Insects from Whetstone Prairie - 2014

I've been finding mostly the same insects around my garden, so I decided to branch out and visit Whetstone Prairie. The variety of plants there is very good, which means that there should be a good diversity of insects as well. I didn't spend a lot of time since we had a party to go to Saturday evening, but I managed to find some different beetles and bugs, and lots of activity on the flowers. I'll have to spend some quality time there later on this summer.  I also need to get the identifications on most of these insects. I'll post an update when I have some names to go along with the photos.

Here's a sampler of what I saw at Whetstone Prairie:

Bombus on purple coneflower. The pollen load she's carrying is a wonder to behold.

Unidentified beetle - very colorful

Honeybee on beebalm

Carpenter bee on beebalm

 (blister beetle - Epicautus sp.)

Honeybee on purple coneflower

Conopidae flies and  passenger - not sure what was going on here, but it certainly caught my eye.

Another beetle

flesh fly

Some type of bug - in the literal sense of Hemiptera - the true bugs. I like the white stripes along the edges of the carapace and on the legs. Very elegant. (White-margined burrower bug: Sehirus cinctus)

cricket nymph

Asian multicolored lady beetle. Many of our native species are disappearing, so every  time I see a lady beetle, I try to photograph it to see what species it might be. I've not seen a native species in Ohio after a few years of looking. You'll notice some fungus on the wing covers - apparently this doesn't seem to bother the beetle very much.

Another true bug of some sort.

another species of beetle

Yellow-faced bee, I think. (Hylaeus modest us)

A shield bug - not the invasive brown marmorated stinkbug, though.

False Milkweed bug - Lygaeus turcicus

Lightning bug - I saw several of these beetles perches like this - maybe releasing pheromones?

A nymph of some species - looks like an interesting insect. It's on a grey coneflower.

Diabrotica cristata

I was glad to see so many honeybees at work.

A plant hopper of some sort

From my garden series - Interesting insects part 2

I've been experimenting with my twin flash, Canon 100 mm f/2.8L lens, and two extension tubes. It's much more challenging to maneuver close to an insect with such a large contraption on the end of the camera, and I've discovered that the long legged flies do not like the flash at all. Everytime I click the shutter button and the flash begins, the flies jump. Sometimes I get lucky and the fly is still in focus, as you'll see below. 

Here's what I saw yesterday evening:

Lucilia sp. - a beneficial insect for the garden.

longhorn grasshopper - aka tree cricket. This is a nymph.

Red aphids - fortunately, I've only seen these on a weed that has taken over some brickwork.

Condylostylus sipho - female - long legged flies do not like the flash!

Flesh fly - Sarcophaga sp.

Harvestman - aka Daddy Longlegs. Not a spider - closer to a scorpion than a spider.

Bombus impatiens - visiting my purple coneflowers

I've never seen a dragonfly in the garden before, so this was a welcome addition to my collection...

Another harvestman

Cute leaf hopper - I've learned where these guys hang out in the front garden.

No clue as to the moth or butterfly species, but this caterpillar is happily chomping on my crassula in the front garden.

From my garden series - interesting insects

Since dusting off my Canon 100mm/f2.8 L macro lens last week, I've been finding a lot of interesting bugs in the garden.  I'm particularly interested in the diversity of fly species - most of them predatory on other insects, some are nectar or pollen feeders, though.  I showed some of these photos to my son and he was creeped out.  I guess some people aren't into interesting critters, eh? When you look closely at insects, you see how marvelously they are adapted to their realm. The specialized mouth parts, defense structures, eyes, antennae, genitalia - all are so different than what we're used to seeing in mammals, birds, fish, and insects. Viva la différence!

Here's a sampling of my bug menagerie that inhabits my garden:

Hover Fly aka Syrphid Fly - larvae are predators, adults feed on nectar and/or pollen. Are used as biocontrol agents for aphids. In other words - a good insect for the garden.

Bombus impatiens - one of the bumblebee species found in Ohio. All pollinators are welcome to my garden.

Another hover fly or syrphid fly - Toxomerus marginatus

Long legged fly - Condylostylus sipho - male. This is another predatory fly. They like to hang out on leaves.

Female long legged fly - Condylostylus sipho

Snipe fly - don't know which species, but this is another predatory insect.

Cluster fly - a species of Pollenia. The larvae of cluster flies are parasites of earthworms. The adults can be pests in the house in that they like to overwinter in homes. Although they resemble house flies, they are not harmful to humans or pets. Notice how the wings are folded as the fly is at rest? This is a big difference from house flies.

Lonhorn grasshopper nymph - female. Scudderia sp. These are also known as bush katydids. They chomp on garden plants, so they're not particularly helpful to the garden. They are kind of cute, though.

Toxomerus marginatus - I like the dramatic setting with the light on my boxwood - lots of shade in the background.

Japanese beetle - Popillia japonica - definitely a garden pest. They eat everything! I actually think they're beautiful to look at, but they are not welcome in my garden.

Red aphids - I've only seen them on weeds thus far, but they are not welcome on my vegetables and ornamentals.

This is a nymph of the brown marmorated stinkbug - another invasive garden pest. They are definitely interesting in appearance, though.

Orb weaver spider (Neoscona crucifera?) eating a scarab beetle. It's hanging out on one of my crassula plants.

I've received most of my insect identifications from BugGuide.

Some more insects are posted here: Scenes from my garden - July 2014

Scenes from my garden - July 2014

I've spent the past few years building up my perennial collection in the front and back gardens. The nice thing about perennials is that you can divide them after a few years to increase the number of flowering plants. This is great for attracting all sorts of insects and the local birds. Every-once-in-awhile I take some time to do some macro photography, or to just photograph the flowers. Here's a sampling from July 1, 2014:

Purple cone flower

Purple cone flower

Purple cone flower

Purple cone flower

Red Rocks penstemon and a cerotina bee

Red Rocks penstemon and cerotina bee

Gooseneck loosestrife

Lucilia spp fly on gooseneck loosestrife

Lucilia spp fly on gooseneck loosestrife

Leaf hopper on the mirror

Last night as I was brushing my teeth in the upstairs bathroom, Steve called me from the bottom of the stairs, "Andi - come look at my bug!" He was brushing his teeth in the downstairs bathroom and found this little critter clinging to the mirror.

It's a species of Gyponana - one of the leaf hoppers found in the garden during the summer months. I've no idea why it came into the house - maybe it was clinging to the fur of one of our dogs, or hitched a ride on a shirt after one of us was working in the garden. After photographing it I took it outside. It had to hop around the kitchen for a bit before I could shoo it out the back door.

Busy, busy, busy....

The past few weeks have been very busy for me. I was in Phoenix for the American Association of Woodturners symposium. I did the photography for the event and have been posting the AAW archive photos to the AAW Facebook page as well as my own. You can find the link to my FB page in the sidebar of this blog.

I'm also working on a lot of research for my presentations next month at the Botany2014 meeting, which will be useful for a grant proposal I'm submitting before I leave for the meeting. Along those lines, I've been processing a lot of photos from my trip to Utah last month for the American Penstemon Society meeting.

One of the more unusual species of Penstemon is P. ambiguus. We saw P. ambiguus var. laevissiumus in eastern Utah, and I have to say that the flower of this species is totally atypical for the genus. Back in 1963 Richard Straw published a paper on the pollination of this species. It had been hypothesized that it was pollinated by butterflies because of its strong resemblance to Phlox. However, Straw reported that it is pollinated by bombylid flies (bee flies).

It's truly one of my favorite species of Penstemon.  The flowers are relatively small and delicate and the habit is a small shrub scattered about desert dunes or among sagebrush.

Beardtongue

I've spent my career studying a very interesting genus of plants that is native to North America. It's the genus Penstemon, which has the common name "Beardtongue."  From this photo of Penstemon palmeri, you should understand why....

Penstemon palmeri ©2014 Andi Wolfe

Penstemon is the largest genus of plants that is found only in North America, having nearly 300 species. The diversity is amazing with some flowers being shorter than half an inch, and others, such as P. palmeri, having flowers a couple of inches long and nearly as wide. Some species form short mats, carpeting a hillside with tiny leaves but very large flowers. Others are brilliant red and pollinated by hummingbirds.

Am I totally smitten by this genus? Why, yes, of course I am.....