Bug of the Week

Four Bluets and a Dancer – and a Forktail (Family Coenagrionidae)

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 (Family Tetrigidae)

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.

Lupine Bug (Family Alydidae)

The Lupine Bug is the only Megalotomus in North America, though Eurasia hosts another seven genus members. The species can be found near the edges of woodlands across the continent except in the Deep South. LBs feed on members of the Pea family (including soybeans), with a little sumac thrown in for spice, inserting their proboscis into the developing seeds and sucking out the liquids.

Jumping Bristletails (Family Machilidae)

Bristletails are one seriously ancient critter. Tracks of Jumping Bristletails have been found in Permian rock (290 to 248 mya). There are two JB families worldwide, both families occur in North America, as do about 20 of the 350 to 450 of the world’s JB species. JBs live in a wide variety of conditions, from Arctic to desert, and they especially like leaf litter, bark, rock crevices, and rocky seashores. They are found in the nooks and crannies of the world, where they shelter during the day and perambulate at night.

Green Legged Grasshopper (Family Acrididae)

Green-Legged Grasshopper has a range from “eastern Minnesota through Wisconsin, Michigan, and southern Ontario to Vermont and western Massachusetts, south to northern Georgia and Arkansas, west to eastern Nebraska,” and its range map extends north toward Hudson’s Bay. They feed on a variety of greenery, develop rapidly, and are adults by summer. They are one of a succession of grasshopper species that bluebirds feed to their nestlings.

Reticulated Net-winged Beetle (Family Lycidae)

The BugLady thinks this is a Reticulated Net-winged Beetle (Calopteron reticulatum). If not, it’s a Banded NwB (C. discrepans). There are still some rather large gaps in our knowledge of its natural history and its diet.

Moths Without Bios – in Camo

Moths in the family Geometridae get their name from the Greek words for “earth” and “measurer. There are a lot of Geometrids – more than 35,000 species worldwide, with 1,400 of those in North America. As a group, they are smallish, nocturnal moths that can tolerate some pretty chilly spring or fall weather. Caterpillars feed on leaves of many woody and non-woody plants, and there are more than a few agricultural and forest pests in the family.

Long-Jawed Orbweavers (Family Tetragnathidae)

There are about 15 species of Long-Jawed Orbweavers in the genus Tetregnatha in North America and they’re typically found in vegetation near or over water. They are well-camouflaged—their abdomens tend to be long and slim; they hold their rear pair of legs out to the back of their body and their two front pairs of legs to the front when they are at rest. The shorter third pair of legs is held out to the side.

House Centipede (Family Scutigeridae)

The House Centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata) is a large, leggy (typically 15 pairs), speedy, and striking foreigner that has, in the past 150 years, hitchhiked around the globe from its ancestral Mediterranean home. Centipedes are carnivores that spend the daylight hours in the dark and humid world under leaves, logs and soil (because they lose water through their exoskeleton, they seek out damp habitats).

Katydids (Family Tettigoniidae)

Most Katydids nosh on vegetation, but some species are predaceous on other insects, and cannibalism is not unknown. Being large, abundant, harmless and tasty, they are an important food for birds, including owls and kestrels, for rodents, and for other invertebrates.