Tag Archives: Ichneumonidae

Acorn Plum Galls (and friends)

Posted on February 1, 2022 by Charley Eiseman

Hey, this blog now has over 1000 subscribers! Thanks everyone for your continued interest in my esoteric natural history investigations. I’m still slowly working my way through the photos I took last summer, during which one of my several jobs … Continue reading →

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52 Wasp Pickup

Posted on May 5, 2020 by Charley Eiseman

Back on April 7, Noah stopped by to get some eggs and some seeds for his vegetable garden. Just as he arrived and Julia was walking up to meet him, she spotted a caterpillar with a tiny wasp on it. … Continue reading →

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Ten Years Later

Posted on March 15, 2020 by Charley Eiseman

Since we have ten fingers and ten toes, I suppose it’s worth mentioning that it was ten years ago today that Tracks & Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates was first published. People are often surprised when I tell them that … Continue reading →

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Backyard Bowerbird

Posted on February 23, 2020 by Charley Eiseman

This morning I heard some bluebirds twittering outside the window, so Julia and I took the cue to go out and clean out the nest boxes. The bluebirds’ nest from last year was a dense mass of pine needles and … Continue reading →

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Interlopers

Posted on November 14, 2019 by Charley Eiseman

I’ve been making sporadic progress in sorting through my backlog of photos, and I’m now exactly seven months behind. April 13 saw the conclusion of a story that began with my collecting this scrub oak (Quercus ilicifolia) leaf in early … Continue reading →

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Cocoon Within a Cocoon Within a Cocoon

Posted on April 30, 2017 by Charley Eiseman

The diamondback moth (Plutellidae: Plutella xylostella) is a European species that is now found all across North America, the larvae feeding on various plants in the mustard family (Brassicaceae). Apparently it’s considered a pretty serious pest, but I’d take it … Continue reading →

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Marsh Marigold Menagerie

Posted on December 27, 2016 by Charley Eiseman

In the spring of 2013, I wrote about the four-toed salamander surveys I was conducting at the time, which involved crawling around in swamps all over northwestern Massachusetts. On June 1, the last day of the survey, Julia tagged along, … Continue reading →

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Life and Death on Mt. Greylock

Posted on June 22, 2016 by Charley Eiseman

This past weekend I attended my third Berkshire BioBlitz. At my first one in 2011, I barely left the parking lot at the summit of Mt. Greylock and photographed 166 different species of insects and arachnids. This time, Julia and … Continue reading →

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Another Mystery Solved, Sort Of

Posted on June 30, 2014 by Charley Eiseman

At the beginning of this month, I reported having found these tied leaves on smooth aster (Symphyotrichum laeve) plants in my backyard. On May 27, I had put three samples in jars on my desk to see what might emerge.  On … Continue reading →

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Arizona Bugs, part 2

Posted on September 27, 2013 by Charley Eiseman

If I had to pick a favorite spot out of all the places we explored on our two-and-a-half-month road trip last fall, it would be Madera Canyon in southern Arizona.  The scenery there isn’t particularly eye-catching; in fact, I didn’t … Continue reading →

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