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A gall is a plant growth induced by an alien species. In the case of oak galls, the majority are forced by tiny Cynipid wasps. This is one of my favorites: Kokkocynips rileyi, on Scarlet Oak/Q. coccinea. (This particular gall has a kapello or cap that attracts ants once the galls falls to the ground;…

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An apple tree at the end of the 4th Street Basin of the Gowanus Canal, right by 3rd Avenue. Hosting a juvenile Black-crowned Night-heron. And a Northern Parula.

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The large silk-covered pupa of a Polyphemus Moth/Antheraea polyphemus. It had been attached to a leaf and fallen to the ground. I’ve seen a few of these over the years, as well as this species’s eggs and caterpillars. I’ve never seen the imago, the adult moth, so I thought I might “raise” this pupa myself.…

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September 16, on Swamp Milkweed. Same cluster of plants was feeding some adults. Wondering why I never show Monarch chrysalises? Because I haven’t seen one this year. All those eggs: so few make it. On September 14, four adults were working the nectar-rich plantings along the 4th Avenue side of Green-Wood’s extension. This ironweed was…

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I thought these Yellow-legged Mud-dauber Wasps packed together the mud they use to build their nests. Like making a mudpie! But after observing three of them at this mud slick… …it looks like they actually carve a mud-marble in the mud mass with their front feet while they grasp it with their jaws. And they…

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Five or so years ago, I started noticing these bulges in the stems of Mugwort/Artemesia vulgaris around Brooklyn. I thought they must be galls, formed probably by some kind of insect. Surprisingly, given how common they seemed, nobody on iNaturalist ventured a guess as to what was inducing the plant to bulge out. Flash forward…

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