invertebrates
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Acorn Drillers
As is my wont, I pocketed a red oak acorn recently. Almost a week later I noticed this: a little wormy something was cutting it’s way out! Note the frass pile. Perhaps a Curculio nut and acorn weevil. More here. Not pictured, but this also happened with a shingle oak acorn, which has a much…
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Bald-Faced Washing
Bald-faced Hornet licking the stonework. Getting salts and minerals? Also, licking forelegs to groom antennae. Like a cat! The grooming wasp was spotted Saturday in the sun. This nest was seen Sunday, with at least one wasp hanging around still.
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Butterflies Are Free
Recognize this? This was a surprise at the recent Whitman exhibit at the Morgan Library and Museum, where the image for the exhibit shows a famous photograph of the older WW holding a butterfly. Yup, one and the same. (Bigger on the M’s site…) And in that spirit: A full house, Monarchs high.
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Butterfly Reprise
What a year for butterflies! All these were seen in the last two weeks. I’ve now seen 28 species in Kings County, according to iNaturalist. Plus one skipper, oh those bedeviling skippers, only identified to genus level. I meant to post this yesterday, but I screwed up the scheduling. It was 94F on Wednesday and…
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Under the Lilac Bush, Again
Remember the Wasp Lilac? Cicada-killer Wasps and a few other wasp species, but mostly Cicada-killers, were sucking the sap from this one bushy specimen in Green-Wood. Well, more than one lilac, actually, since the one nearby was also being suckled at. A month later, I happened to look again, and now it’s the turn of…
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Citrine Observation
Six years after spotting a male Citrine Forktail at Brooklyn Bridge Park, I spotted one in Green-Wood this week. This is my second record. Ischnura hastata is one the smallest of the damselflies. They like “densely vegetated pond and lake edges, grass seepages, and quiet streams,” according to Ed Lam. The site at Brooklyn Bridge…
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Cats!
When a body meets a body coming through the… Apiaceae. Black Swallowtail caterpillar fit to pupate. The Asteroid, AKA Goldenrod Hooded Owlet. A reprise of the Common Buckeye caterpillar. Five were seen in the same small patch. The blue spines! Our old friend the Monarch. On the same day, two days ago, a female was…
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Nine-Spotted Lady Beetles
Do you remember when the Flatbush Gardener released Nine-spotted Lady Beetle larvae in his native meadow garden? Coccinella novemnotata is the New York State insect, but it is almost non-existent now in the state. In fact, the species is hardly to be found anywhere in the east. Cornell’s Lost Ladybug Project has been working to…
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Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright
I’m missing the egg stage, but otherwise here’s the run: The first few instars of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail mimic bird droppings. This one was on the nearly horizontal surface of a magnolia leaf, right out in the open. Finally saw one! The caterpillar is green in youth. Or is that middle age? Old age,…
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What Came To Light
Moths spotted during the Macaulay Honors College BioBlitz in Green-Wood cemetery Saturday night: Black-bordered Lemon Moth (Marimatha nigrofimbria). Explicit Arches (Lacinipolia explicata). The Gem, or Gem Moth (Orthonama obstipata). Idia genus. Fall Armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda). White-speck (Mythimna unipuncta). Same individual, showing the effects of different light regimes on the subject. Greater Black-letter Dart? Opinions differ…
Backyard and Beyond 