Bug of the Week

Cherish the (Butterfly) Ladies (Family Nymphalidae)

The American Lady a year-round resident of the southern U.S. (south into South America and even the Galapagos), its summer wanderings bring it here to God’s country. Like the Painted Lady, it likes sunny, open spaces, and like the Painted Lady, it is an early migrant from the south that re-establishes populations in the North and East annually (it was recorded in Wisconsin in the first week of May this year). Unlike the Painted Lady, its caterpillars are tied to a smaller list of host plants, including the everlastings and pussytoes, and a few other species.

Fairy Shrimp of Ephemeral Ponds

Fairy Shrimp live in ephemeral ponds dodge many predators, but they are eaten by amphibians, predaceous diving beetles and the larvae of caddisflies. They avoid becoming fish food because the vernal pools they inhabit are generally fish-free, and their populations peak before migrating birds can make a meal of them. Fairy shrimp with other lifestyles are important food for waterfowl. Their relatives, the brine shrimp are eaten by flamingos and have been consumed by humans.

Bugs Without Bios IX

Spring housecleaning—time to tidy up a few more insects whose biographies are short ones.

And Now For Something a Little Different

The BugLady did not take a wrong turn at the phylogenetic tree, and no, she hasn’t run out of bugs to write about yet. She’s been out taking pictures for the past six weeks, mostly in wetlands. Since Easter, the sound track has been one of spring peepers and wood frogs (and now leopard frogs and American toads).

Earthworms Enhanced

Earthworms live in U-shaped tunnels in the soil. They stay indoors during the day and emerge at night because sunlight’s UV rays are toxic to them, paralyzing them, damaging muscle cells, and ultimately drying out the moist skin through which they breathe (there are studies indicating that earthworms may turn out to be useful as UV monitors for humans).

Blue Dasher Dragonflies (Family Libellulidae)

The range of the Blue Dasher stretches across North America from British Columbia to Ontario, south (except for the Rockies and Dakotas) to California and Florida, with scenic side-trips into Mexico, the Bahamas, and Belize. According to the Wisconsin Odonata Survey, Blue dashers may have been extending their range north in the state in recent years.

Fungus Gnats (Family Cecidomyiidae)

Fungus gnats are so-named because the offspring in some (but not all) of the families feast on fungi. Some groups are pests in gardens, agriculture, nurseries, and (overly wet) flowerpots, which generates bad PR for the whole group

Super Springtails

Springtails are found on all seven continents, in moist places with leaf litter or soil (a few species have adapted to deserts, others to forest canopies, and still others prefer caves). They probably evolved in cooler climes, which explains their fondness for spring and fall, and they will migrate to damper microhabitats if theirs loses humidity.

Deer Ticks Revisited (Family Ixodidae)

Deer Ticks lead a complex, three-stage, two-year life. All three stages are mobile and all three require a blood meal that can take three to five days to complete. Adult DTs are fairly impervious to frosts and can be out and about on winter days that are above freezing.

The Wonders of Webs II – Insect Silk

It turns out that spiders aren’t the only animals that make silk. The ability to make silk is found in most of the 26 (or so) insect orders. Larvae of many of the species of insects that have complete metamorphosis (egg-larva-pupa-adult)—like ants, wasps, bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, and flies—can make silk. Young fleas, lacewings, mayflies, thrips, some leafhoppers do it. Silverfish, and a family called “raspy crickets,” and a primitive little tropical order called Embioptera (web spinners) make silk as adults.

UWM Land Acknowledgement: We acknowledge in Milwaukee that we are on traditional Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk and Menominee homeland along the southwest shores of Michigami, North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes, where the Milwaukee, Menominee and Kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida and Mohican nations remain present.   |   To learn more, visit the Electa Quinney Institute website.