insects
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Night Walk
A downy woodpecker patrols the trunk of a tree, the white strip down its back almost glowing as the light turns to dark. Above, a blue jay is remarkably quiet as it works out some issues before roosting for the night. As predicted, a young raccoon ambles out from the bushes to start pulling plastic…
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Weekend Dragonflies
Got a grip. The handsome Painted Skimmer (Libellula semifasciata), with his conspicuous orange wing pattern. Note the appendages at the tail-end of the abdomen: this is a male. He uses these to grasp females right behind the eyes (damselflies grasp by the neck). More on the wild kingdom of dragonfly sex can be found here,…
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Instar Light, Instar Bright
According to the good bug people at Bugguide.net, this is an instar caterpillar of the Grey Hairstreak (Strymon melinus). Here’s the adult, also seen at BBP. The caterpillar was munching away on some Desmodium trifoliatum. There is some variability in the coloring of these caterpillars; this one was pretty much the color of the flowers,…
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‘Till Next Time
Many of the Magicicadas never had a chance.But those that did survive to breed have laid their eggs by now, setting in process yet again the long-term strategy of this genus of periodical cicada. The eggs are planted in branches. Once they hatch, the tiny nymphs will drop down to the ground, to burrow into…
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Treehopper
One of the thorn-like treehoppers, perhaps the Oak Treehopper (Platycotis vittata), since it looks a little like one of those, sans the hornlike crest some of them grow, and was on an oak. These feed on sap. As one of the bugs of the order Hemiptera, they are suckers, not chewers.
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Papery
The beginning of a Bald-faced Hornet (Dolichovespula maculata) nest. It would have gotten to be the size of a football (American) if the construction process hadn’t been interrupted.Fallen to the ground from a tree for some reason.You bet I approached it gingerly.
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Red-Spotted Purple and Azure
In Sterling Forest State Park, a Red-spotted Purple. Limenitis arthemis has two rather different forms, the other, more northerly, one known as the White Admiral. The “Spring Azure Complex, Celastrina ladon and others,” is how the Kaufman Field Guide refers to these small, widespread, and common butterflies that are azure on the upperside of their…
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Magicicada Now
Saturday, in Doodletown, we found a few Magicicadas.And heard, in the distance, always the distance, the science-fiction-like thrum of them in the trees.On Sunday, we returned to Clove Lakes Park in Staten Island.Up on the hill and along Royal Oak Road, we found thousands and thousands and thousands of the husks.This is the bus shelter…
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Dragonfly Pond Watch
This morning I joined Brooklyn Bridge Park staffers and volunteers for an orientation about the Dragonfly Pond Watch they are participating in this season. As part of the Migratory Dragonfly Partnership, the Watch is gathering data about five of the sixteen known migratory dragonfly species in North America: Common Green Darner (Anax junius) Black Saddlebags…
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Nymph, in thy orisons
On the left, the Nnmphal husk of the Dog Day or Annual Cicada (Tibicen sp.), and on the right, the Periodic, 17-Year Cicada (Magicicada sp.). The Dog Day husk is from last August, if not the one before that, but its toes are still quite sharp. They don’t cut the skin, but they sure do…
Backyard and Beyond 