Every Marylander knows a cattail when they see one, and most of us could find a stand within a few miles of our homes. From roadside ditch to coastal wetland, cattails (genus Typha) are widespread in the Mid-Atlantic. To native Americans and early European settlers, stands of this emergent, semi-aquatic perennial were known as “supermarkets of the swamps,” and were utilized as sources of food, medicine, and construction material for a wide variety of everyday items. Native cattail stands also filter pollutants, stabilize shorelines, and provide critical food and habitat for many species of wildlife. Birds such as snow geese, mallards, marsh wrens, and blackbirds exploit cattail habitats extensively for cover and nesting, while small mammals (particularly muskrats) and several species of moths rely upon this plant as a preferential food source.
On this outing, we will pick and dissect cattail, looking through the seeds and fuzz. We invite you to look even closer and ultimately to discover for yourself what few know: Cattail-associated arthropod communities and tiny lepidopteran cattail specialists, known as microlep larvae, are secretive but abundant. Cattail caterpillars are almost certainly munching, growing, and hiding in plain sight.
The trip includes discussions of the life histories of these tiny caterpillars, field marks that augment species-level identification, the signs one uses to identify cattails containing larval occupants, and techniques used to successfully rear them to adulthood.
We will meet at a designated point, with parking and access to a nearby cattail stand. From there, participants will caravan to several other cattail sites in eastern Baltimore and Harford Counties. Each site offers ample opportunity for hands-on participation as we search for the two most widely encountered moths that use cattails as their hosts.
Your trip leaders are NHSM Lep Club members Dave Webb and Lindy Fine. Dave is an editor for the Maryland Biodiversity Project and has spent the last seven years documenting the moths and other arthropods that overwinter in cattails. Lindy’s lifelong interest in the natural world began in childhood, and it has taken her from graduate research on spirochetal pathogens at VCU’s Medical College of Virginia to studies of estuarine microbial ecology along the Pacific coast, but entomology remains her first love.
This walk is weather-dependent, and a rain date has been set for Saturday, March 14th, at 9 am. Participants will receive an email with the finalized date, meeting location, and parking details a few days before the walk. When registering for this program, please be sure to keep both dates open. We recommend you dress according to the weather and bring water and a camera to take photos for reference, and a loupe or other magnifying lens. Waterproof footwear is helpful but not required.
Registration priority is for Lep Club members; we encourage you to become a member of NHSM and the Lep Club to attend this event. If space is still available, we will open it to NHSM members on February 15.
