Bugmuda Triangle

MANCHAC - May 26, 2011

2011-06-26T18:14:00.003-05:00

Six of us went to the Manchac Swamp area (including Joyce WMA) on 5/26/11. The drought manifested itself in some noticeably low water in some places (Joyce was about 4 inches down), and there was, for whatever reason, a dearth of certain things we tend to find in good number come late May: butterflies (saw 3 total, of which 2 were dead), wasps, grasshoppers, and the “widow bridge” produced not one such spider for the first time in my experience.

We were able to collect about 50 dragonflies (for cooking at Bug Appétit) and 75 or so lubber grasshoppers to be used on display and at IRF for breeding. We got a pair of wheel bugs, some large bagworms, a few pretty barklice, and an uncommon biting midge that is red and sports long back legs and thickened front leg tarsi. Aquatic collecting was poor (10 whirligigs, 2 water scorpions, and a lone dragonfly naiad), and we did not bust any logs; this may have resulted in a mutiny were it not for a good lunch!

Also of note: 11 ant species, including all three Pseudomyrmex found in LA, a large number of young black and yellow garden spiders, a couple of wolf spiders of 2 species brought back for presentation, a pair of field crickets for the Café table, and a terrific little beetle sometimes called the Delta Flower Scarab (Trigonopeltastes delta).

-Zack

New Interesting Article on Tiger Beetles in "Wings" from the Xerces Society

2011-06-21T16:53:00.002-05:00

PDF version can be found at this link: SIX-LEGGED TIGERS and more about this issue at the ROOT URL. If you have problems viewing these links, please e-mail me privately at ommatius@gmail.com. Thanks to Tommy Walker, Jr. for sharing this link. -j

BUGSTOCK 11

2011-05-30T00:44:00.013-05:00

These are just a few highlight photos (until later...) from 'stock 11....first and foremost I want to thank Sr. Juan and Miss Stephanie for once again hosting this symposium of multifarious interests and continuance of documentary practices. I have always been proud to proclaim that I am an "adopted" part of the Family...and being that most of my kin still resides in the Greater New Orleans area, they mean a tremendous amount to me. Secondly, saludos to the Finchmeister and Eric the BlackSmith (no, really....he is an experienced Blacksmith and his last name is Smith) for taking me hostage and going forth with this pilgrimage to the Stock o' Bug....whilst en route we captured a fleeing Greg and brought our team to WAL*MART (it just looks better when I spell it in all caps...) and purchased a wide variety of random items.....except Eric's television.....the rest.....is history and another round of great memories.

First off is a male Triorla interrupta with a Diogmites angustipennis kill.

Below is a Mydas clavatus that was very cooperative at the second gate.

.....and before I hit the hay tonight...one more: Laphria lata with a shield/stink bug sp. kill....

2010 Vacation - Part Two

2010-09-23T00:23:00.005-05:00

The next day (8/4) we made it over to Natchez and drove around town quite a bit.

We visited the Melrose Plantation (somewhat by accident..)

got a good view of the Mississippi..

then got on the Natchez Trace parkway.

The first visitor info stop we encountered had a small grave yard behind it.

2010 Vacation - Part One

2010-09-12T22:05:00.006-05:00

This year we took a camping trip up through Mississippi. The first night, 8/3, we spent at Homochitto National Forest.

(The drive up)

It was dark and late when we got there - we setup the tent and got a fire going.

(The next morning)

The next morning we found a really nice lake with a recreation area there, but it started pouring rain not long after we got out of the car.

A.I. staff field - Louisiana Nature Center 5/19/2010

2010-05-19T23:43:00.007-05:00

On May 19th, we made a trip to the Audubon Louisiana
Nature Center (Zack plus 5 in the morning, only 2 could stay through the afternoon).
The site was flooded badly during Katrina; buildings are decrepit; remediation
has been done on the grounds (which total 85 acres of mixed bottomland hardwood
and swamp) such that the blackberry and tallow are not the sole plants on site,
thank goodness. That said, it was nice to have a little blackberry around...and
by that I mean the picking was extraordinary. We brought home plenty.

As for bugs, we collected a large number of pill
bugs and several greenhouse millipedes for our “rotten log” exhibit in the Insectarium’s
Louisiana Swamp gallery. We also brought in about a dozen large slugs for a
display in our Main Hall focusing on non-arthropod invertebrates. A few patent-leather
beetles and giant water bugs (Belostoma sp.) rounded out the stuff we took to
the Insectarium.

Diversity was pretty good considering what took
place on site in the late summer of 2005. A partial list is below. We found
2 juvenile wheel bugs with prey (images attached). In one instance, a ladybug
is the meal. In the other, an ironic twist as the insect being sucked on is
itself a predatory stink bug (subfamily Asopinae).

Spiders – 12 families (either web only or spider itself), including
the well-camouflaged trash-line orb weaver (Cyclosa sp.) and a feather-legged
spider (Uloborus glomosus).

Dragonflies – 6 species, including the gorgeous Carolina saddlebags

Lepidoptera – lots of giant swallowtails, a gulf fritillary, a viceroy,
a grape leaf skeletonizer, and a noctuid of some sort rounded out the adults.
Larvae consisted of a few salt marsh tigers and fall web worms and one pink-striped
oakworm.

Hymenoptera – not much ant diversity (result of flooding?), bumble bees,
carpenter bees, honey bees, leafcutter bees, and a lot of wasps of many species
(vespids, and sphecids mostly). Someone found a sawfly larva, too.

Beetles – Here again, the lack of numbers and diversity may be partially
a post-flood result. Patent-leather beetles (more larvae than adults); many
click beetle larvae (and one adult of a smaller species); a couple of larger
bombardier beetles (Brachinus sp., I think); ladybugs; a couple of un-IDed ground
beetles; a hardwood stump borer; a nice lepturine longhorn beetle (wasp mimic,
visiting lizard’s tail).

Others of note – a two-striped walkingstick, adult spittlebugs, a pale-bordered
field cockroach (which were occasionally easy to find on grounds), lots of stink
bugs of one species a well as at least two others, some katydids, a couple of
different assassin bugs, a nice, large Tabanus atratus, only one deer fly (thank
goodness), a mercifully light load of mosquitoes, and a pair of different carne
flies (one was quite long and thin, even by this family’s standards – did not
get a close look at it).

- Zack

Pearl River + Honey Island Swamp 5-8-2010

2010-05-19T23:41:00.002-05:00

Pearl River/Honey Island Swamp May 8, 2010 field notes:

The day began with light drizzle/mist but finally cleared up before noon. Many
roadsides at front gate had been sprayed with herbicides. Self-heal, Prunella,
was blooming everywhere. Host plants-passion flower and cassia- were beginning
to sprout by the railroad tracks; but, no butterfly eggs yet.

Mahaw berries by shooting range.

Multiple baby Lubber grasshopper migrations on each trail.

Not many predator dragonflies hunting. Overall delayed activity due to cold
winter and cool spring. Delighted to see 4 gorgeous Indigo buntings!

Combined reports:
4 Pipevine Swallowtail
1 Giant Swallowtail
4 Tiger Swallowtail
16 Black Swallowtail
4 Palamedes Swallowtail
3 Spicebush Swallowtail
2 unidentified dark swallowtails
11 Pearl Crescent
2 Southern Pearly Eye
11 Carolina Satyr
4 Question Mark
2 Red Spotted Purple
1 Hackberry
1 American Painted Lady
1 Viceroy
5 Buckeye
1 Sleepy Orange
4 Clouded Skipper
3 Common Checkered Skipper
7 Dun Skipper
4 Fiery Skipper
1 Least Skipper
6 Silver Spotted Skipper
11 Southern Broken Dash
1 Swarthy Skipper
4 Twin-Spotted Skipper
15 Whirlabout Skipper

26 species
134 Individuals

- Linda

A.I. staff field trip to Audubon Zoo

2010-05-19T23:37:00.001-05:00

This is a late report on the staff field trip from last week to Audubon Zoo.

We got a late start on account of a meeting, but we were at our red-tip cutting site by the Zoo's perimeter fence in time to catch up with staff from Mosquito Control and Jerry Howard of UNO. I think they'd already been looking for trap-jaw ants at another site or two on Zoo grounds, but now they were upon the colony I found in Feb. To make a long story short: we spent about 30 minutes there, but the good part was that the head tree guy at the Zoo, Daniel, showed up with a chainsaw and cut the railroad tie in which we hoped most of the ants and the queen might be. And in fact both the look of the wood and the lack of ants to be found in the surrounding soil makes us think we succeeded in getting the bulk of the colony and the queen. I plan on emailing Jerry Howard in the near future to check on the ants.

Our next stop was the Swamp exhibit, where we first met up with Cathy Landry - she was feeding 4 downy woodpeckers she managed to save (orphans), and the whole scene was pretty neat. After chatting with the rest of the staff, we went dip netting at a couple of sites. Several interested zoo visitors stopped to ask us about the activity, and I commend the trio of us for our enthusiasm in explaining stuff, showing bugs off, and talking up the Insectarium!

The day's take included several aquatic plants that I hope were of use in exhibits and also the following:

- dragonfly naiads (10 or so)

- Belostoma (8 or so)

- predacious diving beetles (only 2 or 3 adults, but we sure found a lot of their larvae - makes me want to black light there at some point later this summer!)

- spicebush swallowtail caterpillars (6 or 7)

- Zack

Species Survival Center - 5/5/2010

2010-05-07T11:41:00.001-05:00

Folks usually want to know what we encountered on our field trips. This is probably
the best way to be sure everyone gets an update of sorts.

Species Survival Center, 5/5

In spite of it being Cinco de Mayo, we did not see any bugs drinking beer while
we were traipsing about in the West Bank woods. But we did see or collect quite
a number of neat things. Among them:

Hymenoptera -
- Many carpenter ant queens (kept 7) and workers (kept about 12-15 for presentations)
- In addition to the ubiquitous (if not universally loved) fire ants, we saw
about 5 other ant species
- Found a queen yellow jacket in wood, and saw 2 others in flight. The former
has now happened a few times at SSC for me, but I'd never seen one flying about
- The number of newly-started paper wasp colonies on buildings was really impressive,
especially in crane (bird) stalls. See note below about these stalls.
- Honey bees all over the blooming privet

Coleoptera -
- Dead triceratops beetle Phileurus valgus outside staff building
- Several click beetle larva, one of the eyed click, Alaus oculatus, and a wiggly
pupa
- un-IDed ground beetle larva (found 2 in rotten wood) with nice sclerotized
banding on the dorsum
- 8 or 9 patent-leather beetles (added to Bait Shop)
- Small pleasing fungus beetles (I think a Triplax species) in some shelf fungus

Diptera -
-1 male and 1 female robber fly of the genus Laphria
-Soldier flies on good number at a manure-rich compost pile along South Bunker
Road (genus Hermetia)

Lepidoptera -
Sighted (none in great number): hackberry, question mark, fiery or whirlabout
skipper, snout, American painted lady (probably), a few small leaf-mimic moths,
and one slat marsh tiger larva

Spiders -
Azilia affinis, a rarely encountered spider in this part of the world, it
is usually associated with cave entrances

Sphodros rufipes, a fantastically interesting purse web spider which I thought
we gone from a previous spot - great to know they are still (or once again)
there

Acanthepeira stellata, a very attractive little orb weaver
Leucage venusta
Verrucosa arrenata
Argiope aurantia egg sacs
Other araneids too young for ID
4 wolf spp.
2-3 salticids, incl. a male T. sylvana
Ant-mimic (genus likely is Castianeira)

Other -

- Rosy wolf snails (2 young) and an assortment of other snails and slugs
for exhibit

- In rotting wood - we busted open a fair bit - we found 2 of our native Scolopendra
sp. and one each Vonones ornata and Vonones sp. (both harvestmen, the latter
quite pretty). Brought back a good bit of wood for use at the Insectarium.

- The small wooden entry ways (stalls) into fenced in crane enclosures are
interesting little microhabitats. They are loaded with old nests built by at
least 2 mud dauber species; they house jumping spiders, cellar spiders, and
occasionally large fishing spiders (though we did not get any on Wed.); black
and yellow garden spiders leave egg sacs in the stalls, and Carolina praying
mantids leave oothecae there as well. We collected about a dozen mantid nymphs
(at IRF now) that were part of a large batch that had clearly emerged from their
eggs quite recently.

- Zack

April 18-20, Grand Chenier, LA

2010-04-21T22:01:00.002-05:00

James Beck is a birding demi-god! He was the “guide,” Zack Lemann the host, and three other folks came along as well. The idea was to show some Yankees (nice ones, actually) what quality bird watching is all about. We hit the spring migration at its peak and catalogued well over 100 species. This is not the best forum in which to detail all the particulars, but I’ll say this: terrific birding, near-perfect weather, no mosquitoes, great company!

Along the way, there was some bug hunting (surprise!) initiated by Zack. We found black widows in the field in large numbers at Johnson Bayou. All were residing in dead trees. We collected three nice females.

Butterflies were in short supply, but Phaon crescents and giant swallowtails to the tune of about 5 each were spotted along with a couple of sleepy oranges and two other swallowtails that I think were blacks. (Serious drought is in effect in SW Louisiana.) Plenty of damselflies if you looked for them in low vegetation along the cheniers, but almost no dragonflies. Carpenter bees in good number concentrated at certain trees, no other flighted hymenoptera of note. Got one eyed click beetle from a rotten log! I’ve not had time to look at Wagner’s caterpillar guide yet, but the hackberry trees were absolutely littered with a geometrid larva of some sort.

Back in Grand Chenier, we set up a 150-watt MV light and a 15-watt UV 2 nights in a row. Very similar insects both nights, but substantially more on the first evening. I’m not sure the weather or moon were different enough to account for this disparity, but I don’t have a good explanation. Gobs of water boatmen and substantial numbers of several other types of beetles: smaller hydrophilids and dytiscids, rice and sugar cane beetles (both scarabs), rove beetles, and a pretty good carabid mix, including bombardiers, false bombardiers, and quite a few others. Moths were mostly small, but some tiger moths and a couple of carpenter moths came in, along with about three fishflies (all female) over the course of our two evenings.

The most exciting find among the bugs was…a large payload of pleasing fungus beetles (Megalodacne sp.)! This is a beautiful beetle, but they are not often collected. If it’s been wet, they are spread far and wide over rotting wood that has their host fungus on it or nearby. But in winter or times of drought (did I mention it was dry?), they cluster under bark. Well, we found some bark, and we found some beetles! I am waiting on a hard count, but I believe it’ll
come in above 50! They are now at the Insect Rearing Facility of Audubon Insectarium.

- Zack

Vermilionville / BVD - 7/29/09

2009-07-29T19:43:00.004-05:00

Michael, Emma and I set some banana/sugar traps near the BVD today. Here is a pic of the find that was the reason we set the traps:

I spotted this guy (below) near the trash cans. I know it doesn't look very appetizing but you will have to trust me that it is a moth pupa:

Vermilionville / BVD - 7/28/09

2009-07-29T14:24:00.004-05:00

Yesterday Michael and I poked around Vermilionville and the BVD after work. We found: 1 larval cacada looking for a spot to moult, 1 ball of dirt that looks suspiciously like a dung ball, an apparently sick bat near the base of a tree and 2 buprestids on a persimmon tree trunk.

Des Allemends trip - 7/21/09

2009-07-28T08:24:00.008-05:00

Here is the count from last night's haul (excluding some of those bugs ofwhich we got just a very few):

Crickets - 35

PDB's (predacious diving beetle) - 59

WSB's (water scavenger beetle) - 38

Belastoma - 29

Water scorpions - 86

Lethocerus - 74

Dragonflies - 91

Fishing spiders - 3 (2 of these are the smaller species we use most often,but 1 is a large but thin female of Dolomedes tenebrosus. She's at IRF and,we hope, getting fattened up.)

Very productive and fun night. Hope y'all had fun!
- Zack

Alexandria & LeCompte 20/21 June 2009

2009-06-21T06:39:00.010-05:00

Well.......Steve, Travis & I made a nocturnal run up to Alexandria to set up lights at my friend Roger Breedlove's house. We set up the rigs, and figured on driving around, checking out the local gas stations (more specifically their lights...). We found a moderate number of ox beetles, Strategus aloeus, mostly minor males & females, but a few major males tossed in for fun.

We also had at least one grapevine beetle, Pelidnota punctatus

There were a few Calosoma sayi specimens crawling around......

It was an overall dry run....in more than one way......it hadn't rained in a while....and unless Strategus is your only bounty........dry run fits there as well. Oh well.......next time!

Mini-explosions from the Asilid World!!!

2009-06-10T21:41:00.007-05:00

Man......if it gets better than this.......I don't know if I can maintain further composure!!!!

While watching the sun set the other afternoon, Ellen pointed out a remarkably beautiful, albeit miniscule dipterid just inches away from where we were sitting. I squeezed off a couple of pictures, and soon forgot about it......I dunno, I was chasing a wasp or something.........

So when it came time to upload the photos from my camera to our PC, there was something amiss. I initially passed this fly of as a Syrphyid fly of some sorts...........stupid ME.

Ellen insisted that it was a robber fly, so I sent the photos to Zack, who was so bold as to "bet money" on Asilidae. Now I was really intrigued........and super excited that my baby had potentially keyed out something pretty cool. The text below is from Gayle & Jeanelle Strickland:

"Congratulations to Ellen!! Not only is it an Asilid, but an excellent record. We think it is Atomosia sayii. Images of the genus Atomosia may be seen on Herschel Raney's website.
Click on the following link and scroll down to the last two photos which are A. sayii.
http://www.hr-rna.com/RNA/Main%20pages/Laphriinae%20frame%20page.htm
A similiar species, Atomosia rufipes has a bit of black on the legs. To see a photo of A. rufipes, click on the following BugGuide link.
http://bugguide.net/node/view/89837
Note that it is an excellent match for yours except for the touch of black on the legs. There are no images of A. sayii on BugGuide. I suggest that you tightly crop the images and submit both of them to BugGuide. The photo of A. rufipes is a good example of desired cropping.

Gayle"

WOW!!!!!!!!!!

So below are two images of the Atomosia sayii, followed by a couple of A. puella I found around the yard today............ -j

Owlflies...........DOMINATE!!!

2009-06-03T22:39:00.009-05:00

Man......I almost didn't run my mercury vapor light this night.....but something told me.........

So I have had only 1 (one) single owlfly, Ululodes sp. come to my lights here in Broussard since I've been actively documenting. They're not rare or especially quirky......but I find them to be some of the most intriguing examples of the insect world.....

My very first experience with this Order was in Costa Rica, 2001. I was immediately drawn.......anyway, I still don't know much about them, but I love to photograph them......I really need to immerse myself in the ecology of this extraordinary insect!!! All photos were from 1 June 2009.

Kisatchie BEFORE Bugstock 6

2009-05-25T20:56:00.007-05:00

Ok......don't get too excited..........this was supposed to be a herping trip. We (Bert Lucas, myself) failed so miserably, that I will actually post non-invert pics here.......yeah!

It was like someone walked through the entire layout & collected/demolished any living herps out there.........I mean....this is beyond "border-line embarrassing"........this is more like "Do you guys even know what yer doin'?!". Apparently NOT. As I'm spending the better part of an hour photographing what I thought was an Eastern tailed-Blue..........turned out to be a Reakirt's blue, Echinargus isola. Apparently rare in Louisiana.........shows what I know about butterflies............many thanks to Rosemary Seidler & Jeff Trahan of Shreveport for the i.d.!

Striped bark scorpions, Centruroides vittatus, (a.k.a. "stingin' lizards) are typically common under almost every place for refuge......yeah......we saw two......what the?! And so after all......remember that this was *supposed* to be a "herping" trip..................so here's a Western fence lizard, Sceloporous undulata.

Oh.......and of course, Ebony jewelwing, Calopteryx maculata, did not fail to impress.................

BUGSTOCK 6

2009-05-24T23:58:00.008-05:00

I just want to post a few pics here........kind of like an appetizer..........more details to follow.......

White flannel moth, Norape ovina

Southern flannel moth, Megalopyge opercularis

Royal walnut moth, Citheronia regalis

Black witch, Ascalapha odorata

Grape leaffolder, Desmia funeralis

Not at 'Stock, but one of the two high-intensity black bulbs Michael & I scored before the weekend........365!!!!

Gradu!

2009-05-18T19:08:00.011-05:00

I didn't intentionally leave out other insects from the lights the other night, I just wanted to have the moths covered in their own rite......so now, a bit of extraneous flavor..........

black caterpillar hunter, Calosoma sayi:

some sort of Brachonid or Ichneumon wasp (?):

Pre-stock.....moth MAYHEM!!!

2009-05-17T22:32:00.015-05:00

I spent the dwindling hours of yesterday (16 May 09) helping the Barney clan straighten some trails for the forthcoming BUGSTOCK #6. We'll spare the silly & painful details for now......and oh yes............there are many............

What I want to belt out real quick is a summary of what Michael Barney & I had at the black/mercury vapor lights last night/early this morning. Please pardon the TEMPORARY lack of species/photo assignments......it's late and I just want to get the highlights out first........some have been identified.........some need research to i.d. This post will be modified as the days troll on........but Steve-o made a special request for a report, and for those who know Steven, he's a class-act character...........great person all around.....so it is my pleasure to at least make a quick pictorial summary of last night's symposium. -j.w.Beck

Acadiana Park Nature Station 11 May 09

2009-05-14T09:39:00.007-05:00

I spent a couple of hours on 11 May with Stephen Saltamachia walking some of the Nature Station trails, mostly seeking robber flies. We did see a few Laphira and potentially a Mallophora, but it was moving too quick & out of sight before I could confirm it. We did get some nice shots of a Tachinid fly in the genus Zelia (thanks to Zack for the correction!).

Salty never fails to impress with his keen search image, as soon as we entered the 4th grader trail from the levee, he spotted a scarlet-bodied wasp moth, Cosmosoma myrodora, a first for me! I had been unsuccessful at turning up one of these in previous years. It proved to be a challenge photographing it, as it would always light on the underside of a leaf after a short flight.

Earth Day at UL, 2009

2009-04-28T22:21:00.005-05:00

Steven and I were asked to exhibit some "critters" for UL's Earth Day (23 Apr) by Colette Anzalone, the Education Outreach Coordinator for the university's Department of Renewable Resources. We were glad to be part of such an event. It was a great success, and we got to catch up with some old friends; Will Bernard (UL - Cade Experimental Farm, crawfish complex), Jim Foret (UL Experimental Farm Administration), Dr. Wylie Barrow (USGS National Wetlands Research Center), Dr. Thomas Michot (USGS NWRC), Heather Baldwin (USGS NWRC) & Tyson Hatch (USGS NWRC).

Species exhibited were; six-spotted tiger beetle, Cicindella sexguttata, ox beetle, Strategus aloeus larvae & pupae, dung beetles, Phaneus sp. & Dichotomius sp. adults & pupae, spittle bugs - the larval stage of two-lined leafhopper (or spittlebug...), Prosapia bicincta, forest tent caterpillars, Malacosoma disstria, two types of tiger moth caterpillars (Family Arctiidae), Texas brown tarantula, Aphonopelma hentzi, Southern widow, Latrodectus mactans & brown widow, L. geometricus.

Washington Brief 4 April 09

2009-04-05T11:37:00.009-05:00

Ellen & I met the Barneys & Travis out at the Farm yesterday afternoon for a bit of trail work, and to hang out. We didn't spend an excessive amount of time looking around, but turned out a few things. Of most interest in terms of bugs (for me, at least), were the few beetles that were active. The day-flying Cicindella sexguttata, (six-spotted tiger beetle) proved (as usual...) to be a most challenging photo-adversary. A hind-shot is pretty much all I could muster........this time!

A mating pair of net-winged beetles, genus Calopteron, made a nice exiting surprise......

Along the pond, there were also pairs of long-jawed orb-weavers, genus Tetragnatha, breeding.........

Perhaps the most unusual find of the day however, was not of the six or eight-legged variety.....but a five-leaved clover found by Ellen in one of the Trifolium rapens patches in the field behind the pond! She has always had an uncanny ability for finding four-leaved clovers (~10-12 yesterday alone......), but this was definitely a first!

[below] (L) forest tent caterpillars, Malacosoma disstria and (R) white-marked tussock moth caterpillar, Orgyia leucostigma

more miscellaneous Broussard musings

2009-03-30T01:28:00.004-05:00

Aha! Spring is in the air! Breeding Tropidia sp. flies:

[above] Tiger moth sp. caterpillars (Family Arctiidae)

Broussard brief, 23 March 2009

2009-03-24T06:22:00.011-05:00

Anticipating rain for the rest of the week, Ellen and I decided to run mercury vapor last night, if only for a brief couple of hours. Not much to speak of at the sheet, except for the omnipresent Phyllophaga scarab beetles and a few of the other usual suspects. A walk down to the coulee produced several Hogna sp. wolf spiders (1st image below), numerous Acronicta oblinita (smeared dagger moth) caterpillars Ellen found (thanks to Linda "Bug Lady" Auld for the i.d.), a few Neoconocephalus triops (broad-tipped conehead, last image on right) & a remarkable site of a male Ischnura ramburii (Rambur's forktail) & a Zelus longipes (milkweed assassin bug) sharing the same perch!

-j

News From the Audubon Krewe

2009-03-21T16:49:00.001-05:00

From Zack..... -j
---------------------------------------

OK, guys, I finally visited the Bugmuda Triangle with intent to post, but I have not logged on in forever and have no idea how to proceed. Instructions would be appreciated.

Meanwhile, here is the skinny, if someone wants to post it for me:

Audubon insect hunting update, week of March 16 – This Monday I went to Des Allemends with 4 others folks and picked up an eyed click beetle, 2 ox beetle larvae, and about 10 patent-leather beetles all in a very small amount of wood and in a very short amount of time! Then, in the rain, we got about two dozen whirligig beetles, 20 water scorpions, and 10 Belostoma (our smaller giant water bugs). Not bad work for a quick afternoon – this all took place between 2p.m. and 4:30. A note about aquatics...I usually keep them overnight in damp sphagnum moss, as they can drown in water if sloshed while driving (especially the hemipterans). But with whirligigs, on account of multiple overnight die-offs amounting to well over half the specimens, I will henceforth be keeping them in water. I do not know why the wet-plant-only approach does not work on them, but it doesn’t.

So our terrific friend and host on these Des Allemends jaunts, Gordon, began driving under street lights on Monday night and in 3 outings has collecting for us roughly 50 predacious diving beetles and 75-100 water scavenger beetles! We were very much in need of the latter – they do not survive for as long as adults as do the “PDBs” – and it is very encouraging to learn that we can come by so many so early in the year.

Last night Jayme and I set up 2 light rigs at Audubon’s Species Survival Center near Algiers. This was for the National Science Teachers Association conference. WE had 30 teachers, and we not only checked out lights but also had 2 big bins of old wood for them to root through. The evening was a success in spite of relatively low activity at the lights. Highlights as I see them include both good numbers of so-so bugs (#s being good for the guests), a few things for the Insectarium, and some rarities that are exciting on a personal level. The aforementioned includes: a small sesiid moth in the genus Synanthedon (not too colorful, but pretty neat), one Dicaelus puprpuratus, 2 small pleasing fungus beetles, several rice beetles, a few carpenter moths, a few of the aquatics beetles mentioned in the previous paragraph (PDBs & WSBs), and a few patent-leather beetles.

Oh, and while I was collecting the rotten wood, I got a queen yellow jacket who had been overwintering under bark. Third time in my life this has happened, ALL from the same exact humongous wood pile at Survival Center. And I got a spider, a cobweb weaver, just like one I found at The Farm that got me jazzed – do not know what it is! Lives under bark. Will send a pic of the older one when I can

See what I can do when I have a ½ day off?! This almost counts as a post, right?

- Zack

Broussard Acrididae

2009-03-13T11:04:00.007-05:00

I've been trying to learn the Acridid (short-horned) grasshoppers near our home here in Broussard. Being that we are surrounded by cane & hayfields, this presents an optimum opportunity. Ellen & I spent the Sunday before last teaching ourselves a method in coastal-prairie Orthopteran capture techniques. Trial & error, folks..............

Three species were captured, photographed & re-released. Thanks to JoVonn Hill of Mississippi State University for the identification of two of these.

First image: male & female Mischievous bird grasshopper, Schistocerca damnifica (Family Cyrtacanthacridinae, migratory bird locusts)

male & female Winter brown grasshopper, Amblytropidia mysteca (Family Gomphocerinae, slant-faced grasshoppers):

Northern green-striped grasshopper, Chortophaga viridifasciata (Family Oedipoinae, band-winged grasshoppers):

09 is fine....

2009-03-12T00:20:00.012-05:00

Collectively, Ellen & I have run mercury vapor lights beginninng 27 Feb.....below will be a summarization to date......unless others have more to contribute. Spring's here y'all.........git ready!!!!

Key to images (L to R): 1) Bolbocerasoma sp., 2) Phyllophaga sp., 3) Tipula sp., 4) Nezara viridula, 5) Ophion sp., 6) Apantensis phalerata, 7) Cisseps fulvicollis, 8) Prionoxystus robininae - male, 9) P. robininae - female, 10) Plutella xylostella, 11) Chauliodes rastricornis - female & 12) Chauliodes rastricornis - male.

Kickoff 2009

2009-03-03T22:15:00.010-06:00

No, unfortunately we're not talking about the 2009 New Orleans Saints season yet..........

BUT, the other night was rather warm, so Ellen and I decided to run a couple of lights to see what might be lurking about...... One mercury vapor light & one blacklight was all we needed, as we were pleasantly surprised with a nice selection of bugs given the date.

I went inside for like 7 seconds, and when I came back out, Ellen had trapped this nice harnessed tiger moth, Apantesis phalerata. (above)

After photographing it, I needed to run back inside to make sure I had fresh batteries. When I came back out...........Ellen......again.............had something bad-ass!

carpenterworm moth, Prionoxystus robiniae

After the inital moth excitement, something 'big' came in......................"Is that a dobsonfly?" asked James. Upon closer examination, no.........this was a female fishfly, Chauliodes rastricornis!!!!! We got some awesome shots of her......including one in which you can see the ocelli perfectly!

A third moth, Leucania scirpicola put in an appearance (thanks to Vernon Brou, Jr. for the i.d.!), and just posed nicely............

Not bad for February, eh? -j

BUGSTOCK Fall 2008

2008-08-18T08:39:00.006-05:00

Bugstock Fall 2008 was a great success (as usual)...with a lot of the usual suspects in attendance (and of the six & eight-legged kind as well!). Robber flies (Family Asilidae) seemed to rule the weekend, with at least three (maybe four...Gayle?) species of Diogmites! Also, we were able to photograph Triorla interrupta with prey (skipper sp. pictured below).

Below is Diogmities angustipennis, then a Diogmites that has yet to be identified to species.

Bugs 'round the Nature Station

2008-07-10T22:58:00.014-05:00

I began full-time work at the Acadiana Park Nature Station as a Naturalist on June 15, 2008. I had worked here previously (albeit very briefly) in 2002, before going to the Zoo of Acadiana. We've been extremely busy around the Station lately, as Stacey (Scarce) is on vacation for three weeks. I have, however, not neglected to obtain numerous insect and spider images while working over the last several weeks. I'll post a few here tonight, just to get things kick-started, and come back over the next few days and add more, with more text. So.....having said all that, here are some of the highlights that have been around the Station lately:

saddleback caterpillar, Acharia stimulea

blood-sucking conenose, Triatoma sanguisuga

robber flies, Promachus hinei

Washington 16 Apr 08

2008-04-22T01:09:00.010-05:00

The morning after we ran the lights, Michael and I hit the trails to see what diurnal species were active. One of the several species of dragonflies seen is below, a male Eastern amberwing, Perithemis tenera.

Also, there were a few newly emerged common whitetails, Plathemis lydia around the edge of the pond.

I really didn't keep a "running tally" of all the odes but certainly around were common green darners, Anax junius; Eastern pondhawks, Erythemis simplicicollis; roseate skimmers, Orthemis ferruginea; great blue skimmers, Libellula vibrans and blue dashers, Pachydiplax longipennis.

A nice (and rather unusually "tame") buttermilk racer, Coluber constrictor anthricus was hands down the herp of the trip!

I think the most unexpected find however.......is depicted below. -J

Washington Moth Night

2008-04-15T16:40:00.008-05:00

Friday (11 Apr 08) Michael (Barney) and I ran black and mercury vapor lights up at The Farm in Washington, St. Landry Parish. We ran the rig from ca. 2300-0400 hrs. As you can see by the picture, I forgot poles for the sheets, so we improvised by using sticks and small branches. The night quite obviously belonged to the moths. Species depicted here were the ones most impressive and ones we were able to i.d., either then or after with the help of Zack (Lemann). In order of appearance, they are: luna moth, Actias luna; polyphemus moth, Antheraea polyphemus; Southern pink-striped oakworm moth, Anisota virginiensis pellucida; cecropia moth, Hyalophora cecropia and Desmia funeralis (forgot Common name....sorry! Will add later).

Other things of interest were two fiery searchers, Calosoma scrutator (which for some strange reason, Zack thinks he's getting... :) ) and several six-spotted tiger beetles, Cicindella sexguttata. Plenty of dragonflies and damsels....only a few dragon pics, which I'll post in a separate post. -J

cossid moth

2008-04-09T13:58:00.003-05:00

Thanks to Vernon Brou, Jr. for identifying this moth for me, not a sphynx but a carpenter moth, Prionoxystus robiniae. -J

Getting closer....

2008-03-26T17:46:00.008-05:00

Last night in the Atchafalaya Basin with Tyler Thigpen was a very productive night in terms of quality over quantity. While our main mission is sampling amphibians, we always come across other interesting things. Signs of Spring are getting closer as some of our arthropod friends have become active!

.....and then throw in a cool herp and you've got a successful night! We're going out again tonight (Wed Mar/26)....we'll see what we find tonight.

James

Cerambycid tag-along in the Basin

2008-03-06T15:30:00.005-06:00

Last week my friend and coworker Tyler Thigpen were out in the Basin conducting one of our visual amphibian encounter surveys. When we got make in the truck at one our sites, we had this guy hanging out with us on the ceiling of the Ford. Hopefully, there will be more to come as it continues to warm up. -James

2008-02-16T09:54:00.011-06:00

We took a trip last weekend to checkout Kisatchie Bayou.We drove past many bug haunts along the way.

We parked at a nice little spot near the "bayou" and hiked along the Caroline Dormon trail. We found a nice sandy beach for a picnic.

After that, Emma got to play in the water for a bit.

During the trip we saw: a few centipedes, a tiger beetle (near the sand), a salamander and leaf-cutter ants.

Widows............

2008-01-08T15:18:00.000-06:00

As most of you already know, I've been discovering all the capabilities of my new camera lately, with my spiders (and others...) as photo subjects. Below are various images of Southern, Latrodectus mactans, Western, L. hesperus and brown, L. geometricus widows.

Still kickin'...

2007-11-26T10:51:00.000-06:00

I've got a bunch more pictures to post soon, just wanted to send out a flare for attention!

-James

Austin trip

2007-11-03T18:02:00.000-05:00

We took another trip over to Austin: Oct 27th - Nov 2nd. While there we hiked: Enchanted Rock, Wild Basin, Mayfield Park and Commons Ford Ranch Park. I caught my first wild Phanaeus and Pasimachus and Emma and I held a small Tarantula. Here are some photos:

Ft. Polk 10/14/07

2007-10-15T21:55:00.000-05:00

Emma, Travis, Katherine and I took a trip over to Ft. Polk yesterday. Not very many insects out but here are a few pics from the trip:

It's so hot.....

2007-08-16T13:50:00.000-05:00

It's so HOT.....

...even the dragonflies are complaining! This blue dasher, Pachydiplax longipennis, is obelisking; removing its body surface from the sun to cool down. This is not an extreme example; sometimes dragonflies will hold their abdomens nearly completely vertical!

-James

Barney backyard

2007-08-11T18:23:00.000-05:00

I went by Steven's house briefly to pick up some Cotinis metabilis. While I was there, I took a few pictures of what was hanging around the backyard.

(above) bumble bee sp.

(above) great blue skimmer, Libellula vibrans

Ok, so the Phanaeus vindex wasn't just walking through the yard. This one was staged...

-James

Calosoma KILLS

2007-08-07T11:51:00.000-05:00

Here's a couple of pictures of my Calosoma beetles. They are fun to keep in captivity, as they can be ferocious little beasts, especially the fiery searcher, C. scrutator! This individual inparticular, has learned to take crickets from my hand. Of course, occasionally there's the misjudgment in aim, and a finger is grabbed instead! >>

black caterpillar hunter, C. sayi >>

-James

Wandering glider

2007-08-03T11:01:00.000-05:00

One of the nice things about my new digital camera is its telephoto-macro capabilities. Check out this male wandering glider, Pantala flavescens down by the coulee by our house. This was taken from ca. three feet away!

-James

baby BOOM!!!

2007-08-03T10:58:00.001-05:00

One of my two southern widows, Latrodectus mactans, had two of her three eggsacs hatch out Wednesday night. I roughly estimate ca. 300 youngsters!

-James

Emergence!

2007-07-31T18:06:00.000-05:00

Now, I am really excited....see, this is the FIRST butterfly that I've ever had in captivity and held through chrysalis to adult. I've just never taken the time to experiment with it. So, last night when I went into the closet for something and heard a fluttering noise (which actually was a struggling field cricket in a widow's web...), I noticed the butterfly had emerged. I took this one picture before I released it outside. What a neat experience.

UPDATE: August 5,2007 - I forgot to list the species involved here...oops. Cloudless sulphur, Phoebis sennae.

-James

STAG

2007-07-30T14:40:00.001-05:00

This guy needs no introduction....

more bugs 'round the yard

2007-07-30T14:11:00.001-05:00

So my new digital camera is awesome. I have yet to master all the settings and other cool things it does, but I will say this: the advertised 0.4" marco focus was a mistake on the wepage. Poo-pooh...it's still a good camera! Basically, I was looking for a newer, more powerful digital camera with more megapixels so that I could photograph bugs, amphibians & birds alike. Got it! While this IS a BUG blog....I will post only one picture of a bird here....just for demonstrational purposes.

Well, the first picture isn't of a bug afterall anyway! This stunning female black-and-yellow argiope, Argiope aurantia, was found at the UL Experimental Farm in Cade by my Dad, who also took some pictures of it (see http://www.rrikbeck.com/ for further details).

Above is a false bombardier beetle, Galerita bicolor that came into my light rig this past Saturday night. The rig...which is almost complete, has been named Optimus Prime. There were surprisingly good numbers of bugs given the crummy weather. Also of note was this (insert identification here, Zack) moth:

The last two images will include a young Tricolored Heron (NOT bug) at the UL Farm and a moth sp., identified as xxx by Vernon Brou...thanks for the i.d.!

What a neat Sat. I had!

2007-07-30T08:24:00.001-05:00

I went to Husser, LA on Sat. to drop off my dogs for boarding before a 12 day trip. I realized I was in cattle country and asked the dog folks if they had a neighbor who'd be willing to part to part with some fresh cow poop (from animals that had not been wormed within the last 6 weeks). Well wouldn't you know, there was a fellow right across the road who could help me out.

Oh, I forgot that some who read this might being asking WHY?! We are due to get some Phanaeus vindex in mid-August. So, I thought before my trip I should get and freeze some food for these future Insectarium critters.

I got the poop, and while so doing explained to my benefactor how pretty the beetle in question is and that I had never encountered one in the field myself. As I left, this fellow asked if I wanted anything from New Mexico, and I mentioned velvet ants. He of course said he sees them regularly on his property. I drive off and not 60 seconds later get a velvet ant that I spot crawling along the road.

Then, I was back at the dog boarder's and took time to swipe up some calico pennants. When I got the 3rd one, from grass about 6 inches high, there was something else in my aerial net - a major male Phanaeus vindex! How incredibly cool was that?!

- Zack

Broussard blacklighting 7/18

2007-07-19T11:40:00.000-05:00

I ran my preliminary blacklight rig last night in the backyard, only for about an hour. Lots of neat small stuff showed up including two species of tiger beetles (Tetracha carolina) and Cicindela sp., (a dark-gray flying sp.), tons of earwigs, dung beetles and some other small, unidentified scarabs and two moths, one pictured below; a yellow-collared scape moth, Cisseps fulvicollis!

Some of you may be wondering why I referred to my blacklight rig as "preliminary". After adding my brand-spanking new 2' blacklight(thanks to my lovely wife Ellen!), the final component will be my mercury vapor light, and then "Optimus Prime" will be complete!

-James

Baton Rouge 7/14/07

2007-07-15T11:30:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pics from our trip to Baton Rouge yesterday. We got wet but had lots of fun.

Widows

2007-07-10T08:57:00.000-05:00

Widows have always been my favorite spiders. I enjoy keeping several North American species, such as the southern, L. mactans pictured above. Widow spiders are all in the genus Latrodectus and all possess a varying degree of neurotoxic venom. While the venom of this spider has been somewhat exaggerated over the years, still caution must be used around them. Another common misconception is that the female always kills and consumes her mate. While this doubtlessly happens on occasion, it is certainly the exception to the rule. Cannibalism happens in more spider species than this, and so should we call all of them widows? Of course not.... Widows are also called comb-footed spiders. This is due to the stiff hairs at the tips of the fourth pair of legs, used to cast their strong silk around their prey items.

The picture below shows a female southern widow with her eggsac. The eggsacs in most widows are round or pear-shaped, and have a paper-like texture. The exception to this would be the brown widow, L. geometricus, pictured under the below image. Their eggsacs are covered in spiny-like rods.

Brown widows occur in most tropical areas of the world, and have become established in the United States along the Gulf Coast, from south Texas to Florida. Louisiana, Mississippi & Alabama are recent additions to the brown widow's range. They are much more tolerant of human activities, and are often found near dwellings, at gas stations or in front of stores. Brown widows can be fairly variable in color as well. Note the shade of brown in the above individual, and compare it to the individual below. Both were collected in front of the same strip mall in Lafayette, LA.

Bumble bee-mimic robber fly

2007-05-02T11:04:00.000-05:00

Here is an awesome shot of a bumble bee-mimic robber, probably xxx (I have the species name at home). The picture was taken by the infamous Rob Dobbs, Saturday morning at Lake Martin. Thanks to Rob for the photo, and Gayle Strickland for the I.D.

-James

Washington...

2007-03-26T09:40:00.000-05:00

3/25/07

Just wanted to post a few pics of a little someone we saw at the farm yesterday..

Steven

Où étiez-vous le mercredi passé ?

2007-03-24T19:23:00.001-05:00

("Where were you last Wednesday")
Steven and I decided to do some last-minute insect collecting on Wed. March 21. It was late by the time we made it to Washington and finally managed to get setup. We kind of figured that it would be too early in the season to catch anything good, but we were in for a surprise. Steven was collecting fiery searchers, and from the time the bulbs warmed up, until the time we unplugged, we were catching searchers! We could have continued to catch them, but we figured we had enough for one outing. We also saw a male luna moth, and some sort of longhorn beetle. Looks like it could turn out to be a great year for insects!

Michael

Wednesday night in Washington

2007-03-23T13:15:00.000-05:00

3/21/07

    Michael and I took a last-minute trip to the farm on Wed night. They were heading back to Florida the next day, and I wanted to get some collecting time in before he left.
    It was getting dark and we were in such a rush that I broke one of my 18" Blacklight bulbs while loading the car. I think it was about 9:00 before we made it out of the driveway.
    Now, this is the month of March, and neither of us expected to see much of anything. In my haste I forgot the clips I use to attach the sheet to the poles and forgot containers! We arrived rather late and scrambled to setup in the dark. We lit one black light and my MV rig and pretty soon we had company. We quickly found many C. scrutator, a few C. calidum, two giant water bugs and a big luna moth. We also had tons of June beetles and a fly that seemed to be a wasp mimic.
    We had a great time (despite feeling like crud the next day at work) and plan to do this again soon. It looks like it will be a good collecting year.

Steven

This weekend

2007-03-12T14:13:00.000-05:00

This weekend we went to the zoo in Alexandria. On the way there I stopped by "the Chevron" to take a look in the corral. Didn't see a thing in there at all. Will have to wait a few months I guess.

Yesterday we went to the farm. We saw a few butterflies, some dragonflies, a Belostoma and a few caterpillars. The main point of interest was that the tigers were in full flight.

Steven

**Update: 3/14/07 **
I saw my first "June Beetle" last night

Check this out...

2007-02-23T13:24:00.000-06:00

Check this out... I wondered if this was possible:

Dynastes hercules MALE x Dynastes granti FEMALE HYBRID

http://www.interinsects.com/assets/s2dmain.html?http://www.interinsects.com/50060498b80a9a706/index.html

Steven

Here's Lookin' at You...

2007-02-21T19:40:00.000-06:00

Eyed click beetle (Alaus oculatus) found today at the zoo.

Not the most cooperative individual, but always worth photographing.

-James

Please, more spring...

2007-02-11T15:38:00.000-06:00

2/11/07

We ventured out to "The Farm" yesterday. It was very cold and there was not much at all moving about. We did see a Leopard Frog and a few diving beetles, but that was about it.

Although, not an indication of spring, I was surprised by this hatchling today:

(Megaphasma denticrus)

Let's all go collecting soon.....

Steven

Spring anyone?

2007-02-04T16:53:00.000-06:00

Steven and I hung out at the zoo today for a while, mostly discussing potential future plans for this spring. It's been a long winter, and while I enjoy winter birding quite a bit, I'm ready for warmer months. Not so much for the warmer weather, but for the critters it brings out. Yes, that's right; bugs, spiders, reptiles and frogs! I was out in my yard just a minute ago collecting a new female L. mactans, and I noticed this gal hanging out on the side of our trailer:

Yup, that's right, a cranefly! Hopefully cooler things (not temperatures) are on their way to emerging! Until next time....

-James

Latrodectus geometricus....the Holy Grail

2007-01-29T10:16:00.000-06:00

Saturday (27 Jan 07), Larry Allain and I braved the stormy conditions here in Acadiana to collect brown widows (L. geometricus) on Ambassador Caffery Pkwy. in Lafayette. The purpose of this excursion was to supply Jayme (Necaise) with specimens for a genetic anaylsis/scientific publication in a medical journal with three others. We first checked the brick columns in front of the Super Target, but did not find any webs. We were not to be disapponted however; for when we moved down in front of Stage, we hit the jackpot! In all, we collected 13 (12 females, 1 male) widows. I couldn't help but keep two females for myself naturally..... It is generally thought that the presence of these widows is due to importation on plants from either Florida or Texas; most likely the former. Genetic analyses of these specimens should yield the answer to this. I have yet to do any investigating at places such as Home Depot or Lowe's, which have plant nurseries, where the spiders could be brought in. I suspect however, that such research could produce the answer. Maybe I could wrangle Steven Barney out into the field next time....

Also of note were the presence of both Plexippus paykulli and Phidippus audax jumping spiders in "purse-like webs" located inside of the widows' webs! After talking this over with Zack last night, this seems typical in Latrodectus spiders. It is not yet fully understood what (if any) purpose(s) this serves. Impressively, we found one widow that had captured and apparently consumed a large female Rabidosa rabidosa wolf spider.

Included are a few pictures taken by Larry throughout the morning.

-James

1) cellar spider, Crossopriza lyoni 2) female Phidippus audax

re: widow updates

2007-01-26T08:37:00.000-06:00

Nothing new on any geometricus, but I did get the collecting package in from Jayme yesterday. I plan on going to collect tomorrow. I've been working in Cameron Parish the last couple of days, and will be today also.

-James

Widow updates...

2007-01-25T13:59:00.000-06:00

James,

Any Brown Widow updates? I know Jayme was researching them too.

Steven
"Laissez Les scarabées Roulez"

2007-01-24T15:17:00.000-06:00

smokin' gun by Larry Allain

NEW OLD BOOKS!!!

2007-01-24T14:03:00.000-06:00

Dr. Bobby Keeland had to get rid of some old books that he and his wife no longer had room for. Bob, being a botanist, figured these publications would be well valued by someone who is into bugs and things. Thanks Bob! What he gave to me are: How To Know The Spiders (Kaston 1953), How To Know The Insects (Jaques 1947), How To Know The Protozoa (Jahn 1949), How To Know The Immature Insects (Chu 1949) & How To Know The Beetles (Jacues 1951). The drawings in these are remarkably accurate...as they should have been long before all this digital macro stuff! What I'll do is scan some images when I get a chance so that y'all can see 'em!

-James

Brown Widows Erupt in Lafayette!!!

2007-01-16T12:39:00.000-06:00

As I have already communicated to Zack, while shopping for women's clothing (which is always an awesome time...), I discovered numerous active brown widow (Latrodectus geometricus) webs in the crevices outside Target and other micsellaneous stores in that strip-mall complex over on the 4000 block of Ambassador Caffery Pkwy. in south Lafayette! Albeit, this was some months ago...I've just been extremely busy and haven't been posting/communicating with y'all as much as I'd love to. I've been doing a tremendous amount of field work (mostly bird/plant-related projects) in coastal Cameron Parish. While there, I have noted the exlosion of Southern widows there now. It seems now, more than ever I can recall, that L. mactans could be termed ubiquitous in the cheniers! I mean, under almost every available bit of cover, whether it's storm wrack or otherwise, there's usually a widow present. Zack and I (as well as Vicky Bayless) have discussed this, and find it intruiging. My personal thoughts are these:

1) perhaps a great percentage of the widows' natural predators (i.e. ground-wasps, etc.) were wiped out with the storm surge related to hurricane Rita.

2) (my wife actually suggested this) many an older structures already harboring widows were demolished and disseminated, and now these spiders and their kin (not a joke based on the book, Zack...) are more obviously distributed.

3) BOTH?

Comments, questions, answers?

-James

The rare Red River Shoveler...

2006-11-09T17:28:00.000-06:00

This is Test!!!

2006-11-04T09:51:00.000-06:00

This is a test.

*Note: Travis wrote the above, rather short, sentence...*
*Note: Steven wrote the above, rather short, sentence...*
*Note: The above sentence was made out of cypress...*
*Note: See... I told you so . .Its a rocket ship! NOT a time-machine.

Singed: I LOVE THE CYPRESS!

9-8 - 9-10, 2006 - Bugmuda Triangle Bugstravaganza

2006-09-14T14:27:00.000-05:00

This space left blank (for now) so that others can recount their experiences....

Steven

Red River WMA - 8/19/06

2006-08-29T13:14:00.000-05:00

Travis, Emma and I ventured back to Red River WMA. It was a "hot one". The only other human we saw was someone on a four-wheeler that sped by us. What we did not find were any more dung beetles. We hit the same exact spot; even saw the left-over piles of fish scales that had been bung piles two weeks before. It seemed like the otters had moved to another spot. We did try a few more areas but still didn't find any.
What we did see was three snakes, a flock of wild turkeys, a rabbit, five millipedes (which Emma picked up) and the back end of a wild boar.

Steven

Red River WMA - 8/6/06 - Roller Hunt - Pt. 1

2006-08-06T13:57:00.000-05:00

Part One: It's how you get there...

One of the long-awaited trips that I had planned to take this year happened yesterday. I picked Travis up at about 10:30 and we headed out. Stopped by Wal-mart but after a quick tour of the parking lot we decided it was much too busy for our needs and we went to Home Depot instead. Trav was looking for a medium sized shovel and we found one. He tried to have it sharpened but that didn't work out too well.
We took the Lebeau exit and headed toward the metropolis of Palmetto, LA. We stopped at a station, who knows where (I think Simmesport), and loaded up on gas, drinks and snacks. This was the last real stop before heading to nowhere.
There were lots of high bridges to cross, and lots of levee driving. In many spots you could actually, or at least almost, see the horizon without it ending in trees. At some point we passed by the road to the Angola Ferry.

Travis skillfully directed me to the entrance of the WMA where we filled out happy little cards about who we were and what we were doing. From this point it was all gravel and dirt, no more pavement. Some of the roads seemed to go on forever.

We traveled to the camp area where Travis has stayed before. I flipped a board and found some reptile eggs. Travis found a tiger beetle: virginica. We walked down to the river from there between clumps of horse-tail. Most of the bank had anti-erosion plates installed.

...continued in part 2

Steven

Red River WMA - 8/6/06 - Roller Hunt - Pt. 2

2006-08-06T13:02:00.000-05:00

Part Two: Laissez Les scarabées Roulez

So, we drove a bit more (like, tons more) and got to some lake drainage thing (pic below) that I'll name when I look at the map again or Travis posts it.

After a short walk along the water I found the first "deposit" and under it was my first Canthon. Travis went off to talk to the mysterious humans in the woods. He found out that they were exploding dynamite for testing and we had proof of that soon after. Not too far along the trail Travis spotted two otters swimming and I saw my first actual "rolling" (pic below). We found 11 total.

This shot was not far from the bridge we walked from. Further down this road we hit "millipede alley" and found 9 or 10 Narceus americanus crossing the road.

Shot a pic of this nice field......

...and this nice serpent.

It turned out to be a very nice trip.

Steven

7/28/06

2006-07-30T23:09:00.000-05:00

Travis and I went to Lecompte this past weekend. We found 19 S. aloeus, including 3 males. We did not find any other species except for dead ones. "Lupe's" has been pretty good the past few trips, and the far out station, on the other side of Lecompte, has been really good. This one did not have anything until recently.

Steven

Omelette anyone ??

2006-07-22T09:52:00.000-05:00

Eggs, Eggs, Eggs...

I wanted to post a few pics of some of the eggs I've collected recently:

Strategus aloeus:

Cotinus nitida:

Dynastes tityus:

Blue-tailed skink:

Steven

Lunar Nemesis: 7/8/06

2006-07-10T22:01:00.000-05:00

This space intentionally left blank. Check back tomorrow for more...

...Tomorrow, and more:

Saturday night and Saturday day were like night and day, figuratively speaking of course.

Saturday during the day (Saturday day) I traveled with James and his father to the edge of the Atchafalaya. It was scorching. On the way there we spotted a rare beetle: Pseudostrategus lithosoma, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the road. It was our first sighting of this species this year and all three of us got out of the car to take a look. I think the most common common name used is “dark-colored rock” but there are a few regional variants.
We traveled to the home of a friend of a friend of mine: James, one of James’ friends. We saw some stuff and they took some pics. My camera was out because apparently it can’t run on dead batteries (you think the manual would have mentioned that), so I am hoping one of my co-excursionists can post some photos. James spotted a large velvet ant that I scooped up.
James pointed out a nice spot that we should all check out near there. James will have to tell you more since he has been there frequently, but for now all you need to know is: hard power.
Before I get into the next section I have to add that the moon was nowhere to be seen at this point.

Saturday night: 7/8/06: Lecompte, LA: 10:45 PM: Lunar Nemesis…

Welp, for all of you that so narrowly missed this week’s excursion (you know who you are) you may consider yourselves lucky. The moon was full or pretty darn big at least, and it was “out the window and up” as we drove. The moon mooned us the entire night. Here are the stats:
Trip north: 2 adult, male humans

Trip south: 2 adult, male humans
1 adult, male Strategus aloeus
2 adult, female S. aloeus
1 adult, female Dynastes tityus
1 adult, female Lucanus capreolus

For those keeping score that’s only 7 animals in total for the trip south. The ones that we found seemed like they had been there from a previous night. We even drove up to the “Visitor Center” that is north of Alexandra to hopefully pad our numbers. We saw the watchmen’s truck (the one we spoke to on the previous trip there) but did not see him anywhere. What we did see were some crickets in the parking lot (yes, real crickets).
The only nice thing about the finds for that night was that the male Ox beetle has very nice horns.

Steven

Lecompte: Reloaded

2006-06-26T22:50:00.000-05:00

6/24/06 Sat.

AKA: Night of the living tityus
AKA: Strategus plasticus

As on numerous other occasions, Travis H and I left Sunset for Lecompte with the thrill of the hunt in our veins and beetles on the brain. We had attempted to form a trio for this expedition, but a certain individual, a seasoned veteran who has asked that his name not be published, declined.
We reached the first major gas station, that now has a catchy name: "Pseudo-Sammy's" (thank you Travis), but did not even think to stop. Nor did we stop at the authentic Sammy's. We were in single-minded pursuit of coleopteral riches.
As we ascended the ramp at the Lecompte exit, we decided to first search the new station on the West side of 49. At the very least we figured that any food or drink purchased there would be fresh. There we found a C. scruator, female S. aloeus and a female D. tityus (our first of the night) right off, before even entering the store. We purchased sugar and caffeine in different forms, then headed to the Chevron.
Once there, we found many more Ox beetles, only one male in the whole bunch. Travis found another male reddish-brown stag beetle in about the same spot as the dead male from 6/19. We also found two dead stag females (capreolus and elephas) at the same northeast corner of the building that we had found the dead elephas male a few weeks ago. There were also two, dead female D. tityus, one in the corral. There were some really interesting moths but I can't tell you much about them.
From there we drove to the other station in Lecompte proper, but did not find a single thing there, even with all the lights on. We drove up to the Woodworth station (next exit north of Lecompte) where we found three female D.t. and one male. Also found a female L. capeolus there too. We drove to the other station up the road, but the lights were off. We decided to drive on through to Forest Hill and make a huge square. We stopped and slowed but a few spots there but didn't find anything.
Arriving back at the station we started at for a second look, we found another Ox female then a sight I will remember forever. Out of the car window I spotted a beetle I could not identify. Short and stubby with two-toned elytra. Travis and I had just discovered a new species right there in the parking lot (see photos below). For right now it is being called: Strategus plasticus and we are still working on describing it, but I though you might like a sneek peek. It seems to have perished in the midday sun and was quite stiff (seriously, we did find this in the parking lot).

This was one of, if not the most, successful excursions I have been on. I have never seen as many D.t. in one place (in the container after we collected them, not at one spot).

*Update* I spoke to James this afternoon (6/26/06) who stopped at Lecompte on his way north. He found another D.t. female and S.a. female in the corral. Hope the rest of his trip is successful.

Steven

*An Update to Your Update* I did indeed collect (my first live) D. tityus as well as a minor male S. aloeus at the Chevron on our way north to Tallulah. I also found a few other cool things. I'll make a post later, but *hint**hint* the tail doth rattle....

-James

Bugzombied but Happy

2006-06-26T00:43:00.000-05:00

BugBlogger

State of a Fun Night: I just got back from the gas station in Des Allemends that has no name so far as I am aware but does have a whole lotta bugs! This was a fun trip. My 7-year old, Max, was with me. Our first goal was to meet at Happy Garden II (there is no HG I) with a former co-worker of mine who was in Design and Exhibitry. The word was that she'd collected 5 large velvet ants (Dasymutilla occidentalis) as of Th. or Fri. In the parking lot I received TEN of them plus two other species of vlevet ants, both smaller but still quite attractive. She'd brought both her parents, both brothers, her husband, and all three of her girls (ages 12, 7, and nearly 3). So the eleven of us ate at the Chinese buffet that included every Chinese dish known to man plus boiled crawfish, shrimp, and blue crabs AND Alaskan king crab legs. In addition to doing the "Cajun/Chinese" thing they also have soft serve ice cream - NOT your typical Chinese restaurant. So then ALL of us went to the gas station and met Gordon Matherne there (he's the guy who put me on to this spot in the first place). From the moment we were out of the car (9:00p.m.) I was bombarded with requests for jars, "Zack, come see this," etc. The four little kids were awesome and spent most of their time on moths, crickets, and medium-sized black scarab beetles. The large water scavenger and predaceous diving beetles took about 15-20 minutes to get hot and heavy, but with roughly 5 adults doing active searching, we collected 35 of the latter and 55 of the former in just under and hour! Since the purpose of this outing was to pick up velvet ants and get aquatic beetles for a colleague at the Brookfield Zoo, I'd call it an unqualified success. We had to drag the kids back into the vehicles. Also of note: 1 female S. aloeus 2 S. dasytomus (hardwood stump borer) 1 Calosoma callidum (and at another gas station on the way home 1 C. scrutator) 1 un-IDed longhorn (attractive) 1 firefly Several nice, large katydids of at least 3 species 1 Lethocerus americanus 1 conenose bug (Triatoma sp.) 1 un-IDed large sphinx moth (bark-like forewings) Some nice tiger moths - Zack

Some Miscellaneous Stuff

2006-06-25T17:44:00.000-05:00

I had some more rolls of film developed, mostly of stuff I photographed around here, but also a couple I took over at Steven's house. I did have a third roll with what would have been some great shots of the rainbow-colored tiger beetles, Megacephala (Tetracha) carolina, but Wal-mart messed that roll up, so none of the pictures were developed. Anyway, what I do have is the following: first is a pair of grasshoppers (sp.?) mating, presumably.

Paper wasps are quite common, and thus are great photo subjects when one is bored and looking for some good shots.

Here's a ladybird beetle (sp.?).

The next few pictures are of a 1) stag beetle, Lucanus capreolus and 2) a yet-to-be identified metallic green ground (?) beetle that Steven collected from the "farm" in Washington, St. Landry Parish.

-James

Belated Sunset Report

2006-06-21T09:49:00.000-05:00

This is somewhat delayed (like, by a few weeks...), but what the hell. On Sunday
4 June 2006, Ellen and I drove up to Travis's house in Sunset. Travis had set
out a crawfish trap in his pond in hopes of capturing either a western lesser
siren, Siren intermedia nuttingi or a three-toed amphiuma, Amphiuma
tridactyla. He has seen them both in there before, and on Friday night, we
(myself, Travis & Steven) had seen an amphiuma, so I was optimistic. I called
Travis Sunday morning, and he reported that he indeed had an amphiuma in the trap.
So, Ellen and I were on our way. After taking several shots of and with the amphiuma,
we turned it free back in the pond.

We walked around his property for a little while, and Ellen got to visit with
the miniature horses that are boarding at the Huval residence. We saw many cool
bees and wasps, and I stood patiently over a concrete bird bath and got some pictures
of European honey bees and some cricket hunter (?) wasps. Travis's Mother has
a beautiful butterfly garden, and I took advantage of the variety of
blooming flowers to sneak up on a fiery skipper for a picture. Oh...let me back
up a bit. While photographing the bees and wasps in the bird bath, Travis dug
up a couple of nice large patent leather beetles.

After a brief stroll on the side of the house (and a very impressive showing of some of Travis's wood work), we turned up, but could not photograph, a cuckoo wasp and a very small velvet ant sp.

A huge thanks goes out to Travis's Mother for the delicious freshly hand-picked blueberries and the banana bread!

-James

Another Afternoon in the 'hood

2006-06-21T09:40:00.000-05:00

Yesterday afternoon after I got off of work, I walked down to the containment ponds at the end of my block to again try and get some pictures of those pesky dark gray day-flying tiger beetles. Upon arriving, I found a few damselflies about that allowed me to snap off 2 or 3 pictures.

After a couple of unsuccessful attempts at photographing tiger beetles, I settled for a few face-shots of a female eastern pondhawk, Erythemis simplicicollis.

I also took a few pictures of a very small green grasshopper (sp.?).

There were some leaf hoppers (?) that were hanging out on some of the tall grass stalks that kept dodging around to the other side when I tried to snap a picture, so between that and the breeze blowing the grass, I gave up. I came across a female velvet and (Pseudomethoca?), and without a portable refrigertor, I didn't bother to try and photograph it. Also fast-moving through the grass/dirt patches was a Casteaneria sp.

FINALLY, after telling myself several times "ok, one last attempt and I'm giving up", I was able to crawl right up to a tiger beetle and fire off 5 or 6 pictures that came out good.

-James

6/19/06 - Lecompte

2006-06-20T21:35:00.000-05:00

Travis and I drove up to Lecompte again last night, not heeding the voice inside my head that was telling me that it: has rained, will rain or was currently raining along the entire stretch of I49 that we were interested in.
I left Broussard at about 9:15 after being egged on by Travis who said that we had "set an appointment" and that we should keep it. Not far down the road from my house the sky opened up. I almost turned back a few times but continued on. After a little while I drove back out of it and just had sprinkles the rest of the way to Travis's (not cupcake/muffin sprinkles, I know what your thinking). I did see lots of frogs in the road and did my best to avoid them.
We left Travis's and headed out of Sunset through more sprinkles (rain kind). Along the way up I49 we needed petrol and stopped at what we thought was "Sammy's". We found a single, female Ox beetle in the parking lot but that was all we caught, not counting the looks from the other gas pumpers and that one guy with the dog that was standing against the wall of the building. After acquiring the gas, we wanted to check the place for other specimens. We broke all the rules and went through to the "trucks only" area (drove right passed the sign), but were not rewarded for our bravery.
Further up the road we passed by the real "Sammy's", and although we did not stop, we cursed the first station as being a complete "Sammy's impostor". We finally made it to Lecompte with only about 15min before "lights out" (11:00 on week nights). We both found many female Ox beetles and almost simultaneously surprised each other by finding both a live, female tityus and a dead, male L. capreolus at almost the same time. Nothing at all in "the corral".
We drove around to BK where we found another female near the dumpsters and two others around back. We had finished with the Cheveron/BK area, so we decided to check out the new spot across 49 that had all it's lights on now (still under construction). On the way there the big lights turned off. I think one of the only things we saw when we got there was a grapevine beetle, which I turned over (tarsi down) and left, and a brown wood-boring beetle (who's taxonomy I really don't care to look up right now because I'm tired). Looks like it will be a nice spot though.
After that we drove through Lecompte to the other station, but the lights were not waiting to greet us. We did find another female Strategus in the darkness.
We pressed on to the next exit north of Lecompte (insert catchy name here) but I think we only found another female Strategus there. We then drove to the "whatever gas station"/dollar general spot where we had found some Strategus the time before. Didn't see anything except some "tabakki" (chewing tobacco that unfortunately resembles various species of coleoptera at times) and I think a black bottle cap (A1 specimen!).
That was about it. On the way back we hit "Sammy's" (the real one) but didn't find anything. I at that point declared it "a night" and we started the drive back south. We did get 12 female aloeus, one female tityus and one new phrase: "bug zombie".

Bug zombie \buhg*zohmbee
adj.
1. The state of complete exhaustion due to lack of sleep, reached at after a late night spent collecting insects.
2. By standard definition: any reanimated insect.

Not too bad for a terribly rainy week night with a half-moon.

Steven

In the News...

2006-06-20T12:52:00.000-05:00

Look at what I just read:

http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-15/1150785243311680.xml?

Steven

A Post From Zack

2006-06-19T10:45:00.000-05:00

Zack just returned from an overnight camping/canoeing trip from the Bogue Chitto River on the northshore of Lake Pontchartrain. He asked that I post his finding and some of his pictures. So, from Zack......

"For Father's Day weekend, my 7-year old and I joined about 8 other families for an overnight canoe trip along the Bogue Chitto. Bug summary (virtually all of this was on the large sand bars/beaches:- my battery powered portable 15W UV pooped out on me, so no great shakes at night.- terrific robber flies (3 species)- great tiger beetles (3 species)- very nice odonates, especially the damselflies- 2 species of whirligig beetles, and the smaller of the two were, in one instance, in a cluster of several hundred; they were gathered in a way that reminded me of wnat fire ants do when trapped by high water - not a true ball with any height to it, but quite a large, tight group- good numbers of well-camouflaged acridid grasshoppers and wolf spiders- a couple of small spider wasps here and there as well as some toad bugs.".

-James

6/20/06
Zack, looks like you were up to your knees in whirligigs...

-Steven

P.S. Fixed the code on the two pics on the right side, they should all open up now.

Broussard Backyard Bugging Bonanza

2006-06-18T10:14:00.000-05:00

10:14 6/18/06

Ok, so it wasn't quite a bonanza, but I wanted to see how many B's I could fit into the title......
Ellen and I are bordered on two sides by fields (hay & sugar cane), and the hay field leads down to a coulee and some containment ponds. There's usually something down there to keep my interest for a while; mostly wasps, but other things as well. There's some sandy patches where I've seen dark gray day-flying tiger beetles and velvet ants like this one:

There are also quite a few thread-waisted and digger wasps down there. Now, a true test in excercising patience is kneeling down in grass with stinging ants, waiting for a digger wasp to build up enough courage to enter her dugout in the ground with a large grimacing human holding some sort of contraption over her home. You'll notice there are no digger wasp pictures here. Not yet....I haven't given up yet. Just yesterday....

The cool thing about hay fields is that they have plenty of grasshoppers. All kinds. Don't ask me to name them, I can only identify lubbers, but they sure are attractive!

Also, some of the taller grasses host long-jawed orb-weavers. They hide on the stalks of the plants and blend in quite well. If the wind is blowing, it's really a challenge to get a decent shot, but I was able to grab these two:

While on the subject of spiders, I'll go ahead now and boast about the widow that took up residence under an old plow blade I have in one of my gardens. She showed up one day with another female (which quickly vanished), both as 2nd instars. I watched her everyday, until she matured into an ultimate instar. Yesterday (6/17/06) was the first time she wasn't there when I checked.

There are plenty of jumping spiders around as well, and this male Plexipus allowed me to get this stunning shot:

I'd like to go down there with someone else who can also identify true bugs. I found this guy, who is some sort of leaf-footed bug.

Well, I guess that's all for now. We have to run to Lafayette for some Sunday errands. I do have some more pictures and another write-up from Sunset, so I guess I'll post that later this afternoon. See ya!

James

Sun. 6/11/06

2006-06-16T22:54:00.000-05:00

Travis and I want up to Lecompte last Sunday and found this:
2 - F - S. aloeus
1 - M - S. aloeus
4 - M - P. punctata
1 - F - P. punctata
1 - M - D. tityus

The moon was full and we noticed that we didn't see as many insects as we did on previous nights.

Steven

Tensas and Cache River Basins June 5-9, 2006

2006-06-12T11:12:00.000-05:00

I spent a week working up in the Tensas River Basin in northeast Louisiana, and in the Cache River Basin in east-central Arkansas. It was intense field work, with little time for looking for critters. The habitat varied quite a bit, from agricultural fields (corn & soybean) to hardwood bottomland forests...bear country! I came away with only a few specimens, all from AR. The first was a freshly deceased Dynastes (at right) I found in the parking lot of the AmeriHost Hotel in Brinkley. For those who don't already know, Brinkley is the home of the famous "rediscovery" of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Anyway, I also collected a giant dung beetle (Dichotomius carolinus ?, left) in some woods bordering the Cache River. The mystery bug I collected from an ag field seems to be some sort of longhorn beetle (another one for you to I.D. Zack). It has a beautiful velvety-red back, and black legs and undersides. (see image at bottom) I collected one velvet ant from a site on the Cache River NWR. I didn't take digital images, so you'll just have to wait until I develop the pictures and scan them. More later.......James

Comment: 6/12/06
James,
Great catches and great shots. The third one looks like the "flower longhorn" we talked about, possibly Leptura emarginata
Leptura emarginata
I'd like to see the dung beetle in "real life" too.
Steven

EBGB: Electric-Blue Ground Beetle

2006-06-11T15:49:00.000-05:00

Here are some shots of the ground beetle that Travis's mom, Patsy, found. I was under a potted plant in their yard. Travis and I looked for more but haven't found any yet.

Have not found the species yet.

Steven

Lecompte- Thurs. 6/8 aka: a freaking male Lucanus Elephas

2006-06-10T12:55:00.000-05:00

Travis and I hit Lecompte again on Thurs. We found:
8- S. aloeus (6m/2f)
1 - P. punctata (m)
1 - L. elephas (m) dead

The Stag was large and quite dead but was almost perfect except for one antennae. This is the first male I have found in the wild and am now pretty sure that the two previous females were L. elephas instead of L. capreolus. This marks my second "first" at this same spot, the previous one being my first adult, male, wild D. tityus that Zack found there last year.

Travis's mom also found what I would call an "electric-blue ground beetle". I have yet to find out what it is but will post pics and info here when I get it. It's not calosoma for sure, but almost as big.

Steven

Lecompte- Wed.- May 31

2006-06-10T10:59:00.000-05:00

On Wed. (5/31/06) James, Travis and I drove up to Lecompte. We hit the two stations and found about 10 Ox beetles (eight M/two F). There was a HUGE male found at about the half-way point between the two spots. James collected a longhorn beetle. We also found a couple of grapevine beetles and two female stag beetles, L. elephus I think. One female seemed to have heat damage and was not walking well. The other is fine. We made it to the second station at almost the exact moment that they were turning off the outside lights. The three of us got out and were able to snatch up Ox beetles before they left. We also found one, dead dichotomius carolinus in "the corral".

Steven

Addendum! Here's an image of the longhorn beetle (awaiting specific identification...) and............

a picture of the largest Strategus we collected. -James

Henderson and beyond

2006-05-30T23:41:00.000-05:00

Follow-up on "making it out to Travis's house" on 5/20: I got there in the late afternoon. We went for a walk in the huge pastures near his house and searched the wooded areas between the pastures for insects. We hit a tree where we had found six or more S. aloeus grubs last year, but no one was home. We found a few more good stumps but hit a sweet spot with an old hackberry. We found about five pupal P. punctata, two grubs and four adults all in one area of the stump.

This past weekend (5/27/06) I met up with (and met) Dave from Houston. He was passing through town to stay with family and was looking for good collecting sites. He wanted to check out the visitor's center near Butte la Rose. I found seven P. punctata there and he found many moths to take home. He had already spoken to the security guard on his previous trip, who didn't seem to mind him collecting. I suggest checking this spot out again, thanks Dave.
On the way back we hit Henderson and Breaux Bridge, stopping at any place with nice lighting. The first spot we hit yielded one dead, male D. tityus (very upsetting). I also came home with two C. scrutator and Dave found more moths that he would have to tell you about (Dave is interested in coming back for our big get-together in June). He e-mailed me earlier today with a spot in Jenerette that he discovered where he found a D. tityus and S. aloeus, both male. On my lunch break today I stopped at a park in B.B. where I found a male S. aloeus. Basically.... stuff is flying and we need to get out there!

On a side note, the night I got back from Butte la Rose I placed the P. punctata in a container to keep them until I was able to remove the pre-pupal P. punctata grubs from a larger container. The container had my substrate in it and by the next night I collected over 65 eggs from those adults.

On a second note, check this pic out:
http://www.ecofauna.com/img/Dynastes_hercules_003.jpg

Steven

5-20-06 (I think)

2006-05-30T23:31:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to post this for a while. The weekend after we got back from Austin, Emma and I went to "the farm". I was looking for scrutator grubs again but found none. We did get to see this though:

Steven

Bug stuff from New Orleans

2006-05-30T15:22:00.000-05:00

Another foray to Bayou Gauche yielded more of the same (for the most part). Canal dipping alongside LA hwy. 306 was pretty good, especially for water scoprions in some spots. Also got one nice cerambycid that's a wasp mimic in the genus Neoclytus.

Lethocerus under lights were nowhere near as abundant as the week before, but the large beetles at the gas station in Des Allemends were there again.

I went to Manchac around May 15 to collect insects for a bug cooking gig in Los Angeles (more on that below). I caught about 60 eastern pondhawks, about 100 or more 2nd and 3rd instar lubber grasshoppers, several adult katydids and (not for cooking) some whirligig bettles. Manchac, like most of south LA, is really dry.

Los Angeles has a natural history museum that includes an insect zoo. This year the Ralph M. Parson's Insect Zoo held its 20th Bug Fair. Talk about cool! Around 60 exhibitors, and lots of them are purveyors of quality preserved specimens. Anyway, the whole thing is a bug lover's dream. For my part, I cooked "against" a friend and fellow bug chef twice on Sat. and again on Sun. (May 20 & 21). Our panel of judges included the woman who is the voice of Sandy the Squirrel on Spongebob Squarepants! I won 2, lost 1, and tied 1, by the way.

Final notes:
- "Washington" post - that predatory assassin may be E. floridanus, but I think it could also be Alcaeorrhynchus grandis. Very similar nymphs, but the U of FL "featured creatures" page for A. grandis shows that wavy "V" atop the thorax as in Steven's picture.
- "Austin" post - that "assassin" is actually a nymphal leaf-footed bug (F: Coreidae). Genus is probably Acanthocephala.

Off to North Carolina for June 4 - 9 (but may only have room for a single 15-watt UV tube and not the big rig)!

Austin and more...

2006-05-20T10:17:00.000-05:00

Ok, since no one else is posting, it's me again. We took a trip to Austin last week to visit Nicki's sister and her husband in there new house. They found a nice and surprisingly quiet neighborhood that is very close to everything. Those who know me know I wouldn't go anywhere without scanning the ground............and the trees, and under logs, and rocks... (you get the idea). I setup a light in their backyard, just to see what I could find. Their yard is surrounded by an 8' (or more) tall fence so I didn't expect much but did see: June beetles, hide beetles (Trox) and quite a few mantis flies. I drove down to the bank (the one under 35, across from Fiesta where Travis picked up a Calosoma one year and made the whole car smell like bleach) where we used to find "black searchers" (not C. calidum) but didn't find any. The nights there were still pretty cold and a bit windy. That Saturday we drove out to "Hamilton Pool" for a hike. I saw a "eyed elator" and large millipede there. The next day we did "Wild Basin" where I found: an assassin, this katydid (below) and a few Onthophagus hecate. While we were there my friend Tim (Ft. Worth Zoo) sent me a box of Gymnetis flavomarginata grubs.

On the home front, most of the P. truncatus that Travis and I found as grubs have pupated and two have eclosed. I'm hoping to make it out to Travis's house this afternoon for some collecting.

Steven

Washington Weekend Review

2006-05-08T18:51:00.000-05:00

We took a quick trip to "the farm" this weekend. It was muddy and we didn't see much. I went to try to collect more C. scrutator grubs because I had seen more than I collected last time I was there. Only found two, and they were in Emma's sand box. I took a bottle full of Euthyrhynchus floridanus, (predatory stink bugs) that Michael had collected, to release them. I was able to snap this picture of one:

Other than that, not much else. I flipped over logs, boards and anything else I could find. I did see more native phasmid pairs than I have seen in a while. Hope this rain stops so we can all get back out there. Hope to see everyone soon.

Steven

Chevron

2006-05-05T08:21:00.000-05:00

Posted: 5/5/06 8:20am
Chevron:
Travis, Michael and I collected last Friday (4/28/06). We setup a light at "the farm" then piled into one car and drove up to "the Chevron". We only saw one long-horn in the B.K. drive-thru, one sphinx moth under the diesel-side lights at the Chevron and a few mole-crickets. Michael and I shared potato fries and Travis had chicken fries. They (Chevron) have stored some things in "the corral" like signs and displays; might have good places for things to hide under to get out of the heat. We drove to the other gas station down the road and didn't see much of anything there.
We drove back down Washington and didn't have too much on the sheet either. Tons of toads and frogs calling though, and there were two toads on the sheet. The night was a bit too windy and a bit too cool. The upper pasture has cows on it again, so I'm hoping the dung beetles return.

Steven

Bayou Gauche trip

2006-05-03T21:07:00.000-05:00

The Audubon Insectarium staff had a great trip south of New Orleans (but only 33 miles from home) last week. Just next to Paradis, LA is the tiny town of Bayou Gauche, population around 200-300. At the end of LA hwy 306, we had about an hour to poke around before we had to go to dinner. It was mostly an acridid grasshopper and eastern pondhawk collecting session with some aerial and sweep net play mixed in.

After a heck of a buffet (Chinese place, but they had boiled crawfish too 'cause, you know, you ARE in Cajun country there), we drove to Des Allemends for a sunset airboat tour. What a treat! Gobs of four-spotted skimmers perching on leafless branches, blad eagle with chick, barred owl with a fresh kill, two really large egret/heron rookeries, lots of 'gators, deafening frog calling, good numbers of whirligig beetles, and some dip-netting for water scorpions were among the highlights.

When we hauled out we invsetigated a very well-lit truck stop that produced lots of large predaceous diving beetles (Cybister sp.) and a couple each of large water scavenger beetles (Hydrophilus sp.) and giant water bugs (Lethocerus sp.). By 10 or 10:30p.m. we had returned to the end of LA 306 and set up a UV/mercury vapor light rig with a sheet. The next couple of hours produced relatively little in the way of both moths and beetles. This was a surprise, especially considering that the regular street lights lining the bayou on our drive in were replete with the 3 genera listed previously. In fact, we went on foot just two hundred yards or so and were able to collect about 20 more Lethocerus. The Cybister count was 36 and the Hydrophilus numbered about 16 by night's end.

What a good time! Pretty, close, and easy pickings for several of the aquatic species we intend to display!

Zack

Coleoptera

2006-05-01T15:18:00.000-05:00

This will be a section dedicated to Louisiana Coleoptera. I encourage all to post their pictures of species not seen here. Hopefully before long, we will be collecting some more Dynastes in LeCompte. Here are two pictures to kick things off: Eastern hercules beetle, Dynastes tityus (left) and six-spotted tiger beetle, Cincindela sexguttata (right).

This male Dynastes was originally collected by Steven Barney at the famous LeCompte Chevron we all know and love so well. After breeding the male to his females at home, he gave the specimen to me, where it promptly died two days later. The Cincindela is one of three I collected at the Barney property in Washington. This was the best specimen exemplifying the spots of the distal end of the elytra.

James

5/2/06 9:03pm

Here is a pic I took this weekend of one of the C. scrutator we found the "key weekend":
(click for big)

Steven

Bugmuda Triangle

MANCHAC - May 26, 2011

New Interesting Article on Tiger Beetles in "Wings" from the Xerces Society

BUGSTOCK 11

2010 Vacation - Part Two

2010 Vacation - Part One

A.I. staff field - Louisiana Nature Center 5/19/2010

Pearl River + Honey Island Swamp 5-8-2010

A.I. staff field trip to Audubon Zoo

Species Survival Center - 5/5/2010

April 18-20, Grand Chenier, LA

Vermilionville / BVD - 7/29/09

Vermilionville / BVD - 7/28/09

Des Allemends trip - 7/21/09

Alexandria & LeCompte 20/21 June 2009

Mini-explosions from the Asilid World!!!

Owlflies...........DOMINATE!!!

Kisatchie *BEFORE* Bugstock 6

BUGSTOCK 6

Gradu!

Pre-stock.....moth MAYHEM!!!

Acadiana Park Nature Station 11 May 09

Earth Day at UL, 2009

Washington Brief 4 April 09

more miscellaneous Broussard musings

Broussard brief, 23 March 2009

News From the Audubon Krewe

Broussard Acrididae

09 is fine....

Kickoff 2009

BUGSTOCK Fall 2008

Bugs 'round the Nature Station

Washington 16 Apr 08

Washington Moth Night

cossid moth

Getting closer....

Cerambycid tag-along in the Basin

Widows............

Still kickin'...

Austin trip

Ft. Polk 10/14/07

It's so hot.....

Barney backyard

Calosoma KILLS

Wandering glider

baby BOOM!!!

Emergence!

STAG

more bugs 'round the yard

What a neat Sat. I had!

Broussard blacklighting 7/18

Baton Rouge 7/14/07

Widows

Bumble bee-mimic robber fly

Washington...

Où étiez-vous le mercredi passé ?

Wednesday night in Washington

This weekend

Check this out...

Here's Lookin' at You...

Please, more spring...

Spring anyone?

Latrodectus geometricus....the Holy Grail

re: widow updates

Widow updates...

NEW OLD BOOKS!!!

Brown Widows Erupt in Lafayette!!!

The rare Red River Shoveler...

This is Test!!!

9-8 - 9-10, 2006 - Bugmuda Triangle Bugstravaganza

Red River WMA - 8/19/06

Red River WMA - 8/6/06 - Roller Hunt - Pt. 1

Red River WMA - 8/6/06 - Roller Hunt - Pt. 2

7/28/06

Omelette anyone ??

Lunar Nemesis: 7/8/06

Lecompte: Reloaded

Bugzombied but Happy

Some Miscellaneous Stuff

Belated Sunset Report

Kisatchie BEFORE Bugstock 6