Wildflower Watch – Swamp Milkweed

Note: All the links leave to external site. Howdy, BugFans, The BugLady is already fantasizing about warm, sunny days in a wetland, photographing Swamp milkweed (and dragonflies), because she loves its color, and she loves being in wetlands, and because …

Broad-winged Skipper Butterfly

Howdy, BugFans, Last July, the BugLady made a couple of visits to a local wetland where she enjoyed an abundance of Broad-winged Skippers on swamp milkweed. A brief introduction—broad-winged Skippers are in the family Hesperiidae (the Skippers). Most skippers are …

Coral Hairstreak Butterfly

Note: All links leave to external sites. Howdy, BugFans, Hairstreaks (and Blues and Coppers and Harvesters) are members of the Gossamer-winged butterfly family Lycaenidae (“Gossamer-winged” being a nod to the iridescent sheen on the wings of many family members). Numbering …

Mid-Summer Scenes

Greetings, BugFans, Summer has reached its half-way point, and the BugLady has been recording the changing of the guard. The adult lives of most insects are brief – four to six weeks for many, and considerably less for some. Bluet …

Compton Tortoiseshell Butterfly

(Note: All links below are to external sites.) Greetings, BugFans, This butterfly needs a better name!  (More about that, later) The BugLady found this beauty in the woods on a cool April day. Like the Mourning Cloak, of recent BOTW …

Listing the Monarch

Greetings, BugFans, The BugLady wrote this article for the newsletter of the Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory (an organization that would love to have your support). Although they meet the criteria to be included as a Threatened species …

Mourning Cloak Revisited

(Note: All links below are to external websites and leave the UWM website.) Howdy, BugFans, The BugLady walked in the woods, recently, on an unseasonably warm, spring day, accompanied by Mourning Cloak and Eastern Comma butterflies. It’s so cool to …

Summer Scenes

Howdy, BugFans, It’s High Summer, and a lot has been going on out there. Many species have already peaked and disappeared from the scene, assuming, until next year, whatever form they spend the majority of their lives in. Others are …

Monarch Butterfly Rerun

Howdy, BugFans, The BugLady saw her first monarch butterfly about 10 days ago, and today saw the first on her property.  Here’s a rerun from two years ago on the status of the monarch, with different pictures, and a few …

The 12 Bugs of Christmas

As always, we pause to celebrate (while humming seasonal songs and drinking eggy, adult beverages), the Twelve Bugs of Christmas (plus one) – a baker’s dozen of bugs, many of whom have already starred in their own BOTWs but who posed nicely for the BugLady this year.