12-AUG-2014
Butterfly meadow
This is beautifully lush and dense with many plants including the goldenrods here, nettles, cup-plants, swamp milkweed and many others. These goldenrods lining the pathway are a mecca for insect watchers!
12-AUG-2014
Very wet bumble bee
Many bumble bees were clinging to the underside of drooping goldenrod plants, as the rain intensified, sending everyone to shelter. Others were seeking shelter under leaves of various trees, which offered a lot more protection.
12-AUG-2014
Chalcidid wasp cocoons - now empty
These cocoons on the underside of an ash leaf, appear to have been opened and the pupae eaten. Maybe the wasps left of their own accord, but these cocoons seem to have been torn open, as for food. When I think of exit holes made by wasps I think of neat, tidy, little holes not these messy things. But who knows? Perhaps the Chalcidid wasps are so eager to emerge that they forgo neat and tidy!
12-AUG-2014
Insect Hotel
I'm tempted to say "now open and ready for business", because this summer it has suddenly become a very busy place. Last year, when Sandy first built it, a few bees checked it out, but nothing like this year. Now it is well used. No less than five nests have been built by grass-carrying wasps Isodontia mexicana), for example.
12-AUG-2014
Grass-carrying Wasp nests (Isodontia mexicana)
Sandy's insect hotel obviously has just what these wasps like! You can see the long grassy tufts extending from the nest holes.
12-AUG-2014
Brush pile, Old Woods
The Ash Woods is now the Old Woods, given there are no more ash trees left! Some of the logs are being used to create large brushpiles. As Sandy (who built this one) said, back in the early days of FWG, David Tomlinson who provided the original plans for the garden, gave instructions for making such a brushpile, but until recently we never had enough logs of the right size. Birds and small animals make ample use of brushpiles.
01-AUG-2014
Common pug caterpillar (Eupithecia miserulata), #7474
This small caterpillar is often found on black-eyed susans and on this day I saw several. This species seems to be pretty much of a generalist when it comes to which plants it decides to feed on. Seems almost anything will do.
01-AUG-2014
Great black digger wasp (Sphex pensylvanicus)
Right now these very large wasps with their beautiful iridescent wings are common around flowers. This one is on swamp milkweed. These wasps capture large grasshoppers almost exclusively, which they paralyze and leave in their nests for their larvae to feed on.
01-AUG-2014
Leafhopper (Aphrodes)
An introduced leafhopper species, which appears to be widespread.
01-AUG-2014
Mayfly (Ephemeroptera)
This large, robust mayfly may be in the genus Hexagenia. The order Ephemeroptera is an interesting one and worth learning more about. These insects spend most of their lives as nymphs underwater and only a few days as adults. During that brief period they must mate and lay eggs. Mayfly swarms are common sights in summer, and consist mostly of males.
01-AUG-2014
Ragweed fly (Euaresta bella)
These very tiny and very attractive little flies appear along with the ragweed on whose seeds their larvae feed. They are a beneficial species, helping control ragweed. If you look closely at a stand of the native ragweed you are sure to see some of these flies flitting around. You can tell they are members of the Tephritidae (Fruit Fly) family by their delightfully patterned wings.
01-AUG-2014
Virginia ctenucha moth (Ctenucha virginica)
These day-flying moths are quite spectacular, especially when they fly and you see flashes of bright blue. This one is on queen anne's lace. The caterpillars of these moths can be found very late in autumn and often very early in spring. I've even seen them wandering across late winter snow and ice.