Bugs and Butterflies

[Cedars]

This was a first on the meadows for me, well the first time I absolutely know what I was taking pics of. These guys are one of the types which overwinter as adults in wisconsin. Numbers can vary greatly with some years being better than others. I also photographed a Varigated Fritillary which is also one of the migrants.

[Cedars]

I got a late start to the meadows, due to the cold morning. No point in venturing out for bugs who need time to warm up. So I didnt get to cover near the ground I usually do. I did pick a road I have skipped the last two trips because its short and rain was coming and near where I planned to exit. I was amazed at the changes that have occurred in the last couple of weeks. There were literally hundreds of these wasps building their nests or guarding them against predators (predator post to follow). I saw their little faces near the entrances and they would duck out of sight if I stopped to get a closer look. Then within a few seconds (maybe 10) they would approach their holes entrance and peek out. They still would not leave their lair. So I hit them with the flash on.

 

Later as I left the road I found a spot where one was on the ground. The clouds had rolled in making the picture harder (for me). Flash was too bright washing out the bug. This wasp seemed to be searching for its lair, a lair destroyed by a person driving this short road, rather than walking it. Which bothers me because of my bug photography and the destruction to the ground nesters (and butterflies), but the traffic does keep the prairie from moving in and taking over the sand spots. So its a mixed bag on the meadows.

 

Best I can figure so far is this is:

Order Hymenoptera - Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies

No Taxon Aculeata - Bees, Ants, and other Stinging Wasps

No Taxon Apoid Wasps (Apoidea)- traditional Sphecidae

Family Crabronidae

Subfamily Crabroninae - Square-headed Wasps

 

A second possibility is

Subfamily Bembicinae

 

But I am really leaning towards Crabroninae

 

 

OK. Pic 1 (sWaspOld) was taken last year and is typically what the nests which are sealed look like. This pic may or may not be the same type of bee/wasp as there are several who make these kinds of nests on the meadows. Of this grouping of wasps, some were tunneled down, some were mound like and others were into the sides of the roads where it banked some.

 

Pic 2 (sWasp1) and Pic 3 (sWasp2) are of the individual who had lost its nest due to traffic.

 

Pic 4 (sWaspN) is a mound that was occupied. This mound had its outsides smoothed by the recent rains on the meadows.

 

Pic 5 (sWaspN2) is when I hit the occupant with the flash.

 

Watch for the followup on Cuckoo Wasps as its directly related to these photos.

[freeztar]

Now THAT is what I'm talking about!

 

Great post Cedars!! And those are some amazing photos!!

 

Thanks for sharing. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post.

[Cedars]

Cuckoo Wasps are different from Cuckoo Bees. One thing common to both Cuckoo bees and Cuckoo wasps is their habit of parasitoid or cleptoparasitic young rearing methods.

 

On the meadows, I observed this cuckoo wasp waiting for its opportunity to infest the nest of this particular type of Crabronidae(?) wasp. I walked west on the road and observed the wasp, photographed it and continued to the lake. When I came back, the cuckoo wasp was still lurking outside of these nests (there were 3 within a foot). The cuckoo wasp took off a few times, just to circle back, never getting more than 6 feet away in which ever direction it flew (always along the road or its very edges) so I know it was the same wasp returning at this time.

 

This site, while based on Italian/european cuckoo wasps it is a good source of info and generally fits the N.American genus' also.

Chrysis.net - Chrysidid generalities

 

 

I wish the light had been better but this was when the rain laden clouds had rolled in, dimming the light.

 

cucoo1 is the first sighting. The wasp is crawling away from a failed nest entrance.

cucoo2 is a return trip photo.

cucoo3 is a different angle after the cuckoo returned. I forgot to shut off the flash but liked the pic.

cucoo4 shows the entry to one of the three nests the cuckoo wasp was watching.

[freeztar]

Perhaps you might be able to explain this Cedars...

 

When I was in Mexico, on the beach, I was laying in a hammock with my new bride and we noticed some strange behavior from a wasp about three feet away.

 

It was very odd looking. It looked to me like it had a growth protruding from its anterior. My wife commented that it was carrying something. Sure enough, it landed and dropped its load, which appeared to be a dead fly. It then began to create a conical depression in the ground (maybe 1 inch deep at its center). It then dropped the fly in the center and began to kick dirt on top of it. As we watched, the wasp was very skittish of us and flew away several times only to circle back and begin again. It just kept throwing sand on this dead fly.

 

Why would the wasp be doing this? Is it hoping to munch on it later? Is it perhaps protecting its eggs which it laid in the fly??

 

Inquiring minds want to know. :lol:

[Cedars]

Perhaps you might be able to explain this Cedars...

 

When I was in Mexico, on the beach, I was laying in a hammock with my new bride and we noticed some strange behavior from a wasp about three feet away.

 

It was very odd looking. It looked to me like it had a growth protruding from its anterior. My wife commented that it was carrying something. Sure enough, it landed and dropped its load, which appeared to be a dead fly. It then began to create a conical depression in the ground (maybe 1 inch deep at its center). It then dropped the fly in the center and began to kick dirt on top of it. As we watched, the wasp was very skittish of us and flew away several times only to circle back and begin again. It just kept throwing sand on this dead fly.

 

Why would the wasp be doing this? Is it hoping to munch on it later? Is it perhaps protecting its eggs which it laid in the fly??

 

Inquiring minds want to know. :lol:

 

While I am not familiar with all the variations on Thread waisted wasps (assuming this was one), there are large numbers of hunting wasps who live individually and specialize in (or not) in types of prey. Some use caterpillars, some go after spiders, some take anything they can catch. The ones I am most familiar with all build some kind of nest, mud daubers for example.

 

Egg laid in or on the fly.

 

Heres one from bugguide that digs a hole:

Genus Ammophila - BugGuide.Net

 

One thing I am curious about is where the high tide mark is in proximity to the nest. I wonder if water is a hatching trigger, or if young venture out to sea at all (probably not).

 

I am guessing no pics.

[freeztar]

While I am not familiar with all the variations on Thread waisted wasps (assuming this was one), there are large numbers of hunting wasps who live individually and specialize in (or not) in types of prey. Some use caterpillars, some go after spiders, some take anything they can catch. The ones I am most familiar with all build some kind of nest, mud daubers for example.

 

Egg laid in or on the fly.

 

Heres one from bugguide that digs a hole:

Genus Ammophila - BugGuide.Net

 

One thing I am curious about is where the high tide mark is in proximity to the nest. I wonder if water is a hatching trigger, or if young venture out to sea at all (probably not).

 

I am guessing no pics.

 

No, no pics unfortunately. It wasn't really on the beach per se, so water wouldn't play a role (not in a tidal zone). Also, fwiw, it was on an island called Isla Mujeres.

 

I'll poke around bugguide to see if anything looks familiar. Thanks for the starting point link!

[Cedars]

Got an invite to join a buddy at the meadows. Even though I had made my weekly trek and even though the afternoon looked shaky weather wise and even though the day started out cold, I made the trek to the meadows arriving at 8am.

 

Wow. Great day again. Karners were in flight in several spots on the meadows. So we undertook an unofficial Karner count (mixed in with our normal bug/butterfly hunting). We only counted the Karners which we could identify as male or female and we counted 14, 6 females, 8 males. This is the largest number of karners I have seen in one visit. There were a couple which floated by which we could not identify and whos flight was fast and far so to avoid uneccessary stress on the butterflys we would ignore those. We did our best (and I think we were successful) to not double count. Most of these were on one road in an area 50 feet wide 200 feet long. That area held 6 males and four females. This is also where we found the marked butterfly.

 

Attached is a picture of a male karner who looks to be a marked Karner. Someone must be studying their movements. The maker was on one side of the butterfly (right) and is the black marking on the lower hindwing.

 

The smaller picture is the marker, full pic size.

[Cedars]

At the meadows July 31, 2009 we returned to the wasp nests to add to the pictures. I wanted to show my crex companion the cuckoo bees and test out her new lense with something colorful and small.

 

I did manage to capture one of the wasps returning to its lair with food. The prey in this shot appears to be some kind of weevil possibly this one:

 

Curculionidae - Lixus concavus - BugGuide.Net

 

I dont think the image of the prey is good enough for a firm ID, but this type is noted in Wisconsin. Another wasp returned to a nest with what appeared to be a caterpillar and a third had some other type of insect, probably spider, possibly beetle but there is no way to determine it.

 

The second picture is of a cuckoo wasp hanging over a wasp nest on a piece of grass about 8 inches from the wasps lair. I did get to see a fast action, 2 second glimpse of a cuckoo wasp almost getting busted coming out of a wasp lair and the attack was fast but the cuckoo wasp escaped.

[TheBigDog]

I am documenting them now. They are individually mounted between panes of glass. Some are double mounted. Each small frame has the common name, the latin name, the date it was caught and the location it was caught. Most appear to be from 1915 and 1916. Very fine condition considering the age! I am taking pictures of four at a time on a sheet of paper with a ruler at the top edge for scale. I am also noting all the details which are hand written on the inside edge of each frame. My grandpa's writing is not the best so I am doing some interpretation.

 

Bill

[TheBigDog]

Spent the past couple of hours documenting the collection, and I am not happy with the pictures I took. I never got the lighting and the angles right. I should have mounted the camera. Oh, well. I did get everything, and I will make due with what I got. We are numbering the specimens and I will include those numbers as I get them posted. If we need better photos we can ask my sister Sam to take em for us using the serial numbers as a guide.

 

Bill

[Cedars]

Spent the past couple of hours documenting the collection, and I am not happy with the pictures I took. I never got the lighting and the angles right. I should have mounted the camera. Oh, well. I did get everything, and I will make due with what I got. We are numbering the specimens and I will include those numbers as I get them posted. If we need better photos we can ask my sister Sam to take em for us using the serial numbers as a guide.

 

Bill

Looking forward to the posts

 

Did your grandpa make the display boxes? I am interested in them also. Looks like they offer both views (top and lower). I do find butterflies dead and gather them and am looking for ideas on displays.

[TheBigDog]

He did make the frames. They are wood frames sandwiched between two panes of glass. He originally glued them together and added masking tape some time later.

 

If I had the time to do this exercise again I would make a jig that would hold them on end and allow me to rotate them 360 degrees. Then I would video each all the way around and pull photos from the video. You really get different colors at different angles on some of them.

 

I will be posting them when I get back home. Two days of driving about to begin...

 

Bill

[Cedars]

A good bug, mostly. Predator both as lavae and adult. This one is Asilus sericeus. Older writings on the web indicate this is a big butterfly hunter. So far, all the individuals of this specie I have seen on the meadows has been without prey. It is not one of the more common Crex predators, I am lucky to see two or three a year. This one is a male, females have a sharp tip on their abdomen for laying their eggs.

 

Pictures taken July 11, 2009 and are of the same individual.

[Cedars]

The weather this year hindered some of the butterflying. Prolonged cold and very dry conditions sucked. Learned a lot via the butterfly trek in June. May is a big month in the meadows and hopefully next year I will be able to get there to wander the wetlands a bit more. I have a particular bog in mind north of the meadows, which may hold a couple pretty rare wisconsin species. Got a few people perked up about the butterflies in the area of the meadows. Thinking of expanding my searching to a couple of MN parks, if these others begin to document in the meadows.

 

Total species (not including moths) documented on Crex so far: 71

Missing this year - Common Buckeye, American Lady, Baltimore checkerspot.

Numbers way down for Silver bordered Fritillary, Northern Crescents, White Admirals.

 

Likely to exist but not documented fully (some pics but unable to get top and bottom shots for absolute confirmation):

 

Tawny edged skipper

Hackberry emporer *photos taken in two locations near crex, observed on two occasions in crex but unable to photograph.

Northern Pearly-eye (photo taken by a friend who wasnt 100% sure of location, but at least very near crex border)

Henry's elfin - Seen by a pro on butterfly trek, but was unable to photograph on crex. Now I know where to look for them and will confirm next may.

 

Probably exist:

Crossline skipper

Little glassy wing skipper

Pepper and Salt Skipper - Seen north of Crex, same county. Early flier.

Gray comma

 

New for me on Crex this year:

Silver spotted skipper (historic record in Burnett)

Harvester (first record in Burnett)

Dusted Skipper

Milberts Tortoiseshell (saw several times, 3 in one day)

Painted Lady - Late sighting

Indian Skipper

Northern Cloudy wing

Reakirts Blue - migrant, only spotted once

Eyed Brown

Western-tailed Blue

Persuis Duskywing

 

Specie Explosions (large numbers seen):

Little wood satyr - Phenomenal numbers in June. Everywhere you looked. Literally 100s in a day

Common Wood Nymph - Spectacular numbers in July. Present through early september

Coral Hairstreaks - Highest number of the hairstreaks. Other hairstreak numbers down or same as last year.

Common Ringlet - Last year saw two in a day. This year saw 50 in a day.

Eyed Brown - Large numbers but first year able to ID correctly so no baseline for expected numbers.

 

Two different orgs asked for permission to use some of my photos for their sites, so that was a big compliment for me. Caught a couple other sites using my photos without permission so I cleared that up (all I wanted was a link back to my site). Still waiting for confirmation on a moth I photographed, which seems to be a new species that is still being described (I didnt discover it). And butterflys are on the down side of their cycle (peaked in 2005) so the best years are still to come (sometime around 2012).