It was a little over a week ago that Lew (Horticulture Specialist) brought a small potted plant into my office. It was a nice enough plant, but in the back of my mind I wondered why he would bring it to me, what was special about this plant. Then he pointed to the main stalk of the plant. There were Wheel Bug eggs on the stalk. A week or so before, someone had spotted a mating pair of WheelRead more
Posts tagged: #Wheel Bug
What’s up in the Wild
Here’s a little of what’s going on in the Wild at the Museum…a caterpillar. A damselfly. An assassin bug. A nest-building bird. A morphing frog. A tree frog who thinks it can’t be seen. And, a bird with a frog. And that’s some of what I’ve been seeing. How about you?Read more
Two Birds and Three Insects
On November 2, I mentioned that I had seen the first of the season Hooded Merganser. It was a single bird (alone) and appeared to be a female. On Thursday (11/10) there were three mergs in the Wetlands, a male and two females. Yesterday (11/15) there were ten birds in the water. There was also a male Mallard in the Wetlands. There’s nothing unusual about a Mallard, but we don’t get many here in our Wetlands, at least not theRead more
Wheel Bugs!
I came upon an adult Wheel Bug (Arilus cristatus) as I was walking down the boardwalk into the Wetlands (10/26). It too was walking on boardwalk, although on the railing. Fall is the time of year that I typically encounter these assassin bugs in their adult form. The large insects (they can reach nearly 1.5″) have most likely already mated and deposited eggs on tree limbs, sides of buildings, and maybe on the Museum’s boardwalk. The eggs will hatch nextRead more
November Insects
There’s no doubt that insect activity slows down in November. But (there’s always a but), you may be surprised at just how much insect activity there is at this time of the year. If the sun is shining, much of that insect activity may be found wherever there is a warm spot, away from the shaded areas. There’s one insect that we don’t see in our area until at least October. As long as the sun is shining and theRead more
Some Late July Insects
I spent part of the morning of July 22nd with the Museum’s Marsh Madness Summer Campers scooping up critters from the Wetlands. A goodly number of aquatic insects and other invertebrates were captured and studied, including a Water Scorpion, several Backswimmers, various water scavenger beetles, many dragonfly nymphs and a handful of leeches. (Leeches are always fun to catch – everyone wants to see them but no one wants to touch them.) Two interesting creatures that actually have backbones wereRead more