{"id":15323,"date":"2024-09-25T16:19:25","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T21:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/?p=15323"},"modified":"2024-09-25T16:19:28","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T21:19:28","slug":"the-end-of-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/the-end-of-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"The End of Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Howdy, BugFans,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve arrived at the final act in this summer\u2019s insect drama \u2013 a drama played out over the months by an ever-changing cast of characters. Some are regulars, with successive generations appearing in multiple acts throughout the season, while others step in for only one act of the play. Here are some of the actors that appeared on stage after mid-August. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bug<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Darner With Spider \u2013 well, the darner migration was nothing short of magical this year, and then it was over. And then it restarted \u2013 lots of Common Green Darners in the air on September 19 and 20, along with a bunch of Black Saddlebags. They\u2019re heading south along the lakeshore, aiming for the Gulf States, but they don\u2019t all make it. The BugLady\u2019s guess is that this one was perched in the grass, and when it took off, it ran into the web of an orbweaver. It messed up the web, but because it wasn\u2019t flying at full power, the spider was able to snag it. Thanks to the family that located this tableaux<\/em> along the trail and pointed the BugLady at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Butterfly<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tiger Swallowtail \u2013 perfection on the wing, but far too few of them this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Wasp<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gold-Marked Thread-Waisted Wasps (Eremnophila<\/em>) put the \u201cthread\u201d in the Thread-waisted wasp family (Sphecidae). They\u2019re solitary wasps that dig single-celled egg chambers in the ground and provision them with caterpillars of sphinx or owlet moths (and the odd of skipper butterfly caterpillar).\u00a0Her long legs allow her to straddle a larger caterpillar and walk it back to her nest<\/a>. She keeps her strength up by sipping carb-rich flower nectar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"two<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Red-Legged Grasshoppers making more Red-legged grasshoppers. \u2018Tis the season.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"butterfly<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gray Hairstreaks are listed as the most common hairstreak in North America (because their caterpillars are \u201ccatholic\u201d eaters that feed on about 200 different plants), but they\u2019re not common in Wisconsin.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fun facts about Gray Hairstreaks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. The point of the eyespot and the \u201ctail\u201d is to make the butterfly\u2019s rear end look like a front end, with eye and \u201cantenna,\u201d thus confusing predators;<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Gray hairstreak caterpillars are tended by ants in return for honeydew (produced, of course, in the caterpillar\u2019s \u201choney gland\u201d);<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Both the caterpillar and the pupa produce sound.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \"Cricket<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Tree Cricket \u2013 the voice of the prairie in late summer and early fall. This one is (probably) in the Oecanthus nigricornis<\/em> group, maybe the Forbes tree cricket<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Beetle<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Big Sand Tiger Beetles are all about sand. Their eggs are buried in the sand; their larvae<\/a> dig long tunnels in the sand and then pop out when unwary insects and spiders wander by. At up to six feet long, the tunnel extends below the frost line and allows them to survive the winter. Adults stand \u201con tiptoe\u201d (stilting) to raise themselves incrementally higher off the hot sand. Not surprisingly, Tiger beetles have fan clubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"moth<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Fiery Skipper \u2013 these beautiful, inch-long, golden butterflies aren\u2019t from around here, though they regularly visit God\u2019s Country and beyond. Their usual range is southern and even tropical, and they move north in mid-summer and produce a brood here, but it\u2019s too cold for them to overwinter (for now). They\u2019ve made it to Hawai\u2019i and are unwelcome there, because their caterpillars feed on grasses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"wasp<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    European Paper Wasps are buzzing around the hawk tower these warm, sunny days, so the BugLady has to look sharp before she puts her hands on the railings. Fortunately, they are jumpy wasps that usually spot her before she gets too close. They arrived on the East Coast 40 or 50 years ago and have spread across the northern US and Canada. They catch, masticate, and regurgitate caterpillars and other small insects for their larvae. The lovely gold legs and antennae separate them from our common Northern paper wasp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Fun facts about European paper wasps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1)    The brighter the coloration of a female European paper wasp, the more toxic her sting is;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"dragonflies<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    2)    Females with more spots on their faces are dominant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Familiar Bluets – Big and startlingly blue, Familiar Bluets are one of the last damselflies on the scene.\u00a0 (\u2018Tis the season.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"moth<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Caterpillars of Virginian Tiger Moths are also known as Yellow wooly bears or Yellow bear caterpillars (though they come in white, yellow, caramel, and rusty colors, and view this pink one<\/a>).\u00a0They\u2019re food generalists, and so are all over the place (not just in Virginia).\u00a0Although some people are sensitive to their hairs, the hairs are not poisonous. Adults are spectacularly white<\/a>, but when they are alarmed, they curl their abdomen to flash a startling orange<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"spider<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Nurseryweb Spiders carry their egg sac around in their jaws (wolf spiders carry theirs aft) and when the eggs are close to hatching, she creates a loose \u201cnursery web,\u201d installs the egg sac in it (hers was on the underside of the leaf), and then guards it until the eggs hatch and the spiderlings have molted once.\u00a0 No help from Dad \u2013 if she doesn\u2019t eat him (sexual cannibalism \u2013 an important nutrient booster) (he wraps her legs with silk during courtship to try to prevent this), he leaves to pursue other relationships.\u00a0 He gives her a \u201cnuptial gift\u201d of a silk-wrapped prey item at the start of courtship so that she will think well of him, but after he has immobilized her and exchanged bodily fluids, he takes the gift with him when he goes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"bug<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Cranefly \u2013 the \u201cOld Wives\u201d really got it wrong about Crane flies. Though they\u2019re also called \u201cmosquito hawks<\/em>,”\u00a0they do not eat mosquitos (or any meat of any kind). They do not bite anything at all, but they\u2019re reputed to be the \u201cmost venomous insects in the world<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0The confusion may have come because of their resemblance to the cellar spiders, themselves getting a bad rap because their bites are practically harmless.\u00a0They\u2019re just a short-lived fly whose larvae inhabit a variety of habitats from wetlands to lawns (where they both feed on and fertilize the grass).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"two<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Eastern Tailed-Blues are tiny butterflies with wingspans of an inch or less, but they\u2019re tough enough to fly well into fall (four years ago, the BugLady saw one on November 4).\u00a0Like the Gray Hairstreak, the eye and tail on the hind wing are there to trick hungry birds into grabbing a wing, not an abdomen.\u00a0\u2018Tis the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Go outside \u2013 there are still bugs!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The BugLady<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Howdy, BugFans, We\u2019ve arrived at the final act in this summer\u2019s insect drama \u2013 a drama played out over the months by an ever-changing cast of characters. Some are regulars, with successive generations appearing in multiple acts throughout the season, while …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32664,"featured_media":15330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bug-of-the-week"],"yoast_head":"\nField Station<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/the-end-of-summer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The End of Summer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Howdy, BugFans, We\u2019ve arrived at the final act in this summer\u2019s insect drama \u2013 a drama played out over the months by an ever-changing cast of characters. Some are regulars, with successive generations appearing in multiple acts throughout the season, while …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/the-end-of-summer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Field Station\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-25T21:19:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-25T21:19:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2024\/09\/hairstreak-gray24-2brz.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/field-station\\\/bug-of-the-week\\\/the-end-of-summer\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/field-station\\\/bug-of-the-week\\\/the-end-of-summer\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"The End of Summer\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-09-25T21:19:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-25T21:19:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/field-station\\\/bug-of-the-week\\\/the-end-of-summer\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1094,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/field-station\\\/bug-of-the-week\\\/the-end-of-summer\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/field-station\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/380\\\/2024\\\/09\\\/hairstreak-gray24-2brz.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Bug of the Week\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/field-station\\\/bug-of-the-week\\\/the-end-of-summer\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/field-station\\\/bug-of-the-week\\\/the-end-of-summer\\\/\",\"name\":\"The End of Summer - 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