13 August 2023
The birds are quiet now however the bugs are busy.
After I photographed this butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) I zoomed in to take a look at the yellow spec on the again fringe of the flower cluster and located a tiny yellow crab spider clinging to the flowers. My guess is that he’s a member of the Thomisidae household, mendacity in anticipate one thing. However what?
On Monday, whereas strolling the Three Rivers Heritage Path River reverse Herr’s Island, I seen a caterpillar on the huge aluminum railing. It jogged my memory of the hickory tussock moth besides that this one was blonde.
iNaturalist recognized it as a sycamore tussock moth (Halysidota harrisii). The railing was immediately beneath his host plant, a sycamore tree (Platanus occidentalis).
The caterpillar walked quickly down the railing in a straight line till Whoa! a noticed lanternfly crimson nymph walked quickly towards him. The caterpillar made a detour.
At Frick Park on 6 August we discovered quite a lot of millipedes on the paved 9 Mile Run Path. iNaturalist says they’re greenhouse millipedes (Oxidus gracilis), considered native to Japan however launched around the globe. They get their title from being a pest in greenhouses.
And eventually I used to be fooled yesterday by these mating orange and black bugs, as fooled as they supposed me to be. They regarded like milkweed bugs, however why have been they on a false sunflower?
I ought to have identified! These are false milkweed bugs (Lygaeus turcicus) who masquerade as a toxic species and whose host plant is the false sunflower. Learn extra about them and the bugs they imitate right here.
(pictures by Kate St. John)
