Pollinators

No rest for the pollinators this Sunday afternoon at Habitat Home.

Bumblebee on yellow wild indigo Baptisia sphaerocarpa

Pearl crescent on mouse ear coreopsis Coreopsis auriculata nana

Summer azure on golden alexander Zizia aurea

Spring Flowers = Spring Pollinators

It was difficult yesterday not to notice the front yard crabapple tree (probably a Prairie Fire) which was ablaze in red and pink. Also noticing and attracted to it were hundreds of bees, ranging from very small bees to a large bumblebee or two. The bee pictured above is probably a mining bee (family Andreninae), but I have no experience identifying them. Notice the amount of yellow pollen grains as well as the hairs on the bee's thorax, abdomen, and legs which make her entire body a pollen collecting tool. This bee will visit many flowers of many plants and "share" some of the pollen thereby pollinating them, a wonderful example of mutual benefit in nature. The mining bees burrow in the ground, laying their eggs in small chambers along with a ball of pollen and nectar for the hatched larval bees to feed on. This image is worth clicking on to open the full resolution version in a separate window.

13-year Cicadas

Upon returning from our vacation to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park, we were welcomed home by the droning trill of thousands of cicadas. 2011 is the emergence year for so-called Brood XIX, the Great Southern Brood of periodical cicadas. One species of Magicicada, these cicadas (not locusts, that's a whole different order) live underground for 13 years, feeding on the sap of friendly tree roots. By some unknown signal, they then all emerge in May and June to quickly fly around, eat, mate, and lay eggs in a matter of 5-6 weeks. A strange life cycle, to be sure, but apparently a successful one. 13- and 17-year periodical cicadas are found only in the eastern U.S. and nowhere else in the world.

I am incapable of picking out to which of the 3 (or four?) species that these Habitat Home cicadas belong. Apparently, one species differentiator is the song, sung only by the males. So I have included here an audio recording for those who might care (see link below). This recording includes an obvious bird in the background, but both the chirps and the drone are from these cicadas, mostly in the crab apple tree where these photos were taken.

For more information, see:

• Susan Post and Michael Jeffords article on Illinois cicadas (from Illinois Steward, Summer 2004)
• Wikipedia article on Magicicada
• Wikipedia article on Brood XIX (The Great Southern Brood)
• 17 second audio recording from the crab apple tree

Salt Marsh Caterpillar

My potted tomato plants are gone now.  The other day the leaves were all eaten.  I wondered who did it, but being the end of the season, I just dumped the soil and what was left of the poor plants onto the compost piles. This morning as I watered some  scented geraniums, I noticed this caterpillar.  Looking so cute and fluffy, I asked the resident photograher to photograph it.  It was not until tonight as I was looking up what it actually was that I realized it had eaten the  tomato leaves!  I  think it is a salt marsh caterpillar, the mature larval form of the salt marsh moth (Estigmene acrea).  The larvae are well known for their ability to skeletonize foliage of vegetable plants, one of which is tomato plants.  Doesn't look so cute and fluffy any more.

Japanese beetles

I have been hearing reports that the Japanese beetles have arrived. I have not seen any. But last evening, while weeding amongst the Joe-pye weed plants, bottlebrush and river oats grasses I found them. My reaction was one of amazement. The way these beetles chew the interior of the grape leaves to produce these lacy leaves. I left this situation as it was. In a few day I will go and remove what is left of the summer grape plant (Vitis aestivalis) that was smothering the plants I was weeding amongst. Could this even be a case of the Japanese beetles being the good guys and removing the grape plants before they smother everything else? But even grape plants have merit. Tasty dishes can be made with their leaves and jellies and jams with their fruits. The fruits are also eaten by many birds, the leaves are browsed by deer, and the bark is used by some birds in their nests.

Widow Skimmer

While in Chicagoland last week, we spent some time at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Joan attending a workshop on sedges and me occasionally walking around. Although hot and muggy, I wanted to take advantage of the different geographical location (northern Illinois) and habitat (small lake) to photograph and identify some new dragonflies. So Friday afternoon I braved the sun, the 95 degrees, and the humidity to walk around Meadow Lake, staying close enough to the visitor center to be able to scurry back into climate control as necessary. The lake is very nice (as is the rest of the arboretum) with well maintained and labeled plants along the banks and, in some cases, in the lake. But to my surprise and disappointment, I saw only two dragonflies, and they were buzzing in a line from some distant point A to some equally distant point B and did not stop to let me examine or photograph them.

Back home Saturday, I saw only these two dragonflies, male and female widow skimmers (Libellula luctuosa). These are very common in Illinois, the male especially easily recognizable with the large dark dark and white patches on all wings. While the book would say that the male is usually found defending its territory near the water, I saw both of these in the savanna and prairie, about 200 yards from the river or nearest pond.

Damsels and Dragons

Dragonflies and damselflies (together comprising the order Ordonata) make up one of those classes of living things that I see all the time but have paid little attention to, at least beyond noting them flying about and the different colors of their wings. So because they are quite abundant around here this month, I decided to take a closer look. A single trip around the bottom field path figuratively netted three very different species, two dragonflies and one damselfly. It was easy to identify the guy to the left here as a damselfly, because he is holding his wings folded high when stationary, while dragonflies sit with their wings stretched out. Damselflies tend also to be distinguishable from dragonflies by their lacy, fluttering style of flight. This is a quite colorful example (probably because he's in the sun) of an ebony jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata).

I'm no dragonfly biologist, let alone a card carrying member of the International Odonatological Society, so please correct me, but using James R. Curry's beautiful and informative book Dragonflies of Indiana,I have tentatively identified the dragonfly below as a female blue dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis). Note the stretched and slightly downfolded wings, the white face, eyes close together and double row of yellow markings on the abdomen.

Dragonflies are amazing. Their larval stage is spent under water for a year or more, after which they emerge and go through a metamorphosis for a brief but frenzied few days or weeks as a flying adult, focused exclusively on eating and mating. And dragonflies are big eaters, they can consume their weight in flies and mosquitoes in an hour. Their compound eyes are composed of as many as 30,000 individual lenses each, and it is a testament to the wonder of life that their small, literally pin-head size brain can both coordinate their beautiful and intentional movements as well as interpret the rapidly changing visual scene in order to hunt prey and find a mate. Although some dragonflies get along almost anywhere near water, many species are adapted to very specific environments. This is another reason to conserve, recreate, or manage the specific habitats we find ourselves living in.

Finally, as an aside, I was reminded by the blue dasher image of why I like to take photographs. Click on her image immediately above to open a full resolution image in a separate browser window. OK, sure, taking pictures is something I can actually do. But it ends up as both a motivation and a path to examining the natural world. Examining almost any photograph (yes, sometimes even family snapshots) can reveal startling, unexpected, and beautiful details that aren't available in "real time," and force you to consider the differences, the commonalities, the "something new" present in those details. As stated above, I had never thought much about dragonflies, never having had the opportunity to look at them in the way we can look at butterflies or even birds, let alone a tree or blade of grass.  But these images do something extra for me beyond the also enjoyable walk in the woods, and I hope they do for you as well.

Organ Pipe Wasp Nests

Minding my own business at the computer yesterday, the sound of pecking outside the window was enough motivation to go out in the cold to see who, or what, was trying to take the siding off the house.  Slowly approaching the pecking sound, now identified as coming from the underside of the deck above the window, something fell down and bounced on the patio, and then a downy woodpecker flew out.  The photo above shows one of the several organ pipe mud dauber wasp nests constructed under the deck.  You can see the damage the woodpecker has done (to the nests), probably looking for larvae or spiders that the wasps left last fall.  Mud dauber wasps tend to be nice to have around, they are not aggressive, eat lots of spiders, and are, in turn, eaten by birds - I've watched bluebirds take wasps on the wing.

Ladybugs

These ladybugs are captured. They are in the new handy little vacuum cleaner we recently purchased. We had to do something. The house at Habitat Home was literally crawling with Asian ladybugs (Harmonia axyridis). On warm autumn days during harvest the beetles start to swarm and fly about and eventually get into the house though any crack or crevice. Once inside they will settle down and overwinter if you let them. But I cannot. There are just too many of them. They are colorful and they do eat aphids but I just wish they would not come into the house in such great numbers.

Carolina Mantid

This male Carolina mantid (a version of praying mantis), almost three inches long, was found this afternoon on the tomato plants. Perhaps he was waiting for the small wasps to emerge from their cocoons on the dead tomato hornworms nearby. He turned his head over a wide range left and right to keep an eye on me while I was watching him. Although probably common in Illinois, we do not remember seeing these particular mantids before. We will keep an eye out for a mate and/or egg case, since it's that time of year.

Tomato Hornworm

The potted tomato plants are still growing and producing lots of tomatoes. Is it any wonder then that there are tomato hornworms about? The horn is on the rear end of the worm. These are caterpillars of hawk moths, and so may possibly be the progeny of the hummingbird moth or a close relative. There are several hornworms crawling around on the tomato plants. Soon most of the leaves will be eaten if the worms are not removed. Handpicking is the easiest way to remove them, they are slow moving and fairly easy to spot on the undersides of the leaves. No insecticides or chemicals are needed. But for this one, I do not even have to do that. The white cylindrical attachments are cocoons of a predatory wasp. When the cocoons hatch the caterpillar will die and the wasps will go on to lay eggs on other tomato hornworms and repeat the cycle. A very interesting situation to observe.

Big mantis

We are finally starting to see some grown praying mantis (Mantis religiosa). This one was out the other day patiently waiting for a tasty bug to come along. They will sit still for a long time and then at just the right moment, with amazing quickness, reach out that long spiny foreleg and grab an insect flying by. That is why the mantis is a symbol of patience and stillness in some cultures. Wonder what it means that the female will often eat the head of her male partner after mating.

Praying Mantis Silhouette

This praying mantis (Mantis religiosa) was inside on our kitchen trash can lid. He would have had to wait there a long time before he would be able to reach out those long spiny arms to capture an insect (I hope). So we moved him outside but not before letting him pose on the lid and then running up and down my arm. This silhouette makes him look so big but he was very young and quite small, about one inch long.

Hummingbird Moth

There are several hummingbirds that regularly visit the flowering plants and our feeder. Then there is this guy, Hemaris diffinis, which as far as we can tell (not being lepidopterists), goes by a number of common names including snowberry clearwing, or more generically, hummingbird moth, bumblebee moth, hawk moth, sphinx moth (family Sphingidae), etc. Although somewhat smaller, they do resemble the hummingbirds by their movements, their ability to hover and that they are always beating their wings, even when feeding. Their long proboscis can be easily seen in these two images, extended into the flowers of the butterfly-bush (Buddleja davidii).

Bumble Bee?

The butterfly weeds are blooming and they are covered with Bumble Bees. A friend brought me a poster that enables one to identify Bumble Bees. This poster is entitled Bumble Bees of Illinois and Missouri pub. by the Univ. of Illinois Dept. of Entomology. Look for females in late April through August. Don't look for males until August and September. (So this must be a female.) Then one has to look for a yellow thorax or a yellow thorax with a black spot. Then on down the chart one goes, noticing such things as black or yellow hair on top of head, the color of the segments, side view of head, eyes and so much more. Eventually one gets to identify the Bumble Bee. BUT, there is a little box off to the side, with red lettering! It says watch out for this one, the Carpenter Bee, Xylocopa virginica for it is often confused with the Bumble Bee. So is it Bombus impatiens the bumble Bee or Xylocopa virginica the Carpenter Bee?

Beespotter

Fireflies

They were out last night.
What a wonderful sight!
They were in the grass, in the air, in the trees.
They were blinking and flying and glowing.
I sure hope you take the time to enjoy the fireflies