Here are some of the bugs that the BugLady found in June, which was, overall, a hot and wet month (7.97” of rain at the BugLady’s cottage).

Lizzard Beetle – the BugLady doesn’t know why these striking beetles are called Lizard beetles, unless it’s a nod to their long, slender shapes.��She usually sees them in the prairie on Indian Plantain plants.��The adults eat various parts of the plant, including pollen, while their larvae feed within the plant stems (the Clover stem borer is persona non grata in commercial clover fields).��

According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, many species of Lizard beetles “make squeaking sounds using well-developed stridulatory organs on top of the head.”

Two (counterintuitively-named) Orange Bluets, ensuring the next generation.��He “contact guards” her as she oviposits in submerged vegetation, lest a rival male come along and swipe her.��When the eggs hatch, the naiads can swim right out into the water.

Baltimore Checkerspot – the BugLady has seen more of these spectacular butterflies than usual this year.��The ��feed in fall on a late-blooming wildflower called Turtlehead (and sometimes broad-leaved plantain); turtlehead leaves (and plantain, to a lesser extent) contain growth-enhancing chemicals called iridoid glycosides that also discourage birds. The caterpillars tuck in for the winter and emerge the next year into a landscape empty of Turtlehead.��

In spring, Baltimore Checkerspot caterpillars 2.0 feed on leaves of a variety of flowers and shrubs – the BugLady has seen them on goldenrod and on wood betony – and especially on leaves of the (doomed) white ash. 

Crayfish – the BugLady came across this crayfish and its companion when all three of us were negotiating a muddy trail (so many muddy trails this year!). It waved its pincers at her to make sure she was terrified.

Doodlebugs (aka antlions) got going early this year – the BugLady found more than 100 excavations (pits) at the southeast corner of her house at the end of April, and more along the path leading to the beach.��They’ve had a rough go of it – it doesn’t take much rain to ruin a pit, and it takes a day or so to repair one.����

Doodlebug watchers sometimes catch a glimpse of pincers at the bottom of a pit, or of a doodlebug tossing sand around.��The BugLady witnessed an ant going to its final reward, and found a pit with a small beetle in it, one with a box elder bug, and one with a beetle and a small jumping spider.��She will look for the adults, which look kind of like damselflies, in August.

Donacia��– a ��on a golden flower.

Common Spring Moth – the BugLady loves finding bugs she’s never seen before, especially when she doesn’t have to leave home to do it!! (She does get a little bewildered, though, when the “new” insect is named the “Common something” and she’s never seen it before).��The occurrence of this one should be no surprise – its caterpillars feed on Black locust leaves.��

Petrophilia��Moths are dainty moths that are tied to water.��The BugLady and BugFan Joan spotted mobs of moths on milkweed (yes, there’s a milkweed under there) on the bank of the Milwaukee River.�� “Petrophila” means “rock lover” – for that story, read the BOTW about a (probably) different species. ��

Green Lacewing Eggs – the BugLady wrote about Green lacewings and their eggs a few months ago, and she recently found this amazing bunch of tiny, glistening eggs.��She has always associated Green lacewings with the end of summer.��Guess not.

Eight-Spotted Forester Moths are small, spiffy, day-flying moths that are often mistaken for butterflies.�� The one that the BugLady found recently was not as gaudy as most – most have brilliant .��There’s a saying among Lepidopterists – the plainer the caterpillar, the more spectacular the adult.��.��

Powdered Dancers oviposit at this time of year in the slightly-submerged stems of aquatic vegetation, especially��.��They’ve been pictured here before.��This year, the river is running high and fast – there are no mats of��Potamogeton��leaves with Ebony Jewelwings, American Rubyspots, Stream Bluets, and Powdered Dancers flickering above them.��Do they have a Plan B?

These two Brilliant Jumping Spiders (aka Red & Black jumping spiders), a male and a female, were perched a respectful distance from each other on the prairie.��Jumping spiders, as their name suggests, jump, and depending on species, can cover from 10 to 50 times their body length.��They don’t spin trap webs, but they do spin a drag line while jumping to guard against mishaps.��They hunt by day.

The great MObugs website (Missouri’s Majority) says that “By late July or August mating is on their mind. Males begin to compete with other males for the right to mate with nearby females. Larger males typically win these competitions which include loud vibrations and some unique footwork. Males choose the larger females to mate with as they produce the most eggs.” She will place her egg sac in a silken nest in a leaf shelter and guard it, dying shortly after the spiderlings emerge from the sac.

Zelus Luridus��(aka the Pale green assassin bug) is the BugLady’s favorite Assassin bug.��They mostly wait patiently for their prey to wander by, but when it does, they reveal their super power. Glands on their legs produce a sticky resin that they smear over the hairs on their legs. When they grab their prey, it stays grabbed.��

They make ��(nice series of shots) – the BugLady has found them on the undersides of leaves, and the are pretty cool, too.

Although “lurid” now means shocking, vivid, or overly bright, it originally meant ghastly, horrifying, pale, sallow, or sickly yellow – its meaning began to change in the 1700’s.  

There – all caught up! 

Go outside – look at bugs!

The BugLady

(Just before this episode was launched,  was inexplicably offline – if it still is, check the links later)

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The BugLady is a frequent visitor to the Milwaukee River at Waubedonia Park in July, because that’s where the magic is. Arrow Clubtails make their maiden flights up into the trees just 45 minutes after emerging from their nymphal skins, leaving the skins – exuvia – as signs of their passing. Silvery, new Stream Bluets cling to plants while their elders fly in tandem; Common Whitetails chase everything; and incomparable Ebony Jewelwings teeter on reeds. And the number of American Rubyspot pictures that she’s taken there this year may be a personal best.

But, oh my, the Powdered Dancers!

The first time she walked the shoreline six years ago, the river was low, and mats of Potamogeton (pond weed) undulated on the surface about 10 feet offshore. And on those mats were ovipositing pairs of Powdered Dancers – slender damselflies taking their chances on a big river.

Along with bluets, sprites, and forktails, dancers are members of the Pond/Narrow-winged damselfly family Coenagrionidae. At 1.5” to 1.7” long, Powdered Dancers (Argia moesta) are both the largest in their genus and the largest in their family. Argia, inexplicably, comes from an Ancient Greek word meaning “laziness” (but they aren’t), and “moesta” meaning sorrowful, a possible reference to wearing ashes in mourning.

Don’t look for Powdered Dancers around the edge of a pond; this species is found next to running water or on the shores of large lakes, especially where there are emergent rocks to sit on. Their color camouflages them there and so does their habit of sitting with their wings folded at their sides rather than over the abdomen, giving them a lower profile.

Pruinosity puts the “powder” onto Powdered Dancers. As they mature, males produce tiny, waxy plates that coat their exterior and turn them from dark to pale. ( ). Females come in brown and blue morphs, and they also change color during their three or four weeks as adults. look like , and �� look like .

Paulson, in Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East, speculates “Perhaps pruinosity confers resistance to high temperatures, as this may be the only odonate active at streams on sunny days exceeding 37 degrees C.” (When the BugLady was in grade school in the ‘50’s, her teachers said “Learn the metric system – the US will be switching any day now.” 37 degrees is a scorching 98.6 degrees F.)

Back to the river. Studies show that even though they are somewhat territorial, pairs of Powdered Dancers are attracted to floating leaves that have other pairs of Powdered Dancers already ovipositing on them. It’s called an “oviposition aggregation.” The presence of multiple pairs may cut down on harassment by unattached males and by predators, and also on the time a pair may search for a suitable spot to oviposit, which Paulson lists as 3 to 49 minutes. Researchers found this out by populating floating leaves with tiny models of Powdered Dancers, some resting, some coupled.

In many species where the male contact-guards the female (maintains his hold on the back of her head) as she descends to insert eggs into/onto underwater vegetation, he is not quite as committed to total immersion as she is and will release her if she goes too deep. Powdered Dancer males seem to be all in. It’s not clear why – the dangers he is guarding her from are in the air. Look at the picture that shows a few partly-submerged pairs at the left, and then look to the right for several pairs that are completely underwater (When he saw the picture, BugFan Bob said that there are some “Maybe this is deep enough” conversations going on down there… he said some very scholarly things, too).

Pairs can stay under for an hour or more and have been found more than a yard (meter) below the surface. hide under stones and debris and overwinter in a late-stage, crawling out of the water to emerge as adults early the next summer.

Powdered Dancers are active, but they stay at home in a relatively short stretch of the river bank; and while females and immatures may fly inland, mature males seldom stray far from the water.

Damselflies eat other invertebrates, both underwater as naiads and in the air as adults. Female Powdered Dancers are avid hunters whose diet includes other damselflies, even other Powdered Dancers.

Fun Powdered Dancer Fact: Researchers in Ontario found midge larvae hitchhiking (harmlessly) on Powdered Dancer naiads, a phenomenon called phoresy. The probable advantages for the midge larvae are a larger, more stable port in a current, and they don’t have to use as much energy moving around. The damselfly naiads are not affected by the arrangement.

The BugLady

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