Tiger by the Tail Looking out my window I saw a large, yellow and black striped butterfly, the Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus). The family papilio includes the zebra, black, spicebush, anise, pipevine and pale swallowtails. The tiger is the largest and most common of them all with a wingspan of 4 or 5 inches. Their larvae […]
Anthony Westkamper
Posted inNews (NCJ)
HumBug: Solitary Wasps
Working in my garden, I noticed a small blue black wasp flicking its shiny wings as it dashed across the dirt, searching here and there. I can hazard a guess as to what it was looking for: a spider. Much has been written about the social wasps and their organization, diligence and sacrifice for the […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
HumBug: The 40-year-old Mystery
When I was in the Navy I never minded midnight topside watch on the ship I was on in Long Beach. I’ve always loved glow-in-the-dark things, and I never tired of looking into the faintly luminous blue fire swirling in the warm bay waters. That was before the Internet and Wikipedia, so my options to […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
HumBug: Tigers by the Tail
Looking out my window today I saw a happy and familiar sight, the instantly recognizable large, yellow and black striped butterfly, the Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus). The family papilio includes the zebra, black, spicebush, anise, pipevine and pale swallowtails. The tiger is the largest and most common of them all with a wingspan of […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
HumBug: What’s Up, Tiger Beatle?
One of my favorite beetle species is out and about now. You might see them by the dozen hunting on sandy stretches of river bar. Cicindela oregano, commonly known as Western Tiger Beetle. About half an inch long and gray, they dart here and there and are among the fastest running creatures for their size. According to […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Impostors and Bloodsuckers
A Bee or Not a Bee? Recently out in the yard, a glimpse of the insect world’s most popular warning colors of black and yellow hinted that the buzzing around me might be a bumblebee. I was eager to get a good picture to send into the Bumblebee Watch Project. Noting declining bumblebee populations, it requests anyone […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
HumBug: Tourists
Two years ago in early June I got a “County Record” to my name. That’s what Odonata Central calls it when you are the first to report sighting a particular species of dragonfly or damselfly in a given county. You send in an identifiable photograph, the place and date. They evaluate your photo to assure […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
HumBug: Ticks
As the song says, “Spring is in the air.” It fills my mind with visions of birds migrating, flowers blooming and ticks! I was reminded of this today taking a photo of a local alligator lizard in my back yard. I am not a person who says, “There is room for every living thing in […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
HumBug: Mimics
Yesterday, when I went out to my backyard to admire a flowering cherry tree I felt like the big ape on the top of the Empire State building. Like an old biplane, something buzzed around and around me at a dizzying pace. A glimpse of the insect world’s most popular warning colors of black and […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Zombies and Natural Born Killers
Zombie Dung Flies While working in my front yard, I noticed insects flying around at ankle height. Soon enough one landed. I identified it as the familiar ‘golden dung fly’ (Scathophaga stercoraria). As its name implies, its life revolves around animal droppings, especially those of large herbivores. They spend their larval stage feeding on it, […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
HumBug: Moths and Unicorns
Today, gazing out my window, enjoying a touch of soft melancholy, I watched the white flower petals drifting down from a plum tree. Soon they will be just trees again, not towering bouquets of pink and white. One petal broke my reverie. It fell up and to the left instead of down and to the […]
Posted inNews (NCJ)
HumBug: Killer Wrigglers
Last night I mercilessly killed a couple hundred of the deadliest animals on the planet, maybe averted a plague and fed the hungry. I hardly worked up a sweat. Statistically, more human deaths (not to mention misery) are caused annually by mosquito borne diseases than those carried by any other critter. At last count they […]