Bug of the Week

Barklice (Family Psocidae)

Barklice are small, chunky, big-headed, bug-eyed, long-antennaed insects, many of which have four wings. The front set of wings is longer than the rear set, and the wings are held tent-like over the body at rest. They are relatively common in the eastern half of the country and are often found on the trunks of smooth-barked trees. Because many BLs live in leaf litter or under loose tree bark, they generally pass their days unnoticed, as they have done since the Permian Era, some 250 million years ago.

Wall Watching

The BugLady has been stalking invertebrates that hang out on the east wall of the Field Station lab. The wall is painted cinderblock that warms up in the morning and probably keeps some heat as it gets shaded in the afternoon. Grass grows right up to the edge of the building. The BugLady hypothesizes that bugs can enjoy the residual warmth without getting fried by the sun, because she sees some small critters on the north wall but very few on the bright south wall. She found some familiar faces and some new ones—plant-eaters and an array of carnivores that come to collect the herbivores.

White-lined Sphinx Moth (Family Sphingidae)

White-lined Sphinx Moths can be found from mid-spring until early fall in open areas (parks, gardens, grasslands, scrublands and deserts) throughout North America, from Canada to Central America and the West Indies (they’re also found in Europe). They gather nectar on a variety of “flat” flowers like apple but is able to reach deep into tubular flowers like petunias, columbine, and honeysuckle.

Flatheaded Poplar Borer (Family Buprestidae)

Adult Flatheaded Poplar Borer Beetles are found by day on pine and aspen trees. Eggs are laid on the twigs or bark of dead or dying Bigtooth Aspen, and the larvae chew zigzag trails just under the bark, eating the protein and sugar of the sapwood for two to five years or (anecdotally) decades. They pupate under the bark and chew their way out after emerging as adults.

Red Velvet Mite (Family Thrombidiidae)

The common name Red Velvet Mite is a somewhat generic term for a bunch of often-unrelated mites that happen to be red. Scientists suspect that some of those red hairs may act as sensors in the mite’s often, gloomy world. Because they consume some plant-eating insects and because they eat the animals that eat the organisms that carry out the important work of decomposition, RVMs are considered helpful to ecosystems.

Spider Flight

When the weather conditions are right, warm enough for thermal updrafts but not too windy, young spiders and even adult spiders of the smaller species climb to the top of a tall object, face into the wind, and release one or more fine strands called gossamer. Thermal updrafts pick up the line—and the spider—for a trip that may span inches or hundreds of miles.

Bugs Without Bios III

As veteran BugFans will recall, there are a multitude of bugs out there that are pretty cute but that simply don’t have much information attached to them. In fact, there are around 100,000 species of insects in North America, and a lot of them don’t even have a common name.

Not Green Darners (Family Aeshnidae)

Mosaic darners are a group that includes about 20 darners in North America—darners whose abdomens are decorated with “a mosaic” of blue/green/gray lines and speckles. The size, shape and color of the stripes on the thorax are important field marks. Sexual dimorphism runs rampant, with females of some species having as many as three different color phases (blue, green and yellow)—all of them distinct from the coloring of the males.

Eastern Carpenter Bee (Family Apidae)

Eastern Carpenter Bees are the most common carpenter bee species this side of the Mississippi, where they’re found in forests, grasslands, parks and gardens. There they fed on pollen and nectar from a wide variety of flatish flowers and as a result are considered valuable native pollinators in a world where pollinator populations are shrinking. When disturbed fly up and hover in the air, bobbing back and forth, staring at the intruder.

Horseshoe Crab

Horseshoe crabs fit (with spiders, insects, scorpions, real crabs, etc.) under the great Arthropod (“jointed limb”) umbrella, in the Class Merostomata (“legs attached to the mouth”), in the Order Xiphosura (“sword tail”), in the Family Limulidae. There are four remaining horseshoe crab species in the world; three reside along the edges of the Orient, , and the Atlantic Horseshoe Crab. Despite its name, it is not a true crab. It’s not an insect either.