Back in the fall, we saw a lot of sexy scenes among the stick insects on our land. Everywhere, it seemed, the smaller males were searching out larger females, and put gametes together to make the little zygotes that would grow into the next generation of these extraordinarily well-camouflaged insects… Here’s a pair on the … Read more
Recently, I bought a microscope for home use. This has been a longtime goal for me. I’ve dreamed of having my own microscope the way some guys fantasize about a Porsche 911. It’s an AmScope model, and it has an attachment for a small digital camera that comes with the scope. While the scope is … Read more
After yesterday’s 4+ inches of snow, I doubt we’ll be seeing a praying mantis this big again for the better part of ten months…
Today, a few spiders that live in cylindrical webs of their own construction… Exhibit A, the grass spider, although this one’s not in the grass: Exhibit B, an unidentified spider on one of my exterior lights: Creepy! Crawly! Tubular!
We were out on the deck the other day when Baxter spotted a wheel bug. He can say “bug” now, and this was such an occasion. The kid’s a chip off the ol’ block! He has a good eye for the bugs.
Good Monday to you! Here’s a crab spider, perched on a threaded screw that’s part of a baby gate on our porch: A closer look: I like crab spiders. As with jumping spiders, I don’t find them especially heebie-jeebie-inducing.
Monarch butterflies aren’t the only insects that like visiting milkweed…
The Monday macrobug is a juvenile beetle with an odd means of locomotion.
Here’s a recently hatched clutch of stinkbug eggs seen in September on a houseplant that we let live out on the porch for several months: The cute little bugs there are juvenile brown marmorated stinkbugs.
I found one of these moths last week while moving some logs around out in the woods. It was a female (based on its antennae), and had a gorgeous color scheme of black and white with a wide yellow ^ on each of its wings, and lovely orange knees. I brought it back to the … Read more