July 10 Photos

Dogwood Spittlebug (Clastoptera proteus)

We were expecting the remnant of a hurricane today so Lucy and I needed to get outside for bugs a bit earlier than usual. As it was, it began raining only 30 minutes into our time outside, but we managed to find some nifty bugs. 

Above, is the cutest ever dogwood spittlebug. It's almost invisible. You may see a black or yellow pencil dot moving on a leaf (not necessarily on a dogwood leaf, either). This was only my second sighting of one and it was quite larger than the first. I can't find out whether the broad yellow strokes on it are developing wings or just the way they are decorated. I hope you click on the photo to see it larger. It is worth the time to completely read all sections of  "Spittlebugs and Froghoppers." 

Globetail fly (Genus Sphaerophoria)

Above is a globetail flower fly (also called hoverflies or syrphids) . They are very important for pollination, as are nearly all of the flies. These flies are much bigger (although still very small) than the Toxomerus species of flower flies, one of which is below. 

Margined Calligrapher (Toxomerus marginatus)

This margined calligrapher flower fly was in the rugosa rose bush pollinating away. Hopefully, you are able to discern how small they are. When they fly, they are just wisps in the breeze. There haven't been too many so far this season. Their activity seems to be strongly affected by the time of day and the air temperature. 

A native Goldenrod Crab Spider (Misumena vatia) pursuing an invasive Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) on invasive Common soapwort (Saponaria officinalis) 

I try to photograph as many Japanese beetles as possible to see if they are carrying a winsome fly egg . . . but viewing the photo in the iPad, I found this small crab spider instead! It was a great find. If the spider caught that beetle, it would be food enough for many days.

It has been a long, long time that I seriously posted. Many things have stood in my way: school work, disabilities, Covid (but it was uneventful for me), the flu, and myself. I get in the way of myself all the time. 

I am in the middle of learning and planning an entire year of science classes (K-12) that meet the NGSS standards. In November of 2023, I was given all the science classes of the school because the science teacher quit. I had two weeks to formulate plans to last us until the end of the year. I did it but was never that happy with the results. I have told the school's director that I will happily continue in science. That means they need a new math teacher, but we have made changes to the math curriculum, legally and beneficially, that takes most of the pressure off of filling that position. It's fun teaching science. Not so much math, though. After 30+ years of teaching math, it is now too rote for me.

There are no math teachers to be found, anyhow. The entire state is looking for them. There seem to be no teachers anymore. I have no idea why. But every Vermont school is short, drastically short of teachers. 

I have changed my workflow for photos. I use my big iPad and the Apple photo app and find that they are as good, and sometimes better, than my big desktop with Adobe Lightroom. I still use my Canon camera but use wifi to transfer photos to the iPad. I can then geo tag and upload the shots to iNaturalist easily. And then I also make a memory video slideshow of the best of the day (that doesn't mean the best photos, just the best shots of the day). And that video I send off to family, who probably roll their eyes at them. I'm having fun seeing what limits I have on creating my own video memory videos on my devices. This is today's: 

July 10, 2024 (00:00:50)

Thank you for reading.

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Nature Friday: Got Japanese Beetles?

I do not garden. I love them but I don't do the work. So when I see Japanese beetles, I don't get upset. I actually love photographing them. They are lovely and peaceful. They run away from bumble bees in flowers, co-exist with other flower flies in flowers, and they help each other when one falls off a plant. Click on this photo to see it large and perhaps you'll see why I photograph them: the glorious metallic colors, the furry tiger stripes, the forked antennae, and the textured elytra. 

Japanese Beetle (Popillia japonica)

My buggy research friend JF, however, is a gardener. She hates them. When she described to me what they do, I could understand why the contempt. The gardeners among you can understand, also. JF told me how you cannot get rid of them. But then she also mentioned winsome flies and asked me if I had seen any fly eggs on my JBs (Japanese beetles). JF sent me an article from Maine about winsome flies helping to control JBs without chemicals.

JF and I had one problem though: was the fly here? Our winters are severe in the northeast corner of Vermont. Many times, it's -30°F (-35°C) with wind chills much lower. Many insects cannot successfully overwinter here. My task was to photograph as many JBs as possible to find any winsome fly eggs. And I found them! So now we know winsome flies are here. You don't even have to find the actual fly, which is very small. You only need to see the white dots. Not the white dots that naturally run around the body of the beetle. Look at the front end, around the head, where they are usually laid by the fly.

Winsome fly eggs (Istocheta aldrichi)

The winsome fly was brought to North America purposefully in 1922 to parasitize JBs. It hasn't worked out that well because the fly's lifecycle has to coincide with the beetle lifecycle. It coincides here where I live, which is why I have the white eggs on the JBs. But in New Jersey? No. The fly has finally reached Vermont, Québec, and Ontario. It does not seem to be harmful to other parts of our environment. 

 

Range map of winsome fly

If you live in the areas shown on the map, and manually pluck the beetles from your garden, this advice from Maine may help you: 

• If you can, put in some plants that JBs avoid. Replace them with plants that are nectar-rich for the winsome fly adults and other JB predators.
• If you can, eliminate those plants that JBs most love.
• Encourage winsome flies by letting infected JBs free and only drowning the un-infected ones. The eggs can hatch only on beetles that are alive and then they can grow up to parasitize more beetles (see articles for lifecycle details).

Here are the references you may want to read:

1. Maine.gov: "The Fly that Attacks Japanese Beetles"
2. Laidback Gardener: "Plants Japanese Beetles Tend to Avoid"
3. Laidback Gardener: "The Fly that Attacks Japanese Beetles"

Maine says that by doing these things, ". . . you’ll find the number of beetles can drop significantly in just a few years. Many gardeners in areas where the winsome fly is well established say they can now garden much like they used to before JBs appeared, since the few remaining ones do little damage."

I hope you have a gardenful weekend!

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