Ant-plant interactions enjoy a lovely vocabulary. A myrmecophile is an organism (usually an animal) that consorts with ants; myrmecophily (ant-love) refers to favorable relationships between ants and other organisms; and a myrmecophyte (ant-plant) is a plant that carries on mutually beneficial relationships with ants.
The Wasp family Ichneumonidae is a very large (and confusing and taxonomically challenging) bunch. How large? Bugguide reports 5,000 species in North America, with possibly another 3,000 not yet described, and estimates of a global species numbers range from 60,000 to 100,000. How confusing? The family is subdivided into 27 subfamilies.
The Pine Tree Spur-throated Grasshopper is in the Spur-throated grasshopper subfamily (Melanoplinae), so named because they have a protuberance/spur on the underneath side of the first thoracic segment at the base of the front pair of legs. In North America, Melanoplus grasshoppers are found in a wide variety of habitats from coast to coast, feeding on grasses and other vegetation.
The Cycnia Moth is in the Tiger and Lichen moth family Erebidae. The UC (Cycnia inopinatus) is found in the U.S. east of the Great Plains into Massachusetts, and south into Mexico. Sources say that it prefers “high quality coastal scrub (including the Great Lakes drainage), dry, oak barrens, and similar native grasslands, typically on sand.”
The Zales Moths are a genus in the Wavy-lined Owlet bunch—family Erebidae and subfamily Ophiusini. They are decent-sized moths (wingspans just under two inches), and oh, those wings! Depending on how worn the moth is, the trailing edge of both the front and the hind wings sport a row of cool little scallops.
Click Beetles (family Elateridae), a.k.a snapping beetles or skipjacks. About a tenth of the world’s 9,300 species live in North America, occupying most habitats except very cold and very wet ones, and deserts.
Most Emerald Dragonflies are dark with long, slender abdomens, metallic iridescence, a somewhat hairy thorax, and big, green eyes that meet at the top of the head. They are strong fliers that patrol tirelessly at the edge of woods and wetlands; and they often form feeding swarms as high as 30 feet off the ground.
Stoneflies are a primitive group of insects that’s been around for more than 300 million years. Stonefly naiads are aquatic and are found under rocks on rocky shores or clinging to rocks/gravel/branches/tree roots/debris/plants in the beds of flowing, well-oxygenated waters. In the far north, they are also found in cold lakes.
Silvery Checkerspots are in the brushfoot family Nymphalidae, which is the biggest butterfly family with about 6,000 species (209 in North America. As the common name Streamside Checkerspot suggests, this species likes damp meadows, marshes, roadsides, open woods and stream edges, but it also likes areas of disturbed, poor, or sandy soil.
The BugLady is pretty sure that this is a Forage Looper (Caenurgina erechtea) instead of the very similar Clover Looper (C. crassiuscula). Both occur across North America and southern Canada (not so much in the Great Plains), right up to the southern edge of the boreal forest. The GL likes moist, well-vegetated, open fields, edges, and disturbed vegetation.