Month: June 2020

Yard List Count: 178

I expected with a shift in the weather this week (first day at 90°F) that there’d be a lot of new insects making an appearance. In a way, I was right, but many of the new butterflies and wasps were in too much of a hurry to stop for a portrait, so I can’t name them or add them to my Yard Count.

The cellophane cuckoo bee above was cleaning itself when I took the picture. I couldn’t see the nice details on its abdomen and its brown eyes until I downloaded the images. These bees are parasites of Colletes genus bees.

This immature bush katydid was on the same dandelion two days in a row! I hope to be able to see it, or a cousin, as it goes through its molting and growing process. I love the impressive, striped antennae.

This is a minute pirate bug, in the genus Orius, and boy is it small. It’s only a couple of millimeters long and this is the best shot I could get with my clip-on macro lens. This page from Washington State University says they can bite, but they’re beneficial insects in that they feed on some insects that harm human crops.

I found two new insects just this morning. Outside, I moved a couple of planters to a different patch of grass and under each was one or more Devil’s Coach Horse beetles. They’re big and black and they move fast, so my pictures aren’t blog-quality. Then I came inside and found the midge above on the window frame. I haven’t identified it yet, but it was bigger than many of the tiny flies that end up on windows in the morning.

I’ll end with this update on the eggs that I posted last week. They’ve now all hatched, and there are indeed tiny shield bugs wandering around now. I think these are red-shouldered (but green colored) stink bugs. This excellent page from the Oregon Dept. of Agriculture shows eggs and first instars for over a dozen bugs. These could also be Conchuela bugs, as the eggs look right, but the just-hatched insects have more yellow, like the red-shouldered ones. I’ve seen adults of both in this area.

I am considering stopping my weekly Yard Count when I get to 200 species. I’ve got a couple of other projects going on, and I’d like to talk about them in the coming weeks. Cheers!

Yard List Count: 168

Looking at the numbers, you’ll see it’s been an exceedingly slow week. This is partly because I went out of town for a couple of days and mostly because it’s been raining and chilly since last Wednesday. I had to turn over a sheet of corrugated metal to find the meadow plant bug above. I love that you can see the rostrum here (the pointy bit extending between the two front legs). It looks lethal, but unlike an assassin bug, this true bug uses it to pierce plants, not prey.

There were a bunch of these tiny midges on oregano leaves last week. This one’s a male, I’m pretty sure, because of the feathery antennae.

Whereas, this one (above) is a female. They are in the Cricotopus genus, I think.

There’ve been more weevils in the yard than I thought I’d find. This one is an alfalfa weevil. It might be a problem if I was trying to grow alfalfa, but as I’m not, it’s welcome to hang around for a while.

The last thing I’ll share is an array of eggs I found on the underside of a clover leaf. I couldn’t see the bulls-eye pattern until I looked at the enlarged image–isn’t it cool? Searching online, I’m fairly certain these are stinkbug eggs. I’ll keep an eye on them for a while and see if / how they metamorphose.

The forecast is for warmer temperatures, so I’m optimistic I’ll have 10 or more new species for next week.

Yard List Count: 163

Here’s my favorite sighting of the week: plume moths! They’re in the genus Pterophoridae, which means “feather winged.” It’s tough to get your head around their anatomy when you first see one. The four wings are rolled up at the top, forming the crossbar of the T. Unfurled, which would be fun to see, they are creased and feathery. Four of the legs are up top, mostly spread under the wings, and the last pair hugs the body and hangs down below the abdomen. I think these moths are sleeping and the antennae are also tucked down. I say “these,” because as I was photographing this one, I realized there was a second one right there!

Aren’t they awesome? It felt like such a treasure hunt to notice them on one of our ferns. Plume moths are generally more visible in the mornings, or in this case on a cloudy day. I think these are in the Emmelina genus, and they like plants in the morning glory family.

This fast-moving creature is a rove beetle. I saw it as I was digging in the compost. They look more worm-like and wriggly than this still photo suggests, and the brighter band looks coppery against the rest of its dirt-colored body. I transferred this one to a blue drum to get a picture. According to Wikipedia, rove beetles are the largest (current) family of organisms in the world. However, categories are always changing and experts are constantly teasing out new species, so perhaps it’s safer to say rove beetles are one of the most species-dense families we know.

This little leafhopper has some striking coloring. In addition to the red eyes and yellow highlights, there’s a spot below the yellow saddle that’s a nice pale blue. I sent this picture to BugGuide.net and quickly got an identification of the Colladonus genus. There were two of these on a squash leaf, and one of them instantly shot off–which is why they’re also called sharpshooters.

As you can see by the numbers, it was otherwise a quieter week, with cooler rainy weather and not as many new insects. The Mirid plant bugs above (potato Mirids, perhaps?) are an example of why it isn’t a bad idea to let a few dandelions bloom in your yard. I’ve seen quite a variety of bees, wasps and flower flies on them as well.

Cheers!

Yard List Count: 156

The week started out slowly, and I was disappointed to not be seeing anything new for a day or two. Then, as if to answer my thoughts, I found this snakefly on my bed! I transferred it to an index card (above) to let it out the window. Snakeflies are in their own order, Raphidioptera. The larvae develop under tree bark and take several years to pupate. This one’s a female–that’s an ovipositor not a stinger in the back. I’d seen two of these recently, but wasn’t able to get a picture so I’m thankful to this one for finding me. Here’s an article about them by an Oregon entomologist, Richard Hilton. And here’s an article from a website with a silly title (Real Monstrosities), but some good information.

After that slow start, I ended up with lots of new Yard Insects this week, with an emphasis on flies and true bugs. The green-eyed fly here is a Condylostylus (genus) long-legged fly. The wings have a nice zebra pattern on them, and the color on the body changes depending on the angle to the sun–it’s really nice looking in person, for a fly.

Here’s another new fly I saw this week. It’s a robber fly in the genus Eudioctria. Robber flies prey on other insects and tend to catch them in flight, which is impressive!

I saw bunch (okay, three) true bugs in the plant bug family this week, including the Irbisia genus grass bug above. There’s very little information available on these guys. Apparently they’re not invasive. They may damage grass, but at least this specific genus doesn’t harm grass crops.

Here’s another plant bug in the Mirid family, a megaloceroea recticornis. I took an embarrassing number of photos and didn’t get one that had the whole insect in focus, so I apologize for the picture quality. The antennae are remarkable, coming straight forward out of the center of the head and arching out. I believe this is a nymph, because the wings are still developing. I saw one of these being eaten by a spider and this one alive nearby, and I’ve not seen any more since that day.

Cooler temperatures and rain is in the forecast, so we’ll see what the total Yard List looks like next week. I have a project in mind using the best of these pictures, and I hope to share it soon.