northeast-flora-and-fauna

I met this Little Wood Satyr this past July at Washington Valley Park. Although NJ doesn't have - as far as I know - the nymphs and satyrs of Greek mythology, they do have nymphs and satyrs of modern lepidoptery.  As caterpillars, these butterflies feast on various grasses. Most of their relatives are green as caterpillars, but the Little Wood Satyr is brown during their caterpillar phase. One thing they'll drink as adults is aphid honeydew . Is it possible that they could be one of the few beneficiaries of the Spotted Lanternfly , and prolific producer of honeydew? There are at least 2 taxonomic issues relating to the Little Wood Satyr: They seem to breed readily with a butterfly found in the south, the Viola's Wood Satyr ; are they the same species? They frequently have 2 broods that occur too close together for the 1st brood to be the parents of the 2nd brood; some people think these 2 broods might be 2 different but nearly identical species. Currently Little Wood Sa

Here is a Red Milkweed Beetle couple I met while they were in the throes of passion. These are fairly commonly found on milkweeds, especially the Common Milkweed. Though not particularly large, their red bodies with black spots and long black antenna makes them stand out pretty well on the mostly-green milkweed plants they're usually found on. The red is considered aposematic coloring in that it warns would-be predators that these beetles are at least bad tasting and potentially poisonous. It achieves this despite limiting it's exposure to the milky latex substance in milkweeds. They will bite through a leaf's vein first, impeding the flow of the latex "down vein" of the leaf, and then they'll do their eating down there where they don't encounter a lot of the latex. (Apparently the latex could harden over their mouths, so if they get latex on themselves they quickly try and scrape it off.) Although females are considered to be slightly larger, the males

This was the first Monarch butterfly I photographed in 2021. This is a little anticlimactic for 2 reasons: Since this time, I've taken many Monarch butterfly pictures. I think I had been spotting Monarchs for almost a month before this picture even though I missed getting a photograph for one reason or another. Notice that this Monarch isn't on a flower looking for nectar; it appears to be on a milkweed (probably Common Milkweed ) leaf. It's at least possible that this was a female looking to lay an egg on a milkweed leaf. (I didn't check this; it's possible that getting to the plant would have meant traipsing further into a meadow than I wanted.) July 10, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 148186168, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a pretty good look at how the Question Mark butterfly got its name - the almost-white dot and curl may not be oriented the way you'd expect a "?" to be, but that sideways question mark dot-and-curl is classic for this butterfly. (Note that if you see just the curl without an accompanying dot, you're looking at a comma. In my area, the butterfly usually turns out to be the Eastern Comma .) July 10, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 148186128, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) Though you can't see the curl and/or dot when they open their wings, they're actually more colorful with that view. Technically you can distinguish the Question Mark from its comma cousins by looking at the dark blotches on the top of the wings. I discussed that in a prior post . July 10, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 148186079, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Today I want to show two different frog species, both with similar coloring and size, the American Bullfrog and the Green Frog . These are both largish frogs that tend to stay close to water and are fairly abundant in central NJ. With quite a bit of overlap in size and coloring, the easiest way to differentiate them is that Green Frogs have a dorsolateral ridge on each side going from the eye down its back. The American Bullfrog has a ridge that starts at the eye, continues just past the eardrum, and then veers downward instead of across the back. These frogs were both at Sourland Mountain Preserve. I was a little surprised that the small pond seemed to only have the Bullfrogs but when I went up the mountain to an even smaller pond I saw only Green Frogs. It's almost like these guys agreed to split the park up. American Bullfrog June 25, 2021 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 141961699, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) Green Frog June 25, 2021 at Sourland Mountain

I know I posted a Violet Dancer picture fairly recently , but I liked the way this picture came out. You can see the vibrant color, and the little fella is even looking at the camera. The Violet Dancer isn't actually a species; it's a subspecies of the Variable Dancer . Generally I'm in favor of using subspecies when different populations of a species look quite a bit different from one another, and that's the case for the Variable Dancer. The Black Dancer and the Smoky-winged Dancer do look quite a bit different from the Violet Dancer despite being able to breed with one another. Dancers were named by people impressed with their flying skills; it is highly unlikely that one will dance the Hokey Pokey with you. June 17, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 141974717, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a butterfly I usually see more of, but haven't seen as much this year, a Common Buckeye . They tend to like meadows but also like mudpuddling , so you can sometimes see them on trails going through meadows. They are a bit camera-shy though, and tend to fly off if you get their attention. I think of this as our most colorful earth-tones butterfly. Granted you can spot a little blue in the eyespot designs on the wings, but for a mostly-brown butterfly they're fairly eye catching.  June 25, 2021 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 141962973, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

I've been a little disappointed that I haven't seen more Painted Lady (or their American Lady cousins) this season, but I did find a pair early in the summer at Sourland. (I believe these are pictures of separate butterflies, though all I can say for sure is that there were 2 there, and they'd occasionally flutter in the same general airspace, making it hard to track the individuals.) This is considered the most widespread butterfly in the world, with populations living in the Americas and in Eurasia/Africa. They also engage in absurdly long migrations, especially some that range from Africa to northern Asia. You can tell the first picture is a Painted Lady because the orange in the forewing lacks a small white dot. That dot is a key differentiator from the American Lady. June 25, 2021 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 141962788, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) In the second picture we can see the underwing. If you look at the hind wing, you should be ab

I saw a juvenile Canada Goose  (accompanied by 2 adults) early in the summer. This might be the awkward age for Canada Geese; they're not the cute, fluffy guys they were shortly after hatching, but they also don't have the sharp black-and-white necks/heads that give the adults a handsome look. You can see this fella just starting to get it's adult plumage, and is still a little smaller than the adults. Fast forward to today, I'm thinking we'd have a hard time distinguishing it from an adult. Canada Geese are considered to be pretty good parents. They don't have as many young as some of our ducks, so they have more time to devote to showing their individual kids how to be functioning adults. June 25, 2021 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 141961502, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a meadow that, as best as I can determine, was dominated in June by wildflowers called fleabanes . In the first picture you can see the wildflowers fairly well; in the second picture you can see just how much of it was growing out there. (It's difficult to be certain that all that white was the same type of wildflower, though based on what I could see I'm pretty sure the vast majority of it was the same plant.) There are a few different fleabanes kicking around central NJ. I'm suspicious these are Prairie Fleabanes (aka Lesser Daisy Fleabanes) since this species is known to live on the property. My picture doesn't give a great view of the leaves, but individual leaves would clasp (have a connection all around) to the stem in a Philadelphia Fleabane  (aka Common Fleabane). The Eastern Daisy Fleabane is a more subtle species to differentiate from the Prairie Fleabane; the Eastern Daisy Fleabane is more likely to have toothed leaves, generally looks leafier, h

Here's a Green Heron at Duke Farms. The heron looks a little like it was stalking something, slowly approaching while focused on prey. But it was probably a false alarm; I didn't see the heron catch - or even lunge at - anything. Most herons are happy to wade in water, but the Green Heron prefers to stand outside of water when hunting for prey. I suspect this perch is a little too far above the water to allow the heron to reach the water with a strike with its beak, though other spots on this downed tree could be a perfect fishing spot for it. As I've mentioned before, there's no taxonomic difference between herons and egrets. In this area the Green Heron's closest relatives aren't the Great Blue or the Little Blue Herons, it is the Cattle Egret. (The Great Blue Heron's closest relative in this area is the Great Egret.) June 23, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 141961334, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's an Asiatic Lady Beetle I met. I suspect it was looking for something to eat on a Multifloral Rose. I know they eat small arthropods like aphids; I'm not sure what the beetle was looking for on the Multifloral Rose. (It's possible that early stage Spotted Lanternfly nymphs might be on the menu, though I suspect they rapidly get too large for the Asiatic Lady Beetle.) My impression is that most of the "ladybugs" we see turn out to be Asiatic Lady Beetles. (Entomologists cringe a little about the ladybug name since these guys are not bugs but are beetles. Of course, the exact same complaint is also valid for lightning bugs.) This is considered an invasive species, and has no doubt out-competed similar native beetles. They were introduced intentionally to control aphids, and while they do eat aphids it's certainly debatable whether they should have been brought here. Their coloring is wildly variable. This one is nearly yellow with black spots, but red/ora

Here's a Great Spangled Fritillary I met early in the summer, probably nectaring on Common Milkweed. This is a classic wildflower for the Great Spangled Fritillary; they seem to prefer flowers that are purple/pink/red. (Although not very many animals can eat milkweed plants, their nectar is popular with lots of pollinators.) There's also a purple link to them as caterpillars; they use violets as host plants. Caterpillars that hatch this year actually don't eat until after hibernating through the coming winter. When things start to warm up, they'll hopefully find some healthy violet leaves to chow down on. As butterflies whose development is tied to winter, I would have expected to see all of the summer's GSFs approximately the same time of year, but I've seen them June - August. I don't know why some would emerge from hibernation significantly sooner, so I suspect some caterpillars take longer to find the violets they need to eat. I suspect that these guys

If you know where to look, it's not unusual to find Butterfly Milkweed . It's fairly common in meadows, and its bright, normally orange flowers stand out from most other plants. But I've been surprised that there's a spot in the Orchid Range Meadow at Duke Farms, which pretty much annually has what's apparently a Butterfly Milkweed that has yellow rather than orange flowers. It's hard to be certain, but the yellow Butterfly Milkweed seems to be in approximately the same place in the meadow each year. And there's usually orange Butterfly Milkweed nearby. I initially wondered if there was an underabundance or overabundance of some soil nutrient in this spot, and that was causing the unorthodox flower color. And I also assumed I wasn't likely to be the first person to see yellow Butterfly Milkweed, regardless of the underlying cause, so I did an internet search. I quickly discovered that: Yellow Butterfly Milkweed is sometimes found naturally. It's (rel

I saw quite a few Spotted Lanternflies last year, but I'm definitely seeing more of them this year. (On Monday I actually had two get stuck going inside my shirt - not sure what those guys were thinking.) This invasive insect, spreading like crazy in NJ, hurts many of our plants (including some agriculturally important one) by sucking sap from them. It also excretes a honeydew onto our plants that attracts mold that can damage plant fruits/seeds/leaves. Because of this, Spotted Lanternflies can even damage plants that it does eat if those plants are underneath a plant it does eat; the forest understory could be indirectly damaged by these guys. These guys are true bugs , not flies like their name suggests. Aphids and cicadas are other true bugs, though they're not close relatives to the Spotted Lanternflies. Though I think there's too many of these guys to squish our way out of an infestation, the official advice is to kill them if you find them. Here are pictures of Spot

Here are a couple Bumble Bee Mimic Robber Flies I ran across a couple months ago. And while it may look like they had an argument and are disdainfully looking away from each other, they're actually mating. Although there could be exceptions, in general I believe flies (including robber flies), butterflies/moths, and true bugs tend to mate with the ends of their abdomens connecting, while with beetles, mantises, and grasshoppers the males mount the females. (Yes, I've seen a fair amount of "insect porn" out there - these guys are shameless.) These flies are a little unpopular in some circles because: We've been told we need to protect bees. These robber flies actually eat bees. (I suspect they'll eat bee relatives we tend to feel less empathy for, like wasps/hornets, unless the wasps/hornets are substantially bigger than our bees.) Note that I don't see enough robber flies that I believe they're having much of an effect on bee populations. My guess is

Let's show two of these guys today. They are a pair of Eastern Pondhawks I met about the same time a couple months back. The blue one is certainly a male. The green one is probably a female, though juvenile males of this species look an awful lot like females. As with many dragonflies, as the males age they become covered with pruinose, especially on the abdomen, but in Eastern Pondhawks you'll also see this on the thorax. In some species the pruinose is mostly white (like in Common Whitetails and Widow Skimmers), but in Eastern Pondhawks it's light blue. So while there's quite a bit of sexual dimorphism in mature Eastern Pondhawks, there's almost no sexual dimorphism amongst the juveniles. Finally, while it's possible that these 2 crazy kids might be a couple and have larvae together, it's at least possible the green one will eventually be a blue rival of the already-blue pondhawk. Presumed female Eastern Pondhawk June 17, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve P

Here's a Margined Leatherwing Beetle I met. Generally speaking they are friends to gardeners, eating pest insects as larvae and operating as pollinators as adults (like in the picture). And even as adults, it sounds like they'll occasionally snack on very small insects like aphids. These guys are a type of soldier beetle . Despite the name, they're not particularly militaristic; apparently some types of soldier beetles are red, and they were named after British Redcoat soldiers. The red soldier beetles probably look a bit like our fireflies, which isn't too big of a surprise since they're both beetles. Probably coincidentally with fireflies, both their larvae are considered pretty voracious predators while (generally) having mellower behavior as adults. June 17, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 141959969, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a Double-crested Cormorant I saw back in June. Some of my sources (field guides and online) suggest that these guys are only here during migration while others say they can be here all year. I'm not sure if this fella was just a late migrator or if this is where he's spending the summer. I suspect a few stay in New Jersey for the summer even though most of them are up north. As always, you can see the cormorant swims much lower in the water compared to the duck/goose community. You can see the back is just barely above water. It's easy to think that by being less buoyant than ducks helps cormorants in their specialty: deep diving in water in search of food. (There are ducks that will submerge completely, though I'll bet they can't keep up with their cormorant neighbors when it comes to depth.) June 17, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 141959702, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

I probably should have posted this with my spring/summer Periodical Cicada posts; this is the exuviae  (pronounced sorta like ig-ZOO-vee-EE) of one of our Periodical Cicadas . In some areas these things were all over the place this year. This is the remains of the exoskeleton of a cicada nymph; the nymph stage is the one just prior to them becoming flying, screaming adults we all know and love. I specifically picked this picture because its unambiguously the exuviae rather than a nymph that's on the verge of shedding its exuviea, a process called ecdysis  (pronounced EK-duh-sis by some, though ek-DEE-sis seems to be out there too). You can partially see through it in places, guaranteeing that there's no nymph in there. Although they emerge at somewhat different times of the year, I usually distinguish the Periodical Cicadas from the Annual Cicadas by color, especially the red eyes of the former versus the green eyes of the latter. Timing-wise, this was almost certainly a Period

Though I've talked about them a lot, this was a pretty good picture of an immature male Common Whitetail . The coloring of the thorax and abdomen looks pretty much exactly like an adult female, but the dark spots on the wings are indicative of a male - this combination is probably a solid identifier of an immature male. Since these guys only live a few weeks as adults, I suspect that he'll be getting his white "tail" (really the abdomen) pretty quickly. Even if this guy doesn't father children (probably because something eats him before he gets the chance), he's gotten a lot further in life than most of his siblings. It's estimated that 99.9% die before emerging from their aquatic nymph stage of life. June 17, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 141958818, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

For Throwback Thursday, here's a picture from a little over 9 years ago, probably taken from a smartphone. It's an Eastern Ratsnake  I met at Sourland Mountain Preserve. I was walking down a rocky path when I suddenly encountered the snake. Though startling, I knew that this mostly-black snake couldn't be either of my area's 2 venomous snakes (i.e. Copperhead, Eastern Timber Rattlesnake). Though I thought the snake was pretty big at the time, they can apparently get much bigger than this fella; they can get up to 7 feet long. When I posted this to iNaturalist, I tentatively IDed it as a Northern Black Racer. I got the comment that in my area the Northern Black Racer wouldn't have that dim pattern on the back, which then left what my field guide called the Black Ratsnake. But apparently my field guide is a little out of date concerning the ratsnakes, and this is now classified as an Eastern Ratsnake. Apparently the ratsnakes used to be categorized mostly by color, w

Here's a Great Blue Skimmer , or at least that's my best theory. Since the males have light blue abdomens while the females are instead brown, I believe that this is a juvenile. It certainly has the white face that's rare in our dragonflies, and has blue eyes that I'd expect to see (though the eyes are a paler blue in adults). Great Blue Skimmers are considered the largest skimmer that lives in NJ, though they're considered a little mellower than the typical skimmer. Fun fact: Great Blue Skimmers are not closely related to Great Blue Herons. 😀 June 17, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 141958903, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

A couple days ago I showed a male Calico Pennant ; later in the day I got this picture of a female Calico Pennant . This is yet another species that shows sexual dimorphism, in this case with the coloring clearly distinguishing the males from the females. In some cases this means flashy, colorful males and drab, subdued coloring in the females. While the female Calico Pennants aren't as eye-catching as their red male counterparts, you could argue that the yellowish-gold coloring of the females is also fairly good-looking. The markings (wing spots, stigmas, thorax/abdomen patterns) are extremely similar between the males and the females; the color difference is the easiest way to tell them apart. Incidentally, the stigmas (in this case the yellow patch near the end of the wings) weigh more than most of the wing, and can function as a vibration dampener on the fast-flapping wings. June 17, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 141958682, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-N

Here's a Violet Dancer I met earlier in the year at the Plainsboro Preserve. The dancers aren't dragonflies; they're damselflies. Like most damselflies, they have very thin abdomens and they hold their wings straight up when at rest. And while many odonates like to rest on higher perches, the dancers seem to prefer resting on the ground instead. Numerous places consider this to be our best-looking damselfly, almost certainly because of the almost unique light purple coloring of the males. Though they're a little on the small side, their color can get the attention of the careful observer. Though my field guide says they're uncommon, I've seen them at least 8 times over the last 4 years, and I've seen them in at least 5 different locations.  June 17, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 141958266, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's (presumably) a Calico Pennant that I met back in June. It's got a lot of Calico Pennant characteristics: A black abdomen with red marks on it. A reddish face. Mostly veiny wings with light red stigmas near the end of the wings. And maybe most important, near the base of the rear wings there is an amber spot surrounded by a darker brown spot. But it does have a couple characteristics I don't usually see in a Calico Pennant. Mostly I would have expected to see brown areas at the end of each wing. The almost complete absence of these brown spots is unusual in a Calico. Normally I'd wonder if this was a young Calico, and the wing ends would brown up as it gets older, but a young Calico is supposed to have a yellow face.  So while I'm fairly sure this is a Calico Pennant, I have to admit that this isn't quite a classic look for them. June 17, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 141958221, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's another Widow Skimmer dragonfly I met. If dragonflies were more cooperative photography subjects, I'd probably try to get a picture like this plus a spread-wing picture from above the dragonfly. This angle gives me a pretty good look at the eyes/face/thorax/abdomen, but it's harder to use the wings as identification here. Having said that, I suspect this is a young male. Though the abdomen coloring is consistent with a female, I think I see a little pale white on the wings. If so, that's probably the male's pruinose just starting to come in. June 17, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 141957941, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Hurricane Ida ripped through my area on Wednesday, leaving lots of damage. My personal experience wasn't bad at all. Although it was raining when I got up Wednesday morning, it was mostly just cloudy during the afternoon. I even did a relatively quick run for groceries in the afternoon without getting wet. Late in the afternoon (maybe a little before 5pm) it started raining, and built to a heavy rain fairly quickly. My smartphone began giving me alerts that flash flooding was a danger, which it continued to do into the wee hours of the morning. This was more annoying than helpful; my apartment is on a hill that's probably 30 feet above street level, and AFAIK the street isn't prone to flooding. Still, I think I saw that NJ had one of the highest Hurricane Ida death counts, so these alerts probably are helpful reminders to at least some people near me. (There was one flash flooding tragedy on Rt 22 very close by.) More concerning was that I got one alert about a tornado. A

The Plainsboro Preserve had a honeybee hive out adjacent to one of their meadows. Though these are not wild bees (that hive was no doubt made and is being maintained by humans), there are also plenty of Western (aka European) Honeybees that are living wild in New Jersey. I don't know the backstory on this hive. I'm assuming there were plants the preserve wanted pollinated, though it's possible that honeybees are a part of one of their educational programs.  Honeybees are a slightly controversial insect, at least when they're not pollinating agricultural crops. This is because they aren't a native insect but are instead an introduced species, and when they take nectar/pollen from our flowers there is just less out there for our native pollinators (e.g. bumblebees, sweat bees, wasps, flower flies, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds). I suppose they might also help spread invasive plants they recognize as a food source that native pollinators might fail to recognize, th

A couple months ago I saw a family hanging out together. Not people or animals, this family consisted of a dogbane and a milkweed growing up side-by-side; both are in what is colloquially called the dogbane family . I'm almost certain that the purplish flower buds on the right are from a Common Milkweed , while I'm only reasonably certain that the smaller-leafed guy with whitish flowers are a Hemp Dogbane . Though they are family, I'm sure there's a fierce family rivalry going on here to see which plant gets the most resources and propagates the most future plants. It's not hard to believe these wildflowers are related: The leaf structure (at least between these 2 species) is similar. Broken leaves/stems will exude a white, latex-like substance. They both have a cluster of small flowers (though less densely packed in the dogbane). Both will produce seed pods with white fluff to catch the wind and distribute the seeds. (The milkweed pod will be quite a bit larger, bu