Camouflage is defined as “concealment by disguise or protective coloring.” A simple phrase for a concept that manifests itself in a dizzying array of life forms. Cryptic animals resemble/blend into their surroundings; mimics benefit from resembling some other organism.
Water Lily Planehoppers are found in the eastern half of the U.S. (and the species has made a surprise appearance in Hawaii). They like ponds and extremely slow streams where white water lilies grow, and they are also found on the unrelated broad-leaved pondweed. They are found in the eastern half of the U.S. and the species has made a surprise appearance in Hawaii.
Oleander Aphids’ native haunts are the Mediterranean region, but now it enjoys warm locations everywhere. They are found everywhere that their host plants grow, and within certain constraints, they are generalist feeders. Oleander, a member of the dogbane family, is found throughout the southern U.S., but in this neck of the woods, they mainly grow on milkweeds.
Thousands of species of fleas have been identified worldwide, but the fleas that people most often encounter tend to be in the family Pulicidae. They may have names like dog flea, cat flea, and human flea, but most don’t care about the taxonomy of their host as long as it’s warm-blooded.
The Green Cloverworm Moth, a.k.a. the Black Snout, is found in waste spots, road edges, grasslands, agricultural areas, and gardens east of the Great Plains. The Common Looper Moth (has a number of things in common with the GCM. It occupies about the same territory as the GCW, occurring as far west as Kansas and Wisconsin. Like the GCM, the CLM produces multiple, fast-growing generations from mid-spring into fall.
Red Saddlebag Dragonflies is in a large group of often-flashy dragonflies. They are definitely migratory, traveling south along the Lake Michigan shoreline each fall with masses of Green Darners. Life begins when eggs are deposited in the warm, quiet, shallow waters of a lake or pond (they are known to use temporary/seasonal/rain ponds where fish are absent). Males patrol territories, flying and hovering over areas as large as 3,000 square feet.
Other than brief biographies of the Two-striped and the Conic/Green Cone-headed Planthopper, not much is known about the life histories of the 20-odd species in the genus Acanalonia north of Mexico. They are found on trees and shrubs east of the Great Plains and hide on plants during the day, camouflaged by color and texture; an AP snugged up against a plant stem looks a lot like a seed pod, leaf, bract, or stipule.
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.