Northern Mole Cricket (Neocurtilla hexadactyla)

Northern Mole Cricket (Neocurtilla hexadactyla)

Another Pine Barrens photo. This time it is of the Northern Mole Cricket.

 The Northern Mole Cricket flies on warm evenings from summer to autumn. It feed on the roots of plants and can be found in moist areas. They are attracted to lights. They range from South Dakota south to Texas and east to Vermont and south to Florida.

Northern Mole Cricket (Neocurtilla hexadactyla)

 

This shot was taken in a plastic square Chinese take-out container. I learned this technique from a entomologist. It works extremely well. The container has rounded corners and insects can't try to hide in the cracks. The white color of the container gives a beautiful background. The container is lightweight, cheap (free) and packs easily. We photographed several insects close to where we found them, and released them back in to their habitat.

Northern Mole Cricket (Neocurtilla hexadactyla)

Insects are the most incredible creatures on Earth. Humans think we are the most fascinating, I think we are wrong.

This national Wildlife Guide to Insects and Spiders is 495 pages thick, in full color and provides numerous pages of insect natural history information. I highly recommend it.

Bush Katydid Stuck and Needing Rescue

A Fork-tailed Bush Katydid (Scuddera furcata) was stuck between the front bedroom window for most of yesterday morning.

I guess she managed to wedge herself between the window glass and the screen during yesterday's thunderstorms. She was stuck for several hours.

She would climb to the top of the screen, wave her long, threadlike antenna over the edge of the screen into the outside air, and then head the opposite way back down into the window. She was so close to freedom and turned around.

I am not sure what she was doing but after several hours of watching this happen again and again, I took a letter opener and decided to speed things along.

I unlocked the windows and screens and pushed her out into the warm, humid afternoon air. I am not sure she appreciated it because she just crawled into the window track.

I gave up.

I just studied what she looked like after all this. I knew she was a she by the stout, up-curved ovipositor underneath her abdomen. I think it looks like an Elizabethan codpiece. It would be even funnier if she were a he.

The female katydid uses this body part to deposit her eggs deep in soil or rotting wood. Hopefully, out of reach of animals that would eat the eggs.

When the larvae hatch from the eggs, they are multi-colored and horned. Wicked. I wondered what I would look like multi-colored and horned?

They most sad thing about this katydid is that is only has one leg. When she has both, her long powerful legs are used for jumping. No jumping for this katydid. I guess this explains some of her behavior yesterday morning.

Twelve-spot Skimmer (Libellula pulchella) - the funky version.

Naturalist training is over.

Twelve-spot Skimmer (Libellula pulchella), originally uploaded by donnallong.

My core training as a naturalist is over. I am relieved and sad at the same time. I glad because I finally feel as if I am on summer vacation. Saddened because I met some great people and won't see them until next spring.

I loved the camaraderie of a group of like minded people. And of learning from each other.  Learning about the environmental history and natural history of Philadelphia was invaluable. I really wish one of the universities would teach adult education or continuing education classes on the topics.

I will be using what I learned for a long time to come. I plan in the coming weeks to put up photos essays and and journal posts about what I learned.  

Eastern Tent Caterpillar

Eastern Tent Caterpillar web

While my naturalist training group was at Andorra Meadow in Roxborough, we took a walk through the meadows into a cool lush upland forest. The forest is located behind the Andorra Meadow area. This combination of meadow and forest side-by-side is an example of how the land of Philadelphia is naturally.

The forest that we walked through is, at most, 150 years old. I don't think many forests or woodlands in Philadelphia are much more than that. Slightly before that time, the settlers who came to this area went on a tree-cutting frenzy. And most of the trees in the state were cut down.

The forests that you see in the state are most likely to be second growth forest.

In the forest we saw the web of the Eastern Tent Caterpillar (Malacosoma americanum).  The female moth lays her black packets of eggs on twigs. After the caterpillars hatch, together the caterpillars weave these communal webs in the fork of tree branches. The caterpillars prefer trees of the Rose family. The web in the photo is a cherry tree, a member of the Rose family.

The Eastern Tent Caterpillar rarely eats all the leaves off the trees, like Gypsy Moths do.

This native moth gets a bad rap from people who unknowingly confuse it with the Gypsy Moth Caterpillar.

The Gypsy Moth (Lymantria dispar) is a European insect brought over to New England as an alternative silk producing moth. The Gypsy Moths will eat all the leaves off trees, leaving the tree unable to produce food for itself. And the Gypsy Moth larvae don't weave the silken web that the Eastern Tent Caterpillars will.


Find more information at on Gypsy Moths at http://www.invasive.org/species/subject.cfm?sub=165 

Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa virginica)

Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa virginica), originally uploaded by donnallong.

Carpenter Bees have inhabited these wooden benches for the past thirteen years that I have passed by them.

They are big bees, flying energetically in the weak sunshine of the early spring. Their food consists of flower nectar. Sometimes they cut a hole in the base of the flower and sip nectar through the hole.

When I took this photo, they were flying in a group. I suppose they hibernate in the wooden benches over the winter. They have must have nest tunnels dug deep into the wood.

These bees excavate their own nest tunnels in wood rather than use preexisting cavities made by other animals. To do this, the bees have very powerful jaws.

These bees can sting but rarely do.

I like seeing the Carpenter Bees each spring. It is nice to know that they have a home year after year and that they haven't been evicted like so many animals are.

Humans cut down and dig up places where birds, insects, mammals and other animals live without the slight thought to the lives of others.

But, thank goodness things are changing. And we are returning to the way we were in the past. We have probably made our ancestors proud. And maybe even relieved.