Monthly Archives: June 2011

Hackberry Midge Galls

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Charley Eiseman

I’m in Burlington, Vermont for the week, and I’ve been taking advantage of the relative abundance of hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) trees here in the Champlain Valley to look for the galls of Celticecis midges.  Gall midge specialist Dr. Raymond J. … Continue reading →

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Alderflies and ‘Friends’

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Charley Eiseman

On page 50 of Tracks & Sign of Insects… there is a photo of a mottled mass of alderfly eggs, with a mix of pale, brownish eggs and dark, blackish ones.  I was able to say in the caption with confidence that the dark … Continue reading →

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Wall of Bees

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Charley Eiseman

I just learned that this week is National Pollinator Week, which I ironically started off with a post about sneaky beetle larvae that take advantage of bees visiting flowers.  So this seems like a good time to write about the … Continue reading →

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Bee Rider

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Charley Eiseman

Two weeks ago I was driving past a spot where I knew there was a population of rare orchids that blooms in early June, so I stopped by to have a look.  I found a few of them, and the … Continue reading →

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Predatory Sawflies

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Charley Eiseman

In my last post, I showed a photo of a sawfly visiting extrafloral nectaries, and I alluded to another observation from the same day that made me wonder whether sawflies might benefit plants with extrafloral nectaries in the same way … Continue reading →

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Extrafloral Nectaries

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Charley Eiseman

Last weekend I participated in the Berkshire BioBlitz, a 24-hour event in which people gathered on Mt. Greylock in Adams, Massachusetts to see how many different species of animals, plants, and fungi they could find.  Since there are generally plenty … Continue reading →

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Mud-covered Eggs

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Charley Eiseman

For whatever reason, one of things I’ve most wanted to find since writing my book is the mud-covered eggs of certain ground beetles described on page 285.  The only photo I have seen of these is in S. W. Frost’s … Continue reading →

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Leaf-rolling Weevils

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Charley Eiseman

I love how each little discovery leads to another.  Today I was walking the trail at Holland Glen in Belchertown, MA, with some members of the Kestrel Land Trust, for whom I will be leading an animal tracking walk this … Continue reading →

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Leaf-mining Weevils

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Charley Eiseman

On my recent road trip I got a chance to photograph several insect signs that I had described in my book but had never seen in person before.  The first of these was in Ohio, where on May 26 I … Continue reading →

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Leaf-mining Flies

Posted on June 5, 2011 by Charley Eiseman

On May 12, I noticed a bunch of little yellow and black flies congregating on the leaves of some kind of Artemisia in the garden.  Some of them were ovipositing, inserting eggs into the leaves, so that there was no … Continue reading →

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