Top Photo: Large milkweed bugs mate between milkweed seed pods. Butterfly sightings are increasing. The common buckeye pictured here is a fairly easy find in grass along road and path edges. The Joe-Pye-weed in Wander Away is in bloom. Its tiny blossoms attract a variety of insects including hairstreak butterflies. Though I wanted to show you a juniper hairstreak on the Joe-Pye-weed as well, the one I was in pursuit of kept itself just out of reach. You’ll have toRead more
Posts tagged: #Gray Hairstreak
September Leps in Various Forms and Conditions
Top Photo: Pine sphinx moth caterpillar. Three Moths (including specimen above) The caterpillar in the above photo probably just crawled down out of an oak tree and is in search of a safe place to pupate which, reportedly, may take two or more years. (?) If you’ve never heard of a sphinx moth, you’ve probably seen one. The tobacco hornworm is a sphinx moth caterpillar. The moth in the photo below is a Pandora’s sphinx moth (Eumotpha pandoras), all grown up.Read more
Summertime Sightings
Top Photo: Gray hairstreak. With the summer just about gone (for me, fall starts around mid August), I thought I’d give you a pictorial update on some of what’s being seen on our 84 acre campus here at the Museum. Last month I mentioned that there were again woolly aphids enjoying the sap of one of our alders in the Wetlands in Explore the Wild. The colonies are growing considerably and many bees and wasps are visiting the sight, includingRead more
Summer Starts to Buzz
The First-of-the-Year Great Blue Skimmer appeared on the 27th of June, perhaps adding to the confusion of novice oders (oders = dragonfly watchers). There are now 3 species of dragonfly cruising the Wetlands in which the mature males are overall blue in coloration. They differ in size as well as in several less obvious characteristics, but to the beginner it can be a tad confusing to sort them out, especially if they’re not perched next to one another. While leadingRead more
Tumbling Beetles, Odes, and other June Insects
For the past few weeks Tumbling Flower Beetles (Mordellidae) have been rummaging through the flowers of Queen Anne’s Lace. Members of this family are small, humpbacked beetles with pointed abdomens that project out beyond the insect’s elytra. The tumblers that I’ve seen all appear uniformly black in color. Species identification can be a head-scratcher and is often dependent upon the number of “ridges” on the hind legs of these beetles. I didn’t get close enough to see the ridges onRead more
A Widow, Mourning Cloaks, Pugs, and Hairstreaks
A Widow Skimmer (dragonfly) was seen in Catch the Wind on 24 May for the first sighting of the species this season. This sighting was a week or so earlier than last year’s first occurrence (see Widow Skimmer, Explore the Wild Journal, June 1-15, 2008). Over the past few weeks I’ve seen at least one, often more, fresh Mourning Cloaks flying about on each day that I was on site. Could these fresh butterflies be the results of the colonyRead more
Late September Insects
Despite a general decrease in dragonfly activity, several dragonflies are still being seen in small numbers including Common Green Darner, Black Saddlebags and Wandering Glider. All three of these dragonfly species are known to move with the seasons. With the winds out of the north, mostly northeast for a good part of the period, I’m inclined to think that the individuals that are being seen are indeed migrants. Not on the move but still fairly common are Blue Dashers. SoRead more
Summer Heat Brings Out the Bugs
With the heat comes more insects, and for the ode (dragonfly and damselfly) lovers among you, good news. June has brought us five more species of dragonfly. Eastern Pondhawk, Twelve-spotted Skimmer, Widow Skimmer, Great Blue Skimmer, and the tiny yet very distinctive Eastern Amberwing have all joined the growing list of twenty-one species seen since the first of the year. The common names of dragonflies are in most cases very descriptive. Twelve-spotted Skimmers have 3 black spots on each ofRead more