Here are a baker\u2019s dozen of the bugs that the BugLady saw in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BALTIMORE CHECKERSPOT CATERPILLAR \u2013 According to one researcher, caterpillars are \u201cessentially bags of macerated leaves.<\/em>\u201d What kind of leaves does a Baltimore Checkerspot caterpillar macerate? The eggs are laid in the second half of summer on, historically, White turtlehead, a native wildflower, and more recently, Lance-leaved plantain has been added as a host plant. Both plants contain chemicals that make the caterpillars distasteful to birds, though the turtlehead has higher concentrations of them. The butterflies have adapted to use an introduced plant, but the caterpillars don\u2019t do as well on it (the BugLady has also seen them on goldenrod). Half-grown caterpillars overwinter, and when they emerge to finish eating\/maturing in spring, the turtlehead isn\u2019t up yet, so they eat the leaves of White ash and a few spring wildflowers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n LEAFCUTTER BEE ON PITCHER PLANT \u2013 Bumble bees and Honey bees are listed as the main pollinators of Purple pitcher plants, along with a flesh fly called the Pitcher plant fly (Fletcherimyia fletcheri<\/em>), a pitcher plant specialist that contacts the pollen when it shelters in the flowers. But it looks like this Leafcutter bee is having a go at it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n SEVEN-SPOTTED LADYBUGS had a moment this year; for a while in early summer, they were the only ladybug\/lady beetle that the BugLady saw. Like the Asian multicolored lady beetle, they were introduced from Eurasia on purpose in the \u201870\u2019s to eat aphids. But (and the BugLady is getting tired of singing this chorus) they made themselves at home beyond the agricultural fields and set about out-competing our native species. <\/p>\n\n\n\n An Aside: Lots of people buy sacks of ladybugs to use as pest control in their gardens. The BugLady did a little poking around to see which species were being sold. Some sites readily named a native species, but most did not specify. Several sites warned that unless you are buying lab-grown beetles, your purchase is probably native beetles scooped up during hibernation, thus posing another threat to their numbers<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOLDIER FLY LARVA \u2013 The BugLady is familiar with Soldier fly larvae in the form of the flattened, spindle-shaped larvae<\/a> that float at the surface of still waters, breathing through a \u201ctailpipe\u201d and locomoting with languid undulations. So she was pretty surprised when she saw this one trucking handily across a rock in a quiet bay along the edge of the Milwaukee River. It appears to have been crawling through\/living in the mud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n COMMON WOOD NYMPH \u2013 And an out-of-focus Common Wood Nymph at that. The BugLady has a long lens, and her arms weren\u2019t quite long enough to get the butterfly far enough away to focus this shot. And it\u2019s really hard to change lenses with a butterfly sitting on your finger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FALSE MILKWEED BUG \u2013 Milkweed bugs are seed bugs that live on milkweeds, but if you\u2019ve ever seen a milkweed bug that was not<\/em> on a milkweed (usually on an ox-eye sunflower), it was probably a False milkweed bug. They\u2019re so easily mistaken for a Small milkweed bug that one bugguide.net<\/a> commentator said that all of their pictures of Small milkweed bugs should be reviewed. Here\u2019s a Small milkweed bug<\/a> with a single black heart on its back bracketed by an almost-complete orange \u201cX\u201d; and here\u2019s the False milkweed bug<\/a>, whose markings look (to the BugLady) like an almost complete \u201cX\u201d surrounding two, nesting black hearts. One thoughtful blogger pointed out that although it looks like a distasteful milkweed feeder, it\u2019s not thought to be toxic. He wondered if this is a case of mimicry, or if the bug once fed on milkweed, developed protective (aposematic) coloration, and then changed its diet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n LARGE EMPTY OAK APPLE GALL \u2013 That\u2019s really its name, but \u201cempty\u201d refers to the less-than-solid interior of the gall<\/a> (which was made by this tiny gall wasp<\/a>). Galls are formed (generically) when a chemical introduced by the female bug that lays the egg, by the egg itself, and later by the larva, causes the plant to grow extra, sometimes bizarre, tissue at that spot. The gall maker lives in\/eats the inside of the gall until it emerges as an adult. Some galls are made by mites \u2013 same principle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SYRPHID FLIES are pretty hardy.\u00a0Some species appear on the pussy willows and dandelions of early spring, and others nectar on the last dandelions of late fall.\u00a0This one was photographed on November 17, on a sunny and breezy day with temperatures in the low 40\u2019s, 12 feet off the ground, resting on the BugLady\u2019s \u201cgo-bag\u201d (the bag of extra clothes she carries up onto the hawk tower to deal with the wind chill).<\/p>\n\n\n\n WASP WITH SPIDER \u2013 The BugLady saw a little flurry of activity near an orbweaver web on her porch one day, but she got it backward. At first she thought that the spider had snagged the wasp (a Common blue mud dauber), but it was the wasp that hopped up onto the railing with its prey, part of the spider collection she will put together for an eventual larva.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SIX-SPOTTED TIGER BEETLES grace these collections perhaps more than any other insect, because \u2013 why ever not!<\/p>\n\n\n\n JUST-EMERGED DAMSELFLY \u2013 This damselfly was so recently emerged (possibly from the shed skin nearby) that its wings are still longer than its abdomen (basic survival theory says that you put a rush on developing the parts you might need most).\u00a0Will a few of the aphids on the pondweed leaves be its first meal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is either a GREEN IMMIGRANT LEAF WEEVIL (Polydrosus formorus<\/a><\/em>) or the slightly smaller (and equally alien) PALE GREEN WEEVIL (Polydrosus impressifrons<\/a><\/em>). Whichever it is, it\u2019s been in North America for a little more than a century. Bugguide.net calls them \u201cadventive<\/em>\u201d \u2013 introduced but not well established. Eggs are laid in bark crevices or in the soil, and the larvae feed on roots. Adults eat young leaves, buds, and flowers of some hardwood, fruit, and landscape trees but are not considered big pests. Their lime-green color comes from iridescent, green scales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And a DOT-TAILED WHITEFACE in a pear tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have a Wonder-full New Year,<\/p>\n\n\n\n The BugLady<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n Note: All links leave to external sites. Greetings of the Season, BugFans, (13 bugs, because once she\u2019s got her selection down to 13, the BugLady just can\u2019t cut one more!) A Cheery Thought for the Holidays, the average home contains …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32664,"featured_media":14504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[8],"tags":[738,238,30,607,41,158,745,748,11,742,80,614,478,743,746,739,79,747,740,744,741,31,91],"class_list":["post-14503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bug-of-the-week","tag-baltimore-checkspot-caterpillar","tag-bees","tag-beetles","tag-bugs","tag-butterflies","tag-caterpillars","tag-damsleflies","tag-dot-tailed-whiteface","tag-dragonflies","tag-false-milkweed-bug","tag-flies","tag-insects","tag-ladybugs","tag-large-empty-oak-apple-gall","tag-leaf-weevil","tag-leafcutter-bee","tag-moths","tag-pale-green-weevil","tag-seven-spotted-ladybug","tag-six-spotted-tiger-beetle","tag-soldier-fly-larva","tag-spiders","tag-wasps"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"caterpillar](\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2023\/12\/baltimore-cat23-1rz.webp\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n