Pandorus Sphinxs occupy North America from south Texas to Wisconsin to Nova Scotia to south Florida. They are found at dawn and dusk along forest and river edges and vineyards where their caterpillars’ food plants grow. Adults nectar on and pollinate bouncing bet, white campion and petunias.
Leaf-footed Bugs are darkish, mid-to-large sized bugs (¾” to 1”), and many (but not all) have what is described as a leaf-shaped “flange” on the lower part of the back leg (tibia). The males of some species are armed with massive, spiked (often battle-scarred) thighs (femurs) that they whack each other with when in combat over females. L-fBs have a lot of parallel veins on the membranous part of the front wing. Most are herbivores, using their impressive mouthparts to pierce plant parts and suck out the juices.
Edwards’ hairstreaks live in savannahs, sand barrens, limy ridges, and the edges and openings of oak thickets. There, the adults nectar on flowers of a variety of legumes, dogbane, sumac, milkweeds (there’s a reason they call it Butterfly weed) and other summer flowers. EH caterpillars are oak-eaters, browsing first on the buds and later on the tender leaves. Young caterpillars eat during the day and apparently stay in the trees, but older caterpillars spend the day on the ground and feed in the trees at night.
House flies (Musca domestica) may have originated in the Middle East, and they’ve been around for at least 65 million years. One source suggests that house flies arrived in the Americas with, or even before, Columbus. Given a choice, house flies pick warmer climes (with temperatures up to 100 degrees) over colder climes; in colder climes, they survive with the assistance of humans.
Fingernail Clams prefer substrates of sand, mud and clay where, under optimum conditions, 10,000 FnCs may reside in a one square meter space, but they also hang out on plant stems. They are beige, smooth, thin-shelled creatures. They have a foot—a muscular appendage that they extend and contract in order to move ahead and down—but no head, and they have muscles that open and close their shell.
Hackberry butterflies are found over about two-thirds of the U.S. In Wisconsin, you’re most likely to see a Hackberry Emperor (HbE) in the southwestern third of the state and along the Mississippi River, but there are records elsewhere. The HbE is considered a fairly common butterfly in its range, but it is often overlooked because it’s flying around the tops of the trees. Its caterpillars feed on the several species of hackberry trees/shrubs. Period. As hackberry trees grow, so grow hackberry emperors.
The Great Black Wasp (GBW) is decorated at one end by heavy-duty mandibles that allow her to hang onto her prey and, toward the other end, by a narrow constriction/stalk at the top of a stinger-tipped abdomen. GBWs appear in mid-to-late summer, in fields and meadows throughout the U.S. except the Pacific Northwest. The wasp is also called the Katydid Hunter and Steel-blue Cricket Hunter.
White-Marked Tussock Moth are in the tussock moth family Lymantriidae, a cold-tolerant lot populated by a number of black sheep including the gypsy moth. You can find them from the Great Plains to the Atlantic Ocean, including southern Canada, in mixed forests or in the shrubby edges where woods meet fields. Because of their catholic appetites, WmTM caterpillars have occasional local population booms and defoliate trees, and Christmas tree growers in the northeastern part of their range are sometimes plagued by them.
A little larger and chunkier than a house fly, Cluster flies have golden hairs on the thorax, above and below, that make them look like they’ve been sprinkled with glitter. These tawny hairs are prominent when the flies are younger but may get worn off as they age. They hail from across the Pond, probably arriving from Europe in ships’ ballast.
Most sources agree that Pearl Crescents are one of the most abundant butterflies in the U.S. Some parts of the west coast are PC-free. They like grasslands, bike trails, vacant lots, edges, and open spots in woods, where they bask on low plants, siphon nectar from a variety of wildflowers with their long proboscis, or take in minerals and moisture from the edges of mud puddles.