The white peacock butterfly, Anartia jatrophae, is found through much of the southeastern U.S., Central and South America, and the Carribbean. They like warm, open, weedy areas near water. Males display a unique territorial behavior, staking out a territory which may be 15m or so in diameter, and defending it aggressively from other males and…
Category: Insects
Wheel Bug
One of the largest terrestrial true bugs in North America, this bad boy (or girl) can reach up to 1.5 inches / 38mm in size (although subjectively it seems much bigger in person!). The wheel bug (Arilus cristatus) is an assassin bug, which means that big pointy bit on the front is in fact a…
Heppner’s Grass Tubeworm Moth
Trust me when I say that “little brown moth” is not a taxonomic rabbit hole you want to go down. This is Acrolophus heppneri, Heppner’s grass tubeworm moth, about 8mm long and with a whopping four whole sentences in its Wikipedia page. The weird little “cowlick” visible on its right side is apparently characteristic.
Green Lacewing Larva
I have been trying to get a picture of one of these diminutive little specks of dust for quite some time. It’s not that they’re hard to find, it’s just that it’s hard to get a photo where you can tell this is something other than a little poof of dust! This is a junkbug,…
Rainbow Scarab Beetle
I never thought I’d find dung beetles exciting, but here we are. This gorgeous lady is a female rainbow scarab beetle, Phanaeus vindex, almost an inch long and with the cutest little bright yellow antennae! The ancient Egyptians worshiped scarab beetles. Looking at these colors, I can see why! Like all dung beetles, she looks…
Southern Yellowjacket
This grumpy, chilly southern yellowjacket (Vespula squamosa) would not have let me get this photo if it hadn’t been 55 degrees F outside. She was sunning herself and did not appreciate being photographed; you can see her head turned toward me, and one foreleg half-raised in a very rude gesture. These social wasps are found…
Southern Emerald Moth
The delightful, (1/2″ wide) Synchlora frondaria is most notable for its larvae, tiny caterpillars which disguise themselves by “gluing” pieces of plants and flowers to themselves so they look like debris. (From this behavior comes the common name “camouflaged looper”, since the caterpillars are “looper” caterpillars which form loops with their body (like all inchworms)…
Shieldbacked Pine Seed Bug
You would think narrowing down an identification to “shield bug” would have you almost done, wouldn’t you? Man, that doesn’t even narrow it down to family. It was ridiculous trying to get this handsome little guy down from “bug” to “stink bug” (nope) to “soldier bug” (nope) to “shield bug” (nope) to “shieldbacked bug” (at…
Pink-striped Oakworm Moth
This fuzzy little pink-to-orange silk moth of the family Saturniidae is found across Canada and the US. The females are larger (maybe an inch and a half long); the males have large transparent spots on their wings. Both sexes have the little white spot on each wing. In Florida, these guys reproduce year round. Males…
Green Lacewing Eggs
These delicate little white eggs, each on its own half-inch stalk, are about 2mm long. They actually hatch into some fairly fierce predators: the larvae of green lacewings (Chrysopidae). The adult insects are delicate little things (although still predatory) but the half-inch larvae have huge, spiky mandibles and are known as aphid wolves or aphid…
Blue Dasher Dragonfly
Whoever named the blue dasher dragonfly (Pachydiplax longipennis) clearly hadn’t seen a female; this female has almost no blue on her whatever. The males, of course, have bright blue abdomens, a green striped thorax, and green eyes. Blue dashers are “perching” dragonflies; they regulate their body temperature by basking in the sun. If they really…
Root Maggot Fly
This is one of those species where the scientific web sites say almost nothing, other than to argue over semantics and exactly who named the insect last, and the pest control sites have a lot to say. (What can I say, nobody seems to want to write a PhD thesis on small, feces-eating flies.) As…
Ailanthus Webworm Moth
This tiny (1 cm) day-flying moth is actually native to Florida (so it’s funny I found this one in Indiana). The moth’s larvae used to live almost exclusively on the paradise tree (Simarouba glauca) in Florida, but when the “tree of heaven” (Ailanthus altissima) was introduced to the US from China, the ailanthus webworm moth…
Leaf-Footed Bug
This is probably an adult female leaf-footed bug (Acanthocephala declivis) — this species is named for the exaggerated “femurs” on its back legs, and the femurs are larger in the male, with impressive spikes. She’s about an inch and a half long, not including her antennae. Leaf-footed bugs are named after the “leafy” extensions of…
Julia Butterfly
Dryas iulia (often incorrectly spelled julia) is also known as the Julia butterfly, Julia heliconian, the flame, or flambeau. It is the sole member of the genus Dryas, native from Brazil to the southern United States. There are more than 15 described subspecies. Approximately 80-90 mm across, its elongated wings are primarily orange with black…
Black Horse Fly
Anyone who has owned livestock will know this inch-long black fighter jet of a fly. Black horse flies (Tabanus atratus) are huge, loud, and persistent attackers of mammals in the females’ quest to get a blood meal in order to reproduce. They fear no swatter. A million years ago, I worked at a wolf sanctuary,…