I for one have had enough rain to last me a while. Many insects don’t have very long to get down to the business of procreation and continually postponing it due to rain can be worse than deadly. In nature, insects only live for one purpose: reproduce, that’s it. So, now the weather has turned, […]
butterflies
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HumBug: Falling Blossoms
It’s been a long rainy spell and my plum trees have been waiting in full bloom for a warm day. I kept expecting them to lose their petals but despite sometimes heavy rains and occasional hail, they kept them. I think they’re like orchids. The flowers of most orchids can hold for weeks or even […]
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HumBug: Seasons Change
Seasons change, and with them the insects we see. Headed toward winter now, there are fewer dragonflies. It seems the big common green darners are all gone now, migrated elsewhere. But on a recent stroll along the Van Duzen, I saw several others. A solitary dusty, old-looking western river cruiser and a couple too far […]
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HumBug: A Day in the Marshes
Last Friday a friend treated me to my first stroll through the Arcata Marshes. Contrary to the preconception the name gave me, I did not need hip boots or have to battle alligators. Although it’s a place well known to local birders, there were few birds to be seen. What I did see were some […]
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HumBug: Little Blue Butterflies
While most everyone is delighted by the recent rains, I await warmer weather. Since insects are ectothermic (cold blooded) they maintain a low profile when it’s cold. In the brief sunny interludes we’ve had recently, I’ve seen California hairstreaks, Acmon blues, and several other small, blue to gray butterflies that didn’t hang around long enough […]
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HumBug: Unicorns, Fairies and Damsels
Some time ago I mentioned what I think of as my “Unicorn Species,” insects I know, have seen, are impressive in some way, but of which I have yet to get a good photo. Just a few days ago, with my brand new camera in hand, an anise swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) landed on an old Cecil […]
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HumBug: Spring in the Air
A walk on a recent sunny day yielded quite a few butterflies. All were busy, few staying in one place long enough to pose for a picture. There were many Pieris marginalis (aka margined whites), which are often mistaken for their close relatives the cabbage butterfly. I saw two Nymphalis antiopa, or mourning cloaks, one […]
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HumBug: It’s a Bug’s Life
I should explain I am using the word “Bug” in the generic sense … any small creepy crawly critter born with more than four legs. There is another technical definition for the word: a member of the insect order Hemiptera. The “true bugs” are generally shield shaped, with front wings about half the size of […]
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HumBug: Bugs in Winter
I got down to the river about 2:30 p.m. I was too late; the angle of the sun didn’t light up the ground anywhere. My little dragonflies were nowhere in evidence. In fact, without the sun on the ground I saw one fly and a tiny spider and a baby centipede under a rock. That […]
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HumBug: Scaly Protection
The order of butterflies and moths, Lepidoptera, gets its name from Greek words meaning “scale wings.” Like a mosaic, those scales make up each species’ distinctive markings. Listed in the literature are a number of ways those minute scales contribute to the animal’s well being. As a layer of insulation on their body, they help […]
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HumBug: The Sister and the Admiral
Out in my back yard I saw a butterfly flying low, straight and fast, too fast to identify perfectly. It landed half way up a redwood tree and proceeded to open and close its wings, displaying its striking markings, still too far away to identify perfectly. That’s because there are two species of similar size, […]
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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 […]