Summer reruns. Here’s an enhanced version (more fun silverfish facts) of an episode that first aired in the spring of 2009.
Silverfish are spindle/carrot-shaped, flat and gray with a metallic “finish.” Your common, household silverfish, lives in cool, damp places, feeding on house dust, bits of dried vegetation, small insect body parts that get restaurants in trouble, sawdust, and starch, which it gleans from wallpaper paste and from the glues used in book-binding.
Dragonfly ancestors came on the scene some 325 million years ago, and the BugLady is certain that people were admiring them as soon as there were people. They are woven into the fabric of myth and legend in many cultures and religions and have even been used for medicine and food. What’s not to like? They come in a rainbow of colors and range in size from damselflies that are less than an inch long to hummingbird-sized darners.
A solitary Four-toothed Mason Wasp, Monobia quadridens, has taken to creating egg chambers in the BugLady’s wind chimes. This is a medium-sized wasp, with both a length and a wingspan of just under an inch. They are found throughout eastern North America, edging into southern Ontario to the north, the Great Plains on the west, and northern Mexico to the south.
Protean Shield-backed Katydids evoke adjectives like “earthy” and “organic,” and “elemental” (along with “lunker”). This utilitarian katydid looks like it saw the dinosaurs, and maybe it did. Katydids (family Tettigoniidae, subfamily Tettigoniinae) are in the order Orthoptera (“straight wings”) (grasshoppers, crickets, et al). Orthoperans survived the meteor strike 65 million years ago; dinosaurs did not. There are 123 species in North America, and they are a mostly-Western bunch, with about 10 species in the East.
The BugLady got a very special request from almost-5-year-old BugFan Jolene, who is curious about Ant Flies (aka flying ants). Why do some ants get to fly but others don’t? Do they get to have the wings their whole life? Do all ants have ant-flies as part of their family? Are their classmates jealous of their wings?
Northern Pearly-eyes are generally described as shade loving butterflies of forest glades and edges, not found on flowers in sunny meadows. They “may be active early a.m. or late p.m. when they court,” and several sources said that they may come to light at night.
With a lower case “t,” technicolor refers to something that is vividly colorful. But long before the creation of color motion pictures, nature has been demonstrating the word’s meaning. Especially when it comes to bugs!
What do Jumping Spiders and cats have in common? Apart from being adorably fuzzy, they are also both enraptured by laser pointers! The reason being Jumping Spiders’ powerful and rather unique eyes which can even see the moon. Not bad for something whose eyes are less than a millimeter large.
The first brood of Eastern Tiger Swallowtails is sailing around the BugLady’s skyscapes. Brood I has it tough—they weather the winter and early spring as a chrysalis, hitched (stitched) to the base of a tree trunk, exposed to bitter cold by the lack of snow and chilled by long, cold, wet springs. Many die. And yet, here they are—looping through the air and instigating Brood II.
The BugLady has decided to take June off this year. But, be on the lookout for jumping worms, a.k.a. “crazy worms,” “snake worms,” and “Alabama jumpers”, are knocking on the door—they are established in Wisconsin, and the full extent of their range is not known.