WOW

This week’s Walk of the Week (WOW) here at the Museum is to a small patch of interesting plants which attract many different insects to both its tiny but potent flowers, and to its leaves (the stems and leaves are toxic, you can touch but don’t be tempted to eat them). While you’re there admiring the plant you may notice one or several green-bronze iridescent beetles on its leaves. The beetle is about 1/4″  – 3/8″ in length. It feeds onRead more
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Two Spiders, a Beetle, and a Caterpillar

The spider in the above photo had found what it thought was a safe and secure hideout, in a tarp that covers the winch at the Take Off in Catch the Wind. Spiders can be identified as to family, and sometimes to genus, by the arrangement of their multiple eyes, that is, where the eyes sit on their head (most spiders have eight eyes). The above spider is definitely a wolf spider (Lycosidae) but I wasn’t able to go any furtherRead 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