A recent late August walk in the woods of Patapsco Valley State Park revealed the changing landscape of the understory of a Maryland forest. It is a story being repeated in multiple locations around the state–new species have arrived, and many native species are apparently less common.
The first thing noticeable meandering away from the hunter’s parking lot in Sykesville was a gathering of Spotted Lanternflies on the bottom of the trunk of a hardwood tree. The gathered group were not visibly moving, except for one individual which stretched its wings revealing a brilliant crimson spot on its back. The big insect calmly repositioned itself on the tree and went back to whatever it had been doing, or not doing.
A poke of a stick sent several of the Lanternflies popping off the tree trunk instinctively, like a grasshopper off a blade of grass. One Maryland entomologist believes there may be millions of Spotted Lanternfly in Maryland now. The ancestors of the ones on the Patapsco Valley tree are thought to have arrived in a Pennsylvania stone quarry from a shipment that left a Southeast Asian port sometime just before 2014.
A few feet onward in the forest understory, fields of Japanese Stiltgrass dominated the forest floor, a practical monoculture now. It is the same understory that appears in many other forests in Maryland, including in Anne Arundel County. The Japanese native plant, once used in shipping, often dominates the landscape.
Much remains unknown about this change in Maryland ecology. There has been significant change in recent years, and only so many scientists to go around to study it. And good science generally take time, funding, hard work and repetition of research.
What could be anecdotally seen on that sunny day in the Maryland forest was that many insects from at least a few flying species were engaged with the presence of the Stiltgrass, but it is unclear if they were receiving any benefit from its presence. A small yellow striped fly, vaguely resembling a bee, swirled through the mass of plants in good numbers, but of the lot of them, none ever stopped to gather nectar or pollen. Were they just being persistently optimistic? Or perhaps desperate for food. A number of moths wandered among the stiltgrass too, exhibiting similar behavior.
