We make arthropods out of snow!

How do you like my snow spider? I know, Im a dork. Man have we gotten a lot of snow…Im definitely ready for spring.

Some insects have been making the news lately.

First, did you know that King Tut was probably killed by mosquitos carrying malaria? The NY Times did a story about it that you can read here. If you don’t know what malaria is than you have been probably living in a cave far away from the sub/tropics because there are an estimated 300-500 million cases of infected people each year.

Another little story is more of an on-going debate happening in Chesapeake Bay involving tiger beetles and some fancy-pants homeowners with a nice view

The Puritan tiger beetle is an endangered beetle only found enhabiting sandy areas along the CT river and along Chesapeake Bay in MD.

USFWS Photo

Apparently the cliffsides are eroding and breaking away in Chesapeake Bay causing residents to lose part of their property. The local residents want to be able to reinforce the cliff areas but are being denied permission to do so based on the fact that it is the protected habitat of the endangered beetle. The following is pulled from the link above:

In an October 5, 2009, memo from the MDNR, homeowners asking for permission to reinforce the cliff area were told, “”The proposed project would clearly destroy larval habitat, and is therefore prohibited.” Homeowner John Eney says, “They show absolutely no concern for human life or private property.”

So what do you think…who has property rights there, the beetles or the local residents?

Oh, one more thing, there is a new insect blog on the block…the Skeptical Moth. Im always jealous of people who have the patience to identify the miriad of tiny moths. Check it out

Anna Miller from OnlineDegree.net put together a list of the Top 25 Entomology Blogs…check it out.

Also…if you get bored and want to see entomologists, at what I like to call “Bug Club”, try to make funny jokes about insects click here and here.

Life has been a bit stressful/busy, and is about to become more complicated in the upcoming months. I have been contemplating shutting down this website for a while now and still haven’t come to a conclusion yet. I feel like I am doing an injustice to the insects because Im not giving posts the amount of attention I would like to, other than throwing up some photos here and there.

In the meantime, winter has really set in here in upstate NY….haven’t even seen any snow fleas yet But, did manage to get some pics of bald eagles near one of the fingerlakes.

And a little winter Wesson…

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.