There are about 660 species in the Hooktip and False Owlet moth family worldwide (only 8 in the eastern U.S.A.). Drepanid moths are medium-sized moths (wingspread 1” – 1 ½”) that have uniquely-formed hearing organs, and many (but not all) have hooked wing tips. According to the range map, Arched Hook-tip Moth is largely missing from the Great Plains and the Gulf Coast but is present across Canada.
The BugLady would like to dedicate this episode to the late (great) Cornell Professor Richard B. Fischer (January 19, 1919 – August 7, 2005) who taught the BugLady how to sneak up on insects (no bobbing or weaving, just slow and steady and straight ahead.
There are about 50 species of these Ripiphorid beetles in North America, and 30 of them are in the genus Ripiphorus. While the general outline of how the family operates has been charted, only one species in the genus Ripiphorus has been studied, and it’s assumed that the other 29 follow the same general pattern.
There are about 170 species of Cicadas, family Cicadidae, in North America north of Mexico. Wisconsin has nine species — Periodical cicadas like the famous 17-year locust, genus Magicicada; and Annual/Dogday Cicadas, mostly in the genus Neotibicen (formerly called Tibicen).
Chrysomelid beetles are vegetarians for their whole lives, eating a variety of plant tissues above and below the ground. Their numbers include some serious plant pests like the Colorado potato beetle and the asparagus beetle, and also some species that are used as biological controls. It’s a huge group, with almost 2,000 species in North America alone. Chrysomelids generally produce a single generation per year; most overwinter as adults and hit the ground running in spring.
Compared to the (mostly) much larger dragonflies, damselflies look delicate, and their eyes protrude to each side giving them a bug-eyed/hammerhead appearance. A dragonfly’s hind pair of wings is broader than its front pair, but a damselfly’s four wings are roughly equal. And while dragonflies hold their wings out to the side when they perch (usually), damselflies can hold their wings together over their backs.
Today we feature three bugs about whom not too much information is circulating, other than their presence in museum collections and on state/regional biodiversity lists. If they have anything in common, it’s that all three are odd little insects.
There are about 3,000 species of true weevils in North America (with more than 40,000 described species worldwide, they’re the 3rd largest animal family) (numbers one and two are insects, too), 150 species of bean weevils, and 150 kinds of straight-snouted weevils. Many weevils, like today’s duo, are attached to specific host plants.
Red Admiral butterflies (Vanessa atalanta) belong to the largest butterfly family, the Nymphalidae or Brush-footed butterflies. There are two broods of RAs per summer in most of the north, and there are two “forms”—a slightly smaller and less flashy winter form and a larger, more intensely-colored summer form.
Springtime Darners (Basiaeschna janata) are not mosaic darners (genus Aeshna); they are a monotypic genus—the only member of their genus in the world. At about 2 ¼” to 2 ½” (females are larger than males) they are a bit smaller than the mosaics. Springtime darners are commonly seen cruising around in woodland clearings, and along sunny edges of lakes, bogs, and slow streams in eastern North America.