Bug Safari

Spider comes a-courtin'

2012-01-05T10:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was in my backyard, and the movements of a spider caught my eye. A brown funnel-web spider was running around the outskirts of a web on the Indian Hawthorne bush. I had never seen this behavior before, so I watched to see what it was doing. It circled the perimeter of the web a couple times and then headed for the funnel center, which in this case was also a rolled-up leaf. But at the entrance, there was another spider that, apparently, did not want any visitors. I could tell by now that the intruder was a male, and I could only guess that the occupant was a female who seemed to be rejecting his advances. He was not ready to give up. He approached the entrance again, slowly this time, and waited. I took a chance and ran inside for my camera. When I came out, he was still there.
"May I come in?"
Another view
From this view you can just make out the legs of the female way back in the leaf.
He made it in!
Side view of the male inside the leaf-funnel. He stayed in there for a long time. At least a couple of hours. This morning, when I remembered to check again, he was gone. The female was alone, way in the back of her funnel home.

Are Parasites Killing the Honeybees?

2012-01-04T21:55:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest and most serious insect-related news items that has been in the public consciousness for a few years is colony collapse disorder. In case this has escaped your consciousness, the bottom line is that honeybees are declining. Not just declining, whole colonies have been disappearing, and scientists have been trying to find out why. Now a new study has been published suggesting that a parasitic fly is killing the bees by laying eggs in them.

Here is a link to the article I read. (My favorite part is that the flies were discovered by an absent-minded professor who was looking for something to feed his praying mantis!)

The suspect: Apocephalus borealis

AP Photo/Jessica Van Den Berg, San Francisco State University

Bugs in the wall

2012-01-03T15:20:00.000-08:00

On today's home improvement agenda: removal of the wall paneling, in order to put in some insulation (it faces the west, and gets really warm) and also to run some electrical conduit. Looks like there may be some plumbing upgrade happening in there, too, but I digress. I want to document my findings of bugs in the wall. OK, it's not Al Capone's vault, but it's all I've got for now.
So, here's the wall.

Those dark open areas lead to a little closet outside where our water heater is. It also looks like a really good place for bugs to find their way in. Of course I found ants. Here in SoCal, we are pretty much overrun with Argentine ants, Linepithema humile. I tried to take pictures of them, but they are tiny and they never stop moving. There were at least two columns of them, marching along the studs on either side of the fireplace.
There were also numerous daddy long-leg spiders, Pholcus phalangioides. This was no surprise to me, since I often see them in corners, often with little piles of discarded ant husks beneath their cobby webs. But the evidence suggests that these spiders have been making their home in the walls for a very long time.
Here is the evidence. Lots of exoskeletons. A jumble of skinny legs from who knows when. There were more piles similar to this on many of the horizontal surfaces within the wall.
Also entombed was a carpet beetle larva. (Anthrenus sp.) Was this a spider's prey, or just another exoskeleton in the pile?
Here's an exoskeleton of a different spider. A black widow, perhaps? I also saw what looked like black widow egg cases.
And then I saw this. She was trying to hide from my flashlight. I think she was a black widow. (update: I removed her later. There was no hourglass on her underbelly, so she must have been a "false widow", Steatoda sp.)

My surprise of the day was finding the shell of a mourning cloak chrysalis within the wall!

Was it from the caterpillars we had last spring, or some time earlier? What became of the butterfly? Clearly, this piece of evidence asks more questions than it answers.

Buggy cuteness for my bathroom!

2011-12-26T22:20:00.000-08:00

We are in the middle of remodeling our kitchen, but already thinking ahead to the bathroom. I plan to have bugs in the decor. While shopping for tile, I learned that I can have my own designs etched onto tiles, and that's just what I'm going to do. These are the designs I've submitted, shown on a green onyx tile background, which is what I'm getting. When the real tiles arrive, I'll take pictures of them, too.

unknown larva

2011-12-26T22:14:00.001-08:00

Saw this guy crawling on my back patio last week. Picked it up and brought it to where there was better light to take a picture. Waited for it to uncurl itself.Waited,waited,waited,waited...gave up.Sorry.

Mottled ladybug

2011-12-26T22:11:00.000-08:00

I found this ladybug this morning. The spots have almost completely run together, leaving very little red. I think it might be an Asian ladybug, but it seemed a little small.With its wing hanging out like that, I thought at first it couldn't fly, but guess what?

Thankfully, something new to post

2011-11-23T15:06:00.001-08:00

This lovely moth was on my porch this morning. It had a familiar look to it: brownish with wings laying out flat. A Geometrid species, of which there are hundreds. But as I searched through all my moth photos, I couldn't find one exactly like this. So off to BugGuide I went, where I'm pretty sure it matches up with the genus Tetracis.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Spider Catches Moth

2011-11-15T13:18:00.001-08:00

I saw this awesome and dramatic animated video on The Bug Whisperer blog and just had to share.

The detail is exquisite, but the close-ups may be unsettling for arachnophobes.

My last mantis of the year?

2011-11-05T00:19:00.000-07:00

I found this brown mantis almost a month ago at the arboretum, at my final public bug safari tour of the year. I was hoping I would see at least one more mantis there today, and there might still be one or two, here and there, but I didn't find any. So this may be my last one for the year. She's a pretty one, though.

Look at the beautiful mottling on her wings and abdomen.
I'll miss the sweet triangular faces, till next spring.

Also last month, I started my sabbatical, if you can call it that when I am only a volunteer. But it's been almost ten years for the arboretum and 20 years for the schools, and I need a break. I'm taking a selfish year off from all my volunteering. I still plan to continue taking pictures of bugs whenever I can, but I'm also trying to do other things, like finally remodeling my house, which is still trapped in the 60's, 70's, and 80's.

Monarch caterpillar time

2011-11-04T23:56:00.000-07:00

Undaunted by what passes for inclement weather here in SoCal, the monarch caterpillars are beginning to boom at the arboretum.

Their peak season here will last through December or January, or till the milkweed runs out.

Quick change

2011-11-04T23:48:00.000-07:00

A milkweed bug takes its chances shedding its skin in between rain showers this morning. Not that it had a choice. I'm pretty sure when it comes to molting, when you gotta, you gotta.

Digressing from bugs for just a moment...

2011-11-04T23:44:00.000-07:00

One of my earliest blog friends and followers is Gilly in New Zealand. Although she can appreciate my bug stuff, her heart is really with the birds. And especially right now, with her Paradise Shelduck, Daisy.

This is what Daisy looked like when she first came to Gilly's bird rescue in January. You can't see it in this picture, but her right wing was badly injured and had to be amputated.

Photos by Gilly

Here she is more recently. Unable to fly, but bright and healthy, she is now a loved companion.

Gilly's blog has alerted me to the fact that it's time to vote for New Zealand's Bird of the Year. And guess what bird she hopes will win? You guessed it. But the Paradise Shelduck needs lots more votes to win. Can you help stuff the ballot box? Please take a few moments and vote, in honor of Daisy. I'll be right here when you get back. Thanks :)

A few more grasshoppers

2011-10-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

The tarweed plants are starting to die back for the winter. They are still full of grasshoppers.

The next two photos are a few weeks old, but nice camouflage shots.This guy blended in nicely with the blue-gray leaves. He was close to being ready to make his final molt. You can see his puffy wing pads. His adult wings were are under there.This one was on my dying tomato plant.

Buffalo treehopper

2011-10-29T11:07:00.000-07:00

I noticed this shy little bug recently on a flower at the arboretum.
I teased it out onto the branch where I could get a better look. I was able to identify it as a species of Ceresa, a Buffalo treehopper. Some other Ceresa species have not only a humped back, but buffalo-like "horns" as well. But this one was smooth.

Can you find them?

2011-10-26T21:15:00.000-07:00

Well, this one's pretty easy.

How about this one? I was in Jerry's truck in the driveway, and I noticed the katydid in the neighbor's bushes. Can you see her?

Fall caterpillars at the arboretum

2011-10-26T21:08:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, I found this caterpillar. Maybe a geometer moth. I tried to match it on BugGuide but couldn't find one just like it.A Gulf Fritillary caterpillar on a passion vine, on a sunny October day.A big fat hornworm, the same kind I grew this past summer. But when this fellow burrows underground, he will stay there over the winter.A tiny yellow sulphur caterpillar.

Fuller Rose Beetles

2011-10-26T20:48:00.000-07:00

I noticed a few clusters of these cute little beetles munching on the leaves of the Chinese Elm in my back yard.
Pantomorus cervinus

Arachtober still going strong

2011-10-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

I am still seeing some nice orb webs. Especially when we had a foggy morning.

I like how this spider is holding onto the strands of her web in several places.

The Same spider as the previous photo, eating a bee. This is a good location for her web. She has been catching a few bees every day.
This might be a black widow, but I couldn't see if she had an hourglass marking.

Her home was very close to a little wasp nest.

Blog Catchup!

2011-10-26T13:43:00.000-07:00

Holy cow, it's been a long time since I've had to drag out the old catchup bottle, but I think I really need to now. I've spent the last several weeks taking pictures of a few bugs here and there, thinking, "Meh, don't feel like posting this right now", and "Who really cares anyway?" and other apathetic sentiments. (apathetic sentiments? Is that an oxymoron?) But today I got a little kick in the pants from blogger buddy Laura, and I am preparing some posts. I'll try to get them on here tonight!

Damn, the torpedoes!

2011-10-05T15:33:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I was at my parents' house, and I noticed that the sago palm in their back yard had quite an infestation of torpedo bugs, (Siphanta acuta.)

I took lots of pictures of them, but none of them really came out very well. I chalk that up to several factors: it was breezy, causing the leaves to sway, the leaves were surprisingly pokey, making it hard for me to get up close, and I had a hard time with my camera settings for some reason. But I'm posting them anyway.

The plant in question.
You can see the bugs, looking like pale green thorns on the underside of the leaves.

There were lots of egg cases as well. They were hard to get to, near the center of the prickly plant. I managed to get a shot of one egg case with rows of newly hatched torpedo nymphs lined up along the leaf. Last month, when I first saw a single torpedo bug in my back yard, and identified it online, I became aware of how interesting and weird-looking the nymphs are, and I'm sorry I couldn't get a clear photo of one.
There were green ones

And pinkish ones. Their furry-looking tails are made of waxy filaments.
You can see someone else's really nice close up of a torpedo bug nymph on BugGuide.

Park update

2011-10-04T09:57:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I posted about my walk through the park, and how some of the vegetation along the creek had been cut down. And I posted pictures of a lovely big brown mantis that I brought home. At the time, an anonymous person commented about how I should not have taken the mantis. So I did some checking and, you know what? Anonymous was right (dang it!) You need a permit to collect anything, even a common praying mantis. So I returned it. And, no, I don't think I'll be getting myself a collecting permit. It costs too much money, and I don't even know if they would give me one anyway, since I'm not a teacher or a scientist, and besides, I can find mantids in my own yard, for Pete's sake.

But the other day, I went back to the park again, and was not thrilled with what I saw. They had sprayed all over the place with what I'm pretty sure is some kind of weed killer. The spray is colored a dark blue-green, so you can see where they sprayed it.It's a little harder to see the blue-green stuff at the creek, but it's there. (some of what you see in this picture is actually a blue-green net/fabric stuff that holds the bank in place.)
But you can see it here.
And here.

This mantis was the plump green sub-adult in my previous park post.
She was caught in the spray.

So I'm not allowed to collect stuff there. And I guess they have to control the invasive plants growing in the park and clogging up the streams. I can only guess at what's in the weed killer, and how toxic it might be to the animals that live in the spray zone. I can only guess why I saw so few frogs in the creek this time, too.

I find it a little ironic that it's not OK for me to take one or two bugs here and there, bugs that would be carefully housed and well fed, but it's OK for many more bugs and other critters to be displaced or even killed by normal park maintenance.

Her little entourage

2011-10-02T21:28:00.000-07:00

She may be small herself, but this little female brown widow has three males in attendance. They are all living on a succulent plant on my front porch.

Sulphur cats

2011-09-28T22:31:00.000-07:00

These might have been cloudless sulphur caterpillars. Then again they might have been another sulphur. I'm not sure. They look different from previous cloudless sulphur cats that I posted here and here, but they tend to vary in their colors and spots as they grow, so I don't know.

To further complicate matters, I wasn't able to get enough pictures of them. The first time I saw them (at the arboretum), there were several individuals, but I didn't have my camera with me. Then when I went back a day or two later with my camera, I couldn't find most of them any more. I'll go back and check again in a couple of days.

Leaf footed bugs

2011-09-28T22:16:00.000-07:00

bashful: hiding behind a leaf, more or less

brazen: mating upon a pomegranate for all the world to see

Hanging around, upside down

2011-09-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

I've been hanging around, taking a few pictures here and there, but not really feeling like blogging much. Things are happening beyond my little sphere of bug stuff. Nothing really bad, but enough that it distracts me from sitting down to go through my bug photos and post them. But hopefully I'll be getting back to it soon.

A walk in the park

2011-09-11T15:50:00.000-07:00

Summer was a long time coming this year.
But fall is just around the corner.
I went for a walk in the park this morning. The creek area that was so full of life earlier this summer has been partially mowed down. The cottonwood shoots are gone, along with about half of the other plants growing in and along the creek.
There are still frogs, although not as many as before. This was a "big" one at over an inch (from snout to vent.) Most were much smaller.
There were several good sized mantid nymphs hanging out on the remaining creek vegetation. They could easily grab the little frogs. I don't know if they have actually been eating them, and I don't want to know.
My prize for the day was this magnificent milk-chocolate S. limbata female. She barely fit into the little jar I brought along "just in case."

She was stuffed in the little jar for about half an hour, while I walked home from the park. When I let her out, she spent several minutes grooming herself, and then she gave me a little smile.

spider zen II

2011-09-11T14:58:00.000-07:00

I had my first spider zen moment here, but while that one was so perfectly posed, this one to me seems more relaxed and at one with his universe. OK, maybe he's just sleeping, but I think this male Araneus is enjoying what may be his last days of bachelorhood and, in fact, the last days of his life.

This is my favorite spider picture so far this week.

Breakfast of champions

2011-09-11T14:46:00.001-07:00

Under the rocks this morning

2011-09-11T14:44:00.000-07:00

Here is my modest participation in International Rock Flipping Day. Nothing too exciting. Nothing I haven't seen before. a little darkling beetle
fossil-like white exoskeletons of sow bugs
A black widow, with a small neighbor spider, perhaps another Theridion?

Honestly, this is not the best time of year for looking under rocks at my house. Early spring would be better. But at least there's plenty to be found above and beyond the rocks. More to come.

A brief break from all the spiders...

2011-09-10T15:20:00.000-07:00

I'll be back soon with my favorite spider picture of the week. In the meantime, here's a queen caterpillar.

Spider photos: before and after

2011-09-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

The spider in these pictures is the same individual as the one on my blog header. (For those of you that get Bug Safari in a reader, you may want to click over and see it.) Anyhoo, in this shot, like the header photo, she was pretty fat.This shot was from yesterday. She is skinny now, and guarding an egg case.

Spinning

2011-09-10T15:06:00.000-07:00

This is the spider that has been making her web near my front porch for the past couple of weeks. The same spider whose web I rolled up into a tiny ball of silk as I pondered whether or not spiders really eat their own webs. Every evening, I have tried to take a few moments and watch her at her meticulous work. These pictures are not the sharpest, being hand held, with my little camera, at dusk. But I think they still show the movement, the color and light, and yes, the beauty of nature doing its thing.This one makes me a little dizzy, though. :P

Can you stand more spider posts?

2011-09-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

This is the spideriest time of year, and the spiders are at their most hideous and magnificent. So I can't resist them. Yesterday morning, as I stepped out on my back porch my eye caught an insect flying across the yard, its wings illuminated against the sun. I couldn't tell what it was at that distance, but my gaze followed it as it landed...right into a spider web!It was a bee, and it was immediately captured by a funnel web spider. And yes, I did step out the door with my camera in my pocket. Lucky me!The spider was not too interested in me hovering over her web with my camera, and she quickly turned around and hauled her prize down into her funnel-hole.

More from BugGuide:

The family of "funnel-web" spiders (family: Agelenidae) found in the United States are 99.9% harmless to people. However, there are a few genera of spiders (family: Hexathelidae) that are also called Funnel-web spiders (Genera: Atrax and Hadronyche). These spidersARE NOT related to the Agelenid spiders found in North America. Many of the hexathelid spiders are common favorites for the Discovery Channel-style "Deadliest Spider" documentaries; some the famous funnel-web spiders being the Sydney Funnelweb (Atrax robustus) and the Northern Tree Funnelweb (Hadronyche formidabilis). These funnel-web spiders are found in eastern Australia, including Tasmania, in coastal and highland forest regions - as far west as the Gulf Ranges area of South Australia. These spiders known be harmful to people, HOWEVER, as mentioned above, they are not found in the United States. For more information about Australian Funnel-Web (Hexathelidae) spiders: click here.

IRFD 5

2011-09-08T12:57:00.000-07:00

This Sunday, Sept. 11 will be the 5th annual International Rock Flipping Day. So after you have had time to reflect on the solemn anniversary of a terrible day 10 years ago, why not change things up by going out in your back yard and turning over a rock or two, to see what's under there?More information here.

Furcula cinerea

2011-09-08T08:13:00.000-07:00

Remember my fork-tailed Furcula caterpillar?
Well here he is, all grown up after 21 days in the cocoon. And easily identified to species. So now that I know him on a first and last name basis, it's time to say goodbye.
I got this rather owlish-looking shot of the face when the moth spread its antennas and the wings started fluttering. Moments later, it flew away.

Tiny spider mom and babies

2011-09-07T23:07:00.000-07:00

I have these tiny spiders living on the brickwork of my front porch. They build their tiny webs in the recesses of the mortar between the bricks. They have very round abdomens with a white "moustache" on top of a mottled pattern.

Yesterday, I noticed that one tiny spider mama had a new bunch of super-teeny tiny pink babies. And what was even more interesting was that they seemed to be feeding communally on some kind of dead bug.
This sent me to the internet, where after some searching, I learned that there is a genus Theridion that does this.

Here is another mama-to-be. Her egg case is bigger than she is!

Small and kind of leafy looking

2011-09-04T10:37:00.000-07:00

Commomly called the torpedo bug.

Finding out the scientific name, Siphanta acuta, somehow had the side effect of getting the Lion King song "Hakuna Matata" stuck in my head. But it doesn't take much to get a song stuck in my head.

Green beetles in late summer

2011-09-04T10:14:00.000-07:00

These shiny green beetles, Cotinis mutabilis, seem to be everywhere lately. In fruit trees, to be sure, but they are also flying everywhere else, and they are low and slow. Their choice of resting spot seems to change as they age, from up in the trees near their food, to pretty much wherever they land. Often they end up shrubs very close to the ground.Makes it easy to see them up close and get some good shots.

Do spiders really eat their own webs?

2011-09-02T15:12:00.000-07:00

I've heard that they do. And I've seen spiders appearing to be eating their webs. So last week, when I was at the arboretum, pointing out to visitors a huge and beautiful garden spider spinning her web between two trees, I didn't hesitate to say yes when a lady asked, "Is it true that they sometimes eat their webs?"

Now, I'm not so sure.

I have been doing a fair amount of spider-watching lately. And watching out, because they have been building webs right in front of my porch, and in other places that might get me a face full of spider if I'm not careful. And the other night, with nothing better to do, I watched as one spider made a huge web. It was literally an orb and a half, with an extra section tacked on to one side. Clearly, she was hoping to snag every flying insect that was headed for my porch light.

There was another spider building a web off my back porch. But for some reason, part way through, she aborted the mission. Without warning, she ran up one of the side support lines and detatched it from the patio roof. Then she ran across the collapsing structure to the opposite end, seemingly gathering up the slack as she went. In a few seconds, the web was completely gone, and so was she. But, did she eat it?

Back out front to the huge web on my porch: How could a spider eat something that big? The next morning, the spider and her web were still there. Usually these spiders will retreat to a safe place during the day and rebuild a new web in the evening, so I didn't feel too bad about giving her a little start and sending her up under the eaves. Now her web was mine to play with.

I recalled how the spider on my back patio undid her web and gathered it up so quickly, so I decided to try to do the same with this one. I grabbed it from one end and gently pulled and twisted so that it stayed in one piece even as I rolled it between my fingers. Amazing how strong the supporting lines were. And not sticky. The main part of the web was very sticky, though. Anyway, I rolled the whole thing up with my thumb and forefinger, and found that the original web, which must have been 18 inches across, and all the support lines, that extended for several feet, ended up rolling into a little tiny ball of silk about the size of a poppy-seed!

Ok, so size-wise, I guess a spider would have no problems eating that. But wait a minute....spiders don't really eat. I mean, they don't chew their food. Their venom pre-digests and liquifies the insides of their prey, and they drink the resulting liquid, leaving the exoskeleton like a discarded husk. So would they even have a way to eat that dense little poppy-seed of silk? Maybe swallow it like a pill? Maybe somehow, they re-liquify it, so they can drink it? Or do they just discard it?

I have tried to find out more information online. Wikipedia says they do eat their webs, but it's Wikipedia: unverified and possibly inaccurate. I found another website called Spiderz Rule! which also says they eat their web, but they still don't explain how it happens, just that they do.

If anyone has any information about whether or how spiders eat their own webs, please do tell!

Soapberry Bugs

2011-09-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

It sounds like some kind of cute bath product for kids, but soapberry bugs are another name for the seed-eating hemipterans (true bugs) like the boxelder and red-shouldered bugs that we often see in large numbers at the arboretum. Soapberry bugs even have their own website with lots of pictures and information about them.

And the soapberry bug people have deemed one of my photos of a red-shouldered bug worthy of their Image of the Month.

Thanks for noticing, Crystal!

Failure to launch

2011-09-02T14:40:00.000-07:00

This would have been an anise swallowtail butterfly. For some reason, it was unable to fully emerge from the chrysalis.

Nature can be tough sometimes.

Must be the season of the Lynx

2011-08-19T13:40:00.000-07:00

a trail I followed this morning

2011-08-19T13:37:00.000-07:00

The trail began here, where I noticed a pair of dead bees laying side by side on a broad leaf.

A few inches above them was another leaf, and another dead bee. I knew what must be lurking nearby, so I looked farther up on the plant, directly up from the bees, and sure enough, there she was.

A Green Lynx spider, with her latest victim.

An expressive face

2011-08-18T19:46:00.000-07:00

Is it just me, or does a mantis seem to look you right in the eye? And not only that, depending on the position of its head, or my position relative to its head, the expressions seem to change. I can see it in these photos, and I captioned each one based on the expression I saw:

beguiling

mischievous

wary

attentive

perky

crafty (like a fox)

Oh, and by the way, those little black dots in the eyes? The ones that look like pupils? They're actually not. They're an optical illusion called pseudopupils. It has something to do with the way the light hits the surface of the mantid's large compound eyes. Part of the light is absorbed, part is reflected. Something like that. And it causes the perceived appearance of those little black dots.

Long overdue

2011-08-18T19:32:00.000-07:00

It's been ages since I posted photos of praying mantids. But now that they've reached what I like to call "the fun size", I made the effort to take some pictures.

Furcula pupation

2011-08-18T19:24:00.000-07:00

This morning

Stemapods crossed for luck. The caterpillar actually kind of folded them up against himself as he was building his cocoon.

Here's a little video of him in action.

And here's the finished product! I'll update when the moth comes out.

Enjoying the variety and the mystery. And tolerating the smell.

2011-08-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

The late summer heat has the hemizonia patch at the arboretum in full bloom, or maybe just a bit beyond. It's also in full stink. This plant is nicknamed "tarweed" with good reason. It has an unmistakable aroma that entices from afar, but becomes less pleasant once it gets on my hands and my clothes. But I continue to venture into the smelliness to get a closer look at the bugs!

Just like last year, these plants are full of grasshoppers and caterpillars. But this year, the caterpillars look different. Some of them look like last year's, but some have different markings...

Or maybe just fewer markings!

Now with the grasshoppers, I know they are all gray birds, S. nitens. I already know and love that the nymphs can be found in many color variations. (see the Gray Bird Color Parade in my sidebar, or on Flickr) But what about these caterpillars? Are they all just different variations of the same thing? To be sure, there are caterpillar species that can vary in color and markings. But I think the only way I would really know for sure about these would be to take each one home and rear it out. And I just don't feel like messing with them right now. I have reached my limit of bug containers around the house, and keeping up with their various food supplies. So the true identity of some of these caterpillars may have to stay a mystery for now.

Spider vs. Spider (arachnophobes, be warned!)

2011-08-17T23:23:00.000-07:00

Early this morning, I came upon a life and death drama on a small scale. A sowbug killer spider (Dysdera crocata) was trapped in the web of a brown widow spider, (Latrodectus geometricus). Sow bug killers live under rocks and eat isopods, (you know, "roly-polies".) In a small corner of my patio, the big orange spider was probably creeping along the base of the wall hunting for one of the many little sow bugs that are there. The brown widow's messy-style web reached from the lower part of the chimney down to the ground.

The brown widow was trying to throw silk around the bigger spider to immobilize it. But she couldn't get close enough.

See the fangs? They need to be strong to penetrate the shell of a sow bug. But this spider would be just as deadly to the brown widow, as the widow would be to this spider.

So the brown widow advanced and retreated, advanced and retreated, lather, rinse, repeat. The sow bug killer continued to keep her captor away. I was out there in my bathrobe, sitting on the cement until I grew tired of watching and waiting. I went inside and busied myself with something for a little while. When I returned, the bigger spider was gone. Not captured, just gone. She must have managed to finally free herself.

Buckeye caterpillar

2011-08-16T18:34:00.000-07:00

Last week, I was concentrating on the south end of the park. This morning I was at the north end. I can't cover it all in one go. I'm too slow, and there is a lot of ground to explore.

Long jawed orb weaver

2011-08-16T17:57:00.000-07:00

Found her while sweeping my bug net over the grass at the park. I thought she had a pretty, tapestry-like pattern on her abdomen.

Furcula caterpillar

2011-08-13T19:49:00.000-07:00

There are some cottonwood sprouts growing in and along the creek. I don't know if they are from seeds, or from the roots of nearby trees, but there are a lot of them, and I know they are likely to be mowed down at any time.

I don't know how I managed to see this caterpillar, or several of his relatives, but they are living and feeding on the cottonwood leaves.

I had never seen this kind of caterpillar before, so of course, I had to collect one to take home with me, where I identified it as genus Furcula. The very back legs, the anal prolegs, have evolved into a forked tail called a stemapod. I was a little afraid that it might be poisonous, but it turns out that it only looks poisonous.

After spending the night at my house and not moving or eating, the caterpillar shed its skin.
This was the first chance I had to take a picture of the split tail.

I also got this weird shot of his old head capsule. I think it was dangling by a fine silk thread. Note the size difference between the old and the new head.

The prolegs are the pairs of legs that a caterpillar uses, and then loses once it pupates and morphs into an adult 6 legged butterfly or moth. I just think prolegs look cool.

And, speaking of butterfly or moth, this will become a moth. I'm not really sure exactly what it will look like, because it could be one of a few different Furcula species that might be found here. So we will have to wait and see.

Additional information from my research:
I came upon this great blog which had a photo of a caterpillar that looked like mine.

I found this page about stinging caterpillars that set me at ease about Furcula.

A visit to the creek

2011-08-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

I live just a few blocks from a county regional park. It has acres of grassy lawn, 3 baseball diamonds, 3 playgrounds, a lake, and paved walking trails. My favorite trails are the unpaved ones that lead to the furthest reaches of the park, where not so many people go, and the signs warn of coyotes and rattlesnakes. This is where I collected my tree frog eggs in the spring, and where I later released the resulting frogs. This week, I had an urge to go there and explore. The mornings have been perfect for it, cool and overcast.

The creek is still full of plants, which is good, although it doesn't seem to be quite as lush as it was in the spring.

This is the point where the water enters the park. Not pretty, is it? I don't even know what kind of icky stuff is in that water. But it still supports life.

It gets a little prettier as you get away from the culvert.

There are tons of frogs in there!

They are Pacific Tree Frogs, and mostly tiny ones. Those aren't lily pads, they're tiny duckweed.

The frogs are sharing their habitat with lots of grasshoppers, too.

This one was on a nearby castor plant.

This one was pretending I couldn't see him.

I found another insect that I thought was pretty cool. You will see it in my next post.

A skinny spider-mama

2011-08-11T07:50:00.000-07:00

In answer to Tracie's question about whether the female green lynx "gets skinny after bearing children," yes she does!

I looked back through my old posts, sure that I must have posted a picture of a skinny spider-mama, but I couldn't find one on the blog. I did have one on my computer, though. From November 2003!

After she lays her eggs, she will stay with the egg case and guard it. Even after the babies hatch in the fall, they will all stay in a clump and she will remain with them until they are ready to venture off on their own. If they happen to be located in an area where the flowers are still blooming and attracting insects for her to eat, the mama may fatten up enough to make another egg case.

When a guy is really a guy

2011-08-10T08:26:00.000-07:00

If I'm not sure of the gender of a particular bug that I've found, I usually default to "he". I collectively call bugs "these guys", knowing there may well be girls among them. It's usually good enough for me. But when I'm certain of the sex, I will try to specify male or female.

Take this guy, for example. He's a male Green Lynx spider. I can tell he's a male because his body is smaller and skinnier than a female's body. And like other male spiders, he has a pair of special little legs called pedipalps that are tipped with what looks like tiny boxing gloves. Those are "manly" parts that help him transfer sperm to the female during mating.

Here's another view of a male's "boxing gloves" from last summer.

Here is a female Green Lynx to compare. See? Her pedipalps don't have the boxing gloves. Also she has a much bigger abdomen. When you see a spider with a big round body, it's a female, full of eggs!

A seldom-seen caterpillar

2011-08-09T14:51:00.001-07:00

I actually started out looking for a little praying mantis that I'd seen on my oregano plant recently. I didn't find him, but I did notice a little green caterpillar that blended in amazingly well with the little flower heads, now setting seed. Can you see him in there? I'll give you a hint: There's an ant on him.

OK, here he is close up, and still with his entourage. (or should I say ANT-ourage?) This is a hairstreak caterpillar, seldom seen because they're small and they blend in so well with their host plants. They excrete honeydew, which ants favor. (this, according to my son, Michael, is the real-life entomological equivalent of Slurm, and now you know that we are all Futurama fans in this house!)

Another view from this morning. I have put this oregano sprig in a little vase on my front porch. The ants have gone for now.

One good pink and white spider deserves another

2011-08-09T14:32:00.000-07:00

This was on my oregano. Last week's pink and white spider is here, in case you missed it.

Behold, the mighty sphinx (moth)

2011-08-09T14:20:00.000-07:00

For several days now, I have been checking mornings and evenings, and sometimes in between, for the emergence of the moth that was once my tomato hornworm. This morning, there he was! A Carolina Sphinx moth, Manduca sexta.

I managed to pry him off of the screen top and he settled on the floor of the cage with his wings so beautifully spread to reveal the orange spots.

Looking a bit disheveled hanging onto the edge for a close up shot. See those little claws? He has just as powerful a grip now as he did when he was a velcro-footed caterpillar.

I brought him with me to a meeting at the arboretum, showed him off to anyone who was interested, and then released him. I thought at first he would simply fly away. His wings fluttered a bit, but in the end, he only made it as far as one guy's pants leg. So I picked him off and set him gently on a tree branch. He will leave when he's ready.

I have labeled all my posts for this individual as Tomato Hornworm, so if you click on the label, you can go back and read about his whole life, all the way back to when he was just an egg!

The stars are out and so are the bees

2011-08-07T23:02:00.000-07:00

This is a Quillaja brasiliensis tree at the arboretum. I sure do like the starry little flowers it makes.

Just another example of nature making its own art.

The bees like it too.

A bee for every flower, and a flower for every bee!

Always an opportunity for a new discovery

2011-08-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

I am always ready to see something new, and this week I saw two new-to-me bugs! I spent quite a few hours at the arboretum this past week, scouting for bugs for our bug safari tour that we had yesterday.

First, I found this pretty little crab spider. I'm pretty sure it's genus Mecaphesa.

Then, I saw this moth on the side of the pavilion classroom. I had never seen it before, and then I saw 2 more nearby.

This one was on the bridge right by the front entrance.

How do you look up a moth when you don't really know what kind it is? I just go to BugGuide, and try to find moths of about the same size and shape, and take it from there. Sometimes it takes a long time, but sometimes, like this time, I get lucky.

This is genus Petrophila, which means "water-loving", and it turns out the caterpillars are aquatic! They live in fast-moving streams and eat the algae on rocks. Two of the moths I found were on the bridge, right by the arboretum's waterfall. That's our fastest-moving water. So they have a little micro-habitat there! I thought that was pretty cool, and a very pretty little moth.

Back porch moth

2011-08-07T11:27:00.000-07:00

The chocolate and vanilla swirls on this pretty owlet moth make me want a hot fudge sundae.

I will add an ID when/if I find one, but it's an armyworm or cutworm moth, most likely.

Household casebearer

2011-08-07T11:24:00.000-07:00

Ever see these things around your house?

They look like little gray seeds, laying innocently among the dirt and stuff on your porch or patio.

They have tiny caterpillars inside.

This is the larva of the case bearing moth, Phereoeca uterella, and right now I am finding them around my house.

From their BugGuide page:

The larval case is silk-lined inside and open at both ends. The case is constructed by the earliest larval stage (1st instar) before it hatches, and is enlarged by each successive instar. In constructing the case, the larva secretes silk to build an arch attached at both ends to the substrate. Very small particles of sand, soil, iron rust, insect droppings, arthropod remains, hairs and other fibers are added on the outside. The inside of the arch is lined exclusively by silk, and is gradually extended to form a tunnel, while the larva stays inside. The tunnel is closed beneath by the larva to form a tube free from the substrate, and open at both ends. After the first case is completed, the larva starts moving around, pulling its case behind. With each molt, the larva enlarges its case. Later cases are flattened and widest in the middle, allowing the larva to turn around inside.

[from Featured Creatures, U. of Florida]

They eat spider webs, of all things, but will also eat wool things like carpets and clothing if the opportunity arises (like if the moths get into the house!) I also seem to recall reading somewhere that they like to eat dog hair, which I have plenty of around the house.

Pipevine Swallowtail

2011-08-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

Last week, I had a chance to go to Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and see their Butterfly Pavilion. Inside the large screened-tent enclosure were lots of local butterflies. One in particular, the Pipevine Swallowtail, is more localized than local. They manage to keep a small population going with a few Aristolochia californica, California pipevine plants.

This is a very cool-looking caterpillar, and it was the first time I had seen them in person. We have Aristolochia at the arboretum, but not A. californica. I have occasionally looked on the vines, hoping that a wayward butterfly might have found them, but I haven't seen any of them, or their caterpillars.

The bee killer

2011-08-02T09:24:00.000-07:00

In my front yard the other day, a robber fly, Mallophora fautrix with a bee it had caught.

"Ctunning" Ctenucha

2011-07-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

I saw a couple of these moths flying temptingly just beyond my reach, but managed to get a few pictures, and an ID. Ctenucha moth.

A wet caterpillar

2011-07-24T18:39:00.000-07:00

On a dewy morning along the boardwalk at Moonstone beach.

And a dry one nearby.

Coastal Spiders

2011-07-24T18:36:00.000-07:00

Seeing the unseen

2011-07-24T18:33:00.000-07:00

I didn't even realize it when I took this picture, but there is a caterpillar resting in the spokes of this horsetail plant. It seems to have too many prolegs for a lepidoptera, so it might be a sawfly larva.

More from the porch at Cambria (updated 8-18-2011)

2011-07-24T18:26:00.000-07:00

This was a pretty good-sized beetle. (It would have been shrimpy next to that prionus beetle, though!) It was hard getting a good shot of it in the dark. If you look carefully, you'll see little brown ovals around his head. I'll warn you now, there's a yucky shot coming up.
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This beetle is beset with parasites. Ticks? Mites? Something like that. Icky.

Update! Thanks to this post by Margarethe Brummermann, I was able to identify this beetle as Nicrophorus nigrita, the black burying beetle. What does it bury? Dead animals, which it uses to feed its larvae. And those mites? They're not harmful to the beetle, just hitching a ride. (see this BugGuide thread)

And I'll digress now to say that both Jerry and I "collected" ticks on our walks along the grassy coastal bluffs. But do you think I would have the presence of mind to take pictures of them? Uh, no. Sorry. It was just "Eww, a tick? Get it off me!" and I picked, flicked and sighed with relief that at least none of them latched on for a meal. How can I pick up a great big beetle (okay it was dead but still...) and still freak out over a tiny tick? Beats me.

This lovely 10-lined June beetle came to the light the same night as the beetle with the ticks/mites. But like the smaller June beetles we get at home, it landed clumsily on its back and struggled to right itself. I flipped it over and took this picture.

In the morning, I found it resting on the top of the sheet. By late afternoon, I found only a piece of its striped shell, apparently having been eaten by a bird. In fact, by the 3rd night with the black light, the birds had pretty much figured out that I was setting up a banquet for them, and they would happily pick off whatever was left hanging around by dawn.

Cambria porch-moth-o-rama

2011-07-24T15:46:00.000-07:00

Of course, I brought along my humble black light and my sheet, figuring there would be a good spot to set it up outside out rented guest house. The best option turned out to be replacing the bulb of their back deck light with my black light bulb, and draping my sheet just beneath it.

This is it. Tacky, but effective.

There were plenty more moths nearby, but not on the sheet.

I have several shots of these lovely green geometrid moths. You can see them, and some other bug shots that I may not necessarily post here, on my Flickr set.

More beetles on the Fiscalini Ranch

2011-07-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

There were a few together on this one little plant.

They were busy eating the bright yellow flowers.

My bug finds along the Cenral Coast

2011-07-24T15:20:00.000-07:00

Very close to where we stayed in Cambria is the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve. Its trails run from the forest to the ocean (which sounds far, but actually, part of the magic of this place is that the forest is so close to the ocean!)

Poison oak abounds. Made for a lot of walking with my hands very close to my body.

One of the first bugs I found was this very large prionus beetle, laying right in the middle of the trail.

It turned out to be dead. Freshly dead, which was fine with me. I was able to pick it up and look at it without concern that it might suddenly fly away or try to bite me.

I think this was a female, because when I looked up information on prionus beetles, it said the males have big jaws, and this one's jaws didn't look too big to me.

I also saw a few of these guys: California firefly, maybe. But a lot bigger than the ones we have around Fullerton. This was about 3/4 of an inch long.

Along one part of the trail, there were several of these yellow ladybugs, which I later was able to identify as Coccinella trifasciata.

Part of the trails were along the bluffs, covered in tall grass that is now mostly dry. There were tons of grasshoppers, most of them small, all of them very hard to photograph in the windblown grass. So mostly, I didn't even try. I just got lucky with this one.

Same goes for this tiny homopteran (a hopper, but not to be confused with grasshopper!)
Looking at this not-quite-in-focus shot, it seems like there is an appendage, (an ovipositor, perhaps?) leading from the bug into the grass stem. I will investigate further.

If this pupa's rockin', don't bother knockin'!

2011-07-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

Here's a little peek at my tomato hornworm pupa.

I really wanted to dig him up and show him to you, faithful readers. But he was very upset at being disturbed and was twisting and writhing terribly at being exposed, so this was as far as I got before I re-buried him. Here is an excellent photo from alletahg's Flickr page of what I just can't show you right now.

New uses for oregano

2011-07-14T22:10:00.000-07:00

...as an ornamental plant and a caterpillar host plant :)

I don't know what possessed me to plant oregano. I haven't really used much of it in the kitchen. Meanwhile, it's growing like crazy and made beautiful flowers. So even if I don't cook with it, I have a lovely herbal bouquet!

I was delighted to find this caterpillar, most likely from a moth, on the flowering stem.

Love the color match!

Back lit moth

2011-07-09T22:52:00.000-07:00

This little geometer moth was in my house, on the stained glass panel on my front door.

Another view after he fluttered to a different spot.

Little assassin

2011-07-09T22:48:00.000-07:00

These little suckers (as in: they suck the juices out of other bugs) have always been hard for me to photograph because they always see me coming and duck around the back of the stem or leaf they're on. It doesn't help that they're also very small and delicate, so all in all, this picture came out pretty good.

poking fun at the fat green guy

2011-07-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

My tomato hornworm has gone under the soil to pupate, but before he did, I took some pictures.

Aaah! Look at his jaws!

Measuring him the morning before he went underground.

Contemplating one last leaf. (and he ate it, too.)

I have a thing for caterpillar prolegs.

Look at the velcro-like grippers on those things! (The better to hang on to the tomato plant, dearie.)

And when they don't have a tomato stem to hold onto, they just hold onto each other ♥.

Sorry about this. I couldn't resist.
Spiracles, by the way, are the little holes that insects breathe through. On this guy, they just look like a row of evil little sideways eyes, though, don't they?

Bigger and fatter, as promised

2011-07-03T22:49:00.000-07:00

My hornworm continues to eat and grow, and now he's reached the huge, bloated size that simultaneously fascinates me and makes me gag a little. It doesn't help that, as big as he is, he absolutely hates being messed with, which makes it hard to take pictures of him. Whatever he's doing, (well, he's pretty much just EATING,) he will stop when I approach him. If I dare to try and re-position him a little for better viewing and photographing, he arches his head and neck, and makes clicking sounds with his jaws. These caterpillars also keep a death grip on the tomato stem with their prolegs. It is literally a death grip. The other week, I was trying to pluck a smaller hornworm from my tomato plant. He was holding on tight, I was klutzy and impatient... and I accidentally ripped him in half! Bleah! But I digress. Our camera-shy friend here was turning and changing direction like someone famous trying to evade the paparazzi. So that's why I have only been able to achieve this single tabloid-quality photo of him today.

I wonder why they don't just go all the way in there?

2011-07-03T22:21:00.000-07:00

I saw this cute little pink inchworm in my neighbor's rose this morning. Look how he's all stretched out to the max, his head in the nutritious pollen, his tiny rear prolegs stretched out waaay behind him.

A different inchworm in a similar position, taken last week. And this one has some kind of other little bug that looks like it's checking out his toes, but he doesn't seem to notice.

So why to they do that? Is it more efficient that way? Are they poised for a speedy getaway? (not that inchworms are very fast anyway.) Or did I just coincidentally catch them in a similar pose?

So there was this damselfly...

2011-07-03T21:58:00.000-07:00

There she was, perched smartly on top of a sage flower. Then, off she flew. I waited for a moment, because these bugs have a tendency to fly around a little and then land back in the same spot.

Sure enough, she came back to a flower just inches away. It looked like her mouth was moving. After I took her picture, I could see that she was chewing on a little bug of some kind. Guess she just left to get a quick snack.

Buggy cuteness for summer

2011-06-29T14:47:00.000-07:00

A few of the leaders of our summer camp decided it would be fun to hand out little prizes to the kids, and they stocked up on all kinds of cheap doodads from the dollar store. Of course this one immediately caught my attention.

How cute is this? It's a mini bug-house you wear on a wristband. I wonder if it would fit on my wrist?

Love the silly artwork on the package.

It has no actual watch parts, unless you consider that you will be watching the bug you put in there, but it might tell time in one sense: when the bug escapes and the toy falls apart, that's how you know it's time to go in for supper.

Rough stinkbug

2011-06-29T06:52:00.000-07:00

The kids found this bug at camp the other day, and it was a new one for me. It's a rough stinkbug, genus Brochymena. I brought it home to ID and take pictures of it.

You can see its mouth, a long piercing-sucking "needle". Like all true bugs, it pokes its mouth into the food and sucks the juices out. It was very unhappy in the little container that I brought it home in, and had no food. I stuck a grape in there, thinking it could suck the juice for moisture, but it wasn't interested.

I have this bug, the glassy winged sharpshooter, to thank for food plant recommendation. Unsure what to feed the stinkbug, (the kids found him on the patio floor) I remembered that these sap-sucking bug cousins love this succulent plant in my front yard. In a pinch, it the stinkbug sucked on it too. Enough to get by until I released it the next morning.

Pretty porch moth

2011-06-26T21:57:00.000-07:00

It didn't take me long to identify this as a Southern Purple Mint Moth, Pyrausta laticlavia. Hmmm... We're not in a southern state, I think it looks more pink than purple, and it's probably feeding on something other than mint, so what's in a name?

Tomato Hornworm

2011-06-26T21:47:00.000-07:00

Two weeks old, and he's already getting big and fat. Don't worry, he'll get even bigger and fatter before he's done.

Hello out there!

2011-06-26T21:45:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty busy the past couple of weeks. I'm right in the middle of summer camp at the arboretum. The few bug pictures I've managed to take have just been sitting on my computer. Hopefully, I'll have more posts soon! Hope everyone's summer is off to a great start. Thanks for stopping by!

Good luck, little birdies

2011-06-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

Any day now

2011-06-14T11:39:00.000-07:00

They are three weeks old. I think they must almost be ready to fly.

Here's a brief video from the other day, when the mama was feeding them. They're as big as she is now. I can't imagine what a hard job that must be for a little bird.

Baby hornworm is growing

2011-06-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

He's about 3 days old now.

One miss and another chance

2011-06-13T22:45:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting since Novemberber for my giant swallowtail chrysalis to hatch. I got to the point that I felt it might happen at any time, and I began to leave the net butterfly cage open, so that if it did come out some time when I was not there, it could be free to fly away. And that's what it did over the weekend.

Hard to tell, but this is just the empty shell. Here's what it looked like last fall. I raised it from an egg, so yeah, I'm a little bummed that I missed it.

But...there's always something new to look forward to.

Last Monday, I found eggs on my tomato plant. Hornworm eggs, most likely. I picked off most of them, but saved this one in a jar.

It hatched over the weekend. Started out kind of creamy white like this, but quickly turned green once it started eating the leaf.

It doubled in size by the end of the day. Two days later, it's bigger still, but it has a long way to go. There will be more photos to come.

Caterpillary

2011-06-11T17:57:00.000-07:00

More from my arboretum pre-hunt. Larval lepidoptera of one sort or another.

No name for the caterpillar or the flower bud, but they are a perfect match.

The hemizonia plants have sprouted, and the caterpillars have returned to eat them.

There are still a few monarch caterpillars to be found.

Inchworm. (Maybe half-inch. He was pretty tiny)

Fat green looper.

June Gloom bugs

2011-06-11T17:48:00.000-07:00

We are having what we call "June Gloom" here in SoCal. Cool overcast days. Maybe some drizzle. The sun breaks through, oh, maybe 2PM or so. Not the best bug-finding weather. The butterflies are all sleeping somewhere. Even the bees are less abundant. But there are still insects to be found. Yesterday, I did a little advance scouting for today's bug safari tour at the arboretum. Here's some of what I found.

Harlequin bug congregation.

and one spectacularly situated harlequin nymph.

The only butterfly I found was this resting skipper.

On the datura: some fascinating but disgusting larvae of the three-lined potato beetle, Lema daturaphila.

OK, for those of you who were grossed out by the last photo (sorry), here's a lovely and graceful sleeping bee, also in a datura flower.

A little mirid bug feeding on a green seed head of a euphorbia(?)

Mediterranean katydid nymph.

Ladybug on purple flower. Red Hat Society, anyone?

Oh, sorry. Grossness again. A nice big cactus fly.

*kissy-kissy*

Our bug hunt today went very well. In spite of considerable heavy drizzle, we had enough participants for 2 groups, and found lots of little things.

Land planarian

2011-06-11T17:16:00.000-07:00

Ever see one of these? The first time I saw one was when we first moved to Fullerton. I thought it was some kind of slug. In fact, I called it a "mystery slug". It wasn't until years later that I found it online and learned it's a flatworm. A land planarian, Bipalium kewense. They live in dark, moist places in the garden, under rocks and such. And they eat earthworms. You can find more information when you click here and scroll to the bottom of the page.

Anyway, I haven't seen one in a long time, and the other day this one was on my patio. He seemed to have gotten himself stranded and was starting to dry out, much as an earthworm or a slug might when exposed for too long. I spritzed him with water and he was able to move freely again.

The puddle I made for him caused a bit of glare that made him hard to photograph, so I moved him to the top of the trash can lid. You can see why they are sometimes called "hammer head worms".

I also took a brief video which I'll try to get on here tomorrow.

Baby hummingbirds, 2 weeks old

2011-06-06T21:38:00.000-07:00

Their eyes are open now.

And their beaks are getting longer. It's hard to say exactly how big these babies are, but their little bodies are packed tightly into the nest with their heads poking out. They're probably at least half or two-thirds the size of their mama now.

I'm afraid to get close up to the nest anymore. I don't want to scare them. So I'm taking most of the pictures through my bathroom window screen, which causes this gauzy effect.

upside down and backwards

2011-06-06T21:29:00.001-07:00

Bug Bingo

2011-06-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Bug Girl for alerting me to these free downloadable Bug Bingo cards. I'm passing it along because it looks like a fun activity for kids, and could be the beginning of many backyard bug safaris to come!

Hummingbird update

2011-06-03T19:53:00.000-07:00

Photos taken yesterday, babies were 11 days old, (I think):

This is kind of a weird angle, huh? They're too big to fit those beaks in the nest anymore, so they keep them pointing up now.

And, as you will see, Mama hummer is still ramming the food down into their little gullets. But the babies are a lot bigger than they were in my first video.

Oh, and in answer to LyndsayB, the nest is in a camellia bush. The whole bush is maybe 7 feet high or so.

Here is the bush. The nest is in the little red circle.

These little pine-coney looking things are what's left over from the camellia flowers, which bloomed several months ago.

Rotten log beetle

2011-06-03T18:32:00.000-07:00

There were a number of these beetles in the rotten logs. Maybe half an inch long, and faster than the centipede. This one only stopped when he thought I couldn't see him against the inside of the container lid.

Rotten log centipede

2011-06-03T18:28:00.000-07:00

He did everything he could to hide from me.

The only way I could get a picture of his whole self was to put him in a container where he had no place to hide, and hope he would hold still for a few seconds.

I'd say he was about 1¾ inches long and very fast moving. I have not had good luck with little centipedes. They seem to die very quickly when removed from their dark, damp hiding place. So when I finished taking pictures of this one, I released him under a partly-rotten log in my yard.

When rotten luck is good luck

2011-06-03T18:16:00.000-07:00

I needed some well decomposed logs to prepare for a hands-on activity during our upcoming summer camp at the arboretum. My own personal little stash is just about gone, used up over the years in my demonstration of "how the rainforest recycles itself".

So some of my arboretum friends have provided some old rotten logs for me, and in one box-full yesterday I was lucky to find some buggy stow-aways in with the wood. Of course I was secretly (or maybe not so secretly) hoping this would happen, so I went through the box slowly and carefully, with my camera at the ready, and a couple of containers nearby.

I found 3 arboreal camel crickets. I think they are genus Gammarotettix.
They are small, kind of plump looking, and they have no wings at all, so not only can they not fly, but they can't chirp like other crickets. (You know, don't you, that crickets make their chirping sounds by rubbing their wings together in a process called stridulation?)

Look how smooth this one's back looks.

The long appendage sticking out in back is the ovipositor. That's the egg-laying aparatus. This is a female.

This guy doesn't have an ovipositor, so I know he's a "guy!"

Not sure what I'm going to do with these guys (and girls). They came from the mountains, a couple of hours' drive from here. For now, I have them in a container with some of their rotten wood, and some old vegetable peelings, which they found tasty enough.

Breakfast burrito, spider style

2011-06-01T09:05:00.000-07:00

Baby hummingbirds, one week old.

2011-05-31T19:35:00.000-07:00

Look how much they've grown since the day they hatched.