Reports from the Field

Bug o’the Week – Buck Moth Update

Howdy, BugFans,

The original Buck moth episode was written in 2010, so the BugLady decided to check on the present status of the moths.  New words, new pictures. 

One of the BugLady’s favorite moths is the Buck moth, whose story here in Wisconsin is a complex one.  Buck moths are members of the usually-summertime, usually-nocturnal silk moth family Saturniidae, home of the Cecropia and Luna moths, but Buck moths are active on warm afternoons in mid-fall.  They are handsome moths with a 2” to 2 ½” wingspan (females are a bit larger than males; males have feathery antennae and red/orange segments at the rear).  There are 23 species in the genus, and some are spectacular, indeed.

10.22.25

Bug o’the Week – Autumn Adventures

Howdy, BugFans,

The BugLady spends the spring and summer combing natural areas for bugs and flowers and other stuff to photograph, but in fall, she sits on a 10-foot-tall tower, counting migrating raptors. As a result, her meanderings have mostly been confined to Forest Beach Migratory Preserve since September 1st. As the poet Stephen Vincent Benét once wrote (not about insects, but it could have been), “This is the last, this is the last, Hurry, hurry, this is the last,..” With some recent chilly nights and cool days, the Bug Season is winding down, poised for the first frost, but tree crickets and grasshoppers still sing on the prairie, and the late season flies, bees, butterflies, and dragonflies are afoot. Here are some September and early October bugs.

10.15.25

Bug o’the Week – Spined Micrathena Spider

Howdy, BugFans,

Back in 2020, the BugLady wrote about a Southern spider called the Spinybacked orbweaver.  We have spiny spiders here in God’s Country, too – this summer, BugFan Danielle sent a picture of a northern spinyback species.

10.09.25

Bug o’the Week – Say’s Trig

Howdy, BugFans,

The BugLady has always wanted to see a trig, because – what an interesting name for an insect (a name, it turns out, that’s a shortened version of its family, Trigonidiidae). Trigs, members of the grasshopper/cricket/katydid order Orthoptera, are also called Sword-tailed crickets and Winged bush crickets. They’re crickets, but they’re not in the same family as the common, black field crickets of fall (family Gryllidae). The BugLady still wants to see a trig – these pictures were taken by BugFan Dave, who’s finding some very cool things as he rehabilitates his property with native plantings (and he’s having fun and photographing the heck out of it, too!). Thanks, Dave!

09.24.25

Bug o’the Week – Squash Lady Beetle

Howdy, BugFans,

Typically, when insects like flies, bees and wasps, beetles, butterflies and moths, and a few others – insects with Complete metamorphosis (egg, larva, pupa/resting-changing stage, adult) – mature, they not only take on a new form, but they also adopt a new menu and a new place to live. One constant in the BugLady’s firmament has been that, as the exception that proves the rule, adult lady beetles eat aphids, and immature/larval lady beetles eat aphids, too.

Vegetarian lady beetles??? Thanks to BugFan Tom, in the Deep South, for providing both the education and the pictures.

09.17.25

Bug o’the Week – Summer Sights – and Sounds

Howdy, BugFans,

The BugLady took to the trails this summer as much as her shiny, new knee and the oppressive heat and humidity allowed (her preferred maximum temperature is 72 degrees. The gods didn’t cooperate). Here are some of the bugs she found.

09.10.25

Bug o’the Week – Spot-winged Glider Dragonfly

Howdy, BugFans,

There has been a paucity of dragonflies and damselflies on the BugLady’s landscapes this season (and they’re urgently needed to eat mosquitoes right now). She has, though, seen more Gliders than usual this summer (or maybe she’s finally developed an eye for IDing them in flight). Compared to darners, they are compact and bullet-shaped, with (mostly) undecorated wings.

09.04.25

Bug o’the Week – Beetles without Bios

Howdy, BugFans,

The Long-horned beetle family Cerambycidae is a large family that contains some spectacular beetles.
Thirty thousand-plus species of Long-horned beetles worldwide is a lot of species to keep track of, so it’s no surprise that, unless they are “pest species,” the biographies of many species are incomplete/barely there.

09.02.25

Bug o’the Week – Elm Cockscomb and Norway Spruce Galls

Howdy BugFans,

It’s been a while since we visited the world of galls.

According to the British Plant Gall Society, a gall is “an abnormal growth produced by a plant or other host under the influence of another organism. It ……… provides both shelter and food or nutrients for the invading organism.’ Some gall-makers are insects; others are mites, and still others are fungi, bacteria, or even nematodes (who make galls on roots), and the definition is broad enough to include the thickened tissue that forms when one tree leans on and rubs against another. Galls are sometimes called “tumors,” but most galls don’t damage the host plant.

08.20.25

Bug o’the Week – Blinded Sphinx Moth

Greetings, BugFans,

BugFan Cheryl recently shared this picture of a lovely sphinx moth (thanks, Cheryl).

Sphinx moths (aka Hawk moths, especially across The Pond) are a group of medium-to-large moths that are sometimes drab, sometimes exquisite, sometimes nocturnal, sometimes diurnal.  They are strong, fast flyers (3 to 11 mph) with narrow wings, and some can hover as they feed, making people think they’re looking at a small hummingbird.

08.14.25

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