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  When I first discovered this wood moth it was not hiding very well; the little guy was perched on my cream-colored blanket hanging on the line. I moved him to the garden where, as you can see, he disappeared in an instant! I hung around until he made the "twig" move again (which is much more convincing on bark then posing as a twig on a blanket).
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I am enjoying Florida, and especially this Lepidoptera Papilionidea that is flittering about the Myers Lemon tree in the backyard. This artsy-looking butterfly's wingspan is from 4.6" to 7.4" and is common in Florida, but not in Seattle! Their range is eastern North America west to the Rockies, south through the desert Southwest to South America.  These lovely photos were taken by Donald Hall (top image) and Greg Clark (second image). After chasing a couple of Giant Swallowtails around the yard- at 92 F and 98% humidity and not getting anything close to these-google butterfly hunting won out for images. Thank you guys!
 What we found, whilst Amphibian Egg Mass Monitoring, at the upper Woodland Pond of the UW Arboretum yesterday, were these lovely Odonata larvae; the larger is a dragonfly nymph and the smaller a damselfly.
Dragonflies have been on the earth for over 300 million years, and at one time had wingspans of up to 75cm! Our modern-day dragonflies spend most of their lives as nymphs and molt 6-15 times before reaching adulthood, and this takes between two to six years. Cool fact: 80% of a dragonfly's brain is used to process visual information; their compound eyes are huge, with almost 28,000 individual units, and they can see 360°. Plus, they are both fast and agile, with flight speeds up to 35 mph. Read more about Odonata at UCMP Berkeley.  otherwise known as Synanthedon tipuliformis.
Our treasured Marisa Hendron, of Chrysalis Garden Care, is the fastest entomologist on the hill; she ID'ed this little guy as a Synanthedon, and was speculating perhaps bibionipennis? (as we've got beach strawberries). Now pointed in the right direction (not hymenoptera), I found a bug that was an identical match! (and funny, found in England, Wales, and parts of Scotland...) Before getting too excited about discovering a new species in the US, I checked BugGuide.net, and learned that this same Synanthedon tibuliformis has been spotted in Oregon, Washington, and BC. Marisa will receive one of my "Celebrate Urban Birds" posters for her sleuthing efforts; Thank you Marisa!  This gorgeous unfamiliar-looking insect was hanging out in my kitchen window. I took photos and then let the little fly-fishing bug go. Perusing my "Field Guide to Insects of North America" and the online BugGuide.net...I could not figure out an ID. Size was about 2cm long and it was a hopper.
I showed the photos to my science colleagues at school, and nope-nobody had seen anything like this before...but "Hey, what a cool-looking hymenoptera!" Has anybody out there got any idea who this little fellow is? Perhaps I've discovered a new species? We are referring to it as the Bottle-brush Booty Bug...  Here on Capitol Hill we share our ecosystem with odorous house ants, Tapinoma sessile. Normally, these little gals are not a problem, but over the last few winters we've been plagued with hundreds erupting into our kitchen, bathrooms, and into our basement. In natural habitats odorous house ants might have one queen, 50 workers, and and live in a walnut shell (sweet). They are one of the few ants that has adapted to urban environments, where they can now be be found in super-colonies with more than 6 million workers and 50,000 queens!
Our local odorous house ants seem to love electronics (and movies too, apparently); we have found them nesting inside a clock radio, phone base, drill charger, and in a lamp. They also surprised us on Valentine's Day when we discovered them nesting in our DVD collection. Luckily, we have found that borax mixed with sugar water (make your own or purchase Terro) can be used to discourage them from taking over. Food grade diatomaceous earth also is effective and safe to use indoors. Want to know more? check out this Science Daily article.  Xmas reading fun facts: it's estimated that arthropods outnumber humans by as much as 250 million to 1; arthropods collectively comprise over 80% of the total biomass of the terrestrial animals combined! Although small in size, mites and springtails are the most abundant kinds of animal life on the planet (Bugs Rule! 2013, p.3)
Speaking of springtails, I caught a couple of these little guys last February, which resulted in a post on Rusty Burlew's Honey Bee Suite post: "What's hopping on my bottom board?" Bugs do all kinds of things to keep the earth functioning: pollination, recycling, soil formation, maintain plant communities, and as part of the food chain. Go Bugs! |
AuthorTracey Byrne~ 
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