Summer has flown right on by. I didn’t photograph nearly as much bugs as I wanted to…too dang busy with work, the house, the pups…ugh! Next thing you know it will be snowing

Below is a robber fly with a crazy beard Haven’t had time to ID it yet…

And finally some stylin’ cedar waxwings

The theme for today involves two insects that relate to trees, either in form or funtion

The first is a Megarhyssa nortoni. They use that very long ovipositor (the black needle-like thing) to drill into trees in order to lay a single egg on developing siricid woodwasps. The egg hatches and the larva Megarhyssa then feeds on the siricid larva, slowly. Eventually there is nothing left of the siricid except the exoskeleton (outer insect skin) and the head capsule. The Megarhyssa pupates, chews its way out of the tree, and wah-la it begins all over again. They are able to hunt for siricids in the trees by using those antennae to smell for the frass (insect poop) and symbiotic fungus that is carried by and injected into the trees by the siricids.

The second insect is a stick insect (Phasmatodea). Im not sure of the species ID because it was a juvenile, and well, I suck at species id on phasmids. There are actually people who have dedicated whole websites to phasmids, phasmatodea.com and phasmatodea.org. Stick insects perform this rocking behavior where they sway back and forth to help them blend in with their environment, making them look like a swaying stick, twig, leaf, etc in order to fool would-be predators.

Another porch light visitor (I have a happening porch at night!)…when I first saw it and went to grab my camera I thought it might be a hooktip moth, but now I am pretty sure it is a Large Maple Spanworm moth. I don’t know much about them, but I’m guessing they like maples

Below is a lovely Dogbane beetle who decided the hood of my truck was the place to hang out this afternoon. This was convenient for me, I actually like taking pictures on the hoods of vehicles because the lighting is amplified.

Speaking of light reflectance, IA State has a little blurb on their IPM page about the striking colors of the beetle:

“One of the most intriguing characteristics of the dogbane beetle is the kaleidoscope of brilliant colors. The Illinois State Museum explains this phenomenon. The dogbane leaf beetle has a special type of color that shines and changes as the insect changes position or as we change position while looking at it. This changing color is called iridescence. The beetles’ iridescence is produced by special body structures and light. The surface of the body parts of this beetle is made up of stacks of tiny, slanting plates, under which is a pigment (substance that produces color). Some light rays reflect from the surface of the plates, and other light rays reflect from the pigment underneath. At different angles, the light reflects at different speeds, causing interference that result in our seeing different colors that shine.”

Bush katydids (Scudderia spp.) are one of the most common katydids and are famous for the songs the males sing at night, “katy did, katy didn’t”. The fancy word for how they sing this song is called ’stridulation’, where they rub both of their upper wings together (one part has a tooth-like file and the other a knife-like scrapper). The female hears the males singing through the organs on her front two feet (see 2nd and 3rd pic below).

This one came to our porch light last night.

Katydids start singing late summer and theres an old wives tale (maybe its true?) that once they begin singing the first frost is about 6 weeks away. I haven’t heard them yet, but on a personal note, I hope the frost, and more importantly winter, stay away for a more than that.