Naturenotes With Rudy Mancke

The first American Arbor Day was originated by J. Sterling Morton of Nebraska City, Nebraska, at an annual meeting of the Nebraska State board of agriculture held in Lincoln. On April 10, 1872, an estimated one million trees were planted in Nebraska. Birdsey Northrop of Connecticut was responsible for globalizing the idea when he visited Japan in 1883 and delivered his Arbor Day and Village Improvement message. In that same year, the American Forestry Association made Northrop the Chairman of the committee to campaign for Arbor Day nationwide. He also brought his enthusiasm for Arbor Day to Australia, Canada, and Europe.

Bryozoa (also known as the Polyzoa, Ectoprocta or commonly as moss animals) are a phylum of simple, aquatic invertebrate animals, nearly all living in sedentary colonies. Typically about 0.5 millimetres (1⁄64 in) long, they have a special feeding structure called a lophophore, a "crown" of tentacles used for filter feeding. Most marine bryozoans live in tropical waters, but a few are found in oceanic trenches and polar waters. The bryozoans are classified as the marine bryozoans (Stenolaemata), freshwater bryozoans (Phylactolaemata), and mostly-marine bryozoans (Gymnolaemata), a few members of which prefer brackish water. 5,869 living species are known.

The Gulf Coast spiny softshell turtle (Apalone spinifera aspera), a subspecies in the Trionychidae family of softshell turtles, is endemic to the south-eastern United States. These turtles are found along the Gulf of Mexico from North Carolina to Mississippi. They live in temperate climates in freshwater biomes.

Trichonephila clavipes (formerly known as Nephila clavipes), commonly known as the golden silk orb-weaver, golden silk spider, or banana spider (a name shared with several others), is an orb-weaving spider species which inhabits forests and wooded areas ranging from the southern US to Argentina.

Crayfish eggs, attached to the female's abdomen, hatch in five to eight weeks. The larvae remain on the mother for several weeks.

Some listener report seeing a joro spider in Abbeville County.

We are all part of the natural world.

The timber rattlesnake, canebrake rattlesnake, or banded rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) is a species of pit viper endemic to eastern North America. Like all other pit vipers, it is venomous, and this species is sometimes highly venomous. This is the only rattlesnake species in most of the populous Northeastern United States and is second only to its relatives to the west, the prairie rattlesnake, as the most northerly distributed venomous snake in North America.

The southern house spider is a species of large spider in the family Filistatidae. Currently given the scientific name Kukulcania hibernalis, it was formerly known as Filistata hibernalis. Found in the Americas, it exhibits strong sexual dimorphism. It is occurs in the southern states of the USA, throughout Central America and some of the Caribbean, to southern Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. The males may be mistaken for brown recluses because the two have similar coloration and body structure.

The rusty blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) is a medium-sized New World blackbird, closely related to grackles ("rusty grackle" is an older name for the species). It is a bird that prefers wet forested areas, breeding in the boreal forest and muskeg across northern Canada, and migrating southeast to the United States during winter.

The eastern fence lizard (Sceloporus undulatus) is a medium-sized species of lizard in the family Phrynosomatidae. The species is found along forest edges, rock piles, and rotting logs or stumps in the eastern United States. It is sometimes referred to as the prairie lizard, fence swift, gray lizard, gravid lizard, northern fence lizard or pine lizard. It is also referred to colloquially as the horn-billed lizard.

Sphex pensylvanicus, the great black wasp, is a species of digger wasp. It lives across most of North America and grows to a size of 20–35 mm (0.8–1.4 in). The larvae feed on living insects that the females paralyze and carry to the underground nest.

A listener reports two casulties outside a window: a grey-cheeked thrush and a rose-breasted grosbeak.

The eastern garter snake has a wide range across eastern North America, as far north as southern Ontario and Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico in the south, along the eastern shores of America to the Mississippi River. In New England, the snake is described as the "most widespread and ubiquitous" serpent, from wilderness to urban environments and from sea level to high elevations.

Datana ministra, the yellownecked caterpillar, is a moth of the family Notodontidae. It is found in southern Canada and the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, in the south-west it ranges to California. The wingspan is about 42 mm. There is one generation per year.The larvae feed on Malus, Quercus, Betula and Salix species. Young larvae skeletonise the leaves of their host plant. Later, they feed on all of the leaf except the leaf stalk. They feed in groups. The larvae are yellowish and black striped and covered with fine, white hairs. The head is black. Full-grown larvae are about 50 mm long. Mature larvae drop to the soil to pupate underground, where they spend the winter.

Phallus duplicatus (common name, netted stinkhorn or wood witch) is a species of fungus in the stinkhorn family. The bell-shaped to oval cap is green-brown, the cylindrical stalk is white. When mature the cap becomes sticky with a slimy green coating that attracts flies that disperse its spores, and it has a distinct, "netted" universal veil. The fungus is edible when still in the "egg" stage, before the fruit body has expanded. It grows often in public lawns, and can also be found in meadows.

Phidippus apacheanus is a species of jumping spider in the family Salticidae. It is found in the United States, Mexico, and Cuba.

Xylophanes tersa, the tersa sphinx, is a moth of the family Sphingidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1771. It is found from the United States (Massachusetts south to southern Florida, west to Nebraska, New Mexico and southern Arizona), through Mexico, the West Indies and Central America and into parts of South America (including Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil). An occasional stray can be found as far north as Canada.

The Limacodidae or Eucleidae are a family of moths in the superfamily Zygaenoidea or the Cossoidea;[the placement is in dispute. They are often called slug moths because their caterpillars bear a distinct resemblance to slugs. The larvae are often liberally covered in protective stinging hairs, and are mostly tropical, but occur worldwide, with about 1800 described species and probably many more as yet undescribed species.

Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant.The eastern mistletoe native to North America, Phoradendron leucarpum, belongs to a distinct genus of the family Santalaceae.