Last year, BugFan Nancy told the BugLady that she was making a quilt with a dragonfly motif, and asked what colors dragonflies came in. All of them. The BugLady sent her pictures of blue, green, purple, orange, red, and a variety of multi-colored dragons and damsels. The BugLady promises that BOTW is not going to march through the entire list of North American dragonflies and damselflies, but, oh my, isn’t this a handsome dragonfly! Plus, it’s being photobombed in one shot by a brilliantly-orange Eastern Amberwing dragonfly (interestingly, one of the BugLady’s Facebook friends also posted a shot of an Amberwing perched on a Jade Clubtail).
The BugLady hasn’t seen this species yet – thanks, as always, to BugFan Freda for sharing her pictures.
Clubtails are called Clubtails because the males of many (but not all) species have noticeably flattened and widened segments that form “clubs” on the distal end of their abdomen. Females’ clubs are minimal-to-absent. Clubtails are in the family Gomphidae – as a group, the Gomphidae (which also includes Dragonhunters, Snaketails, Spinylegs, and Sanddragons) are medium-sized (1 ½” to 2 ½”), speedy, early-flying dragonflies, some of which like moving water and others of which prefer their water still. Unlike most other dragonflies, whose eyes meet or nearly meet at the tops of their heads, Clubtails’ eyes are distinctly separated https://bugguide.net/node/view/741140.
Immature Gomphids (naiads) burrow into the muck, with eyes protruding (the better to see their prey, small invertebrates, swimming by, and with the tip of the abdomen exposed, for breathing.
“Gomphos” is from the Greek for nail or bolt, an allusion to their abdomens. There are about 100 species in the family in North America and some can be tricky to tell apart (the males’ claspers are diagnostic).
Adult Gomphids often perch and hunt on and near the ground, where despite their spectacular patterns, they can be hard to spot – their sometimes-bold color patterns resulting in disruptive coloration https://bugguide.net/node/view/970474.
Both males and females are seen “obelisking” – perching with the tip of the abdomen raised, which is thought to help with temperature control https://bugguide.net/node/view/1218643/bgimage and which is also used by males as an aggressive posture.
JADE CLUBTAILS (Arigomphus submedianus)are in the genus Arigomphus (the Pond Clubtails), an exclusively North American genus. Arigomphus, prefer their water still. They’re a pretty landlocked species, ranging from Texas, north through mid-continent to Wisconsin and Minnesota, where they’re found in lakes, rivers, streams, and mud-bottomed ponds and sloughs. They are common in Illinois but have been recorded only in the southern third of Wisconsin.
Pairs gather on shoreline vegetation. Males don’t guard females as they oviposit, which, because she lacks a real ovipositor, she accomplishes by allowing water to wash eggs from the tip of her abdomen. A gelatinous sac causes the eggs to stick to rocks and plants. Naiads are sturdy https://bugguide.net/node/view/1455474/bgimage. They prefer water that is unpolluted and well-oxygenated.
The BugLady likes to “bug” (if birders “bird,” can “bug” be a verb for folks who are looking for insects?) along the Milwaukee River at Waubedonia Park because (surprise) it’s great for dragonflies and damselflies – she’s photographed 25 species there. Most productive are the small bays along the shoreline where water lilies and arrowhead grow and the current is negligible, but she’s also written about the crowds of ovipositing Powdered Dancers that favor submerged aquatic vegetation in the currents near shore https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/powdered-dancer/.
About the time that the Powdered Dancers are peaking, the beautiful Stream Bluets are, too, and the vegetation along the riverbank flickers with tandem pairs. Males are “black-type” bluets – of the 35 similarly-marked and frequently-confusing species of bluet damselflies (17 species in Wisconsin), most are, as their name suggests, blue on some portion of their bodies. For “ease of identification,” they’re sorted into black-type, mid-type, and blue-type bluets based on the amount of blue in the male’s abdomen. However much blue is or isn’t there, the abdomens of most male bluets (except for the few that are red or orange) are tipped with blue, and the Stream Bluet has a deep “V” cut in the top side of that blue.
Female Stream Bluets, sometimes described as drab, have lovely lime-green bodies (unless they are blue-morph females) and a line along the thorax that the books call brown but that always looks gold to the BugLady. Unlike most species of bluets, female Stream Bluets also have some blue at the end of the abdomen.
Stream Bluets (Enallagma exsulans) are in the family Coenagrionidae (the Narrow-winged damselflies) and in the genus Enallagma, the American bluets. With a few exceptions, family members tend to prefer the edges of lakes or ponds ringed with vegetation, and except for picking moving water over still, Stream Bluets lead a fairly typical bluet lifestyle. Stream Bluets chase their prey – tiny insects – through the vegetation, making short forays in sheltered areas, but some fly out and hover over water.
Females may oviposit alone or with the male still clasping the back of her head (contact-guarding – to keep her from being swiped by a rambunctious rival male). She extends her abdomen to place her eggs in submerged plant stems https://bugguide.net/node/view/1149080/bgimage, but if she goes under completely (she may stay down for a half-hour), the male will let go. The eggs hatch soon after, the naiads feed, and the almost-mature naiads overwinter.
And Rivers ……. a rumination
If you could cut a cross section of a river, you’d find a seemingly infinite number of habitats and microhabitats in it, each formed by a specific combination of factors: water depth, the topography of the river (there’s a difference between the current in the “inside curve,” the “outside curve,” and middle of a river), erosion, the makeup of the bottom/substrate (smooth, rocky, pebbly, leafy, littered with tree trunks, etc.), types and locations of aquatic vegetation, the strength of its current, water quality (amount of dissolved oxygen and other gasses, sediment, pH (acidity), chemicals, and pollutants), light, temperature, available nutrients, and influences of the land at its edges and upstream. None of these factors is static – most can change quickly and drastically, and sometimes permanently. And, because of the dynamics of water, if you cut another cross section 100 feet up or downstream, it would probably look different. Each of those habitats and microhabitats is attractive (or unattractive) to a particular set of organisms.
The same is true of a prairie or woodland.
Insects that live in rivers, either as immatures or as “lifers,” have the same needs as those that live in quiet waters – oxygen, food, some elbow room, the ability to get around, the need to hide from predators, a way to keep excess water out. A wide array of adaptations – of different ways to accomplish the same goal – allows a wide array of invertebrates to live successfully in the same habitat without using each other’s resources. River dwellers have an additional requirement – in water that is always moving, they need a way to stay put.
Waubedonia dragons and damsels oviposit in their favorite slice of habitat and their naiads spend about a year ambushing their prey as they sprawl on underwater rocks, plant leaves, and stems or while they hide in muck and debris on the river bottom.
“If the creek don’t rise,” they will complete their life cycle in the same area, but the creek does rise, sometimes dramatically.
How do you even study something like this? It’s hard to investigate the effects of flooding when floods are, often, sporadic and unpredictable. When the BugLady started researching this, she expected that she might find a few notes from disgruntled grad students saying “I was studying the macroinvertebrates of X River and we had a big flood and my plots were swept away and the bugs are all gone.” But there wasn’t much out there (thanks, BugFan Bill, for helping to find and access some research). There were a few studies/observations of flooding with respect to mosquito populations, and to Odonates as potential biocontrols of mosquitoes and as indicators of aquatic ecosystem health.
Whether from a summer storm or spring ice melt, floods mix things up. After the initial blast of a flood, there can be long-term fallout. Among many other effects, floods revise/scour the contours and textures of the river bottom, carrying away nutrients and shelters (but then delivering more), reshaping channels and changing currents, removing predators (and delivering more), and putting a load of silt into the water that cuts down light for photosynthesizing plants, and settles on underwater surfaces – including invertebrates.
The BugLady is stunned by the enormity of the changes that a flooding event may trigger for critters that are a half-inch long and less. Their ability to stay in place depends on whether they can find get out of the current fast enough, so species that lead a sheltered life on the downstream side of a rock or tree trunk are at an advantage, but more mobile individuals must literally swim for their lives, and those that are weak swimmers don’t stand a chance of staying put.
One study showed that in a single spring thaw event in New Zealand, 50% of the macroinvertebrates were washed away! Another postulated that populations bounce back pretty fast after flooding as larvae that took shelter move back to their micro-habitats, and that the ability to take steps to avoid being washed away may impact a species’ fitness and persistence.
When the Urban Ecology Center in Milwaukee County records a new dragonfly species along the river, is it a gift from upstream?
The BugLady is still wrapping her head around this. So many moving parts.
It’s time to celebrate a dozen (or so) of the beautiful bugs that posed for the BugLady this year (and that have already graced their own episodes).
This GREAT SPANGLED FRITILLARY on the aptly-named butterfly weed.
EUROPEAN MANTIS – the BugLady intercepted this mantis as it was attempting to cross the road and moved it to a friendlier spot. The tiny bulls-eye in its tiny armpit tells us that it’s a European, not a Chinese mantis. Both are non-native, invited to God’s Country by gardeners who buy them and release them as pest control (alas, to a mantis, a honey bee looks as tasty as a cabbage worm).
When fall freezes come, they die, leaving behind ooethecae (egg cases) that look like a dried blob of aerosol shaving cream https://bugguide.net/node/view/2248160/bgimage). Eggs in ooethecae can survive a mild winter here but not a Polar Vortex; they hatch in spring https://bugguide.net/node/view/73199/bgimage. Every fall, The BugLady gets asked if it’s possible to keep a pet mantis alive in a terrarium over the winter. Short answer – No – its biological clock is ticking pretty loud.
GRAY FIELD SLUG – it was an unusually hot and muggy day, a day when the cooler air above the Lake did not quite reach inland (15 yards) to the BugLady’s front door. She glanced out and saw a gray field slug extended at least six inches on the storm door. For more info on gray field slugs, see https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/gray-field-slug-2-25-2019/.
CANDY-STRIPED LEAFHOPPER – when a spectacular insect picks an equally spectacular perch. What a treat!
A BROWN-MARMORATED STINK BUG shared the hawk tower with the BugLady on a cool day in late October. They’re a huge pest in the East because they eat orchard crops in summer and hole up/stink up in your house/closets/attics/coat pockets/boots in winter, and they’re becoming more numerous here. Remember – not every brown stink bug is a BMS – look for the pale stripes on the antennae and on the legs.
ORANGE SULPHURS are very common, and they don’t put on airs, they’re just quietly beautiful.
TACHINID FLY – when the BugLady thinks about Tachinid flies, she pictures the bristly, house-fly-on-steroids species that frequent the prairie flowers in late summer, but tachinid flies also come in “tubular.” The larvae of this one, in the genus Cylindromyia, make a living by parasitizing some moths and grasshoppers and a few species of predatory stink bugs (for which efforts they are not appreciated, because the predatory stink bugs are busy preying on plant pests). The adults, which are considered wasp mimics, feed on nectar.
EBONY JEWELWINGS are frequent flyers on these pages. The spectacular males usually have a metallic, Kelly-green body, but some individuals, in some light, appear royal blue.
SHAMROCK ORBWEAVER – the BugLady loves the big Argiope and Araneus orbweavers – tiny when they hatch in spring https://bugguide.net/node/view/1141628/bgimage, they grow slowly throughout the summer until they reach a startling size. Most go through the winter in egg cases – some hatch early but stay inside and ride out the winter in the case, eating yolk material and their siblings, and others hatch in spring. They emerge from the egg sac, and after a few days, balloon away in the breezes. Page through https://bugguide.net/node/view/11644/bgimage to see all the colors Shamrock orbweavers come in (and see why, like the Marbled orbweaver, they’re sometimes called Pumpkin orbweavers).
SKIMMING BLUET – note to self – ask insects to pose on the very photogenic leaves of Arrow Arum.
RED-VELVET MITE – the BugLady is frequently struck by the fact that the weather data we rely on was measured by instruments inside a louvered box that sits five feet above the ground, but the vast majority of animals – vertebrate and invertebrate alike – never get five feet off the ground in their lives. The weather they experience depends on microclimates created by the vegetation and topography in the small area where they live. Red velvet mites search for tiny animals and insect eggs to eat; their young form temporary tick-ish attachments to other invertebrates as they go through a dizzying array of life stages (OK – prelarva, larva, protonymph, deutonymph, tritonymph, adult). Read more about them here https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/red-velvet-mite-again/.
BUSH KATYDID – what child is this? A nymph of a bush katydid (Scudderia).
ANTS WITH APHIDS – while shepherds watched their flocks at night…… Some kinds of ants “farm” aphids and tree hoppers, guarding them from predators, guiding them to succulent spots to feed, and “milking” them – harvesting the sweet honeydew that the aphids exude from their stern while overindulging in plant sap.
And an EASTERN PONDHAWK in a pear tree.
Whatever Holidays you celebrate, may they be merry and bright and filled with laughter.
The Holidays are hurtling toward us at an astonishing speed, so the BugLady figured that a Christmas green and red dragonfly would be fitting. It’s one that she’s seen, all too briefly, but not photographed – thanks to Guest Photographer BugFan Freda, aka the Dragonfly Whisperer, for the pictures (the BugLady took the one of the darner in the grass).
Comet Darners (Anax longipes) are in the dragonfly family Aeshnidae, the darners, and in the genus Anax, a group of large and sometimes migratory darners (Anax comes from an Ancient Greek word meaning “lord,” “master,” or “king”). Bugguide.net shows four other genus members in the US, a couple of them just barely here:
Comet Darners mostly live east of the Great Plains, from Florida to Ontario, though they are distributed randomly, and even though they aren’t officially considered migratory, they are strong flyers that can end up just about anywhere. They prefer relatively shallow ponds with forested edges, lots of floating, submerged, and emergent vegetation, and few/no fish. The water level of many of their chosen ponds fluctuates annually.
Comet Darners are fast and impressive, and with a wingspread of up to 3 ½” (females are slightly larger than males) they are among our largest dragonflies, And at 2 ½” long, their naiads are pretty big, too – Freda’s photograph of the empty shells of a Comet Darner (left) and Common Green Darner (right) show the size difference. They have long, spectacular red and black legs https://bugguide.net/node/view/88077, and males have a constriction on the third abdominal segment that gives them a “narrow waisted” appearance (females are stockier). The male’s red abdomen fairly glows as he flashes by https://bugguide.net/node/view/1865911/bgimage. Females have pale spots on their abdomen https://bugguide.net/node/view/218411/bgimage. They seldom perch and are hard both to catch and hard to photograph (bugguide.net has a surprisingly small collection of pictures for a dragonfly this flashy, with this large a range). Some observers report that these darners are most active in the beginning and ending parts of the day.
Most sources say that the only dragonfly you might mistake the uncommon Comet Darner for is the smaller Common Green Darner (which is, as its name suggests, common). The BugLady got pretty excited when she spotted the colorful darner perched in the grass, but despite the red abdomen, she could see the Cyclops eye on the top of its head when she photographed it – an especially colorful female Common Green Darner. Comet darners lack that “bulls-eye” on the face https://bugguide.net/node/view/125199/bgimage.
Like all Odonates, Comet Darners are carnivores, both during their aquatic youth as naiads and as aerial adults. The naiads are big enough to tackle not only the usual aquatic invertebrates but also small vertebrates like minnows, tadpoles, and frogs, and they’re top predators in their habitats. Adults cruise about 8 feet above the water, grabbing insects out of the air, and their super-long legs allow them to go after larger prey, including their fellow dragonflies. On the Comet Darner page of his great “Dragonflies of Northern Virginia” website, Kevin Munroe writes “I saw one flying off to feed in the trees with two Black Saddlebags (decent-sized insects themselves), clutched tightly in those long, red, black-hooked legs. I guess he was hungry, and one dragonfly just wasn’t enough.”
Males are territorial, patrolling all around the shoreline of their pond, just above the level of the vegetation, looking for food, intruders, and mates. Neither males nor females are monogamous. Females slice into the stems of plants just below the water’s surface with their ovipositor and insert eggs https://bugguide.net/node/view/1835467/bgimage. Eggs hatch within a month, but the naiad/immature stage may last for several years.
According to the Comer Darner page on the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species website, when they emerge https://bugguide.net/node/view/1321893/bgimage, “Immature dragonflies may spend a week or more feeding and maturing away from water, often some distance from the breeding site. Comet Darners are rarely seen during this stage. It is possible that they spend their time in the tree tops, where they are difficult to observe. ……. When at rest, they hang from the vegetation in a vertical position, often high in the trees.”
What’s their status in Wisconsin? Are there unchecked ponds out there that are graced by Comet Darner flyovers every summer? Are there Comet Darner naiads under the ice in Wisconsin right now, awaiting the warming waters of spring?
Comet Darners are listed on the Wisconsin Odonata Survey website as a “Most Wanted” species, and their story here is similar to their story in other states at/beyond the edges of their range.
In his article called “What is the incomparable Anax longipes (Comet Darner) doing in Wisconsin?” Robert DuBois and Freda trace the history of Comet Darners in the state. Beginning with a report in 1978, Comet Darners have been recorded at just a few sites in just a few counties. They have not been seen every year, and while most sightings are of males, ovipositing females have been seen, and an exuvia (shed skin) of an emerged naiad was found at one site, pointing to successful breeding.
There are tantalizingly few reports here each year (a Comet Darner was recorded during the 2024 Riveredge Butterfly and Dragonfly Count), but some sites have been visited multiple times. Sometimes, individuals are seen for a few days and then they disappear, but other Comet Darners are observed on ponds for longer stretches of time. Data collected in Wisconsin and in Michigan suggest that, while it is possible that random wandering individuals could find the same pond several years in a row (remember, dragonflies only live a few months as adults, so they’re not revisiting a site, like migratory birds), it’s more likely that small numbers of Comet Darners are breeding in Wisconsin, at the northwest edge of their range – what Robert DuBois calls “small but persistent interacting subpopulations.”
Fun Fact about Darners: In his book Dragonflies of the North Woods, Kurt Mead says, “Not to scare you, but I have heard of rare, isolated reports of darners attempting to lay eggs into human skin. One scientist carefully observed eggs being injected into each cut in his skin. Perhaps this phenomenon is the source of some old European names such as ‘eye sticker,’ ‘horse stinger,’ and ‘devil’s darning needle.’” (to which the BugLady replies 1) of course he did; 2) that scientist doomed those eggs in service of his useless observation; and 3) the devil takes the fall for a bunch of stinging and scary-looking insects.).
We’ve arrived at the final act in this summer’s insect drama – a drama played out over the months by an ever-changing cast of characters. Some are regulars, with successive generations appearing in multiple acts throughout the season, while others step in for only one act of the play. Here are some of the actors that appeared on stage after mid-August.
DARNER WITH SPIDER – well, the darner migration was nothing short of magical this year, and then it was over. And then it restarted – lots of Common Green Darners in the air on September 19 and 20, along with a bunch of Black Saddlebags. They’re heading south along the lakeshore, aiming for the Gulf States, but they don’t all make it. The BugLady’s guess is that this one was perched in the grass, and when it took off, it ran into the web of an orbweaver. It messed up the web, but because it wasn’t flying at full power, the spider was able to snag it. THANKS to the family that located this tableaux along the trail and pointed the BugLady at it.
TIGER SWALLOWTAIL – perfection on the wing, but far too few of them this summer.
GOLD-MARKED THREAD-WAISTED WASPS (Eremnophila) put the “thread” in the Thread-waisted wasp family (Sphecidae). They’re solitary wasps that dig single-celled egg chambers in the ground and provision them with caterpillars of sphinx or owlet moths (and the odd of skipper butterfly caterpillar). Her long legs allow her to straddle a larger caterpillar and walk it back to her nest https://bugguide.net/node/view/1408944/bgimage. She keeps her strength up by sipping carb-rich flower nectar.
RED-LEGGED GRASSHOPPERS making more Red-legged grasshoppers. ‘Tis the season.
GRAY HAIRSTREAKS are listed as the most common hairstreak in North America (because their caterpillars are “catholic” eaters that feed on about 200 different plants), but they’re not common in Wisconsin.
Fun facts about Gray Hairstreaks:
The point of the eyespot and the “tail” is to make the butterfly’s rear end look like a front end, with eye and “antenna,” thus confusing predators;
Gray hairstreak caterpillars are tended by ants in return for honeydew (produced, of course, in the caterpillar’s “honey gland”);
BIG SAND TIGER BEETLES are all about sand. Their eggs are buried in the sand; their larvae https://bugguide.net/node/view/1277687/bgimage dig long tunnels in the sand and then pop out when unwary insects and spiders wander by. At up to six feet long, the tunnel extends below the frost line and allows them to survive the winter. Adults stand “on tiptoe” (stilting) to raise themselves incrementally higher off the hot sand. Not surprisingly, Tiger beetles have fan clubs.
FIERY SKIPPER – these beautiful, inch-long, golden butterflies aren’t from around here, though they regularly visit God’s Country and beyond. Their usual range is southern and even tropical, and they move north in mid-summer and produce a brood here, but it’s too cold for them to overwinter (for now). They’ve made it to Hawaii and are unwelcome there, because their caterpillars feed on grasses.
EUROPEAN PAPER WASPS are buzzing around the hawk tower these warm, sunny days, so the BugLady has to look sharp before she puts her hands on the railings. Fortunately, they are jumpy wasps that usually spot her before she gets too close. They arrived on the East Coast 40 or 50 years ago and have spread across the northern US and Canada. They catch, masticate, and regurgitate caterpillars and other small insects for their larvae. The lovely gold legs and antennae separate them from our common Northern paper wasp.
Fun facts about European paper wasps:
1) The brighter the coloration of a female European paper wasp, the more toxic her sting is;
2) Females with more spots on their faces are dominant.
FAMILIAR BLUETS – Big and startlingly blue, Familiar Bluets are one of the last damselflies on the scene. (‘Tis the season.)
Caterpillars of VIRGINIAN TIGER MOTHS are also known as Yellow wooly bears or Yellow bear caterpillars (though they come in white, yellow, caramel, and rusty colors, and here’s a pink one https://bugguide.net/node/view/1728143/bgimage). They’re food generalists, and so are all over the place (not just in Virginia). Although some people are sensitive to their hairs, the hairs are not poisonous. Adults are spectacularly white https://bugguide.net/node/view/1984450/bgimage, but when they are alarmed, they curl their abdomen to flash a startling orange https://bugguide.net/node/view/2329153/bgimage.
NURSERYWEB SPIDERS carry their egg sac around in their jaws (wolf spiders carry theirs aft) and when the eggs are close to hatching, she creates a loose “nursery web,” installs the egg sac in it (hers was on the underside of the leaf), and then guards it until the eggs hatch and the spiderlings have molted once. No help from Dad – if she doesn’t eat him (sexual cannibalism – an important nutrient booster) (he wraps her legs with silk during courtship to try to prevent this), he leaves to pursue other relationships. He gives her a “nuptial gift” of a silk-wrapped prey item at the start of courtship so that she will think well of him, but after he has immobilized her and exchanged bodily fluids, he takes the gift with him when he goes.
CRANE FLY – the “Old Wives” really got it wrong about Crane flies. Though they’re also called “mosquito hawks,” they do not eat mosquitos (or any meat of any kind). They do not bite anything at all, but they’re reputed to be the “most venomous insects in the world.” The confusion may have come because of their resemblance to the cellar spiders, themselves getting a bad rap because their bites are practically harmless. They’re just a short-lived fly whose larvae inhabit a variety of habitats from wetlands to lawns (where they both feed on and fertilize the grass).
EASTERN TAILED-BLUES are tiny butterflies with wingspans of an inch or less, but they’re tough enough to fly well into fall (four years ago, the BugLady saw one on November 4). Like the Gray Hairstreak, the eye and tail on the hind wing are there to trick hungry birds into grabbing a wing, not an abdomen. ‘Tis the season.
The BugLady has been playing outside, and she had trouble coming in long enough to write these stories.
STORY #1 – THE CLOVER LEAF WEEVIL. The BugLady took a few “throw-away shots” of this little (3/8” long) beetle as it crawled along a boardwalk in a wetland, and she made a few inaccurate guesses about its identity, but the sun was bright and she couldn’t really see the image on the screen, and then she and the beetle went their separate ways. Turned out to be a completely different beetle than she thought, one that apparently took a wrong turn at the start of the boardwalk.
It was a weevil https://bugguide.net/node/view/859710/bgimage, a weevil that has gone through more than a dozen combinations and permutations of scientific names since it was first described in 1763 (“A rose by any other name….”) and that can still be found under multiple names in the contemporary literature. Some of the names resulted when the species was described and named by one person, but had already been described and named by another (18th century entomologists received specimens from contacts all over the world, and communication among them was slow). Other name changes happened when the family or subfamily or genus of the weevil was revised (and some of those changes were not embraced by others in the field). The BugLady gets the feeling that the dust has not settled on this weevil’s name.
The Clover, or Sandy, Leaf Weevil (we’ll go with Donus zoilus) is in the Snout/Bark beetle family Curculionidae. It’s the only member of its genus in our area, but there are a lot more genus members globally, and it’s not from around here. It was originally found in the “Palearctic realm” – Europe and Asia between the Arctic and North Africa/India. With a little help from its friends (us), it jumped the Big Pond and came to live in the Nearctic realm (North America between the Arctic and Mexico). It made its North American debut in Quebec in 1853, and now it’s present over about three-quarters of the country. .
Its habitat is listed as grasslands, clearings, roadsides, and edges, and while adults may feed on a few plants that are not in the Pea family (the BugLady can recall no members of the Pea family along that boardwalk), the raison d’être for both adults and larvaeis eating agricultural clovers, especially alfalfa. Larval host plants include alfalfa, red, white, crimson, and alsike clovers, and sweet clovers (sweet clovers (the Devil Incarnate), of which they may consume as much as they can hold).
Both adult and larval Clover leaf weevils feed at night or on cloudy days, and shelter on/in the ground in the sunlight. The larvae/grubs https://bugguide.net/node/view/1535920 make small holes in the leaves. Most sources said that unless they occur in high numbers, they’re not a major crop pest (unlike the much smaller, Alfalfa leaf weevil). The grubs are parasitized by the larvae of this lovely little ichneumon wasp https://bugguide.net/node/view/1152272.
There’s only one brood per year – females place eggs in and around the host plants in fall. Most eggs hatch then and the larvae overwinter, feeding when it’s warm enough and resting when it’s not, then pupating https://bugguide.net/node/view/1535924 and becoming adults in spring. Any eggs that overwinter hatch in spring. Newly-emerged adults feed and then aestivate (suspend operations) for part of the summer, reactivating and laying eggs in fall https://bugguide.net/node/view/1655976/bgimage. Larvae chew on plants in spring, and adults chew on plants in fall.
STORY #2 – RECENT SPIDER ADVENTURE. The BugLady headed to the laundromat the other day. She got a few miles down the road and noticed (belatedly) a Cross Orbweaver on a strand of web on the inside of the driver’s side window (“along came a spider and sat down beside her…”). She found an uninhabited side road and pulled way over to the left, so the side of the car was in grass, opened the window and nudged the spider out, hoping to move it away from the car. When she got to the laundromat, the windblown spider was curled tight, clinging to the side of the car below the mirror. It stayed there while the laundry went around, and then held on for the ride home. The BugLady lifted her off with a leafy twig, and the spider recovered on the porch rail. Spiders are tough!
STORY #3 – AN EXUBERANCE OF DRAGONFLIES. We experienced a wonderful, three-day dragonfly migration from August 30 into September 1, and in the run-up to that migration, the BugLady enjoyed some amazing walks through big feeding swarms, with darners cruising past, inches away. As she went out to the hawk tower on Sunday, darners and saddlebags were in the air everywhere, with even more jumping up from the grass as she passed. When she scanned for incoming hawks, the view through her binoculars was dragonflies as far out as she could see, in all directions. Magic! Abruptly, at 1:00 PM, the wind shifted a bit and it was over, and only the stragglers remained.
The BugLady has been scouring the landscape and aiming her camera at anything that will sit still for it (and some that won’t). And (without going too overboard on dragonflies and damselflies), here are some of her bug adventures.
LEAFCUTTER BEE – ah, the one that got away. The BugLady saw a lump on a boardwalk in front of her and automatically aimed her camera at it (a long lens is a good substitute for a pair of binoculars). The lump – a leafcutter bee – flew off after one, out-of-focus shot. The bee had paused while she was cutting and collecting pieces of vegetation to line the tunnel and chambers where she’ll lay her eggs (here’s one caught in the act https://bugguide.net/node/view/2150206/bgimage).
JAPANESE BEETLE – lots of the vegetation that the BugLady sees these days is pockmarked with small holes – evidence of feeding by Japanese beetles (of course, she’s also been seeing conspicuous, beetle ménages a trois on the tops of those leaves, too). Japanese beetles made their North American debut in New Jersey in 1916, and their menu now includes more than 350 plant species. But – they are a handsome beetle!
WATER STRIDERS create art wherever they go.
APPALACHIAN BROWN BUTTERFLY (probably) (the part of the hindwing that has the squiggly line that helps distinguish the Eyed Brown from the Appalachian Brown is gone). Life in the wild isn’t all beer and skittles. The chunks missing from this butterfly’s wings suggest that a bird chased it and that most of the butterfly got away.
POWDERED DANCER – in an episode a month ago, the BugLady lamented that the river was so high and fast that Powdered Dancers couldn’t find any aquatic vegetation to oviposit in. A dryer spell revealed some weed patches, and the dancers hopped right onboard.
EASTERN PONDHAWK DRAGONFLY – this male Eastern Pondhawk was hugging the cattail stalk, a posture that’s not characteristic of this usually-horizontal species. Turns out that it had captured a Violet/Variable Dancer damselfly and was holding it closely between its body and the cattail.
CRAB SPIDER – what would a summer summary be without one of the BugLady’s favorite spiders, the Crab spider? Where’s Waldo? Bonus points if you know the name of the plant.
HONEY BEE WITH APHIDS – it’s not surprising to see yellowjackets browsing among herds of water lily aphids – adult yellowjackets are (mostly) vegetarians, but they collect, masticate, and regurgitate small insects for their larvae. Honey bees are hard-core vegans, so what’s going on here?
Aphids overeat. They have to – the plant sap they suck in has very low concentrations of sugars and proteins, so they need to process a lot of it in order to get enough calories. Sap comes out of the plant under pressure, which forces the sap through the aphid smartly, and the extra liquids (in the form of a sweet substance called honeydew), exit to the rear of the aphid (or it would explode). Honeydew drops onto the surrounding leaves and attracts other insects that harvest it. The bee is no threat to the aphids, she’s just collecting honeydew.
Fun Fact – according to Master beekeeper Rusty Burlew, writing in her blog “Honey Bee Suite, “The bees treat the substance like nectar so it is often mixed together with the nectar from flowers. As such, it is not really noticeable in the finished honey. Honey made almost exclusively from honeydew is known as honeydew honey, forest honey, bug honey, flea honey, or tree honey. Sometimes it is named after its primary component, such as pine honey, fir honey, oak honey, etc. It is generally dark, strongly flavored, less acidic, and less sweet than floral honey.”
EASTERN AMBERWING – at barely an inch long, this improbably-colored dragonfly is one of our flashiest.
MOSQUITOES – Mosquito Control 101: “get rid of standing water in your yard!” Check. But, the BugLady has a bird bath (her “vintage” childhood saucer sled) that she washes out and refills at least once a week (or so she thought). She was surprised the other day to see a whole mess of mosquito “wigglers” (larvae) in the water. Worse, they probably were the small-but-mighty Floodwater mosquitoes that can make August miserable because they emerge in Biblical numbers, and because they seem to be biting with one end even before the other end has fully landed. They develop at warp speed – a week from egg to wiggler, and another week from wiggler to adult. Get rid of standing water in your yard. Check.
SCORPIONFLIES are odd-looking insects from a whole order of odd-looking insects (Mecoptera). This guy is in the Common scorpionfly family Panorpidae and in the genus Panorpa (which is a corruption of the Greek word for “locust”). The appendage at the end of the male’s abdomen explains its name, but these are harmless insects, fore and aft. One site mentioned they are wary and hard to photograph. Amen!
Panorpa uses chewing mouthparts at the tip of its elongated rostrum/snout to eat dead and dying insects, and it may liberate insects from spider webs (and sometimes the spider, too). It is also said to eat some nectar and rotting fruits.
He courts by releasing pheromones to attract her, quivering his wings when she comes near, and then offering a gift – a dead insect, or maybe some gelatinous goo manufactured in his salivary gland. He shares bodily fluids with her as she eats.
CAROLINA LOCUST – what a lovely, chunky little nymph!
AUTUMN MEADOWHAWK – the dragonfly scene changes after mid-summer, with the early clubtails, emeralds, corporals, whitefaces, and skimmers being replaced by darners, saddlebags and a handful of meadowhawk species. This newly-minted (teneral) Autumn Meadowhawk has just left its watery nursery on its way to becoming – for the next six weeks or so – a creature of the air.
KATYDID NYMPH – the BugLady was photographing leafcutter bees that were visiting birdsfoot trefoil flowers (birdsfoot trefoil is a non-native member of the pea family that was introduced for animal fodder and erosion control and that can become invasive in grasslands. There’s probably some blooming along a road edge near you). She noticed that when the bees approached one particular flower, they reversed course and didn’t land, and when she checked she found the tiniest katydid nymph she has ever seen. This one will grow up considerably to be a 1 ½” to 2” long Fork-tailed bush katydid (or somebody else in the genus Scudderia) https://bugguide.net/node/view/2164189/bgimage. How do you find bush katydids? The “Listening to Insects” website advises us to “Watch for a leaf that moves on its own, or a leaf with antennae.” They are a favorite of Great golden digger wasps, which collect and cache them for their eventual larvae, and another website said “this is what bird food looks like.”
The BugLady found a recording of their call. They don’t say “Katy-did, Katy-didn’t;” they say “tsp” or “pffft,” and they don’t say it very loudly. Bush Katydids are busiest at night, when their long, highly sensory antennae help them to find their way around. Although adult females are equipped with a wicked-looking ovipositor, they don’t sting, but they do nip if you handle them wrong. Memorably, it’s said.
Here are some of the bugs that the BugLady found in June, which was, overall, a hot and wet month (7.97” of rain at the BugLady’s cottage).
LIZARD BEETLE – the BugLady doesn’t know why these striking beetles are called Lizard beetles, unless it’s a nod to their long, slender shapes. She usually sees them in the prairie on Indian Plantain plants. The adults eat various parts of the plant, including pollen, while their larvae feed within the plant stems (the Clover stem borer is persona non grata in commercial clover fields).
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, many species of Lizard beetles “make squeaking sounds using well-developed stridulatory organs on top of the head.”
Two (counterintuitively-named) ORANGE BLUETS, ensuring the next generation. He “contact guards” her as she oviposits in submerged vegetation, lest a rival male come along and swipe her. When the eggs hatch, the naiads can swim right out into the water.
BALTIMORE CHECKERSPOT – the BugLady has seen more of these spectacular butterflies than usual this year. The caterpillars https://bugguide.net/node/view/206383 feed in fall on a late-blooming wildflower called Turtlehead (and sometimes broad-leaved plantain); turtlehead leaves (and plantain, to a lesser extent) contain growth-enhancing chemicals called iridoid glycosides that also discourage birds. The caterpillars tuck in for the winter and emerge the next year into a landscape empty of Turtlehead.
In spring, Baltimore Checkerspot caterpillars 2.0 feed on leaves of a variety of flowers and shrubs – the BugLady has seen them on goldenrod and on wood betony – and especially on leaves of the (doomed) white ash.
CRAYFISH – the BugLady came across this crayfish and its companion when all three of us were negotiating a muddy trail (so many muddy trails this year!). It waved its pincers at her to make sure she was terrified.
DOODLEBUGS (aka antlions) got going early this year – the BugLady found more than 100 excavations (pits) at the southeast corner of her house at the end of April, and more along the path leading to the beach. They’ve had a rough go of it – it doesn’t take much rain to ruin a pit, and it takes a day or so to repair one.
Doodlebug watchers sometimes catch a glimpse of pincers at the bottom of a pit, or of a doodlebug tossing sand around. The BugLady witnessed an ant going to its final reward, and found a pit with a small beetle in it, one with a box elder bug, and one with a beetle and a small jumping spider. She will look for the adults, which look kind of like damselflies, in August.
COMMON SPRING MOTH – the BugLady loves finding bugs she’s never seen before, especially when she doesn’t have to leave home to do it!! (She does get a little bewildered, though, when the “new” insect is named the “Common something” and she’s never seen it before). The occurrence of this one should be no surprise – its caterpillars feed on Black locust leaves.
PETROPHILA MOTHS are dainty moths that are tied to water. The BugLady and BugFan Joan spotted mobs of moths on milkweed (yes, there’s a milkweed under there) on the bank of the Milwaukee River. “Petrophila” means “rock lover” – for that story, see this BOTW about a (probably) different species https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/two-banded-petrophila/.
GREEN LACEWING EGGS – the BugLady wrote about Green lacewings and their eggs a few months ago, and she recently found this amazing bunch of tiny, glistening eggs. She has always associated Green lacewings with the end of summer. Guess not.
EIGHT-SPOTTED FORESTER MOTHS are small, spiffy, day-flying moths that are often mistaken for butterflies. The one that the BugLady found recently was not as gaudy as most – most have brilliant orange leg scales https://bugguide.net/node/view/2300226/bgimage. There’s a saying among Lepidopterists – the plainer the caterpillar, the more spectacular the adult. Forester moths seem to be an exception https://bugguide.net/node/view/156406.
POWDERED DANCERS oviposit at this time of year in the slightly-submerged stems of aquatic vegetation, especially Potamogetonhttps://bugguide.net/node/view/737371/bgimage. They’ve been pictured here before. This year, the river is running high and fast – there are no mats of Potamogeton leaves with Ebony Jewelwings, American Rubyspots, Stream Bluets, and Powdered Dancers flickering above them. Do they have a Plan B?
MALEFEMALE
These two BRILLIANT JUMPING SPIDERS (aka Red & Black jumping spiders), a male and a female, were perched a respectful distance from each other on the prairie. Jumping spiders, as their name suggests, jump, and depending on species, can cover from 10 to 50 times their body length. They don’t spin trap webs, but they do spin a drag line while jumping to guard against mishaps. They hunt by day.
The great MObugs website (Missouri’s Majority) says that “By late July or August mating is on their mind. Males begin to compete with other males for the right to mate with nearby females. Larger males typically win these competitions which include loud vibrations and some unique footwork. Males choose the larger females to mate with as they produce the most eggs.” She will place her egg sac in a silken nest in a leaf shelter and guard it, dying shortly after the spiderlings emerge from the sac.
ZELUS LURIDUS (aka the Pale green assassin bug) is the BugLady’s favorite Assassin bug. They mostly wait patiently for their prey to wander by, but when it does, they reveal their super power. Glands on their legs produce a sticky resin that they smear over the hairs on their legs. When they grab their prey, it stays grabbed.
Although “lurid” now means shocking, vivid, or overly bright, it originally meant ghastly, horrifying, pale, sallow, or sickly yellow – its meaning began to change in the 1700’s.
The BugLady and her camera have been out scouring the uplands and wetlands for insects that will sit still long enough to have their portrait made. Many of today’s bugs have starred in their own BOTWs over the years, and you can find them by Googling “UWM Field Station followed by the name of the insect. Her gut continues to tell her that there simply aren’t as many insects to point her camera at as there were a decade ago.
What did she find in April and May?
WOODLAND LUCY (Lucidota atra), aka the Black firefly (atra means black). If a lightning bug doesn’t light, is it still a Lightning bug? Yup. Most lightning bugs flash their species-specific light signals at females by night, but some, like the Woodland Lucy, are day flyers (the BugLady starts seeing them in swamps in May, but she usually doesn’t see a light show by their nocturnal relatives until the very end of June). It would be a waste of energy to try to produce a light that competes with the sun, so diurnal lightning bugs communicate via pheromones (perfumes). But, all fireflies make light at some point in their lives, and always as a larva (and even the adult Woodland Lucy makes a weak light for a brief time after emerging as an adult).
Who says “lightning bug” and who says “firefly?” Lightning bug is heard most often in the South and Midwest, and firefly belongs to New England and the West (and Southeastern Wisconsin is close to the border of the two). Someone did a study and hypothesized that people who live in wildfire country prefer firefly, and people who live in thunderstorm country say lightning beetle. The BugLady likes the alternate theory – that you call them whatever your Grandmother called them.
DISONYCHA BEETLE – isn’t this a neat beetle! The BugLady photographed another member of the genus years ago when she was photographing visitors to her pussy willow shrub. It’s in the (huge) leaf beetle family Chrysomelidae, many of whose members are pretty specific about the host plants for their larvae. This one is (probably) a member of the confusing Smartweed Disonycha bunch.
GROUSE LOCUSTS are in the family Tetrigidae (the pygmy grasshoppers), and at a half-inch and less when full grown, pygmy they are! The BugLady usually sees them in wetlands, and some are actually known to swim. They feed on tiny diatoms and algae and aquatic vegetation at the water’s edge.
A CENTIPEDE works the boardwalk at Spruce Lake Bog in April.
GROUND BEETLE LARVA – Ground beetles (family Carabidae) are a bunch of mainly nocturnal, sometimes-sizeable, mostly predaceous beetles. Some of the big ones have no-nonsense names like Fiery Searcher and Caterpillar Hunter, and although they are called Ground beetles, they may climb trees to find their prey. They’re long-lived, spending a year or two as larvae and then two or three more as adults. No – the BugLady was not inclined to pick this one up.
The WHITE-STRIPED BLACK MOTH (Trichodezia albovittata) is a small (1” wingspan) day-flying moth that’s often mistaken for a butterfly. It’s found in wetlands because its caterpillar’s food is Impatiens/Jewelweed/Touch-me-not. Like other members of the moth family Geometridae, it has tympanal organs (ears) at the base of its abdomen so that it can hear the echolocation calls of bats. Since it’s diurnal, its ears are superfluous, but it can hear ultrasound (which suggests to evolutionary biologists that its day-flying habit is a recent one).
CHALK-FRONTED CORPORALS are one of our earliest dragonflies – the BugLady recalls seeing recently-emerged corporals by the hundreds over a dirt road on warm, spring days.
DADDY LONGLEGS (aka Harvestmen) are not true spiders, though they do have eight legs. The best description that the BugLady has read is that lacking a sharp division between their two body parts (cephalothorax and abdomen), they look like Rice Krispies with legs. This one is well-camouflaged on the fertile stalk of a cinnamon fern.
The BugLady may have to have this engraved on her gravestone (oh wait, she’s being scattered) – DADDY LONGLEGS DO NOT BITE PEOPLE! Also, counter to both urban and rural legend, they are NOT the most venomous animal on earth!!! The BugLady does not care what your cousin told you, or the person who claims to be allergic to their bite. They have tiny jaws, and unlike the true spiders, they do not pierce their prey and then pump in chemicals from venom glands (no venom glands) (and they have no stinging apparatus). They just sit there and chew off tiny (tiny) pieces. Got it?
The BEAUTIFUL BEE FLY (Bombylius pulchellus) truly is (pulchellos means “little beauty”)! This small fly (maybe ¼”) was photographed in a wetland in mid-May. Bee fly larvae are parasitoids of a variety of insect eggs and larvae – this one targets the sweat bees, which are among our earliest pollinators (not to worry – the system is in balance).
CRANE FLY – there are a number of families of crane flies, plus some near-relatives, and they are often collectively called daddy longlegs (though they’re not spiders) and mosquito hawks and skeeter-eaters (though they don’t catch or eat mosquitoes). What they do, is look like giant mosquitoes when they land on the other side of your window screen at night https://bugguide.net/node/view/2360312/bgimage, but they’re completely harmless. The “crane” in crane fly reflects their long, long legs – they’re somewhat awkward flyers and even more awkward landers. Like the Daddy longlegs, they’re reputedly extremely venomous (and now it’s time to introduce the third member of our “daddy longlegs trio,” the cellar spider. Crane flies are thought to be venomous because they look like cellar spiders (https://bugguide.net/node/view/2170770/bgimage), but, alas, cellar spiders only have very weak venom).
How do these things get started, anyway?
SOLDIER FLY – it’s always a little startling to come across a lime-green fly!
This VIRGINIA CTENUCHA MOTH CATERPILLAR was photographed in April, but the BugLady has found them walking around on mild winter days. The cute caterpillar will morph into a stunning moth https://bugguide.net/node/view/1036503/bgimage that looks butterfly-ish until it lands on a leaf and immediately crawls underneath. Despite its name, it’s a moth with more northerly affiliations.
The (great) Minnesota Seasons website lists three defense strategies:
Aposematism: The metallic blue color of the thorax and abdomen mimics wasps which may be noxious to predators.
Sound production: A specialized (tymbal), corrugated region on the third section of the thorax (metathorax) produces ultrasonic sounds which interfere with (“jam”) the sonar of moth-eating bats.
Pyrrolizidine alkaloid sequestration: Caterpillars acquire and retain naturally produced toxic chemicals (pyrrolizidine alkaloids) from the plants they eat.
RED-SPOTTED PURPLE CATERPILLARS are hard to distinguish from those of the very-closely-related Viceroy and White Admiral caterpillars, and their food plants overlap, too. The caterpillars overwinter in a leaf that’s still attached to the tree, rolled up and fastened with silk.
HOBOMOK SKIPPERS (once called the Northern Golden Skipper) are an early butterfly, often decorating the wild geraniums that bloom by the bushel in May. One source says that they are strong flyers that take off quickly when startled. Amen! They are a butterfly of woodland, wetland and grassland edges, where males perch in the sun and fly out to chase intruders.
“Hobomok” is a nod to an early Wampanoag chief.
CRAB SPIDER on White trillium – as we all know, the BugLady has a thing for crab spiders because of their ability to hide in plain sight. This one was photographed in early May.
The dragonfly season is starting – migrant Common Green Darners and Variegated Meadowhawks https://bugguide.net/node/view/1888926/bgimage are filtering into the state, and visions of sugarplums (in the form of Chalk-fronted Corporals, Baskettails, and Eastern Forktails) are dancing in our heads! June will see the first of the Emeralds (family Corduliidae).
Also called Green-eyed Skimmers (though the name Skimmer belongs more properly to a different family, Libellulidae), the Emerald family is a large and varied one (about 50 species in North America and 400 worldwide) that includes the bog haunters, emeralds, baskettails, sundragons, and shadowdragons. Corduliids are found worldwide, and as a group, their ranges tend to be northerly.
They are medium to large (1 ½” to 3” long) dragonflies, and although they may be dark in coloration, many have metallic markings on their thorax and striking green eyes that touch on the top of their heads https://bugguide.net/node/view/1616593/bgimage. Many species have a pale ring between the second and third abdominal segments. When they perch (which is not often enough for dragonfly photographers), they tend to perch vertically, hanging from vegetation at a 45 degree angle.
Every spring, the BugLady takes lots of pictures of the very spiffy Racket-tailed Emerald (Dorocordulia libera) https://bugguide.net/node/view/1543225/bgimage, a species found commonly in the northeast quadrant of the continent. She doesn’t see the larger, American Emerald (Cordulia shurtleffii) nearly as often – it’s more common near bogs, sedge marshes, forested lakes and ponds, and fens “Up North” and across much of Canada and the northern US. Some American Emeralds have (slightly) flared abdomens, like the Racket-tailed Emerald does, but the yellow band at the top of the Racket-tail’s abdomen is thick and uneven compared to the American Emerald’s thin ring https://bugguide.net/node/view/255153/bgimage. American Emeralds may resemble and overlap in size with some of the Striped Emeralds in the genus Somatochlora. Here are some great pictures https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/view/694.
Adults eat soft-bodied insects that they grab out of the air, from mosquitoes to butterflies to mayflies to royal ants to recently-emerged dragonflies and damselflies. They forage in woodland openings and edges and sometimes, early in the season, mingle with swarms of baskettails. Paulson (Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East) reports that the American Emerald “sometimes hovers among plants in an effort to flush prey, often successful.” As befits a northern species, they are more active in cooler temperatures.
Kurt Mead, in Dragonflies of the North Woods, tells us to “Look for the males’ ‘dart and hover,’ ‘dart and hover’ behavior as they patrol their shifting territories along boggy edges of small lakes and ponds.” After mating https://bugguide.net/node/view/1476577/bgimage, a longish process carried out partially in flight, Mead says that “the female taps the surface of the water with her abdomen when laying eggs, often among sedges and other emergent vegetation.”
The sturdy, hairy, aquatic naiads are “sprawlers,” hiding in the mud and under the debris trapped in their hairs, and ambushing their prey – scuds (freshwater shrimp), mosquito and midge larvae, mayfly nymphs, and the occasional tiny fish and tadpole – as it passes by. They can tolerate pretty cold water, but in cold water they need more than one summer to mature. They emerge to shed their final skin at night https://bugguide.net/node/view/524287/bgimage. Here’s a teneral – a recently emerged adult – that has the reddish-brown eyes typical of a young emerald https://bugguide.net/node/view/1077403/bgimage.
The BugLady was curious about the American Emerald’s species name shurtleffii (ah – the etymology of entomology!), so she did a little digging. The species was described by the renowned entomologist Samuel Scudder in 1866. Scudder named it after a young physician named Carleton Atwood Shurtleff (1840 to 1864), a polymath whose interests included botany (native orchids) and entomology (he studied insect wing venation). Shurtleff’s parents sent his collections and papers to the Boston Society of Natural History after his death in 1864 “from a disease contracted at the siege of Vicksburg.” Scudder read a paper by Shurtleff posthumously at a Society meeting and praised his achievements, and later immortalized him in a dragonfly’s name.
Carpe diem (or as the BugLady’s t-shirt says, “Carpe Insectum.”)
