Spiders

September Scenes

The leaves are starting to fall here in God’s Country, the birds are moving, and as of yesterday it’s officially autumn (Yikes!). But there are still some bugs out there – like wildflowers, some species of insects bloom in the spring, some in the summer, and others in the fall. The imperative to reproduce is strong as the days get shorter; most insects live for about a calendar year, mainly in their immature stages, with a short-but-productive adult stage. Most leave behind eggs or pupae or partly-grown offspring to weather the winter.

Adventures at Forest Beach

Forest Beach Migratory Preserve is a repurposed golf course north of Port Washington (WI), owned by the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust. It’s mainly grassland, with woods and some brushy areas, and it was designed to serve as a stopover/refueling “bed and breakfast” for migrating birds. Water hazards were turned into small ponds, more ponds were dug, and tall grass prairie plants were planted.

Once upon a Fungus

When the BugLady was walking in the woods at Riveredge the other day, she found some plate-sized, stocky, very aromatic, gilled mushrooms growing out of the ground. Then, she saw something moving on the rim of an “over-the-hill” fungus.

Summer Survey 2019

The BugLady hopes that you’ve been getting out on the trail and drinking in the lushness of the summer. Subjects of this summer’s survey include wasps, aphids, syrphids, and katydids.

Tree Crab Spider

The BugLady was checking around the edge of a gravel parking lot near the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust’s Lake Twelve property when she found this beauty She had two immediate reactions: 1) what is it? And 2) it looks like an octopus clinging to a reef!

Stories, not Atoms

The poet Muriel Rukeyser once wrote, “The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.” The BugLady sees lots of tableaux unfolding as she ambles across the landscape. Because she was taught, at an impressionable age, by a professor who said “Don’t just tell them what it is, tell them ‘what about it,’” she tries to read the stories and understand the “what-about-its”

Dark Fishing Spider

The Dark Fishing Spider is one BugLady’s favorite spiders (even though it isn’t even a crab spider). First of all, it’s beautiful. Second, it’s big, one of the biggest in North America – the leg-span of a large female can approach four inches! Third, it’s a challenge to sneak up on and photograph.

Speed-dating the Spiders – Variegated Spider

The BugLady found this striking spider at Riveredge Nature Center one early summer day. What it lacks in size (it’s less than ½”), it surely makes up for in beauty (thanks for the ID, BugFan Mike). There’s not a lot of information out there about the Variegated spider (Sergiolus capulatus). Only one source gave it a common name, but most of the other species in its family don’t have common names, either.

Speed-dating the Spiders III, the Orchard Spider

The BugLady photographed this pretty, little, spider in the wilds of Ohio in June, and then found more in Wisconsin in August. When BugFan Mike ID’d it for her, he said “I love it because it is one of the few WI spiders I can also see in Panama! It should get more common here with global warming.”

Bugs in the News V

Thanks to all of you who send links to interesting articles about bugs (there have been a bunch, lately, about the dramatic decline of insect populations). This week we’re going to take a look at a selection of these articles and bugs.