Looking like dark watermelon seeds, mobs of whirligig beetles scoot across the still waters of ponds, lakes, streams and rivers. Their basic design is a short antennae, elytra that end before the abdomen does, the ability to secrete a smelly substance that deters predators, and a shiny, black finish. They row with their flattened and fringed middle and hind pairs of legs, and they hold their front pair of legs forward, ready to grasp their prey.
Water Sow Bugs (WSBs) have three body segments— a cephalothorax (combined head and first segment of the thorax), a thorax (7 segments), and an abdomen (everything after that). WSBs have 7 pairs of legs, one per segment of the thorax. The first pair is adapted for holding; the rest of these boots are made for walking. To that, add 6 short appendages on the underside of the abdomen, the final pair of which looks like two tails. WSBs are flattened for crawling under stuff, drab in color, and about ½” long. Look for WSBs under dead leaves and debris in shallow water.
The BugLady was taking a walk Saturday and was dismayed to find closed/bottled gentian in bloom—it means that fall is upon us, and where did summer go? If one picture is worth 1,000 words, this is a long BOTW bonus indeed.
Horntails are often called “wood wasps,” probably because their eggs are laid in wood, and their young spend both their larval and pupal stages there. Horntails practice “complete metamorphosis,” going through an egg stage, a larval (eating) stage and a pupal (resting/changing) stage before emerging as a very different-looking adult.
The Japanese Beetle is a chunky half inch of beetle with a shiny green thorax and burnished bronze elytra (wing covers). The adults are primarily leaf skeletonizers, eating the soft tissue that lies between the tougher leaf veins, creating green lace. The larvae (grubs) feed underground on a variety of roots, especially those of horticultural and agricultural plants and turf grass.
This week’s BOTW is another of those retreads from the olden days when BOTW was brand new. If you are a Charter BugFan, you’ll note that exciting new species, pictures and information have been added.
Greenbottle flies are darlings of the CSI folks. Most blow flies eat and breed on decaying matter, and a carcass draws a crowd. Eggs are laid on carrion or garbage; the larvae (maggots) mature in two to ten days and pupate in the soil. Drone flies are found on flowers of meadow and field, especially composites, eating nectar and pollen. Hairy and yellow-and-brown-striped, the adults are mimics of male honey bees.
Meadowhawks are common, colorful, a shade less than 1 ½ inches long, with red/yellow-orange abdomens and reddish/chestnut/rusty brown eyes. A few species are sexually dimorphic—the males and females are different colors. They like a variety of wetlands, though they are often found far from water. Meadowhawks tend to perch horizontally, often on the ground or on low vegetation, but some queue up in good numbers on telephone lines.
German Yellowjackets (GYJs) are European wasps that arrived in the northeastern U.S. in the early 1970’s and in Wisconsin a few years later and are clearly marked by nature’s warning colors, yellow and black. Their nests are started in spring by a queen who has spent the winter sheltered in a crevice, leaf pile, or building. She chews plant material, mixes this cellulose with saliva, forms it into nest and nursery, and starts laying eggs. When the first workers emerge, they enlarge the nest, care for the larvae and queen.
Water Scavenger Beetles and their offspring prey on their smaller aquatic neighbors, the adults also scavenge, resulting in a food pyramid that includes decaying vegetation and dead animal tissue. They are, in turn, eaten by fish and targeted by many parasites.