A Passel of Predators

The BugLady has been a fan of predators since she was old enough to lisp out the word. She likes the cuts of their collective jibs and their matter-of-fact fierceness. To her, the “eat-ers” are far more interesting than the “eat-ees.”

Great Spangled Fritillary (Family Nymphalidae)

Great Spangled Fritillaries can be seen over a good chunk of North America. They like open spaces—woody clearings, gardens, wet and dry grasslands, and other open areas as long as there’s a woodland near-by. They are strong flyers and vigilant feeders.

Pennants (Family Libellulidae)

Pennants are smallish dragonflies and there are just eight species in the genus. Most members of the genus are more eastern, but the ranges of the Calico and the Halloween take them southwest into the Great Plains. They are found near/lay their eggs in slow-moving to still waters. Several sources said that the young/naiads of these Pennants are not very competitive, and as such they are more successful in newer waters (burrow pits, ditches, etc). The naiads are great vegetation climbers and not-so-great swimmers.

Scuds

Scuds are light-averse, preferring starlight over sunlight. Their two pairs of antennae are sensitive to both touch and smell. While many amphipods see through well-developed, functioning, compound eyes, species restricted to caves and underground springs may be eyeless or have only vestigial eyes. They are secretive bottom-dwellers, gracing cool, well-oxygenated springs and pools that have some calcium in the water for their shells.

Spreadwing Damselfly (Family Lestidae)

The young of Slender Spreadwing Damselflies live underwater, and then climb out onto land/vegetation, emerge from their larval exoskeletons, and fly away. They are carnivorous in both stages. They are found near shaded, permanent ponds and slow streams over the eastern half of the U.S. in July, August and September. The male’s abdomen, proportionally longer than female’s, lacks the light-colored tip of some other spreadwings.

Marsh Treader (Family Hydrometridae)

The Marsh Treader looks like it maybe like a very new walking stick. Not an aquatic insect in the sense that it lives under water, the MT dwells and feeds on the water’s surface—one of the “pond skaters.” MTs like the quiet waters of marshes, swamps and ponds where they may be seen moving around the edges, hiking across the algae and duckweed mats, or walking on open water, damp sphagnum moss or moist rocks.

Western Thatch Ant (Family Formicidae)

Western Thatch Ants build impressive mounds averaging 8” tall, 2 ½’ to 3’ across, and 5’ deep with 17,000 inhabitants (max is 30,000, plus or minus). The ants make chambers in the soil and then they cover the top of the nest with “thatch”—small twigs (up to several inches long) and bits of grass and herb stems. The result is nursery chambers that are climate-controlled (both temperature and humidity). Early (April) broods of eggs and young are located in tunnels a foot or two below ground,.

A Tale of Two Sac Spiders (Family Clubionidae)

The Sac Spider uses silk to hold the leaf edges together and to line the enclosure. Medicinal plant researcher James Duke calls this structure “both nursery and coffin.” She deposits her eggs inside, stays to guard her brood, and she dies there before her offspring emerge. They, hungry for protein in their first hours, consume the first bit of meat they come across, which is their mother’s carcass.

Hickory Tussock Moth (Family Arctiidae)

Hickory Tussock Moths are active in the daytime. They are found in deciduous woods in a range that runs diagonally across the continent from northeast to south-central—from Nova Scotia and Ontario to Texas and a bit west, nicking Wisconsin. After a male and female find each other in late spring, large masses of eggs (from 50 to several hundred) are deposited on the undersides of leaves. Often, when eggs are laid en masse, the resulting caterpillars also feed en masse. HTMs are leaf skeletonizers (they eat the green stuff in-between the leaf veins).

Dot-tailed Whiteface Dragonfly (Family Libellulidae)

The Dot-tailed Whiteface Dragonfly is a member of the Skimmer family, Libellulidae. There are over a thousand species in this brightly-colored family gracing the skies worldwide. A tenth of those are native to North America, making Skimmers the largest American dragonfly family. DtWfs enjoy most kinds of quiet waters—bogs, marshes, swamps, sloughs, farm ponds, and even very slow streams—s long as there are low aquatic plants to perch on.