While walking down the hill toward Warner Gap Hollow, I surprised this Black Ratsnake or Eastern Ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis), which reared up aggressively before slithering back into the underbrush. I was not at all concerned about it, since a Black Ratsnake is a constrictor, not poisonous, which eats small mammals, frogs, and toads.

The Appalachian Trail crossed this powerline right-of-way south of Warner Gap Hollow. You can see the powerline crossing the Catoctin Mountain Range in the distance. Such right-of-ways over the trail are quite common in Maryland, and provide the opportunity to see alternative plant and animal life in the open space that you would not find in the deep woods.

Here I spotted a Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) in bushes just off the trail in the right-of-way. All mantises are carnivourous, mainly eating other insects, but sometimes preying on small vertebrates.

I also spotted this Carolina Locust type of grasshopper (Dissosteira carolina) in the grass in the right-of-way. These grasshoppers prefer sunny open fields. It was quite shy, perhaps concerned that I wanted to eat it.

Farther south in a clearing near a rock outcropping, I was impressed by the beauty of this spider's web that was displaying a shimmering spectrum of light that played on it. It was like a diaphanous rainbow of delicate prismatic threads. I don't know what kind of spider it was, but I was impressed by its natural creativity and skill.