I'll be using my virtual yard as a source of examples for my Gardening for Wildlife class. Setting this project up, I thought it would be fun to get a decent number of taxa observed before classes start. Maybe 100? Pulling from almost 20 years worth of biological photos, that should be easy, right?

I've been aiming for diversity, and now have observations of 200 taxa posted, so this is a milestone. This is a dataset for my yard, and as a scientist, I now wonder: What's the data say?

Taxa from the yard fall into just three kingdoms: Animalia (168 species), Plantae (27 species), and Fungi (5 species). This is observer bias, as most life on Earth is microscopic. The number of bacteria, algae, protozoans, and microscopic fungi in the yard far exceeds all the large organisms I'll ever photograph.

According to Kentucky's Natural Heritage: An Illustrated Guide to Biodiversity (Abernathy et al., 2010) approximate species counts for Kentucky arthropods are: 15,200 insects, 500 arachnids, 100 crustaceans. For vertebrate species: 370 birds, 250 fish, 70 mammals, 50 reptiles, 50 amphibians. Kentucky also has 380 species of molluscs.
See the KET PBS site for a nice module with graphics: https://ket.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/knh.ssgroup/selectspeciesgroup/

ANIMALS in my yard so far: Arthropods are most diverse, with 132 taxa including arachnids (16 species), a crustacean, insects (113 species), a myriapod, and an entognathan (to a botanist, they look like insects). Vertebrates are next in line with 35 taxa including birds (22 species), mammals (6 species), amphibians (3 species), and reptiles (4 species). Only one lonely mollusc (a slug) has been documented. Considering that there's little aquatic habitat on my property, these counts generally reflect the relative sizes of the groups in the state, though the molluscs are under-represented.

FUNGI in my yard so far: Just five taxa: two plant pathogens, two saprophytes, and an ectoparasite of ladybugs. Or, from a more taxonomic perspective, two ascomycetes and three basidiomycetes. In my defense, most of my big fungi are on the ground in the shady woods and so hard to photograph. Plus, you really need microscopic views of spores for confident ID: so much work :(

PLANTS in my yard so far: Kentucky has about 2030 species of vascular plants (flowering plants, gymnosperms, and ferns & relatives). Observations from my yard document 27 species of angiosperms: 24 dicots and 3 monocots. This is observer bias again. My taxonomic training focused on angiosperms, and dicots in particular. There are plenty of mosses in the yard, a few ferns, and a gymnosperm (Eastern Redcedar).
As a botanist, I confess that I'm less likely to photograph a plant than an insect. For local plants, I typically a) already have a good photo somewhere, b) know it/ am confident I can ID it/ have no intention of IDing it (grasses = evil), or c) would rather have a pressed specimen. Insects, though, are cool, mysterious, and don't press well.

GOAL FOR THE FUTURE: Documenting more trees and shrubs.

Most organisms are adapted for specific habitats, conditions, or lifestyles, helping them get the resources they need by reducing competition with other organisms that need somewhat different resources. If your area provides a diversity of habitats and resource types (ex. shelters, foods, water sources) then it is likely to support a greater diversity of organisms than a more uniform area might.

I increase the diversity of butterflies I observe in my yard by diversifying the food sources provided. Most of us picture butterflies on flowers, but many species prefer rotting fruit or sap-flows from trees, and some are even drawn to things like poop or carrion. For example:

A Red-spotted Purple.
A Question Mark.
Swallowtails.

I recycle my summer watermelon rinds by making simple butterfly feeders. You can just put out a chunk of rind or some old fruit, but if it dries out too fast, the butterflies loose interest.

You can extend the life of your rind by placing it in a dish with just a little water (I'm experimenting with adding some gravel to that to prevent small insects from drowning), which keeps it moist and fermenting.

So far, I've had 11 species of butterflies visit, and one hungry caterpillar. Check out the rind-feeding butterfly species I've documented.

My feeder has also attracted a variety of other insects, and I get quite a bit of moth activity at night. Click here for all of the interesting, rind-related visitors.

If you prefer to limit your visitors to butterflies and moths, you can cover the top of your feeder with screen, keeping the fruit about 1 cm below it. The long proboscis of a butterfly will easily slip through to reach the fruit, but insects like flies and wasps don't have long enough mouthparts to feed there.

Of course, things like raccoons, possums, and curious cats can potentially be a problem. One reason I like using watermelon rinds is because they have enough sweet flesh left to feed lots of insects, but not so much to make them particularly interesting to vertebrates. I also use heavy ceramic dishes (sold to catch drips from potted plants) so that they are hard to knock over and unlikely to break even if they do get shoved around by curious mammals.