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 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.
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.
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).
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.
The Carrot Seed Moth, was first noticed in Midwestern North America in 2002. A little more than a decade later, it’s found from North Dakota to Ontario to Pennsylvania and Ohio to Iowa. Crambid caterpillars tend to be borers in roots and stems, and miners in leaves; some bother agricultural crops, and a few are biological controls on problem plants.
Our local Tree Crickets are in the genus Oecanthus, and there are 14 or so species in North America north of the Rio Grande. Each species of TC has its signature calls, and the tempo of the call is affected by the temperature of the air around it.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtails have two broods/generations each summer here. The first brood, which is airborne in May and June, is small in number, comprised of butterflies who survived the winter and early spring as a pupae in chrysalises.
The two moths that star in this episode are the Grapeleaf Skeletonizer Moth and the Virginia Creeper Clearwing. They are not related to each other (other than their shared Lepidopteranism), but they have a number of things in common.
Harvester Butterflies don’t stray far from the aphids that support their young because the adult feeds, not on flowers – its proboscis is too short to plumb the blossoms—but on the honeydew that collects on surfaces where aphids feed. their caterpillars eat meat, but not just any meat. Harvester caterpillars require wooly aphids, and Wooly Alder Aphids are a common host.