invertebrates
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Stump Flies
If you look closely at yesterday’s pictures of recently stumped trees in Green-Wood, you’ll see a fly on one of them. Here are a few more. Saturday got to 60 degrees or so, but these photos were taken earlier in the day when it was perhaps 50. There didn’t seem to be much in the…
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Eggs
The other day I was rinsing off some organic tatsoi from Florida and found this egg clump. Tatsoi is a brassica — jeez, what isn’t this time of year? — so I compared these to pictures of Cabbage White (Pieris rapae) eggs, on the off-chance… but no dice. If anybody recognizes them, give a holler.
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Sympetrum
Insects are becoming fewer and far between now that autumn is upon us. One of the last dragonfly species to be seen are the Sympetrum Meadowhawks, red-bodied and small.There were a few active at midday on Friday at the NYBG.
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Instar
Instars are the stages between successive molts of some arthropod species. The word is from the Latin and means likeness or form. Because arthropods are covered in a hard shell, the exoskeleton, they must shed this to grow larger. Ecdysis is the scientific term for this shedding. That cigar-chomping wag H.L. Mencken coined the term…
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Monarchs
The air above Fort Tilden’s narrow reach was full of Tree Swallows and, to a lesser extent, Monarch Butterflies. The Monarchs were being pushed hard towards the east in the breeze. We saw about a dozen of them. One was quite high, noticed as we watched a Peregrine on patrol way up there.Danaus plexippus. Some…
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Unsaddled
The remains of a Black Saddlebags (Tramea lacerata), narrowly missed on the sidewalk.
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O You’ve Got Green Eyes
Clouded Sulphur (Colias philodice).
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Buggy Days
The Large Milkweed Bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus) on, unsurprisingly, milkweed.Japanese Beetles (Popillia japonica) making more Japanese Beetles in a bed of roses.Bald-faced Hornet (Dolichovespula maculata) drinking dew. Those mighty-wood-chewing jaws!
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Carpenter
A Carpenter Bee, Xylocopa genus. A redhead.
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Two Butterflies
Northern Cloudywing (Thorybes pylades).Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos); this one was particularly attached to this pebble.
Backyard and Beyond 