The BugLady took to the trails this summer as much as her shiny, new knee and the oppressive heat and humidity allowed (her preferred maximum temperature is 72 degrees.��The gods didn’t cooperate).��Here are some of the bugs she found.��

BLUE DASHER OVIPOSITING – A female Blue Dasher bobs up and down as she looses eggs into the water. Blue Dashers don’t oviposit “in tandem,” with the male guarding her by maintaining his grip at the back of her head, but the male stays close, flying around her as she dips the tip of her abdomen into the water, and chasing off rival males that would carry her away.

CICADA – When the BugLady was little, the treetops sizzled with cicada calls in August (she called them “hot bugs,” because when they emerged, it was). The only species she heard back then was the dog day cicada��Dogday Cicada (Family Cicadidae) – Field Station, but for the past decade, she has heard fewer and fewer of them each year .��

This year, she has been enjoying the songs of a Linne’s cicada and an dusk-calling Scissor-grinder cicada , too, both of whom are southern/southeastern species that are inching north. Welcome!

CABBAGE BUTTERFLY ON PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE – A dainty, white butterfly on a pretty, fuchsia flower.��Both are non-native (hint: the butterfly’s caterpillar is known as the European cabbage worm), and both are “naturalized,” that is, having been introduced and/or having escaped into the wild, they are doing very well on their own, thank you.��Only a very small percentage of non-native, naturalized species go on to create problems and to get a third label – “invasive.”��For a nice discussion, see .��

EASTERN PONDHAWK AND MEADOWHAWK – It’s a dragonfly-eat-dragonfly world out there.

MILKWEED TUSSOCK MOTH AND CRAB SPIDER – The BugLady has been receiving some queries recently from BugFans whose milkweed is looking pretty ratty.��The culprit?��The Milkweed tussock moth , whose caterpillar is sometimes called the Harlequin caterpillar.��Mom lays masses of eggs, and the caterpillars feed gregariously for a while, skeletonizing leaves by eating the tender tissue between the leaf veins.��Then they go their separate ways and eat the leaves down to their midribs.��Bugguide.net says, in an understatement, that the caterpillars “May defoliate patches of milkweed.”��

Allegedly, they don’t interfere with Monarch caterpillars because they eat the old, leathery leaves that the monarchs don’t, and because they’re gearing up as the Gen 5 Monarchs are readying themselves for their trip south.

No, the BugLady did not see the crab spider, and what looks like an egg sac, when she took the picture.

PICTURE-WINGED FLY – This spiffy fly (genus��Rivelli, family Platystomatidae) walks around, twitching its wings constantly, sending semaphore signals to nearby females. For its story, see Signal Fly (Family Platystomatidae) – Field Station (only, the BugLady misspelled the family name).��What a treat to watch this little fly strutting his stuff!

WOOD/AMERICAN DOG TICK – Yes, they’re everywhere (they prefer grassy areas and forest edges), and yes, most people feel creepy just looking at a picture of one, feeling the phantom feet of phantom ticks tickling their skin. Dog ticks need three different hosts to get through their life cycles, and they can spread Rocky Mountain spotted fever as well as Tularemia (but if your dog comes down with Tularemia, it may be playing with the local bunnies). Various sources say that Wood ticks in Wisconsin don’t often carry diseases and that Rocky Mountain spotted fever (or any Spotted fever rickettsiosis) are (for now) rare here.��They don’t spread Lyme disease.

VIRGINIA CTENUCHA CATERPILLAR –Lepidopterists say that the more spectacular the caterpillar, the more homely the adult, and vice versa. The Virginia Ctenucha moth is one of the exceptions that proves the rule .

The caterpillars are out and about early – this one was photographed in May, but they overwinter as caterpillars, and the BugLady encounters them strolling along on the warm road on a warm day in late winter or early spring.��Adults are large-ish, day-or-night-flying moths that tuck in under a leaf when alarmed.��The “C” is silent. –

WOOLLY ALDER APHIDS AND THEIR ANTS – We’ve seen it before – aphids going about their business, assisted by ants that protect them them in exchange for being able to “milk” them for honeydew, a sugary fluid that is a byproduct of the sap that flows through the aphids when they eat. Honeydew is an important carbohydrate for the ants that farm aphids and treehoppers.��If you’ve ever seen a leaf whose upper surface looks shiny and sticky, look up under the overhead leaves – they’re probably occupied by aphids.��Bees, wasps, flies, and other insects will visit the leaf to eat honeydew. The woolly aphid’s wool consists of waterproof, waxy filaments made in glands in the aphid’s abdomen.

EMERALD ASH BORER – They really are lovely, little beetles, with a surprise splash of crimson when their wings are spread .��But the extensive tunnels (called galleries ) that the larvae make below the bark disrupt the ash tree’s plumbing so that it can’t pump nutrients between its roots and crown.��

SEDGE SPRITES – One of the BugLady’s favorite damselflies, these little beauties are scarcely an inch long. 

WEEVILS ON PURPLE PRAIRIE CLOVER – Purple prairie clover is a lovely, native tallgrass prairie plant. The early settlers on the Great Plains nicknamed it “Devil’s shoelaces” because this skinny, two-foot-high plant may have roots that are six feet long – roots that grew deep enough to reach through the thick prairie sod to find water. That magnificent sod resisted the settlers attempts to plow it with their small, cast-iron plows until 1837, when John Deere invented the steel moldboard plow, which he fashioned from an old sawmill saw.��

At the top of the flower, there are two weevils, probably seed weevils in the genus��Apion, making whoopie.��Here’s a BOTW about seed weevils Baptisia Seed Pod Weevils (Family Curculionidae) – Field Station. No, the BugLady did not see the weevils when she took the picture.

STAG BEETLE – Yes, the BugLady���徱����see this Stag beetle as it emerged from her lawn one evening in July – the beetle looks big enough to trip over, and she moves like a tank.��Here’s her story Stag Beetle Lucanus Placidus – Field Station.

ROBBER FLY – Remember, bumble bees are vegetarians, so if you see a bumble bee with prey, it’s not a bumble bee.��Mimicking a bumble bee is a pretty good survival strategy – no one messes with bumble bees. This fly is in the genus��Laphria,��one of the “bee-like” robber flies. Their larvae live in rotten wood and feed on insects they find there, and the adults often prey on beetles (though the BugLady saw one make a pass at a Sulphur butterfly once).��Robber flies come in a variety of sizes and shapes – for information about Wisconsin robber flies (and butterflies and tiger beetles) see .

RED-BELTED BUMBLE BEES – are found west of the great plains and across southern Canada and our northern tier of states.��They are one of the short-tongued bumble bees, which means that they prefer “flatter” flowers like clovers, thistles, goldenrods, and asters. The BugLady doesn’t know where this one was hiking to – she saw several others on flowers in the area. A little rusty on bumble bees?��Here’s a great bumble bee guide from the Xerces Society:

Go outside, look at bugs,

The BugLady

The post Summer Sights – and Sounds appeared first on Field Station.

Howdy, BugFans,

2025: The BugLady was out in a wetland today, stalking the wily Pink Lady’s Slipper (aka the Moccasin flower), a large and lovely native orchid. After she got home, she discovered a male Wood/Dog tick on her person (dark, with pale streaks), so it seemed like an auspicious time to rerun the episode about the Deer tick.

��2014: The BugLady encountered a deer tick on her scalp last week (second week of March), a reminder that these are very hardy little critters – AND – that the uncharacteristically balmy weather is getting lots of stuff going early.��So, here’s the deer tick story as told in a BOTW from three years ago along with some��hot-off-the-presses��additional information and, of course, new pictures.����

The��DEER TICK��(Ixodes��scapularis) (not to be confused with the musical group��Deer Tick) is a critter whose escapades are well known to those of us who live here in God’s Country (at least they should be).��It’s notorious for its ability to spread Lyme (not Lymes) disease and because its sesame-seed-size makes “tick checks” a challenge ().��

Lyme disease is an initially-flu-like disease that doesn’t go away and will escalate if ignored, and it is more treatable early than late.�� The CDC has a very comprehensive website with information about tests, symptoms, treatment, and prevention at��, (there’s disagreement about Lyme disease testing and treatment, mainly from organizations whose members have spent months and years looking for a clear diagnosis and an effective cure for this frustrating disease).��Lyme disease is not “catching,” and you can’t get it from eating venison from an infected deer (but kneeling on the ground dressing out a deer puts you right down there in DT territory).��

When the BugLady moved into her rural home 39 years ago, ticks were scarce, she plucked a wood/dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis) off the dog every 5 years or so, and she never saw a deer tick.��In the past four or five years she has seen fewer wood ticks, but deer ticks (a.k.a. Black-legged ticks) have arrived in force and are showing their little heads by late April (chiggers are��way��more numerous, too).��An article in��Science Daily��(June 22, 2011) refers to the “steady march of deer ticks across the Upper Midwest” and reports that the rate of their advance through Indiana and Illinois (having successfully occupied Minnesota and Wisconsin) is two counties per year.��

Non-feeding adult DTs are very small (about 3mm long) and flat and dark (females may look blood-red when they’re empty but not when they’re full, and males are dark and vaguely speckled). They have eight black legs and a black “shield” (called a “scutum”) in back of its head.��DTs don’t have any white/light markings on the��scutum, but wood ticks do.��A feeding adult female looks like a tiny, over-filled, blue-gray balloon (“as tight as a tick”) (the BugLady is trying to avoid comparisons to grapes here, lest she put BugFans off their feed).��

DTs lead a complex, three-stage, two-year life.�� All three stages are mobile and all three require a blood meal that can take three to five days to complete.��Adult DTs are fairly impervious to frosts and can be out and about on winter days that are above freezing.�� In spring, Mom has a big meal (adult males rarely feed), mates, drops to the ground, and lays thousands of eggs.��The first post-egg stage is a minute’ six-legged larva that feeds once during mid-summer on a bird or a small mammal (it’s especially fond of white-footed mice).��The well-fed larva leaves its host and overwinters in the leaf litter.��The following spring it molts into a poppy seed-sized nymph that feeds again (another mouse, maybe, or a raccoon or squirrel) and then molts into an adult that becomes active in fall.��Adults favor large mammals like white-tailed deer.��

Ms. DT finds Mr. DT through the magic of aggregation pheromones (chemical “perfumes”) that cause DTs to gather in groups, allowing boy to meet girl.��They may mate on a host, on vegetation, or on the ground.��He dies after mating a few times; she dies after laying eggs.��

Where does a DT pick up Lyme disease?��Typically not from Mom, even if she’s carrying it.�� An uninfected larva or nymph can pick up the disease from its host; an infected larva can transmit it to its host, and once they’ve picked up the infection, ticks retain it for the rest of their lives.��The general estimate is that in high-Lyme areas, 25% of nymphal DTs and 50% of adults carry the bacterium that causes the disease, but according to the American Lyme Foundation, fewer than 5% of DTs south of Maryland are carriers.�� Dog ticks do not spread Lyme disease (but they are not totally innocent bystanders, either).��

DTs are classed as��sanguivores��(animals that ingest fresh blood).��They’re opportunistic – to find a host, they’ll often wait at the tips of vegetation in what is called the “questing position,” sensing the air, waiting for something large to brush against them (��then scroll down for a Lyme map – we no longer presume that someone who tests positive for Lyme has been “up North”).��The biggest mortality factor for ticks may be starvation, and harsh climate can also affect them.��They typically aren’t eaten by predators because they’re simply too small to see.��

Here’s the DT’s pedigree: they’re in the family Ixodidae (the hard ticks), which is in the order Ixodida (ticks), which is in the Class Arachnida (spiders and friends), which is in the Phylum Arthropoda (insects, spiders and crustaceans).��They are, potentially, found wherever their final host, the white-tailed deer, is found.�� Most .����

Along with Lyme disease, DTs can pack a number of disease-causing bacteria and parasites into that tiny body, and scientists are still finding new ones.��In the three years since the original DT post, a West Nile virus/meningitis-like disease called Powassan virus has been added to the deer ticks’ arsenal.��Tiny nymphal ticks far outnumber their elders, and because nymphal ticks are most active during the period when we’re all outside in summer, bites from nymphal ticks are presumed to be the cause of most human infections.��Pets can get Lyme disease, too; talk to your vet.��

Also new on the Wisconsin scene is a new tick species, the Lone Star tick, which carries its own set of unpleasant diseases, including one that may trigger in the “bitee” a lifelong allergy to beef, pork, and lamb. 

Scientists have discovered some intricate ways that DTs fit into the ecological jigsaw puzzle:

1. In eastern oak forests, a big load of acorns (a “mast year”) results, for the next few years, in lots of white-footed mice and deer, which means fewer gypsy moths (mice eat their pupae) and more hosts for the DTs.�� More DTs mean more Lyme disease.��Fewer acorns mean fewer mice, more gypsy moth outbreaks, and less Lyme disease.
2. The incidence of Lyme disease is linked to the presence of deer, but it also reflects the population cycles of certain small mammals.��A decrease in predators like the red fox (coyotes have taken over) results in larger populations of potential tick hosts like mice and chipmunks and more Lyme disease (remember, though deer are important in the DT’s end game, most people probably get infected by a DT nymph, which hasn’t met a deer yet).
3. DTs like white-footed mice, and white-footed mice like woodlands.��Research in Illinois shows that DTs are gaining a foothold in Illinois prairies by setting their sights on prairie voles instead.

So – stay inside until winter?��Through��winter?��Nope.��Standard precautions include wearing light-colored clothing, using repellents containing DEET, and pulling socks over your pants cuffs to make it harder for ticks to duck and hide.��According to the CDC, “In most cases, the tick must be attached for 36-48 hours or more before the Lyme disease bacterium can be transmitted,” so do thorough tick checks of your hairline and all your nooks and crannies.����

…�Ħ�Ħ�Ħ�Ħ�Ħ�Ħ�Ħ�Ħ�Ħ�Ħ�Ħ�Ħ�Ħ�Ħ�Ħ..the BugLady feels like stuff is crawling on her…�Ħ�Ħ�Ħ�Ħ�Ħ�Ħ�Ħ..

The BugLady

The post Deer Tick again appeared first on Field Station.

Greetings BugFans,

YAY, it’s June! That means that the BugLady is out on the trails, walking slowly, looking at everything and photographing half of it. A probably-tasteful BOTW will be delivered to your inbox each Tuesday in June, but it won’t be a newly-minted, original episode.

It’s also June – National Invasive Species Action Month!�� “Alien,” “Introduced,” “Exotic,” and “Non-native” are all words we use to describe species that aren’t from around here, like alfalfa and Golden retrievers, but those words are��not��synonymous with the word Invasive. Having left their predators in the Old Country, invasive species achieve populations that negatively affect their habitat and native species. Not all invasive species are from another continent – Rusty crayfish, invasive in Wisconsin, hail from the southeastern part of the country.

Here, from the BugLady’s massive “Bugs in the News” file is an article about an invasive hornet that is NOT the Asian giant/Murder hornet (which has been given the new, less offensive name ).��

And one about an .

And speaking of ticks, the BOTW about Deer ticks is worth a reread, since the deer tick season has been in high gear here in God’s Country for months. ����

Accompanying these articles are pictures of a Eurasian butterfly that we often forget is not native – the Cabbage Butterfly, which introduced itself into Canada 150 years ago and whose ��was, for a long time, called the “Imported Cabbageworm” (if you’re a gardener, you probably know this one already).

And a picture of a really beautiful little beetle that arrived in the Detroit area from China about 20 years ago and that has changed the landscape here in Wisconsin and in much of North America east of the Great Plains – the Emerald ash borer (EAB).��When it first appeared, the DNR predicted that it would demolish 99.9% of Wisconsin’s ash trees.��Their flight period is about to start.

And a Deer tick.

Not all invasive species are insects – see the for information about invasives near you��(they’d love a donation, too).��

For more information about the .

The BugLady

The post Closed for June I – Invasive species appeared first on Field Station.

The BugLady encountered a deer tick on her scalp last week (second week of March), a reminder that these are very hardy little critters—and—that the uncharacteristically balmy weather is getting lots of stuff going early. So, here’s the deer tick story as told in a BOTW from three years ago along with some hot-off-the-presses additional information and, of course, new pictures.

Deer Ticks

The Deer Tick (Ixodes scapularis) (not to be confused with the musical group Deer Tick) is a critter whose escapades are well known to those of us who live here in God’s Country (at least they should be). It’s notorious for its ability to spread Lyme (not Lymes) disease and because its sesame-seed-size makes “tick checks” a challenge ().

Lyme disease is an initially-flu-like disease that doesn’t go away and will escalate if ignored, and it is more treatable early than late. The CDC has a very comprehensive website with information about tests, symptoms, treatment, and prevention at , (there’s disagreement about Lyme disease testing and treatment, mainly from organizations whose members have spent months and years looking for a clear diagnosis and an effective cure for this frustrating disease). Lyme disease is not “catching,” and you can’t get it from eating venison from an infected deer (but kneeling on the ground dressing out a deer puts you right down there in DT territory).

When the BugLady moved into her rural home 39 years ago, ticks were scarce, she plucked a wood/dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis) off the dog every 5 years or so, and she never saw a deer tick. In the past four or five years she has seen fewer wood ticks, but deer ticks (a.k.a. Black-legged ticks) have arrived in force and are showing their little heads by late April (chiggers are way more numerous, too). An article in Science Daily (June 22, 2011) refers to the “steady march of deer ticks across the Upper Midwest” and reports that the rate of their advance through Indiana and Illinois (having successfully occupied Minnesota and Wisconsin) is two counties per year.

[metaslider id=382]

Non-feeding adult DTs are very small (about 3mm long) and flat and dark (females may look blood-red when they’re empty but not when they’re full), with eight black legs and a black “shield” (called a scutum) in back of its head. DTs don’t have any white/light markings on the scutum, but wood ticks do. A feeding adult female looks like a tiny, over-filled, blue-gray balloon (“as tight as a tick”) (the BugLady is trying to avoid comparisons to grapes here, lest she put BugFans off their feed).

DTs lead a complex, three-stage, two-year life. All three stages are mobile and all three require a blood meal that can take three to five days to complete. Adult DTs are fairly impervious to frosts and can be out and about on winter days that are above freezing. In spring, Mom has a big meal (adult males rarely feed), mates, drops to the ground, and lays thousands of eggs. The first post-egg stage is a minute’ six-legged larva that feeds once during mid-summer on a bird or a small mammal (it’s especially fond of white-footed mice). The well-fed larva leaves its host and overwinters in the leaf litter. The following spring it molts into a poppy seed-sized nymph that feeds again (another mouse, maybe, or a raccoon or squirrel) and then molts into an adult that becomes active in fall. Adults favor large mammals like white-tailed deer.

Ms. DT finds Mr. DT through the magic of aggregation pheromones (chemical perfumes) that cause DTs to gather in groups, allowing boy to meet girl. They may mate on a host, on vegetation, or on the ground. He dies after mating a few times; she dies after laying eggs.

Where does a DT pick up Lyme disease? Typically not from Mom, even if she’s carrying it. An uninfected larva or nymph can pick up the disease from its host; an infected larva can transmit it to its host, and once they’ve picked up the infection, ticks retain it for the rest of their lives. The general estimate is that in high-Lyme areas, 25% of nymphal DTs and 50% of adults carry the bacterium that causes the disease, but according to the American Lyme Foundation, fewer than 5% of DTs south of Maryland are carriers. Dog ticks do not spread Lyme disease (but they are not totally innocent bystanders, either).

DTs are classed as sanguivores (animals that ingest fresh blood). They’re opportunistic—to find a host, they’ll often wait at the tips of vegetation in what is called the “questing position,” sensing the air, waiting for something large to brush against them ( then scroll down for a Lyme map—we no longer presume that someone who tests positive for Lyme has been “up North”). The biggest mortality factor for ticks may be starvation, and harsh climate can also affect them.

The BugLady originally quoted one source that said “They typically aren’t eaten by predators because they’re simply too small to see,” but alert BugFan Laura points out that a whole bunch of predators, from shrews and birds to nematodes and soil fungi, have been known to partake (engorged ticks must be a lot easier for larger predators to find). BugFans keep the BugLady honest.

[metaslider id=384]

Here’s the DT’s pedigree: they’re in the family Ixodidae (the hard ticks), which is in the order Ixodida (ticks), which is in the class Arachnida (spiders and friends), which is in the phylum Arthropoda (insects, spiders and crustaceans). They are, potentially, found wherever their final host, the white-tailed deer, is found. Most DTs live .

Along with Lyme disease, DTs can pack a number of disease-causing bacteria and parasites into that tiny body, and scientists are still finding new ones. In the three years since the original DT post, a West Nile virus/meningitis-like disease called Powassan virus has been added to the deer ticks’ arsenal. Tiny nymphal ticks far outnumber their elders, and because nymphal ticks are most active during the period when we’re all outside in summer, bites from nymphal ticks are presumed to be the cause of most human infections. Pets can get Lyme disease, too; talk to your vet.

Scientists have discovered some intricate ways that DTs fit into the ecological jigsaw puzzle:

1. In eastern oak forests, a big load of acorns (a “mast year”) results, for the next few years, in lots of white-footed mice and deer, which means fewer gypsy moths (mice eat their pupae) and more hosts for the DTs. More DTs mean more Lyme disease. Fewer acorns mean fewer mice, more gypsy moth outbreaks, and less Lyme disease.
2. The incidence of Lyme disease is linked to the presence of deer, but it also reflects the population cycles of certain small mammals. A decrease in predators like the red fox (coyotes have taken over) results in larger populations of potential tick hosts like mice and chipmunks and more Lyme disease (remember, though deer are important in the DT’s end game, most people probably get infected by a DT nymph, which hasn’t met a deer yet).
3. Deer ticks like white-footed mice, and white-footed mice like woodlands. Research in Illinois shows that DTs are gaining a foothold in Illinois prairies by setting their sights on prairie voles instead.

Lone Star Tick

Also new on the Wisconsin scene is a new tick species, the Lone Star tick, which carries its own set of unpleasant diseases, including one that may trigger in the “bitee” a lifelong allergy to beef, pork, and lamb.

So—stay inside until winter? Through winter? Nope. Standard precautions include wearing light-colored clothing, using repellants containing DEET, and pulling socks over your pants cuffs to make it harder for ticks to duck and hide.��According to the CDC, “In most cases, the tick must be attached for 36-48 hours or more before the Lyme disease bacterium can be transmitted,” so do thorough tick checks of your hairline and all your nooks and crannies.

 
The BugLady

The post Deer Ticks Revisited (Family Ixodidae) appeared first on Field Station.

In this, the fourth Annual chorus of “The Twelve Bugs of Christmas,” the BugLady offers a Bakers’ Dozen of Bug Portraits that were taken this year but are unlikely to appear in future BOTWs because their stories have been told in past BOTWs (hence, the links, for BugFans who want to know “The Rest of the Story”). They are, as always, a testament to the joys of Serendipity.

Crane Fly with Ornaments

Crane Fly with Ornaments—Lots of immature aquatic insects host water mites. The parasitic larval and early nymphal stages of the mites attach themselves to an insect when they’re both under water and then feed on it like a tick (to whom mites are somewhat related). When the insect molts, the mite steps off, and then reattaches after the molt is complete, which is why we see adult dragonflies and damselflies—and crane flies—with those little bits of red “bling” attached to their thorax or abdomen.��Crane Fly Redux (Family Tipulidae), and��Water Mite (order Acariformes).

Deer Ticks

Deer Ticks? Oh, surely, tick season is over? In late October, the BugLady took a tick off of the dog and realized that it had too many legs. The smaller (male) tick was piggy-backed on the larger female. Deer ticks are pretty hardy, and they may be out and about during a mid-winter thaw Deer Tick (Family Ixodidae).

Bumblebee

There’s just something about a Bumblebee dangling under a flower (or climbing over the top of one) that makes the BugLady reach for her camera. There are a number of blossoms, especially in the legume/pea/bean/clover family that require an insect with a bumblebee’s “muscle” to push into the flower. And then, they’ve got that “buzz pollination” thing going on “Bumble Bee (Bombus sp.)”, and Celebrating Bumblebees (Family Apidae).

Red-Spotted Purple Chrysalis

This Red-Spotted Purple Chrysalis hung on the back of the BugLady’s garage this summer. Chrysalis? Cocoon? Synonymous? When a butterfly larva sheds its skin for the last time as it pupates, the layer of hardened protein below that last skin forms a case for the pupa. That hardened skin is referred to as its chrysalis, but Lepidopterists also use the term chrysalis as a synonym for the pupal life stage itself. A cocoon is a shelter of silk that is spun before an insect enters the pupal stage, and the pupa and pupal case form within. With few exceptions, butterflies don’t spin cocoons; many (but not all) moths do, and so do some other kinds of insects, Red Spotted Purple (Family Nymphalidae).

Two-Striped Grasshoppers

Two-Striped Grasshoppers (a.k.a Yellow-striped grasshoppers) (Melanoplus bivittatus) are large and handsome grasshoppers of grasslands and road edges (the two, pale lines running down their dorsal side from stem to stern makes them pretty easy to ID, too). Their overall yellowish tinge comes from nutrients in their diet which includes some agricultural crops and (less often) grass (they dabble in scavenging and cannibalism, too). They’re spur-throated grasshoppers in the short-horned (short-antennae-ed) grasshopper family Acrididae, Melanoplus Grasshopper (Family Acrididae).

Long-Jawed Orb Weaver

A glamour shot of a cooperative Long-Jawed Orb Weaver (genus Tetragnatha) a common spider of wetlands. Its name comes from the extra-long jaws (chelcerae) of the adults Long-jawed Orbweavers (Family Tetragnathidae).

Hitched Arches Caterpillar

Hitched Arches Caterpillar—The BugLady enjoys the dramatic bed-of-nails backgrounds provided by the disc flowers of a purple coneflower. It’s all a matter of perspective, though—when it gets older, the caterpillar will eat flowers this size, practically in one sitting.��Bugs Without Bios VII.

Common Green Darners

The BugLady has been wanting to get a shot of Common Green Darners ovipositing for a long time. At about 3 inches long with a 4-inch-plus wingspread, these are some of our largest dragonflies. The female is probing under water for vegetation into which she’ll insert her eggs; he is “contact guarding” her in order to protect his investment in the process. If an insect can look wild, these darners surely do, Dragonfly Swarm (Family Aeschnidae).

Sedge Sprites

Sedge Sprites, on the other hand, weigh in at maybe an inch, each, and a skinny inch at that. The BugLady stuck her head into lots of sedge sprite microhabitats and found a bunch of them this year (but she’s still looking for the elusive, almost identical Sphagnum sprite),��Sedge Sprite (Family Coenagrionidae)

Daphnia

The BugLady re-photographs lots of bugs from year to year, hoping for a better shot (and, yes, because they’re there), ahe’s really happy with this flesh-and-blood Daphnia. She sits on the Aldo Leopold bench by the Ephemeral Pond at Riveredge (from whence many good things spring, armed with a camera and 50mm macro lens in one hand, and an aquatic critter in a plastic spoon in the other (she carries a black spoon for pale bugs, ever since that fateful day when she scooped up a white planarian). Daphnia, which are generally (way) less than 3/16 of an inch long, provide food for LOTS of amphibians, and they’re cool because when there’s heavy pressure from predators, daphnia grow spines that discourage them��Daphnia (Family Daphniidae).

Water Strider

A Water Strider rests on a cattail leaf during its constant patrol of the open water. Often misheard by kids as “Water spider,” they are called Jesus-bugs in some parts of the South because they walk on water (with the aid of some hairs on the “soles of their feet” (tarsi), they move across the water without breaking through the surface film). They are predators who hunt by using their front legs to sense the ripples produced by insects that flew too close to the water and are struggling in that same surface film. And is that a water mite lurking beneath the cattail leaf? Water Strider Revisited (Family Gerridae).

Lunker-Larva

This Lunker-Larva crossed the BugLady’s path as she was walking on a slightly raised trail between two wetlands.�� To say that she was startled is an understatement. First of all, while it has the classic shape of a Dytiscid (Predaceous diving beetle) larva (the larvae are called “water tigers”), it was several orders of magnitude larger than the largest water tiger the BugLady has ever seen. In fact, it was the size of the BugLady’s little finger!�� Second, it was really speedy; the BugLady would scoop it up with a piece of paper (no, she didn’t feel like handling it) and get a single shot before it escaped over the edge. And third, it had this awesome, tough and shiny exoskeleton.�� Mature water tigers leave the water and pupate in chambers at the water’s edge. They don’t need an exoskeleton like that to live under water – do they don it just for that brief journey? Predaceous Diving Beetle (Family Dytiscidae).

Dot-Tailed Whiteface Dragonfly

Last, a Dot-Tailed Whiteface Dragonfly to dangle from the Christmas tree. This teneral (recently emerged individual) lacks the intensity of color that it will soon develop as an adult��Dot-tailed Whiteface (Family Libellulidae).

And, for a little lagniappe, here are a few videos of dragonfly naiads trying for a meal: .

 
Happy Holidays,

The BugLady

The post Twelve Bugs of Christmas appeared first on Field Station.

The Deer Tick (Ixodes scapularis) (not to be confused with the musical group Deer Tick ) is a critter whose escapades are well known (or should be) to those of us who live here in God’s Country. It is notorious for its ability to spread Lyme (not Lymes) disease and because its sesame-seed-size makes “tick checks” a challenge.

Deer Ticks

When the BugLady moved into her rural home 36 years ago, ticks were scarce, and she plucked a wood tick off the dog every 5 years or so. In the past three or four years, both Dog/Wood ticks (Dermacentor variabilis) and Deer ticks (a.k.a. Black-legged ticks) have been showing their little heads by late April or early May. Their ranges are expanding or their populations booming or both (chiggers are way more numerous, too). An article in Science Daily (June 22, 2011) refers to the “steady march of deer ticks across the Upper Midwest” and reports the rate of their advance through Indiana and Illinois (having successfully occupied Minnesota and Wisconsin) at two counties per year.

A puts DTs in perspective (scroll down to the ruler). A non-feeding adult DT is flat and dark (females may look dark red), about 3mm long, with eight black legs and a black “shield” (called a scutum) in back of its head. DTs don’t have any white/light markings on the scutum but wood ticks do. A feeding adult female looks very different, like a tiny, over-filled blue-gray balloon (as tight as a tick) (the BugLady is trying to avoid comparisons to grapes here, lest she put BugFans off their feed).

DTs lead a complex, three-stage, two-year life. All three stages are mobile and all three require a blood meal that may take three to five days to complete. Adult DTs are fairly impervious to frosts and can even be found on winter days that are above freezing. In spring, Mom has a big meal (adult males rarely feed), mates, drops to the ground, and lays thousands of eggs. The first post-egg stage is a six-legged larva that feeds once during mid-summer on a bird or a small mammal (it’s especially fond of white-footed mice). The well-fed larva leaves its host and overwinters in the leaf litter. The following spring it molts into a poppy seed-sized nymph that feeds on another host (another mouse, maybe, or a raccoon or squirrel) and then molts into an adult that becomes active in fall. Adults favor large mammals like white-tailed deer.

Ms. DT finds Mr. DT through the magic of aggregation pheromones (chemical “perfumes”) that cause DTs to gather in groups, allowing boy to meet girl. They may mate on a host, on vegetation, or on the ground. He dies after mating a few times; she dies after laying eggs.

Lyme Disease

Where does the DT pick up Lyme disease? Typically not from Mom, even if she is carrying it. An uninfected larva or nymph can pick up the disease from its host; an infected larva can transmit it to a host. Once they’ve picked up the infection, ticks retain it for the rest of their lives. Some sources estimate that in high-Lyme areas, 25% of nymphal DTs and 50% of adults carry the bacterium that causes the disease. According to the American Lyme Foundation, fewer than 5% of DTs south of Maryland are carriers. Dog ticks do not spread Lyme disease.

DTs are sanguivores (animals that ingest fresh blood). To find a host, they sit on vegetation or on the ground in a “questing position” with legs poised, sensing the air, and ready to hop aboard an unwitting passer-by. They typically aren’t eaten by predators because they’re simply too small to see. The biggest mortality factor for ticks may be starvation, but harsh climate can also affect them.

Here’s the DT’s pedigree. They are in the family Ixodidae (the hard ticks), which is in the order Ixodida (ticks), which is in the class Arachnida (spiders and friends), which is in the phylum Arthropoda (insects, spiders and crustaceans). They are, potentially, found wherever their final host, the white-tailed deer, is found. Most DTs live .

DTs may pack the germs of a number of unpleasant diseases into that tiny body, and scientists are still finding new ones. Besides being the main vector for the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, their bite may carry other bacteria and a few parasites. Tiny nymphal ticks far outnumber their elders, and because nymphal ticks are most active during the period when we’re all outside in summer, bites from nymphal ticks are presumed to be the cause of most human infections. Pets can get Lyme disease, too; talk to your vet.

Lyme disease is an initially-flu-like disease that will escalate if ignored, and it is more treatable early than late. The CDC has a very comprehensive website with information about tests, symptoms, treatment, and prevention at , (there’s disagreement about Lyme disease testing and treatment, mainly from organizations whose members have spent months and years looking for a clear diagnosis and an effective cure for this frustrating disease). Lyme disease is not “catching,” and you can’t get it from eating venison from an infected deer (but kneeling on the ground dressing out a deer puts you right down there in DT territory).

Scientists have discovered some intricate ways that DTs fit into the ecological jigsaw puzzle:

1. In eastern oak forests, a big load of acorns (a “mast year”) results (for the next few years) in lots of white-footed mice and deer, which means fewer gypsy moths (mice eat their pupae) and more hosts for the DTs. More DTs mean more Lyme disease. Fewer acorns mean fewer mice, more gypsy moth outbreaks, and less Lyme disease.
2. The incidence of Lyme disease is linked to the presence of deer, but it also reflects the population cycles of certain small mammals. A decrease in predators like the red fox (coyotes have taken over) results in larger populations of potential tick hosts like mice and chipmunks and more Lyme disease (remember, though deer are important in the DT’s end game; most people probably get infected by a DT nymph, which hasn’t met a deer yet).
3. DTs like white-footed mice, and white-footed mice like woodlands. Research in Illinois shows that DTs are gaining a foothold in Illinois prairies by setting their sights on prairie voles instead.

So—stay inside until winter? Nope. Standard precautions include wearing light-colored clothing, using repellants containing DEET, and pulling socks over your pants cuffs to make it harder for ticks to duck and hide. According to the Center for Disease Control, “In most cases, the tick must be attached for 36-48 hours or more before the Lyme disease bacterium can be transmitted,” so do thorough tick checks of your hairline and all your nooks and crannies.

… the BugLady feels like stuff is crawling on her …

 
The BugLady

The post Deer Tick (Family Ixodidae) appeared first on Field Station.