insects
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Waiting for me in the warmth of the hallway.I plead self-defense.
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Summer Whine
You spend years underground sucking on tree roots. And then, three to seven years after birth (accounts differ; species differ), you dig your way up out of the ground. How do you know when to do this? You’re in your fifth instar stage, by the way, when you do. Assuming you haven’t been concreted over,…
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Inside and Outside
I read somewhere recently that we, all of us, are always within two or three feet of a spider. There are untold billions of them in the world, and some of them do like the comforts of a less an immaculately kept house. This is one of (at least) two species that likes my bathroom.Right…
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Two wasps
Both of these were spotted in Central Park:Bald-faced hornet (Dolichovespula maculata). These are the social wasps that make the large, football-shaped paper nests you see in trees, especially in winter. The nests are completely inactive in winter and unused the following year. The wasp is chewing the old wood of this tree; it’s how they…
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Katydids
Now the nights are ticking with katydids. We have several species in the city: check out the results of the 2009 Cricket Crawl, which listened for crickets and katydids (along with grasshoppers, these insects are all in the Orthoptera order). The clicks, tzips, and “ka-ty-did she did she didn’t” of the night will last into…
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Grapevine Beetle
I found this Grapevine Beetle (Pelidnota punctata) dead on a tree stump, being scouted out by a fly. It’s about an inch long; three spots on each elytron, two on the pronotum like false eyes (these are sometimes absent). The species likes parks, gardens, and woodlands, and are so named because they feed on grapevines,…
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Earth Space
I know there’s plenty of gnashing of teeth over the end of the space shuttle program, a sort of a low-earth-orbit FedEx, but I invite the star-crossed to look around them down here with more attention. There’s so much yet to be discovered here on Earth. For instance, I was going through some photos, and…
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Jamaica Bay Update
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) and Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) on the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.Through the blind at Big John’s Pond: Black-Crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax, a juvenile), Glosy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), and Green Heron (Butorides virescens). Three Wood Ducks (Aix sponsa) were in there as well, but not visible here.…
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Return of the Prodigal?
A Black-and-Yellow Mud Dauber, Sceliphron caementarium, in the Back 40 today while I was watering parched plants. It was checking out the moist concrete, perhaps looking for a drink or some mud. I’ve noticed these wasps since the local nest started erupting last month, but they are very brief visitors. They probably don’t go far,…
Backyard and Beyond 