes in the afternoon for a short walk.  The conditions seemed perfect for butterflies — sunny and warm, with only a slight breeze.  I thought I had a chance at finding an elfin, so I decided to check the Bodega Dunes.

 

Score!  One Western Pine Elfin!  I found them in March last year, but I think this is my first February sighting.  I know these pictures are horrible, but they're the only ones I got before the elfin flew off and disappeared...and I'm excited about sharing this experience with you.  For me, this is a very fun aspect of natural history — having a hunch about something, going out to see if you can find it, and then being successful in your search (or even just having fun trying!).

This is a blurry picture from 14 February 2015 (below)...but you can still tell it's a pine elfin (really!).  After the image I'll share a link to a better photo taken in 2013.

 

Western Pine Elfin in the Bodega Dunes, 24 March 2013.

I wondered what a pine elfin might use as a nectar source at this time of year.

Red-flowering Currant?

 

Willow?  (This one was being visited by a Painted Lady.)

 

I also took a quick look around for other butterflies and spotted quite a few Monarchs and a couple of Red Admirals:

 

 

Given the opportunity, I would have traded butterflies for snow today.  But since it wasn't an option, being able to predict that today could be an elfin day was also a fun game!

A two gooseberry day

Early in the afternoon on 18 February 2012, I photographed this Red-flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum var. glutinosum) in the Bodega Dunes campground.  This shrub is uncommon on the Bodega Head peninsula, but it's one of the first to start flowering.  Currants are in the Gooseberry Family.

Later the same afternoon we encountered quite a few sea gooseberries (Pleurobrachia bachei) washed up on the beach.  On the sand they look like small transparent marbles or crystal-clear gelatinous spheres.

As I was thinking about these two sightings, I realized I hadn't ever heard why sea gooseberries are called gooseberries.  Doing a quick Internet search I encountered a few diagrams of gooseberry fruit (see below).  There is an amazing resemblance between these fruits and the planktonic marine invertebrate! 

To make this visual comparison easier, I photographed a few sea gooseberries in a small aquarium and under a microscope.

Sea gooseberries are ctenophores (commonly known as comb jellies).  Ctenophores are named for their eight rows of ctenes, or comb plates (fused bands of cilia).  The combs beat in metachronal waves to propel the ctenophore.

 

Sea gooseberries are predators that troll for zooplankton prey with two long tentacles (the genus, Pleurobrachia, means "side arms").  The tentacles contain cells that produce a sticky adhesive which traps the prey, e.g., copepods.  (Unlike jellyfish, ctenophores do not have stinging cells.)

To transfer the prey to the mouth which is opposite the tentacles (see below for circular feature in center of ctenophore), the ctenophore does a somersault and wipes the tentacles along the mouth.

 

Here are a few more photos — a sea gooseberry swimming, a view from below, and a close up of the tentacles.  Notice that the side tentacles (tentilla) can also be extended.