Howdy, BugFans, 2026: Week two of our homage to wetlands. Why wetlands? Let me count the whys. For starters, wetlands are fascinating communities that are full of animals that have devised unique ways to deal with the challenges of life underwater. Wetlands both filter and …
Salutations, BugFans, May 1st kicks off American Wetlands Month! While we love wetlands year-round, May is a particularly great time to celebrate them as we enjoy the re-awakening of wetlands and all their glorious sights, sounds, and smells. Let’s kick …
Howdy, BugFans, Today’s bug is a world traveler, and the pictures shared by BugFan Freda were taken far from our shores. Thanks, Freda! So, no guesswork about the geographical origin of the European Wool Carder Bee (Anthidium manicatum) (in the Old World, …
Howdy, BugFans, Another day, another crab spider. This time, it’s the Metallic Crab spider, and while it may resemble last week’s Whitebanded crab spider (family Thomisidae), it’s in a whole, different crab spider family, Philodromidae, the Running crab spiders. Philodromidae comes …
Greetings, BugFans, The BugLady loves crab spiders, so she’s been thrilled to find two, new (to her) species in the last few years. One, the Whitebanded crab spider, is in the family Thomisidae, a family of, well, crab-shaped spiders, many of …
Salutations, BugFans, 2026: The pussy willows near the BugLady’s lakeshore home are in bloom. Here’s a BOTW about pussy willows from late March of 2012 – a few new words and pictures. 2012: People get excited when pussy willows whisper the spring. The …
Greetings, BugFans, Dragonflies! But not soon enough! Quick and dirty dragonfly phenology (phenology – the study of Mother Nature’s calendar. Cliff notes version – things appear/bloom/disappear/migrate in pretty much the same order every year, we just can’t predict the start date). Common …
Howdy, BugFans, THEY’RE COMING!!! It’s barely spring, officially – way too early to be thinking about butterflies, right? Nope. The first butterflies of the year have already been reported on the Wisconsin Butterflies website (Butterflies — wisconsinbutterflies.org) (which also serves your Tiger …
Salutations, BugFans, 2026 The BugLady checked the (highly searchable) website of the Wisconsin Odonata Survey (Wisconsin Odonata Survey) to see if anyone had reported a Common Green Darner yet. They are early migrants from the southeastern part of the country, traveling …
Howdy, BugFans, Way back in 2008, deer flies appeared briefly (two paragraphs) in a BOTW episode called “A few Flies,” sharing the spotlight with mosquitoes and horse flies. Amazingly, that’s the only time deer flies have appeared in BOTW, and …
