Brush-Legged Wolf Spider

Note: All links below are to external sites. Greetings, BugFans, The BugLady encountered this distinctive wolf spider (family Lycosidae) recently at Spruce Lake Bog, and then discovered some earlier shots of it from Riveredge in her “X-Files.” She figured that …

Rosinweed Moth

Howdy, BugFans, First off, today’s vocabulary word is “microlep” (short for “microlepidoptera”). What’s a microlep? The (somewhat squishy) term applies to moths with a wingspan under 20mm (about ¾”). It’s not a taxonomic or a lifestyle designation – there are microleps …

Stirrings of Summer

Greetings, BugFans Here are some of the bugs that the BugLady found in June, which was, overall, a hot and wet month (7.97” of rain at the BugLady’s cottage). Lizzard Beetle – the BugLady doesn’t know why these striking beetles …

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 …