A Moth

A yellow moth, a creature of the night, an amazingly beautiful insect.

I couldn’t identify this moth, but does it matter? Do we always have to name things to make them valuable? We usually think of insects as pests, but in truth the world is enriched by them. Nectar hunters pollinate, ants aerate the soil, some insects clean up after the dead and others bring life by feeding the hungry in parts of the world. We could not do without them.

Moths and butterflies are both classified in the order Lepidoptera of which 89 to 94 percent are moths.

Identifiers:

• Antennae: Moth’s are thin or often feathery, butterflies’ have rounded clubs on the ends
• Body: Moths tend to be thick and fuzzy, butterflies, thin and smooth
• Color: Moths are usually dull, and butterflies are colorful
• Wings: Moths typically hold their wings flat when resting, butterflies hold them vertical. So what’s up with this moth? I believe he was trying to dry his wings out.
• Behavior: Moths are creatures of the night, butterflies like the day.

Not all of these distinctions are absolute, for example there are moths that are active during the day.

Attraction to light: The exact reason moths are attracted to light is unknown, but possibility is that moths use a technique of celestial navigation called transverse orientation – that is they navigate by the light of the moon or stars and become confused when they see artificial lights.

Interesting factoids:

• The Hawk moth (Sphinx) is the worlds fastest flying insect attaining speed of over 50 k
• The Luna moth is born without a mouth … it never eats or drinks
• Some male moths can smell the pheromones females release (with their antennae) up to 8 kilometers away
• Moths (and butterflies) have thousands of tiny scales and hair that cover their wings (not dust)
• Moths can see ultra violet light
• Atlas moths (Saturniidae) are the largest known, with wingspans as large as 12 inches

References: Wikipedia1, Wikipedia2

This is the last of the 30 bugs, I have enjoyed the journey.

Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos)

Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos)

The Pearl Crescent is found in all parts of the United States (except the west coast) including Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and southeastern California and all the eastern states, it’s also found in parts of Canada and Mexico.

I found dozens of them “puddling” along our gravel road – like many male butterflies they sip at the moisture in puddles or wet sand and soil, they also benefit from the salts dissolved in the water, which is why you often see them on wet gravel roads. The salts may help increase a male butterfly’s fertility.

Identifiers: Males usually have black antennal knobs. Upperside is orange with black borders; postmedian and submarginal areas are crossed by fine black marks. Underside of hindwing has a dark marginal patch containing a light-colored crescent.

Wing Span: 3.2 – 4.5 cm (1 1/4 – 1 3/4 inches)

Habitat: Open areas such as pastures, road edges, vacant lots, fields, open pine woods.

Taxonomy Notes: First described in 1770 by Dru Drury as Papilio tharos

References: BugGuide, Butterflies and moths of North America, Wikipedia

Spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata)

spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata)

OK, you’ve got to love the name…spotted cucumber beetle. This is another bad little bug - a major agricultural pest insect -  infesting the leaves of field crops including cucumbers, soybeans, cotton, and squashes, corn, and beans. Adults also reported damaging garden plants including hibiscus, roses.

Identifiers: Adult beetles are greenish-yellow with six large black spots on each elytron.

Size: 5 – 9mm long (Larvae to 8mm)

Reference: BugGuide, Wikipedia – Cucumber Beetles, Wikipedia Diabrotica_undecimpunctata

Tarnished plant bug (Lygus lineolaris)

Tarnished plant bug (Lygus lineolaris)

The Tarnished plant bug (seen here with a small bee) is the most common plant bug in North America and is considered a serious pests of small fruits and vegetables – it feeds on more than fifty economically important plants, including alfalfa, cotton, strawberries, brambles, and most tree fruits. Amazing how such a little pest can be so beautiful.

The tarnished plant bug is a true bug, with piercing-sucking mouth parts, which produces two to five indistinct generations annually.

Identifiers: oval, and somewhat flattened, greenish brown in color, with reddish brown markings on the wings. Characteristic small but distinct yellow-tipped triangle in the center of the back.

Size: Adults are 6 to 6.5 mm (0.25 in.)

Range: throughout the North America in temperate, non-desert areas

References: Wikipedia, Cornell University, Penn State College

American carrion beetle (Necrophila americana)

American carrion beetle (Necrophila americana)

I was hoping, but not expecting,to photograph a carrion beetle. They are often found on carrion or decaying fungi. A few hours after flies begin arriving at a carcass, the adult beetles show up and immediately begin eating the already hatching fly larvae, mating, and laying their own eggs. These beetles prefer larger carrion – rat-sized or larger, this one was on a wild turkey. The larvae (that’s actually one hiding under the adult) often prefer dried skin. Adult beetles stay as long as the carcass last, eating competitors to give their own larvae a chance to eat and grow.

P.S., they may seem gross, but I think we owe them our gratitude – just think of the alternative.

Identifiers: Black body with a distinctive large, mostly yellow, pronotum with a cross-shaped dark mark.

Size: 12 to 22 mm

Range: North America east of Rockies

Habitat: Prefer marshy and forested areas

References: BugGuide, Wikipedia

Long-horned Fairy Moth (Adela caeruleella)

Long-horned Fairy Moth (Adela caeruleella)

I couldn’t find much on the Long-horned Fairy Moth. It was very difficult to identify and I doubted myself until I read that, “depending on the angle of light, the wings can appear dark, or with very colorful metallic accents.”

Identifier: a small moth with very long antennas

Family: Adelidae

Explanation of name:  ”caeruleella”: From Latin caerule meaning blue plus -ella small

Size: 5 mm

References:  BugGuide, Zen Through a Lens, Moth Photographers Group, Microleps.org

Weevil (Ceutorhynchus americanus)

Weevil (Ceutorhynchus americanus)

Sometimes known as Snout or Bark Beetles?

I found very little about weevils, which is surprising considering there are more than 60,000 species in several families – of that I have no doubt. Many weevils are damaging to crops. They are usually very small less than 6 millimetres (0.24 in) – in this case maybe 2.75 mm. Not much. So perhaps a passage from T. S. Eliot’s Gerontion…

… I have lost my sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch:
How should I use them for your closer contact?
These with a thousand small deliberations
Protract the profit of their chilled delirium,
Excite the membrane, when the sense has cooled,
With pungent sauces, multiply variety
In a wilderness of mirrors. What will the spider do,
Suspend its operations, will the weevil
Delay? …

Yellow-collared Scape Moth (Cisseps fulvicollis)

Yellow-collared Scape Moth (Cisseps fulvicollis)

Also called: Orange-collared Scape Moth. You can just see the “collar” by looking at the full sized image.

It took me a while to identify this moth … I had to look at the wings close up before I realized it was a moth at all … and a very beautiful one at that.

Identifiers: forewing dark brown or black; collar orange, occasionally yellow; thorax black; abdomen black, sometimes with blue iridescence

Size: Wingspan 30-37 mm

Range: Widespread in North America, including southeastern US, where Virginia Ctenucha is absent.

Habitat: Fields with flowers (they prefer goldenrod nectar). Adults commonly seen visiting flowers during the day; adults also fly at night, and are attracted to light.

Reference: BugGuide, Wikipedia

Water Strider (Gerridae)

Gerrids are "True Bugs" that exploit water surface tension to walk and run on water.

Also known as: water bugs, magic bugs, pond skaters, skaters, skimmers, water scooters, water skaters, water skeeters, water skimmers, water skippers, water spiders, or Jesus bugs.

Gerrids are known as “True Bugs.” One characteristic that sets them apart from other insects is that the front wing is only half functional, it is a membranous covering that is not used for flight. Gerridae also have a mouthpart evolved for piercing and sucking.

1,700 species of Gerrids have been identified, 10% of them being marine and 90% are freshwater bug

Identifiers: they move or run on top of the water. Gerrids have fine water-repellant hairs on the underside of the tarsi which allow them to take advantage of surface tension and walk on water’s surface. Only the mid- and the hind legs are used for locomotion and they look like they are sculling as they move.

Size: 3-16 mm

Range: worldwide

Food: small living or dead insects on the water surface

References: BugGude, Gerridae-wikipedia

Common Whitetail (Libellula lydia)

Male Common Whitetail: dragonflies have been on earth for 300 million years, predating dinosaurs by 100 million

The Common Whitetail dragonfly (also known as the Long-tailed Skimmer) is most often seen near water. Males are territorial, and will hold a 10 to 30 metre stretch of the water’s edge. These dragonflies like to hunt mosquitoes, midges, butterflies, and other flying insects near ponds, marshes, and slow-moving rivers.

Dragonflies are among the most ancient of living creatures – predating dinosaurs by 100 million years. The fossil record shows their clearly recognizable ancestors back to Carboniferous times more than 300 million years ago.

Characteristic: excellent eyesight – their compound eyes have up to 30,000 facets, and provide them with a virtually 360° field of vision.

Identifiers: Translucent wings. Males – chunky white body and brownish-black bands. Females – brown body and a different pattern of wing spots,

Size: 4.32 cm (1.7 in.) long

Range: common dragonfly across much of North America,

References: Common Whitetail (Wikipedia), BugGuide, Kentucky Awake

Green Stink Bug/Green Soldier Bug (Acrosternum hilare)

An almost invisible Green Stink Bug

Almost imperceptible - if you don’t see it, take a closer look. Stink Bugs are so named because they discharge a foul-smelling fluid when disturbed. Both the adults and nymphs have large stink glands on the underside of the thorax extending more than half-way to the edge of the metapleuron and discharge large amounts of this foul-smelling liquid when disturbed. They love juices of foliage, flowers, and fruit and are considered pests because they damage apples, cherry, orange, and peach trees, eggplant, tomato, bean, pea, cotton, corn, and soybean crops.

Identifiers: Adults are typically bright green, but immature nymphs have very different coloring.

Range and Habitat: Stink bugs are found in crop fields, orchards, woodlands, and gardens throughout North America.

Size: 13-19 mm

Season: late Feb to Nov

Reference: BugNet, Green Stink Bug – Wikipedia

The Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus)

The Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) is Probably named after Phyleus (Greek φυλευς) from Greek mythology

The formal name, Hylephila phyleus, probably after Phyleus (Greek φυλευς), a man mentioned in Greek mythology.

Identifiers: Antennae are very short. Fiery skippers, along with all other species of skippers and skipperlings, can hold their wings in “triangle” shape. The forewings are held upright, and the hindwings are folded flat. This position is thought to better absorb the sun’s rays. See a Fiery Skipper with its wings held in “triangle.”

Wing Span: 3.2 – 3.8 cm (1 1/4 – 1 1/2 inches)

Range: Southern United States south through the West Indies and Central America to Argentina. Cannot survive harsh winters; each summer this skipper may stray and re-colonize north to northern California, southern Minnesota, southern Ontario, and southern New England.

References: BugGuide, Butterflies and Moths of North America, Fiery Skipper-Wikipedia

Small Black Ant (Monomorium minimum)

Small Black Ant (Monomorium minimum)

The Little Black Ant (Monomorium minimum) is a species of ant. Members of the species are tiny and shiny black in color. Considered pests. Workers feed on honeydew, and scavenge dead insects and other arthropods, but also like sweets, cooked vegetables and other human food. The forage during the warmest part of the day. When foragers find a suitable item, they recruit nest mates by releasing a pheromone.

Note: I am not positive of this identification. The only black ants I could find that seem to fit were Carpenter Ants and Little Black ants, but I wonder if this is really either.

Size: 1.5 – 2 mm – Workers are 1/16 inch in length.

Range: Throughout North America except the pacific North West

References: Little Black Ant, AntWeb

Paper Wasps (Polistes metricus)

Paper Wasp like to live in meadows, fields, gardens, and near buildings, so it's not surprising that they are tolerate of people

Paper Wasps (Polistes metricus) are of course best known for the paper (wood pulp) nest that they build, but I was surprise to read that they prefer to drink nectar and juices from crushed and rotting fruits, and that they are much more tolerant of people and minor disturbances than yellow jackets and hornets.

Identifiers: reddish thorax marked with dark lines, yellow (partly) tibiae and yellow tarsi

Size: approximately 22 mm

Range: North America

Habitat: Meadows, fields, gardens, and near buildings

References: Polistes metricus, Paper wasps, Bug Net

Lone Star Tick (Amblyomma americanum)

Lone Star Tick nymph on a dime

This is not the real “Deer Tick” (i.e., Ixodes scapularis – which is notorious for the spread of Lyme disease), instead I believe its the nymph of a Lone Star Tick (which also spread’s Lyme disease). That being said, the Lone Star can claim to be a deer tick as far as I’m concerned. IN 1945, one survey (by Bishopp, F. C. and H. L. Trembley) found 4800 of these ticks on a single ear of a deer. My understanding is that the instance of Lyme disease in Kentucky is low compared with surrounding states.

Size: The nymph of any tick is small (the Larva is smaller still) this one is posing with a dime.

Identifiers: Adult female Lone Star Ticks have a whitish spot on their backs.

Range: widespread in the United States – Texas to Iowa in the Midwest and east as far north as Maine.

Habitat: wooded areas, particularly in forests with thick underbrush.

Reference: Wikipedia, Lone Star Tick, Lyme Disease

Soldier Beetle – Two-lined Leatherwing (Atalantycha bilineata)

Soldier Beetle - Two-lined Leatherwing (Atalantycha bilineata)

The Two-lined Leatherwing is also known as a Soldier Beetle, get their name from the soft, clothlike wing covers, which when brightly colored are reminiscent of uniforms. They resemble lightning bugs but do not have light-producing organs.

Identifiers: Small cantharid, dark, somewhat hairy elytra, bright red/orange abdomen. Red/orange pronotum, with two strong black marks.

Size : 6-7.5 mm

Occurrence: abundant in early spring

Reference: Soldier Beetle (Wikipedia), Nature Search, Soldier Beetles (UofK)

Short-horned grasshopper (Caelifera)

Short-horned Grasshopper in death

Sometimes you find only what and insect has left behind. Finding this grasshopper was rather like finding the tin man, frozen in time – it lived in the farm’s field, bathing in the sunshine, eating grasses, leaves and cereals when it could, hopping and flying, trying to avoid predators and to procreate, then died months ago clinging to a stalk of grass in it’s last moments. A little life, lived in a small meadow, but a life none the less.

Short-horned grasshoppers are probably the most commonly encountered grasshoppers in Kentucky – they are called short-horned because their antennae are short compared to the antennae of long-horned grasshoppers, rarely more than half the length of the body. Short-horned grasshoppers are generally winged, but hind wings are membranous while front wings (tegmina) are coriaceous and not fit for flight. Females are normally larger than males. There are 11,000 valid species described.

Locust are specific species of short-horned that that change color and behavior at high population densities.

Spittlebug, Froghoppers (Cercopoidea)

Spittlebugs are good at defense

Sometimes all you see of an insect is its defense. This is the defense of a Spittlebug (in the nymph stage), which encases itself in a mass of froth (a liquid secretion of bubbles) for protection. That froth of bubbles helps the spittlebug in several ways, It:

1. Hides the Spittlebug, giving it camouflage from predators
2. Helps keep the bug hydrated
3. Provides insulation from extreme temperatures

There are some 23,000 species of Spittlebugs. Adult Spittlebugs jump from plant to plant; some species jump up to 70 cm vertically  – that’s better performance relative to body weight than fleas – accelerating at 4,000 m/s² over 2mm as it jumps (over 400 gs of acceleration). Wow!

Identifiers: Adult Spittlebugs’ faces resemble frogs (so they are sometimes called Froghoppers). The adults are dull colored tan, brown or black

Size: about 6 mm (0.25 in) long.

Reference: Froghopper, Google images of various Spittlebugs

Melissa Blue (Plebejus melissa) – (includes Karner Blue)

Melissa Blue (Plebejus melissa) - Possibly rare - Special thanks to Meaghan, who took this photo with her cell phone camera

If I have identified this butterfly correctly, it may be a very rare. The Karner Blue is eradicated or endangered in several states and has The Nature Conservancy rank of T2 – Imperiled because of rarity (6 to 20 occurrences), or because of other factors demonstrably making it very vulnerable to extinction throughout its range.

Identification: Upperside of male blue with narrow dark border; female brown with blue tinge. Underside with continuous black line along outer margin of both wings.

Wing Span: 7/8 – 1 3/8 inches (22–35 mm)

Habitat: Karner Blue (subspecies samuelis) inhabits sandy pine prairies, barrens, and lakeshore dunes in the east. Subspecies melissa is found in the west in open, weedy areas and prairies.

Range: The small, isolated colonies of the Eastern population (subspecies samuelis) occur from southern New Hampshire and central New York west to Wisconsin. The western population (subspecies melissa) is found in the Intermountain West from Canada to Baja California, plains, and prairies east to northwestern Iowa and southwestern Minnesota.

Resource: Butterflies and Moths

Parasitoid wasp (Ichneumon)

Ichneumon Wasp - Special thanks to Meaghan, who took this photo with her cell phone camera

This is an Ichneumon wasp (I believe either a Ichneumonidae or Ichneumonoidea)

Ichneumon wasps are important parasitoids of other insects, that is they prey on other insects by laying eggs in them. There are about 3,000 Ichneumon wasps in North America and more than 60,000 species worldwide.

Identifier: In the female you’ll see an ovipositor longer than their body.

Ovipositors and stingers are homologous structures; some Ichneumons inject venom along with the egg, but don’t use the ovipositor as a stinger. Some species of ichneumon wasps lay their eggs in the ground, but most inject them directly into a host’s body, typically into a larva or pupa. A female will sometimes land on a branch and sense vibrations emitted by a wood-boring host, then drill her ovipositor into the substrate until it reaches the cavity the host is in. She then injects an egg through the hollow tube into the body cavity. The egg hatched and the larva devours its host before the next stage of its development.

References: Ichneumonidae or Ichneumonoidea

Plebejus family butterfly

Butterfly Plebejus - i.e. a little blue gray butterfly

This small butterfly is from the Plebejus family – there are some eight groups of Plebejus and about 80 different species. I was not able to identify the specific species.

Plebejus tend to be small – wingspans of 22–29 mm or less than an inch.

Again, if I were a entomologist I would very likely have identified it, but I’m not, so I just enjoyed the view.

Blow flies (Calliphoridae)

The term "blow" to describe blow flies first appears in Shakespeare: Love's Labour's Lost, The Tempest, and Antony and Cleopatra.

Known by the names blow-flies, carrion flies, bluebottles, greenbottles, or cluster flies, the name “Blow-fly” comes from an old English term “fly blown” – meat that had eggs laid on it. The term “blow” to describe Blow flies first appears in Shakespeare’s plays: Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Tempest, and Antony and Cleopatra.

Blow flies are commonly found infesting animal carcasses (I had an animal die on my farm yesterday), but also deposit eggs in castration and dehorning wounds or on dirty, wet wool. Hatching from an egg to the first larval stage takes about 8 hours to one day. I’ve heard farmers say that blow flies can consume a sheep in a day.

Identifiers: metallic blue or green in color, robust bodies and wide heads.

Range: Blow flies are found worldwide, occurring nearly every place inhabited by people. 80 of the 1200 identified species are found in North America.

Size: 7 to 16 mm (0.28 to 0.63 in) – slightly larger than true house flies

Resources: Calliphoridae

Woodlouse/Woodlice (Oniscidea)

Woodlice/Woodlouse, sowbugs, pillbugs, roly-poly - on the edge of a Cherry log

Also commonly known as sowbugs, pillbugs, and roly-poly bugs.

Woodlice are crustaceans, a subphylum of animals that have been on earth for about 511 million years. Does it count as an insect? Yes.

Although their name might suggest that they are destructive to wood, they are not. Their are herbivores that like decaying leaf and plant matter. Their presence does however indicate dampness – they need moisture because they rapidly lose water by excretion and through their cuticle. The Armadillidium genus of woodlice can roll up into an almost perfect sphere as a defensive mechanism, which is the origin of the name pill bug or roly-poly. I use to love to play marbles with them when I was a little boy.

Identifiers: Segmented, long exoskeleton and fourteen jointed limbs

Range: The woodlouse is found in nearly every environment in the world besides the polar regions and the arid desert.

Size: 3-30mm (0.1-1.1in)

Reference: Woodlouse

Large Bee Fly (Bombylius major)

Bombylius major bee fly

This is not a bee, it’s a fly. Well, a fly’s bum. The Bombylius major fly is a bee mimic that seems nice and innocent on first glance, but which has some nasty habits. The female fly’s bee mimicking ability allows it to get close to bee burrows, so it can flick eggs into or near the nests of the host insects. It also sometimes plants eggs on flowers that bees visit. Then the Bombylius major larvae feed off of the host grubs.

Bombylius major drawing

Identifiers:the Bombylius major squat and very hairy, with a wingspan of around 24 mm (0.94 in). It has a very long proboscis used to feed on the nectar of flowers, especially primroses – probably why I couldn’t get a frontal photo.

Size: The adult is 14 to 18 millimetres (0.55 to 0.71 in) in length

Range: Bombylius major can be found in April to June throughout temperate Europe and North America and some parts of Asia.

Reference: Bombylius major

Ladybug (Coccinellidae)

The pupa stage of a ladybug (Coccinellidae)

This is a ladybug. Yes it is. It’s the pupa stage of a ladybug. In this stage of its life-cycle (just after the larva starts to look rather like a shrimp) the ladybug larva will attach itself to a leaf and go through metamorphosis to become an adult ladybug. There are 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 22, and 24 spotted ladybugs. Their formal name, Coccinelid, is derived from the Latin word coccineus meaning scarlet. More than 5,000 species have been describe. I’d never seen the pupa stage, so it took me a while to identify.

Identifiers: every kid can recognize one

Size: ranging from 1 mm to 10 mm (0.04 to 0.4 inches),

Range: UK, Ireland, Australia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand, India, Malta, some parts of Canada and the US)

References: Ladybug life cycle,  Coccinellidae Wikipedia

Eastern tent caterpillar (Malacosoma americanum)

An Eastern Tent Caterpillar on, of course, a wild cherry tree

The Eastern Tent Caterpillar makes silk brooding tents in and feeds on wild cherry, apple and crabapple trees. They can be very destructive and infestations occur at approximately 10-year intervals.

In  2001-2002  there was a particularly strong infestation which practically decimated Cherry trees. Even worse, in Kentucky tent caterpillars had a devastating effect on the horse industry, causing mares to have late-term foal losses or birth weak foals. The reason: the caterpillars are toxic to horses. I recall one speculation that toxins were only able to reach a horse’s bloodstream because the caterpillars hair’s acted like barbs and perforated mares’ stomach walls. Approximately 30% of that year’s Thoroughbred foals were lost and the economic loss was some $336 million in horse breeds.

Identifiers: length to 57 mm (2¼ in) (2), body warm fawn brown; forewing with white AM and PM lines

Ranger: Eastern and central US to the Rockies (2) and Canada from Nova Scotia to Alberta

Allegheny mound ants (Formica exsectoides)

Even the wishes of a small ant reach heaven. Japanese Proverb

Allegheny Mound Ants build mounds with tunnels extending up to 3 feet (0.91 m) underground and 4 feet (1.2 m) above the ground, and supporting colonies of up to 6,000 ants. They are very aggressive and tend to clear the ground around their colonies.

See the ant close up >>>

Range: Allegheny Mound Ants range from Nova Scotia to Georgia.

Identifiers: have an uneven thorax and resemble carpenter ants in coloration – The head and thorax of the worker are red and the abdomen and legs are black.

Ants are natural ecologist, their digging and foraging aerate the soil, providing a foundation of all advanced land animals. Without aerated soil, plant life is very poor. If human beings suddenly went extinct, Earth’s ecosystem would actually improve. If ants went extinct, the entire ecosystem would collapse resulting in a mass extinction.

Red Admiral Butterfly (Vanessa atalanta)

Red Admiral Butterfly (Vanessa atalanta) - a butterfly with a large range that loves warm climates

Find a flowering plant and you’re sure to find nectar hunters. This Red Admiral butterfly couldn’t help but stand out – absolutely lovely.

Identifiers: Black with white spots on the dorsal fore wings near the apex; forewing with red median band, hindwing with red marginal band.

Range: Has a wide range – Guatemala north through Mexico and the United States to northern Canada; Hawaii, some Caribbean Islands, New Zealand, Europe, Northern Africa, Asia. Doesn’t tolerate cold winters so it repopulates North American each spring.

Wingspan: 45–50 mm (1.8–2.0 in) wing span

Reference: Butterflies and Moths of North America, Red Admiral Butterfly

Dragon Fly – Common Green Darner (Anax junius)

The Green Darner or Common Green Darner (Anax junius), after its resemblance to a darning-needle

Dragonflies are not easy to photograph … they dart around at fast speeds and don’t like to land and take a rest very often – I feel very luck to have taken this shot. I love their name and always thought them rather mysterious when I was a boy, perhaps because of their unique look. I believe this Dragon Fly is a Common Green Darner (Anax junius). Some interesting facts about Dragonflies:

1. They are not related to common flies – they are part of an order of insect called Odonata, which includes damselflies.
2. There are about 400 species of Odonata in the United States and 5,000 worldwide.
3. You often see dragonflies near bodies of water (ponds, lakes and slow-moving streams) because they lay their eggs on or near the water.
4. Dragonflies spend up to three years in the larva state, when you see an adult (winged) it’s in the last few weeks of lifespan.
5. Dragonflies are among the fastest; some can fly upward of 30 miles per hour.
6. Their four wings make the expert flyers – they can move sideways, backward, to hover in place, all quickly and accurately, which makes them excellent hunters of other insects.

Reference: 21 facts about Dragon Flies, the Dragonfly Web site, Green Darner

Crane Fly (Tipulidae family)

Crane Flies are also known as daddy longlegs in England and Leatherjackets.

Crane Flies are also known as daddy longlegs in England and Leatherjackets.

My fields are full of Crane Flies (also know as leatherjackets) right now. They are weak flyers, tending to “wobble” in unpredictable patterns during flight. Like similar flies, the crane fly exist as adults only to mate and die. Their larvae are called “leatherjackets” and are considered a turf pest, being that they attack the roots of grass. This one is a male. I mistook our Crane Flies for May flies, which points out that, although I am curious about insect life, I am not a entomologist or even a biologist.

Identifiers: A very slender, long-legged fly that looks much like a mosquito. More than 4,200 species of crane flies have been identified.

Size: 2 to 60 millimeters (0.079 to 2.4 in) – some species up to 64 millimeters (2.5 in)

Range:  New York to Florida and Texas, east coast to Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma.

Reference: Crane Flies – Wikipedia