Category: Bug of the Week

Bug o’the Week – Autumn Adventures

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

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.

AUTUMN MEADOWHAWK – Were there dragonflies?  Indeed, there were!  The last of the migrating darners and saddlebags passed the tower during a spell of Florida weather in September.  Starting in early July, six species of meadowhawks occupy the second half of the dragonfly season, but they drop out, one by one until, in early October, only the White-faced and the Autumn (formerly Yellow-legged) meadowhawks remain.

STRIPED SADDLEBAGS – And there was one very special dragonfly.  Striped Saddlebags live south – way south.  About their range, bugguide says, “Normal range from Northern Argentina to northern Mexico with regular movement into Arizona and Texas and more rare movement north and east as far as MN, WI, MI in the US and NS in Canada.”  So it’s pretty exciting to find one!  

The WESTERN CONIFER SEED BUG is a large (¾”) and dapper member of the Leaf-footed bug family (Coreidae).  People mistake it for the invasive Brown marmorated stink bug https://bugguide.net/node/view/2494360/bgimage, but it’s slimmer than the chunky stink bug.  WCSBs are typically found on conifers – when they’re not gracing the BugLady’s porch rail or trying to get into the house in fall (according to the Mass Audubon website, “They can also be easily captured and returned to the outdoors—bluebirds love them! There is no need to resort to insecticides. Chemicals are dangerous—Western Conifer Seed Bugs are not.”  They don’t eat your furniture or house plants, but they do suck sap from and damage conifer cones, seeds, twigs, and sometimes needles.  Originally a resident of the Pacific Coast, they have moved east (and have been exported (accidentally) to Europe).  If your goal is natural forest regeneration, WCSBs are unwelcome guests.  They may deploy a smelly chemical when alarmed.

MONARCHS – There’s a time, as the Blazing star (Liatris) is fading and before the New England aster starts up, when the prairie is yellow, and goldenrod nectar fuels migrating Gen 5 Monarchs on their journey south.

MOURNING CLOAK – The migratory/Super generation of Monarchs lives a long time – emerging here in late August, overwintering in the mountains west of Mexico City, and getting at least part of the way back to Wisconsin in spring.  Mourning Cloaks live even longer.  A graph at the wisconsinbutterflies.com website shows that sightings start in early March and run through the start of November, but unlike other species that produce several generations to span each season, there’s only one generation of Mourning Cloaks per year. 

The Mourning Cloaks of spring have overwintered as adults, and as their caterpillar host plants (mainly willow, elm and birch) green up, they feed, breed, lay eggs, and die.  Their eggs hatch and their caterpillars feed and pupate, and the butterflies emerge around the summer solstice.  They feed for a while and then tuck themselves into a sheltered place to aestivate (become dormant) through the heat of summer.  Yes – they start flying before the parade of spring flowers has begun, and yes, the next generation sleeps through the flowers of summer, but Mourning Cloaks are mostly indifferent to flowers.  They get minerals from mud; they feed at sap drips (they’re often seen in the sugar bush in early spring, but they can become dormant again if winter revisits); they like rotting fruit, dung, and the honeydew produced by aphids, and they check the feeding holes created by Sapsuckers.  By the time they lay eggs the next spring, they’re about 11 months old.  

FIERY SKIPPER – Good things come in small packages – this dynamite little butterfly is about an inch long, with an inch-and-a-half wingspread.  Fiery Skippers are a mainly-Southern species that filters north into Wisconsin by mid-summer – a long haul on those short wings.

LARGE MILKWEED BUGS (these are nymphs) come in Large, Small, and False.  They’re in the Seed bug family Lygaeidae; they make their living by inserting their beak into the seeds within a milkweed pod, pumping saliva in to soften them, and sucking out the juices.  They’re very social and don’t mind sharing a good food source, and it’s possible that adults send out some kind of chemical signal to attract other adults.  Adult Large milkweed bugs can survive on non-milkweed seeds, but their nymphs can’t.  They aren’t considered a pest unless you’re growing milkweed for seed, and they make a spectacular splash of aposematic/warning color https://bugguide.net/node/view/2440573/bgimage.

Birds migrate, Monarchs and Common Green Darner dragonflies migrate, and so do Large milkweed bugs!  It’s too cold here in God’s Country for them to overwinter in any form, so they repopulate the state in spring, after the milkweed is up.  As with some birds, northern populations are long-distance migrants (and have longer wings to prove it) and southern populations don’t stray far from home.

A BUMBLE BEE busy collecting pollen for a brood that will not survive the winter.

The FALSE MILKWEED BUG looks like a Small milkweed bug (https://bugguide.net/node/view/2361061), and it’s even in the same genus, but it’s not sitting on milkweed.  The BugLady usually finds them excavating the seeds of Ox-eye sunflower, aka the False sunflower.  One note at bugguide.net says that if they checked their collection of Small milkweed bug pictures, they’d probably find a bunch of misidentified False milkweed bugs.  Nice video of False milkweed bugs multi-tasking at the original BOTW, here https://bugoftheweek.com/blog/2021/7/16/false-milkweed-bug-aka-false-sunflower-bug-lygaeus-turcicus.  Their doppelgangers are poisonous/distasteful due to the toxic milkweed sap they ingest.  False milkweed bugs are adorned in aposematic coloration, but as far as the BugLady knows, they are not poisonous/distasteful.  Are they cashing in on predators’ predisposition to avoid red/orange and black? 

ANT FLIGHT – A hatch of royal ants emerged from their digs in the pressure-treated wood at the edge of the hawk tower’s deck (not reassuring).  The royal dance attracted to the deck three tree frogs that usually live around the base of the tower and perch on prairie flowers.

This FORK-TAILED BUSH KATYDID joined the BugLady on the tower and lingered for a portrait.  The large curved structure, aft, is her ovipositor (the male has the “forked tail”).  She inserts her eggs into a leaf edge, between the upper and lower surface of the leaf, or lays them on twigs or leaves.  And there’s nothing out on the prairie that’s cuter than her jaunty, little nymph https://bugguide.net/node/view/693504/bgimag,  https://bugguide.net/node/view/2143463/bgimage.  The BugLady is far more likely to see a Fork-tailed bush katydid than to hear one – as this site says, “Pffftt!” That’s all it is. There can be a lengthy pause between songs” https://www.listeningtoinsects.com/fork-tailed-bush-katydid.

BLACK AND YELLOW ARGIOPES, like some of the other orbweavers, get pretty hefty by the end of summer, alarming some folks.  “Where did those huge spiders come from?” they ask.  Answer – they’ve been here all along.  They were smaller than the brightly-colored heads of push pins when they emerged from their egg sac in spring, and they’ve been eating ever since. 

This TREEHOPPER’s thorn disguise would be more effective if it were sitting in vegetation.  Just sayin’. 

BUCKEYE BUTTERFLY – Buckeye caterpillars https://bugguide.net/node/view/1737799/bgimage pick up a group of chemicals called iridoid glycosides from their foodplants.  These chemicals stimulate their appetites so they eat and grow fast, but have the opposite effect on their predators, stunting their growth. 

Buckeyes are migratory, too, moving along coastlines and rivers, flying to the Deep South with a tailwind in fall and returning to us (a few generations later) in spring, with males arriving first.

Fun Fact about Buckeyes: flowers may change in appearance after being pollinated – maybe a clue as small as a localized color change.  Researcher Martha R. Weiss did an experiment that demonstrated that a wide variety of wasp, bee, fly, and butterfly pollinators (including Buckeyes) can discriminate between “pre-change” and “post-change” flowers, and so can see which flowers will be more rewarding to visit – a win for both flowers and butterflies. 

Bonus points if you know where the Benét quote came from.

Go outside – look (and listen) for bugs!

Kate Redmond, The BugLady

Bug of the Week archives:
http://uwm.edu/field-station/category/bug-of-the-week/

Bug o’the Week – Spined Micrathena Spider

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

Spined Micrathena Spider

Howdy, BugFans,

Back in 2020, the BugLady wrote about a Southern spider called the Spinybacked orbweaver https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/bug-othe-week-spinybacked-orbweaver-a-spider-for-snowbirds/.  We have spiny spiders here in God’s Country, too – this summer, BugFan Danielle sent a picture of a northern spinyback species.

The genus Micrathena (the spiny orbweavers) includes about 100 species of woodland spiders, mostly of the New World tropics.  Females spin classic, vertical, disc-shaped trap webs and rest on them.  The closely-placed (“tightly coiled”) strands of their webs tell us that they are after small prey like tiny moths, gnats, and mosquitoes.  One source calls them “tiny, ornate exterminators.”  The female consumes the (protein-rich) circular portion of her web at the end of each day and rebuilds on the original framework the next morning.  One author postulates that the genus name comes from the fact that the goddess Athena was skilled at spinning and weaving.

There are four species of Micrathena north of the Rio Grande, all of them pointy, which is thought to be a defense against predators.  One author described feeling a “deer fly” on his neck and slapping it – hard. It turned out to be a Spined Micrathena, and the force of the swat caused the spines to puncture his skin.

The SPINED/SPINY MICRATHENA/CASTLEBACK ORBWEAVER/SPINY-BELLIED ORBWEAVER (Micrathena gracilis) is found from the Atlantic to the Great Plains, including southern Canada and into Central America.  They live in woods, especially oak-hickory woods, and most especially woods near water.  They spin webs in open places in those woods and are famous for throwing a long dragline (escape line) from their webs across trails, to the annoyance of hikers. 

Females are less than a half-inch long https://bugguide.net/node/view/1875697/bgimage and are about twice the size as males.  Females have five pairs of spines on the abdomen and come in several different color combinations, https://bugguide.net/node/view/1575860/bgimage, https://bugguide.net/node/view/874190/bgimage, https://bugguide.net/node/view/331183/bgimage.  Here are three glamour shots – https://bugguide.net/node/view/92647/bgimage.  Males are long and flattened, and many have no spines https://bugguide.net/node/view/1401068/bgimage. 

The spiders are small, and so are their webs – they range from three to almost eight inches in diameter and are suspended four to seven feet above the ground in the shade https://bugguide.net/node/view/65966/bgimage.  Webs are generally vertical but could be tilted by 45 degrees.  Despite the fact that she will reuse the old framework when she spins her daily web, these spiders are known to wander and will move to a different site every six or seven days.

Females hang “belly up” from the center of the web, camouflaged from both above and below (predators from above see the dark ventral side against the ground, and predators from below see the lighter dorsal side against a dappled sky), monitoring the vibrations of the strands.  The Arkansas Arthropod Museum’s article on the Spined Micrathena describes her actions as “slow and clumsy” when an insect hits the web and says that many insects escape.  Most orbweavers wrap and incapacitate their prey before biting them and injecting the meat tenderizer, but Micrathenas will bite first and then wrap https://bugguide.net/node/view/716837/bgimage.

Males spin webs as young spiders, but not after they mature – then they hang out near a female’s web, waiting to make their move.  Males spin “courting threads” and woo her from there, treading carefully to avoid being eaten in the process (but if they are, their protein will contribute to the development of their eggs).  Females create a fluffy egg sac and attach it to nearby vegetation before they die, and the spiderlings exit the egg sac in spring.

There’s a spider called the Labyrinth/Colonial orbweaver (Metepeira incrassata) that lives in multigenerational colonies with its own kin (hundreds and even thousands of individuals) and tolerates other species of spiders on their communal webs.  The Spined Micrathena is one of the species that coexists on the borders.

FUN FACT ABOUT THE SPINED MICRATHENA:  Do spiders make noise?  Not many spiders do, but the Spined Micrathena is one of them!   Spiders have respiration organs called book lungs, and the covers of the book lungs are located on the spider’s undercarriage, just south  of where the spider’s front section (the cephalothorax) meets its abdomen.  When it’s disturbed, a Spined Micrathena can flick its cephalothorax up and down rapidly, which causes the base of the femur to rub on files on the book lung covers, and presto – stridulation (sound made by friction) (like grasshoppers)!  The resulting buzz/hiss can be heard by humans up to about two feet away and is thought to be a defensive sound. 

Kate Redmond, The BugLady

Bug of the Week archives:
http://uwm.edu/field-station/category/bug-of-the-week/

Bug o’the Week – Say’s Trig

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

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!

Trigs are smallish crickets that live in leafy spots in grasslands, edges, wetlands, and woods east of the Rockies, usually close to the ground.  There are 19 species of trigs in North America, and they come in brown, green, and Handsome/Red-headed https://bugguide.net/node/view/2401012/bgimage.   

SAY’S TRIG (Anaxipha exigua) (Anaxipha means “upraised sword”), in the brown trig genus Anaxipha, lives in the lower levels of the vegetation in the northeast quadrant of the continent.  Along with wetlands and grassy areas, it likes honey locust trees (and, apparently, Dave’s house).  Adults and nymphs https://bugguide.net/node/view/867950/bgimage are seen from mid-summer on, disappearing as fall progresses. 

It’s one of the larger trigs, with males measuring about ¼” long, and females a shade longer, both with a lovely, stripey head.  Dave’s trig was a male, with two unsegmented, sensory appendages called cerci (singular: cercus) at its rear.  Females have two cerci plus an upcurved ovipositor (hence the name “sword-bearing cricket”) https://bugguide.net/node/view/697120/bgimage.  Most trigs have short wings, but some are macropterous (have longer wings) https://bugguide.net/node/view/1880530/bgimage. 

Like other trigs, the Say’s Trig is an omnivore, feeding on vegetation, insect eggs, and small, soft-bodied insects.  They are fed upon by birds and other critters that prey on insects.  The BugLady is always startled to be reminded that omnivory is not uncommon in the grasshopper/cricket bunch.

They have the ability to climb up the sides of collecting jars like a spider – but not like your average cricket.

Males make sound by stridulation – rubbing bumps/pegs (the file) on the forewing against a sharp edge (the blade) on the hind wing.  In fact, one way to ID Say’s trigs is by counting the number of bumps/pegs on the file (Say’s trigs’ files have about 190 teeth).  If you’re going to make noise, you need to hear it, too, and they have hearing organs (tympanums) on their front legs that allow them to detect vibrations. 

They sing continuously and may sing day or night.  The song is a trill http://minnesotaseasons.com/Insects/Says_trig.html (scroll down), that’s described as “high and shimmering,” “ a continuous, fast tinkle,” “pulsing at 35 – 40 per second,” “very loud for such a small insect,” and “can be heard from one hundred or more feet away.”  The BugLady usually has to turn the volume way up and cup her hands behind her ears to hear some of the crickets and katydids on recordings, but she can hear this one.  In lower temperatures, the song is slower, and in warmer weather, the song may be higher-pitched.  Nearby tree crickets (from yet another cricket family) sing at a lower pitch.  Males like to perch above the ground when they sing, concealed by a leaf, so they’re impossible to spot. 

Nota Bene: remember that trigs exist deep in the vegetation, where the shelter of leaves creates a “microclimate” in which light and sound levels, humidity and precipitation, temperature, and wind speeds may differ from areas just a few feet away (the concept of microclimates is oh-so-important to the understanding of ecology). 

Trigs – Very cool!

Kate Redmond, The BugLady

Bug of the Week archives:
http://uwm.edu/field-station/category/bug-of-the-week/

Bug o’the Week – Squash Lady Beetle

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

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.

Disclaimer: Squash lady beetles, aka Squash beetles, are not the same as squash bugs https://bugguide.net/node/view/2026342/bgimage, no matter how interchangeably the BugLady uses the terms.  But, when you Google Squash beetle, you’re soon awash in hits for Squash bugs.

Squash lady beetles (Epilachna borealis) are in the Lady beetle family Coccinellidae and the Plant-eating Lady beetle subfamily Epilachninae.  There are three North American species in the genus Epilachna, and a lot more elsewhere.  Squash lady beetles are found in many of the states from Texas to Massachusetts, but not in Wisconsin https://bugguide.net/node/view/61612/data, and they’re said to be more abundant along the Atlantic Seaboard.    

Besides their diet, the other thing that startled the BugLady about them is that many of our Wisconsin lady beetles have cool patterns on their head and thorax https://bugguide.net/node/view/1448746/bgimage, https://bugguide.net/node/view/2214673/bgimage, https://bugguide.net/node/view/2071575/bgimage, and seeing a lady beetle with a “nude” front end https://bugguide.net/node/view/306884/bgimage was, well, a little unsettling.   

So, what about that diet?  Most lady beetles are carnivores, stalking small, soft-bodied invertebrates over the plant leaves.  They (inadvertently) aid farmers by eating the things that eat the crops.  Squash lady beetles feed on the crops – cucumbers, melons, zucchini, gourds, pumpkins, cantaloupe, and squash.  Both the bristly, little larvae (whose spikes have spikes https://bugguide.net/node/view/341984) and the adults eat the tender tissue between the leaf veins (the larvae only feed on the underside of the leaves https://bugguide.net/node/view/265041/bgimage), but they may graduate to the rind of the fruits when the fruits appear, chewing patterns that remind the BugLady of crop circles (yes – squashes and melons are considered fruits because they develop from the flower’s ovary and contain seeds). 

Squash lady beetles are featured on a whole bunch of Extension Agricultural Bulletins, and although some sources say that they don’t get numerous enough to become pests, cosmetic damage due to their feeding may make produce less sale-able.  Worst possible scenario – leaves skeletonized by large numbers of larvae don’t photosynthesize as readily, plants don’t thrive, and they produce fewer fruits.

Before they tuck into a leaf or rind, the beetle chews a spiral “trench” around the feeding area, a habit that has had scientists scratching their heads.  Originally, it was thought that the trench, like the small, upstream cuts made by dogbane leaf beetles, worked to minimize the plant sap in the area.  Scientists speculated that the chemicals in the sap (cucurbitacin), and the sticky sap itself, hindered feeding.

The BugLady found a couple of papers about this.  One researcher, writing in 1985, concluded that both adult and larval feeding on leaves triggers cucurbitacin in the injured leaf and in its neighbors, and that cucurbitacin repels the lady bug and may stunt the larva, and that the trenches serve to block the movement of the chemicals, temporarily.

A second paper in 1995 (and the author of the first paper was a co-author of the second) concluded that feeding by the Squash lady beetle did not cause a build-up of cucurbitacin, that the presence of cucurbitacin actually stimulates the beetles to feed, and, in fact, ingesting it doesn’t affect the larvae.  It suggests instead that the trenches may act as dams against the plant’s sticky sap, which gums up the beetle’s mouthparts.

Squash lady beetles overwinter as adults under tree bark or under leaf litter at the edge of an agricultural field.  They hike/fly back into the fields when the squash plants are leafing out, feed on the leaves for a while, find romance, and then oviposit on the leaf or vine in July, laying as many as 400 eggs, in clusters of about 45 https://bugguide.net/node/view/547304/bgimage.  The larvae feed, then pupate, on the underside of the leaf, and emerge in late August.  Adults feed for a few weeks before leaving the field and finding a sheltered spot for the winter. 

They have a Super Power. 

Like “regular” lady beetles, they “bleed” from their leg joints when alarmed (reflex bleeding), and that blood repels other insects.  And, oily droplets on the end of the larva’s spikes repel insects.  And, oily drops on hairs on the pupae deter ants.  Despite the chemical protection, stink bugs and assassin bugs prey on them, tachinid flies parasitize them, and lady beetles – including other Squash lady beetles – may eat the eggs.

Here’s the aforementioned Dogbane leaf beetle’s story – https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/dogbane-leaf-beetle-revisited/

Kate Redmond, The BugLady

Bug of the Week archives:
http://uwm.edu/field-station/category/bug-of-the-week/

Bug o’the Week – Summer Sights – and Sounds

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

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.

BLUE DASHER OVIPOSITING – A female Blue Dasher bobs up and down as she looses eggs into the water.  Blue Dashers don’t oviposit “in tandem,” with the male guarding her by maintaining his grip at the back of her head, but the male stays close, flying around her as she dips the tip of her abdomen into the water, and chasing off rival males that would carry her away.

CICADA – When the BugLady was little, the treetops sizzled with cicada calls in August (she called them “hot bugs,” because when they emerged, it was).  The only species she heard back then was the dog day cicada https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/dogday-cicada-family-cicadidae/, but for the past decade, she has heard fewer and fewer of them each year https://songsofinsects.com/cicadas/dog-day-cicada.  

This year, she has been enjoying the songs of a Linne’s cicada https://songsofinsects.com/cicadas/linnes-cicada and an dusk-calling Scissor-grinder cicada https://songsofinsects.com/cicadas/scissor-grinder-cicada, too, both of whom are southern/southeastern species that are inching north.  Welcome!

CABBAGE BUTTERFLY ON PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE – A dainty, white butterfly on a pretty, fuchsia flower.  Both are non-native (hint: the butterfly’s caterpillar is known as the European cabbage worm), and both are “naturalized,” that is, having been introduced and/or having escaped into the wild, they are doing very well on their own, thank you.  Only a very small percentage of non-native, naturalized species go on to create problems and to get a third label – “invasive.”  For a nice discussion, see https://www.hrwc.org/invasive-non-native-or-naturalized/. 

EASTERN PONDHAWK AND MEADOWHAWK – It’s a dragonfly-eat-dragonfly world out there.

MILKWEED TUSSOCK MOTH AND CRAB SPIDER – The BugLady has been receiving some queries recently from BugFans whose milkweed is looking pretty ratty.  The culprit?  The Milkweed tussock moth https://bugguide.net/node/view/72813, whose caterpillar is sometimes called the Harlequin caterpillar.  Mom lays masses of eggs, and the caterpillars feed gregariously for a while, skeletonizing leaves by eating the tender tissue between the leaf veins.  Then they go their separate ways and eat the leaves down to their midribs.  Bugguide.net says, in an understatement, that the caterpillars “May defoliate patches of milkweed.” 

Allegedly, they don’t interfere with Monarch caterpillars because they eat the old, leathery leaves that the monarchs don’t, and because they’re gearing up as the Gen 5 Monarchs are readying themselves for their trip south.

No, the BugLady did not see the crab spider, and what looks like an egg sac, when she took the picture.

PICTURE-WINGED FLY – This spiffy fly (genus Rivelli, family Platystomatidae) walks around, twitching its wings constantly, sending semaphore signals to nearby females.  For its story, see https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/signal-fly/ (only, the BugLady misspelled the family name).  What a treat to watch this little fly strutting his stuff!

WOOD/AMERICAN DOG TICK – Yes, they’re everywhere (they prefer grassy areas and forest edges), and yes, most people feel creepy just looking at a picture of one, feeling the phantom feet of phantom ticks tickling their skin.  Dog ticks need three different hosts to get through their life cycles, and they can spread Rocky Mountain spotted fever as well as Tularemia (but if your dog comes down with Tularemia, it may be playing with the local bunnies).  Various sources say that Wood ticks in Wisconsin don’t often carry diseases and that Rocky Mountain spotted fever (or any Spotted fever rickettsiosis) are (for now) rare here.  They don’t spread Lyme disease.

VIRGINIA CTENUCHA CATERPILLAR –Lepidopterists say that the more spectacular the caterpillar, the more homely the adult, and vice versa  The Virginia Ctenucha moth is one of the exceptions that proves the rule https://bugguide.net/node/view/1991557/bgimage.

The caterpillars are out and about early – this one was photographed in May, but they overwinter as caterpillars, and the BugLady encounters them strolling along on the warm road on a warm day in late winter or early spring.  Adults are large-ish, day-or-night-flying moths that tuck in under a leaf when alarmed.  The “C” is silent. –

WOOLLY ALDER APHIDS AND THEIR ANTS – We’ve seen it before – aphids going about their business, assisted by ants that protect them them in exchange for being able to “milk” them for honeydew, a sugary fluid that is a byproduct of the sap that flows through the aphids when they eat.  Honeydew is an important carbohydrate for the ants that farm aphids and treehoppers.  If you’ve ever seen a leaf whose upper surface looks shiny and sticky, look up under the overhead leaves – they’re probably occupied by aphids.  Bees, wasps, flies, and other insects will visit the leaf to eat honeydew.  The woolly aphid’s wool consists of waterproof, waxy filaments made in glands in the aphid’s abdomen.

EMERALD ASH BORER – They really are lovely, little beetles, with a surprise splash of crimson when their wings are spread https://bugguide.net/node/view/1522143/bgimage.  But the extensive tunnels (called galleries https://bugguide.net/node/view/687825/bgimage) that the larvae make below the bark disrupt the ash tree’s plumbing so that it can’t pump nutrients between its roots and crown. 

SEDGE SPRITES – One of the BugLady’s favorite damselflies, these little beauties are scarcely an inch long. 

WEEVILS ON PURPLE PRAIRIE CLOVER – Purple prairie clover is a lovely, native tallgrass prairie plant.  The early settlers on the Great Plains nicknamed it “Devil’s shoelaces” because this skinny, two-foot-high plant may have roots that are six feet long – roots that grew deep enough to reach through the thick prairie sod to find water.  That magnificent sod resisted the settlers attempts to plow it with their small, cast-iron plows until 1837, when John Deere invented the steel moldboard plow, which he fashioned from an old sawmill saw. 

At the top of the flower, there are two weevils, probably seed weevils in the genus Apion, making whoopie.  Here’s a BOTW about seed weevils https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/baptisia-seed-pod-weevils/.  No, the BugLady did not see the weevils when she took the picture.  

STAG BEETLE – Yes, the BugLady did see this Stag beetle as it emerged from her lawn one evening in July – the beetle looks big enough to trip over, and she moves like a tank.  Here’s her story https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/stag-beetle-lucanus-placidus/.

ROBBER FLY – Remember, bumble bees are vegetarians, so if you see a bumble bee with prey, it’s not a bumble bee.  Mimicking a bumble bee is a pretty good survival strategy – no one messes with bumble bees.  This fly is in the genus Laphria, one of the “bee-like” robber flies.  Their larvae live in rotten wood and feed on insects they find there, and the adults often prey on beetles (though the BugLady saw one make a pass at a Sulphur butterfly once).  Robber flies come in a variety of sizes and shapes – for information about Wisconsin robber flies (and butterflies and tiger beetles) see https://wisconsinbutterflies.org/butterfly.

RED-BELTED BUMBLE BEES – are found west of the great plains and across southern Canada and our northern tier of states.  They are one of the short-tongued bumble bees, which means that they prefer “flatter” flowers like clovers, thistles, goldenrods, and asters.  The BugLady doesn’t know where this one was hiking to – she saw several others on flowers in the area.  A little rusty on bumble bees?  Here’s a great bumble bee guide from the Xerces Society: https://www.xerces.org/publications/identification-monitoring-guides/bumble-bees-of-eastern-united-states

Go outside, look at bugs,Professor, Dr. Richard B. Fischer, the content of whose fantastic natural history courses she uses Every! Single! Day!  (right BugFan Mike?)  He would have enjoyed BOTW. 

Kate Redmond, The BugLady

Bug of the Week archives:
http://uwm.edu/field-station/category/bug-of-the-week/

Bug o’the Week – Spot-winged Glider Dragonfly

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

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.

Spot-winged Gliders (Pantala hymenaea) (family Libellulidae) are one of two species in the world that are in the Rainpool glider genus Pantala.  The other, the Wandering Glider, aka the Globe Skimmer or the Globe Wanderer, is a world traveler, but the Spot-winged Glider is only found in the Americas – North, Central, and South.  In North America, they’re dragonflies of open areas with shallow and/or temporary waters from the Great Plains, east, along with a sprinkling of western states.  According to the Wisconsin Odonata Survey (https://wiatri.net/inventory/odonata/) (a great source  of information), “It is infrequently seen at scattered locations throughout Wisconsin.”

Wandering Gliders are golden https://bugguide.net/node/view/1619106/bgimage, and Spot-winged Gliders are gray/tan-to-reddish in color and more distinctly patterned, and although they are small, the spots that give them their name are visible in flight, especially when the dragonfly is circling overhead (which they often do, because they seem to be curious about us).  They’re about 2” in length, with long, broad wings designed for sustained flight https://bugguide.net/node/view/64312/bgimage.

Of all the places where dragonflies deposit their eggs – ponds, lakes, ephemeral ponds, quiet bays in rivers, etc. – rainpool gliders pick the most transient, fish-free waters, including garden water features and rain puddles (hence their name), and sometimes they mistake the shiny hood of a car for water and lob some eggs down onto it!  The adults are constantly on the move, looking for favorable spots to oviposit.  Their naiads develop quickly, in just weeks. 

Like other dragonflies (and damselflies) they are carnivores both as aquatic naiads and as airborne adults.  They are aerial feeders, finding and catching their prey in the air.  One source calls them important predators of mosquitoes, which they will hunt until the light gets too dim to see them, and they often join dragonflies like saddlebags and darners in feeding swarms.  Like birds, they fuel their long (days-long) flights, sometimes over oceans, by laying in fat deposits. 

If you want to see gliders, look up – they spend the vast majority of their time foraging for mosquitoes and gnats as high as 100 feet above fields, marshes, and parking lots, and when they land, they are well-concealed, perching vertically at the tip of a twig with abdomen curved https://bugguide.net/node/view/1552286/bgimage. 

In the “Notes from the field” section of his account of the Spot-winged Glider in his Dragonflies of Northern Virginia blog, Kevin Munroe writes about trying to photograph them – “The two female gliders to your right were caught after much running and leaping; set down to photograph, they soon caught their breath and flew.”

Both Wandering and Spot-winged Gliders are on the list of about 16 species of North American dragonflies that are considered migratory https://www.xerces.org/publications/identification-monitoring-guides/field-guide-to-migratory-dragonflies, and they join the migratory swarms of Common Green Darners https://bugguide.net/node/view/2071318/bgimage and Black Saddlebags https://bugguide.net/node/view/1409103/bgimage that fly south along Lake Michigan’s shoreline – right about now.  A northbound migration from tropical areas repopulates God’s Country in summer.

For information about the Wandering Glider, see https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/wandering-glider/.

The BugLady is tardy in commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the death of her Major Professor, Dr. Richard B. Fischer, the content of whose fantastic natural history courses she uses Every! Single! Day!  (right BugFan Mike?)  He would have enjoyed BOTW. 

Kate Redmond, The BugLady

Bug of the Week archives:
http://uwm.edu/field-station/category/bug-of-the-week/

Bug o’the Week – Beetles without Bios

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

Beetles without Bios

Howdy, BugFans,

The Long-horned beetle family Cerambycidae is a large family that contains some spectacular beetles https://bugguide.net/node/view/650903/bgimage, https://bugguide.net/node/view/1530355/bgimag, https://bugguide.net/node/view/674692/bgimage, https://bugguide.net/node/view/2477001/bgimage, https://bugguide.net/node/view/1247649/bgimage, and https://bugguide.net/node/view/1726357/bgpage.  It includes some lunkers https://bugguide.net/node/view/1999687/bgimage, and https://bugguide.net/node/view/1870835/bgimage, and some with shorter antennae that are pretty impressive, too https://bugguide.net/node/view/2482461/bgimage (so many cool beetles……).  Bugguide.net says that there are “1000 spp. in 300+ genera in our area(1), >11,300 spp. in almost 2,000 genera in the Western Hemisphere(2) and >30,000 spp. in >5000 genera worldwide.”

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.  In general, Cerambycids are classified as decomposers and recyclers.  Some have a tendency to be a bit nippy when handled.

LONG-HORNED BEETLE #1 Etorofus subhamatus https://bugguide.net/node/view/2139593/bgimage is a member of the Flower longhorn subfamily Lepturinae.  Lepturines are typically slim and long-legged, with a narrow thorax and wedge-shaped elytra (hard wing covers) that give some an exaggerated “big shouldered” look https://bugguide.net/node/view/1403664/bgimage.  Male and female Lepturines may be different colors – an unusual trait in a family where the length of the antennae is often the best way to tell males from females.  Lepturines are often found on flowers, where nectar is sweet and pollen is high in protein, and where they are considered minor pollinators.  One author said that the Flower longhorns are especially fond of plants in the carrot family.

Only one source listed a common name for Etorofus subhamatus – the Hemlock long-horned beetle (there are no hemlock trees where the BugLady found it but pine is an alternative food plant).  They are found in mixed and coniferous woods in eastern North America where their larvae bore beneath the bark of dead and dying trees, eating wood and friendly wood fungi that help them break down the cellulose.  They are not considered pests because the trees are already going or gone.  

LONG-HORNED BEETLE #2, Clytus ruricola (also no common name), is in the subfamily Cerambycinae, the round-necked longhorns (so-named because of their rounded pronotum, the first segment of the thorax).  Of the eight genus members in North America, it has the largest range, and six of the eight genus members are western.  It’s about a half-inch long and is a wasp mimic (visually) that enhances its performance by making a buzzing sound with its wings when it flies.  Like some other Cerambycids, it can stridulate (make noise via friction) by rubbing the bottom surface of its head against its thorax.  Says Tim Eisele in his “Backyard Arthropod Project” blog, “when I held it, I could feel it vibrating as it moved its head up and down in a nodding motion, and if I held it next to my ear I could hear a faint “eeeeee-eeeeee-eeeeee-eeeee” noise”.  

The larvae of Clytus ruricola make burrows (galleries) in decaying deciduous trees (fallen or cut) – they are especially fond of maple – and the tunnels they make set the stage for decomposition by allowing water and fungal spores to get into the dead wood. 

That’s all, Folks!

The BugLady would be remiss if she didn’t mention the floodwater mosquitoes.  In case you haven’t been in the field in the past week, the torrential rains of a few weeks ago have faded and the rivers are receding, but the heat-plus-rain created the perfect storm for floodwater mosquitoes.  The BugLady visited a local nature preserve a few days ago.  It was OK when she was out on the prairie, but the second she passed by any woody vegetation tall enough to create shade, she was engulfed by a cloud of mosquitoes that was aimed at her face (and, of course, they have to get really close to be repelled by the insect repellant).  Here’s their story  https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/floodwater-mosquito-an-homage/.

Kate Redmond, The BugLady

Bug of the Week archives:
http://uwm.edu/field-station/category/bug-of-the-week/

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

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

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.

Having hijacked some part of a plant’s tissue, gall-makers cause it to form not just a lump, but a very specifically-shaped lump.  In the usual MO, the gall-maker exposes a small area of a growing stem/petiole/leaf/bud/flower to a chemical that acts like a plant growth hormone and signals the plant to grow extra tissue in that spot, either as extra cells or as extra-large cells.  In some cases, the chemical is introduced by Mom when she oviposits.  In the case of animal-induced galls, the extra tissue grows around the mite, nymph, or larva, providing it with a climate-controlled, relatively (but not infallibly) predator-free shelter whose walls are edible. 

The lives of some gall-makers are simple, and the lives of others are more complex, and today, we have one of each.  One is an aphid, and one an aphid relative called an adelgid, both in the bug order Hemiptera.  There are some physical differences between aphids and adelgids, but reproductively, adelgids always lay eggs, and aphids may go many generations giving birth parthenogenetically (female aphids popping out more female aphids without eggs or the input of males) before producing a generation that includes males.  No male Norway spruce gall adelgids have been observed.   

The BugLady didn’t have to go far to find a NORWAY SPRUCE GALL/EASTERN SPRUCE GALL/PINEAPPLE GALL – she looked over as she was hanging a hummingbird feeder in a Norway spruce and thought – hmmm (as Isaac Asimov once said, “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ (I found it) but ‘That’s funny…”  They’re formed by the Eastern spruce gall adelgid (Adelges abietis), family Adelgidae https://bugguide.net/node/view/587480/bgpage.   

Norway spruce gall adelgids are not native, having immigrated from Europe to Canada more than 125 years ago.  They are now found throughout northeastern North America and in Appalachia as far south as Tennessee, plus a few western locations.  Various species of spruce are their only hosts.

They have a one-year life cycle (most adelgids have a two-year cycle).  Tiny Norway spruce gall adelgid nymphs (“sistentes”) overwinter at the base of the needles (their name when they’re overwintering is “neosistens”).  In spring, these become “stem mothers” (“fudatrices”) that lay eggs on needles at bud break.  In 10 days, the newly-hatched nymphs start eating the needles, and their saliva causes a gall to form that houses about a dozen nymphs, each in its own chamber https://bugguide.net/node/view/483860/bgimage. 

In late summer, when the galls dry and open, the nymphs emerge and molt into winged females https://bugguide.net/node/view/587480/bgimage that disperse (but not very far – they’re pretty weak flyers), feed, and lay eggs.  According to the narrative on one bugguide picture, females die after laying eggs but shelter the eggs with their bodies https://bugguide.net/node/view/587481.  These eggs hatch in fall and the nymphs overwinter at the bases of buds, poised for the spring.  Here are some life cycle pictures https://bugguide.net/node/view/587476/bgimage.  Old, empty galls resemble pine cones. 

If you have Norway spruce galls, do you need to do anything about them (other than admire them)?  They don’t spread very fast (and some individual trees have a resistance to them), and they don’t prevent shoots from growing, though some exterminator sites warn that they can reduce the vitality of the tree, and the extra weight may cause branches to break.  And Christmas tree farmers don’t love them.

ELM COCKSCOMB GALLS are made by Elm cockscomb gall aphids (Colopha ulmicola) https://bugguide.net/node/view/539171/bgimage, family Aphididae (ulmicola means “elm dweller”).  The galls are described as tubular and “wormlike,” starting out green and turning red (like a cockscomb https://bugguide.net/node/view/1373502/bgimage) as summer progresses, and ending up brown.  If Norway spruce galls are camouflaged, these elm galls sit in plain sight on the surface of a leaf, with several sometimes growing on one leaf https://bugguide.net/node/view/1936031/bgimage.   

They’re found on American and red/slippery elms in an odd, patchwork distribution https://bugguide.net/node/view/223263/data.

Unlike the Norway spruce gall adelgids, the aphids don’t spend their entire lives in the same place.  During the summer, the aphids live underground, sucking juices from grass roots.  They emerge in fall to produce a winged generation of males and females that mate, after which the females hide a single egg in elm bark (one source said that the eggs are laid between bud scales).  As the new elm leaves start to grow in spring, the tiny, newly-hatched aphid nymph finds them, starts feeding, and stimulates the growth of the gall.  When she (all of the aphids in this generation are females) matures, she becomes a stem mother and starts cranking out hundreds of young, sans eggs, still within the gall, all feeding and producing honeydew.  In early summer this generation, which is winged, exits through a slit in the underside of the leaf and heads down to feed on grass roots. 

Here are some pictures of the life stages https://bugguide.net/node/view/1936031/bgimage.

Michael J. Raupp, Professor of Entomology, Extension Specialist at the University of Maryland Extension, writes the excellent (and original) Bug of the Week.  His article about the Elm cockscomb aphids includes a video of the aphids dispersing as well as this description, “On bright autumn afternoons the air near my elm is filled with a flurry of elm cockscomb gall aphids returning to their winter home, which is a Princeton elm. Watch as a female alights on an elm branch briefly before taking off, perhaps in search of another place to lay eggs or to escape my camera lens. For a much closer look, check out the aphid through the lens of a microscope. These are pretty cool insects.”  https://bugoftheweek.com/blog/2022/10/15/sunny-with-a-chance-of-aphid-flurries-elm-cockscomb-gall-aphid-colopha-ulmicola

Other than being unsightly/fascinating, they typically cause no damage to the tree. 

Galls!

Kate Redmond, The BugLady

Bug of the Week archives:
http://uwm.edu/field-station/category/bug-of-the-week/

Bug o’the Week – Blinded Sphinx Moth

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

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.  Sphinx moths can also move laterally (“swing-hovering” or “side-slipping”).  Special adaptations in their antennae allow them to maintain their orientation during tight aerial maneuvers.

They come in quite a variety of shapes and colors.  One of the BugLady’s favorites is the beautiful White-lined Sphinx https://bugguide.net/node/view/2280104/bgimage, which has outbreak years when it’s everywhere – on flowers in gardens and garden stores and on banks of Jewelweed in late summer (she saw a half-dozen tonight on her Bouncing Bet plants).  She’s also partial to the hummingbird moths that dance around to the other side of the wild bergamot when she aims her camera https://bugguide.net/node/view/1893651/bgimage, and to the odd, little Nessus https://bugguide.net/node/view/2031260/bgimage and Abbot’s Sphinxes https://bugguide.net/node/view/392361/bgimage.

Sphinx moths are one of the groups in which the caterpillar and the adult may have different common names, with many of the sphinx moths named after their appearance or their host plants, and the caterpillars collectively called hornworms (some species have a long horn to the rear when they start but lose it as they age https://bugguide.net/node/view/585107).  The well-known/notorious Tomato hornworm is the caterpillar of the not-so-well-known Five Spotted Hawk moth https://bugguide.net/node/view/844648/bgimage.

The name “Sphinx” apparently came from the caterpillar’s habit, when resting, of raising the front part of its body off the ground, and so resembling an Egyptian Sphinx https://bugguide.net/node/view/2304609/bgimage.  Alarmed sphinx caterpillars have a habit of vomiting the gooey (and depending on what they’ve been eating, possibly toxic) contents of their foregut at predators.  Caterpillars of the Walnut Sphinx https://bugguide.net/node/view/1799946/bgimage scare intruders by pushing air through their spiracles (breathing holes) to make a hiss.

Not all sphinx moths feed as adults, but those that do prefer tube-shaped flowers.  They do provide pollination services, although because they hover instead of landing, the pollen rides on their proboscis rather than their body.  They pollinate night-blooming flowers that bees miss.  For a great story about Charles Darwin and a sphinx moth, see https://www.livescience.com/animals/wallaces-sphinx-moth-the-long-tongued-insect-predicted-by-darwin-a-century-before-it-was-discovered.  Predators that catch a meaty sphinx moth have got themselves a 7-course meal.

It’s called a BLIND-EYED or BLINDED SPHINX (Paonias excaecata) not because it’s blind, but because the blue “eyespots” in its wings lack a black “pupil” https://bugguide.net/node/view/2378511/bgimage.  Excaecata is from the Latin “excaeco,” “to blind.”

According to the range map at bugguide.net, they’re found in woodlands, clearings, gardens, and suburbs across Canada and in all but four states of the Lower 48. 

They are large moths, with deeply scalloped wings and wingspans up to about 4,” and they come in shades from pale to caramel to dark.  They’re active at night, and they hide in the daytime by mimicking dead leaves https://bugguide.net/node/view/1239196/bgimage.

While some Sphinx moths are food specialists, Blinded Sphinxes are more catholic eaters – their caterpillars are found on apple, basswood, birch, cherry, elm, hawthorn, Hop Hornbeam, oaks, poplar, rose, serviceberry, willow and more (and, of course, the broader your palette, the wider your range is able to be).  Adult mouthparts are not developed and they don’t feed, living for just a few days on fat reserves laid down by the caterpillar. 

Here in God’s Country they have a single brood per year, with adults seen in the first half of summer, but in Southern Climes they may have as many as three generations annually.  The caterpillars are large (up to 3” long when mature) and spectacular https://bugguide.net/node/view/2215435/bgimage.  For some great pictures of their life stages see https://bugguide.net/node/view/2180342/bgimage and https://bugguide.net/node/view/1290762/bgimage.  The final brood of the year burrows into the ground and overwinters as a pupa, and newly-emerged adults mate almost immediately https://bugguide.net/node/view/1977772/bgimage because the clock’s ticking.

UNRELATED INSECT ADVENTURE: the BugLady was at a small nature preserve recently that has a single, narrow track in and out.  Just after she started heading out, she noticed a female American Pelecinid wasp https://bugguide.net/node/view/2081294 inside the car, trying to get outside the car.  She stopped and tried unsuccessfully to get a shot of it against the driver’s side window.  At that moment, of course, a pickup started down the drive toward her, so she had to pull off a bit to let it past.  While she did this, she could see the wasp perched on/wrapped around the right side of the frame of her eyeglasses.  She gave up on the picture, opened the window, and waved her glasses around outside, and the wasp flew away.  To find out what the American Pelecinid wasp is all about, see https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/american-pelecinid-wasp/.

Bug adventures – everywhere.

“It looked like it wasn’t only busy c

Kate Redmond, The BugLady

Bug of the Week archives:
http://uwm.edu/field-station/category/bug-of-the-week/

Bug o’the Week – Monarch Miracle

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

Monarch Miracle

Howdy, BugFans,

The BugLady was pecking away at this week’s episode when she had a “Hold the Presses” moment.  BugFan Freda sent a series of pictures she had taken of a monarch caterpillar taking its first steps into the world (prefaced by the statement, “Who knew that monarchs also oviposit onto the flowers??”).  So, this week, we start with a picture story, photographed and narrated by Freda (who has some serious photography skills and a lens that the BugLady can’t lift).  The picture of the older caterpillar is the BugLady’s.

Said Freda, “It was amazing watching it chew its way out of the egg. It worked almost constantly and you could tell that it was putting forth major effort.  Between its hand-like mouthparts and box-cutter-like forelegs, it was punching and chewing and slicing at an amazing pace for such a tiny thing.”

“It looked like it wasn’t only busy chewing on the dry, outer edge, but there was also what appeared to be gelatinous stuff on the inside that it scooped up and worked into its mouth.] Imagine slurping up a slimy spaghetti noodle the diameter of your open mouth and having to use your hands to stuff it in. There were some pauses where you could almost hear it thinking, “I’m so stuffed, but gotta keep going – or die.” It seemed like a tremendous feat!” 

The gelatinous stuff was undoubtedly the last of the yolk material that nurtured it until it hatched.

“The caterpillar made it out and is resting now.   : )”

“As of this morning, the ‘baby’ is 3 to 3.3 mm long. As the last photo shows, it’s been eating and pooping healthily.”

Thanks, as always, for sharing your photography, Freda.

Monarch caterpillars have one pair of filaments on the front end and another on the rear end – anterior and posterior tentacles.  According to Monarch Joint Venture, these tentacles are sensory, “The caterpillar’s tentacles are sensory organs. Caterpillar’s eyesight is poor, and tentacles are tactile. They aid in navigation on the front. They may also play a role in defense/predator confusion on the rear, leading a potential predator to think that the monarch’s rear is its head.”  How do you tell one end of the caterpillar from the other (if, of course, it’s not eating)?  The longer tentacles are in the front.  There is also a tiny pair of actual antennae near the mandibles, to pick up olfactory signals and help the caterpillar find food.    

Quick review: the short-lived, early and mid-summer generations of Monarchs have one job – to goose the Monarch population.  Hatch, eat, mate, lay eggs (and they’re doing a great job here this year).  The final generation, sometimes referred to as Gen 5 or the Super generation, in the air from late-August on, have a different imperative – hatch, eat, metamorphose, and migrate (which is why they’re the only generation that’s tagged).  How do they know what to do?  The message comes in the form of old, leathery, bitter milkweed leaves (they prefer young and tender), fewer nectar plants, shorter day length, cooler nights, and the lowering angle of the sun (57 degrees above the horizon).  And yes – we do see monarchs who seem not to have gotten the memo, flying in tandem at the end of the season.  Apparently some of the penultimate generation may drift south, laying eggs as they go. 

They set their courses for a destination they’ve never seen, orienting themselves via the sun (with a dash of magnetic compass thrown in), with calculations so intricate that monarchs in Michigan, Maine and Montana set correct (but different) flight plans for central Mexico.  And they find not only Mexico, but the overwintering spots in the mountains west of Mexico City.

And now a brief sermonette from the BugLady (Freda is not planning on fostering this infant until it forms and then emerges from its chrysalis, so she is exempt from the sermon).  It has become popular to try to help the yo-yo-ing Monarch population by collecting eggs and hand-raising the caterpillars.  The rationale (besides the facts that it’s great fun and very sciencey) is that the caterpillars are safer in a controlled, predator-free environment. 

And indeed, they are, as long as their keepers practice good caterpillar hygiene, but caterpillars raised in the garage or basement or family room are not exposed to the environmental signals that will allow them to navigate properly.  Some captive-raised butterflies do muddle through and arrive at their destination, but it’s a lower percentage than their wild-reared brethren. 

The bottom line, if raising Monarchs is your thing, park them in the back yard.  The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation (https://xerces.org/) suggests that we could do a lot more for Monarchs if we would plant native milkweed for the caterpillars and native wildflower gardens that will bloom through the season for nectaring butterflies. 

Go outside -watch the Monarchs!

Kate Redmond, The BugLady

Bug of the Week archives:
http://uwm.edu/field-station/category/bug-of-the-week/

Become a Member

Take advantage of all the benefits of a Riveredge membership year round!

Learn More