A few weeks ago I mentioned seeing an assassin bug on an alder in the Wetlands. This past Saturday (9/14) I spotted an egg case close by. The egg case is a dead ringer for that of Zelus luridus, the assassin which was spotted earlier. A close look at the mass of eggs revealed that they had already hatched. There was no sign of the hatchlings, they must have already disbursed in search of prey. I took several photos of theRead more
Posts tagged: #carnivorous caterpillar
Harvester Laying Eggs on the Alder
After complaining (mildly) about not being able to locate adult harvester butterflies in the vicinity of an alder on the north side of the Wetlands, which has plenty of woolly aphids and caterpillars munching on them, I spotted one. I was getting ready to make the rounds at the end of the day when I saw a small orangish butterfly zip by and through the vegetation just west of the infested alder. Although I felt sure that it was aRead more
Harvesters Have Arrived!
The caterpillar in the above photo was about 5 – 6 mm in length when the photo was taken. Those are aphids, in various stages of developement, on either side of the caterpillar. Ever since spotting the woolly aphids on an alder on the north side of the Wetlands I’ve been watching for harvester caterpillars to appear. They’re here. Last year I spied the first harvester caterpillars, the only North American carnivorous caterpillars, on the alder during the first weekRead more
The Harvester
Just a few weeks ago I posted about woolly aphids on the Hazel Alder here in our Wetlands. In that post I mentioned the possibility of Harvesters, the only North American carnivorous butterfly, making an appearance. Well, they have arrived…at least in caterpillar form. Of course, for the caterpillars to be here there had to have been a butterfly present at some point to lay eggs. It must have done its egg laying while I was making the rounds, becauseRead more