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Category: nature (Page 26 of 27)

Bug of the Week: Seed Bug

August 27, 2008 / / 0 Comments

This morning it was a bit difficult to find a bug for bug of the week. Can you guess why from this picture?

raindrops

Woo, woo, it is raining here. Rain is a novel event, and all the insects apparently have sought shelter. I knew where to look, however, to find an insect that would be still out. There is always something happening on the desert milkweed, and this morning was no exception. Here is our bug this week, captured quickly before it started to rain again.

milkweed bug

The bright red bug shown is commonly called a seed bug (Oncopeltus sanguiniolentus). It may resemble the boxelder bug found in other parts of the country, but it lacks the black bars on the red section (top) of its wings.This species has one white dot in the black part (bottom) of its wings. Another species that has the black bars in the red, but has two white dots in the black is the small milkweed bug, Lygaeus kalmii. (See photo in newer post). To paraphrase Dr. Seuss, “what a very lot of bugs there are!”

It is amazing that there are so many insects feeding on the desert milkweed. The sap of milkweeds contains both rubbery latex and poisons. Insects like queen and monarch caterpillars, yellow oleander aphids and these milkweed bugs have ways to deal with it. In this case the bugs avoid the latex-carrying channels with their straw-like mouthparts.

If there aren’t any milkweeds available, these versatile bugs also feed on the seeds of various plants.

Bug of the Week: Cellar Spider

July 24, 2008 / / 0 Comments

This morning when I was talking on the phone with my sister outside, I noticed a spider wrapping up a fly it had caught in its web. I recognized it immediately as a cellar spider, Family Pholcidae, because of its slender body, long legs and the tangled shape of its web. It also has dark markings on the underside of its body.

The larger cellar spiders common around homes in the Southwest have been introduced from Europe. This one looks like the marbled cellar spider, Holocnemus pluchei, because of the marbled white and pinkish-red pattern on its abdomen.

 

We have a community of cellar spiders that live on the outside of one of the windows where we watch our bird feeder. When the feeder is quiet, we watch the spiders instead.

Have you ever watched a spider?

Ladybug Spotting

July 8, 2008 / / 1 Comment

Who doesn’t love ladybugs? They are beautiful, and helpful. Now you and your children have an opportunity to help out a scientist with a project on ladybugs.

Dr. John Losey, a professor of entomology at Cornell University, wants you and your children to find and photograph ladybugs. Scientists have noticed that some native species of lady beetles are disappearing, while introduced ladybugs are on the rise. Dr. Losey wants children to help document ladybug populations around the country by taking photographs and sending them to him, with information about when and where they were found.

This is a fun project for learning about ladybugs, which are actually a type of beetle. However, before you rush to the website, I would like to add my two cents to the information provided on the website. First of all, it is pretty easy to take photos of ladybugs without catching them or handling them. You can spot ladybugs while out hiking. They sit on plants, usually out in the open. That’s how I got this photograph. The less you handle them the better, especially if you are lucky enough to spot a rare one.

ladybug

Second, be sure to download and print out the Field Guide. Although the photograph here looks like the one on their website, it is actually the introduced seven-spotted lady beetle, not the nine-spotted one. The Field Guide helps a lot.

To find out more, go to the Lost Ladybug Project <snip>

Have fun!

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