Howdy, BugFans,
The BugLady has been prowling the landscape recently, both in wet areas and dry, and she’s been seeing Japanese beetles or evidence of their feeding. It used to be that their populations cycled between boom and not-boom, but the last few years all seem to deliver a fairly constant number of the beetles. This slightly revised episode has some new words and pictures.
07.21.25
Howdy, BugFans,
(with apologies to the Irish Folk Band “Cherish the Ladies”)
The BugLady recently added an American Lady to her butterfly property list. It’s a lovely butterfly that can be mistaken for the Painted Lady, in the same genus (Vanessa).
07.21.25
The BugLady has been seeing her first firefly around the 4th of July. She stands on the riprap, enjoying the fireworks shows launched by her neighbors and the more distant municipal displays while the fireflies fly around her, putting on their own, equally magical shows.
07.03.25
Howdy, BugFans,
Almost two decades ago, when the BugLady was working on a phenology project in the Bog, she encountered multitudes of mosquitoes and she made a deal with them – she wouldn’t bite them if they wouldn’t bite her. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes she is in the presence of someone who is far more tender and juicy than she is. She’s leading a field trip at the Bog soon, and she’ll find out if everyone remembers the deal.
06.25.25
Greetings, BugFans,
One of the BugLady’s daughters gave her a subscription to Storyworth for her birthday, so she has been working her way through weekly questions. A recent question asked if she believed in magic, and, if yes, what examples could she give?
06.18.25
Howdy, BugFans,
This episode is a Golden Oldie, first/last posted in 2008. Despite her feelings of ambivalence about ants, the BugLady continues to photograph and write about them. For this rerun, the BugLady added a bunch of random pictures of ants being ants.
06.05.25
Howdy, BugFans,
The BugLady was out in a wetland today, stalking the wily Pink Lady’s Slipper (aka the Moccasin flower), a large and lovely native orchid. After she got home, she discovered a male Wood/Dog tick on her person (dark, with pale streaks), so it seemed like an auspicious time to rerun the episode about the Deer tick.
05.28.25
Greetings, BugFans,
Here’s a rare glimpse into the BugLady’s “BOTW Future” file, which is packed with pictures of identified insects that she hopes have a good story to tell, with semi-identified insects, and with (mostly) her “X-Files” – the Unidentified. (The file probably reflects the state of the BugLady’s brain.) It’s what she sees as she selects the bug of the week.
05.21.25
Greetings, BugFans,
Long-time BugFans know that the BugLady is infatuated with the lovely, sedentary Flower Crab spiders (family Thomisidae) that she photographs throughout the summer, and she recently posted a BOTW about the chunkier Ground crab spiders (also Thomisidae).
Running crab spiders, in a separate family (Philodromidae) have been mentioned briefly throughout the years – here’s their story.
05.14.25
Greetings, BugFans,
This week’s episode is a rerun from the very early days of BOTW.
The BugLady loves it when the research she is doing makes a sharp turn toward History.
Galls are mentioned by (very) early observers. People have been pondering the mysteries of galls for a long time, although not all of the hypotheses have been righteous ones. For example, because they were considered “supernatural growths,” galls were used to foretell the future. In the Middle Ages, their contents were examined (much tidier than chicken entrails). Spiders signaled pestilence; maggots meant either famine or a plague among cattle; flies – war; and ants – a bountiful harvest.
05.12.25