Bugfolks

We’ve had several hard frosts now, so most of the summer insects and most of the flowers are gone.

I’ve been taking photos of some of the late blooming flowers, and I’ve discovered that most of them have at least one insect – trying to get a last taste of nectar, or a last capture of a nectaring insect. So many miniature dramas!

This is the most complicated one I found – I don’t completely understand what’s going on. I think it’s two Ambush Bugs (maybe mating?), and the lower one is eating a fly. (Here’s a link to a photo of mating Ambush Bugs on bugguide – it looks similar to my photo.) What do you think?

This is a fly – also on New England Aster. The wind was blowing hard, so it’s not in focus, but it’s an interesting fly.

Here’s another view of the same fly.

Another New England Aster with a bee and two beetles

And a Sweat Bee (family Halictidae) on a Brown Eyed Susan

Ids anyone? 

Since we were going to be gone so long, I had to find a way to feed my caterpillars. I tried putting them in cloth bags tied over branches of their food plants. It worked very well – the bags were easy to make and use, and most of the caterpillars survived.

I made the bags from tulle – the gauzy material that you can buy in the bridal section of the fabric store. They’re about 24 inches long and 20 inches wide.

I put the Monkey Slug Caterpillar, and all my Giant Swallowtail caterpillars in bags on their respective food plants – one or two caterpillars in each bag.

The Monkey Slug Caterpillar made a cocoon.

Two of the Giant Swallowtail caterpillars made chrysalises.

I still have 6 Giant Swallowtail caterpillars left, at various instars.

Here are two. An earlier instar

And a later one

I put them back in bags to see if they can make chrysalises before they freeze, or before the leaves all fall off the Prickly Ash bushes.

Marcie - at the farm

We’ve been on a trip for the last few weeks, but I still have a few photos left over from before we left. So these are from about September 20^th.

I found my very own Butternut Woolyworm (Eriocampa juglandis) ! It’s a sawfly larva – not a caterpillar. MJ had sent me a photo of one a few weeks before and I was envious, so it was great to see one here at the farm. According to the accounts I’ve read, you can gently brush off the white wooly things and see the white worm underneath. I didn’t do that – I just took a photo and let it continue on its way.

This is a Compton Tortoiseshell butterfly (Nymphalis antiopa). I’ve never gotten such a good look – or such a good photo – of the underside of the wings.

This is a photo (from April of 2005) of the upper wing surfaces.

Compton Tortoiseshells are anglewing butterflies – they spend the winter as adults – hibernating in wood piles or under bark. If the weather gets warm – even in the middle of winter – they’ll come out and fly around in protected sunny spots.

This is a Big Sand Tiger Beetle (Cicindela Formosa) from our Knife Edge Point – a very steep sandy place. This one was digging a hole. I watched it digging furiously, pushing the sand out of the hole behind it.

This is a Holomelina moth (Holomelina sp.)– I’m not sure of the species. It’s very common in our prairies.

It's very small, and I usually only notice it when it flies.  It looks very bright for a moment, but blends in with the dry grasses when it lands.

Marcie (back home at the farm)

This fall, for the first time, I've had some of my Giant Silk Moth cocoons hatch early.  Three Lunas and one Polyphemus moth hatched in the last week of August and first week of September.

Here's one of the Lunas

And the Polyphemus

I kept the Luna and Polyphemus females for a few days, hoping they would find a mates, but eventually let them go.  Even if they had found mates, there isn't enough time for a new generation of caterpillars to grow up.

Several other people who had Polyphemus and Luna caterpillars had the same problem.

Some information that Kelley found on the internet said that hatching is triggered by the amount of daylight they get during their last caterpillar instar.  Since mine live on our porch, with only natural light, I don't think that was the problem with these moths.

Farther south, Lunas have two generations a summer.  Ian says he often has some Lunas hatch toward the end of the summer.  It may be a good evolutionary strategy to have a few moths hatch early just in case it's possible to complete another cycle.

I'm also wondering if nightime temperatures could have some effect.  Only one of my Polyphemus moths hatched - but it's colder at night here at the farm.  Other people had more of them hatch, and they live in the city where the night temperatures are much higher.