Two-lined Petrophila Moth Rerun (Family Crambidae)

Two-banded Petrophilias are found near the rivers and streams in eastern North America that their larvae inhabit. The hind wings of adult Petrophila moths have a row of black/metallic spots that make one spider enthusiast theorize that they’re Jumping Spider mimics.

Glowworm Beetle (Family Phengodidae)

Glowworm Beetles are in the glowworm beetle family Phengodidae, a New World family of about 250 species with representatives living from the southern edge of Canada all the way to Chile. Most species live south of the Rio Grande. Other common names include “glow-worms” (a name shared with larval Lightning beetles) and “railroad worms.”

Snipe Fly (Family Rhagionidae)

Golden-backed Snipe flies (Chrysopilus thoracicuschrysopilusmeans “golden hair” and thoracicus refers to the thorax) ply the tall grasses, sedges and thickets around wetlands east of the Great Plains. Look down—the BugLady rarely sees them higher than two feet off the ground.

The Ants of CESA (Family Formicidae)

Prairie Mound Ants build mounds in peaty, wetland soils, and their lives are governed by the water table. While their prairie relatives may tunnel five feet into the earth, nests in wetlands are shallower, and ants must be prepared to move up above ground level, into the mound, if the water rises.

Forked Fungus Beetle (Family Tenebrionidae)

The Forked Fungus Beetle is in the Darkling beetle family Tenebrionidae and is the only species in its genus. It’s found east of the Mississippi, at night, in the woods, in the company of woody, polypore shelf fungi. All stages of the beetle live and overwinter and reproduce and feed in/on woody shelf fungi.

Fishfly (Family Corydalidae)

Fishflies can be found throughout much of eastern North America. Adults are generally found near the water that their aquatic larvae require. Various species of Fishflies may live in streams and rivers or in still ponds; some, reported from ephemeral ponds or streams, can survive a short dry spell if well-buried in wet mud.

June Bug Redux (Family Scarabaeidae)

The BugLady is dusting off and sprucing up a BOTW from six years ago. A clarification: a number of different genera of beetles in various regions of America are also popularly called June bugs/May beetles (and there’s even a conspicuous on-line image of a Japanese beetle, genus Popillia, labeled as a June beetle). Our June bugs, in the genus Phyllophaga, are the real ones.

Virgin Tiger Moth (Family Erebidae)

Tiger moths are unusual among moths because they have on their thorax tymbal organs, which can be used to produce ultrasonic sound (more about that in a sec), and tympanal (hearing) organs (if you’re going to make sound, it’s nice to be able to hear sound). “Ears” are somewhat more common in moths, but some tiger moth caterpillars can hear, too, picking up sound through some of their hairs.

Longhorns without Bios (Family Cerambycidae)

It’s a large family, with more than 20,000 species worldwide and 1,200 species north of the Rio Grande, and it’s divided into eight subfamilies. Many LongHorns are economically important because their larvae bore into dead/dying/cut wood, lowering its value as timber (but aiding in the recycling of the forest).

Bald-faced Hornet (Family Vespidae)

The Bald-faced Hornet is famous for the football-shaped paper nest that it suspends, between two and forty feet off the ground, from a man-made or natural support. The nest is initiated by the queen, a fertile female that mated last fall and holed up over the winter while the workers, drones, and old queen died. She starts the new nest in spring by fashioning a spherical structure that’s open at the bottom. After she raises her first brood, her daughters take over, enlarging and guarding the nest, foraging for food for the larvae and their queen.