November 17, 2009 at 7:43 am (insects (other), plant-eating insects)
Tags: Mayslake, basswood, oak, Quercus, winter moth, linden looper, Erannis tiliaria, Tilia americana
by Carl Strang
Last year I arrived at Mayslake Forest Preserve at the beginning of November, and went through that first month without seeing any. We’re halfway through November a year later, and I still haven’t found one there, though I’ve spotted them elsewhere in DuPage County this month. I’m talking about winter moths.
Look at the eyes on that dude! Despite the slender looking antennae, I know it’s a dude rather than a dudette because the females of the species are wingless. The winter moth, Erannis tiliaria, is a member of the inchworm family (Geometridae). The adults wait until November to emerge, and I love them despite their drab color. When the males fly through the forest in that cold air, their slowed flight gives them a dreamlike, drifting quality as they pass among the stark tree trunks of the leafless woods.
Much of their adult structure seems geared to a cold-weather emergence. Females don’t waste energy building wings. Males must fly in the warmer daytime, and apparently use a combination of enhanced vision and pheromone detection (on relatively minimal antennae) to find the females.
Winter moth caterpillars are fairly straightforward, if a little more colorful than most inchworms: white beneath, bright yellow on the sides, and pinstriped brown, white and black down the back behind the red-brown head. I’ve seen them, but never with camera in hand. Like many moth caterpillars, they consume a wide range of tree species. Their other common name, linden looper, suggests a preference for basswood. That tree is rare at Mayslake, but winter moth larvae are known to eat the leaves of many trees, including oaks, which are common there. So, I continue to look for this ghostlike moth on November days in Mayslake’s savanna and brushy woodlands.
Leave a Comment
November 6, 2009 at 7:12 am (birds, botany, dragonflies and damselflies, insects (other), mammals, reptiles and amphibians, singing insects)
Tags: Asclepias, aster, Baltimore oriole, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, blue-gray gnatcatcher, brown-headed cowbird, chimney swift, chipping sparrow, common grackle, downy woodpecker, eastern bluebird, eastern kingbird, eastern phoebe, Erigeron, Eupatorium, European starling, house wren, mallard, Mayslake, northern flicker, Polygonum, Ranunculus, red-bellied woodpecker, red-winged blackbird, robin, Solidago, song sparrow, tree swallow, white-breasted nuthatch
by Carl Strang
Earlier this week I completed my first year of observations at Mayslake Forest Preserve. Many of the posts in this blog, which also is approaching its first birthday, have shared pieces of Mayslake’s ongoing natural history. It’s appropriate to look back at what I have learned there so far. Today I’ll simply share some numbers, the counts of species I have observed on the preserve to date.
Resident vertebrates include 14 species of mammals, 4 reptiles and 3 amphibians (though additional frogs have been observed at Mayslake by others in recent years). The bird species count is 130, many of which were migrants passing through. I saw evidence for successful nests, fledging at least 1 young, in the following 21 species: eastern bluebird, chimney swift, song sparrow, house wren, eastern kingbird, robin, northern flicker, blue jay, eastern phoebe (cowbird produced), chipping sparrow (cowbird produced), downy woodpecker, red-winged blackbird, red-bellied woodpecker, common grackle, black-capped chickadee, tree swallow, European starling, blue-gray gnatcatcher, Baltimore oriole, white-breasted nuthatch, mallard.
The insect species count is only 97 so far, but most of these belong to 4 groups to which I have directed most of my attention: 26 species of singing insects, 29 dragonflies and damselflies, 24 butterflies and moths, and 6 bumblebees.
Likewise my attention to Mayslake’s vegetation has been limited to certain groups of vascular plants. These include 49 trees (including those planted by landowners prior to forest preserve acquisition), 23 vines and shrubs, and 184 forbs. I’ll elaborate the last a little by mentioning genera represented by 4 or more species: so far I know of 4 Asclepias (milkweeds), 6 Aster, 4 Erigeron (fleabanes), 5 Eupatorium (a diverse genus including Joe Pye weeds, bonesets, and white snakeroot), 4 Polygonum (knotweeds), 5 Ranunculus (buttercups), and 7 Solidago (goldenrods).
Leave a Comment
September 30, 2009 at 5:45 am (dragonflies and damselflies, insects (other))
Tags: Aeshna umbrosa, Anax junius, Asclepias syriaca, Carolina saddlebags, Chinese mantis, common green darner, common milkweed, dragonfly migration, Euchaetes egle, Mayslake, milkweed tussock caterpillar, shadow darner, Tenodera sinensis, Tramea carolina
by Carl Strang
A couple days ago I put a finish on the floral season at Mayslake Forest Preserve. Today I’ll shake a few late insect photos out of the camera. We’ll start with some Odonata.
At Mayslake as elsewhere, hundreds of common green darners paused in their migration to hunt above the prairies and meadows. Migrating south is thought to be worthwhile for them and other large, strong dragonflies as they can extend their breeding season and spread their genes over a larger area. The various saddlebags species also migrate. Here is a UFO shot of a Carolina saddlebags that graced the mansion lawn area one day.
A darner that shows up in a lot of places late in the summer is the shadow darner.
That vertical perching posture is typical. Common milkweeds have been hosting a late-season caterpillar, the milkweed tussock caterpillar.
They are larvae of a tiger moth. I’ll close with a predator. This Chinese mantis assumed a cheerleading pose.
Then, it began to groom its hunting apparatus.
Earlier I showed an egg mass, which is how the species overwinters. Soon all the insects will be going into their various dormant forms to survive the long, cold, dry months of winter.
2 Comments
September 25, 2009 at 6:22 am (birds, botany, geology, insects (other), plant-eating insects, reptiles and amphibians)
Tags: aspen, beauty, Bombus impatiens, Bombus ternarius, bumblebee, false hemlock looper moth, Michigan, Muskallonge Lake State Park, Nepytia canosaria, pileated woodpecker, smooth green snake, Tahquamenon Falls, Upper Peninsula, Whitefish Point
by Carl Strang
In this final chapter of my Michigan vacation account, I will bring together assorted observations of other animals and sights. None of this truly counts as inquiry, except that travel and the exposure it gives us to new places leads us to make comparisons with our familiar environment. Such comparisons often lead to questions and inquiries on down the line.
At Muskallonge Lake, after completing my investigation at the beach, I went for a walk along the state park’s trails.
There were spectacular views of Lake Superior from elevated points, and flocks of migrating songbirds to investigate.
Tahquamenon Falls State Park is named for various waterfalls along the Tahquamenon River. Especially spectacular are the upper falls.
After a summer in which I made good progress in my knowledge of Illinois bumblebees, I was interested to find that in that part of the U.P., as back home, only one common species of short-tongued, generalist bumblebee is active at this point in the season. Here it’s Bombus impatiens; at the tip of the U.P. it was the beautifully marked Bombus ternarius.
B. ternarius is a northern species that does not extend its range down to Illinois.
One of the more charismatic birds that one hears and, sometimes, sees in the north woods is the pileated woodpecker. Here is a tree that has been well worked by that species.
Beauty on a smaller scale, which provided a reminder of the season in transition, took the form of this aspen leaf lying on a trail.
I spent most of my time at Whitefish Point. Here is a small scene I found especially compelling.
As I walked out from the point to the parking lot for the final time, I found an enchanting little animal crossing the trail.
Smooth green snakes occur in many places, but are so well camouflaged that we seldom have the good fortune to see them.
On my final morning at the Tahquamenon Falls campground, I found that a large number of moths had been drawn to the restroom building’s lights.
These were nearly all males of the same species, emerging all at once.
Nepytia canosaria, the false hemlock looper moth, is a common northern species whose larvae feed on a wide range of coniferous species including firs, hemlock, pines and spruces.
Leave a Comment
September 11, 2009 at 6:31 am (insects (other))
Tags: Actinomeris alternifolia, Apocynum cannabinum, Celestrina neglecta, Cycnia tenera, Danaus plexippus, dogbane, Fullersburg, Mayslake, monarch, Papilio glaucus, Peck's skipper, Polites peckius, summer azure, tiger swallowtail, wingstem
by Carl Strang
As we move into autumn, the lateness of the season calls for us to enjoy the more ephemeral beauties of nature while we still have them. Monarch butterflies have completed their local mating and egg-laying, and have begun the migration south toward Mexico.
Earlier in the season at Mayslake Forest Preserve I found this larva of the moth Cycnia tenera on its usual food plant, dogbane.
Tiger swallowtails are one of our more spectacular butterflies.
They will overwinter in the pupal form. Late season species include the summer azure.
Larvae of this little butterfly feed on flowers in the composite (sunflower) family; I have seen them laying eggs on wingstem at Fullersburg . Another common late summer species is Peck’s skipper.
There probably will be little more to report on this group at Mayslake until next year.
Leave a Comment
September 3, 2009 at 6:19 am (insects (other))
Tags: aphid, Chauliognathus marginatus, Chauliognathus pennsylvanicus, Cicindela punctulata, marginated soldier beetle, Mayslake, Pennsylvania soldier beetle, sidewalk tiger beetle, Solidago altissima, tall goldenrod
by Carl Strang
Some insect photos have been waiting to be featured for a while, and it’s time to bring them out. These species all are from Mayslake Forest Preserve. Earlier in the season, some of the tall goldenrods hosted large numbers of red aphids.
I am not yet familiar with the varieties of aphids, and so do not have an identification. It’s good to have plenty of interesting possibilities for future learning.
Both of the common species of soldier beetles are abundant at Mayslake. Earlier in the season, marginated soldier beetles frequented the plants with small, clustered, pollen-rich flowers. These beetles are variable in color, some relatively pale,
and some much darker.
In all of them, however, the dark mark on the pronotum (the shield just behind the head on the insect’s back) runs lengthwise. By now they are done for the season. In late summer and fall their place is taken by their larger congener (member of the same genus), the Pennsylvania soldier beetle. The pronotum mark in this species is oriented side to side.
These pollen-eating insects are fairly active, moving from plant to plant, and can be regarded as pollinators. Until August, tiger beetles had been conspicuous by their absence from Mayslake’s trails. Finally, around the parking lot near the prairie, I found some sidewalk tiger beetles (the picture below is from another preserve).
This species is so broad in the ecological space it can occupy, and in its geographic range, that Beetles in the Bush blogger Ted C. MacRae has proposed half in jest that it be called the ubiquitous tiger beetle.
Leave a Comment
August 24, 2009 at 6:08 am (insects (other))
Tags: Bombus auricomus, Bombus bimaculatus, Bombus griseocollis, Bombus pennsylvanicus, bumblebee, Mayslake
by Carl Strang
In my last update on bumblebees at Mayslake Forest Preserve I described the 5 species I had observed to that point. In the subsequent few weeks there have been a couple of changes to report. First is the apparent addition of a 6th species.
I believe this to be Bombus pennsylvanicus. At first glance it is very close to Bombus auricomus, which I described earlier. Both are relatively large bumblebees, both have lots of black on the thorax (especially on the sides), and both have segments 2 and 3 of the abdomen all yellow. However, auricomus has a cleaner, sharper look. All the yellow areas are bright, pure yellow. The black areas are unblemished by hairs of other colors. Both black and yellow areas are sharply defined, and correspond to the edges of body segments. If I am correct in my identification, pennsylvanicus has a muddier look. The yellow of the dorsal abdomen spills a little onto the first segment as you can just see in the above photo. Also, the yellow area of the posterior dorsal thorax has some black hairs mixed in, and the black on the sides of the thorax has some yellow hairs mixed in.
The more astonishing change is the nearly total disappearance of Bombus bimaculatus over the past three weeks. Through July, this was the most common bumblebee at Mayslake, with numbers exceeding those of all other species combined. I was away a week for Roger Raccoon Club , and returned to find the bimaculatus nearly gone. Now I see at most one or two a day. The other common small species, Bombus impatiens, continues essentially unchanged.
This is my first year of following the bumblebees at Mayslake. I don’t know if this disappearance is usual, and I don’t know what it means. I doubt that the species has a limited season, as bumblebees generally continue through the summer. Some of the native, solitary bees are specific to a single flower species and thus have defined seasons, but bumblebees are generalists. They are known to monitor changes in flower abundance and to travel miles, and so may have abandoned Mayslake for an abundant appearance of other flowers elsewhere. Disease might have impacted one colony, but for all the local colonies to be affected with no obvious change in other species seems unlikely (though the uncommon Bombus griseocollis also has been absent in August).
One day earlier this week I saw a couple odd looking bumblebees that seemed clumsy on the flowers.
Their markings were like those of griseocollis or bimaculatus, not precisely fitting either. They had enormous eyes, and were larger than most workers of either species. Photos showed them also to have unusually long antennae. These are males. What, if anything, their sudden appearance has to do with the absence of their species’ workers is another piece of the puzzle that needs fitting.
1 Comment
July 29, 2009 at 6:10 am (birds, botany, ecology, gardening, insects (other), plant-eating insects)
Tags: Asclepias tuberosa, Bombus bimaculatus, Bombus griseocollis, butterfly weed, Danaus plexippus, garden, gardening, monarch, nectar thief, royal catchfly, ruby-throated hummingbird, Silene regia
by Carl Strang
Our yards are habitats for wildlife. We have no choice in that. We can, however, influence what kinds of wildlife will visit us or live with us on the land. This is true even for a tiny yard like mine. Here are some examples from my prairie flowerbeds, which are approaching their peak now.
I have planted royal catchflies all out of proportion to their presence in our local prairies.
As a result, I can count on regular visits from ruby-throated hummingbirds in July and August. Here is this year’s happy camper, photographed through the kitchen window.
I kind of like this impressionistic view of the same bird.
Red tubular flowers shout “hummingbird” to ecologists, and to the birds themselves. I wonder if royal catchfly flowers also have evolved the means to defeat nectar thieves.
This Bombus bimaculatus bumblebee behaved as though it were in one of those sticky-slow-motion nightmares. The hairs on the royal catchfly calyx either were affecting it chemically, or physically had grabbed it. It wasn’t struggling strongly, so I suspect the former. As far as I know, no bumblebee has a tongue long enough to reach the nectaries of this flower from the front. Bumblebees are known to pierce such flowers from the outside, getting nectar but bypassing the anthers, therefore not serving the plant’s need for cross pollination. Such nectar thievery could provide selective pressure favoring any adaptation in the plant that might prevent the would-be perps from being successful.
In any case, I have plenty of bimaculatus visiting my other flowers, and also a few Bombus griseocollis.
A final species for this time is the monarch.
This half-grown caterpillar is doing well on one of my butterfly weed plants.
Leave a Comment
July 28, 2009 at 6:15 am (insects (other))
Tags: Bombus americanorum, Bombus auricomus, Bombus bimaculatus, Bombus fervidus, Bombus griseocollis, Bombus impatiens, Bombus pensylvanicus, Bombus vagans, bumblebee, Fullersburg, garden, Mayslake
by Carl Strang
Earlier I posted some background on bumblebees . I find that I made an error or two there, I since have found additional species at Mayslake Forest Preserve, and also some added web sites specific to Illinois bumblebees that have helped immensely. The total list for Mayslake at this point includes 5 species, and I showed a photo from Fullersburg Woods of a 6th, Bombus vagans, in that earlier post. There are 9 species total for Illinois, of which 2 are rare. (Here I am not counting the nest-parasite “cuckoo bumblebees,” of which there are 2, but which I have not yet encountered). To this point in the season, the most common species has been Bombus bimaculatus, both at Mayslake and in my garden at home. It has a yellow thorax except for a black dot on top, the first (basal) abdominal segment is yellow, the second segment is yellow in the center front edge but black on the ends and back edge. Otherwise the abdomen is black.
The patch of yellow on the second segment often is small and hidden by the wings, so care is needed to distinguish bimaculatus from another common species (though perhaps less common locally than I implied in that earlier post), Bombus impatiens. The main difference from bimaculatus is that the yellow on impatiens’ abdomen is confined to the first segment.
One correction I need to make to that earlier post is that the dead bumblebee I featured was not Bombus fervidus after all. That bee had a black basal abdominal segment, where in fervidus the first 4 segments all are yellow. I have found a few live members of the dead bee’s species at Mayslake.
This is Bombus auricomus, which is regarded as “uncommon” in Illinois. Here, the first segment is entirely black, segments 2 and 3 entirely yellow. The sides of the thorax are black, and as the next photo shows, there is a large black area in the center of the dorsal (top) thorax.
At Mayslake I have seen only a few of these, always in the same place, so I believe there is only one colony of them on the preserve. Compared to other bumblebees they are large and very active. Bombus fervidus is at Mayslake, too.
Here you can see that the basal segment also is yellow, as is the entire thorax except for a black band across the back between the wings. In that earlier post I mentioned the ecological significance of differences in tongue lengths among species. Get a load of the tongue length on that fervidus!
The 5th Mayslake species to date is Bombus griseocollis.
In this one the forward edge of the second abdominal segment is orange, but the back edge is black. The color on the second segment extends closer to the edge than it did in bimaculatus.
Bombus vagans, which I have seen at Fullersburg but not yet at Mayslake, has the first two abdominal segments yellow all the way to the back edge.
That leaves only one species of bumblebee which is said to be common in Illinois but which I have not yet observed: Bombus pensylvanicus (listed in some references as B. americanorum). That one is most similar to B. auricomus, but typically has the top rear part of the thorax black or orange, and the first abdominal segment has some yellow on its rear edge.
Here are some web references. For a really nice diagrammatic comparison of these color patterns you can download a pdf file called “Bumble Bees of Illinois and Missouri”. A site with additional identification and ecological information is the beespotter site.
2 Comments
July 27, 2009 at 6:13 am (insects (other), plant-eating insects)
Tags: banded hairstreak, black swallowtail, Danaus plexippus, Haploa reversa, large milkweed bug, Mayslake, monarch, Oncopeltus fasciatus, Papilio polyxenes, red milkweed beetle, reversed haploa, Satyrium calanus, Satyrium favonius, southern (oak) hairstreak, Tetraopes tetrophthalmus
by Carl Strang
A couple days ago I updated the dragonflies and damselflies I have been finding at Mayslake Forest Preserve in my first year there. Today I’ll continue with newly sighted butterflies and a moth. These include black swallowtails, both female
and male.
I have not seen larvae, but there are plenty of Queen Anne’s lace and other members of the family Umbelliferae that are potential food plants. When I saw the following hairstreak, I made sure to get photos.
This proves to be a banded hairstreak. A year ago I was alerted by Forest Preserve District invertebrate biologist Tom Velat to watch for southern or oak hairstreaks. That alert was prompted by the following photo I took of that species at Fullersburg, which I failed to identify correctly.
The hairstreaks require a close study of patterns in the lines of dots beneath both wings, and the arrangement of colors in the corner of the hindwing. I have one moth to share this time, the reversed haploa.
Haploa is a genus of tiger moths. I’ll close with three insects of milkweeds. The first is a familiar butterfly, the monarch, here visiting a purple coneflower in Mayslake’s Historic Garden.
Monarch caterpillars feed on the leaves of milkweeds, in the process sequestering defensive poisons which then protect the specialist insect from its own consumers. Other insects have solved the milkweeds’ chemical challenge, and gone on to advertise their own poisonous status with bright colors. Two species in this category which recently have appeared at Mayslake are the red milkweed beetle
and the large milkweed bug.
I’m sure I have barely scratched the surface of Mayslake’s Lepidoptera.
Leave a Comment
« Older entries
