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Category: insects (Page 19 of 89)

Bug of the Week: European Paper Wasp

November 1, 2017 / / 0 Comments

At first glance, this little wasp might look like a yellow jacket.

That is, until you spot the bright orange antennae.

It is actually a European paper wasp, Polistes dominula.

The European paper wasp showed up on the East Coast of the United States in the late 1970s or early 1980s. It has been spreading across North America since.

Public domain photograph by Gary Alpert (Wikimedia)

These wasps build their paper nests out of processed wood bits. They nest under eaves and in similar areas around houses. Paper wasps are less defensive than yellow jackets, for the most part, unless a person gets close to their nest.

In contrast, the eastern yellow jacket, Vespula maculifrons, has black antennae. They nest underground and can be quite defensive if disturbed.

I’m not sure why the paper wasp in the top two photographs has a brown discoloration on the abdomen. It also looks like the wings are damaged. It was trapped inside a greenhouse, where maybe it was looking for weathered wood to build its nest? Perhaps it hurt itself trying to get out?

Have you ever seen European paper wasps where you live?

Bug of the Week: Acanalonia Planthopper Nymphs

October 25, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Earlier in the year I spotted these unusual bumps on a goldenrod stem.

Are they insects or debris?

Looking closer, they are insects. They have legs and eyes.

Can you see the legs now? Don’t they look weird? (See more about the white tails below.)

These are planthopper nymphs in the genus Acanalonia.

 

Public domain photograph from Wikimedia

The adults look like leaf fragments, complete with veins. They spend their lives sucking the juices from plants, so planthoppers use camouflage to survive.

You might wonder about the fuzzy white “tails” on the nymphs. Those strands are made of wax. The nymphs of many different kinds of leafhoppers and planthoppers produce wax and scientists have debated why. The wax repels water (is hydrophobic), so it may protect the nymphs from rainfall. Or the wax may keep certain nymphs from drying out. Because it on the rear of the insects, it is possible the wax spreads out the sticky honeydew they excrete, which help keep the nymphs cleaner.  Finally, the wax may protect the nymphs from predators, either by disguising themselves (like a Halloween costume) or by creating a physical barrier that the predators can’t get through.

In this previous post, the adults of a related flatid planthopper also have a light waxy coating.

Have you ever seen a nymph with wax around it? What do you think they use it for?

Processional Termites Defy Expectations

September 27, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Sometimes insects don’t look and act the way you’d expect.

subteranean-termite-tube

Take termites. Here in the Southwest, subterranean termites are common, but you don’t see them very often. They are tiny insects that spend most of their time hidden inside tunnels in wood or within the mud tubes they build.

The workers are soft and white, like a cooked piece of rice. The soldiers are heftier, with large mandibles and longer yellowish-brown heads.

Still, you don’t see them unless you break into their homes.

We also have desert encrusting termites, which make patches of mud over the surface of grass or the bark of trees.

They are also white and soft bodied, and stay out of sight.

In fact, you might think that all termites are like this if you only saw southwestern ones.

So, let’s move to Malaysia for a minute. What are the insects in this video?


(Thanks to Steve Naranjo for the video.)

The insects are actively running on a log. They are colorful. In fact, at first they look like ants, but these are processional termites. Rather than munching inside or on wood, they graze on lichens that grow on trees. If you look closely, you can see some of the workers carrying clumps of lichen in their mandibles.

Talk about defying expectations. Aren’t processional termites mind-blowing?

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