Today’s star is a metallic wood boring beetle called (probably) the Flatheaded Poplar Borer (Dicerca tenebrica—unless it’s D. divaricata, the Flatheaded Hardwood Borer). There are about 25 species in the genus, and the tips of their elytra (the hard covers that protect the flying wings) are longish, a tad blunt, and slightly separated or flared at their tips.
As a group, Bumblebees are northern bees, tough enough to survive north of the Arctic Circle. They can thermoregulate;—producing heat by “shivering” their flight muscles without beating their wings, and retaining it via their thick, insulating hairs. They need an internal temperature of 86 degrees before they can fly.
The European Elm Bark Borer (Scolytus multistriatus), a.k.a the Dutch elm weevil, a.k.a. the Smaller European elm bark beetle, is an alien that was first observed in the U.S. in 1909, though it undoubtedly arrived earlier. Surveys in 1933 found the beetles clustered around the seaports of Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia.
Except for the far east and west coasts, Chickweed Geometer are found from the Rio Grande well north into Canada, especially in the eastern half of the U.S. Because their larvae eat the leaves of chickweed (and clover and smartweed and other low plants) and because lawns may be hotbeds of chickweed and clover, Chickweed Geometers are often found in manicured situations, where their presence is welcomed.
Shiny Flower Beetles appeared in the first half of August, covering goldenrods and a few other members of the Aster/Composite family. SFBs produce a single generation a year, timed to coincide with the flowering of their favorite composite. Red Sumac Leaf Beetles larvae travel about in cases made from their own fecal material. Females oviposit in the leaf litter, the larvae eat dead leaves and grow there spending the winter deep under the insulating leaves.
With apologies to Olde English Folk Songs everywhere, here is the Second Annual Twelve Bugs of Christmas, featuring a Baker’s Dozen that were photographed this year but that did/will not appear in BOTWs. These pictures are a tribute to the joy of stumbling into the right place at the right time.
American Pelecinid Wasps are relatively common from Argentina through Canada, in woodlands, grasslands and gardens, from mid-summer to early fall. Two other species occur exclusively south of the border. Pelecinids have short wings for their length and are slow flyers.
Blister Beetles are famous for their choice of weapons. They protect themselves from predators by causing a caustic chemical called cantharidin to seep from their joints when alarmed (reflex bleeding). There are about 2,500 species of them in the world, and about 410 of them are found in North America. Like many insects that have complete metamorphosis, Blister Beetles occupy different habitats and enjoy different diets as larvae than they will as adults.
Damselflies—four bluets, a dancer, and a forktail—have in common that, here in Wisconsin at least, the males are described as “unmistakable.” Most of the 17 species of bluets in Wisconsin have a black-and-blue striped thorax and a black-and-blue abdomen. Bluets are informally divided into the “blue bluets” like the Double-striped bluet, whose predominantly blue abdomens are decorated by black stripes/rings, and the “black bluets,” whose black abdomens have blue rings/stripes.
Obscure Grouse Locust, adults and nymphs alike, nibble on diatoms and algae that they find at the water’s edge (aquatic vegetation makes up the majority of the food eaten by some riparian Grouse Locust species), on algae that they find growing on dirt, on some molds, and on lichens, mosses, and newly-sprouted grasses.