Insects and Spiders Archives - Page 4 of 6

Sleek green grasshopper-like insect sits on a bright orange-yellow marigold bloom outside the front door of the house. Evidence of an earlier escape from a predator can be seen, as this katydid has lost one of its jumping legs. This is actually a “posed” photo, we‘re not sure the shy katydid would be caught dead in this flamboyant setting. The katydid had been in the house and was captured and removed to the flower where its picture was taken. It didn’t stick around to read the reviews.

Tireless Singer: Common Meadow Katydid

Updated October 12, 2023

Outside my study window, along with the crickets that have been singing there all summer, there’s another voice. The singer starts with a short series of ticks and then melts into a long rasping rattle. For hours he repeats his song, sitting in the same place along the edge of the sidewalk. He is quiet […]

Insects and Spiders

Green insect with dark chevron markings on the long hind legs it uses for jumping. Differential grasshopper clings to a sunflower stem in the early morning light. Too cold to move now, it will warm and become active with the sun’s arrival.

Summer Jumpers: Grasshoppers

Updated October 2, 2023

We planted a couple of big sunflowers that a friend gave us, and they have thrived, producing huge flowers and then handfuls of sunflower seeds. On a cool autumn morning, the sunflowers are hosting grasshoppers. The grasshoppers are too cold to do much but sit there and look at the camera while Bryan takes their […]

Insects and Spiders

Monarch butterfly rests, wings spread, on a milkweed. Colors are bold orange with prominent black veining, and white spots. This photo was chosen for its similarity to the photo of the Viceroy elsewhere in the post. There are differences in markings, but they’re easy to miss on casual observation.

Warning, Poison Here: Monarchs, Viceroys, Tussock Moths and Milkweed Bugs

Updated September 25, 2023

My favorite time of the year has just opened its arms to launch a festival of colors and aerobatic displays. Birds are beginning to migrate, and so are the monarch butterflies. Most birds make their migratory trips south and back north all in one generation, but the fragile and beautiful monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) have […]

Insects and Spiders

A field of tiny, cone-shaped holes in the sand next to the house. Antlion traps.

Angle of Repose: Antlion

Updated September 14, 2023

What’s up with this array of perfectly cone-shaped pits in the sandy soil along the foundation of the house? The pits are all exactly the same size with scribbly, doodly tracks in the sand between them. What we have here is an antlion larva, pronounced ant lion (Myrmeleon spp.). Its name is of old, showing […]

Insects and Spiders

Dew-covered Japanese beetle sits on a Virginia creeper leaf, waiting for the morning sun to dry it off.

Skeletons in the Garden: Japanese Beetles

Updated September 4, 2023

There’s a bunch of Virginia creeper growing on the fence down by the barn. Many of their leaves have been surgically stripped of the softer tissue between the veins, leaving lacy skeletons behind. A closer look reveals the culprits–a dozen or so half-inch-long, metallic green beetles with copper-colored wing cases and little white tufts of […]

Insects and Spiders

A small, brown cricket with bold stripes, long antennae and two “horns” (cerci) at the rear of its abdomen, sits on a blade of grass. A Brown Trig in the author’s yard. Not certain ithis one is a Say’s Trig (Karen is not an entomologist), but there’s a bunch of them. 2 or 3 jump away at every footfall.

High Summer Singer: Winged Bush Cricket

Updated August 21, 2023

Stepping out in the afternoon of a hot summer day, I am surrounded by the songs of the insects. They’ve taken over from the birds to create that distinctive and to me beloved soundscape of high summer. As I listen, I wonder—what is that high-pitched, almost at the edge of my hearing, trill that overlays […]

Insects and Spiders

Slender green insect with triangular head and heavy forelegs stands head down on the side of a red farm building. Praying mantis sub adult nymph, wings are not yet present.

A Siren Call: Praying Mantis

Updated July 31, 2023

She sits on a leaf near the ground and flexes her abdomen, exposing her pheromone glands. A football field away, he catches her siren call and flies to meet her. He is cautious, approaching from the front, wiggling his abdomen, showing off his prowess. They come together, and while he’s lost in ecstasy, she may, […]

Insects and Spiders

Close up of head and face of a cricket. Shiny black, large compound eyes, segmented antennae attached between eyes, leather-like texture of head plate.

Garden Champion: Field Cricket

Updated July 24, 2023

In the garden space outside my study window, a little brown cricket has been singing his heart out, wishing, hoping, begging, for the ladies to hear him. At the same time, he’s warning his brothers to stay away. This is his turf. He will sing for the rest of his life, chirping that oh-so-familiar song […]

Insects and Spiders

Light green, bulbous insect with tiny head, black eyes, and rakish, black-tipped antennae swept back over its head, sits on a green leaf surface. Soybean Aphid

Homeric Life Story: Soybean Aphids

Updated July 10, 2023

One morning in mid-July, I was having coffee on the screened-in deck, enjoying the beautiful summer day when a loud single-engine airplane swooped over my house. It sounded way too close for comfort. It zoomed around the soybean fields that surround Owl Acres, coming and going, making several passes over the fields before flying away. […]

Insects and Spiders

A stout green insect with veined, crystalline wings and wide-set, compound eyes, rests on a twig. Scissors Grinder Cicada

Racket or Rebirth: Cicadas

Updated July 3, 2023

Supper on the deck is one of the summer pleasures these days. We sit as the sun goes down and watch the hummingbirds tank up for the night. We listen to the world of noisemakers from sleepy birds to wind in the trees. Because it’s July, the boom and crackle of distant fireworks accent the […]

Insects and Spiders