Nature in the Backyard

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NATURE IN THE BACKYAR


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Nature in the Backyard

by

Michael Erlewine


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Heart Center Publications

315 Marion AvenueBig Rapids, Michigan 49307

[email protected]

First Published 2009

Michael Erlewine 2009

ISBN 9781450548380

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be re-produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, inany form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior writtenpermission of the publisher.

All photos taken by Michael Erlewine, 2007-2009 Mi-chael Erlewine

Graphic Design by Michael Erlewine


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Tis book is dedicatedto

Max and Molly(And of course to Connor and Micaela)

From Froggy Grandpa

I would also like to thank the grounds crew at the Highland ViewCemetary in Big Rapids, Michigan for their kindness in putting up with

me all these years. Tanks Folks!


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Table of Contents

IntroductionFrogs, Toads, and SalamandersBees, Wasps, and Hornets

Dragonflies and Other FliesBeetlesButterflies and MothsBugs and Other InsectsSpiders and MoreSnakes and TurtlesHabitats

9

19

45

59

84

103

133

161

189

215


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Nature in the Backyard

I was fortunate to be introduced to the worldof nature at an early age, thanks to the kindnessof a woman named Peggy Dodge, a graphic art-ist and a friend of the family. My mother andMrs. Dodge would meet with a small groupof local artists at the Dodge farm, which waslocated in a rural area that included a smallpond, meadows, and elds. Mom would takeme along. Peggy Dodge also had a true love ofnature and all its creatures, a love which she

was kind enough to share with me when I vis-ited. I was six years old.

From that age until I was about sixteen, I stud-ied nature with an intense passion pretty muchall the time. School was lost on me, for I was

way too busy thinking and planning what Iwould do each afternoon out in nature whenschool was over for the day. I had my ownmini-nature museum in my room, where I keptall kinds of animals, insects, snakes, and you-name-it, including rattlesnakes, copperheads,skunks, spiders, boa constrictors, and anythingI could manage to keep alive. I had insect col-lections, rock collections, leaf collections, fos-sil collections, shell collections, and so on. It

would be true to say that any real education Igot (at least what actually sank in) came from

what I learned from observing nature. And itnever occurred to me that everyone else wasnot getting this same education!

I am creating this book for my grandchildrenin hopes of passing on to them some of my en-thusiasm for the world of nature. I am sharingthis with other readers because advancementsin print-on-demand and media in general

make it easy to do so.Let me begin by pointing out that I realizedquite early-on that there are real dierences be-tween natural law and human-made laws. Hu-man laws are made by people, and they can bebent, twisted, and even broken at times. is is

of course what lawyers do so well. Yet natureslaws cannot be broken. If we break them, theybreak us. No one dees the law of gravity withimpunity. What goes up, comes down. What isborn, eventually dies. We all know this, at leastin principle.

Because I grew up with my eyes glued on natu-ral law, that was the law that I came to revere asthe truth the bottom line. Societys laws werefar less consistent and frequently just plain con-fusing for me. But it is only in recent years thatI have realized what a great teacher nature wasfor me and how lucky it is that I put my trustin what I saw in nature, rather than only inthe various rules and laws society wanted meto learn, which often seemed to contradict one

another, and still do.ere is something wonderful about consis-tency, especially when one is young and try-ing to get a handle on life and, if nothing else,mother nature is consistent. Her laws are al-

ways the same and there is no way of gettingaround them, and no exceptions. What you seeis what you get. ere are no behind-the-sceneor backroom deals being made. Nature demon-strates perfect equanimity. Everyone and every-

thing is treated equally. is fact alone avoidsthe confusion that societys laws can instill inus. In nature, a rose actually is a rose, is a rose

And nature keeps no secrets. She openly sharesthe facts of life and death with anyone whocares to observe. Unlike society, where death,dying, sickness, and all of the suering-side oflife is for the most part either sanitized or sweptunder the carpet, nature never blinks. It is allright there for us to see, if we will just take a

peek. I am not saying here that what natureshows us is always a pretty sight, but with na-ture you never have to gure out what is realand what is not. It is obvious. For a little kid(or even an adult!) this can be an extreme act ofkindness. What society does not care to discuss

with us, nature is only too ready to reveal. And


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nature has other messages for us as well.

Impermanence

I cant say for those of you reading this, but inmy experience too much of the time the sheerbusiness of life causes me to forget many of themore important things. I am ashamed to saythat it takes some really sobering event (like thedeath of someone close) for me to snap me outof my busybody trance and take even a day or soof time to really consider life itself. And while Inever expect or welcome such events, I do verymuch appreciate some time out at those specialmoments, time to consider the bigger picture,and the ability to remember deeply once again

what is really important.

Nature on the other hand is a constant remind-er of how impermanent this life we are all liv-ing is. I can never forget the time I was travel-ing through India and was saying goodbye to agreat Tibetan meditation teacher, who said tome: Tomorrow, or next life, Michael, which-ever comes rst. His words woke me up a bitand the message was much like the one thatnature is consistently oering us: awareness ofour own impermanence. None of us are aboutto live forever, and we might keep that in mind

once in a while.Nature points out impermanence to us all thetime. It is hard for me to take a walk along acountry road in the early morning dew andsee the thousands of earthworms and slugs try-ing to cross the tarmac before the erce sum-mer sun rises and fries them to a crisp. esecreatures made a bad decision to cross the road

just at that time and, though sometimes I tryto pick them up and carry them to the grass

on the roadside, it is almost impossible to savethem all. I just cant do it. And some of themare crawling in the direction of travel of theroad itself, so they will never make it! is is

just one instance of the kind of impermanencenature demonstrates. It is all around us.

And, as mentioned earlier, nature never blinWe blink. Nature shows us precisely how caand eect works, what the Asians call kar- action and the results of that action. And equanimity of it all! No one breaks the lawgravity, neither person nor creature. All

treated to the same result if we break that lNature brooks no lawyers.

And as we get closer to nature, as we take tito actually look, we see that every form of every sentient being, is not unlike ourselEvery creature out there wants to be happy

just live) and no creature that I have ever s wants to willingly suer, unless its a humbeing. We each seek happiness and we try hard to avoid suering. Every sentient be

feels the same way. We have that kinship wall sentient beings.

Nature reminds us that life is in fact impermnent and that all life is indeed precious, athat those who have life dont want to lose

And in nature it is easy to see that our everyhas consequences, real results that we would

well advised to keep in mind. And all of above is ongoing, in fact seemingly endlNature is not about to change, and the o

actual change we can expect will be our oattitude, how we receive or take what is givhow we accept what is already there. Naturthe perfect teacher when it comes to attitadjustment. She proves that we might well

just our attitude to her laws and how, if wenot, we will pay a very dear price. And I hforgotten perhaps the most important messthat nature teaches us, and that is about land compassion. It does exist.

In what I have written so far, there is seeminno compassion in nature. She is merciless,exorably precise about what she exacts fromand when. ere are no sentimental tears sby Mother Nature. She is indeed a harsh mtress. But she does have one soft spot and it


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important for each of us to discover what thatis.

If we look for compassion and kindness in na-ture, it is nowhere to be found, unless we couldagree that her laws themselves are kind in thelong run. It seems that love and compassion areonly to be found in the relationship between

a mother and her children. True love and realcompassion (and a willingness to do anythingfor another being) is pretty much limited to the

way a mother feels about her child, and whatshe is willing to do for that child. And you seethis all through nature, not just with humanmoms. e love of a mother for her child is theone bright spot in what otherwise may appearas the torrent of natures nature.

It would seem from observation that most nat-

ural creatures live in perpetual terror of beingkilled and eaten, while at the same time hunt-ing, killing, and eating something else them-selves. I know this is not 100% true, but ingeneral nature is not a peaceful place at all, andmost sentient beings do not live in serenity. Mypoint is that perhaps the only place in naturethat we nd love and compassion is in the rela-tionship of a mother to her ospring. is is arule that is remarkably constant throughout all

natural realms the love of mother and child.Can you even imagine if it were not there? Howcould life go on?

And it is interesting to me that all of the reli-gions of the world appear to be working veryhard to have us treat each other as a mothernaturally treats her child, to get us to go be-yond family love (the love family membersshare) and extend that same love to others, tothose outside of our immediate family. e

Buddhists would have us extend that love to allsentient beings, and not just to humans. Chris-tians say Do onto others, as you would havethem do onto you and the Buddhists wouldagree with that, but they would add: and you

make the rst move! Reach out with kindn

In nature, compassion is always local, limed to that very special relationship betweemother and her children. Fathers share in ttoo, of course, but it is with mother and chthat true love and compassion seem to be mpure and present. In this way, Nature is a g

teacher. She does not obscure or perfume way things are. Truth is revealed for what in nature straight out. We can see impermnence clearly, not obscured or sanitized as most of the time in society. It is clear throuexamining nature that life is indeed precioand is not something guaranteed to go on ever. And it is clear that our choices, our evaction, bring consequences. And the situatthat nature presents is not only the way thi

are right now, but the way things will contito be on into the future. e way things arthe way things have always been and will

ways be. It is up to each of us to respondthese very clear facts, something that in msocieties we never have a chance to do. Instemost of us tend to ignore all of this and wingly prefer to remain ignorant.

e only light in this otherwise erce darknis, as I pointed out, the very real love, care,

compassion that a mother has for her childrank heaven for that! Mother love has ba beacon of light for all of us virtually forevere is nothing else like it on earth. e Bdhists have patiently tried to tell us for cenries that every person we meet, even every stient being, has been our mother in some plifetime, and that every last sentient being also been our child. Perhaps this is an attemto make clear to us that we should treat e

other with the same kindness, endless love, compassion a mother will show her child. may be the bridge we as a human race hbeen forever unable to cross, the key not oto Mother Nature, but to our own nature, two being the same anyway!


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e question is how can we do this? How canwe learn to treat each other with the kindnessthat our own mother has shown us?

Well, the Christian, Buddhist, and other reli-gions have been trying for thousands of yearsto show us how, to point out the way, and theyall seem to agree that it involves treating ALLsentient beings as a mother treats a child, withthat same endless care, kindness, and compas-sion, a universal remedy that is much easier tosay than to act out in real life.

And it would seem that this will not happenuntil the kind of compassion arises in each usfor all sentient life that we nd in how a moth-er loves her child. And last, it seems that many

of us dont get really serious about all this un-less something upsetting happens to us. is isanother way. Exposing ourselves to the truthof nature a little at a time can help to makethat possible by gradually softening our ob-scurations and giving us opportunities to feelcompassion for all beings. Our greatest teach-ers (saints, priests, lamas, etc.) have shown us

what this might look like, but not enough of ushave been able to have that realization.

May that kind of compassion awaken in all ofus and may we share that kind of realization- with one another. May we extend this to allsentient beings who, like us, seek to be happyand not to suer.

Nature: Getting Into It

Looking out your windows at the birds visitingyour feeder is a good start, but probably notthe way to really learn about nature. Watchingfrom a distance may be great for landscapes and

sunsets, but for any real knowledge you haveto actually get your whole body out there andinto it complete immersion. And there aretwo qualities you will need, and they are timeand patience, time for anything worthwhile tosink in, and patience to be still enough to expe-rience what is there.

For myself, since I am mostly old now, I liknd a nice spot (often in my own backyaand just plop down and sit for a spell. Andoes take time, time for me to unwind and come more aware, and time for the critters t

went silent on my arrival to resume their b

ness as usual.In recent years, I stopped mowing my byard and just let it grow. I seldom walkedmy mowed yard anyway, or at least not ofMy front yard stays mowed (the city demait), but my backyard has become a home countless insects, not to mention toads, even the occasional rabbit or two. And I ahave a large area in that yard where I havethe milkweed take over and that patch al

is an incredible place for many insects, buties, moths, and spiders. ey are having a party out there.

After ten minutes or so (this is where the tience comes in), I tend to calm down and gin to see the life around me. Of course, up and moving again, but often I just dont

what was there all the time until I relax. I ually have my camera with me, but things wobe the same without it. Before long everyth

is going on again, often on the same planteven the same leaf. All I have to do is observ

And if I am looking for some critter in partilar (on a hunt), that seldom works, becaI hurry right by everything else that is rithere, that is happening now, and usually dond what I was looking for anyway. For me much better to use the found approach, taking lots of time, and seeing what happto be there right now, rather than what I w

were there. I also nd it good to keep in mwhat the long-term benets of nature watchare:

Watching nature gives me a second opinon just how life works compared to what ornized society oers. Society sends many mi


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messages, trains of thought going in oppositedirections, enough blurring of the truth tobreed confusion. Nature is 20-20 all the time,but it may take a while for you to get used toit. Of course, nature can be beautiful in itself,but the real beauty of nature is in what it brings

out in me, in the reaction I have to what I see.For example, it is very dicult to look care-fully at nature and not be moved at some of thethings I mentioned earlier, things like (1) thepreciousness of life, (2) the impermanence ofit all, (3) the instant karma of cause and eect,(3) and the endlessness of it all. Compassionnaturally arises in this situation.

If what I see does not invoke a reaction, doesnot bring forth some compassion from within

me, then I usually need a stronger dose. Rightnow I only get what I am talking about here

when someone close to me dies and puts meinto a special frame of mind for a short time.I am suggesting that we develop that frame ofmind a little at a time rather than only throughthe shock of a loss or tragedy. Trust me, it

works, and it is good to be able to get into thisframe of mind on a regular basis, to learn todie daily as the Christian saints point out.

ools Tat HelpFor older folks like myself, a good folding lawnchair is a big help, also perhaps a good mag-nifying glass, because the mini-dramas are atleast as interesting as the more obvious largerones. In my case, I like to do macro (close-up)photography, so I have some incredible lensesthat let me see what is going on out there, upclose and personal.

And I dont always go miles out in the brush.My own backyard is a wonderful place to ob-serve much of the time. ere are also somenice nature parks close to me that I can drive toand wander in. e local cemetery is perhapsmy favorite place of all. It has tons of shrubsand owers where all kinds of insects hang out.

Better yet, this cemetery ends in a wondeopen eld with paths I can take. If things too wet, I can always walk along the mowedge of the cemetery and look into the next to it.

And I do make special trips from time to tto one nature sanctuary or another, and thare fun too, but most days it is very local, outside my back door. And the change in pspective achieved through all this is gradslow. Letting the mind rest and the compassthat naturally arises from what we see does happen all at once, but takes time. It is an vestment in reality, one that I nd more t

worth the eort. See for yourself.

Te Photography

All photographs were taken with a NiD300, D700, D3x, or D3s camera on a Gtripod. In general, the most-used lenses win order of frequency of use:

Voigtlander 125mm f/2.5 APO Lanthar

Nikkor 85mm PC-E f/2.8

Nikkor 105 mm f/2.8

Nikkor 17-35mm F/2.8e majority of these photos were taken ding the spring, summer, and fall of 2008, whalmost every day I was out in the meadowthe sun came up taking pictures and welcoing the day.


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Frog, Toads,and

Salamanders


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Eastern Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens) Eft StageTo me, this is Michigans most marvelous sala-mander, the land or Eft stage of the CommonEastern Newt, the adult which spends most ofits later life living in ponds. However, early inlife this little salamander leaves the ponds, de-velops a quite-dry and red-colored skin, takes

to the land, and moves into the forests. eyare incredibly striking creatures to discover andare most easily found after a rain while theyare out walking along the forest oor. Whenthe weather is damp is when these salaman-ders travel and they can travel long distances.If you are very gentle, they will walk on yourhand. Not all young newts become efts; somestay in the ponds and go directly to the adultstage, which is somewhat larger and they have

a greenish-brown color.

Habitat: Forest with moisture and plenty ofleaves and logs, something for them to easilyget under when it gets too dry. ey live onsmall insects, grubs, worms, and whatever theycan nd that are moving around in their vicin-ity and that are not too large.


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Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon Cinereus}e Red-backed Salamander (shown here) ac-tually comes in two dierent colors, the otherbeing gray and called the Lead-backed Sala-mander. ese salamanders are somewhat frag-ile and need lots of moisture. You wont ndthem out in the open, but they can be found

by very gently turning over rotten logs andlooking carefully for them. It can be harmfulto them if you pick them up when your handsare dry. Best to leave them alone or learn howto pick them up very gently and let them walkon the palm of your hand or on a moist leafplaced on your hand. If grabbed by their tailor attacked by a predator, they often loose theends of their tails.

Habitat: Deep moist woods, often where thereare ferns and many fallen logs. ey do notbreed in ponds, but lay eggs under logs from

which the young hatch. e photo on the rightis the kind of place you might nd the Red-back. ey eat small insects and other inverte-

brates.


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Wood Frog (Rana Sylvatica)is is the rst frog to appear in the springponds, usually in March and April, quite often

while there is still ice on the ponds. You canrecognize them by their duck-like quacking orcroaking sounds, almost a gobble or chucklingsound. A chorus of Wood Frogs make quite a

strange racket. You can recognize these frogs bytheir face mask and bronze body color. eygenerally are about 2 to 3 inches in length. Af-ter mating season you can nd them in woodsystreams or on the forest oor itself, when it ismoist. ey are not easy to catch.

Habitat: In the early spring the Wood Frog canbe found in small ponds, particularly the tem-porary spring ponds, those ponds with a massof dark leaves on the bottom. Later nd themin moist woods.


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Wood Frog (Rana Sylvatica)Here is a Wood Frog that I found living alonga slow but very fresh stream that ran througha woods. He was in the water along the bank,but usually dove into the water before I couldget very close. Here is one who resurfaced afterawhile along a sandy bank. Often they will dive

to the bottom and become almost invisible,holding their breath for a long time like thisone with its head stuck under a piece of woodtrying to wait me out. I could see him!

Habitat: In the early spring the Wood Frog canbe found in small ponds, particularly the tem-porary spring ponds, those ponds with a massof dark leaves on the bottom. Later nd themin moist woods.


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Striped Chorus Frog (Pseudacris triseriata)e Striped Chorus Frog is about the size ofthe Spring Peeper, which makes it about 1 to 1 inches long. Along with the Wood Frog, thisis among the rst frogs to get into the pondsin spring and begin calling. I nd the WoodFrog is the rst around mid-Michigan, where

I live. ey make a raspy single-note screech,sometimes said to make a sound like runningyour thumbnail over a pocket comb. ey areeasily distinguished from the Spring Peeperssweet single-note call. e weather can still bevery cold, with ice on the ponds, and tempera-tures barely above freezing. In this case, they

will only call during the warm part of the dayand on cloudy/cool days, not at all.

Habitat: In the spring, they can be found insmall woodland or meadow ponds, marshes,and those ponds that appear only temporarilyin the spring. Later, they move into the woodsand shrubbery, but are seldom seen, unlike theSpring Peeper which is relatively easy to nd

during the summer.


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Spring Peeper (Pseudacris Crucifer, Hyla Crucifer)e Spring Peeper is generally considered thesure sign of spring, although both the WoodFrog and the Chorus Frog are out singing earli-er in most places. e sweet sound and peep ofthe Spring Peeper is certainly easier on the earsthan the croak of the Wood Frog or the raspy

call of the Chorus Frog. ey begin calling inlate March and early April, and continue intothe rst part of May. A large chorus of SpringPeepers is a deafening cacophony, especially ifyou are standing in hip boots right in the mid-dle of them and the sound is coming from allsides. A warm spring rain or ever a warm sunnyday is enough to really get them going. esefrogs are about 1 to 1 inches long, and havea sideways cross on their backs.

Only the males call and the females nd them.

ey can be hard to see, since often they justhave the tip of their head and two eyes above

water. But once they get singing, many wilcrawl higher and actually become more visible.It is also very hard to tell exactly where a call iscoming from. My ears play tricks on me, so the

best way to spot them (at least when the sun isout) is to watch for the glint of sunlight reect-ing o the full-expanded throat sac when theyare singing.

Habitat: In the spring, they are in the small

woodland ponds, marshes, and temporary spring

ponds, but later move into the woods and mead-

ows, where they hunt for mites, bugs, ants, and

just about anything that moves and is not too big

for them to tackle.


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Spring Peeper (Pseudacric Crucifer, Hyla Crucifer)e Spring Peeper hibernates through the win-ter out of the reach of frost and the bitter cold,comes out early in the spring, and heads straightfor the ponds, where thousands of them gatherto mate. You wont nd them in large bodiesof water, except perhaps around the edges of

coves, but can be sure to nd them in smallwoodland ponds and temporary spring ponds.

In the summer these frogs are in the woods andmeadows, where they hunt for small insectsand worms. Wild raspberry bushes are a goodplace to nd spring peppers, as well as manyother forms of life. ese tiny frogs are too deli-cate to handle, unless you can learn to gentlycup them and let them walk around on yourhand for a moment.

Habitat: In the spring, they are in the small woodland ponds, marshes, and temporarspring ponds, but later move into the woodsand meadows, where they hunt for mites, bugs,ants, and just about anything that moves and isnot too big for them to tackle.


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Gray Tree Frog (Hyla versicolor)is is perhaps the most beautiful and gentleof all the frogs in my area. And unlike most ofthe other frogs, the gray tree frog spends mostof its time quite away from water, living in treesand bushes. It has small suction cups or stickytoes on the ngers of each hand and measures

about 1/ to 2 inches long. ey can climbright onto a glass window, for example. Inthe spring, when it breeds in late May or evenearly June, you can hear the frogs calling fromtrees and shrubbery that is always fairly closeto a pond or water source. eir call is a shortmusic-like trill and often comes from trees orshrubbery surrounding a pond.

eir name versicolor refers to the fact thatthey can change their color depending on the

background they are sitting on, usually from

a gray-green to a bright green and back again.In the summer I tend to nd them in the earlymorning, before the sun is too strong on busheslike the raspberry plant, looking for food. Youmay not see them at rst, so it is best to be verystill and wait until they move, which is usually

very slowly. But then you will see them and canenjoy this most-lovely creature.

Habitat: Woodland ponds in late May andmost woods and dew-ridden meadows (in theearly mornings).


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American Toad (Bufo Americanus)e common toad may be everyones all-aroundfavorite critter to come across in the backyard.ey are harmless, dont bite, are not slimy,and you can pick them up an hold them for ashort while if you are careful. e old story thattoads give you warts (because a toads skin is

bumpy) is just not true. About the worse thinga toad will do is pee on your hand if you are notgentle and manage to scare them. ey usuallyare from 2 to 4 inches in length and often getquite fat.

Like most amphibians, toads hibernate awayfor the winter, and they dont wake up from

winter as early as the frogs like the Spring Peep-er. Here in Michigan we dont really see toadsuntil sometime in May, when they start sing-

ing in small ponds in the woods and meadows.

ey make a long sustained trill sound. Andtoads dont need to be wet all the time as frogsdo. e skin of a toad is dry and you can ndthem far from water and ponds, in fact almostanywhere at all. In early summer, if you lookcarefully, you can sometimes nd baby toads

about the size of your little ngernail hoppingin the shady forest oor, sometimes hundredsof them. As for food, toads eat earthworms,slugs, and insects like ies and crickets any-thing that moves!

e toad below was hopping around in myback yard, but the singing toad on the right

was way out in the middle of a woodland pond.I had to wade out in hip boots with my cameraand a tripod to take this picture.


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Bull Frog (Rana Catesbiana)e Bullfrog is by far Michigans largest frog,reaching up to 8 and 9 inches in length. eyare identiable by their large size and smoothupper backs, compared to the Green Frog,

which has two ridges of skin running down theback. is is the granddaddy of frogs and their

call is instantly recognizable by its deep, low,resonant sound, said to be like saying Jug-o-Rum. ey dont mate until later, usually in

June and July, and they mate in permanentwaters. eir tadpoles overwinter, taking twoseasons to mature and transform into adultfrogs. You wont nd them in small forestponds, but instead in the marshlands next tolakes, larger ponds, and along the shoreline (inthe reeds and lilies) of lakes. is is a dicult

frog to catch without a boat and a net. ere

is nothing quite like holding (or trying to!) large bullfrog in your hands. ey are wonderful creatures with a very gentle look.

Habitat: Lakes, larger ponds, and other permanent waters, river backwaters, but they prefe

warmer waters with much plant growth. Sel

dom leaves the water.


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Northern Leopard Frog (Rana pipiens)Sometimes also called the Meadow Frog, be-cause they often are found in damp grass or inthe grass along the edges of ponds, where theyare sitting. As you walk along the pond perim-eter, the Leopard Frogs make a dash for the wa-ter. Other frogs dont venture out so far. ese

frogs can be hard to catch and many a child haschased a Leopard Frog from spot to spot as itleap-frogs toward the waters of a nearby pond.e color of this frog, which is about 2 to 3 inches long is green, and can be at times a verybright green at that.

ey breed in late April and on into May, notin the woodland ponds, but rather in morepermanent waters and marshes. is frog isfrequently found on bogs and fens. You can

distinguish the Leopard Frog from the quite

similar Pickerel Frog in this way: Both frogs aregreen with brown spots down their back. eLeopard Frog has spots which are randomlyplaced, while the Pickerel Frogs spots are linedup in pairs along the length of the back.

Habitat: Marshland, wet meadows, grassy-

edge ponds, and even lakes with plenty of veg-etation at the shore.


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Bees, Wasps,and

Hornets


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Honeybee (Apis mellifera)With scores of books written on this wonderfulinsect, the honeybee is a whole world in itself.Unlike the wasps, yellowjackets, and hornets, ifthe honeybee stings you, it dies in the process,so for the most part these little creatures neverlook for trouble. And they are everywhere there

is pollen and nectar and (of course) are busy asa bee. I have not seen too many wilds swarmsof honeybees, so mostly if I want to see a lot ofthem all together I have to visit them at a hive.

In this photo, although I am only inches away,my presence did not seem to upset them, onlymake them curious. As you can see, these littleguys are as interested in looking at me as I amat watching them. It is comical the way theystand at the entrance to their hive, turn their

faces toward me, and look up.

Habitat: As mentioned, the common honey-bee lives in a hive, but there are some 5,000dierent kinds of wild bees and obviously mostof them dont have man-made hives. Many aresolitary, making their homes in the hollowsof trees and other cavities, like tunnels in the

ground, and anywhere.


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Bumblebee (Bombus)Bumblebees are much less organized than hon-eybees. eir nests seldom number more thanfty bees and are in the ground, either in bur-rows left by other critters or in tall grass. eydont overwinter as a hive, but the queen does,coming out in the spring and creating a new

colony. ey range in size from about one-halfinch to an inch. e one pictured here is notthe common bumblebee, but that one is pic-tured on page 42 is.

e bumble bee can sting repeatedly and walk-ing on or near their nest in the ground can beenough to get a bunch of them after you, sotake note. e bees come pouring out and after

whomever has violated their territory. Bumble-bees love the pollen of owers and are great

pollinators. ey have long tongues through

which they extract ower nectar, which theythen carry back to the nest and store in broodcells, just like honeybees. I frequently ndbumblebees who have spent their nights not ina burrow, but clinging to a stem, covered withdew. Not sure what kind of bee this is, but it

took him a good hour or two to un-dew andbe on his way in the early morning sun. eirmuscles have to reach a temperature of about86 degrees before they can y, and they helpthis to happen by vibrating their ight muscles

while holding their wings still a warm up.

Habitat: eir habitat tends to be in openelds and grass, under the ground in holes orabandoned burrows.


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Bald-faced Hornet (Vespula maculata)When you talk about a hornets nest, these arethe insects that make them. ey are extremelyaggressive around nests and they sting repeat-edly. ey typically are about of an inch inlength with easily identiable white and blackmarkings. Like honeybees, they have a hive,

usually a paper hive which they build about thesize of a football, but it can easily be two ormore feet in length. e hives are usually hang-ing in trees.

Bald-faced hornets are very aggressive and dontwait for you to make the rst move. If you arein their space, too near the nest, or whatever,they will attack. And they can sting repeated-ly, and inject venom with each sting. ey eatboth nectar and other insects.

Here is a nest that probably was made by hor-nets but, as it was already autumn, had beenabandoned. It is over two feet long and in per-fect shape. I was amazed at how large it wasand could only imagine how many hornets it

was home to earlier in the summer. Even then,

I did not get too close to it. At the end of eachseason, the nest is abandoned, and the rest ofthe colony dies o, leaving the queen to over-

winter.

Habitat: On the y most of the time, but theylive in large oval-shaped nests usually in decid-uous trees.


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Paper Wasp (Polistes spp.)e paper wasps are less aggressive than yellow-

jackets and hornets, but still can sting repeat-edly, and will. Like the yellowjacket, they makesmall paper nests. eir nests are open and theindividual cells are not covered by a cap. ecolony dies o as the cold weather approaches,

and only the mated female ospring overwin-ter. Paper wasps feed on ies, caterpillars, andother larvae, feeding all of these to their ownlarvae.

is nest was just in a eld and I might veryeasily have just walked into it, had I not luckilyseen it. Even so, they were quite aware of metrying to photograph it and kept a close eye on

what I was doing.

Habitat: Plants, owers, meadows.


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Yellowjacket (Vespula maculifrons)A close relative of the hornet, the Yellowjacketis very aggressive and, unlike the honeybee, cansting repeatedly. ese are social insects, so ifyou see one, you are bound to run into moreof them. If they feel their nest is threatened oryou get too close to their nest, they will actually

attack you. If they are circling your head, this isnot a good sign.

ey build small paper open nests, but alsohave been known to have nests with thousandsof workers in them. A German variety (now inthis country) creates enclosed, football-sizednests and is much more aggressive, often mark-ing an intruder and pursuing them. e adultsfeed on liquids rich in sugars and nectars, butthe larvae in the nest accept meat, insects, and

so on, which is pre-chewed by the adults and

fed to them..

Habitat: Anywhere sheltered cavities can befound. ey love to make tiny nests in my bar-becue grill and if I dont drive my car much,they start building them in the wheel wells ofmy car. It seems like there are always too many

of them everywhere around the outside of myhouse.


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YellowjacketsOne thing that all of the bee family suer fromis a scarcity of water in late summer and earlyautumn. We have a little birdbath in our yardand on a warm or sunny day there is an endlessstream of yellowjackets, wasps, and so on go-ing and coming, landing every few seconds it

seems. And they can literally walk on water asthis photo shows. I pull up a plastic lawn chair,set up my camera and tripod and have plenty ofopportunities to photograph these little guys.

Habitat: Anywhere sheltered cavities can be

found. They love to make tiny nests in my bar-

becue grill and if I dont drive my car much, they

start building them in the wheel wells of my car.

It seems like there are always too many of them

everywhere around the outside of my house.


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Dragonflies

andOther Flies


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Yellow-legged Meadowhawk (Family Sympetrum)

ere are so many dragonies that it is veryhard to identify which one you might be look-ing at, so we could easily have a whole chapter

just on local varieties. is lovely specimen wasreally attracted to this particular resting spot. I

just sat down on the ground with my camera

for perhaps twenty minutes or more, gradu-ally inching closer and closer until I was al-most right on top of him. He would leave for aminute, but return to the same perch over andover again. Dragonies eat small ying insects,

which they catch as they y around.

Habitat: Commonly found near ponds,marshes, and any water where there is plenty ofvegetation along the shoreline.


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Damsely (Family Argia)e close-winged damsel y seems very deli-cate compared to some of the larger helicopter-style dragonies like the Green Darner. eselovely creatures are commonly found aroundponds and water, but also in woods where thereis a mixture of shade and sun. ey are totally

harmless, cannot bite or sting you, but yourhandling of them (if you could catch them!)can easily hurt their fragile wings. ere issomething very timeless about a damsely it-ting in the sun and shadows of a forest glade.

In the photo below, we have a damsely cov-ered by dew and waiting to dry o, after a nightof clinging to this plant stem.

Habitat: Commonly found near ponds,marshes, and any water where there is plenty ofvegetation along the shoreline.


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Half-Banded Topper Dragony (Sympetrum semicinctumI nd dragonies fascinating and beautiful.

What perfect ying machines! Some of thelarger ones seem never to land at all, althoughof course they do. And they are harmless, cantbite, and are in no way aggressive, in fact justthe opposite. Dragonies are shy and usually

manage to remain just out of camera reach, atleast as close as I would like to get.

is beautiful dragony is never found far fromponds or marshlands and, like all dragonies,tends to keep on the move and this one waskind enough to hang around for a while. Oftenif I am patient, a dragon y will return againand again to the same perch, giving me plentyof time to admire it.

Habitat: Marshlands, meadows and elds within ying range of ponds and permanentopen water.


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Dragony HatchingOn any late spring day, you may nd dragon-y nymphs hatching. In particular, along theedge of small ponds where there are plant stemsemerging from the water. is is where thedragony nymphs will climb out of the wateron a stem and emerge from their casing to be-

come a dragony and take to the air.e process only takes an hour or so and is

wonderful to watch. is little brown nymphwhich has lived its whole life (so far) underwa-ter, one warm sunny day is ready to hatch outinto a full-sized dragony. Underwater, drag-ony nymphs are erce and voracious eaters,savaging anything that moves, including tad-poles, sh, and even each other! ey love mos-quito larvae and help to keep the population of

mosquitoes down.

e underwater nymph sheds its skin severaltimes underwater before it performs its -nal molt above water. e upper back of thenymph splits open and the tender dragon yemerges and gradually unfolds its very delicate

wings, a bit at a time. And then they hit the air.

Habitat:Around the edges of ponds, marshes,and even permanent waters.


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Craney (Tipulidae)Often mistaken for Godzilla mosquitoes, theselarge ungainly ies are common and slow-mov-ing enough that it is not hard to get close tothem. You see them at all times of the warmmonths, usually never too far from a watersource where their larvae live. ey are harm-

less and cannot bite or sting, existing on nectaror nothing at all, while the larvae eat dead anddecaying organisms.

With their very long legs, orange-colored bod-ies, and large green eyes, they are fascinating to

watch. More often than not, you will nd themsitting there motionless in the center of someplant, with their legs extending in every direc-tion. ese are wonderful creatures.

Habitat: Fresh water, fast-ying streams, mead-ows, marshes, as well as rotting wood, tall grass,and woodlands, in general.


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Tachnid Fly (Family Tachnidae)Tachnid ies are parasitic ies, living on thelarvae of other insects. ey land on variouscaterpillars and such, actually laying their eggsin these larvae, and then letting their own lar-vae feed on their live hosts. Beetle larvae are afavorite target. e adult ies feed on ower

nectar.

Habitat: ey frequent forests, woodlands,gardens, and parks.


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Horse Fly (Family Tabanidae)is fellow seem to be present on hot, wind-less, sunny days, and likes to seek out movingobjects, with a preference for the dark-coloredones. is striking horse y shown here wassampling owers down near the edge of a smalllake. I am glad he was not sampling me, because

the female horse ies not only really bite, butsuck blood as well! Both male and female horseies feed on the nectar of owers, but only thefemales also have a taste for blood. ey havetwo sharp knife-like mandibles that essential-ly slash the skin, and the horse y drinks theblood that comes out. Pictured here is a female.

eir enormous eyes mean that one of the pri-mary ways they hunt is by sight, although sens-ing carbon dioxide (like our breath when we

exhale) is a close second. e males dont bite

and are seldom seen around, as in around us.

Habitat: Wooded areas, wet soil that is closeto bodies of water. e larvae develop in moistsoil and mud, although some can be aquatic.


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Dung Fly (Family Scatophaga)I am sure the Dung Fly did not name himself,because who would want to be called a poopy? e name aside, I nd these little red-bod-ied ies very good company, especially in thevery early mornings when the dew is on theleaves and they have not really managed to get

moving around a lot. e Dung Fly is a vora-cious predator of other ies and smaller insects.ey lay their eggs (of course) in dung, wherethe larvae live and develop.

I often nd them in the early mornings (as yousee them here), perched high up on a plant and

just kind of facing or looking out across somevast expanse of space. It is like the Grand Can-yon for them.

Habitat: Pastures, parks, woods, gardens, any-where that dung and other ies congregate.


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Robber Fly (Family Asilidae)With a name like Robber Fly, we might won-der what it is that they rob and from whom?

Well, the answer is they rob from other insectsand what they rob is life itself. Robber ies arevery agile and fast-moving, and they tend todescend on their victims from above, stabbing

them with their beak and injecting saliva thatcontains nerve-paralyzing enzymes that tend topre-digest the insides of their prey. When theirprey (bees, beetles, dragonies, etc.) is fully par-alyzed, the robber y sucks up the pre-digestedinsides of their victims like a soda through astraw. Larvae live in the soil, feeding on organicmatters such as wood, and on. ese ies canand do bite, if handled.

is particular robber y has caught himself a

Mayy, and is in the process of digesting his

meal.

Habitat: Woods, meadows, shrubbery, moresunny than not.


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Flesh Fly (Sarcophaga haemorrhoidalis)is very common-looking y (also called thered-tailed y) does not bite or sting, but it doeslay its eggs on non-living materials like excre-ment and carrion (dead esh), so can be a car-rier of disease. Some are also parasitic, layingtheir eggs in the live bodies of other insects.

Unlike many other types of ies, the esh ycan y in the rain.

It takes about two weeks for an egg to gothrough the larval stages and emerge as anadult y, which then feeds on liquids such asplant nectar and honeydew.

Habitat: Everywhere: rural and urban commu-nities, woodlands, etc.


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Syrphid y (Toxomerus geminates)e Syrphid y is more commonly known asthe Hovery, as they tend to freeze their y-ing motion in the air for an extended period oftime, in particular while feeding on the nectarof owers. e larvae of some forms eat plantaphids, which endear them to gardeners. e

larvae also can develop in stagnant water.e ability of the hovery to position itself inmidair where we can see it makes them fasci-nating (and unavoidable) to watch. ere theyare, right in front of our eyes and perfectly mo-tionless hovering. As ies go, Syrphid ies arereally quite lovely and rened, compared to sayhorse or house ies.

Habitat: Cosmopolitan, found almost every-where except where there is no moisture.


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Larva Sawy (Trichiosoma)What looks here like a caterpillar is actually thelarva of the common Sawy, which feeds on fo-liage, often the needles of pine trees and otherconifers. ey can ruin a stand of pines, for ex-ample. e worms or larvae have (aside fromthree pairs of true legs) numerous false eshy

legs, which lack the little hooks that real cater-pillars have. So they look for all the world like astandard caterpillar. e adults are seldom seen(I have no picture) and do not bite or sting.ey are not true ies, and look very much likesmall wasps, but are not.

Habitat:Woodlands and forests which containthe host tree of preference.


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Beetles


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Japanese Beetle (Popillia japonica)is very beautiful beetle is hated by garden-ers for the kind of plant destruction that youcan see in these photos. ey feed on over 300species of plants, including poison ivy. e

Japanese Beetle usually come in huge numbers,seemingly have a thoroughly great time, and

leave your plants in shreds. at aside, they arebright and shiny beetles that are not shy, prefergroups, and seem to systematically destroy theplants they feed on, from the top down. eydont bite, and you can let them walk on yourhand or climb on your ngers.

ere is a famous story in the history of science where the classical scholar Benjamin Jowettasks biologist J. B. S. Haldane if he had learnedanything about God from his scientic stud-

ies. Haldane responded, He has an inordinate

fondness for beetles. Well then, God proba-bly especially loves the Japanese beetle, becausethey occur in such large numbers and are veryhardy.

Habitat: Pervasive, in woods, meadows, shrubs,and gardens.


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Pennsylvania Leatherwing (Chauliognathus pensylvanicusis is a member of the Soldier Beetle group,a relative of the lightning bug or rey beetle.ese beetles are very common and feed onplant pollen and nectar, in particular golden-rod owers. e larvae are laid in the soil. eadults come out in June and July in this area

and are only a little shy. Mostly they just goabout their business, letting you get as close tothem as you would like.

Notice the single n in this beetles Latin namefor Pennsylvania. is is correct, as scienticnomenclature requires all given names to re-main as is, and the name was spelled incor-rectly from the get-go.

Habitat: Older elds, meadows, owers. Eas-ter half of the United States.


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Red Milkweed Beetle (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus)is is one of the long-horned beetles and itfeeds almost exclusively on the bitter-tasting(not that I would know) milkweed plant. Likethe monarch buttery, predators avoid eatingthis beetle because of its bitter taste. e bee-tles eggs are laid on milkweed stems close to

the ground, and the larvae (which overwinterin the roots) pupate in the spring. Early sum-mer is when the adult beetles emerge.

ese fellows are plentiful in this area and arevery slow moving and methodical. ey makeno attempt to hide themselves when I approach.If I read the literature right, the red in RedMilkweed Beetle refers to the Red Milkweedrather than the red color of the beetle.

Habitat: Milkweed, in elds, along roadsides.


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Seven-Spot Ladybug (Coccinella septempunctata)Ladybugs (also called Ladybirds in Europe)feed on tiny aphids that live along the stems ofcertain plants. is Seven-spot Ladybug (whichis the most common form found in Europe)has been repeatedly introduced to the UnitedStates to help control aphids, and is now thriv-

ing here. Gardeners love them. Both the lar-vae and the adults prey on plant aphids. isspecies frequently overwinters and emergesearly in the spring. ey are said to emit a foul-smelling substance from the joints in their legsthat warn o predators, but I have never seenthis happen.

Ladybug are brightly colored and cheerful; atleast I nd them so. How they get into my of-ce I will never know, but they periodically just

show up, sometimes in the middle of winter.

In their folklore, this little beetle is thought tobring good luck, especially in love-related mat-ters. And there is the old poem:

Ladybird, ladybird, y away home, your houseis on re and your children are gone.

Habitat: Broad range, literally anywhere thataphids can be found, which are its primaryfood.


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Weevil (Family Hylobius)I like weevils. ey dont bite and are funnylooking enough to make me laugh. I know theydo damage to crops by laying eggs in develop-ing bolls like, of course, the cotton boll. eir

white legless larvae then feed on and pupatewithin the boll. ey can have ve generations

a year in the south. e adults winter in theground or debris.

Shown here is a typical weevil. When I acci-dently bumped the milkweed leaf he was on,he promptly rolled over and played dead fora while, then got back up and started movingaround again. ey are harmless, dont bite,and tough as all get out, so you can pick themup if you want, but they are small.

Habitat: Fields, crops, as well as granaries,food-processing plants, and food markets.ey like nuts, acorns, old pasta, beans, corn,and so on.


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Bumble Flower Beetle (Euphoria inda)is robust hairy beetle is often mistaken for abumblebee as it comes slowly buzzing along justabove the ground. ey are among some of therst to appear in spring. is somewhat clumsyand slow-moving insect wears a hairy coat thatlooks like a ne cloth or tapestry. ey like

owers and the juices of fresh corn, grapes, andother fruit. is beetle can usually be found inmeadows and open areas. If handled, they canemit a strong chlorine-like odor. e larvae livein rotten wood and beneath woody debris.

Habitat: Fields and meadows in Easter andcentral North America.


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Dogbane Leaf Beetle (Chrysochus auratus)ese little bright-colored shiny guys are a littlebit disgusting, I have to admit. ey congre-gate in good numbers, all clustered together atthe top of the plant they are eating, and hardlymove an inch. In fact their droppings are allover the plant and themselves, for that matter.

ey seem to eat everything around them. elarvae live in the ground and feed on roots andother plant materials. ey are unusual in thateven a slight change of light or position will re-sult in a dierent kind of sheen and reection.

I visited this bunch of eaters many times andthey were always busy with dogbane and milk-

weed. ey emit a foul-smelling odor whentouched and tend to drop o the plant to theground.

Habitat: Fields, meadows, open sunny space.


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Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)is very large and lovely buttery is commonfrom the East Coast to the Rocky Mountains,and tend to congregate in the spring on roadsand sandy areas where there is moist sand orperhaps small puddles. e adults eat nectarfrom owers such as lilac and wild cherry. e

caterpillars feed on a variety of trees, including wild cherry and willow. e males are yellowas shown here, but the females come in bothyellow or blue-black. is is quite a spectacularlooking buttery.

is is probably the most-commonly seen ofthe larger butteries, suddenly itting pastme and on to somewhere or hanging aroundmilkweed patches and the shores of permanent

water, such as ponds and marshes. e individ-

ual butteries are loners, except during mating

season when they congregate as shown here.

Habitat: Deciduous broadleaf woods, forestclearings or edges, parks, gardens, suburbs al-most anywhere.


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SkippersOn the right is the Least Skipper (Ancyloxphanumitor), while below is the Silver-SpottedSkipper (Epargyreus clarus).

ese common butteries tend to appear as themorning warms up, as they need temperaturesabove 77 degrees in order to y. It is easy tond them in a meadow early in the morning,covered with dew, and waiting for the dew todry and the temperature to rise. ese are soli-tary butteries, except during mating season.

Skippers literally skip or it around, which isprobably where their name came from, andmostly they like to be out in the sun, movingfrom ower to ower. Some have said that skip-pers look like they are a cross between a butter-y and a moth, perhaps because they have that

fuzzy-bodied look and big dark eyes that manymoths have.

If you are out in the meadows like I am, skip-pers are a constant companion, because theyare almost always around.

Habitat: Meadows, open elds, sunny patcheson the edges of forests.


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Eastern Tent Caterpillar (Malacosoma americanum)is moth (and larva) is often confused withthe much-hated Gypsy Moth, whose larvaealso build a tent nursery. e emerging cater-pillars themselves build the tent-nest in whichthey live. e caterpillars travel during the dayto feed on leaves, but return back to the nest

in the evening following tiny trails of silk theyhave laid down. ese caterpillars are amongthe earliest to emerge in the spring, at whichtime they immediately build a tent and de-pend on the morning sun to raise temperaturesenough for them to move around and feed. eenclosed tent acts like a miniature greenhouseand traps the rays of the sun.

ese caterpillars actually are quite beautiful.As for the damage they cause to trees, experts

say this is a natural cycle that has been going on

virtually forever, and repairs itself within a fewyears after the devastation occurs.

e adult female lays eggs on a twig, whichoverwinters. It is the next spring, when the cat-erpillars emerge that the tent is built

Habitat: Larvae build tents primarily in cherryand apple trees.


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Little Wood Satyr (Megisto cymela)e Little Wood Satyr (pronounced: Sate-er) ispretty much the hallmark of woods, anywheresun and gently shade mix. ese butteriesslowly y in an almost awkward jerky way, fre-quently pausing to rest here or there on a leafor twig. ey appear in Michigan in late May

and June, and are almost a constant to those ofus who wander the forests. e larvae feed onvarious grasses, while the adult butteries takeower nectar and saps.

Of the smaller butteries, especially in openwoods, this is probably the most easily encoun-tered. ere is something magical when I standin a quiet glade, with the sun streaming downthrough the top of the forest, and all is silentand motionless, except for the bouncing ight

of this little buttery. It is as if time somehow

stops for an instant.

Habitat: Woods, meadows with shrubs, sunnyareas with some shade.


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Cabbage Buttery (Pieris rapae)e Cabbage Butterfuly was introduced intoCanada from Europe in the 1850s, and hasspread virtually everywhere. It is a great pol-linator, said to be four times as procient ashoneybees for plants, such as the wild radish,red clover, dandelion, black-eyed susan, but-

tonbush, and wild strawberry. However, theyalso like many garden plants like broccoli andcabbage, thus the name.

is is a buttery that you will come across vir-tually everywhere, but particularly where thereis sunshine and open light. Like the tiger swal-lowtails, cabbage butteries love to congregatenear streams and marsh areas, where there is amoist open space, such as damp sand. Here aresome cavorting on damp sand near a creek.

Habitat: Meadows, elds, sunny areas.


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Monarch (Danaus plexippus)Everyone seems to know the brightly-coloredMonarch Buttery, also known as the milk-

weed buttery because they lay their eggs onthe common milkweed plant. As summer ends,monarch butteries migrate and can be foundmoving southward along the shorelines of the

Great Lakes on their way to Mexico and Cen-tral America. ey tend to overwinter in co-nifer groves. On the long migration trip, theoriginal buttery dies, but its ospring nds its

way back up north and the cycle begins again.

e monarch lays its eggs on the milkweedplant, on which the emerging caterpillars feed.e adult buttery enjoys the nectar from themilkweed owers. Monarchs have a bitter taste(due to the milkweed) and thus birds and other

predators dont eat them. More on this in the

following pages.

Habitat: Fields, meadows, prairies, gardens,parks, and along the road.


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Viceroy Buttery (Limenitis archippus)e Viceroy Buttery is almost a perfect mimicof the monarch buttery, which it seeks to em-ulate because predators wont eat the monarchdue to the bitter taste of the milkweed they

were raised on. Viceroys apparently are goodeating for birds, but because they so resemble

the monarch, they too are avoided. Below is aphoto of monarch buttery, while to the rightare photos of the viceroy. e only obvious dif-ference is the black quarter-circle band in thelower wing on each side. is is how to tell onefrom the other.

Viceroy larvae do not eat milkweed. e adultsfeed on carrion, manure, and the nectar of cer-tain sunowers, while the larvae are raised onpoplar, willow, and cottonwood tries.

Habitat: Moist areas, such as the edges ofswamps or lacks, wet meadows, thickets, valleybottoms, and the like.


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Monarch Caterpillar (Danaus plexippus)e monarch caterpillar is about two-incheslong and has bright colors and a nice fat bodyas the photos show. e caterpillars are not shyand very slowly go on munching no matterhow close you approach. ey systematicallyeat through a leaf, from top to bottom, or from

side to side. ey can be hard to spot, becausethey often tend to remain on the undersideof the leaf, but once they hit a leaf edge, theystand out. I like to go back and visit a particularcaterpillar over a period of several days. Whenthey are full grown, they form the most elegantchrysalis I have ever seen. I wish I had a pictureto show you, but I cant nd the one photo Itook.

Habitat: Milkweed plants. Visible in the laterpart of the summer.


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Fluffy Caterpillar (Spilosoma virginica)Fluy Caterpillar (spilosoma virginica)

Also called the Yellow Wooly Bear caterpillar,the Fluy Caterpillar is quite stunning to seein person. e adult is called the American Er-mine moth and is quite elegant as well. iscaterpillar overwinters and is one of the rst toemerge when the warm sunshine of spring re-turns. e caterpillars feed on various groundcovers, like clover and grasses.

On the right-hand photo is a caterpillar cov-ered with dew in the early morning in a rasp-berry patch.

Habitat: Forests, trees, shrubs, low-growingplants.


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Milkweed Tussock Moth CaterpillarsLooking for all the world like some fancy breedof small dog, the Milkweed Tussock Moth (onthe right), like the Monarch buttery, feeds onthe milkweed plant, although this caterpillarmakes do with the tougher parts of the plant,

while the monarch caterpillar prefers to dine on

the more tender parts of younger plants. esebright-colored caterpillars show up toward theend of summer on milkweed plants, and arevery slow moving and conspicuous.

You can frequently nd these caterpillars shar-ing a plant with the long-horned milkweedbeetle.

Habitat: Look for milkweed in elds, alongroads, etc.


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Sawy LarvaHere is another worm that looks more like acaterpillar, and is actually the larva of one ofthe sawies. Notice that aside from three pairsof legs (a few on the front and one on the rear),the other legs are not real, but just eshy fakelegs, made to resemble a caterpillar. ese

worms seriously defoliate conifers and thusare not popular. ey will wipe out an entirebranch and then move on to the next one. elarvae pupate and overwinter in the topsoil,emerging in early spring as adults to lay moreegsg.

Habitat: Hosts are Jack Pines, Scottish pines,and other conifers.


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Beautiful Wood-nymph Caterpillar (Eudryas grata)is brightly colored caterpillar turns into amiller moth called Beautiful Wood-nymph,and is not too commonly found. Actually, theadult moth has been described as looking likebird droppings, no disrespect intended.

Habitat: Buttonbush, Ampelopsis, grapes, Vir-ginia creeper, hops.


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Dead-wood Borer Caterpillar (Scolecocampa liburna)ese larvae feed on decaying logs and wooddebris in deciduous forests. ey appear in lateMay on into July, and a second generation canappear in late August in the south. e larvaedig tunnels in hickory, oak, chestnut, sycamore,and other trees. What this larva was doing up

in the owers of a plant I have no idea, but Iwatched it for quite some time having (whatseemed to me) a wonderful time in the warmsunlight.

Habitat: Deciduous forests.


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Curve-Lined Angle Moth (Digrammia continuata)is moth is the adult of one of the inchwormor measuringworm larvae that we are all fa-miliar with, worms usually feed externally onleaves and pupate in loose cocoons in leaf lit-ter or soil. e larvae feed on Juniper bushesand the Eastern Arborvitae. e ight of this

moth is similar to that of butteries.

Habitat: Widespread. Juniper bushes.


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Bugsand

Other Insects


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Katydid (Family Tettigoniidae)Katydid are lots of fun, rst because if theyare busy on a plant, they are not going to paymuch attention to you and are not likely to justy away. Also, the younger katydids wings maynot be long enough to y anyway. And they are

just kind of funny to watch as they carefully

walk around on a plant. Let me give you anexample.

When I sometimes visit upstate New York inthe late summer and early fall, the katydids areall in the trees and as evening comes on theyall being to sing, and they are not shy aboutit. ey collectively make an incredible racket,lling the entire night air with their song. It is

wonderful just to have them singing all aroundme like that.

Habitat: Meadows, elds, shrubs, grasslands.


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Katydid (Family Tettigoniidae)One year I had a good-sized group of EveningPrimrose, with large yellow owers that onlyopen in the evening and close in the morning one night only. Well, all the local katydids ap-parently love to eat those primrose owers, be-cause many mornings when I would be getting

ready to head out to photograph, there wouldbe one or more katydids right in the middleof the owers themselves. And they were notthe least bit shy. Perhaps it was the cool of themorning, but they just sat in there and I couldsee that often they had eaten a lot of the owerthey were in. Not a problem, because as soonas the Sun came up, that ower would fade and

wilt away.

Habitat: Meadows, elds, shrubs, grasslands.


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Common Grasshopper (melanoplus differentialis)e common grasshopper is considered a ma-

jor pest when commercial growing and cropsare concerned, and in the wild they like to eat amixture of grasses and broad-leaf plants. eycan be strong yers and in hot climates evenseek the air to avoid the heat on the ground,

having been see by airplane pilots at heights of1,400 feet above the surface.

And they come in a wide variety of sizes be-cause the larvae or nymphs as they are calledresemble the adults, only they are smaller and alittle bit like a caricature of the mature insects.ey dont bite and about the worst thing theycan do (if you manage to catch one!) is regur-gitate on your hand what we used to as kidscall tobacco, being a combination of chewed

grass and stomach uids. ey are pretty aware

and tend to stay just out of reach. In the earlymornings when they are covered by dew, theyare much more approachable. I always ndthese insects pleasant and friendly looking.

Habitat: Pervasive. Meadows, elds, prairies,crop areas, each with moisture.


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Scarlet-and-Green Leafhopper (graphocephala coccinea)is brightly-colored leafhopper is best spot-ted early in the morning when they are stillsluggish and dew covered. It loves plants andfeeds on their juices, but plants dont love theleafhopper, because something in their salivamakes the leaves wilt and die wherever they

have eaten. e leafhopper lays its eggs right inthe plant tissue, and gardeners know that theyfeed on their Rhododendron and Azalea plantsand dont like it.

Habitat: Meadows, elds, gardens.


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Two-stripped Planthopper (Acanalonia bivittata)Here are a few of the many varieties of leafhop-pers, plant-hoppers, and treehoppers (whateveryou want to call them), including this little fatbeauty in the lower left corner of this page. eyfeed on plant juices and their eggs hatch to pro-duce little nymphs that eat the same food.

Habitat: Shrubs, meadows, elds, herbaceousplants.


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Speckled Sharpshooter (Paraulacizes irrorata)is leafhopper is considered a bad bug andis not liked by commercial plant growers be-cause they are voracious eaters, easily consum-ing up to 100 times their weight a day. eyhappen to be one of my favorite insects, be-cause of their size (they are perhaps the largest

leafhopper) and my own experience with them.I discovered one on a plant growing along theedge of a local cemetery. I was surprised at itslarge size and behavior. Treehoppers and leaf-hoppers tend to be wary and keep their dis-tance, but this bug was ingenious at stayingout of sight. No matter how carefully I movedaround the stem it was on, the insect was in-stantly moved to the opposite side. It took mea very long time to get the shots I was able to

take.

I would come back to this same plant over aperiod of days, and there he would be, in ex-actly the same spot. en one day when I cameto visit him, he was gone. e entire area hadbeen mowed. e adults overwinter, so I hopeto see him in the spring.

Habitat: Plants in meadows, elds, in sunnyareas.


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Jagged Ambush Bug (Phymata erosa)Here are a couple examples of the strengthand power the jagged ambush bug has, easilyoverpowering insects much larger than itself.On the right, an ambush bug has captured

what appears to be some form of Sphinx moth(much larger than itself), and is in the process

of drinking its bodily uids while holding it.In the photo of the moth (I dont know whatkind it is), I did not at rst realize that thismoth which was holding so still for me wasthe victim of an ambush. If you look under themoths wing on the right side of the photo, you

will see that an ambush bug has this moth andis in the process of feeding on it.

Habitat: Fields, meadows, gardens, owers.


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Assasin Bug (Arilus cristatus)Here is a most common form of the assas-sin bug. On the mornings when nothing elseseemed to be out, I usually can nd one of theseguys perched on a bush waiting for breakfast.ey are not particularly skittish and usually

will not run away.

Habitat: Fields, meadows, on owers andplants.


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Walking Stick (Family Diapheromera)I found this Walking Stick early one morningon a raspberry bush in a meadow. It was almostinvisible until it moved, which probably pro-tects the insect from being eaten by predators.e juveniles (which hatch from single eggsthat overwinter) look like the adults, but are of

course much smaller and more attenuated. InMichigan, they can be found later in the sum-mer, usually in August and September.

e food of the walking stick is the leaves ofdeciduous shrubs and trees. Walking Sticks arevery docile and dont move particularly fast. Ilet him climb on to my hand and walk around.

Habitat: Deciduous woods and forest.


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Praying Mantis (Tenodera aridifolia)e Praying Mantis is no-doubt the rock star ofassassin bugs, with a prole high enough thatmost people know what they look like. Withtheir two clamp-like front legs, they are ercepredators and voracious eaters, tacking any bugthey can overpower, including other members

of their own species.e female lays her eggs in a frothy brown casethat looks like it was spray-on insulation. eegg cases, which may contain 50 to 400 eggs,overwinter and hatch in the spring. e hatch-ling nymphs are solitary and look like ultra-miniature adults. e female is known to killand eat the male after mating.

ey are hard to hand capture without injuringthem, but will often readily climb onto your

extended hand and proceed to walk aroundey have very sharp vision and appear veryaware of anything that moves near them.

Habitat: Meadows, elds, gardens. Widely dis-tributed.


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Red Ant (Family Myrmica)is colony of red ants (right) was on the top ofa mound of excavated earth that the colony hadbuilt in the middle of a eld. Surrounded bygrass, only the very top (like a bald head) wasopen to view and on that the ants were busymoving in and out of the nest. ey are om-

nivorous, constantly searching for sources offood, which can include live and dead insects,animals, whatever. And they dont have a singlequeen, but can have hundreds of queens in thesame hive. Suce it to say, they are a highlyorganized machine.

ese critters not only can ruin picnics, theycan inict painful bites and will do so at theearliest opportunity. I tried to keep my distancefrom them and had to be very careful setting

up my tripod to take this shot. Even then, I got

a couple of outriders trying to climb my legs.

Habitat: Meadows, elds, open areas.


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Spiders


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Jumping Spider (Family Salticidae)is little jumping spider was sitting on a milk-

weed stem just watching me. Of course, with aname like that, these spiders can really jump. Imust have made him nervous because he wasmoving (teeny jumps) back and forth on thestem almost faster than I could see. When I

would try and get close to him to take his pic-ture, he would slide around to the other side ofthe stem and peek out at me.

Jumping spiders have eight eyes and the sharp-est vision of all spiders. Here he looks like alittle SUV, complete with headlights and foglights. Jumping spiders like to eat insects, butthey dont make spider webs and wait forsomething to get caught in them. Instead, theyare active hunters and like to be on the move.

ey must like to camp out, because when they

get tired and want to sleep, they make a littletiny web tent and hide in there.

It turned out this particular jumping spiderhad his eye on a little earwig and before I knewit he jumped right on the earwig and that wasthe end of the earwig.

Habitat: Tree trunks, grasses, shrubs, plants,leaves.


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The Spider and the FlyWhat is nice about going out in the yard andjust sitting down by a bush or a ower is that,after a short while, the insects and other life onthe plant (that froze motion when I sat down)begin to move around again. Often there areall kinds of life living on the same plant or even

the same leaf! For example, this jumping spider.I was watching him just sitting way back therein the plant and trying to take his picture whenthis big green bottle Fly ew in and landed onthe same leaf as Mr. spider.

e y seemed to take no notice of the spiderand was busy washing his face, but the spidertook total notice of the y. In a split second,the spider jumped around to face the y and

watched it with great interest. And watch he

did. at y must have been just what he waslooking for. Well, the end of this story is thatthe spider did not get the y, who soon disap-peared into the air.

Habitat: Tree trunks, grasses, shrubs, plants,leaves.


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Branch-Tip Spiders (Family Dictyna)is small Branch-Tip spider was busy build-ing her web in a meadow between some long-stemmed grasses. After they build a web, theynd a little roost at one end of the web wherethey hide out, ready to rush in should any in-sect y into it.

e spider will grab its dinner and take it backup to the roost to eat it or wrap it up with web-bing for a later lunch. At some point the spider

will create a web sac full of spider eggs that itwill keep right in the center of the web. Whenthe baby spiders hatch out, they will live on the

web with the mother for some time.

Habitat: Meadows, elds, open grasslands,bushes.


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Elegant Crab Spider (Xysticus elegans)ey get their names because they actuallylook like crabs, with their larger forearms readyfor a wide embrace, and they also scuttle fromside-to-side just like crabs. ese spiders arenot web builders, but instead are ambushers,preferring to lie in wait for some passing insect

and then rush and grab them with their wideforearms.

is crab spider was hanging out in a meadowwaiting for something, but when I got too closehe went and wedged himself down between theowers (photo on the right), as if now I couldnot see him.

Habitat: Fields, meadows, grasslands.


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Daddy-long-legs (Phalangium opilio)Every kid knows the Daddy-long-legs spider(also called the Harvestman). ey occur al-most everywhere, in city lots and parks, as wellas in the wild. ey can move fast or slow, butslow is more usual, although they dont alwayslike their picture taken and will keep moving

until they are well out of site. ey eat variousorganic materials, including fruits, vegetation,old animal tissue, and so on.

Daddy-long-legs have one generation a year(except in the south), laying eggs which are laidin most areas, under rocks, in the soil, and onplants which, after overwintering, hatch in thespring. ey dont bite, although they can se-crete a foul-smelling liquid if handled. How-ever, they are totally harmless otherwise, and

will easily accept a walk on your hand if so

prompted.

Habitat: Crops, meadows, elds, bushes, lowvegetation.


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Funnel-web Spider (Agelenidae)ese somewhat-large hairy spiders look kindof scary close-up, but their bite is actuallyharmless to people. ey make funnel-shaped

webs, which can be large (covering a foot ormore of space) or small just a web tube. efunnel webs can be in bushes or grass, but usu-

ally close to the ground. And the webs can looklike the charnel grounds that they are, if onlybecause of the various molted piec

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Nature in the Backyard