northeast-flora-and-fauna

I'm not the fastest walker in the world these days, but I met a hiker on a trail that's even slower than me; it's a Common Box Turtle . I suspect that this is a female since the eyes of most males are red.  When I see most (suspected) female turtles on land, I normally think they're looking for a place to lay eggs before retreating back to the water. But our box turtles are different, spending most of their time on land [1]. Still, May to July is when the females lay eggs. Box turtles can live a long time; they've been known to live over 130 years. I don't remember this individual being especially large though, so I doubt she's especially old. June 23, 2023 at Washington Valley Reservoir Photo 301112364, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] My understanding is that box turtles can swim if they have to, but they prefer not to.

I guess I was on a hot streak last spring with Hackberry Emperors , since here's another one. This picture isn't as good as this 1 , but it's at least recognizable as a Hackberry Emperor.  Hackberry Emperors are another species that rarely drinks the nectar that many butterflies rely on, instead getting most of their nourishment from sap and scat. Though I don't recall this happening to me, they'll also drink sweat off of us humans to get nutrients like sodium. On the few occasions that they do drink nectar from flowers they're considered poor pollinators because only their proboscis goes into the flower, greatly limiting the pollen they could pick up. More info on these butterflies is here . June 17, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 301010242, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

These were pretty good pictures of a couple of our more common dragonflies. (I've talked about these dragonflies plenty of times before, but who doesn't appreciate a photogenic dragonfly?) Although both are males with much of the field marks of mature males, there's at least an inkling that they're slightly immature. If they're not mature enough to be out competing for the attention of lady dragonflies, they're really close. The 1st is a Widow Skimmer with wings that are black near the base, followed by a contrasting vivid white, then going clear (albeit with some veins) the rest of the way out on the wings. What I don't see though is white pruinose on the abdomen like you can see in the mature male in this picture . June 17, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 301010507, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) Next is an Eastern Pondhawk . Similar to the Widow Skimmer, you can tell the immature males from the mature ones based on pruinose, though in the case

Here's a Tufted Globetail from last spring. They are hoverflies in the globetail genus , which gets its name because the males have tails (actually abdomens) that end in little globes. (In this species the tail is more "thick and rounded" rather than a globe.) If this individual was a female, the abdomen would have ended in more of a point. I generally expect these flies to have more prominent black stripes on the abdomen, though I'm not sure how much variation they can have. If you were thinking this was a wasp, the hoverfly is doing its job; most hoverflies are wasp/bee mimics who "impersonate" stinging insects to get some of the protection their stinging look-alikes command. Although they can be found throughout most of North America, they're especially prevalent in Canada and the northern US. Hoverflies are also called "flower flies" (also syrphids) because as adults they're basically pollinating insects who hang around flowering plan

There are a bunch of bees around here; this 1 is (probably) a Wilke's Mining Bee . (A very technical description is here .) This is not a native bee, though they've been over here for a long time. There's a theory that they made the trip over here within ship ballast. Not unlike European humans, they've spread out and thrived over here, probably at the expense of native residents [1]. Although these bees are known to like pollinating legumes like clovers and Bird's-foot Trefoil , that's not a hard-and-fast rule; this bee seems to be enjoying a Common Yarrow . Despite evolving on a different continent, they do have fairly close relatives in the US. We have mining bees  here, and all mining bees are in the same genus. They get their name from a tendency to dig holes in the ground, but they're not looking for precious metals; that's where the nests for their offspring will reside [2]. These bees were named by the 19th century entomologist William Kirby , bu

Here's another Brown-belted Bumblebee I met last spring. About a decade and a half ago DreamWorks put out a Kung Fu Panda movie; is it time for a Kung Fu Bumblebee movie [1]? And if so, I'd imagine that our own Brown-belted Bumblebee would be a natural for the titular hero who "floats like a butterfly, stings like a bumblebee ". And I'd imagine the Asian Giant Hornet (aka "murder hornet") would be a more than reasonable villain.  Another choice might be a similar bumblebee that just barely includes New Jersey in its range, the Red-belted Bumblebee . Although it doesn't sound like every variety of martial arts recognizes a red belt, apparently kung fu does , where it's considered slightly higher than a brown belt [2]. Regardless of the bumblebee chosen, the star would probably be female since male bumblebees can't sting. I suppose the movie could be about a male bumblebee who, lacking the ability to sting, learns martial arts, but if you

Here are a couple of butterflies without fancy patterns or flashy colors that occasionally are mistaken for moths . They are a Clouded Sulphur and a Cabbage White , which are in the white and sulphur genera respectively, and both of which are in the same family of butterflies .  As smallish and somewhat plain-looking butterflies, you might not be surprised to learn they're somewhat related. The female Clouded/Orange Sulphurs can look virtually white, making the family resemblance even stronger. While I'm treating butterflies and moths as different groups under the lepidopterans , they're not exactly radically different groups. It's certain that butterflies evolved from moths ( when and why discussed here ), and so there's some reason to consider butterflies to be a subset of moths. This isn't too different from the people who consider birds/dinosaurs to be types of reptiles [1]. June 15, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 300993980, (c) jpviolette, so

Here's a Sulphur-winged Grasshopper I met last spring. Or at least that's the ID I got from iNaturalist (and it seems to be a reasonable ID). I got a pretty good picture of this individual, and although I'd have liked to have gotten different angles, grasshoppers are rarely cooperative and are very good at flying off when I try and maneuver around them. Sulphur-winged Grasshoppers are, unfortunately, more than a little variable in appearance . Admittedly they don't look like puppies or woodpeckers, but their coloring isn't especially uniform. I do see some faint banding on the rear leg femur, and there is a yellow ring around the rear leg tibia. The head might look a little boxier than some other grasshoppers, but I'm not sure you can see the pronotum (a saddle-like shield just behind the head) well enough to help with the identification. If I had a picture of the grasshopper with its wings open, and if we saw a sulphur-colored band on those wings, this identif

Here's an invasive wildflower you can see in a lot of places, a Purple Crownvetch . I've discussed this wildflower before , so I'll just add a few more factoids: Like other legumes, they indirectly help restore nitrogen to the soil. That's due to a symbiotic relationship the plant has established with rhizobia , a bacteria that requires a host plant and converts nitrogen in the air into ammonia in the soil. It's slow to establish itself, but once it does its deep weeds, nitrogen fixing , and aggressive behavior make it very difficult to get rid of. It's unclear that any wildlife will eat it, though Differential Grasshoppers and a few others are suspected of giving it a try from time to time. One native wildflower suggested as an alternative, the Wood Vetch , is considered so flammable that it's recommended to keep it away from homes. (There might not be a great native alternative.) The "vetch" part of the name comes from a Latin word (vincire) me

Here's a Little Wood Satyr and Appalachian Brown from last June. "Satyr and Brown" aren't a law firm; they are a couple of moderately closely related butterflies collectively in the satyrini tribe . Note that in human groups I would expect a tribe to be a wider set of relations containing multiple families, but in taxonomy it's the opposite; the family is the wider group and can contain multiple tribes. So the Little Wood Satyr and Appalachian Brown are more closely related than some butterflies in their family. Although the spots on the wings and (to a lesser extent) the lines on the wings allow us to distinguish between these butterflies, I suspect you can see a resemblance. Besides the similar background color and general wing shape, just having spots and lines (even if the spots and lines differ a bit) is suggestive of a relationship. These family members could dine together, at least as adults. Both tend to avoid nectar and gravitate towards foods like sap

Here's some Foxglove Beardtongue from last spring. This is a native wildflower with (somewhat) bell-shaped blossoms that's considered popular with all bees but especially favored by bumblebees.  What a name, heh? It almost sounds like the name came from a random name generator that went on too long. It's actually named after 2 different genera of flowers, the foxgloves and the beardtongues . Since Foxglove Beardtongue is a type of beardtongue but is not a type of foxglove, you should probably interpret the name something like "a beardtongue that resembles a foxglove". (Since both foxgloves and beardtongues are in the plantain family , perhaps it's not too surprising that there's a resemblance between the 2 [1].) What are the differences? This article (which seems to mix up species/genus a little) mentions several things, like foxgloves being from Europe and having bell-flowers that hang down while beardtongues are North American plants with tubular flow

I'm pretty sure this Painted Turtle was out of the water and in loose sandy soil in order to lay eggs. (This picture doesn't show the carapace scutes well enough to tell if she's an Eastern Painted Turtle , though they are our most common subspecies of Painted Turtle.) There is another possible explanation for this turtle's presence, though it's also related to egg-laying. Apparently females will sometimes create a false nest, presumably to frustrate the many animals (like foxes, snakes, crows, raccoons, even some squirrels - basically any carnivore/omnivore that can find the eggs) that will eat turtle eggs. Sadly for turtles, a large number of them never get past the egg phase of their development. Our Eastern Painted Turtles don't lay a lot of eggs; usually a clutch will have around 5 eggs. Particularly large Painted Turtles generally lay more eggs at a time. This particular turtle seemed a little small so I wouldn't expect much more than 5. She might lay

I probably should have made this the Valentine's Day post, as love was in the air last spring for the Red Milkweed Beetles [1]. And yes, they're doing what you think they're doing. And what better place for milkweed longhorn beetles to meet than on leaves of milkweed? Though not true bugs , they (and other beetles ) almost certainly qualify as colloquial bugs. June 15, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 300991569, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) June 15, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 300991584, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] In truth, I can't be sure this is love, though I'm fairly confident they were enjoying each other's company.

Here are a couple butterflies I met last spring, a Great Spangled Fritillary and a Hackberry Emperor . Both of them are midsized butterflies of 1 main color but with a lot of complicated patterns too. Despite these similarities, the mostly orange Great Spangled Fritillary and the mostly brown Hackberry Emperor are unlikely to be mistaken for 1 another, at least if you get a good look at them. (It might get more difficult if you throw the Variegated Fritillary and/or the Tawny Emperor into the mix.) I'm told that the proper way to address an emperor is "Your Imperial Majesty"; remember this if you run across a Hackberry Emperor. (I'm guessing you could address a Great Spangled Fritillary as "Your Greatness", though I could be wrong about that.) Great Spangled Fritillary June 15, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 300991022, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) Hackberry Emperor June 15, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 300993316, (

Here are 2 similar-looking milkweeds, a Purple Milkweed and a couple Common Milkweeds . Though the veins on the leaves of the Purple Milkweed are considered a little more perpendicular to the central vein compared to the Common Milkweed, but mostly I tell the difference based on the much brighter purple flowers of the Purple Milkweed [1]. Color-wise the Swamp Milkweed could be confused with the Purple Milkweed, but the Swamp Milkweed leaves are so much narrower that you shouldn't worry about confusing them. AFAIK these 2 related, similar-looking milkweeds don't hybridize in the wild, though us humans have coaxed some hybridization between species. It sounds like the motivation behind this is the hope that some milkweed cultivars might convince gardeners to plant them and benefiting the environment. A successful hybrid would: Produce the same quality/abundance of nectar as native milkweeds. Would not be able to hybridize in the wild with our native milkweeds. As native plants

Here's an interesting member of the milkweeds, part of the dogbane family . It's a Butterfly Milkweed (AKA Butterfly Weed ). This milkweed is known for its small but bright orange flowers; when in bloom they're pretty easy to spot. They do have a taller relative, the Fewflower Milkweed which is technically in New Jersey but I'm not sure I've ever seen one [1]. A lot of times you can verify that a plant is a milkweed (or dogbane) by breaking a small part of a leaf; if you see a white sticky latex-like substance oozing out, you've got a milkweed (or dogbane). This stuff is what makes milkweeds poisonous and makes the Monarch caterpillars that eat it poisonous too. Butterfly Milkweed doesn't really ooze this substance. My understanding is that Monarch caterpillars can/will eat Butterfly Milkweed but won't become poisonous like their relatives who feed on other milkweed species [2].  Though their flowers are small, they are considered to be fairly prolifi

Here are a couple of Seven-spotted Lady Beetles from last spring. They can be identified by their 2 (relatively) large white spots on their heads. You might think it would be easier to identify them by their 7 spots, which these 2 individuals have. Unfortunately spots on these types of beetles tends to vary. The Seven-spotted Lady Beetle usually has 7 spots but can have as many as 9 spots and as few as zero spots. I grew up calling these ladybugs while in Britain they're called ladybirds. Neither of these names are great since they are neither birds or true bugs [1]. They are a type of beetle though, so using the "lady beetle" terminology is better. (Admittedly the "lady" part of the name is still inaccurate for the males of the population, though that's an inaccuracy for another time.) June 15, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 300990664, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) June 15, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 300989540, (c)

Last spring I met a couple hairstreaks, a Red-banded Hairstreak and a Banded Hairstreak . Or at least I think it's a Banded Hairstreak; the tricky Hickory Hairstreak is notoriously similar. A lot depends on how long you consider that bluish area under the orange spot to be, apparently [1]. The hairstreaks are named for a characteristic that isn't apparent given the precision of my pictures. In most species, the tail (really the end of the abdomen) has small hairs present [2]. Despite the Banded Hairstreak and the Red-banded Hairstreak having similar names, they're in different genera. They're certainly related, but both have closer relatives than each other. Though small, most hairstreaks have a clean/crisp look. Once you see a few of them, you'll probably get a hairstreak vibe when you see the next 1. I've previously shown you other hairstreaks: Gray Hairstreak and Juniper Hairstreak . Red-banded Hairstreak June 15, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo

Here are a couple small butterflies that can be distinguished, though not at a glance. It's one of our azures and an Eastern Tailed-Blue . This 2 butterflies are similar enough in appearance to suggest some level of relatedness, and they're in the same tribe . (A tribe is a taxonomic level between family and genus.) Let's take a minute to distinguish between these guys. First I'll mention that butterfly watchers will sometimes give you a behavioral identification; if they see 1 of these butterflies flying low to the ground and only moderately fast, they'll identify them as Eastern Tailed-Blues. And if the butterflies are zippier and away from the ground, they're inclined to identify them as one of the azures. (Exactly which azure was a topic in another posting .) While behavioral IDing might work a high percentage of the time, I have seen it fail too. You probably shouldn't argue with such an ID unless you get good looks at the butterfly when it's stati

Those of us living in the real world don't get a chance to see unicorns ... unless they are Unicorn Clubtail dragonflies, that is. But while the mythical unicorn has a very prominent horn, the Unicorn Clubtail has a more modest point on their occiput (an area between the eyes at the top of the head ). Although some descriptions call this point "conspicuous": It's pretty easy to miss it as a field mark, and isn't even easy to see in pictures like the 1 below. On the other hand, if you're an entomologist examining a captured dragonfly , it suddenly becomes a very useful way of identifying these guys. Clubtail dragonflies are a bit different from the average dragonfly:  Their abdomens are mostly thinner than other types of dragonflies, but which widen at the last few segments (S7-S9) into something like a club. At least this is usually true for the clubtails, though there are some species with virtually no club. (Unfortunately for the club analogy, the clubta