The Nemesis Bird » Insects

Wheel Bug: a Bee Killer

Drew — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:02:07 +0000

Today in the garden, I found a wheel bug (Arilus cristatus) that had just caught a bee in the backyard. I got a few pictures, click on them to see the larger images. A wheel bugs catches its prey by plunging its beak into them and holding them with legs. It the injects them with an enzyme that paralyzes them and begins dissolving them drinking up the victims body fluids.

A bite from a wheel bug can be pretty nasty and can take months to heal. Some say it hurts 10 times worse than a hornet sting. I would recommend staying clear of them and letting wheel bugs roam your garden and eat up your ‘pest’ insects.

Charlie Moores at 10000 Birds also caught something similar when he was in Toronto. Check it out on his post.

Lepidopteracide

Drew — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:17:29 +0000

I was walking around my butterfly bush/sneezeweed/salvia garden and I happened across an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, caught in a spiderweb. The spider was already working on the swallowtail so I quick got my camera to document the process. The second time I went out the butterfly was gone, stored away for later eating. I searched for it quite a bit without any luck.

Backyard Butterflies

Drew — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:28:54 +0000

All the plants I put in my hummingbird garden this spring are attracting good numbers of butterflies.The popular plants are the butterfly bush, sneezeweed, and marigolds.

Silver Spotted Skipper are easily the most common butterfly in my backyard, sometimes with numbers in the double digits.

Mourningcloak

Drew — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 03:17:00 +0000

The Mourningcloak (Nymphalis antiopa) is a medium-sized (2-4 inchwingspan) butterfly which is easily identified by the yellow trailing edge to its wings. On the inner edge of the yellow border there are iridescent blue spots making it very striking and distinctive. It belongs to the family Nymphalidae which are known as the ‘brush-footed butterflies’. Their front legs are smaller and often hairy or brush-like, hence the name. It is often the first butterfly seen in spring and because the adults can survive cold winters in ‘cryo-preservation’ hidden in cavities or under bark until the weather warms up.

Males of this species can be territorial. When disturbed, the butterfly will fly away, returning in a minute or two to the same vicinity. The Mourning Cloak lays its eggs in large clusters, and the caterpillars tend to remain in a group, making these early stages easier to find than is the case with other species.

One interesting thing is that the Mourning Cloak is known as the Camberwell Beauty in Europe and is a rare and sought after species in England, where it is a stray from mainland Europe.