Ants 101 Rerun

Howdy, BugFans, 2025: This episode is a Golden Oldie, first/last posted in 2008. Despite her feelings of ambivalence about ants, the BugLady continues to photograph and write about them. See https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/flying-ants/, https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/the-ants-of-cesa/, and https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/western-thatch-ant/, and more. For this rerun, the BugLady added a bunch of random …

Deer Tick again

Note: All links are to an external site. Howdy, BugFans, 2025: The BugLady was out in a wetland today, stalking the wily Pink Lady’s Slipper (aka the Moccasin flower), a large and lovely native orchid. After she got home, she …

Gone Fishin’

Greetings, BugFans,  Here’s a rare glimpse into the BugLady’s “BOTW Future” file, which is packed with pictures of identified insects that she hopes have a good story to tell, with semi-identified insects, and with (mostly) her “X-Files” – the Unidentified. …

Running Crab Spiders

Greetings, BugFans, Long-time BugFans know that the BugLady is infatuated with the lovely, sedentary Flower Crab spiders (family Thomisidae) that she photographs throughout the summer, and she recently posted a BOTW about the chunkier Ground crab spiders (also Thomisidae). Running crab spiders, …

Galls II – Historic Galls Redux

Greetings, BugFans, This week’s episode is a rerun from the very early days of BOTW. The BugLady loves it when the research she is doing makes a sharp turn toward History.  Galls are mentioned by (very) early observers like the …

A Tale of Two Mussels – Eight Years Out

Howdy, BugFans, The BugLady has been curious about the status of Zebra and Quagga mussels since she posted an episode about them in 2016 (“A Tale of Two Mussels – the One-Two Punch”). Here’s the original post (slightly tweaked and clarified), …

Common Aspen Leaf Miner

Greetings, BugFans, Leaf miners have been mentioned in these pages before – even the Aspen leaf miner (Phyllocnistis populiella) has appeared briefly. When she did a little more research, the BugLady was ecstatic to discover that Aspen leaf miners have an …

And Now for Something a Little Different III – Timberdoodle redux

Howdy, BugFans, This episode was originally adapted from the Spring, 2010 issue of the BogHaunter, the newsletter of the Friends of the Cedarburg Bog, written by the BugLady wearing a different hat.  It’s further revised from a BOTW of seven years …

Monarch Butterfly Status Update

Howdy, BugFans, This is a Good-News-Bad News-Stay-Tuned kind of story.  But first, a little background. Besides being large and lovely, Monarch butterflies, of course, catch our fancy because of the death-defying migrations they undertake twice a year. Migrations – fueled by flowers …

Gulf Fritillary – a Snowbird Special

Howdy, BugFans, Life is busy – here’s a not-so-Golden Oldie, from the BugLady’s favorites list. First of all, it’s a stunning butterfly. (The BugLady’s picture doesn’t do it justice – the original slide, taken in Texas, was fine, but the scanned …