Speed-dating the Spiders – Black Widows

Note: All links leave to external sites. Howdy, BugFans, For years, BugFan Tom has sent pictures from the Deep South of Black widow spiders that he encounters while conducting research in southern thickets in the dead of night. Thanks for …

Cruiser Dragonflies

When the BugLady asked BugFan Freda what she should write about for BOTW#700 (!!!), the answer, not surprisingly, was dragonflies. In this case, a very cool family of dragonflies that the BugLady hasn’t seen yet, but that Freda has photographed.

Broad-winged Skipper Butterfly

Howdy, BugFans, Last July, the BugLady made a couple of visits to a local wetland where she enjoyed an abundance of Broad-winged Skippers on swamp milkweed. A brief introduction—broad-winged Skippers are in the family Hesperiidae (the Skippers). Most skippers are …

Flies without Bios II

Note: All links leave to external sites. Howdy, BugFans, The BugLady is always ambivalent about photographing flies, even when they pose nicely. There are a whole heck of a lot of species of Diptera (“two wings”) out there – 17,000 …

Coral Hairstreak Butterfly

Note: All links leave to external sites. Howdy, BugFans, Hairstreaks (and Blues and Coppers and Harvesters) are members of the Gossamer-winged butterfly family Lycaenidae (“Gossamer-winged” being a nod to the iridescent sheen on the wings of many family members). Numbering …

Cyrano Darner Dragonfly

Howdy, BugFans, It’s time for a dragonfly. In fact, it’s past time for a dragonfly. The BugLady has not seen this species yet (BugFan Freda has, and she contributed her pictures. Thanks, Freda) but she’s looking forward to the end …

Bugs in the News

Note: All links leave to external sites. Howdy, BugFans, As usual, the BugLady’s “Bugs in the News” folder runneth over, so here’s a collection of articles to chew on. Many come from the wonderful Smithsonian Daily Newsletter, which not only …

Swamp Metalmark Butterfly Redux

Note: Most links leave to external sites. Greetings, BugFans, This is a slightly massaged episode that was originally posted in June of 2010. Recently the BugLady was privileged to photograph this lovely butterfly at Riveredge Nature Center, one of its …

A Species on the March – Part 2, the Slender Bluet Damselfly

Note: Most link leaves to external sites. Howdy, BugFans, Back in the summer of 2019, in an episode about Lilypad Forktail damselflies entitled “A Species on the March,” the BugLady wrote, “Lake Twelve is famous because of the presence there …

Horsehair worm Redux

Note: Most links leave to external sites. Howdy, BugFans, This is a somewhat rewritten rerun from 2009. New words, no new pictures. It’s a good thing that the common usage of the term “bug” is so inexact, because once again …