Fig. 2.—Sand Held by the Roots of Red Cedar.
KELLERMAN ON PLANTS OF CEDAR POINT.
ZOOLOGICAL NOTES.
Herbert Osborn.
Cedar Point offers a number of rather peculiar features for study, and the fauna of the locality presents a very attractive field. On the one hand there is an extensive beach some six or seven miles in length, from which the sand dune formation extends backwards and merges into a swampy area bordering the waters of Sandusky Bay. On the beach after every storm will be found a large mass of drift material, including numerous fishes that have been thrown ashore. These furnish an attraction for a number of forms of animals, a complete census of which has as yet not been attempted. It may be mentioned, however, that numerous species of flies take to them to deposit their eggs, the larvae a few days after each storm being a conspicuous element to be followed a few days later by pupae or mature flies; these in turn attract various birds and large numbers of toads, which seem to secure a very constant source of food especially in this vicinity. Species of burrowing Hymenoptera are conspicuous and upon the sand dunes the grasshopper (Trimeroptropis maritima) is especially abundant. A millipede (Fontaria indianae) is also very abundant crawling over the sand, and turtles from the lake pass up the beach and over the dunes to deposit their eggs at favorable points.
Fig. 1.—A Bit of Cedar Point Beach.
Foot Prints.—A study of the tracks and foot prints which are made in the sand is especially interesting, and the determination of species which are responsible for particular kinds of tracks is a fascinating though somewhat complicated study. Several of these have been identified with certainty, and a brief description of them in connection with a reproduction of some photographs may be of interest. Toad tracks are numerous and quite conspicuous and consist of four slight imprints in the sand, these occurring with regularity in length corresponding with the length of the leap and the tracks, with the distance between them, corresponding with the size of the individual. These are shown in Figure 2, between the points marked X. The abundant grasshopper, described more fully in another paragraph, produces when walking a continuous series of fine imprints in two or three more or less distinct lines on either side, midway between which is a narrow groove formed by the dragging of the abdomen. These tracks begin and end abruptly in case the insect is alarmed and leaps into the air. Several of these lines of imprint are shown in the figure—one distinct one above the point in Figure 2, marked +. Another very characteristic one that is easily referred to the millipede consists of parallel lines, in which the imprints of the individual feet are scarcely visible, and between which the sand is smoothed by the under surface of the body. In Fig. 2 under o.
Fig. 2.—Footprints of Toad, Grasshopper and Millipede.
Photo by H. Osborn.