Monarch Butterflies – Spring, 2026

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 …

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 …

Lichen Moths

Note: All links below go to external sites. Howdy, BugFans, The BugLady sat on the hawk tower today, watching the start of the fall migration. She was surrounded by the start of the dragonfly migration – there was a big …

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 …

Straight-toothed sallow moth

Howdy, BugFans, The BugLady found this velvety, deeply maroon caterpillar at the Land Trust’s CESA site on a fine June day. It’s the larva of a Straight-toothed sallow moth (Eupsilia vinulenta) (probably). (Full disclosure – the experts caution us that the …