Month: April 2024

Alder and Elder

When I first saw this insect, it was on a leaf above my head, and I held my phone in a position that I thought might take a picture, and pressed the button. Seeing that it was either a very interesting bee, or something else, I moved closer and was able to get some great profile pictures. To my delight, it turned out to be a furry, club-antennae’d sawfly!

This is a Trichiosoma (=hairy body) triangulum genus sawfly. I’m guessing that the larvae grow up in the stem or roots of alder trees, because closely related sawflies are associated with birch, a similar tree.

I’m going to make two more guesses with little evidence. 1. This is a female. Comments on BugGuide say the males are thinner and females more robust. 2. The species name (triangulum) refers either to the triangle of simple eyes that you can barely see here between the two eyes, or the fact that when it’s at rest, the wings form a triangle.

This snazzy beetle is an Elderberry Longhorn. It happened to be resting in an appropriate location, on Elderberry. I love the way the red edging on its elytra looks scalloped. In the sun, the entire abdomen shines gold, as the tail end of the beetle appears above. Fittingly, the scientific name is Desmocerus aureipennis, or “gold wing.”

There are a few different sub-species of the Elderberry Longhorn. I don’t think this one has different morphs for males and females, but most or all of the others do. And, apparently the Valley Elderberry Longhorn, native to California, is threatened.

Happy Earth Day, 2024!

Unlikely colors

It’s been a fun week. I’ve seen about five insects that are new to me, and several of them have been in colors that aren’t typical for insects. Above is a Western Fruit Beetle or Syneta Albida. I saw several on currants, hanging out on and under the leaves. This one had silver elytra with a black centerline, and silver is a color I’ve hardly ever seen on insects. A little ways down the trail, I caught another one in flight, and it was nearly all white, see below (and yes, it looks like I need lotion on my knuckles).

White is also an uncommon color for insects. The larvae of these leaf beetles enjoy feeding on tree roots, and the adults like the leaves of fruit trees. The only reference to an infestation of them that was problematic for fruit production was from 1925. Of course, it may be that various insecticides or other measures are used in orchards these days.

This crane fly had a neon-green abdomen, a color I’ve never seen before on an insect. I have a request in to BugGuide for identification. The only green crane flies I’ve found online live in the eastern U.S. and the heads and thoraxes are also green. I wonder what this one would look like under a black light?!

I’ll end with another silver / gray beetle. This one is a soft-winged flower beetle in the genus Listrus. According to one source, the beetles in this sub-family (Dasytinae) are important pollinators of food crops, plants on which animals forage, and other flowering plants. The dense hairs on the beetle collect pollen, which they deliver from one plant to another as they fly around. I saw many of these beetles on white Baby Blue Eyes flowers.

Enjoy spring!

New for Spring

I had a couple of great days outside with my camera this week, and I saw at least five species that were new to me. I’ll share three today.

Above is a longhorn beetle living up to its name: Its antennae (“horns”) are longer than its body. I think this is Hybodera tuberculata, which is a west coast wood-boring beetle. It’s the larvae that eat wood and, in this case, according to one source, they enjoy maple trees.

I saw a couple of these beetles and they made me think about the phrase “coming out of the woodwork.” I’d wondered whether there would be more beetles emerging this spring because we had a significant winter storm that took down a lot of trees. Does tree loss speed up the metamorphosis of insects that have larval stages under tree bark? And, back when people would have used those downed trees to build structures or furniture nearby, would they see beetles and other insects emerging … coming out of the woodwork?

I found two of these delicate, yellow insects near a creek, on the underside of a leaf. They didn’t like my camera and kept ducking away when I came close. This is a stonefly and I think it’s in the Chloroperlidae family. According to BugGuide, the nymphs of these yellow and green stoneflies live in the water and the adults stay in vegetation near the stream.

Last, here’s a Festive Click Beetle. That’s actually its common name. I’ll write more about it in this week’s blog post for Mount Pisgah Arboretum. Many click beetles are solid brown or black, but this one has red marks on its thorax and interrupted yellow racing stripes on its abdomen.

I hope you’re able to get outside and pay attention to nature. It’s an inspiring time of year!

	Scorpionfly! And a f… on A New York minute
	TickleHead on Hello yellow!
	murphyjb6af2f20ba on Hello yellow!
	Clicks and likes \| T… on New Cards Available
	TickleHead on Red, Green and Blue

Ticklehead

micro adventures with a macro lens

Month: April 2024

Alder and Elder

Unlikely colors

New for Spring