More catch up, more Life of Bugs

Skipper butterflies (Family Hesperioidea sp?)

Greener Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis)

Greener Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) looking into the camera

Greener Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) view 2

Bumbe bee (Bombus sp?) visiting a thistle

Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) darker coloring

Greener Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) on tire

Most likely leftovers from a mantis, monarch wings covered in dew

might be a spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi)

Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) darker coloring, possibly a pregnant female

Continuing with my catch up posts some more bugs from Brandywine Creek State Park. Up next, a trip to Longwood Gardens, trying out a new camera lens!

Playing catch up

Unknown flower

Millsboro (DE) Pond sunset 1

Aster sp? seed head

Pretty sure this is another Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) caught snacking

Skipper butterfly of some sort

Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) view 1

Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) view 2

Millsboro (DE) Pond sunset 2

So all good intentions doing regular postings in the new year kinda flew out the window a bit, missed all of February. So here’s to trying to get back on track again.

It’s a Bug’s Life

Aphids (Family Aphididae, sp?)

Milkweed bugs (Oncopeltus fasciatus)

Grasshopper (Order Orthoptera, sp?)

Grasshopper nymph (Order Orthoptera, sp?)

I believe this is a Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) feeding on a butterfly

Possibly an Eastern tailed-blue butterfly (Cupido comyntas)

Possibly a locust borer (Megacyllene robiniae)

Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus)

Metallic green bee (Agapostemon sp?)

Bumble bee (Bombus sp?)

Several different insects found in my office’s native plant garden and while visiting our station in Brandywine Creek State Park. My favorite catch was a mantis (I believe Chinese) in the act of feeding on a butterfly, gross, but fascinating. Enjoy!

Aphids

Milkweed bugs

Bumble Bee

Eastern tiger swallowtail

Eastern tailed-blue

Grasshoppers, adult and a nymph

Green metallic bee

Locust borer

Best of November Nature Photos

Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis)

Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) 2

Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) 3

Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) 4

Eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)

Really only two subjects for this month, a Chinese mantis that was on my grandmother’s porch an eastern gray squirrel. Trying to wrap up my posts for the year with the hopes of getting out more in the new year.

Here’s a link for some tips on distinguishing between the Chinese and European mantids, both of which can be found around Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Year in Nature Photography – Day 187

Bee (Bombus sp?) pollinating a passion flower (Passiflora sp?)

Bonsai “Mount Mitchell” various species

Bonsai “Rest in the Shade of the Trees” Shimpaku juniper (Juniperus chinensis var. Shimpaku)

Bonsai European Beech (Fagus sylvatica)

Full body mantis, either Chinese (Tenodara aridifolia sinensis) or European (Mantis religiosa)

Mantis (sp?) on a scarlet pitcher plant (Sarracenia x ‘Scarlet Belle’)

Mantis, either Chinese (Tenodara aridifolia sinensis) or European (Mantis religiosa)

Mating pair of mantids, either Chinese (Tenodara aridifolia sinensis) or European (Mantis religiosa)

Most likely a five-lined skink (Eumeces fasciatus)

Pretty sure this is a cicada killer wasp (Sphecius speciosus)

My roommate and I went to the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville today and so you get more pictures than usual. The mantids were out and about all over the place, though I still don’t know whether they are Chinese or European mantids. I caught a mating pair, which means that the male is going to lose his head at the end of the process 🙂  I got a full body shot, but perhaps the best shot of the day was a mantis that was clinging to a cultivated variety of pitcher plant. I suspect that it is taking advantage of the pitcher plant’s attractiveness to other insects (usually scent) and waiting for a meal to land, otherwise it may end up in the pitcher plant as well. There were a bunch of five-lined skinks running around the arboretum, they’re quite skittish and this was probably one of the better shots.

A couple more insects, both links take you to the same pdf with some information on non-honey bee stinging insects in North Carolina. I saw what I think is a cicada killer wasp based on another one I saw near it actually carrying a cicada combined with the fact that it was nesting in the ground which is typical of this species. Apparently the female wasps catch cicadas, paralyze them and then lay their eggs in them and when the eggs hatch they feed on the still living cicada. For something a little less horrific we have a bumble bee pollinating a passion flower blossom. You can clearly see the pollen collecting on the back of the bee and that the anthers and stigmas of the of the flower are arranged so that as the bee gathers nectar by moving around the center of the flower it both picks up pollen from the anthers and drops pollen on the sticky stigmas.

Finally, the arboretum has a permanent bonsai exhibit. Bonsai (literally means plantings in a tray) is a Japanese art based on similar art forms found in China but with its own aesthetics and rules. Since this is primarily a nature blog I will not go into any more detail about bonsais only to say that there are many remarkable examples using many different species of primarily woody plants.