280 days of Urbpandemonium #127

New England's biggest dragonfly is also one of the most common. This female green darner Anax junius* rested briefly in our yard--later we went to the beach and we saw many of them flying around the shore. They are famously migratory, hunting as they go, covering 30 miles a day. Because the ones that appear in spring have little to no wing damage, it is thought that each year a new crop migrates each year. Slightly more battered darners head south when insects become scarce in the fall.

* "King of June"

280 days of Urbpandemonium #128

This tiny male wedge-shaped beetle Macrosiagon limbata* has his feathery antennae out into the air, hoping to catch the scent of a female.




She, like him, is probably on top of a flowering plant, grazing on pollen. Eventually she will lay eggs by the flowers. They will hatch into tiny grubs, who wait by the flowers for wasps that come to drink nectar. When they wasp lands, they climb on board, and ride her back to her nest, disembarking when she lays her own eggs. The beetle larva feeds within the body of the developing wasp larva. Nature is awesome.

* "Large jawed, bordered."

280 days of Urbpandemonium #129

Some people will automatically kill any large fly they see. This is a habit I would very much like to change. The female (note the large ovipositor) on the window here, just needs an assist to get back outside to do her good work. This is a robber fly, family Asilidae*, one of a group of flies that catches other insects on the wing. There are large hairy robber flies that feed on bees, robber flies with bladelike mouths for slicing into beetle shells, and spindly sneaky robber flies that snatch spiders up to eat them.


The dexterity involved that enables one fly to catch a fly is amazing to me.

* From Asilus, "an obscure ancient Latin name for some kind of fly, probably a horsefly."

280 days of Urbpandemonium #130

What you see here, infesting our kitchen compost container, is one of the most important animals in human history. The humble red-eyed fruit fly is a tiny pest found worldwide. Its maggots feed on the yeasts that feed on fruit sugars--so anywhere a banana is ripening, or a glass of wine has sat out too long, or some juice was left in a discarded, you will find these vinegar flies circling. Because they are easy to rear in captivity, and reproduce incredibly quickly, they are among the most frequently used lab animals. It is impossible to overstate the contribution this species has made to science.

They have been used in so many papers and studies, that even though their classification has changed--they are no longer taxonomically Drosophila melanogaster*, they are Sophophora**--that their old scientific name is still used. Nobody wants to go through the hundreds of thousands of uses of Drosophila and find and replace them with Sophophora.

* "Dew-loving, black belly"

** "Carrier of wisdom"

280 days of Urbpandemonium #131

Beetles are defined by their hard, protective outer wings. Biology may as well be defined by exceptions to classifications. This banded net-winged beetle Caloptera reticulum* has soft outer wing covers that protect it in a different way. The high contrast orange and black colors let would-be predators know that this beetle doesn't taste good.

It is generally accepted that net-winged beetle larvae are predatory. This species apparently roams under dead bark to find its prey. At least one source, however, claims that "Despite anecdotal reports of carnivory, most, if not all [net-winged beetle larvae], feed on myxomycetes or metabolic products of fungi."

* "Netted beautiful wings"

Disapproving prairie dog needs a caption

280 days of Urbpandemonium #132

Add another to the ever-growing list of harmless animals that people are inexplicably horrified by. What is the magic formula? Jerky movements? Body-to-leg ratio? I've heard some people refer to camel crickets (family Rhaphidophoridae) as "sprickets" because they think there's something too spidery about them. The fact of the matter is that like millipedes and isopods, camel crickets are detritovores that like dark and humid places. They look weird to us because they have no wings, and may nibble on paper or fabric items, but are otherwise nothing to worry about. A recent citizen science project showed that invasive Asian species are beginning to displace native species.

* "Bearer of needles," I suppose because of the conspicuous spines on the legs.

Next year's project preview: Habitats

I'm pretty sure my blog project for next year will be called "Habitat" or "Habitats" or some title that includes that word. To understand an organism you must understand its habitat needs. Above you see a bunch of yellow jacket worker sentries, guarding their nest entrance. The nest is built in the wall void of a handmade shed. The gap between the boards is a minor oversight of construction, but it was the perfect opening for the queen wasp to start her nest.


A little harder to see, in the very center of the top third of the image, is a round wasps' nest. This is another yellow jacket nest, probably a different species. In this case the queen's instincts told her to get up high, and to attach the nest below a rain-proof overhang. This is a hay barn--the doors that lead into it never close perfectly flush, so there is always enough space for foraging workers to fly to and fro.

280 days of Urbpandemonium #133

Another day another huge scary and of course harmless insect. The patterned wings and large size of the tiger bee fly Xenox tigrinus* suggest perhaps a horse fly. This one has been displaying some aggressive behavior as well--it's lucky it chose the porch of two bug-lovers to defend. Despite everything, these are beneficial insects that lay their eggs in the nests of carpenter bees, which provides their maggots with bee grubs to eat.

* "Alien tiger"