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Smeared Dagger!
The Smartweed Caterpillar is also known after its adult moth form, the Smeared Dagger (Acronicta oblinita). According to Wagner’s Caterpillars of Eastern North America, these are quite variable.Here’s another, missing the red highlights. Excellent opportunity to see the morphology here: the three pairs of thoracic legs (with simple claws) on the left, the four pairs…
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Lobster Claws
The emptied husk of a dog day cicada (Neotibicen). This is the final form of the underground nymph stage of these annual cicadas, which spend four to five years underground sucking on plant roots, counting the days. They’re “annual” because there’s a brood or cohort every year. This is split open and hollow inside now,…
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Revenge of the Monarch
This is the whole point, right? A new butterfly, hiding under a leaf next to her chrysalis husk. She’ll dry off, harden up, get ready for the world. And what a world! Is this the generation that is Mexico-bound? I’m guessing so since it’s already mid-September. How does she know? Remarkably, these long-distance, south-bound migrants…
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Planet of the Monarchs
Yes, please! A veritable orgy of caterpillars. I counted 47 in Green-Wood on the morning of September 5th. I have never seen so many, anywhere.I went early to avoid the heat, but phew, it was still pretty beastly. Obviously, I can’t survey the milkweed further in this tight little meadow. There are probably more caterpillars…
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There’s No Such Thing As A Seagull
Tell it to Chekhov. Anyway, I ran across this dead… Laughing Gull?First year bird. I’m going for Laughing by length of the bill and the black feet. Monarchy returns tomorrow. *** There’s a big primary election today in New York. The results may determine the state’s ability to resist Trump’s assault on America. Governor, Lieutenant…
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Realm of the Monarchs
A brand new female. Will she make it down to Mexico?We’re celebrating Monarch’s all this week. But don’t let my anecdotal enthusiasm delude you. Monarchs in a frightful state. *** AFSC’s guide to civil disobedience.
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Chrysalis
The pupal stage of the Monarch is suspended a cremaster attached to a silk base.Isn’t it amazing? Begs the question why we think we need religion and other fantasies when life is so interesting.In a morning of ferocious heat, I counted 19 caterpillars and three pupae or chrysalises in a patch of milkweed and other…
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Monarch Monday
Some of the dozen Monarch caterpillars (Danaus plexippus) seen feasting on swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) in the Bronx recently. This was my highest ever count to this date, although to be fair I’m much better at spotting them now. Good to see some action on one of the other milkweeds besides A. syriaca.In Queens a…
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Monarchy Nears
Prepare for a week of Monarchs! Plant more milkweed! There are around 25 caterpillars in the patch pictured, and they have done an epic job of defoliating these plants down to the bone. All that milkweed energy is going into metamorphosis. (Unless it’s going into a Spined Soldier Bug!)
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The Experiment
For more than a century now, the planet has been under chemical attack. At first, we directed this attack at insects, then at humans, then again at insects, and now again, by default, at humans. It was war, literally and figuratively. Now it is war of another sort, a profit-driven war against life itself. I…
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