Greetings, BugFans,
Well, the BugLady completely zoned about National Moth Week last week, so we are celebrating it now, tardily (but hey, every week is Moth Week).
BugFan Mary emailed to say that she found a deceased Imperial Moth, and did the BugLady want to see it? Oh yes!
08.05.24
Howdy, BugFans,
First off, today’s vocabulary word is “microlep” (short for “microlepidoptera”). What’s a microlep? The (somewhat squishy) term applies to moths with a wingspan under 20mm (about ¾”). It’s not a taxonomic or a lifestyle designation – there are microleps across a bunch of different moth families, and they make their livings in a variety of ways – it’s strictly about size.
Rosinweed moths (Tebenna silphiella) (what a little gem!) are a not-well-studied species in a not-well-studied genus in a not-well-studied family, Choreutidae, the Metalmark Moths, a group that (of course) needs revision and that historically has been bounced around, taxonomically.
07.22.24
Greetings, BugFans
Here are some of the bugs that the BugLady found in June, which was, overall, a hot and wet month (7.97” of rain at the BugLady’s cottage).
07.10.24
Howdy, BugFans,
The BugLady and her camera have been out scouring the uplands and wetlands for insects that will sit still long enough to have their portrait made. Many of today’s bugs have starred in their own BOTWs over the years, and you can find them by Googling “UWM Field Station followed by the name of the insect. Her gut continues to tell her that there simply aren’t as many insects to point her camera at as there were a decade ago.
What did she find in April and May?
07.03.24
Howdy, BugFans,
June is waning, and pretty soon the BugLady will have to stop eating chocolates and watching soaps and get up off the couch and start writing. Actually, with a way warmer and wetter June than normal (more than 7” of rain at the BugLady’s house for the month), the trail hasn’t been as much fun as usual, and the bugs are slow to reappear (not surprisingly, she has gotten some nice dragonfly shots).
So – your reading list for the week includes bumble bees, butterflies, leeches, and spiders.
06.28.24
Howdy, BugFans,
A pollinator is an animal (not all pollinators are insects) that visits flowers and carries their pollen to other flowers. Bees, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, and wasps are all practitioners to some degree. Hummingbirds pollinate a few flowers (like wild columbine), and in the Southwest, a few bats do, too.
We’re well into National Pollinator Week now, and the news isn’t wonderful, so the BugLady is off-setting it with pictures of some really spiffy pollinators.
06.19.24
Howdy, BugFans,
We’re getting a jump on National Pollinator Week (June 17 to 23) with a few articles about pollinators, which, if you like to eat or watch birds or photograph flowers or (add your favorites here ___________) are pretty indispensable.
06.17.24
Greetings BugFans,
YAY, it’s June! That means that the BugLady is out on the trails, walking slowly, looking at everything and photographing half of it. A probably-tasteful BOTW will be posted each week in June, but it won’t be a newly-minted, original episode.
It’s also June – National Invasive Species Action Month! “Alien,” “Introduced,” “Exotic,” and “Non-native” are all words we use to describe species that aren’t from around here, like alfalfa and Golden retrievers, but those words are not synonymous with the word Invasive.
06.07.24
Salutations, BugFans,
We’re wrapping up National Wetlands Week with a beetle that you don’t even need a magnifying glass to see! This is a revision of an episode that first aired in the summer of 2009 – new words; no new pictures.
BOTW hasn’t plunged underwater for several months now, but in this episode we will get a chance to get our collective gills wet again. Water scavenger beetles are hefty beetles (some measure more than 1 ½ inches) in the family Hydrophilidae that are easily mistaken for Predaceous Diving beetles of previous BOTW fame.
05.29.24
Salutations, BugFans,
We continue to celebrate Wetlands month with this slightly updated tale about ostracods, which originally aired in 2015.
By now it’s no secret that the BugLady is enthralled by wee aquatic critters, especially those that inhabit the waters of ephemeral ponds. Who needs charismatic megafauna! (and reminder – the BOTW definition of “bug” borrows more from that of a first grader than that of an entomologist).
Little bug – big story – put your feet up.
05.29.24