Spend two days along the Ice Age Trail in the Kettle Moraine State Forest – Northern Unit learning essential backpacking skills in a safe and supportive atmosphere with a small group of like-minded folks. No backpacking experience required! Ages 21+.
02.02.24
Greetings, BugFans,
The BugLady is suffering from the February Doldrums in January – this is a massaged version of a BOTW that was originally posted in 2009, with some new words and new pictures.
Caddisflies, in the Order Trichoptera (“hairy wings”), are famous for the cases built for protection by their soft-bodied larvae (the only natural “armor” they possess is located on their head, thorax and legs) and for the larvae’s ability to produce silk thread via a silk gland in their lower lip. They use silk to “glue” materials together to construct the case, to net some food, and to modify the case before they pupate.
01.31.24
Greetings, BugFans,
The BugLady loves finding an insect she’s never seen before. When she saw it walking along a cordwalk (boardwalk on sand) in the dunes at Kohler-Andrae State Park, she knew that this guy/gal was in the stink bug family (Pentatomidae), but it’s more spindle-shaped and lacks the “shoulder pads” of a generic stink bug (younger BugFans may have to Google “shoulder pads”).
01.24.24
Greetings, BugFans,
Everybody likes butterflies (the BugLady would not like to meet the person who dislikes butterflies). But, in the order Lepidoptera, butterflies are just the tip of the iceberg – the heavy lifting is done by moths. There are in the neighborhood of 180,000 species of Lepidoptera worldwide (“10% of the total described species of living organisms,” says Wikipedia), and about nine-tenths of them are moths. Only around 700 of North America’s 12,000 species of Lepidoptera are butterflies.
Moths often languish in the BugLady’s picture files because: A) They can be tough to identify; and B) Most are not notorious enough to have drawn much attention to themselves, so their biographies are hard to find and are more like short stories.
01.19.24
Greetings, BugFans,
Today’s bug, the extraordinary-looking and aptly-named Saddle-backed caterpillar, is the 5th in our on-going Snowbird Special series about bugs you might see if you decide to tear yourself away from God’s Country in the winter. The BugLady doesn’t know why one might consider that – except she’s posting this before dark because there’s a massive storm that’s raining all over her, accompanied by 20-plus mph north winds, and is delivering many inches of snow inland. She suspects that the power will fail eventually.
Thanks to BugFan Tom in the Deep South for his pictures of this amazing caterpillar.
01.16.24
We invite undergraduate and graduate students to submit an abstract of your current research project to be presented in oral or poster form at our student research symposium.
01.16.24
Each Winter Solstice members are invited to feast on Yule Log stew and venture out to hunt for the Yule Log by candlelight. Join us to share the bounty of a fantastic year and celebrate winter’s return at this members-exclusive event.
01.08.24
Each Winter Solstice members are invited to feast on Yule Log stew and venture out to hunt for the Yule Log by candlelight. Join us to share the bounty of a fantastic year and celebrate winter’s return at this members-exclusive event.
01.08.24
Sway to the sounds of indie rock, folk, blues, and singer-songwriter tunes just as the leaves begin to turn color. With diverse acts on two stages–one in the heart of a […]
01.08.24