"THE STRAWBERRY TREE"

This tree, whose scientific name is Abutus unedo, is also called the “madrone tree” or “Greek strawberry tree.” It is an evergreen tree about 40 feet tall (rarely taller). It is native to the Mediterranean area/western Europe, especially Italy, as well as the the Middle East region. This tree also grows well in northwestern west Africa, and has also been introduced to England, Ireland, and elsewhere. There are 11 different species of this tree. 

This tree is well known for its fruit (the arbutus berry, which resembles the strawberry---but the two are not related). Initially, the strawberry- tree fruit is yellow in color, but in December in southern California, the fruit begins to change to its typical red color. 

The fruit of this unusual tree matures in autumn (especially December). Its fruit is edible and is used for making jam because the fruit has a high sugar content. The wood is quite hard and used for making pipes for smoking. 

                                                                       Figure 1. A strawberry tree.

                                                                   Figure 2. Strawberry-tree fruit.

                                                                 Figure 3. A single fruit from a

                       strawberry tree. The scale is in centimeters.

Classification

Kingdome Plantae

Clades (4 of them)

Order Ericales

Family Ericaceae

Genus Arbutus

Type species A. unedo Linnaeus, 1753.

Note: This is the national tree of Italy because the white flowers, red berries, and green leaves of this tree correspond to the national colors of Italy.

Fossil forms described as Arbutites [a fossil genus that shares morphological characters with modern Arbutus] have been found in Eocene and Miocene deposits in Europe. For example, Andrews (1970) reported a Miocene Arbutites leaf from Priesen, Bohemia. Molecular data indicate that the Old World Abutus unedo and New World Arbutis menziesii lineages diverged between 21 and 39 million years ago (= late Oligocene to early Miocene). Furthermore, Miocene fossilized leaves of Abutus menziesii have been discovered in early Miocene deposits (12 to 26 years ago) in Nevada, Oregon, and California (Wikipedia, 2025). 

     

References

Andrews, H. N. A., Jr. 1970. Index of generic names of fossil plants, 1820-1965. Geological Survey Bulletin 1300, 364 pp.

Wikipedia, 2025.

World’s Tiniest Known Insect

The world’s tiniest insects are male fairy wasps (also known as chalcid wasps). Four males, lined up-end-to-end, would be about the width of a period in this post. The females are considerably larger (Wikipedia, 2026).

Fairy wasps are therefore dimorphic (two main kinds): the males are blind, have no wings (Fig. 1) (therefore cannot fly), and are much smaller than the females (Fig. 2), which have compound eyes and wings. They females literally “swim” through the air. This is because they are so small that the air is comparatively dense. Thus, they do not fly, in the sense that you think. The viscous effects of air on a wing increase at smaller sizes. Thus, an insect 1 mm or smaller moves through the air as a bumblebee would move through mineral oil! In sum, the air is not thin for fairy wasps, rather it is a very thick, syrupy fluid. Furthermore, female fairy wasps need fringed wings and specialized wing motions in order to navigate highly viscous environments.

The antennae of male fairy wasps are thread-like, whereas those of females are tipped by club-like segments. The adult life span for fairy wasps is only a few days. They are parasitoids of the eggs of other insects, thus, they lay their eggs in other insects and then eat the host egg!

Fairy wasps have been around since mid-Cretaceous time (Albian), about 105 million years ago), and their fossilized remains are found in amber deposits. 

Today, there are 1,400 known species of these chalcid wasps, and they can be found living today in temperate, subtropical, and tropical areas throughout the world. 

   Classification

Kingdom Animalia

Phylum Arthropoda

Clade (1 of them)

Class Insecta

Order Hymenoptera

Family Mymaridae

Genus Dicopomorpha [note: some scientists use Mymar, as the type genus]. 

Type Species D. echmepterysis

Figure 1. Male-fairy wasp: Dicopomorpha echmepterysis, [or Mymar of some researchers]. 

Figure 2. Female-fairy wasp: Dicopomorpha echmepeterysis, [or = in genus Mymar of some researchers]. 

References

Wikipedia, 2026

Sklar, J. 2024. Just a Li’l Bit. The world’s tiniest insect fights off crop pests and inspires more efficient computers. Sierra Magazine, Spring 2024, pp. 65-67.

TWO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA HERON BIRDS 

I am delighted to report that the Great Blue Heron Green and the Green Heron have been seen recently in southern California.

   Classification

Kingdom Animalia

Phylum Chordata

Class Aves

Order Ciconiiformes

Family Ardeidae

Genus Ardea herodias (North America's largest heron)

This order of wading birds includes the herons, storks, ibises, and flamingos. These are moderate to large birds with slim bodies, long necks and legs, and large broad wings. Male  and female look alike in most species. Herons hunt is water of varying depth, and they either stand motionless or are wading (Macmillan, 1984, p. 208). 

                                   Figure 1. Green Blue Heron, southern California.

Recently, a family friend who lives near Lake Castaic, just north of Santa Clarita, took a wonderful/beautiful image of the Great Blue Heron, whose scientific name is Ardea herodias. It has a wingspan of 6 feet, and its body is up to 4 feet in length. This magnificent bird has a blue-gray appearance, a long bill, long neck, and flies with its head and neck folded back. This bird catches small fish, frogs, snakes, and other birds by means of slow stalking and then spearing them with is long bill. 

This heron can float like a goose and take off from the surface of water. It nests in colonies, usually in tall trees. This bird is found throughout the United States, and it is also found in central southern Canada. Apparently, this bird is the same as the “Great White Heron,” found in Florida, the West Indies, and Mexico (North American Wildlife, 1982, p. 84). 

                Figure 2. Green Heron, southern California. 

About two years ago, I took the image of the Green, Heron Butorides sriatis which was wading along the shoreline of a man-made lake in Santa Clarita. This individual was about slightly bigger than the size of a large pigeon. This is the only occurrence of this bird that I have seen locally.

References

Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia. 1984. Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 600 pp.

Reader’s Digest North American Wildlife.1982.  Pleasantville, New York. 615 pp.

PUFFIN BIRDS

These are pelagic seabirds that live in North Pacific and North Atlantic regions. These birds are characterized by having predominantly black-and-white plumage, a large beak, and short wings. They can beat their wings up to 400 times per minute! Their bills are bright colored during the breeding season but become duller in winter.

Figure 1. Fratercula arctica. Image taken at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Southern California.

 They are underwater hunters for fish and small crabs and use their wings as flippers to catch small fish. They swim on the surface or that can dive in order to catch their prey. 

Puffins nest in burrows and live in large colonies along rock coasts and on offshore islands. Puffins can live up to 30 years!

They originated during late Miocene time (about 12 to 10 million years or so) in the North Pacific region and migrated into the northwest Atlantic Ocean and eventually spread southward.  

There are two main species of puffins:

1) Fratercula cirrhata the “Tuffed puffin” has white tufts that curl around their head and a thick red bill. This species lives in the North Pacific region, especially in Alaska.

2) Fratercula arctica the Atlantic puffin (Figure 1) has a black crown, gray cheeks, and a white body. This species lives in the northeast North America but is most prominent in the southern Atlantic region.

Note: There is also a third species of puffins, the “horned” species,” whose occurrence is relatively minor compared to the other two species. This third species lives in the North Atlantic region.

   Classification

Kingdom Animalia

Phylum Chordata

Class Aves

Order Charadrifformes

Family Alcidae

Genus Fratercula (three species)

DWARF-PEACH TREE

This post is # 561 in my continuing sequence of blog posts since I began my blog in 2014.

This post is about a self-pollinating dwarf-peach tree (referred commercially to as the “bonzana” peach bush). It is about 3.5 feet tall and yearly, yields abundant delicious peaches. They are smaller than normal size, but, in my opinion, they taste just as good as regular-size peaches. Such a smaller size tree is ideal, if your garden is limited in size. 

Peaches are classified in genus Prunus, along with almonds, prunes, plums, apricots, nectarines, and cherries. These all belong to the rose family (see below) and are also referred to as “stone fruits” or drupes because their seeds are enclosed in a rock-hard pit. The peaches you grow or buy in a store are classified as Prunus persica.

Genus Prunus has cosmopolitan distribution but is native to temperate regions of North America. The geologic record of Purnus ranges from Eocene to Recent (with possibly a Cretaceous [Middle Cretaceous Albian] record). Today, there are about 340 species in genus Prunus.

  Classification

Kingdom Plantae

Clades (6 of them)

Order Rosales

Family Rosaceae (the rose family)

Genus Prunus

Species: Peaches, along with, nectarines are classified as Prunus persica.

Peach seeds look like almond nuts, but, as mentioned above, peach seeds are enclosed in a really hard pit. These seeds are poisonous because they contain amygdalin, which breaks down into hydrogen cyanide when eaten or digested in sufficient quantity. Therefore, do not eat peach seeds that are found inside the hard-shelled pit. The latter requires a hammer to break it open.

Figure 1. Dwarf-peach "tree."

Figure 2. Dwarf-peach tree blossoms.

Figure 3. Broken-open peach pit and the seed that came out of the pit of a home-grown dwarf-peach-tree peach. Scale is in centimeters.

SOME LEFT-HANDED COILED SEA SHELLS

             

This post is # 560 in my continuing sequence of blog posts since I began my blog in 2014.

Nearly all gastropod (snail) sea shells are right-hand coiled (dextral), but there are a few species that have left-hand coiled (sinistral). The reason why seashells coil in a left-landed way (sinistral) is related to genetic processes. This blog post illustrates examples of each type of coiling. 

Figure 1. The shallow-marine seashell genus Busycon carica [the so-called “knobbed whelk”] lives in bays and offshore on the east coast of the United States. Most shells of this genus are dextral coiled, like the example shown here: when viewed with the apex of the shell upward, the aperture (opening) in the seashell is on the right. The shell illustrated here is about 17 cm (6.5 inches) in height.

Figure 2. Busycon perversum (the “lightning whelk”). I am not sure what the size of this specimen is, but the maximum height for this species is about 30 cm (13 inches). It lives in nearshore waters on the east coast of the United States. This shell is an example of a sinistral coiled shell. Image from North American Wildlife (1982, p. 246). 

Figure 3. The closely related gastropod Busycotypus canaliculata was introduced in 1938 in the San Francisco area. There is no certain information as to how or exactly when this species reached the west coast, but it possible that it was brought along with oysters or lobsters from other regions (Hanna, 1966, p. 49). The illustrated specimen shown here is dextrally coiled and 16 cm (6.5 inches) in length. This species, which has also been found from Orange County, southern California (L.T. Groves, personal commun.) can have a shell up to 8 inches in height. (Information and photograph kindly provided by Lindsey T. Groves, Collections Manager of Malacology, Los Angeles County, California).

SOME OTHER MARINE SINISTRAL GASTROPODS

Triphora shells, typically 2 to 10 mm in length, are also a sinistral gastropods. For an example, see one of my previous blogs (October 16, 2023).

There are two other extant marine gastropod genera that can have sinistral shells: 1) Sinistralia [in the family Fasciolariidae] and 2) Antiplanes [recently reclassified as being in family Pseudomelatomidae].

I also detected in the literature, two extinct marine gastropod genera that can have sinistral shells. These are the east coast (Virginian to Florida) Conus adersarius, of Plio- Pleistocene age, and also the northern Atlantic Neptunea angulata of Plio-Pleistocene age.

References

Abbott, R.T. and S. Peter Dance. 1982. Compendium of seashells. E.P. Dutton, New York, 410 pp.

Hanna, G D. 1966. Introduced mollusks of western North America. Occasional Papers of the Academy of Sciences, no. 48, 108 pp., 4 pls.

North American Wildlife: An illustrated guide to 2,000 plants and animals. Reader’s Digest, Pleasantville, New York. Editor S. J. Wernert, editor. 615 pp.

Wikipedia, 2026. 

WoRMS (https://marinespecies.org)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Lindsey T. Groves, Collections Manager of Malacology, Los Angeles County, California.

HELICOPRION: AN ANCIENT FISH WITH AN UNUSUAL WHORL OF TEETH

The word, Heliocprion, [pronounced “he-lee-co-pri-on”] translates into “spiral jaw.” This  extinct ocean-dwelling cartilaginous creature has been commonly inferred to be an ancient (but unusual) shark. In actuality, however, it is most closely related to the modern-day chimeroform ratfish (= “ghost sharks”) [which are not sharks.] Some reports say that the body of Helicoprion was bigger than the size of a modern-day "Great White Shark," but because the skeleton of Helicoprion was cartilagnous (i.e. that type of material does not preserve well), a full body of Helicoprion has not been found. 

Heliocprion ranged from early to late middle Permian time (approximately 250 to 275 million years ago) [see Fig.1]. It lived in in ocean waters in Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Americas. The first fossils of this animal were found in 1886, in Western Australia. 

The only part of an Helicoprion that is fossilized is the mineralized (=hard material) tooth whorl. As mentioned above, the rest of its skeleton consisted of soft cartilage. Thus the body shape of Helicoprion is based on inference, not on an actual specimen (see Fig. 2).

The teeth of Helicoprion occur only in its lower jaw, and they occur in tooth whorls (for example: a 23 cm in diameter whorl, with about 117 serrated teeth) [see Fig. 2]. The only remains of Helicoprion are about 100 known examples of these tooth whorls. The teeth occur only in the lower jaw. Unlike sharks, Helicoprion did not shed its teeth; instead, it added them during its lifespan.

Exactly how Helicoprion fed has been the source of many different interpretations. Also, it is likely that they ate squids and fish.

  Classification (via Wikipedia, 2026)

Kingdom Animalia

Phylum Chordata

Class Chondrichthyes

Order Eugeneodontiformes (extinct)

Family Helicoprionidae (extinct)

Genus Helicoprion (extinct: its teeth are unique in that they are arranged in a tooth whorl inside the mouth).

Only three species of Helicoprlion are known.

Figure 1. Geologic time chart. Helicoprion ranged from Permian into Triassic time.

REFERENCE: The URL’s these days are becoming so complicated and long, it is just more simple to do the following: to see an excellent video of this fossil animal, just go to YouTube and type in: Helicoprion. Then, click on Helicoprion: The Buzz Saw Shark.

Figure 2. A sketch of the anterior half of a Helicoprion.