The Backyard Arthropod Project

On Monday evening, we put on another local bugs presentation at the Portage Lake Public Library[1]. After a short slide show, we showed off a bunch of bugs that we had caught in our yard, and then, we all went outside to the library’s back yard to see what we could turn up[2]. This year, I actually remembered to bring my camera, and tried to get pictures, some of which actually came out OK.[3] By which I mean, not completely unidentifiable.

The library is right next to the lake, and by luck there was a mayfly hatch going on, so I got a lot of opportunities to get pictures of mayflies.

Continue reading ‘Library Bug Hunt, Part 1: Mayflies and other flying insects’ »

We have two species of tent caterpillars around here, the Eastern Tent Caterpillar, Malacosoma americanum,

which makes “tents” on tree branches and prefers to eat leaves from apple and cherry trees,

Continue reading ‘Tent Caterpillars - Eastern and Forest’ »

We’re having a twofer this week, because I have two subjects with only one good photo each, and not enough to say about either one to warrant a full entry

The first is a little guy, about 4 millimeters long, that S_ found scooting across the floor in the living room. It was very like an earwig, with a similar sheen, flexibility, and tendency to squirm out of tiny places. The only thing is, it didn’t have the forceps at the end of the abdomen. Unfortunately, I only managed to take four nearly-identical pictures before it suddenly scooted off and disappeared under my photography stand, so this is the only real picture available:

At first I thought maybe it was an earwig nymph, since I wasn’t sure whether or not earwigs have their forceps all their lives, or only develop them as adults. The folks at Bug Guide soon set me straight, of course: V. Belov quickly identified it as a Rove Beetle in the subfamily Tachyporinae, which for some reason are called “Crab-Like Rove Beetles”. These are minute, mostly-predatory, very un-beetle-like beetles that generally live in the leaf litter and under rocks. They are very common, but not often seen, because they are pretty tiny guys. They have wings tucked under those little pads on the back, but it is evidently quite a project for them to unstow the wings and take flight, so they mostly don’t. I understand there are a few thousand kinds of rove beetles, so we certainly aren’t done with them yet.

Continue reading ‘Small Rove Beetle, Large Wolf Spider’ »

This week, I got a couple of actual, no-fooling insect nets[1], and Sam and I went out to see what we could catch. There wasn’t much (it has been kind of cold and a bit breezy of late, so flying insects big enough to see easily were pretty scarce). Then, I saw something grey, blurry and unidentifiable flying past, quickly took a swipe at it with the net - and got it! It turned out to be this:

It’s a “Plume Moth”, in the Tribe Platyptiliini. Based on the color and wing shape, I think it’s most likely in the genus Platyptilia, and it could be a somewhat faded specimen of Platyptilia carduidactyla, the Artichoke Plume Moth.

Continue reading ‘Plume Moth’ »

[Scene: my office, afternoon of May 21. The phone rings]
Me: Hello?
Sam: Dad! Mom caught a GIANT WATER BUG! She tried to pick it up, and it GRABBED her! She shook it off, and caught it in a DIAPER! We put it in a jar! It’s GIANT!
Me: Wow!
Sam: Well, OK. Bye! [click, hummmmmm][1]

Sam and her bug in a jar

Continue reading ‘Giant Water Bug - Toe Biter’ »

I found this on campus, clinging to the side of the Electrical Engineering building, so I put it in a pill bottle and brought it home to photograph:

It was just about 2 centimeters long, and had a strong metallic sheen, particularly on the underside.

Continue reading ‘Metallic wood-boring beetle - Dicera’ »

Last week, I was laying on the floor[1] when suddenly this fellow scurried right under my nose:

and Sam yelled, “A spider! Can we keep it?” So, we got out a little half-gallon plastic aquarium that we’ve had laying around for some years, put in some of Sam’s foam alphabet puzzle pieces to give him something to crawl on, and popped him in. We gave him a cotton ball soaked in water so he would have something to drink, and have been feeding him flies:

Continue reading ‘Wolf Spider’ »

Wednesday afternoon was warm and sunny, for just about the first time since last fall. S_ was working out in the yard, and called me outside, saying “There’s a swarm of bees in the driveway!” And so there was. There were about 100 of these guys, circling around the light-colored, sandy parts of the driveway and flying at an altitude of about 1 to 4 inches. I tried photographing them as they flew, but they were too quick for me. It took quite a few tries, but I eventually caught one in a jar:

Continue reading ‘Cellophane Bee’ »

This could possibly be one of the most boring, hard-to-identify moths in the world. [1]. Still, I want to be comprehensive in these pages, which means I can’t just skip the boring ones.
We found it on October 21, 2007. The wingspan as it rested was about 3 centimeters, so while it wasn’t a huge moth, it wasn’t tiny, either. It was on the window of the door leading from the kitchen to the entryway, which meant that I could turn on the kitchen lights and the entryway lights and get pictures of it from both sides.
Here is the top side:

and here is the underside:

Continue reading ‘Medium sized light-brown moth’ »

Here’s another little guy. Once again, it was found on the window, in mid-July of 2007.

The way the wings are held and the general shape makes me think it is a Tortricid moth. This one is a bit unusual, in that it actually has some lumps and bumps on its wings, giving it a more three-dimensional camouflage than most other moths have.

Continue reading ‘Tortricid Moth - Oak Leaf Tier?’ »