TOP PHOTO: Early instar orange-striped oakworm caterpillars go to work on red oak leaves. It’s that time of year again when oakworms do their best to defoliate the red and willow oaks here at the museum. There may be thousands of these voracious moth larvae in the oak trees here at the museum but they never do as much damage as to harm the trees in any great manner. The trees seem to thrive regardless of the devouring hordes ofRead more
Posts tagged: #moth
What’s Happening in the Wild
Above, during a downpour, northern rough-winged swallows take a break from swirling, diving and capturing airborne insects over the wetlands. If, while visiting the museum you park at the parking deck, stop and have a look at the flowers blooming along the path leading to the deck, you may see some interesting insects, including several species of butterfly. Over the past week I’ve been seeing dogbane beetles on their namesake plant along the path of the outdoor loop through ExploreRead more
June Sightings in The Wild
It’s near the end of June. Below (and above) are photos of some of the creatures I’ve seen during the month. They’re arranged in no particular order. The top photo is of one of the milkweeds, butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa). It attracts many insects to it’s flowers, leaves, and seed pods throughout the summer season. Here, you can see new flower buds on the left and older flowers to the right. Some insects go out of their way to attractRead more
Green Stripes
Alerted by the frass at my feet, I looked up into the maple tree branches over my head. It didn’t take me long to locate the source of the frass. Two green-striped mapleworms. Frass is caterpillar poop. If you enjoy finding caterpillars it’d be wise to keep an eye out for frass. If there’s frass on the ground, there’ll be a caterpillar, or a group of caterpillars, feeding above. Green-striped mapleworms are the caterpillars, or larvae, of rosy maple moths.Read more
More Fall Sightings
Lepidoptera, butterflies and moths, and their larvae, will continue to be active into October and beyond. Here’s a few species I saw last week. I came across two species that I either hadn’t seen before or hadn’t previously witnessed perform a particular behavior. I’ve seen many datanas here in the outdoor areas of the Museum, but I don’t recall seeing an Angus’ datana (Datana angusii) before. If you don’t already know, datanas are caterpillars of small brown moths. I typically see either yellow-neckedRead more
Caterpillar Time
It’s that time of year again when caterpillars seem to be everywhere. Oh sure, caterpillars can be seen from spring till late fall, sometimes in huge numbers. How can you forget those cankerworms that dangled on silky threads from every tree branch by the thousands, no millions, last April. No, what I’m talking about is the huge variety of species that can be viewed at this time of year. Both moth and butterfly species have been busy all summer producing youngRead more
New Caterpillar
I came upon a new caterpillar last week as I was rounding the bend in the path near the Dinosaur Trail. When I say new, I mean new to me, I had never seen this particular species before. I didn’t know what it was. It took nearly a week to determine its identity. I’m confident now in saying that it is an Eastern Panthea, or Tufted White Pine Caterpillar or Panthea furcilla. As one of its names suggest the caterpillar feedsRead more
Unknown Miner
Ranger Kristin noticed a white silky substance covering part of the clover leaves at our feet. Bending down to get a closer look we realized that there was something moving under that white substance. It looked to be some sort of larvae, very small larvae. The plant was White Clover (Trifolium repens). The leaves of the plant themselves are small, each leaflet about 15 mm, and in comparison the larvae were elfin. They looked to be about 1 – 2Read more
More things to look for
While walking up the boardwalk from Explore the Wild I noticed a large jumping spider perched in the middle of the walkway. The spider was black with bold white markings. As the spider turned to face me, I noticed green chelicerae, or jaws. If you’ve never had a close look at a jumping spider I urge you to do so, they can be quite colorful. When I first saw this spider I thought that it was a Bold Jumping Spider (PhidippusRead more