Todd Carlander emailed a photo of a very pale insect on a fence last week in Wilmette. I wondered whether it was an albino cicada.
A couple of days earlier, Chris Gres emailed a photo of a nearly white catfish.
Lack of color in the natural world is sometimes as striking as brilliant color.
• Aldo Manzara of Franklin Park photographed the pale insect at his brother Alex’s place in Wilmette. On Saturday, Alex photographed an even better close-up.
‘‘That cicada just emerged and is in the process of sclerotization (exoskeleton hardening),’’ emailed Derek Rosenberger, an entomologist and associate professor of biology and conservation at Wheaton College who previously directed the zoology program at Olivet Nazarene University. ‘‘Its wings have only just expanded. They are particularly susceptible to predators at that time. Can you imagine 17 years [to emerge], and then to be eaten by a raccoon or touched by someone and have your exoskeleton become deformed?’’
• Gres caught a pale surprise on Memorial Day in Lockport.
‘‘Crazy catch today fishing the old canal near Lockport,’’ he emailed. ‘‘I think it’s an albino catfish. Though it was a carp we were targeting and then landed this beaut. Figured you’d know if this is an albino or not.’’
I didn’t, but I knew whom to ask.
Phil Willink, an academic researcher for the Illinois Natural History Survey, messaged on X: ‘‘Wish I could see the anal fin without his hand in the way. That would help. But it looks like a leucistic channel catfish. There are plenty of channel catfish around there, so he got lucky and caught a really cool one without color!’’
Here’s the CliffsNotes version of wild colors: Leucism, which basically means reduced or less-than-normal pigmentation, has many forms. Albinism is the complete lack of melanin, so completely white or pale with red or pink eyes. Melanism is an overproduction of melanin and results in very dark or black animals, one common example being the black squirrels of our Eastern gray squirrels.
Wild things
While rambling with Lady last week, I realized how overrun with rabbits our neighborhood was, making me wonder when coyotes will come to balance it out.
It also reminded me that Barb Spigner, whose old White Sox photos from her time as their photographer kept me sane during the lockdown, posted a series of videos on Facebook of coyotes raiding rabbit nests last month around her home in the north suburbs.
• On to larger mammals.
‘‘While frog monitoring in [a northeastern] DuPage forest preserve Thursday night, [I was] surprised to see these two males already showing the start of antlers in velvet,’’ Alan Anderson emailed.
Seems like just a month or two ago I stopped looking for shed antlers.
Malört retort
Willink, an aficionado of eating foods from the natural world, posted on X about the brief Chicago rage for cicada-infused Malort: ‘‘Verdict: Waste of a couple of perfectly good cicadas. The very strong taste of the Malort liqueur overpowers the subtle cicada flavor.’’
ICASSTT
Argenta-Oreana’s Chase Logue, who finished second two years ago, and Carter Logue won the Illinois Coaches and Student State Tournament Trail’s The Clash Championship on Saturday and Sunday on Lake Springfield with 28 pounds, 13 ounces. Lake Zurich’s Travis King and Max Williams finished third (25-05) and Plainfield South’s Nicholas Noyes and Timmy Raducka fourth (24-15). The Clash has become Illinois’ de facto state championship for high school bass fishing.
Stray cast
Malort is to subtle what the Calumet is to pristine.
