Greetings, BugFans, The BugLady loves crab spiders, so she’s been thrilled to find two, new (to her) species in the last few years. One, the Whitebanded crab spider, is in the family Thomisidae, a family of, well, crab-shaped spiders, many of …
Salutations, BugFans, 2026: The pussy willows near the BugLady’s lakeshore home are in bloom. Here’s a BOTW about pussy willows from late March of 2012 – a few new words and pictures. 2012: People get excited when pussy willows whisper the spring. The …
Greetings, BugFans, Dragonflies! But not soon enough! Quick and dirty dragonfly phenology (phenology – the study of Mother Nature’s calendar. Cliff notes version – things appear/bloom/disappear/migrate in pretty much the same order every year, we just can’t predict the start date). Common …
Howdy, BugFans, THEY’RE COMING!!! It’s barely spring, officially – way too early to be thinking about butterflies, right? Nope. The first butterflies of the year have already been reported on the Wisconsin Butterflies website (Butterflies — wisconsinbutterflies.org) (which also serves your Tiger …
Salutations, BugFans, 2026 The BugLady checked the (highly searchable) website of the Wisconsin Odonata Survey (Wisconsin Odonata Survey) to see if anyone had reported a Common Green Darner yet. They are early migrants from the southeastern part of the country, traveling …
Howdy, BugFans, Way back in 2008, deer flies appeared briefly (two paragraphs) in a BOTW episode called “A few Flies,” sharing the spotlight with mosquitoes and horse flies. Amazingly, that’s the only time deer flies have appeared in BOTW, and …
Howdy BugFans, It’s almost time for Snowbirds to head back north to rejoin us here in God’s Country for the final days/weeks/months of winter. The BugLady read recently that the number of days below freezing in March here in God’s …
Howdy, BugFans, Way back in 2010, when the BugLady wrote an episode called “Big Beetle – Tiny Beetle,” the tiny beetle was a generic Tumbling flower beetle. There are a whole bunch of (unrelated) beetles that share the common name “flower …
Greetings, BugFans, Let’s take some time off from the relentless, 24-hour news cycle and enjoy a few bug stories. MOSQUITOES – The BugLady always snickers at the obligatory TV news spot in mid-spring in which someone earnestly tries to predict …
Salutations, BugFans, 2026 – When the BugLady wrote this episode in February of 2013, she kicked it off by griping about the weather – a favorite, February, indoor sport. This year, we’ve had many days of below average, below freezing, and below …
