Bugs and Butterflies

[Turtle]

Went out for a look at the flowers and as the bumblebees pollinated many of the Arctic Lupine flowers yesterday they have already browned up and started to seed. While just gazing at them, a little brown moth fluttered in and took a perch. Even though I saw it fly down, I immediately lost track of it as it blends perfectly with the dried flower heads. :hyper: This time after I ran in for the camera, the little bugger was still in residence when I returned. :hihi:

 

[Turtle]

I teach my kids to find eggs on leaves. We raise caterpillars every year. One of the amazing sights that my kids have seen many times is the caterpillar forming a chrysalis. We've seen the butterfly emerging from the chrysalis as often.

 

Your comment must have gone subliminal in my caranium. :eek_big: I thought a spot on the leaf of one of my tomato plants was another piece of dead leaf stuck there, but when I looked more closely I saw it was a cluster of insect eggs. :shrug: I have no idea what kind of bug, and I have never seen these before on my tomatos. I picked the leaf to photo it; will this mean the eggs won't continue to develop? How should I keep them to get them to hatch? :naughty:

 

insect eggs on tomato leaf

[Turtle]

Not having much luck on ID here, other than that this is a wild bee. The deep orange poppy is adding some color to the stripes on the abdomen which are actually white. :QuestionM

 

[Ganoderma]

I love butterflies, but hate their wormy babies in my gardens!!!

 

[Cedars]

Not having much luck on ID here, other than that this is a wild bee. The deep orange poppy is adding some color to the stripes on the abdomen which are actually white. :)

 

 

I would start with mining bees, family Andrenidae. Look for the common ones in your area, might be able to narrow it down that way. Watch for common season. Can be very helpful in bug ID's

[Cedars]

I love butterflies, but hate their wormy babies in my gardens!!!

 

 

Trivia I learned last weekend during a butterfly trek.

 

Brushfooted (type your is) has four main legs (keeping in mind insects have 6 legs), with two very undeveloped legs (where the term brushfooted comes from).

 

I assume this is one of your locals (tiawan?), and not a canadian butterfly.

[Turtle]

I would start with mining bees, family Andrenidae. Look for the common ones in your area, might be able to narrow it down that way. Watch for common season. Can be very helpful in bug ID's

 

Roger will have a look. What exactly does 'common season' refer to? :confused:

 

On another note, I put my little leaf in a shotglass with a dribble of water to keep it fresh, and today I see that the eggs are hatching. No sign yet the larvae have eaten any of the leaf, but I'm presuming the insect knows to lay eggs on a plant they can eat. :shrug:

 

[Cedars]

Roger will have a look. What exactly does 'common season' refer to? :confused:

Sorry. Many bees have a time frame they are most common in.The date seen can sometimes help ID a bug.

 

On another note, I put my little leaf in a shotglass with a dribble of water to keep it fresh, and today I see that the eggs are hatching. No sign yet the larvae have eaten any of the leaf, but I'm presuming the insect knows to lay eggs on a plant they can eat. :shrug:

 

While common, not always true. Depends on the species. First glance and without a lot of experience with VERY young cats (or caterpillars in general), I am guessing a moth (hairy). But that hair may fall off. If they dont eat fast, they will die. Try members of tomato family, grasses, willow, popular/aspens, cherry/fruit and see if they take to any of them. Oh and add a fresh tomato leaf.

 

Or them back outside where you found them :)

[Turtle]

No sign yet the larvae have eaten any of the leaf, but I'm presuming the insect knows to lay eggs on a plant they can eat.

While common, not always true. Depends on the species. First glance and without a lot of experience with VERY young cats (or caterpillars in general), I am guessing a moth (hairy). But that hair may fall off. If they dont eat fast, they will die. Try members of tomato family, grasses, willow, popular/aspens, cherry/fruit and see if they take to any of them. Oh and add a fresh tomato leaf.

 

Or put them back outside where you found them :shrug:

 

I added a fresh leaf and scraped a few larvae onto a leaf still on the plant outside. The little buggers are decidedly sedantary, staying clustered as you see them. Perhaps another unwarranted presumption on my part is that the buggies are herbivores? :confused:

[Cedars]

I added a fresh leaf and scraped a few larvae onto a leaf still on the plant outside. The little buggers are decidedly sedantary, staying clustered as you see them. Perhaps another unwarranted presumption on my part is that the buggies are herbivores? :hihi:

 

Well, you have them in a shot glass, on an old piece of leaf, presumably in a cool house. Temps impact activity, lots of caterpillars are night active and if these are a type which migrate to their host plant, there really isnt many options for them to behave naturally. Another thought is the Tent caterpillar/moth. Eggs are laid (for this area, the fall before) and when the cats hatch, they look for twigs to spin their group nest. But it is a recent laying, so look for early hatching/hibernating moths in your area.

 

The only carnivorous cat in N. America is the harvester. I do not know if they are in your area. I did see their butterfly in my yard already this year and photographed another on Crex Meadows a few weeks ago (first photo for that in Crex Meadows and the wisconsin county its in). If I remember right, it was the first report ever of harvesters in Crex's county, though they have been documented in counties north and south of Crex.

 

Let us know if you have caterpillars munching on the tomato leaf, or if they use a different host (you are going to add options for the ones you kept right?)

[Ganoderma]

Trivia I learned last weekend during a butterfly trek.

 

Brushfooted (type your is) has four main legs (keeping in mind insects have 6 legs), with two very undeveloped legs (where the term brushfooted comes from).

 

I assume this is one of your locals (tiawan?), and not a canadian butterfly.

 

thats pretty cool, never knew that! yes, this is a common Taiwanese sight. actually its a slow one as the others all blurred up the pics lol.

 

any thoughts on this bee? was taken last week here in mid taiwan

[Turtle]

Well, you have them in a shot glass, on an old piece of leaf, presumably in a cool house. Temps impact activity, lots of caterpillars are night active and if these are a type which migrate to their host plant, there really isnt many options for them to behave naturally. Another thought is the Tent caterpillar/moth. Eggs are laid (for this area, the fall before) and when the cats hatch, they look for twigs to spin their group nest. But it is a recent laying, so look for early hatching/hibernating moths in your area.

 

The only carnivorous cat in N. America is the harvester. I do not know if they are in your area. I did see their butterfly in my yard already this year and photographed another on Crex Meadows a few weeks ago (first photo for that in Crex Meadows and the wisconsin county its in). If I remember right, it was the first report ever of harvesters in Crex's county, though they have been documented in counties north and south of Crex.

 

Let us know if you have caterpillars munching on the tomato leaf, or if they use a different host (you are going to add options for the ones you kept right?)

 

Acknowledged all. Muchas gracias. We had severe thunderstorms yesterday with strong winds & heavy rains, and the cats I released back onto the outside plant are not in evidence this morning. I don't recall mentioning it, or know if it's worth mentioning, but the tomato plant the eggs appeared on is in a pot. :confused: Still no evidence of similar eggs anywhere else in my gardens.

 

In the shot glass, a few cats moved off the leaf onto the glass sides (none went to the fresh tomato leaf ), and a couple fell in the dribble of water in the bottom and drowned. :doh: It's still rainy but relatively calm so I put the shotglass on its side in one of my wildflower patches where there is the greatest variety of plants and some cover.

 

Keeping my fingers crossed that my curiosity has not unduly upset the natural order of things. :blink:

 

PS Found this earlier image on my camera that includes a 1mm scale.

 

[Cedars]

thats pretty cool, never knew that! yes, this is a common Taiwanese sight. actually its a slow one as the others all blurred up the pics lol.

Yeah, I thought it was a cool bit of trivia and easy to remember.

 

Another piece the guide (Dean) spoke of was inadaquate butterfly gardens and the basic scam . Boils down to this. Offering nectar without caterpillar hosts provides nothing for butterflies. Plan your butterfly gardens to provide food for both caterpillar and butterfly and habitat. I have been astounded at how many cool butterflies start out as grass eaters, and many of those deposit eggs on the soil, the cats feed at night and crawl back down on the ground to hide in debris during the day. Tons of the little butterflies cats are mutually dependent on ants for protection from predators. Example: To find Karner blue cats (rare and protected butterfly), you look for lupine (host plant) AND ants. This spring I have been searching for Karner cat signs and of all the lupine I have looked at (100s of plants) I have found two with signs of Karner cats. Though I could have missed some of course.

 

any thoughts on this bee? was taken last week here in mid taiwan

 

The bee appears to be a honeybee. Which variety I dont know (and have no idea how many species of asian honeybees there are) but thats where I would start. It could be a wild asian honeybee and not an escapee. I dont know anything about Taiwan native honeybees or if they are all imported from Asia.

[Cedars]

Keeping my fingers crossed that my curiosity has not unduly upset the natural order of things. :confused:

I thought about raising a few of my cat finds to butterfly/moth (to match cat with butterfly) but remembered from my youth how much of a hassle it was providing fresh leaves. Some of the cats are really picky about fresh greens. I have forgotten much of it, but back then, there were some types of cats I left in the field because they were so hard to raise to maturity.

 

PS Found this earlier image on my camera that includes a 1mm scale. :blink:

 

 

Its still a teeny, kinda fuzzy green cat, probably a moth.

Seriously, those pics of the hatch were pretty cool and the ruler ones just add to your scientific credibility. We all know your not in it for the money.

[Turtle]

I thought about raising a few of my cat finds to butterfly/moth (to match cat with butterfly) but remembered from my youth how much of a hassle it was providing fresh leaves. Some of the cats are really picky about fresh greens. I have forgotten much of it, but back then, there were some types of cats I left in the field because they were so hard to raise to maturity.

 

Its still a teeny, kinda fuzzy green cat, probably a moth. :shrug:

Seriously, those pics of the hatch were pretty cool and the ruler ones just add to your scientific credibility. We all know your not in it for the money. ;)

 

gracias. :) after 2 days in the flower bed, the shot glass was empty of the cats. all's well that ends uncertain. :confused: :D

 

speaking of moths, today i caught this little bugger on my blue flax. :confused: :)

 

[Cedars]

A while back (last year) I posted my first pictures of a Karner Blue. Earlier this week I got an email from a friend about Karners near Crex meadows. They were showing up now! I tried to wait until friday but just couldnt do it. I took Thursday off and headed north to the meadows. Wow. Another great day.

 

Here are open wing shots of a male and female Karner Blue. Unusual feature of these butterflies is the Female is more colorful than the male (on top open wing view). Once again as soon as the Karner Blues landed, they became very easy to photograph (unlike many other skittish butterflies).

 

Enjoy!

[Jway]

I think I realize this is mainly a thread for aficionados. So, I think I'm posting in the right area. There's a bug that to this day gives me the willies. An irrational fear. And I'd LOVE to hear from people who appreciate all things "bugs" what you find to be good, even beautiful about this creature. The creature I refer to is Scutigera coleoptrata or more commonly known (I think) as 'house centipede.' I saw one again this recent weekend (indoors) and it reminded me that I am still not over my irrational fear of them.