The approach of Halloween may bring to mind bats, crows, toads and spiders, but there is another creature that fits in with the holiday’s theme: the burying beetle, aka sexton beetle (Nicrophorus defodiens). It’s aptly named, as a sexton is a person who maintains a church’s buildings and churchyard, and whose duties once included digging […]
Beetles
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Gardening Undercover
Despite the early morning temperatures in the middle 20s, I made a visit to the winter garden during a lull between rainstorms. Because of the cold and the rain, much of the vegetable garden is muddy and even the winter-hardy cole crops look mushy. But this is the perfect time to check on the garden […]
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Wizard Sticks
Like all wizards, my old friend Merdalf carried a long wooden staff. It was covered in markings that looked like ancient runes and mysterious maps. He found it washed up on the beach. Unfortunately, Merdalf the Wizard violated some unwritten rule of wizardry and fell into a magic bottomless pit. On calm nights, you can […]
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HumBug: Saps, Jumpers and Stingers
Lacquering a dowel, I found half a dozen tiny beetles waiting for the chance to entomb themselves in the artificial amber. These are sap beetles. They are usually minute like this one, and different members of the family (nitidulidae) feed on various things including rotten fruit. Some years ago my strawberry patch was infested with […]
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HumBug: Three for a Rainy Day
With rainy cold days suppressing entomological activity it put my assertion that there’s always, ALWAYS something interesting to find outdoors to the test. So, camera in hand, I went looking. The weather forecast said it would snow down to 1,000 feet elevation, so it was indeed cold out and there was very little activity above […]
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HumBug: Hello, Handsome
While moving firewood, I happened on a small beetle with an interesting pronatum. Its orange thorax was flared outward. A quick look up in Pacific Northwest Insects showed me it was a handsome fungus beetle” (Aphorista lactus). I’ve never seen the words “handsome” and “fungus” in the same sentence before. No accounting for taste, I […]
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HumBug: Missing Dragonflies
This summer I have been bemoaning the lack of dragonflies along my stretch of Van Duzen River. The number of species is low as is the number of individuals of the few species I’ve seen. They just haven’t been there. My guess is that they, in their incarnation as aquatic larvae, and their prey have […]
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Who’s Hungry?
Deadly Darlingtonias About two hours north of Eureka on State Route 199, a few miles past Gasquet, a small sign announces, “Botanical Trail.” It’s a very short drive on a good gravel road to the parking area. A little walk on the well-marked trail puts you in the middle of a Darlingtonia Bog. Here, where […]
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HumBug: Dining Out in June
The fifth of June invited me to take my favorite stroll along the Van Duzen River. Things are at last heating up in the insect world. While I was checking out some daisies, a shadow flitted past me. It was member of the well-known migratory dragonfly species, the common green darner (Anax junius). This is […]
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HumBug: A Walk in the Woods
When I looked out today the sun was shining and the bugs were out. I set my computer and camera to acquire a stack of photos of a snail hunting beetle I’d collected on a late night walk, and out the door I went. I managed to identify four different species of butterfly and the […]
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Bald Faced Fliers and Beetle Mania
The bald faced truth I decided to devote this week’s contribution to a single unpopular species. Known for its large size, aggressive behavior and powerful sting, the bald faced hornet (Dolichovespula maculata) is liked by few people. They’re neither completely bald faced nor technically hornets. Their white faces are sparsely covered with setae (hairs) and […]
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HumBug: Beetles in the Spring
While beetles were my first love when I started studying insects and are believed to have the greatest number of species of any of the insect orders, I find I seldom write about them. There are plenty to write about. The following are just a few I’ve seen in the last week. Two years ago […]