Posts Tagged ‘Silver-spotted Skipper’

Treefrogs Arrive!! by , Ranger

June 23rd, 2011

It’s that time of year again when we start to see newly morphed treefrogs on the vegetation surrounding the Wetlands. Yesterday (6/22/11), I was out walking the “Wild” with a group of Summer Campers. The sharp-eyed campers spotted the treefrogs pictured here on the branches of the now blooming Buttonbush which grows along the south side [...] Read the rest of this entry »

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Tiger Swallowtails and Others by , Ranger

August 4th, 2010

It has been widely reported over the last week or so that Eastern Tiger Swallowtails are being seen in large numbers throughout our area (the Carolinas). Listservs such as Carolina Leps have had posts which speak of “an explosion of Tiger Swallowtails” and subject lines like “Tigers!” and ”Day of the Tiger.”  It’s no different here [...] Read the rest of this entry »

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Birds & Butterflies of June by , Ranger

June 30th, 2010

On the last day of the month, some of the avian and lepidopteran creatures of June… Can you guess how each animal got its name? What did you see at the Museum in June? Read the rest of this entry »

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Flowers, Butterflies, Odes, Birds, Snappers, and the Fox by , Ranger

May 4th, 2010

Dame’s Rocket and Blackberry are in bloom. Butterflies find the early blooming blackberries rather tempting. More species of dragonflies and damselflies have been emerging recently. A first-of-the-season Carolina Saddlebags (Tramea carolina) was seen on 29 April as was a new species for the Museum, a Prince Baskettail (Epitheca princeps). I had thought that I spied one of [...] Read the rest of this entry »

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Tumbling Beetles, Odes, and other June Insects by , Ranger

June 15th, 2009

For the past few weeks Tumbling Flower Beetles (Mordellidae) have been rummaging through the flowers of Queen Anne’s Lace. Members of this family are small, humpbacked beetles with pointed abdomens that project out beyond the insect’s elytra. The tumblers that I’ve seen all appear uniformly black in color. Species identification can be a head-scratcher and [...] Read the rest of this entry »

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Butterflies, Dragons, Tent Dwellers, a Forester, and a Tiger by , Ranger

April 15th, 2009

Fragile Forktails continue to emerge from the Wetlands (see Fragile Forktail, Explore the Wild Journal, March 16-31, 2009), although I’m now seeing females as well as males. Among the other odes observed during the first half of April were Common Green Darner, Swamp Darner, Common Baskettail, and Common Whitetail. Butterflies seen this period were Eastern [...] Read the rest of this entry »

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Some Most Unusual Beetles and other Goodies by , Ranger

August 31st, 2008

While watching a small Northern Water Snake stalk frogs from the Wetlands Overlook, I happened to see something wiggling amongst the dense plants in the water. A quick look through my binoculars revealed two large Predaceous Diving Beetle larvae locked in mortal combat, one had a death grip on the other. These larvae were quite [...] Read the rest of this entry »

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Buprestid Beetles appear, Cicada Killer Stakes Claim by , Ranger

July 15th, 2008

I found a metallic woodboring beetle on the paved path in Explore the Wild. It was one of the large metallic woodborers, Chalcophora virginiensis (pictured at right). Its larvae bore into pines. One reference calls this beetle the Large Flat-headed Pine Heartwood Borer (the thoracic section of the larva or grub is flattened). I think [...] Read the rest of this entry »

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