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For my Leafminers of North America project, I periodically need help identifying hostplants I find in my travels. You can peruse photos of them at iNaturalist. Thanks!
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Monthly Archives: December 2013
Horse Balm Bugs
Back in September, Noah asked me if I had any interest in some galls he’d found on horse balm (Collinsonia canadensis), a native woodland mint that looks like this: He described them as “like giant butterfly eggs,” and the photo he … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged caterpillar, Cecidomyiidae, Collinsonia canadensis, Crambidae, Dasineura, Dasineura collinsoniae, Diptera, flower, gall, gall midge, horse balm, Lamiaceae, larva, leaf roll, mint, moth, Orange Mint Moth, Pyraloidea, Pyrausta, Pyrausta niveicilialis, Pyrausta orphisalis, White-fringed Pyrausta Moth
5 Comments
Enchanter’s Nightshade Bugs
I should probably begin this post by introducing you to the featured plant, with which I think few people are familiar, despite its being right up there with bastard toadflax and mad-dog skullcap among the plants with the best common … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged beetle, Braconidae, Ceutorhynchinae, Cicadellidae, Circaea, Circaea alpina, Circaea canadensis, Curculionidae, Curculionoidea, Dietzella zimmermanni, enchanter's nightshade, Erasmoneura atra, Erythroneura atra, flower, leaf mine, leafhopper, Microgastrinae, Mompha, Mompha terminella, moth, Oenothera, Oenothera pilosella, Onagraceae, parasitism, parasitoid, wasp, weevil
16 Comments
Space Debris
I just came across this photo from July. It’s a bunch of stink bug hatchlings on a window, clustered around the eggs from which they hatched, viewed from the other side of the glass. But the black background and white … Continue reading
Sawfly Connections
It’s always satisfying to meet some strange new insect, only to discover that it is another life stage of a very familiar one. This has happened to me twice now with sawflies. In early July, I photographed this sawfly in … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Betula, Betulaceae, birch, Cornaceae, Cornus, Craesus, Craesus latitarsus, dogwood, dusky birch sawfly, larva, Macremphytus, Macremphytus testaceus, sawfly, Tenthredinidae
4 Comments
Monthly Mystery #13: Slant-lines and Lady’s Slippers
In May of 2009, I took this photo of a moth resting on a pink lady’s slipper in western Massachusetts and posted it on BugGuide.net: It was quickly identified as a “white slant-line” (Geometridae: Tetracis cachexiata)–a fitting common name–and I … Continue reading
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