urbpan: (dandelion)
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A calliphorid fly (bottle fly) warms up on a leaf.

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The reproductive parts of a daylily beckon luridly.

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Japanese honeysuckle ready for a chance encounter with a hummingbird.

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A tiny grasshopper nymph (subadult that hasn't molted into a winged adult) just hours or days old, ready to eat soft tender vegetation.
urbpan: (dandelion)
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Imagine my delight when our first excursion into the streets of St. Louis resulted in finding a new (to me) species!

ExpandRead more... )
urbpan: (dandelion)
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You can tell by the presence of both of my filthy nail-bitten hands as well as the general improvement of photo quality, that these pictures were taken by @cottonmanifesto. The reddish-brown creature in my paws is a Carolina grasshopper Dissosteira carolina.* Bugguide.net informs us that this species is also known as a "road duster." That's about as good as common names get in my opinion.

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These grasshoppers are usually encountered in dusty places with sparse vegetation. Unpaved driveways seem to be a favorite haunt. They are variably colored, from sandy brown to dusty gray to the red clay color you see above. Often you won't see them against the bare soil until you nearly step on one and it flings itself into the air. Its wings are black with yellowish margins, and it flies with power and speed--if not precision. These grasshoppers can be found almost anywhere in North America that meets their habitat needs.

*My quick and dirty etymological research suggests that the genus means "Double barren."
urbpan: (dandelion)
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There are lots of adult grasshoppers jumping and flying about these days. This may be a red-legged grasshopper, but without a dismayingly close look at male genitals, it is nearly impossible to identify this genus to species.
urbpan: (dandelion)
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Young grasshoppers, like this Melanoplus sp.* look just like miniature adults, except that they have no wings. They do have the disproportionate femurs that characterize the group and make long jumps possible. In various places grasshoppers are considered among the worst agricultural pests. In our back yard they're a colorful visitor that eats the weeds and feeds the birds.

*From Greek melano dark, plus suffix -plus, meaning "clad in dark armor"
urbpan: (dandelion)
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On Saturday my dad and I headed up to Maine to see some relatives that I hadn't seen in a long time. My Aunt and Uncle I hadn't seen since my mom's memorial, my cousin I hadn't seen since his sister's wedding (31 years ago this week), and his wife I'd never met before! Note to UK/Aussie readers: my dad is probably not flipping everyone off here, he's telling a story that involves counting to two. I think.

Expandmore plus bonus bugs and stuff )
urbpan: (dandelion)
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Our July Urban Nature Walk took place in the small city of Quincy, where there was some known habitat of a particular very special species of wasp. My friend Jenn, an invasive species expert with the State Department of Agriculture led a small group of us behind a big indoor skating rink to a barely maintained little league field called Curry Field

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urbpan: (dandelion)
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My feelings on spiderwort have evolved in the two years or so that I've been aware of it. First I dismissed it as a cultivated flower, then accepted it as a native (albeit a cultivar), and finally have come to meet it with a mixture of disdain and resignation. It has a pretty purple flower that attracts and benefits pollinating insects, and it blooms early in the season and early in the day, seeming to prefer lower light conditions. But it is thoroughly invasive, and since we've been paying attention to Japanese knotweed, garlic mustard, black swallow-wort and celandine, the spiderwort has been spreading like wildfire.

In any case, my primary interest in a flower is to take note of what insects gather to it. Above a nymph of a short-horned grasshopper clings uncharacteristically to the blossom, rather than the succulent leaves.

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Instead, a tiny bee-mimic hover fly rests on the leaf. You should be up there feeding on flower nectar! Whatever.

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That's better! A pollinator actively pollinating. I'll let you know what this metallic green hymenopteran is once the experts tell me (unless you are an expert and want to tell me--that's good too). I suspect it's a solitary bee, but it might be a cuckoo wasp, or maybe something entirely different.
urbpan: (Default)


This red-legged grasshopper Melanoplus femur-rubrum is on a leaf of lamb's ear Stachys byzantina that Alexis transplanted from a perennial bed to the side yard.

The red-legged grasshopper is a common herbivorous insect that feeds on plants in places that are "prevalent in areas that are infrequently but regularly mowed," which describes my yard quite accurately. That quote is from this grasshopper's 365 urban species entry, at #257.

Lamb's ear is sturdy, adaptable plant native to Eurasia, specifically Iran and thereabouts. It is cultivated for its foliage, which is densely covered in soft hairs. It has invasive tendencies and can be found at the sites of abandoned gardens and residences. Sometimes people confuse it with mullein, which has similar hairs, but is not as soft. Both plants produce flowers on a central spike, but mullein's are yellow while lamb's ear flowers are pink or purple.
urbpan: (Default)


Last Friday, we hosted a Nocturnal Insect BioBlitz! What that entails is setting up a mercury vapor light (they throw out a lot of UV, so insects are especially attracted to it) and hanging up a sheet next to it, and identifying and counting the insects that come. This was part of the Dedham Bioblitz, an event where a group of scientists and naturalists tried in a few short hours to find 375 different living things. 375 because this is Dedham's 375th birthday.

As the anticipation built up to having a bunch of strangers (except for contact on twitter) come to my house to see bugs, I started to see bugs everywhere! The grasshopper up above is a youngster, and may certainly be in the genus Melanoplus, along with the red-legged grasshopper (which was 365 urban species #257).

I was going to show another picture of a different insect, but Alexis just identified it (probably) to species-complex! That'll be my next 100 species entry.
urbpan: (Default)


An orange lichen (probably Xanthoria parietina) growing on a rubbish bin in Runnymede.

Runnymede is a meadow along the Thames where many historical events are commemorated, most notably the sealing of the Magna Carta. When we visited there were hundreds of people enjoying the park in the nice weather. There were lots of exotic and native water birds, and lots of interesting insects.

ExpandRead more... )
urbpan: (Default)


My dad visited, so we took him and the dogs to Cutler Park. Okay, I admit it, fall in New England is breathtaking. I only wish it wasn't followed by 6 months of winter.
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urbpan: (Chimney swift)
As we walked the dogs around our neighborhood this sultry September evening, we were serenaded by singing insects.  We heard the temperature-measuring cheep cheep cheep cheep of the snowy tree cricket, the excitable clock tick tick tick tick tickticktickticktick of the greater angle-winged katydid  and the "cricket. crickeket." of the true katydid.  Whoever named them "katydid" after their impression of their dry scratching call had quite an imagination. 

Then I heard another call, which was entirely unfamiliar to me.  My first instinct is always is to try to imitate the new call.  It was difficult--I tried pinching a pocket of air between my cheek and molars to squeeze out an approximation of the animal's call with no success.  Fortunately at that moment I saw the new singer, not in a bush or a low apple branch, but high above the roofs of the triple-deckers.  Yes, as with the cedar waxwing, I had mistaken the sound of a bird for an insect.  There were two of them, with falconlike silhouettes darting around in a manner similar to chimney swifts, but with the burden of somewhat more mass.  I recognized the shape from my memory of field guide illustrations, and matched it with their descriptions of the call: a nasal "peent."  It was my first Common Nighthawk sighting, a pair feeding on insects on this warm evening before their long trip to South America.  (That last link includes a recording of their call.)
urbpan: (facing the wave)

Another nicely patterned moth. (Thanks [livejournal.com profile] badnoodles for identifying the last one.) I disturbed this one from its sleep and it flew out into the jaws of a gray kingbird. Whoops! ExpandRead more... )

katydid

Sep. 7th, 2007 09:06 am
urbpan: (stick insect)



On this day in 365 urban species: Tar spot. We haven't even seen this fungus this year.
urbpan: (stick insect)


Plains lubber grasshoppper Brachystola magna

This large western grasshopper eats a wide variety of plants and is considered a pest of sunflower and cotton, but it also likes the taste of ragweed and dandelion. It lives in the grasslands of the American west, thriving in disturbed landscapes and occasionally increasing in numbers to plague proportions. Unlike many other grasshoppers its wings are reduced and it cannot fly.

This individual is in the invertebrate zoo in "A Bird's World" exhibit.

On this day in 365 urban species: Another day off, as my Dad and I made a stop in Forks, Washington.
urbpan: (stick insect)

Photo by [livejournal.com profile] urbpan. I found this camel cricket (and many others) under a makeshift bed, used by homeless people in a wooded section of Olmsted Park, in Boston.

Urban species #282: Camel cricket Ceuthophilus spp.

Camel crickets are also sometimes called "cave crickets," and while there are some specialized species that inhabit only caves, most of these insects have more general habits. They are nocturnal and are found gathering in cool dark places, sometimes in surprising numbers. Apparently they are occasionally mistaken for spiders, with their long slender appendages and lack of wings. Their shiny, humped bodies and long antennae should put that misidentification to rest, if you haven't already flattened them. Like many other insects called crickets (though, evolutionarily they are more closely related to katydids) camel crickets are omnivorous, feeding on the carcasses of other insects and decaying plant matter. They are sometimes considered pests, mainly because they will enter homes and basements for shelter, but they are not destructive animals. They are not especially well-studied creatures, and identification to species is difficult and rare, with most authorities either leaving the designation blank, or arbitrarily settling on C. maculatus (an apparently common and cosmopolitan species.)


Long hind legs can be a liability, but camel crickets can make do with just one, if a predator takes the other.
urbpan: (stick insect)

Photos by [livejournal.com profile] cottonmanifesto. Location Brookline Ave and Francis Street, Boston.

Urban species #256: Greater angle-winged katydid Microcentrum rhombifolium

Tick tick tick tick tick tick ticktickticktickticktick!

This is the sound of an insect that was mysterious to me for a long time. It ticked away, slowly first, then faster and urgently, like a timer on an explosive. It was hidden in high vegetation, way up in trees and in the ivy up by our second-floor windows. I assumed it was a beetle, perhaps a death watch beetle, whatever that is, ticking away, reminding us of our limited time left on earth. As it turns out, a friend of mine in Somerville (the most densely populated city in the U.S., a little city across the river from Boston) managed to follow the sound to its source, and found something much more benign. The greater angle-winged katydid makes his ticking call, like all noisy male animals, to announce his presence to potential mates. The loud song is important, because these insects are incredibly well-camouflaged: flattened like a leaf, and including details like wing veins that look like leaf veins. I still wonder how it is that the great golden digger wasp is able to locate katydids to provision her nest, since the wasp is active during the day, and the katydids sing at night. There are six species of angle-winged katydids, and the best authority I could find on the subject omitted New England from their range maps. It is possible that they have newly spread to eastern urban areas in ornamental plantings from further west. "True" katydids, the ones that sing their names, make up a small subfamily of the family Tettigoniidae ("long horned" grasshoppers: those grasshoppers that have antennae as long as their bodies). The greater angle-winged katydid is the only long-horned grasshopper that I have encountered in the city so far.


Location: Puddingstone Park, Mission Hill, Boston.

Urban species #257: Red-legged grasshopper Melanoplus femur-rubrum

If you walk through a grassy field, or a vacant lot choked with weeds, chances are you will stir up grasshoppers. Chances are very good that one of the species you stir up will be the red-legged grasshopper. This "short-horned" grasshopper (it's antennae are considerably shorter than the length of its body) is one of the most widely distributed grasshoppers in North America. It is found nearly everywhere in Canada and the United States and in the northern half of Mexico. It feeds on a variety of different plants, including common urban species such as Russian thistle (tumbleweed), fleabane, vetch, ragweed, and many different grasses. All of these plants are prevalent in areas that are infrequently but regularly mowed, like roadsides. Grasshoppers are important prey for many different animals, especially birds, including large species such as turkeys, herons, and birds of prey (even large hawks such as the red-tailed hawk.

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urbpan: (Maggots)

Nymphal grasshoppers are not gross. It's because we are babies!


Also, early instar tussock moth caterpillars are cute.

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