Category: insects and other arthropods

Readers’ wildlife photos

May 14, 2019 • 7:30 am

Today we see the return of insect and arthropod photographer Mark Sturtevant. Mark’s notes are indented:

Here are some pictures from last summer. Enjoy!

First up are two damselflies. The first is the lovely Aurora damselfly (Chromagrion conditum). This fairly large damsel is one of the species that I can easily identify in the field. It habitually holds its wings slightly open, much like members of the ‘spreadwing’ family of damselflies, although the aurora damsels belong to a different family that do not typically hold their wings that way.

The second damsel is the common but personally challenging Eastern forktail damselfly (Ischnura verticalis). I have the hardest time getting acceptable pictures of these very small damsels. This is in part because they are extra shy, and in part because their delicate green color is easily saturated by the flash. I had to really fuss with the settings to get this picture. It seems that the majority of Eastern forktails around here have parasitic mites on them.

Rotting logs that are covered in mosses and fungi are worth a careful look. On one occasion I came across such a log with several small and very active flies, as shown in the next two pictures. These are rust flies (Chyliza sp.). Their activities kept me entertained for a long time as the males, like that in the first picture, were busy defending their small patch of moss from rival males. But any female, like the one shown in the following picture, would be pretty much tackled in an effort to mate. This activity would cause nearby males to charge in as well. The females always refused these entreaties, and so perhaps they were already mated.

Among the little rust flies were other insects, including this larger Xylophagid fly (I think Xylophagus sp.) shown in the next picture. It seemed much calmer but also a bit snooty as it loomed motionless over the busy busy busy rust flies. The drama on this one log was so engrossing that I was later quite unable to stand up for a time. My feet had fallen asleep!

Earlier this year I had purchased a batch of Luna moth cocoons (Actias luna) through the mail. Once spring was moving into summer, I set them out in a bug cage to have them emerge, and I would then photograph some of the adult lunas. One day I heard a distinct scritch scritch scritch sound from the cage where the cocoons were held. A moth was working its way out! I retrieved it and watched the magic.

What was curious was that I could see that the moth inside the cocoon was using some sort of short blade somewhere on its front end to cut its way out of the cocoon. I had no idea that they could do this. In any case, after a time the moth freed itself and crawled out into my hand. I hung it up on a wreath to let it expand its wings. The next pictures show some of its transformation from small wet thing to ethereal beauties. Interesting how the wings change colors as they expand. Pictures of fully formed adults will be reserved for the next posting, as I don’t want the folks here to be ‘over-lunafied’.

In a place I call the Magic Field, the ground is heavily marked with entrances of various arthropod burrows. Among these are large openings to burrows belonging to very large wolf spiders. Because they stick around all summer in the same burrows, I become rather attached to each of the spiders that I find. I will check on the known locations of several of them during my return visits to the field. But of course such spiders will have their enemies. One day I came across an impressively large black wasp that was exploring the ground. I did mistake it at first for our local ‘great black wasp’, a common species that preys on katydids. But from this picture I realized that the antennae and the sutures on the thorax identify this insect as a spider wasp. This is one of the ‘blue-black’ spider wasps in the genus Anoplius, but it is difficult to identify which species from the pictures I have. It was evidently hunting for ‘my’ wolf spiders. Of course this plays out with the wasp paralyzing the spider and feeding it to their young.

Which brings me to the final subject: one of the burrowing wolf spiders in the Magic Field. This is Geolycosa missouriensis. Most of the time they are not visible except by shining an LED light down their burrow. But on some occasions they are inclined to sit at the entrance to their burrow. Of course approaching them makes them hide, but if one stays very still at the entrance for a few minutes, camera aimed, the spider will eventually peek back out, as shown in the final picture. It’s a fan of big spider wasps, I am sure!

 

Readers’ wildlife photos

April 21, 2019 • 7:30 am

Take a break from looking for colored eggs and look at some wildlife photos. Today’s lovely batch of insects comes from reader Tony Eales in Australia, where Easter is already over.  The photos are from Borneo, and Tony’s notes are indented:

The last of the Borneo shots. One Ephemeropteran i.e. a mayfly, there were thousands every night attracted by the lights of the field centre. And the rest are Lepidopterans.  Here’s the mayfly:

A rather tattered large moth which I think is Amblychia sp. We saw a couple of these moths; this one had landed on the leg of my shorts.

 

Next an impressive Hawk Moth from the family Sphingidae, which I’m pretty sure is Ambulyx pryeri.

Next is a moth that I’ve tentatively IDed as Hypochrosis sp. In the family Geometridae aka Loopers…But I could be way off base.

I’m very sure of the family of this caterpillar which is from the Cup Moth family Limacodidae. They have some of the most spectacular and bizarre larvae in all the insect world.

We also found one of the large beautiful Tropical Swallow-tailed Moths, Lyssa sp. The different species are fairly similar looking but this is probably the common one, Lyssa zampa.

I’m completely stumped with this next moth, I suspect it’s in the family Notodontidae but really that’s a stab in the dark. Large and beautiful cryptic patterning.

And finally the king of Bornean butterflies Raja Brooke’s Birdwing, Trogonoptera brookiana, seen here on the photographer’s face.

Readers’ wildlife photos

February 6, 2019 • 8:00 am

Be sure to send in your good wildlife photos, for I’m getting a bit nervous as the level in the tank drops.

Reader Mark Sturtevant has some more insects for us today; his notes are indented.

Here are more pictures of arthropods from a couple summers ago. First up is a fairly large robber fly (Efferia, maybe E. aestuans). The enormous mating claspers identify it as a male.

The next two pictures are of mating insects. In insects, it is common for males to stay ‘on’ their mate for a prolonged period, even after sperm is transferred, to increase the chance that she uses his sperm to fertilize eggs. The first are a pair of milkweed beetles (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus), which are colorful longhorn beetles with four compound eyes. The eyes are this way because their antennae have split the compound eyes. The white stuff is milkweed sap.

The other copulating insects are a pair of ambush bugs (Phymata pennsylvanica). These are actually assassin bugs that are sit-and-wait predators among flowers.

Next are a pair of damselflies which were found in close proximity to each other. The first is a male powdered dancer (Argia moesta). Males of this species become coated with a waxy bloom as they age, and this is one crusty Odonate!

The next is what I call a ‘blue-form’ female damselfly. It is either a powdered dancer or a female blue-fronted dancer (A. apicalis). In damselflies, females are often rather plain in color but many develop the bright colors of males. The suspicion is that this is a kind of mimicry that helps them to avoid being pestered by males all the time.

One day from my kitchen window I saw a distinctive triangular object on the roof of my shed in the backyard. An investigation soon confirmed that I had an underwing moth paying me a visit, which was very nice of it because I had been looking for one of these. With the help of a stepladder and butterfly net, I soon had this prize in a bug cage. Identifying most underwings to species can be challenging. It’s definitely Catocala, and it very much looks like Catocala unijuga,  a species common in my area. The picture shows the brightly banded hind wings. Their strategy is common among insects but also quite clever. When at rest they keep their hind wings hidden, and then they can become nearly invisible on their preferred perching site which is on tree trunks. But in flight they will flash these bright colors, and so will signal to any pursuing predator that this is a brightly colored insect. Then they land (usually on a tree trunk) and fold up their wings to virtually disappear. The idea is that a predator would have a ‘search image’ for bright colors and ignore things that look like tree bark. A while ago I had posted a challenge here for readers to spot some underwing moths. That link is here.

Next, we have a wolf spider carrying her egg sac in the manner that is characteristic of this family. This would be unremarkable except that she was easily the smallest adult wolf spider that I had ever seen. Her leg span would have barely covered a nickel! I suspect it is one of the thin-legged wolf spiders (Pardosa).

Nursery web spiders belong to a family closely allied to the wolf spiders. One difference is that females carry their egg sacs under their body, secured by their fangs. Our local species is Dolomedes tenebrosus, and they are really big. I often see the females guarding their ‘nursery’ of spider hatchlings near the top of plants. This is one of the few times I have seen one at the earlier stage, where she is still carrying an egg sac.

We have a couple of apple trees and they are always interesting to inspect during different times of the season. During the fall, the apples drop from the trees and our local squirrels nibble on them. The fermenting juices from the apples attract insects. This last picture is of a visiting bald-faced hornet (Dolichovespula maculata). I recently learned that this species of wasp is not considered a true hornet. The European hornet (Vespa crabro) is considered a hornet, but our bald-faced hornet is really our largest yellowjacket wasp!

 

Readers’ wildlife photos

December 12, 2018 • 7:45 am

The last photos we had from Aussie reader Tony Eales were spiders he snapped on a trip to Borneo. But wait—there’s more! Here are some other arthropods from the same trip. Tony’s notes are indented:

Continuing the Borneo photos. This time:  Hymenoptera.

Really the only annoying thing at the field centre was the constant harassment by bees. I sweat, I sweat a lot, and this made me very attractive to the bees. And on the first couple of days I made the mistake of putting electrolyte tablets in my water just for flavour. This meant I was the most popular person out of everyone with the bees. I couldn’t sit still outside for more than five minutes without being covered in bees. And Asian Honeybees (Apis cerana) here aren’t small. Several of us got stung at one point or another as the floors were littered with dying bees and our clothes left out to dry were covered in bees. They weren’t aggressive, but it was hard to move without trapping them in some fold of clothing.

There were also about half a dozen different species of stingless bees (tribe Meliponines) They were small and cute and… you know…stingless. Far easier to deal with.

JAC: Aren’t they cute? And harmless!

While I was exuding electrolytes I was also loved by the friendly and nearly harmless Giant Forest Ants (Camponotus gigas). These photos are of minor workers. They are impressively large but we did catch a glimpse of some soldiers one night and they were half again as long and as stocky.

The field centre complex had lots of nests made by Hover Wasps Eustenogaster calyptodoma. Chewed plant material is used to create these paper funnels.

Another ubiquitous inhabitant were the weaver ants (Oecophylla sp.) which strike these amazing threat poses whenever you get too close.

We found a spectacular alate of a species of Tropical Spiny Ant (Polyrhachis sp) and a beautifully coloured wasp, probably one of the digger wasps (Sphex sp.)

 

Readers’ wildlife photos

October 28, 2018 • 7:45 am

Mark Sturtevant sent in some photos in response to my plea for wildlife pictures, but I’d lost this earlier contribution of his. Mark’s notes are indented.

I have many favorite area parks to take the camera, but nothing is like the Magic Field, which seems to effortlessly harbor numerous species of arthropods that I just don’t see anywhere else.

The first two pictures show an example, which is a  large ‘bird’ grasshopper (genus Schistocerca). When taking flight they can fly especially long distances, and no wonder since this is one of the genera of grasshoppers that include swarming locusts. I personally think the one here is S. rubiginosa, which of course is not a swarming species. Actual locust swarms have not been recorded in the U.S. for many decades, as summarized here.

In any case, these grasshoppers are normally very alert and they are hard to approach, but this one was chilled by a summer afternoon. rain. The ground is also interesting here, as you can see the mosses and fruiting bodies of lichens which cover the ground in the Magic Field.

Next is black-and-yellow argiope garden spider (Argiope aurantia). I grew up with these lovely spiders, but I had not seen them where I now live until recently. Finding them was like meeting a long lost friend. As I kid, I would collect several of these spiders and let them spin webs in my bedroom. I am not allowed to do that now….

The next picture is a species of banded argiope (Argiope trifasciata). These are smaller but more common than the black-and-yellow species. This particular one was missing a leg, but I managed to ‘correct’ it with the magic of post-processing.

On milkweeds, one can often find the tussock caterpillars (Euchaetes egle) shown in the next two pictures. They really do resemble small mop dogs, don’t they? Mature larvae are usually off by themselves, like the first picture, but younger ones are often in small aggregations like the second picture. The adult moths of these insects are a kind of tiger moth.

The rest are pictures of twelve-spotted skimmer dragonflies (Libellula pulchella). Both of these are males. Young males, like the one shown in the first picture, are especially common far from water. Mature males develop additional white spots, as shown in the last picture. These are often seen next to water where they take to defending a territory that is attractive to females of their species.

Readers’ wildlife photos

September 16, 2018 • 8:30 am

Reader Tony Eales from Australia sent us a passel of arthropods. His notes are indented.

I found another of the Whip Spiders (Ariamnes colubrinus) that I sent in recently. This one shows how their elongated bodies provide great camouflage.

Here’s a photo of the species from Wikipedia showing its body separate from the legs:

I came across a scene of a White-tailed Spider (Lampona cylindrata); actually there’s a lot of confusion over both the genus and species of these spiders) stalking a House Spider (Badumna sp.). Apparently they are obligate spider eaters and Badumna are a favourite. White-tails have an unfair bad reputation. It’s widely believed that the bites of White-tailed spiders cause a necrotising ulceration, but research indicates that this is a myth. As a result they are reviled and feared. They are aggressive and will bite if they feel threatened and are common in houses in some parts of Australia.

White-tailed spider:

House spider:

I startled this Mantispid Lacewing right into a spider-web. I rescued it and it thanked me with a great photo shoot. It’s probably Ditaxis biseriata but these are really hard to ID.

This is one of my favourites. It’s a large Tachinid fly whose larvae are parasites on snails. They’re impressively coloured and about the size of a small grape. Apparently they are impossible to properly ID without a microscope, but this one is in the genus Rutilia (Ameniamima) sp.

Lastly, a cute and teeny-tiny jumping spider. Again ID is difficult. It’s either Simaethula aurata or S. auronitens. They’re so tiny: only about 2mm max.

Readers’ wildlife photos

August 11, 2018 • 7:45 am

Reader Tony Eales from Australia sends some camouflaged beasties and a brightly colored spider. His notes are indented.

Some camouflage.

A Brisbane Two-tailed Spider, Tamopsis brisbanensis, on a mangrove tree trunk. These are very hard to spot. They have a leg span of around 3 or 4 cm. I believe the one in the photograph has some securely wrapped prey in front of it on the bark but even this is well camouflaged. I found this video of a slightly different species of Two-tailed spider catching prey:  https://youtu.be/6uo1rPHxlRI

I’ve sent a Flat-headed Leafhopper (Ledromorpha planirostris) nymph as a spot the before, but I saw another one just recently. I’ve attached a long shot, a close up and the reveal.

At the opposite end of the spectrum from camouflage, I found another species of Peacock Jumping Spider. This one is Maratus nigromaculatus.

I’ve also included a picture of one of our really common and colourful bugs. It is a male Cotton Harlequin Bug (Tectocoris diophthalmus). Females are orange with iridescent green blotches, and the nymphs are iridescent dark blue with red patches. They love hibiscus, especially the tree-sized ones we have around here called Cotton Trees (Hibiscus tiliaceus).

And lastly a katydid genus Polichne. There’s a lot of undescribed and hard to distinguish species in this genera.