northeast-flora-and-fauna

Satyrs may have started out in Greek mythology, but these days you can find them in modern lepidoptery. Here are a couple of Little Wood Satyrs I saw at 2 different locations on the same spring day. Many of the satyrines (aka "browns") abstain from nectar-feeding altogether as adult butterflies, preferring sap, rotting fruit, and other organic juices. Little Wood Satyrs break with their brethren species in this regard, and thus can sometimes be found on flowers. They're also known to feed off aphid honeydew  [1]. As caterpillars the satyrines tend to chow down on grasses and sedges; perhaps the butterfly in the 1st picture is reminiscing about a memorable meal from its childhood? Or regretting that it's now completely unable to consume blades of grass? May 18, 2023 at Fairview Farm Photo 292810726, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) May 18, 2023 at Willowwood Arboretum Photo 292813027, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] Given their ta...

I don't often photograph ants. As fairly small insects, it's frequently difficult for me to get a good enough picture of them to post/identify, but after plenty of iNaturalist IDs I feel fairly good about claiming this as a Ferruginous Carpenter Ant (aka Red Carpenter Ant) [1]. Though I couldn't find a lot of information on the Ferruginous Carpenter Ant, Wikipedia has a pretty good article on carpenter ants in general. They get the "carpenter" part of their name from their ability to bore into wood to build their nests. Unlike termites though, they chew holes in wood only to build a home; they can't eat the wood. There's some question about how bad carpenter ants are for trees. Though they do chew into the tree, they may either eat other insects that feed on the trees, or they may just attack the other insects because they don't want them in the tree-neighborhood. But there is an exception to this: aphids or caterpillars that poop out honeydew may b...

Here's someone I haven't posted about [1], an invasive insect called the European Hornet . If you're into wasps, these gals - as eusocial insects , probably every one I've ever seen was a female - are cool to look at. The rich blackish-red on most of the front of the abdomen contrasts well with the golden-yellow at the back, and they're actually big enough for you to actually see this without lens. Of course, if you've been stung, you might classify them as scary rather than good looking [2]. They are thought to have been introduced to the US (presumably accidentally) in the 1840s, and over the last 180 years they've spread throughout most of the eastern US. And they're probably not done spreading. Did you know that North America has zero native hornets? Anything you see over here named "hornet" is either: Invasive, like the European Hornet. Slightly misnamed, like the Bald-faced Hornet , which is actually an aerial yellowjacket. (Admittedly th...

At Duke Farms Pop-up Education stands, we've been talking quite a bit about Spotted Lanternflies , and have started to see them in their 1st instar form. Tonight I did a few web searches to try and answer a question that's come up a few times: Does the Spotted Lanternfly need to feed on a Tree of Heaven to complete its life cycle? Here's what I found: Both this Penn State article and this National Park Service article  state that Tree of Heaven is not required for Spotted Lanternflies to complete their life cycle (and thus reproduce). But while this Nature article confirms that Tree of Heaven isn't necessary for them to reproduce, it says that Spotted Lanternflies produce only 1/7th of the egg masses when they don't feed on Tree of Heaven. That's an 86% reduction! They note that the smaller egg masses don't seem to be any less healthy. They speculate that without TOH to eat, SFLs take longer to develop into adults. If true, the effectiveness of removing TO...

Here's another moth I met at the Duke Farms mothing event: the Ailanthus Webworm Moth . Despite the nighttime event where this fella showed up, you can frequently see them in broad daylight too. In fact, that's when I usually see them. There are (at least) 2 interesting things about these moths. First, they don't look much like moths. With their wings held close to their bodies, they could easily pass for some sort of beetle. You might think they look more like moths when they fly, but I'm told they look more like wasps when in flight. The 2nd interesting thing about them is the Ailanthus Webworm Moth wasn't originally from around here; they were originally from southern Florida to Costa Rica where they would (as caterpillars) eat Paradise Trees (or a related tree that will remain nameless ). Because this was where their food was, this is where these moths would hang out. In 1784 though something happened that would eventually (though not immediately) allow them to...

As Spotted Lanternflies spread through the area, I see the full spectrum of responses: Occasionally I see people who have little or no idea about them. (Usually these are from people living in areas where the Spotted Lanternfly isn't yet prominent.) There is a Facebook group I'm in where people have heard about the threat of Spotted Lanternflies, but they misidentify all but the most recognizable insects as Spotted Lanternflies, frequently will the "kill it" advice. (If you're advising people to kill something, it's a good idea to have the right insect.) But there are quite a few people who are getting fairly knowledgeable about Spotted Lanternflies, knowing what they are and killing them in a variety of ways. (Many times children have heard about them, presumably from school.) For an extremely abundant invasive insect, the Spotted Lanternfly isn't known for its brilliant strategy. They can be trapped fairly effectively without chemicals by taking advant...

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...

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...