Moths at a light: Hartt Island

And now for something completely different ...

We were part of three families who took their RVs to Hartt Island Campground in July, a beautiful spot situated on the St. John River west of Fredericton. There was a giant set of double floodlights that illuminated the wharf and area all night that attracted hundreds if not thousands of moths. This is a poor attempt to show the activity at the light.

Two new dragonflies

Yesterday (16 July), I photographed some dragonflies at the bog in the University of New Brunswick woodlot, which I accessed at lunchtime from the forestry complex. The one with the black marks on the wings is a Common Whitetail (Libellula lydia); the other is a Chalk-fronted Corporal (L. julia). (Lydia and Julia! Someone must have had some fun naming these.) These are males, and have developed a white colouration called pruinescence. Both species are in the Skimmer family, LIBELLULIDAE.

The first whitetail was sitting on a chain-link fence on my property on 15 June. I was trimming grass when something made me stop. I'm glad I did, because I was able to photograph my first whitetail in New Brunswick.

Three new moths

I continue to take many images of moths at my porch light and elsewhere. They're piling up, and it will take a good while to id them all. Here three geometrids from earlier this spring:
7213 Small Phoenix
7329 Variable Carpet
6321 Black-banded Orange
The latter moth (#6321) is a small day-flying moth that looks rather like a tiny butterfly.
(The numbers are called Hodges numbers, and are used to identify every moth in North America.)

My First Luna Moth

I walked out my front door Saturday morning, and took pictures of two moths on the wall. I turned back to see what else was there, and nearly jumped out of my skin. There was a large Luna Moth (Actias luna, Family Saturniidae), beside the front door! It was so low down that its tail was curved out along the concrete. I left it there all day, but on Sunday I transferred it to a hanging planter that I had just purchased. On Monday it had moved to the opposite side of the planter, but on Tuesday it had disappeared.

Saturniid adults exist only to mate. They do all their eating as larvae, and come out of the pupa without mouthparts. After mating, they just wait around to die, their purpose completed. Perhaps this one has found another safe place to rest for awhile.

Bumblebees

I've been quiet for some time, busy with many things and with going through 4000 insect images. Here are some images of bumblebees. On May 11 I found this bumblebee sitting on my front doorbell. Perhaps it was warming itself using what little energy the light gave off. The other two images are of a Common Eastern Bumble Bee - Bombus impatiens and a Tricolored bumblebee - Bombus ternarius.

Great Golden Digger Wasp from Maine

Slim pickings at this time of year. However, I am gradually going through my unidentified pix from the last 2 years and throwing some in to BugGuide for identification. We vacationed in Maine last August, and I saw this large wasp actively searching for prey around a little hole in the sand on a trail around the lake at Ferry Beach State Park, Old Orchard Beach. I consider Maine pix to be acceptable for a blog on New Brunswick insects - it's close enough. This wasp is a Great Golden Digger Wasp (SPHECIDAE Sphex ichnumoneus). I watched it for about 30 minutes, but couldn't get any great pix as it would not stay still.

A few mammals

This is a downtime for insects, so maybe I'll show you some mammal pics. This cooperative chipmunk often hangs out on the knob set up in a friend's garden. There have been at least three little brown bats resting for days during late summer at the side entrance to the Atlantic Forestry Centre where I work. I have pics of all of them. And finally, this raccoon was caught robbing my bird feeder last week. I'm going to have to move the feeder out of reach.

Western Conifer Seed Bugs

On 11 November 2006 I found two Western Conifer Seed Bugs (Leptoglossus occidentalis), one inside the house and one outside (see photographs). They were tame and easily handled, and I was able to take many images.

Dwayne Sabine of the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources (DNR) says this: “As near as I have been able to determine, the first report of Western Conifer-seed Bug in the province was on 12 July 1999 at the conifer seed orchards at Kingsclear [near Fredericton], and from Fredericton a few times thereafter (Danny O'Shea, DNR). Tony Thomas also found it in Fredericton, on October 27, 2004. It apparently showed up in Ontario in the mid-1980s and in Quebec in 2003. Its distribution and abundance in NB is probably unknown.”

The original range of Leptoglossus was confined to the western third of North America, but is now expanding its range eastward. The insect can be a nuisance because the adults enter buildings looking for a warm place to spend the winter. However, they will not feed or cause damage to fabrics, wood or anything else.

The case of the disappearing moth

This Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronoba) appeared on the wall under my porch light. I grabbed it and, while I held it on my hand, it disappeared before my eyes in a ghostly transformation! Pictures don't lie, do they? Now you can say you've seen a picture of a ghost moth!

Virginia Ctenucha, a day-flying wasp moth

The Virginia Ctenucha (Ctenucha virginica) is a large, common day-flying wasp moth in the Subfamily Ctenuchinae (Wasp Moths) in the family ARCTIIDAE (Tiger Moths). The body is metallic blue and the head and sides of the collar are orange. It feeds on grasses, sedges and irises. These pictures were taken at a Christmas tree farm on Upper Woodland Road south of Stanley on 6 July 2006. It's not often that you find and are able to photograph a moth emerging from a pupa.

The other moth species (seen here mating on a leaf, 10 August 2006 in Fredericton) is a look-alike, which I had misidentified as a Virginia Ctenucha. It is a Yellow-collared Scape Moth (Cisseps fulvicollis), of the same subfamily as Ctenucha, and is common to abundant in our area. The body is bluish black with an orange collar that forms a narrow band behind the black head. Scape moths eat grasses, lichens and spike-rushes.

Pelecinid wasps in my backyard

This large black wasp with the incredibly long abdomen is a Pelecinid Wasp (Pelecinus polyturator), the only member of the pelecinidae in North America. These are females, as the smaller males are seldom seen. Pelecinids parasitize of the grubs of June beetles, which are those white C-shaped grubs that you dig up in your garden. The female uses her long abdomen to probe into the soil and lay eggs on the grubs. I found and photographed these three different females in my yard last year (2006), but I haven't seen any this year.

Edit 27 Jan 08: With the help of BugGuide, I have identified the image of a small black wasp as a male pelecinid. See above.

A harvestman eats a fly

We were in Ferry Beach State Park in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, on 11 August when I spied this tiny drama taking place. One of the kids present was fascinated and another couldn't care less. A harvestman (Order Opiliones) was sucking the juices out of a large fly.

Eventually it got nervous and dragged the fly to a lower leaf, where it continued feeding.

I returned an hour or so later, and the harvestman was finished its meal and was resting on a nearby leaf. (The conical structure beside its body may be a gall produced by a gall wasp - see comment for correct id.)

More on Gypsy Moth

A holiday in the Bar Harbour area of Maine last week produced these images of mating European Gypsy Moths (Lymantria dispar). This female crawled to a sheltered spot under a board behind a shed at a campground. She pupated (see the image of the dark mass with a shed larval skin beside it), then emerged as a large white adult. The females don't fly, so she moved a short distance away, emitted her pheromones, and attracted a much smaller, brown male. After mating (next image), she deposited her eggs close by (third image). The egg masses can contain an average of 500 eggs.

NB Crane Flies

Phantom Crane Fies (Bittacomorpha clavipes) are an amazing sight when seen drifting along a wooded trail with their legs outstretched. The white bands on their black bodies and legs give them the appearance of a series of unconnected mid-air dots. Two are shown here mating. These flies are in the family PTYCHOPTERIDAE, while other, more common crane files, such as this Pedicia Crane Fly (Pedicia sp.) are placed in the TIPULIDAE. These 2 images were taken about this time last year.

A quick trip to Texas

We made a quick trip to Austin, Texas, last week to visit family. I managed to get out for some walks near where we were staying just southwest of the city.

Cicadas were everywhere, and calling at peak capacity, making a walk through the treed neighbourhood a noisy experience. I found several pupal skins and one newly emerged adult. These are not the 17-year species, but an annual species (Tibicen sp.) that emerges every year during the "dog days" of summer (hence another name for them, the Dog-day Cicada). You can clearly see the bright green adult and the cast skin in the picture above.

Two good butterflies were the Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia) and the White-striped Longtail (Chioides albofasciatus).

Collecting Gypsy Moth larvae

I have been to the south end of Grand Lake recently collecting Gypsy Moth larvae in an oak stand for a Canadian Forest Service study. The critters have increased in numbers a bit this season because of a milder winter. A close look at the older larvae reveals some striking red and blue spots, but the younger ones look more orange (bottom image). The image at top shows caterpillars massed on an oak trunk; the pale mass near the bottom is an egg mass.

The next image shows a larva killed by a naturally occurring fungus, which in a small way helps to limit the population. A close look will reveal many tiny fungal fruiting bodies.

The third image shows a mature larva actively munching away on an oak leaf.

The Gypsy Moth (Lymantria dispar) is in the family LYMANTRIIDAE (Tussock Moths) of the Order LEPIDOPTERA (Moths and Butterflies).

Dragonflies and a sphinx moth

These two dragonflies and the sphinx moth were found last week in Fredericton. The black one is a Dot-tailed Whiteface (Leucorrhinia intacta) and the other is a Four-spotted Skimmer (Libellula quadramaculata). The moth is a Twin-Spotted Sphinx (Smerinthus jamaicensis).

A caddisfly in the front yard

This is an adult of one of the large caddisflies (Family Phryganeidae, Order Trichoptera), very likely the species Agrypnia. It was sitting on a large cranesbill geranium in my front yard, and allowed me to hold it in my hand. The larvae of this family live underwater and build smooth tubular cases from which they feed.

Predation in action - crab spiders

This Goldenrod Spider (Family Thomisidae) has ambushed and captured a bee that wandered innocently onto this flower. This common spider lies in wait in white or yellow flowers, and changes colour to match them. The brown spider is another crab spider. It is sitting in wait ready to grab whatever comes by.