Slices of Spring

Howdy, BugFans, The BugLady and her camera have been out scouring the uplands and wetlands for insects that will sit still long enough to have their portrait made. Many of today’s bugs have starred in their own BOTWs over the years, …

Closed for June 4 – A Potpourri of Invertebrates

Howdy, BugFans, June is waning, and pretty soon the BugLady will have to stop eating chocolates and watching soaps and get up off the couch and start writing. Actually, with a way warmer and wetter June than normal (more than 7” …

Oblique-banded Leafroller Moth

Note: Most links leave to an external site. Greetings, BugFans, The venerable (circa 1903) moth book that the BugLady grew up with – The Moth Book by W. J. Holland – included pictures of a huge number of moth species, all with …

Tobacco Budworm

Note: All links leave to external sites Greetings, BugFans, The BugLady photographed this handsome moth on her back porch rail last summer, and she was temporarily mystified when she identified it as a Tobacco budworm moth, because the nearest tobacco …

Burrowing Wolf Spider

Note: All links leave to external sites. Greetings, BugFans, One afternoon in late June as the BugLady was walking along the cordwalk at Kohler-Andrae State Park, she noticed a few half-inch-ish holes in the sand, holes that had more “structure” …

And Now for Something Different – Cattails

Note: All links leave to external sites. Howdy, BugFans, This episode was adapted from an article that the BugLady wrote in 2007 for the BogHaunter, the newsletter of the Friends of the Cedarburg Bog.  Wanted: Colonists to settle in wide open spaces. Must …

Parnassia Miner Bee – a Bee and its Flower

Note: Most links leave to external sites. Howdy, BugFans,  A while back, BugFan Matt asked the BugLady if she had ever photographed a small bee on a Grass-of-Parnassus flower. Grass-of-Parnassus (not really a grass) is one of her favorite flowers (despite …

The 12 (or 13) Bugs of Christmas

Note: All links leave to external sites. Greetings of the Season, BugFans, (13 bugs, because once she’s got her selection down to 13, the BugLady just can’t cut one more!) A Cheery Thought for the Holidays, the average home contains …

Lined Orbweaver Spider

Note: All links below go to external sites. Howdy, BugFans, When the BugLady spotted this small spider on its horizontal web (while she was officially censusing butterflies and dragonflies), she thought it might be one of the sheet-web spiders. Fortunately, she …

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 …