Top Photo: Oak, the pups, and Adeyha. Come see what’s going on at the Red Wolf Enclosure in Explore the Wild.Read more
Posts filed in: Summer
Cicadas and Other Things Around the Campus
Top Photo: Magicada tredecim, one of two species of periodical cicadas emerging this spring in the Central Piedmont of North Carolina. You’ve most likely heard about the emergence of two broods of cicadas this spring, Brood XIII and Brood XIX of seventeen year and thirteen year periodical cicadas, respectively. Here in Durham and surrounding counties there is no overlap of the two broods but there are two species emerging at the same time from Brood XIX. Magicada tredecim and MagicadaRead more
More Spring Sightings and a Red Wolf Observation
Top Photo: Male common whitetail. Common whitetails are everywhere. Ponds, lakes, even slow moving rivers and streams are home to this ubiquitous skimmer. The standout white/blue abdomen and dark marks on the wings lend to the easy recognizability of the male. The female too, is easily recognized by the three dark markings on each of her four wings. They both tend to perch low to, or directly on, the ground. Another early season dragonfly making an appearance is the blueRead more
Soldierflies
Top Photo: Soldier fly larvae feeding in our wetland. I’m not sure of the species level identification but the larvae in the photos above and below seem to belong to the genus Stratiomys. They’re a genus of soldier fly which apparently lays eggs in the water. The adults are bee or wasp mimics and feed on nectar and pollen. The larvae that hatch from the eggs deposited by the adults eat detritus on the bottom of a shallow, muddy pondRead more
Early Fall Things To Discover
Top Photo: Yellowjacket picking over annual cicada. The yellowjacket in the images above and below is scavenging protein from a dead cicada on the path. Yellowjacket larvae back in the hive are fed protein in the form of whole insects or chunks of meat harvested from caterpillars and other larger animals, even from a picnicker’s ham sandwich. The yellowjackets take the meat back to the hive and feed it directly to larvae in cells within the hive after it’s beenRead more
Katydids
Top Photo: Angle-wing katydid (Microcentrum retinerve). Katydids belong to a group of insects known as Orthoptera which references the straight or parallel-sided aspect of their wings (ortho = straight, ptera = wing). This group includes grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, and katydids. You can usually distinguish katydids from the others by their longer antennae, though some types of crickets do indeed have long, thin sensory appendages. There are many kinds of katydids. The two mentioned here are an angle-wing katydid and aRead more
Gus Bear in the Water!
Top Photo: Rare sight in Black Bear Enclosure. It’s not often you see Gus Bear in the pool below the waterfall. He just doesn’t like to get wet. Mimi, yes, a frequent swimmer. The heat of the past few days has apparently altered Gus’s thinking. Though, the look on his face is not one of total commitment or enjoyment. Cool, but very wet.Read more
Spittlebug
Top Photo: Spittle on muscadine grape stem. The white gooey substance on the grape stem, above and below, may at first appear to be spit or saliva, it’s not. The viscous, sticky stuff on the stem is called spittle. It’s created by spittlebug nymphs, insects. After hatching from eggs laid in or on the grape vine, nymphal spittle bugs begin feeding, sucking juices from the plant. This goes through the insect’s body and is forced out of the anus. MixedRead more
Banded Sphinx
Top Photo: Banded sphinx moth caterpillar preparing to chew on wingleaf primrose-willow in wetlands. Last September, I photographed a banded sphinx moth (Eumorpha fasciatus) caterpillar on an end-of-the-season wingleaf primrose-willow (Ludwigia decurrens) in the wetlands. There were only a hand-full of those plants in the wetlands at the time. This year, there are many. The larvae may be green-themed, red, black, or multi-colored. The genus name Eumorpha means “well formed” or “good shape” and the species name fasciatus refers toRead more