Tag: bug of the week

Bug o’the Week – The Clover Leaf Weevil and Other Tales

Bug o’the Weeku
by Kate Redmond

The Clover Leaf Weevil and Other Tales

Howdy, BugFans,

The BugLady has been playing outside, and she had trouble coming in long enough to write these stories.

STORY #1 – THE CLOVER LEAF WEEVIL.  The BugLady took a few “throw-away shots” of this little (3/8” long) beetle as it crawled along a boardwalk in a wetland, and she made a few inaccurate guesses about its identity, but the sun was bright and she couldn’t really see the image on the screen, and then she and the beetle went their separate ways.  Turned out to be a completely different beetle than she thought, one that apparently took a wrong turn at the start of the boardwalk.  

It was a weevil https://bugguide.net/node/view/859710/bgimage, a weevil that has gone through more than a dozen combinations and permutations of scientific names since it was first described in 1763 (“A rose by any other name….”) and that can still be found under multiple names in the contemporary literature.  Some of the names resulted when the species was described and named by one person, but had already been described and named by another (18th century entomologists received specimens from contacts all over the world, and communication among them was slow).  Other name changes happened when the family or subfamily or genus of the weevil was revised (and some of those changes were not embraced by others in the field).  The BugLady gets the feeling that the dust has not settled on this weevil’s name. 

The Clover, or Sandy, Leaf Weevil (we’ll go with Donus zoilus) is in the Snout/Bark beetle family Curculionidae.  It’s the only member of its genus in our area, but there are a lot more genus members globally, and it’s not from around here.  It was originally found in the “Palearctic realm” – Europe and Asia between the Arctic and North Africa/India.  With a little help from its friends (us), it jumped the Big Pond and came to live in the Nearctic realm (North America between the Arctic and Mexico).  It made its North American debut in Quebec in 1853, and now it’s present over about three-quarters of the country.  . 

Here are some glamour shots: https://bugguide.net/node/view/141240/bgimage, https://bugguide.net/node/view/859709/bgimage. 

Its habitat is listed as grasslands, clearings, roadsides, and edges, and while adults may feed on a few plants that are not in the Pea family (the BugLady can recall no members of the Pea family along that boardwalk), the raison d’être for both adults and larvaeis eating agricultural clovers, especially alfalfa.  Larval host plants include alfalfa, red, white, crimson, and alsike clovers, and sweet clovers (sweet clovers (the Devil Incarnate), of which they may consume as much as they can hold). 

Both adult and larval Clover leaf weevils feed at night or on cloudy days, and shelter on/in the ground in the sunlight.  The larvae/grubs https://bugguide.net/node/view/1535920 make small holes in the leaves.  Most sources said that unless they occur in high numbers, they’re not a major crop pest (unlike the much smaller, Alfalfa leaf weevil).  The grubs are parasitized by the larvae of this lovely little ichneumon wasp https://bugguide.net/node/view/1152272.

There’s only one brood per year – females place eggs in and around the host plants in fall.  Most eggs hatch then and the larvae overwinter, feeding when it’s warm enough and resting when it’s not, then pupating https://bugguide.net/node/view/1535924 and becoming adults in spring.  Any eggs that overwinter hatch in spring.  Newly-emerged adults feed and then aestivate (suspend operations) for part of the summer, reactivating and laying eggs in fall https://bugguide.net/node/view/1655976/bgimage.  Larvae chew on plants in spring, and adults chew on plants in fall. 

STORY #2 – RECENT SPIDER ADVENTURE.  The BugLady headed to the laundromat the other day.  She got a few miles down the road and noticed (belatedly) a Cross Orbweaver on a strand of web on the inside of the driver’s side window (“along came a spider and sat down beside her…”).  She found an uninhabited side road and pulled way over to the left, so the side of the car was in grass, opened the window and nudged the spider out, hoping to move it away from the car.  When she got to the laundromat, the windblown spider was curled tight, clinging to the side of the car below the mirror.  It stayed there while the laundry went around, and then held on for the ride home.  The BugLady lifted her off with a leafy twig, and the spider recovered on the porch rail.  Spiders are tough! 

STORY #3 – AN EXUBERANCE OF DRAGONFLIES.  We experienced a wonderful, three-day dragonfly migration from August 30 into September 1, and in the run-up to that migration, the BugLady enjoyed some amazing walks through big feeding swarms, with darners cruising past, inches away.  As she went out to the hawk tower on Sunday, darners and saddlebags were in the air everywhere, with even more jumping up from the grass as she passed.  When she scanned for incoming hawks, the view through her binoculars was dragonflies as far out as she could see, in all directions.  Magic!  Abruptly, at 1:00 PM, the wind shifted a bit and it was over, and only the stragglers remained. 

Go outside, look at bugs!!

Kate Redmond, The BugLady

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

Bug o’the Week – Black Horse Fly redo

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

Black Horse Fly redo

Howdy, BugFans,

The BugLady has gotten a few reports of these magnificent flies recently, so here’s an episode from 2018, with some new words and thoughts and links added.

People often ask the BugLady what her favorite bug is, and although there’s a crowded field for second place, the Tiger Swallowtail butterfly is the hands-down winner.  Most Impressive Bug?  The Black horse fly (Tabanus atratus) (family Tabanidae) certainly ranks high on that list.  It is one, imposing horsefly, and although she knows that it’s (probably) not going to pursue her (they generally stalk non-human mammals), just seeing one gives her a bit of a start.  We visited the Black horse fly in the distant past, very briefly, one of an array of flies, and it’s time to fill in some gaps in its biography.  This fly is not the tiny, humpbacked Black fly that lives near rivers and torments all comers https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/black-fly-the-bug-the-legend/. 

Yes, there are larger flies in the neighborhood – some of the robber flies, for example, are longer – but they lack the heft of this fly.  Even the official measurement of 20 to 28 mm (an inch-ish) doesn’t adequately communicate it.  As one bugguide.net correspondent put it: “This is the largest fly I have ever seen, I actually saw two of these at two different locations on the same day. I am guessing it is a horsefly of some sort. A handful of these things ought to be able to carry a horse as a ‘to-go’ meal!”  And as another bugguide.net correspondent said, “I’m assuming this is a female Tabanus atratus? First time I’ve seen one. Not sure I want to see another.”  And as Jess Adams wrote in his blog “Long Leggedy Beasties,” “I’m not sure if they are called horse flies because they feed on horses or because they are the size of horses….”

Indeed, it’s hard to believe that these huge flies (https://bugguide.net/node/view/1114670/bgimage) are not the biggest horseflies on the continent, but they come in a close second to the American horsefly https://bugguide.net/node/view/117708/bgimage, which may hold the World Title.   

“Atratus” means “clothed in black,” and one of the common names for this fly is the Mourning fly.  Adults are variously dark gray/black/brownish-purple, with equally dark wings, dark eyes, and antennae that are hooked https://bugguide.net/node/view/1890081/bgimage (in case you still were unsure of your ID).  Males have wrap-around (holoptic) eyes that touch at the top of the head https://bugguide.net/node/view/1494235/bgimage, and females’ eyes are separated (dichoptic) https://bugguide.net/node/view/827314/bgimage.   

It’s been suggested that they’re the infamous “blue-tailed fly” from the folk song “Jimmy Crack Corn” https://bugguide.net/node/view/367846/bgimage (the BugLady expected to find a bunch of common names for this fly, most of them profane, but she didn’t come across any).  They can be a challenge to photograph because their velvety, black color sucks up the light.  Check the phenomenal, final three pictures on the Maryland Biodiversity website https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/view/9571. 

Their larvae are pale with dark bands https://bugguide.net/node/view/677968 and may be twice as long as their elders when mature.  They have pointy mouthparts that, like their elders’, can pack quite a punch. 

Though it’s been recorded throughout the Lower 48, the Black horse fly is mostly found east of the Rockies.  Its larvae live in wet/damp places at the edges of wetlands, and the adults are generally found within a mile or so of the ponds they grew up in. 

Females lay their eggs in mounds on wet ground or on sedges and other vegetation above water, and they may deposit three or four such masses https://bugguide.net/node/view/1014993/bgimage (male Black horse flies don’t live for long).  The newly-hatched larvae drop down and dig into the detritus or mud, and they spend two years as larvae. 

According to Werner Marchand in the Monographs of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (1920), “Walsh found his aquatic larvae, on many occasions, ‘amongst floating ‘rejectamenta.’  On one occasion, he found six or seven specimens in the interior of a floating log so soft and rotten that it could be cut like cheese.”  He goes on to say that “when handled, the larva is, according to Walsh, ‘very vigorous and restless,’ and burrows with great strength between the fingers, and even on a smooth table, walks as fast as any ordinary caterpillar, backwards or forward; when placed in a vessel of water it swims vigorously, twice the length of its body at every stroke...” 

“Rejectamenta” – the BugLady’s new favorite word!

Marchand writes that the larvae can produce sound “…the crackling noise was freely produced by full-grown Tabanus atrata larvae, and … was chiefly heard when the larvae were disturbed and defending themselves with their sharp mandibles.  The coincidence of the two phenomena was so close that I am bound to assume that the sound was produced by means of the mandibles.”

The larvae climb up onto drier ground to pupate in the soil.  Marchand says that “the pupa state lasts but a few days, and before the emergence of the fly the pupa is pushed to the surface of the ground by means of the bristles and thorns of the abdomen, with bending movements of the body.”  For more about what happens in a pupal case, see http://uwm.edu/field-station/pupal-cases/.

Much of what is written about Black horse flies concerns their food and feeding habits.  The larvae are active predators.  Marchand again: “On September 2, 1863, he found a nearly full-grown larva among floating rejectamenta, and between that date and September 23, this larva devoured ‘the mollusks of eleven univalves’ (genus Planorbus) from one-half to three-fourths of an inch in diameter; and on three separate occasions observed it work its way into the mouth of the shell.”  They eat other aquatic invertebrates, too, and small vertebrates, and even their Tabanid brethren.  Jones and Anthony, in The Tabanidae (Diptera) of Florida write “medium to large-size larvae of Tabanus atrata are extremely aggressive.  When two or more are placed in the same container, only a short time usually elapses before all are dead except one.  The survivor will feed on the victim if hungry, but generally it appears that a larva kills to avoid being killed.” 

Like mosquitoes, female tabanids need a blood meal in order to maximize egg production.  Both males and females feed on nectar from flowers (he lacks her piercing mouthparts), but when she is in reproductive mode, a female will stalk livestock and other large, dark mammals by their movement and by their CO2 trail.  She punctures her victim’s skin with a pretty sophisticated set of blades (modified mandibles and maxillae) and is classed as a sanguivore – more specifically, she is a telmophage, because she laps up the resulting pool of blood instead of sucking it (unlike mosquitoes, who are “vessel feeders” or solenophages that employ a “syringe and pump”).  Got it?  

Although humans are generally not targets, a bite is, apparently, unforgettable.  When present in numbers, these flies can be a problem for livestock due to blood loss, distress, and potential disease transmission. 

Several resources pointed out something that the BugLady had never really thought about before – that being a sanguivore, getting a meal by puncturing an animal that is larger and that takes exception to being punctured, is a dangerous way to make a living.  The blood is, as one researcher points out, “not freely given,” and a potential victim may simply swat its tormentor away or may eat it.  The BugLady once went on a canoe trip on Wisconsin’s Oconto River during which she was accompanied by clouds of deer flies and learned to swat them without breaking stroke, and after nine hours on the water, there was a layer of dead deer flies over the bottom of the canoe (our blood was not freely given, either) (the 50 yards of whitewater just before the pull-out spot were pretty memorable, too). 

Another down-side of blood-feeding is that depending on the body temperature of the “pierce-ee,” the cold-blooded piercer is courting temperature shock by ingesting a substance that is much warmer than it is. 

The “take-home” is that sanguivores need to do their work in a hurry (solenophages tend to get in and out more quickly and quietly than telmophages), and that the nutrition received needs to be worth the energy – and risk – required to extract it. 

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

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

Summer Sights

Greetings, BugFans,

The BugLady has been scouring the landscape and aiming her camera at anything that will sit still for it (and some that won’t).  And (without going too overboard on dragonflies and damselflies), here are some of her bug adventures.

LEAFCUTTER BEE – ah, the one that got away.  The BugLady saw a lump on a boardwalk in front of her and automatically aimed her camera at it (a long lens is a good substitute for a pair of binoculars).  The lump – a leafcutter bee – flew off after one, out-of-focus shot.  The bee had paused while she was cutting and collecting pieces of vegetation to line the tunnel and chambers where she’ll lay her eggs (here’s one caught in the act https://bugguide.net/node/view/2150206/bgimage). 

JAPANESE BEETLE – lots of the vegetation that the BugLady sees these days is pockmarked with small holes – evidence of feeding by Japanese beetles (of course, she’s also been seeing conspicuous, beetle ménages a trois on the tops of those leaves, too).  Japanese beetles made their North American debut in New Jersey in 1916, and their menu now includes more than 350 plant species.  But – they are a handsome beetle!  

WATER STRIDERS create art wherever they go. 

APPALACHIAN BROWN BUTTERFLY (probably) (the part of the hindwing that has the squiggly line that helps distinguish the Eyed Brown from the Appalachian Brown is gone).  Life in the wild isn’t all beer and skittles.  The chunks missing from this butterfly’s wings suggest that a bird chased it and that most of the butterfly got away.

POWDERED DANCER – in an episode a month ago, the BugLady lamented that the river was so high and fast that Powdered Dancers couldn’t find any aquatic vegetation to oviposit in.  A dryer spell revealed some weed patches, and the dancers hopped right onboard.

EASTERN PONDHAWK DRAGONFLY – this male Eastern Pondhawk was hugging the cattail stalk, a posture that’s not characteristic of this usually-horizontal species.  Turns out that it had captured a Violet/Variable Dancer damselfly and was holding it closely between its body and the cattail. 

CRAB SPIDER – what would a summer summary be without one of the BugLady’s favorite spiders, the Crab spider?  Where’s Waldo?  Bonus points if you know the name of the plant. 

HONEY BEE WITH APHIDS – it’s not surprising to see yellowjackets browsing among herds of water lily aphids – adult yellowjackets are (mostly) vegetarians, but they collect, masticate, and regurgitate small insects for their larvae.  Honey bees are hard-core vegans, so what’s going on here? 

Aphids overeat.  They have to – the plant sap they suck in has very low concentrations of sugars and proteins, so they need to process a lot of it in order to get enough calories.  Sap comes out of the plant under pressure, which forces the sap through the aphid smartly, and the extra liquids (in the form of a sweet substance called honeydew), exit to the rear of the aphid (or it would explode).  Honeydew drops onto the surrounding leaves and attracts other insects that harvest it.  The bee is no threat to the aphids, she’s just collecting honeydew.  

Fun Fact – according to Master beekeeper Rusty Burlew, writing in her blog “Honey Bee Suite, “The bees treat the substance like nectar so it is often mixed together with the nectar from flowers. As such, it is not really noticeable in the finished honey. Honey made almost exclusively from honeydew is known as honeydew honey, forest honey, bug honey, flea honey, or tree honey. Sometimes it is named after its primary component, such as pine honey, fir honey, oak honey, etc. It is generally dark, strongly flavored, less acidic, and less sweet than floral honey.”

EASTERN AMBERWING – at barely an inch long, this improbably-colored dragonfly is one of our flashiest.

MOSQUITOES – Mosquito Control 101: “get rid of standing water in your yard!”  Check.  But, the BugLady has a bird bath (her “vintage” childhood saucer sled) that she washes out and refills at least once a week (or so she thought).  She was surprised the other day to see a whole mess of mosquito “wigglers” (larvae) in the water.  Worse, they probably were the small-but-mighty Floodwater mosquitoes that can make August miserable because they emerge in Biblical numbers, and because they seem to be biting with one end even before the other end has fully landed.  They develop at warp speed – a week from egg to wiggler, and another week from wiggler to adult.  Get rid of standing water in your yard.  Check.

SCORPIONFLIES are odd-looking insects from a whole order of odd-looking insects (Mecoptera).  This guy is in the Common scorpionfly family Panorpidae and in the genus Panorpa (which is a corruption of the Greek word for “locust”).  The appendage at the end of the male’s abdomen explains its name, but these are harmless insects, fore and aft.  One site mentioned they are wary and hard to photograph.  Amen!

Panorpa uses chewing mouthparts at the tip of its elongated rostrum/snout to eat dead and dying insects, and it may liberate insects from spider webs (and sometimes the spider, too).  It is also said to eat some nectar and rotting fruits.

He courts by releasing pheromones to attract her, quivering his wings when she comes near, and then offering a gift – a dead insect, or maybe some gelatinous goo manufactured in his salivary gland.  He shares bodily fluids with her as she eats.

CAROLINA LOCUST – what a lovely, chunky little nymph! 

AUTUMN MEADOWHAWK – the dragonfly scene changes after mid-summer, with the early clubtails, emeralds, corporals, whitefaces, and skimmers being replaced by darners, saddlebags and a handful of meadowhawk species.  This newly-minted (teneral) Autumn Meadowhawk has just left its watery nursery on its way to becoming – for the next six weeks or so – a creature of the air. 

KATYDID NYMPH – the BugLady was photographing leafcutter bees that were visiting birdsfoot trefoil flowers (birdsfoot trefoil is a non-native member of the pea family that was introduced for animal fodder and erosion control and that can become invasive in grasslands.  There’s probably some blooming along a road edge near you).  She noticed that when the bees approached one particular flower, they reversed course and didn’t land, and when she checked she found the tiniest katydid nymph she has ever seen.  This one will grow up considerably to be a 1 ½” to 2” long Fork-tailed bush katydid (or somebody else in the genus Scudderia) https://bugguide.net/node/view/2164189/bgimage.  How do you find bush katydids?  The “Listening to Insects” website advises us to “Watch for a leaf that moves on its own, or a leaf with antennae.”  They are a favorite of Great golden digger wasps, which collect and cache them for their eventual larvae, and another website said “this is what bird food looks like.” 

The BugLady found a recording of their call.  They don’t say “Katy-did, Katy-didn’t;” they say “tsp” or “pffft,” and they don’t say it very loudly.  Bush Katydids are busiest at night, when their long, highly sensory antennae help them to find their way around.  Although adult females are equipped with a wicked-looking ovipositor, they don’t sting, but they do nip if you handle them wrong.  Memorably, it’s said.   

Go outside, look at bugs!

Kate Redmond, The BugLady

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

Bug o’the Week – Imperial Moth

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

Imperial Moth

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!  Mary was keeping it in a plastic container, and by the time the BugLady connected with her, the moth was getting pretty fragrant.  The BugLady has sneaked pictures of appropriately-posed dead insects into a few BOTW episodes in the past, but none as obviously dead as this one.

Imperial moths are members of the Giant Silkworm/Royal Moth family Saturniidae, a group of often-large and often-spectacular moths with wingspreads up to 6.”  Saturniidae is divided into three subfamilies – the Royal moths, the Buck and Io moths https://bugguide.net/node/view/1670029/bgimage and https://bugguide.net/node/view/1768803/bgimage, and the Silk moths like the Cecropia, Polyphemus, and Luna moths – here’s a BOTW about the Silk moth subfamily https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/giant-silk-moths-family-saturnidae/. 

[Slight detour for a gratuitous and awesome caterpillar in the Royal moth subfamily.  The Regal/Royal Walnut moth caterpillar even has its own name, the Hickory Horned Devil.  Here’s a nice series of pictures https://bugguide.net/node/view/11016/bgimage.] 

Female Saturniid moths “call” males by releasing pheromones.  Using their feathery antennae, the males can detect these chemicals from several miles away.

Saturniids produce large, spectacular, bumpy/knobbed/spiny/hairy caterpillars.  Most of the caterpillars feed, sometimes destructively, on leaves of a variety of woody plants (a few on grasses), but adults don’t feed at all, fueled, as one source said, only by what they ate as caterpillars. 

Their caterpillars protect themselves variously with camouflage (often, finding their frass (poop) is the first clue that they’re around), with stinging hairs, by producing clicking sounds, or by vomiting when attacked (it’s theorized that their aposematic (warning) coloration announces the upcoming vomit).  Many moths have eyespots on their wings to spook predators.  Saturniids do make silk, but it’s not particularly harvestable – the silkworm moths whose silk is woven into fabric are in a different family.   

For a variety of reasons, Saturniid populations are shrinking.  The usual suspects – habitat change and pesticides – are joined by high intensity street lights that interrupt mating (females tend to stay in the vicinity of their natal trees, but males are far-ranging and easily distracted by lights), and by overzealous introduction of parasitic flies and wasps meant to control the Spongy (formerly Gypsy) moth.  These non-native parasitoids, alas, show a decided affinity for the silk moths and not enough of an interest in Spongy moths.  Hopefully, we’re doing a better job at screening potential biological control species these days.  

Anyway, the IMPERIAL MOTH (Eacles imperialis), aka the Great Plane Tree moth and the Yellow Emperor, is in the Royal moth subfamily Ceratocampinae (which is Greek for “horned caterpillar”) and is one of two (or maybe more) species in its genus in the US, and (maybe) the only one in the East.  Variability in the color of Imperial moths and caterpillars https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/view/335 (be sure to scroll all the way down) has led to some taxonomic tussles – there are regional morphs or color forms, subspecies, and sibling species.  Sibling species are evolution in action – a species that is splitting.  These are closely-related organisms whose forms look pretty much alike to us, but not to each other, so they don’t mate (reproductive isolation).  Next step – the development of more distinctive physical or behavioral characteristics, and finally, an official species nod.  One subspecies, the Pine Imperial moth (Eacles imperialis pini) occurs on both sides of the border from northern Michigan to Vermont, restricts its diet to conifer needles, and has been considered a separate species by some.  DNA barcoding will ride to the rescue.   

Imperial moths are primarily found in deciduous and mixed woodlands and barrens east of the Great Plains from Canada to Florida to Texas, and south to Argentina, but their historic range extended farther north than it does today.  Moths have wingspans of 4” to 5” https://bugguide.net/node/view/2038089/bgimage, with females slightly larger than males, and males more heavily marked than females.  Based on the two dark spots on the underside of the end of this moth’s abdomen (and its feathery antennae), it’s a male.  Caterpillars may measure up to 4.” 

Females call from the treetops at night and romance ensues https://bugguide.net/node/view/1395835/bgimage.  They place their eggs, singly or in small batches https://bugguide.net/node/view/802928/bgimage , on the upper and lower surfaces of leaves, laying several hundred in all.  Caterpillars feed alone, and when they’ve eaten enough, crawl down the tree trunk, dig a hole, and create a pupal cell underground.  They overwinter there, and the pupa emerges by backing up and out of its cell, onto the ground, early the next summer. 

The list of caterpillar host trees is long and includes oak, hickory, walnut, sycamore, basswood, maple, elm, beech, hornbeam, birch, some conifers and more.  In his Caterpillars of Eastern North America, Wagner says that “caterpillars feed by locking onto vegetation with their powerful anal prolegs (https://bugguide.net/node/view/1134273/bgimage) and pulling leaves or needles back over the body.”  Although females lay lots of eggs, Imperial moths are not common.  The moths are sedentary by day, blending into tree trunks and forest litter but are eaten by bats at night, and the caterpillars provide a tasty meal for birds, which find them as they feed by day on leaf surfaces, for mammals (including armadillos, which dig them out of their pupal cells), and for other insects.  Including parasitic flies.  Unlike some of their cousins, Imperial moths have no chemical defenses or stinging hairs, but young caterpillars, bearing long protuberances (scoli) on their thoraxes, wave their front ends back and forth to bluff predators https://bugguide.net/node/view/10760/bgimage.   

Thanks, Mary,

Kate Redmond, The BugLady

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

Bug o’the Week – Rosinweed Moth

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

Rosinweed Moth

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.  And, the website microleps.org tells us that “The large Tebenna spp., including T. silphiella, represent an array in which species delineations appear to be unresolved.”  Most family members have wingspans under a half-inch, but those wings may be decorated with spots made of silvery/metallic scales https://bugguide.net/node/view/1169370/bgpage, https://bugguide.net/node/view/1681270/bgimage.  Choreutis comes from a Greek word meaning “dancer” – the moths fly by day, and the “dancing” refers to the jerky movements they often make with their bodies and wings as they move around on flowers.  

Choreutid caterpillars skeletonize the undersides of leaves in groups, immediately after hatching, and solo, as they get older.  Many species spin a loose web over themselves, and their frass collects in this net (remember – they’re under the leaf).  About caterpillars in the related genus Brenthia (a mostly Asian and African genus), researcher Jadranka Rota says “Larvae of all four Brenthia species that I have observed chew a roughly circular ‘escape hatch’ – a wormhole – somewhere in their feeding shelter. When resting, they sit with their head next to the hole. If disturbed, larvae dash through the wormhole to the other side of the leaf…… After a little while, they wriggle through the opening backwards to their original position.”  Another researcher hypothesizes that the caterpillars receive sensory clues via the webbing. 

Some Metalmark moths have a Superpower – more about that in a sec.

As the name suggests, the host plant of Rosinweed moths is Rosinweed (Silphium integrifolium), a prairie plant with stiff, gritty leaves https://illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/rosinweedx.htm.  They feed on leaves near the top of the plant; scroll down for a picture of caterpillars feeding https://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/species.php?hodges=2642. 

Bugguide.net lists the range of Rosinweed moths as the prairies and meadows of the Central US – Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and Kentucky, and other sources add Colorado.  There are two generations per year. 

OK – the Superpower.

In many parts of the family’s worldwide range, their top predators are the jumping spiders that hang out on the leaves with them.  What’s a moth to do?  Answer – If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. 

Jumping spiders hone in on a wide variety of prey, large and small, and they’re not shy about eating other jumping spiders, no matter the size, so mimicking a jumping spider certainly isn’t a Get Out of Jail Free card.  But it turns out that the spots and stripes on the wings of many Metalmark moths resemble a jumping spider (if you squint), and the moth’s posture, displays, and movements reinforce that.  In experiments, Brentia moths survived being caged with jumping spiders more often than similarly-sized, non-Choreutid moths did (unless researchers painted over the eyespots on their wings).  Often, the jumping spiders (even with their great eyesight) would respond to the moth’s antics with the kinds of leg-waving territorial displays that they reserve for other jumping spiders of the same species.  If the moth was bigger than the spider, the spider may even have been intimidated by the moth. 

Here’s an American Brenthia, the Peacock Brenthia https://bugguide.net/node/view/1801949/bgimage and a video of a Metalmark moth in action – https://www.reddit.com/r/Awwducational/comments/ryq98f/metalmark_moths_have_evolved_eyespots_on_their/?rdt=48206.

Researchers also suspect that looking like a jumping spider discourages some of the spiders’ predators from going after the moths.  Some species hide by camouflage or by mimicking species that are aggressive or toxic.  Metalmark moths confuse the spider with an uncommon, “In your face” strategy called “predator mimicry,” but it turns out that jumping spider mimicry is also in the playbooks of a few small flies and planthoppers, which suggests that the spiders are driving the evolution of their prey.

For more information see https://askabiologist.asu.edu/plosable/prey-as-predator.

Kate Redmond, The BugLady

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

Bug o’the Week – Stirrings of Summer

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

Stirrings of Summer

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).

LIZARD BEETLE – the BugLady doesn’t know why these striking beetles are called Lizard beetles, unless it’s a nod to their long, slender shapes.  She usually sees them in the prairie on Indian Plantain plants.  The adults eat various parts of the plant, including pollen, while their larvae feed within the plant stems (the Clover stem borer is persona non grata in commercial clover fields). 

According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, many species of Lizard beetles “make squeaking sounds using well-developed stridulatory organs on top of the head.”

Two (counterintuitively-named) ORANGE BLUETS, ensuring the next generation.  He “contact guards” her as she oviposits in submerged vegetation, lest a rival male come along and swipe her.  When the eggs hatch, the naiads can swim right out into the water.

BALTIMORE CHECKERSPOT – the BugLady has seen more of these spectacular butterflies than usual this year.  The caterpillars https://bugguide.net/node/view/206383 feed in fall on a late-blooming wildflower called Turtlehead (and sometimes broad-leaved plantain); turtlehead leaves (and plantain, to a lesser extent) contain growth-enhancing chemicals called iridoid glycosides that also discourage birds.  The caterpillars tuck in for the winter and emerge the next year into a landscape empty of Turtlehead. 

In spring, Baltimore Checkerspot caterpillars 2.0 feed on leaves of a variety of flowers and shrubs – the BugLady has seen them on goldenrod and on wood betony – and especially on leaves of the (doomed) white ash. 

CRAYFISH – the BugLady came across this crayfish and its companion when all three of us were negotiating a muddy trail (so many muddy trails this year!).  It waved its pincers at her to make sure she was terrified.

DOODLEBUGS (aka antlions) got going early this year – the BugLady found more than 100 excavations (pits) at the southeast corner of her house at the end of April, and more along the path leading to the beach.  They’ve had a rough go of it – it doesn’t take much rain to ruin a pit, and it takes a day or so to repair one.  

Doodlebug watchers sometimes catch a glimpse of pincers at the bottom of a pit, or of a doodlebug tossing sand around.  The BugLady witnessed an ant going to its final reward, and found a pit with a small beetle in it, one with a box elder bug, and one with a beetle and a small jumping spider.  She will look for the adults, which look kind of like damselflies, in August.

DONACIA – a golden beetle https://bugguide.net/node/view/2309637/bgimage on a golden flower.

COMMON SPRING MOTH – the BugLady loves finding bugs she’s never seen before, especially when she doesn’t have to leave home to do it!!  (She does get a little bewildered, though, when the “new” insect is named the “Common something” and she’s never seen it before).  The occurrence of this one should be no surprise – its caterpillars feed on Black locust leaves. 

PETROPHILA MOTHS are dainty moths that are tied to water.  The BugLady and BugFan Joan spotted mobs of moths on milkweed (yes, there’s a milkweed under there) on the bank of the Milwaukee River.  “Petrophila” means “rock lover” – for that story, see this BOTW about a (probably) different species https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/two-banded-petrophila/.  

GREEN LACEWING EGGS – the BugLady wrote about Green lacewings and their eggs a few months ago, and she recently found this amazing bunch of tiny, glistening eggs.  She has always associated Green lacewings with the end of summer.  Guess not.

EIGHT-SPOTTED FORESTER MOTHS are small, spiffy, day-flying moths that are often mistaken for butterflies.  The one that the BugLady found recently was not as gaudy as most – most have brilliant orange leg scales https://bugguide.net/node/view/2300226/bgimage.  There’s a saying among Lepidopterists – the plainer the caterpillar, the more spectacular the adult.  Forester moths seem to be an exception https://bugguide.net/node/view/156406. 

POWDERED DANCERS oviposit at this time of year in the slightly-submerged stems of aquatic vegetation, especially Potamogeton https://bugguide.net/node/view/737371/bgimage.  They’ve been pictured here before.  This year, the river is running high and fast – there are no mats of Potamogeton leaves with Ebony Jewelwings, American Rubyspots, Stream Bluets, and Powdered Dancers flickering above them.  Do they have a Plan B?

MALE
FEMALE

These two BRILLIANT JUMPING SPIDERS (aka Red & Black jumping spiders), a male and a female, were perched a respectful distance from each other on the prairie.  Jumping spiders, as their name suggests, jump, and depending on species, can cover from 10 to 50 times their body length.  They don’t spin trap webs, but they do spin a drag line while jumping to guard against mishaps.  They hunt by day.

The great MObugs website (Missouri’s Majority) says that “By late July or August mating is on their mind. Males begin to compete with other males for the right to mate with nearby females. Larger males typically win these competitions which include loud vibrations and some unique footwork. Males choose the larger females to mate with as they produce the most eggs.”  She will place her egg sac in a silken nest in a leaf shelter and guard it, dying shortly after the spiderlings emerge from the sac.

ZELUS LURIDUS (aka the Pale green assassin bug) is the BugLady’s favorite Assassin bug.  They mostly wait patiently for their prey to wander by, but when it does, they reveal their super power.  Glands on their legs produce a sticky resin that they smear over the hairs on their legs.  When they grab their prey, it stays grabbed. 

They make distinctive egg masses https://bugguide.net/node/view/960067/bgimage (nice series of shots) – the BugLady has found them on the undersides of leaves, and the nymphs are pretty cool, too https://bugguide.net/node/view/1632827/bgimage. 

Although “lurid” now means shocking, vivid, or overly bright, it originally meant ghastly, horrifying, pale, sallow, or sickly yellow – its meaning began to change in the 1700’s.  

There – all caught up! 

Go outside – look at bugs!

Kate Redmond, The BugLady

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

Bug o’the Week – Slices of Spring

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

Slices of Spring

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?

WOODLAND LUCY (Lucidota atra), aka the Black firefly (atra means black).  If a lightning bug doesn’t light, is it still a Lightning bug?  Yup.  Most lightning bugs flash their species-specific light signals at females by night, but some, like the Woodland Lucy, are day flyers (the BugLady starts seeing them in swamps in May, but she usually doesn’t see a light show by their nocturnal relatives until the very end of June).  It would be a waste of energy to try to produce a light that competes with the sun, so diurnal lightning bugs communicate via pheromones (perfumes).  But, all fireflies make light at some point in their lives, and always as a larva (and even the adult Woodland Lucy makes a weak light for a brief time after emerging as an adult).   

Who says “lightning bug” and who says “firefly?”  Lightning bug is heard most often in the South and Midwest, and firefly belongs to New England and the West (and Southeastern Wisconsin is close to the border of the two).  Someone did a study and hypothesized that people who live in wildfire country prefer firefly, and people who live in thunderstorm country say lightning beetle.  The BugLady likes the alternate theory – that you call them whatever your Grandmother called them.

DISONYCHA BEETLE – isn’t this a neat beetle!  The BugLady photographed another member of the genus years ago when she was photographing visitors to her pussy willow shrub.  It’s in the (huge) leaf beetle family Chrysomelidae, many of whose members are pretty specific about the host plants for their larvae.  This one is (probably) a member of the confusing Smartweed Disonycha bunch.  

GROUSE LOCUSTS are in the family Tetrigidae (the pygmy grasshoppers), and at a half-inch and less when full grown, pygmy they are!  The BugLady usually sees them in wetlands, and some are actually known to swim.  They feed on tiny diatoms and algae and aquatic vegetation at the water’s edge.

A CENTIPEDE works the boardwalk at Spruce Lake Bog in April.

GROUND BEETLE LARVA – Ground beetles (family Carabidae) are a bunch of mainly nocturnal, sometimes-sizeable, mostly predaceous beetles.  Some of the big ones have no-nonsense names like Fiery Searcher and Caterpillar Hunter, and although they are called Ground beetles, they may climb trees to find their prey.  They’re long-lived, spending a year or two as larvae and then two or three more as adults.  No – the BugLady was not inclined to pick this one up.   

The WHITE-STRIPED BLACK MOTH (Trichodezia albovittata) is a small (1” wingspan) day-flying moth that’s often mistaken for a butterfly.  It’s found in wetlands because its caterpillar’s food is Impatiens/Jewelweed/Touch-me-not.  Like other members of the moth family Geometridae, it has tympanal organs (ears) at the base of its abdomen so that it can hear the echolocation calls of bats.  Since it’s diurnal, its ears are superfluous, but it can hear ultrasound (which suggests to evolutionary biologists that its day-flying habit is a recent one). 

CHALK-FRONTED CORPORALS are one of our earliest dragonflies – the BugLady recalls seeing recently-emerged corporals by the hundreds over a dirt road on warm, spring days.

DADDY LONGLEGS (aka Harvestmen) are not true spiders, though they do have eight legs.  The best description that the BugLady has read is that lacking a sharp division between their two body parts (cephalothorax and abdomen), they look like Rice Krispies with legs.  This one is well-camouflaged on the fertile stalk of a cinnamon fern.

The BugLady may have to have this engraved on her gravestone (oh wait, she’s being scattered) – DADDY LONGLEGS DO NOT BITE PEOPLE!  Also, counter to both urban and rural legend, they are NOT the most venomous animal on earth!!!  The BugLady does not care what your cousin told you, or the person who claims to be allergic to their bite.  They have tiny jaws, and unlike the true spiders, they do not pierce their prey and then pump in chemicals from venom glands (no venom glands) (and they have no stinging apparatus).  They just sit there and chew off tiny (tiny) pieces.  Got it?

The BEAUTIFUL BEE FLY (Bombylius pulchellus) truly is (pulchellos means “little beauty”)!  This small fly (maybe ¼”) was photographed in a wetland in mid-May.  Bee fly larvae are parasitoids of a variety of insect eggs and larvae – this one targets the sweat bees, which are among our earliest pollinators (not to worry – the system is in balance).

CRANE FLY – there are a number of families of crane flies, plus some near-relatives, and they are often collectively called daddy longlegs (though they’re not spiders) and mosquito hawks and skeeter-eaters (though they don’t catch or eat mosquitoes).  What they do, is look like giant mosquitoes when they land on the other side of your window screen at night https://bugguide.net/node/view/2360312/bgimage, but they’re completely harmless.  The “crane” in crane fly reflects their long, long legs – they’re somewhat awkward flyers and even more awkward landers.  Like the Daddy longlegs, they’re reputedly extremely venomous (and now it’s time to introduce the third member of our “daddy longlegs trio,” the cellar spider.  Crane flies are thought to be venomous because they look like cellar spiders (https://bugguide.net/node/view/2170770/bgimage), but, alas, cellar spiders only have very weak venom). 

How do these things get started, anyway?

SOLDIER FLY – it’s always a little startling to come across a lime-green fly! 

This VIRGINIA CTENUCHA MOTH CATERPILLAR was photographed in April, but the BugLady has found them walking around on mild winter days.  The cute caterpillar will morph into a stunning moth https://bugguide.net/node/view/1036503/bgimage that looks butterfly-ish until it lands on a leaf and immediately crawls underneath.  Despite its name, it’s a moth with more northerly affiliations. 

The (great) Minnesota Seasons website lists three defense strategies:

  • Aposematism: The metallic blue color of the thorax and abdomen mimics wasps which may be noxious to predators.
  • Sound production: A specialized (tymbal), corrugated region on the third section of the thorax (metathorax) produces ultrasonic sounds which interfere with (“jam”) the sonar of moth-eating bats.
  • Pyrrolizidine alkaloid sequestration: Caterpillars acquire and retain naturally produced toxic chemicals (pyrrolizidine alkaloids) from the plants they eat.

RED-SPOTTED PURPLE CATERPILLARS are hard to distinguish from those of the very-closely-related Viceroy and White Admiral caterpillars, and their food plants overlap, too.  The caterpillars overwinter in a leaf that’s still attached to the tree, rolled up and fastened with silk. 

Red-spotted Purple?  The purple part https://bugguide.net/node/view/1791309/bgimage, and the red-spotted part https://bugguide.net/node/view/1881731/bgimage

HOBOMOK SKIPPERS (once called the Northern Golden Skipper) are an early butterfly, often decorating the wild geraniums that bloom by the bushel in May.  One source says that they are strong flyers that take off quickly when startled.  Amen!  They are a butterfly of woodland, wetland and grassland edges, where males perch in the sun and fly out to chase intruders.

“Hobomok” is a nod to an early Wampanoag chief.    

CRAB SPIDER on White trillium – as we all know, the BugLady has a thing for crab spiders because of their ability to hide in plain sight.  This one was photographed in early May. 

Go outside – Look 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 – Closed for June IV – A Potpourri of Invertebrates

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

Closed for June IV A Potpourri of Invertebrates

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.

Jorō Spiders https://bugguide.net/node/view/1463347/bgimage are sandwich plate-sized immigrants from East Asia that are making themselves at home in parts of the eastern part of the country.  Although they are startling (to say the least), they are reportedly benign.  It will be a while before they get here to God’s Country, but here’s one of our larger spiders, a slightly-related Black and Yellow Argiope/Garden spider https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/joro-spiders-spreading-in-the-southeast-can-survive-surprisingly-well-in-cities-180983845/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&spMailingID=49487887&spUserID=ODg4Mzc3MzY0MTUyS0&spJobID=2642873766&spReportId=MjY0Mjg3Mzc2NgS2

Bumble bees play soccer https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/bees-can-learn-play-soccer-score-one-insect-intelligence-180962292/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&spMailingID=48539902&spUserID=ODg4Mzc3MzY0MTUyS0&spJobID=2503571888&spReportId=MjUwMzU3MTg4OAS2.

And they are specialized pollinators https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/these-cute-fuzzy-bumblebees-precision-engineered-pollinators-180984491/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&spMailingID=49906517&spUserID=ODg4Mzc3MzY0MTUyS0&spJobID=2722758537&spReportId=MjcyMjc1ODUzNwS2.

And leeches leap https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/watch-blood-sucking-leeches-leap-from-leaves-and-soar-through-the-air-180984585/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&spMailingID=49887473&spUserID=ODg4Mzc3MzY0MTUyS0&spJobID=2722372704&spReportId=MjcyMjM3MjcwNAS2.

And Painted Lady butterflies are big-time travelers, which was determined by an analysis of their pollen https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-stunning-butterflies-flew-2600-miles-across-the-atlantic-ocean-without-stopping-180984602/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&spMailingID=49906517&spUserID=ODg4Mzc3MzY0MTUyS0&spJobID=2722758537&spReportId=MjcyMjc1ODUzNwS2.

Stay cool,

Kate Redmond, The BugLady

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

Bug o’the Week – Closed for June III – More Pollinators

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

Closed for June III More Pollinators

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.

Shrinking pollinator populations – https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/shrinking-pollinator-populations-could-be-killing-427000-people-per-year-180981353/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20221222-daily-responsive&spMailingID=47793660&spUserID=ODg4Mzc3MzY0MTUyS0&spJobID=2362605046&spReportId=MjM2MjYwNTA0NgS2

And more shrinking pollinator populations – https://e360.yale.edu/features/insect_numbers_declining_why_it_matters

How can we help insects, including pollinators?  Plant an array of native wildflowers, shrubs, and trees that will bloom from spring through fall, reduce or eliminate pesticides, provide brush piles and other shelter, don’t be a tidy gardener, and set out a bird bath (birds will appreciate this, too).  In Wisconsin, plug into our bumble bee https://wiatri.net/inventory/BBB/ and monarch caterpillar monitoring programs https://wiatri.net/inventory/BBB/.

Meanwhile – it’s National Pollinator Week – celebrate appropriately.

Kate Redmond, The BugLady

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

Bug o’the Week – Closed for June 2 – Pollinators

Bug o’the Week
by Kate Redmond

Closed for June II Pollinators

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.

What does it take to be a successful pollinator?  The ability to deliver pollen to multiple flowers in a short time span and the ability to transport pollen, either by general hairiness or by special pollen carrying structures.  Ants, with their smooth exteriors, impeccable grooming, and pedestrian habits, are all over flowers, but they are inefficient pollinators.

 

Flies are all over flowers, too – are they on the list of important pollinators?  Check this: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-much-do-flies-help-pollination-180977177/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20210308-daily-responsive&spMailingID=44581828&spUserID=ODg4Mzc3MzY0MTUyS0&spJobID=1960663514&spReportId=MTk2MDY2MzUxNAS2

How do pollinators find flowers?  Flowers have developed a variety of lures to attract insects, like color, UV reflections, patterns on petals that act as nectar guides, electrostatic charges, and flower size and shape.  Specialized flowers “train” their specialized visitors, with which they have evolved over millennia.  Scent is important, too, especially for nocturnal visitors.  What happens if an insect can’t smell its usual blossoms?  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/air-pollution-makes-flowers-smell-less-appealing-to-pollinators-study-suggests-180983766/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&spMailingID=49430515&spUserID=ODg4Mzc3MzY0MTUyS0&spJobID=2641244472&spReportId=MjY0MTI0NDQ3MgS2

A lot has been written in the past decade about the crash of honey bee colonies.  Honey bees are, after all, responsible for pollinating about one-third of the foods we eat, accounting for about $15 billion in crop values annually (and they make honey and beeswax, too).  But, honeybees are an alien bee that was imported to pollinate alien crops, and we have many species of native bees.  Do honey bees disrupt native relationships – https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-41271-5?fbclid=IwAR3gFJuCvy1t3GEPCRGDW1nDzOGLjB-G0vLFiYHJtfU7TgVLTUnShMa5NJ0

Go outside – look at pollinators.

Kate Redmond, The BugLady

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

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