One of the things I’ve been noticing on my outdoor walks lately is how many different kinds of butterflies and moths there seem to be all of a sudden. Many of the moths are small, brown and easy to overlook. And many of the butterflies are much too quick for me to get a good look at, as they flutter off in search of the next flower patch. But I’ve run into a couple large, lovely, and most importantly –…
Ants can be found in any season but they are most conspicuous in the spring when they are enlarging or excavating their nests or engaging in mating and dispersal flights. This weekend, as I was doing yard work, I noticed multiple colonies of particularly large reddish ants making their way in and out of holes at the base of oak trees and around old oak stumps. With a little research, I was able to identify them as ferruginous carpenter ants…
The genus Colletes is a large group of ground-nesting bees with more than 450 species worldwide. Although they tend to be solitary nesters, they will often nest in close aggregations. Female cellophane bees create nest cells in underground burrows in sandy soil, which they line with a cellophane-like, waterproof secretion from their abdominal glands, giving rise to the various common names of this group; they are referred to as cellophane, polyester or plasterer bees. This past Saturday afternoon, I came…
I hope you had an opportunity to get out and enjoy the mild temperatures we had this weekend. During my typical winter walks, I tend to walk rather quickly in an effort to build up some heat and keep warm. But this weekend’s weather afforded me the opportunity to slow down (without fear of freezing) and explore the tiny winter world of lichens, mosses and galls. One abandoned fence post I came across seemed to have an entire miniature world…
My favorite crane fly memory (I mean, who doesn’t have one of those?) was from graduate school: I was in my bedroom upstairs when all of a sudden my two housemates started screaming in the living room downstairs. I came running down to find them pointing up at a corner in fear, and one of them exclaiming, “That’s the biggest mosquito I’ve ever seen! Just think of the size of the bug bite you would get from that!” To their…
American dagger moths (Acronicta americana) are a fairly nondescript gray moth, perfect for camouflaging itself against mottled tree trunks during the day (see this BugGuide link for pictures of adult American dagger moths). The caterpillar of the species, on the other hand, is one of the fluffiest larval lepidopterans I’ve ever encountered. It is covered in dense hairs, called setae, which are yellow in younger instars and turn white as the caterpillar ages. There are also longer pairs of black…
Butterflies are a common sight on my outdoor walks lately. On a recent visit to Falmouth’s Crane Wildlife Management Area I saw numerous species, including Monarchs, Common Buckeyes, Common Ringlets, American Ladies and Painted Ladies. Although most of them did not rest long enough for me to capture a photo, I was able to get a few shots of this Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui). Painted Ladies are colorful, medium-sized butterflies, stretching approximately 2.5 inches from one wing tip to the…
Darners, of the family Aeschnidae, are our largest dragonflies. Besides their large size (some are more than 3 inches in length), darners can be distinguished by their large eyes that meet in a long seam on the top of their head. Their abdomens also tend to be long and narrow, perhaps reminiscent of a darning needle. They also tend perch vertically, with their heads facing up, either by hanging from branches or clinging flat against the trunk of a tree,…
I love warm rainy nights in December. Not because I particularly like rain, but because I love how winter moths (Operophtera brumata) emerge seemingly out of nowhere, to take advantage of the warmer weather. In fact, they’re one of very few Lepidopterans in the temperate region that are active in the late fall and early winter. On nights like we had this weekend, with light rain and temperatures close to 50 degrees, they can be so numerous that they remind…
Normally I stay as far away from large hornets’ nests as I can. But this large weather-worn nest that I encountered on Saturday was uninhabited, which allowed me to examine it more closely than I could have during the summer when it would’ve been occupied by as many as 300 stinging residents. Overall, this nest was roughly basketball sized, and consisted of layers of paper-mache textured sheets surrounding an inner network of hexagonal cells. Although the nest appears grey at…