Category Archives: Insects and Other Arthropods

Fish Crow and Lep Update

Though Fish Crows have been seen and heard in our area (Piedmont) for several weeks, Saturday (3/6) was the first sighting for me at the Museum. If I hadn’t heard them first I would have passed them off as American Crows. Although Fish Crows are a bit smaller the two species look very much alike. [...] Read more...

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The Springtails

It was Leon Bradford, Insectarium Manager at the Museum, who first discovered them. Dogged, persistent, Leon was determined to find insect activity on that cold December day. It was supposed to be a warm day, but the clouds lingered longer than predicted and the temps hovered in the thirties throughout the morning. I had told [...] Read more...

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Red Admiral

On December 23rd a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) was seen flying about the Mahonia near the entrance to the Dinosaur Trail. The butterfly didn’t stand still for long, but when it did finally settle, it did so twenty some feet up on the trunk of a Loblolly Pine. It was a stretch, but I managed [...] Read more...

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November Insects

There’s no doubt that insect activity slows down in November. But (there’s always a but), you may be surprised at just how much insect activity there is at this time of the year. If the sun is shining, much of that insect activity may be found wherever there is a warm spot, away from the [...] Read more...

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Two Late Larvae

Near the end of the day on October 8, I received a call on my radio from Ranger Gurlal saying that he had found something interesting in Catch the Wind. He didn’t say what it was, only that he wanted me to see it. Several minutes later as Gurlal rounded the bend in the trail, I could see that he had a folded leaf in his hands; there had to be some kind of insect within. Read more…

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A Common Thread

Each fall it seems that spiders appear from nowhere, crawling along the ground, stretching out their sticky webs across our favorite hiking trails, and even entering our living spaces. The truth is, they’re with us the entire summer, we simply may not notice them because they, along with their webs (if they construct them), are [...] Read more...

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August’s Insects

Two spiders to look for in both August and September are the Green Lynx Spider (Puecetia viridans) and the Black-and-Yellow Argiope (ar-guy’-o-pee) Spider (Argiope aurantia). The lynx spiders may be found lying in wait on goldenrod, or other flowers, to pounce on nectar-loving insects. The Argiope, one of the most familiar orb weavers in our area, is often [...] Read more...

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Some Late July Insects

I spent part of the morning of July 22nd with the Museum’s Marsh Madness Summer Campers scooping up critters from the Wetlands. A goodly number of aquatic insects and other invertebrates were captured and studied, including a Water Scorpion, several Backswimmers, various water scavenger beetles, many dragonfly nymphs and a handful of leeches. (Leeches are [...] Read more...

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First Cicada Killer, Milkweed Leaf Beetles, and some Leps

The Annual Cicadas have come into full song. Not surprising, the first Cicada Killer of the season was seen on July 8th while I Explored the Wild with a group of Museum Summer Campers. The large wasp was spotted on the rocks just outside the entrance to the Lemur House and was in the same [...] Read more...

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Summer Starts to Buzz

The First-of-the-Year Great Blue Skimmer appeared on the 27th of June, perhaps adding to the confusion of novice oders (oders = dragonfly watchers). There are now 3 species of dragonfly cruising the Wetlands in which the mature males are overall blue in coloration. They differ in size as well as in several less obvious characteristics, [...] Read more...

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