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… Read more
Note: All links leave to external sites. Howdy, BugFans, Another wasp with a dynamite name! When the BugLady found this wasp, she was struck by its curious appearance – fly-like eyes, waspy antennae, “broad-shouldered,” but with a very short abdomen… Read more
Note: All links leave to external sites. Howdy, BugFans, Sometimes you go looking for insects, and sometimes the insects find you. The BugLady came back to her car from the Post Office one sunny afternoon in August and discovered this stunning… Read more
Salutations, BugFans, The BugLady has been busy, so she’s rerunning this episode from 2009. There are still yellowjackets on the flowers. The photographs in the original episode were (nasty) scanned color slides, and when the BugLady searched her files, she found pictures… Read more
Note: Most links leave to external sites. Greetings, BugFans, OK – it’s not a super flashy wasp when it’s heading away from you (in fact, it’s not even very wasp-like), but it’s pretty cool when it’s heading toward you –… Read more
Note: All links leave to external sites. Greetings, BugFans, Who can resist a small wasp with a smiley face on its thorax, and a classy name, too? Certainly not the BugLady. When she found this camera shy wasp at Riveredge… Read more
Greetings, BugFans, The BugLady is living proof that there’s a big difference between looking and seeing. For years, she’s been photographing these little black and yellow wasps and filing them under “Potter wasps,” but she had an “Oh Duh” moment… Read more
A number of years ago, BugFan Tod sent the BugLady a “what-is-it” picture of a mantisfly on a door-jamb, and she confesses to feeling a twinge of envy. This fall, BugFan Tom shared this shot, taken by his wife Andrea, and the BugLady got a little greener. She seriously wants to see one of these curious insects. We’ll take a look at the Wasp Mantidfly in more detail.
Greetings, BugFans, The BugLady had fun in a rabbit hole recently. OK, it was a cold, gray day, threatening snow/rain, and the light from the monitor was brighter than the light from outside, but it’s a rabbit hole she had… Read more
This summer, the BugLady got a “what is this?” email from BugFan Debra that contained a picture of this beautiful black wasp with white spats that she took in northern Wisconsin (thanks, Debra!). The posture was reminiscent of our local Giant Ichneumon wasps, but there are only four species in that genus, and this wasn’t any of them. So, the BugLady suggested that Debra send the picture to the entomology department at UW-Madison, where almost-BugFan PJ identified it. He noted that its “dapper black & white appearance is pretty distinctive” and ID’d it as Xorides stigmapterus.
