Tag Archives: puparium

Carrot Stem Dwellers

Carrot (Apiaceae: Daucus carota) is native to Europe but widely cultivated and has become a ubiquitous weed in North America (also known as Queen Anne’s lace), so you’d think we’d have a pretty good handle on what bugs eat it … Continue reading

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Life in a Wingstem Stem

On May 8 last year, Julia and I visited her family’s land in Hocking County, Ohio (which we’ll be doing again today, as it happens), and for whatever reason, a little clump of dead wingstem (Asteraceae: Verbesina alternifolia) stems from … Continue reading

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An Underexplored Microhabitat

Although most of what used to be my lawn is now an untamed meadow interspersed with gardens, fruit trees, and berry bushes, once a month or so I do break out the ol’ battery-powered lawnmower to maintain a network of … Continue reading

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The Yard List(s), Part 5

Back on May 5, spring was cooking along; flowers were opening on the Virginia bluebells that I had completely forgotten we had planted among the ostrich ferns under the old apple tree last year. But a few days later we … Continue reading

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Life Lurking in Lousewort

Not long after we started to let our lawn go wild, a couple of blue-eyed grass plants (Sisyrinchium montanum) popped up in one area. Blue-eyed grass owes its name to its grass-like leaves; it is actually in the iris family … Continue reading

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Foiled Again

Now that I’ve put most of my bugs in the fridge for the winter, I can get back to catching up on sorting through my backlog of photos, which goes back to September of last year. I just reached the … Continue reading

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Life in a Pinch of Duckweed

Five years ago, in June 2014, I was conducting a natural resource inventory for the Maine Coast Heritage Trust on a property in Perry, Maine (just across Passamaquoddy Bay from New Brunswick), when I came across this interesting little wetland: … Continue reading

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Discovering New Species Along the Driveway

In this photo from May 2015, I was celebrating our newly installed solar panel’s generation of its first kilowatt hour. But unbeknownst to me at the time, the photo also shows where I collected the type specimens of two new … Continue reading

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Leafminers Awaken!

As I mentioned, on February 25 all the overwintering bugs got taken out of the fridge, and last night’s check of all the vials revealed the first two emergences.  They both happen to have come from leaf mines in the … Continue reading

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Beggarticks Stem Dwellers

Last August, on one of my visits to Nantucket for my survey of gall-making and leaf-mining insects on the island, I spotted a conspicuous gall that was new to me, in a beggarticks (Asteraceae: Bidens) stem. I broke off the stem … Continue reading

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