Grapevine Beetles are nocturnal, oval, chunky, possessed of sturdy front legs that are widened and toothed for digging, and plates at the ends of their antennae. The color of GBs varies from pale broom-straw yellow to rich saffron. There’s a spot on each side of the thorax, and three on the side of each elytron. Look for GBs east of the Great Plains, in woodlands, thickets, vineyards and gardens—places where rotting wood/stumps are found near grape vines.
The Wedge-shaped Beetle (Macrosiagon limbata) doesn’t seem to have a common name. There are 11 species of Macrosiagon north of the Rio Grande. The extremely ephemeral adult females hang out on flowers, where they deposit their eggs and where they may do a little nectar feeding. Like tachinid flies, WSBs lay their eggs on flowers in hopes that their newly-hatched young will intersect with another insect and hop on board.
The White-Spotted Sawyer Beetles are not favorites of the lumber industry because their wood-boring habits decrease usable wood, stain it, and open the door for decomposers. Hermit Flower Beetles are found around the edges of woodlands. Like the WSS, the HFB’s larvae are found in the wood of dead trees—the eggs are laid in damp, rotting wood and within that wood the large, whitish larvae feed for three years. WSSs and HFBs are found from coast to coast across the northern half of North America.
Crawling Water Beetles live in ponds and lake edges and can be found scrambling through the water column or feeding in mats of aquatic plants, especially algae. Where there is a current, look for them in crevices between rocks.
The BugLady takes lots of pictures as she moseys around—flowers, landscapes, a surprising number of people, and, of course, all manner of bugs. Bug pictures may stall in the BugLady’s X–Files, awaiting identification—some for a long time. Here is a selection from the X–Files. In some cases the BugLady knows part of the story; in others, even less.
The BugLady has been hanging out at her local ephemeral pond again, looking at small things in the water. She loves the cycles of ephemeral ponds and the critters they contain. Ephemeral ponds are (most years) just that—ephemeral. These are here-today-and-gone-tomorrow ponds, gather-ye-rosebuds-while-ye-may wetlands.
People get excited when pussy willows whisper the spring. The BugLady thinks it’s more fun to skulk among the pussy willows when they are actually blooming (the gray, fuzzy “bud” is the future female catkin), ogling the diversity of insects that come to visit. Willows are dioecious (separate house), bearing their male and female flowers on different plants
The Soft-winged Flower Beetle are often found on flowers out in the open, where they eat pollen, insect eggs, and flower-loving insects that land within their grasp. The larvae generally stay concealed under tree bark or leaf litter or soil, where they prey on other invertebrates. North America accounts for 500-plus species of often-strikingly-colored, slightly-hairy beetles.
Ladybugs are not bugs in the Order Hemiptera. A more appropriate name is lady beetle or ladybird beetle. It seems that back in the Middle Ages, the European grape crop was threatened by a horde of aphids. Adult ladybugs eat aphids, and larval ladybugs eat aphids, and lady beetles rode to the rescue. A female may lay as many as 1,000 eggs over a few weeks, usually near aphid herds. Some of the eggs are fertile and some are not. If aphids are scarce, the sterile eggs serve as food for the larvae.
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.