Howdy, BugFans,
The BugLady is getting ready for the annual firefly show (for BugFan Tom in the Deep South, the show’s almost over). She has been seeing day-flying fireflies in the air in the wetlands she visits. Most important question first – are they fireflies or lightning bugs?
06.30.23
Salutations, BugFans,
The BugLady usually closes for the month of June so that she can hit the trails, find newly-minted insects (preferably ones that she hasn’t written about yet), and start building up a stash of pictures for future episodes – by spring, her picture files are dominated by unidentified insects. Also, having hit 700 episodes at the end of March, the BugLady feels the need for a victory lap/vacation.
We’ve spent the last five weeks celebrating American Wetlands Month, but really, every day is Wetlands Day, so here’s an encore episode from 2011 that was in the queue when we ran out of Tuesdays in May. New words; new pictures.
SCUDS
Sit down and put your feet up, it’s a long story.
06.23.23
Salutations, BugFans,
The BugLady usually closes for the month of June so that she can hit the trails, find newly-minted insects (preferably ones that she hasn’t written about yet), and start building up a stash of pictures for future episodes – by spring, her picture files are dominated by unidentified insects. Also, having hit 700 episodes at the end of March, the BugLady feels the need for a victory lap/vacation.
We’ve spent the last five weeks celebrating American Wetlands Month, but really, every day is Wetlands Day, so here’s an encore episode from 2011 that was in the queue when we ran out of Tuesdays in May. New words; new pictures.
SCUDS
Sit down and put your feet up, it’s a long story.
06.07.23
Howdy, BugFans,
Rounding out American Wetlands Month, the BugLady would like to give a shout-out to our hard-working, home-grown Wisconsin Wetlands Association. The WWA reminds us that 75% of Wisconsin wetlands are on private lands, and that effective wetland protection involves educating both landowners and policy-makers.
WATER STRIDER REVISITED (2012)
Anyone who has watched Water striders in action has been wowed by the four-point shadow that marks their path over shallow waters.
05.31.23
Howdy, BugFans,
If wetlands are the transitional spongy/submerged/semi-submerged/sometimes-submerged areas between high ground and deep water, what might some wetlands look like? Swamps are wet woodlands, while marshes are wet areas with standing water whose vegetation is mostly non-woody. Peatlands like bogs, which have no sources of water other than precipitation and run-off, so water stalls there and becomes acidic; and fens, which are fed by springs and are often alkaline. And then there are sedge or wet meadows, scrub/shrub thickets, and more.
WATER SCORPION (2008)
05.24.23
Howdy, BugFans,
We’re celebrating American Wetlands Month with up close and personal views into the lives of some of its citizens, as seen in some slightly refurbished, vintage BOTWs.
DAPHNIA (2012)
Back into the water we go and into the realm of another NETI – not the pot, the “Not-Exactly-True-Insects.” Daphnia are at the lower limit of what the BugLady can accomplish with her 50mm macro lens (though she does have a recognizable shot of a Cyclops……), and Daphnia, aka water fleas, are yet another example of great stories coming in small packages.
05.17.23
Greetings, BugFans,
The celebration of American Wetlands Month continues.
We’ve all seen the list of wetland benefits – wetlands recharge groundwater, protect us from floods by trapping water and releasing it slowly, improve water quality by absorbing pollutants and sediments (they’ve been called “the kidneys of a watershed”), protect shorelines from erosion, and provide recreation and beauty. And they’re amazingly productive, biologically – they provide homes and habitats for many plants and animals (for 75% of Wisconsin wildlife species, says the Wisconsin Wetlands Association), and according to the Defenders of Wildlife organization, “More than one-third of our country’s threatened and endangered species live exclusively in wetlands, and almost half of these imperiled species use wetlands at some point in their lives.” They are considered as productive as coral reefs and rainforests, and they feed us and multitudes of other animal species (“biological supermarkets,” said one report).
Without further ado — WATER TREADERS (2014)
05.10.23
Howdy, BugFans,
May is American Wetlands Month. So, all month, BOTW will celebrate by posting slightly-massaged (a few new words and pictures), encore episodes about a selection of awesome critters the BugLady has encountered in area wetlands, plus some wetland information.
This story about Water Sow bugs was first posted in 2009.
05.04.23
Salutations, BugFans,
Variegated Meadowhawks started appearing in the state from the south and southwest in mid-April this year. Their appearances were brief – they have places to go – but they leave eggs behind in our ponds. Their offspring will emerge in late summer to decorate our landscapes briefly before they leave, too.
The BugLady massaged this episode from 2012 – some new words and new pictures.
04.26.23
Greetings, BugFans
BIRCH CATKIN BUGS (Kleidocerys resedae) are in the suborder Heteroptera and in the Seed Bug family Lygaeidae – “Seed bugs” because most family members (like Milkweed bugs) feed on seeds, puncturing them with piercing mouthparts. Due to the chemicals they pick up from the plants they eat, many Lygaeids don’t taste so good, and some (like Milkweed bugs) are clad in bright colors to advertise that fact. Most Lygaeid species also have stink glands, and so the term “stink bug” may be applied pretty loosely, but the Hemipterans that are officially called Stink bugs belong to the Stink bug family Pentatomidae. Birch catkin bugs have an odor that some people call strong and unpleasant, but that blogger Larry Hodgson, the Laidback Gardener, described as “intense, with a hint of wintergreen.”
04.19.23