{"id":12667,"date":"2021-12-22T11:50:18","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T17:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/?p=12667"},"modified":"2021-12-22T11:52:04","modified_gmt":"2021-12-22T17:52:04","slug":"the-twelveish-bugs-of-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/the-twelveish-bugs-of-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"The Twelve(ish) Bugs of Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: All links below go to external sites.<\/em><\/p>\n

Season\u2019s Greetings, BugFans,<\/p>\n

When the BugLady initiated this annual tradition in 2012 \u2013 showing pictures of bugs she had photographed but whom (objective case) she had already written about (OK \u2013 about whom she had already written) \u2013 she was already in trouble.\u00a0 Even that first year, she started with a Baker\u2019s Dozen, not twelve, and each year she has managed to take herself firmly in hand and toss out a few dragonflies at the last minute in order to maintain that number (the Fourteen Bugs of Christmas almost happened this year).<\/p>\n

At any rate, just hum along, add verses where necessary, and best wishes for smooth-sailing in 2022, with hopes for far fewer surprises than in 2021 (we\u2019ve had enough character-building moments to last us for a while).<\/p>\n

\"Baltimore\u00a0<\/b>BALTIMORE BUTTERFLIES<\/b>\u00a0are exquisite butterflies with intricate lifestyles.\u00a0 Eggs are laid\u00a0en masse\u00a0<\/i>on their host plants (turtlehead, swamp lousewort, hairy beardtongue, and English plantain (a recent menu addition)), and newly-hatched caterpillars<\/a> throw a web around the leaves\u00a0and feed\u00a0en masse<\/i>.\u00a0 They overwinter in little clumps of partly-grown caterpillars inside rolled leaves on the ground, wake up in spring to a world devoid of turtlehead (a late summer plant), and switch their diets to the leaves of white ash (alas), arrowwood, wood betony, and a few others.\u00a0 Later, they form a really spiffy chrysalis\u00a0<\/a>and then a dynamite butterfly.\u00a0 Here in God\u2019s country, they\u2019re associated with wetlands, but in some parts of their range, they\u2019re found in dry, open areas.<\/p>\n

When the BugLady first wrote about the amazingly-colorful\u00a0BLACK-LEGGED MEADOW KATYDID<\/b> in 2013, she said that their faces are a little creepy.\u00a0 She hasn\u2019t changed her mind.\u00a0 Find out more about them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Meadow\"\u00a0 \"Daddy<\/p>\n

DADDY LONGLEGS<\/b>\u00a0(sometimes called Harvestmen) ply the vegetation (and ground and walls and tree trunks) looking for small invertebrates to eat.\u00a0 Although they are in the class Arachnida (along with spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, and some others), they are in the daddy longlegs order Opiliones, rather than the true spider order Araneae.\u00a0 They have eight legs and use six for walking; the other two are outfitted with lots of joints, so they\u2019re extra-bendable, and with hair-like sensory receptors that they wave around as they go.\u00a0 They don\u2019t make silk, and they don\u2019t make venom, but they do make stinky defensive chemicals, and if they\u2019re alarmed, they may play possum.\u00a0\u00a0They do not bite people<\/b>\u00a0– their mouthparts are simply too small.<\/p>\n

This female\u00a0EASTERN PONDHAWK DRAGONFLY<\/b>, like other odonates, is an unapologetic carnivore, and her prey choices sometimes get close to home, taxonomically.\u00a0 She is about to tuck into a male Eastern Forktail damselfly.<\/p>\n

\"Forktail \"Photinus\"<\/p>\n

Some of our most common\u00a0LIGHTNING BUGS\/FIREFLIES<\/b>\u00a0are in the genus\u00a0Photinus<\/i>\u00a0(there\u2019s a good chance that this one is the Common Eastern firefly,\u00a0Photinus pyralis<\/i>).\u00a0 Two cool things about\u00a0Photinus<\/i>: 1) their larvae<\/a> \u00a0live underground, and \u201cpacks\u201d of them may get together to hunt earthworms; and 2) each species of firefly has its own flashing code, to which the females (flightless in some species) respond with their own Morse code.\u00a0 Game on.\u00a0 But female fireflies from a different genus \u2013\u00a0Photuris –<\/i>\u00a0copy the\u00a0Photinus<\/i>\u00a0signal, lure in an unsuspecting male\u00a0Photinus<\/i>, and then eat him.<\/p>\n

Why? \u00a0Photinus<\/i>\u00a0fireflies pack a nasty-tasting defensive chemical (lucibufagin), which discourages predators like\u00a0Phidippus<\/i>\u00a0jumping spiders, some songbirds, and possibly bats.\u00a0\u00a0Photuris<\/i>\u00a0doesn\u2019t produce defensive chemicals, but in eating him, she gets a good meal (the extra nutrition helps her make better eggs) and lucibufagin, too.\u00a0 It makes her distasteful and, like a\u00a0Photinus<\/i> female, she passes it on to her eggs<\/a> (it may protect them from ants).<\/p>\n

\"The \"Pigeon<\/p>\n

SWAMP SPREADWING DAMSELFLIES<\/b>\u00a0– Mating and ovipositing activity in dragonflies and damselflies often attracts a crowd – third party males hope to snag the female, dislodge the first male\u2019s sperm, and replace it with their own.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the males of many Odonate species guard their brides, sometimes from the air or from a perch, but often by continuing to clasp the back of the female\u2019s head.\u00a0 Male number two (on the right) harassed this couple for a few minutes before moving on.<\/p>\n

One chilly day in mid-October, the BugLady shared the bench on the hawk tower with this harmless, female\u00a0PIGEON HORNTAIL\/PIGEON TREMEX<\/b>.\u00a0 Pigeon horntails are primitive, non-stinging wasps that lay their eggs under the bark of dead\/dying trees, and their larvae develop in\/eat the wood.\u00a0 She inoculates the wood with a white rot fungus when she oviposits, to soften the wood of the edible walls of her offspring\u2019s chamber. That spine at the rear is her ovipositor (the horn for which she is named is the smaller point on top).\u00a0 Alas \u2013 pressure-treated lumber – no joy – but together they counted 76 raptors that day!<\/p>\n

\"GREAT \"DARK<\/p>\n

The BugLady loves the \u201cknock-your-socks-off\u201d color combinations of mid-summer, often involving the radiant\u00a0GREAT SPANGLED FRITILLARY<\/b>.\u00a0 This one is on Joe-Pye Weed.<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t this\u00a0DARK FISHING SPIDER<\/b> a beauty!\u00a0 And no shrinking violet.\u00a0 A female\u2019s leg-span may measure three to four inches, so they get people\u2019s attention when they wander into the house (our DNR even issued an FYI in the form of a \u201cwarning\u201d a few years ago when Dark Fishing spiders were especially numerous, which the BugLady suspects alarmed more people than it calmed).\u00a0 Fishing spiders are in the nursery web spider family \u2013 they spin a sac for their eggs, use their mouthparts to carry it around until the eggs are close to hatching (and so cannot eat for that duration), and then attach it to a plant with (yes) a nursery web.\u00a0 She stands guard over it until the spiderlings hatch and finally leave the case.\u00a0 Dark fishing spiders are mostly found around water – \u00a0they walk on water, swim under water, leave scent trails across the water\u2019s surface, and chow down on aquatic invertebrates and the occasional small fish or tadpole<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"BLACK-AND-YELLOW \"GREEN<\/p>\n

BLACK-AND-YELLOW MUD DAUBERS<\/b> are solitary wasps that build and provision mud chambers for their eggs.\u00a0 One source says that it takes thirty to forty trips to a mud source for her to construct just one cell, and she often packs multiple cells against each other in random blob<\/a>.\u00a0 She may stash as many as 30 spiders into a cell before deciding that it\u2019s ready for an egg – in behalf of her offspring she collects protein, but she herself feeds on nectar.\u00a0 Solitary wasps are generally not aggressive, having neither hearth nor home to protect.\u00a0 For more information, the BugLady is always happy to recommend the original Bug of the Week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The BugLady likes weevils \u2013 there\u2019s something about the cut of their tiny jibs \u2013 and she always enjoys seeing this sparkly\u00a0GREEN IMMIGRANT LEAF BEETLE<\/b>\u00a0(either\u00a0Polydrus sericus\/formosus<\/i>\u00a0or\u00a0Polydrus impressifrons<\/i>\u00a0\u2013 they\u2019re pretty similar).\u00a0 These particular immigrants came over on the boat in the very early 1900\u2019s.\u00a0 Adult Green immigrant leaf beetles feed on leaves, and their larvae eat roots, but there are rarely enough of them around to be a problem.<\/p>\n

\"SLUGFEST\"<\/p>\n

SLUGFEST<\/b>\u00a0– The BugLady observed these slugs digging into a tasty fungus toward the end of summer.\u00a0 Here are some (but not all)\u00a0Fun Facts About Slugs<\/i>\u00a0gathered from a bunch of sources, sacred and profane: Slugs are hermaphrodites (housing both male and female reproductive organs), so any slug can lay eggs (self-fertilization is possible, but it generally takes two to tango); their body is called a foot; they are almost-shell-less gastropods (in the Phylum Mollusca, related to snails and limpets and more distantly to oysters, clams, cockles and mussels ((alive-alive-o)), octopi, and squid; one set of tentacles on the front of their head is light-sensitive and is tipped with eyes and the other is used to smell; like us, snails are mostly water, and their hygroscopic (water-attracting) mucous protects them from dehydration (among other services); slugs are not poisonous but they may carry parasites; they have a top speed of 0.3km\/hour; snails have spiral bodies so they can fit into spiral shells \u2013 slugs don\u2019t;\u00a0the collective noun for slugs\u00a0is \u201ccornucopia;\u201d slug blood is greenish;\u00a0a slug has rasping mouthparts complete with approximately 27,000 teeth \u2013 more teeth than some sharks, and like sharks, slugs routinely lose and replace their teeth;\u00a0a container half buried in the ground and half filled with yeast, water, and sugar (similar to beer) can lure slugs in and they will drown, but slugs prefer cheap beer over Oregon’s famed microbrews (compliments of the Oregon State University College of Agricultural Sciences \u201cSlug Portal\u201d); from Great Britain –\u00a0it\u2019s been estimated that an acre of farmland may support over 250,000 slugs, that the average UK garden has a population of over 20,000 slugs and snails, and that a cubic meter of garden can contain an average of up to 200 slugs; slugs can be active in temperatures as low as 41 degrees but snails can\u2019t; slugs can stretch out to 20 times their resting length \u2013 all the better to squeeze through tiny openings; and lots of exotic species of slugs have hitchhiked to America (see previous fact).\u00a0 And there\u2019s so much more<\/p>\n