The Bugs in the Backyard: Going For the Gold

Maybe it's the Olympic Spirit in the air, but all of the bugs today were after gold. Goldenrod, that is.

Today was the first sunny day in... I forget how many days. My walks lately have been very soggy, and I haven't seen many bugs (and I didn't bring my camera, because it was always either raining or expected to rain). Yesterday I couldn't go out at all because of the high winds. But today, at times anyway, the sun shone, and the bugs in my backyard were out to enjoy a goldenrod feast. There were a LOT of bees, many species...

But insects of other orders, too, like this amazing fly.

While we're on the subject of goldenrod, I just want to dispel a popular myth, one that I used to believe: Goldenrod and ragweed are not the same thing. The presence of all of these bugs on these flowers demonstrates a key difference between ragweed and goldenrod: ragweed is wind pollinated, and goldenrod is pollinated by insects and birds. Ragweed flowers are small, insignificant, green flowers that you probably don't even notice, unless you know what they look like. They often grow along roadsides, and in the same areas as goldenrod, and bloom around the same time. But since they are so drab an unnoticeable, people don't notice they are there, while they DO notice the bright goldenrod. So when they get hay fever, they blame the goldenrod, and think THAT is ragweed, the terrible plant they are allergic to, that makes them miserable every summer. Now, I'm not saying people can't be allergic to goldenrod, but to have it trigger an allergy attack you'd pretty much have to stick it up your nose–goldenrod has sticky, heavy (for pollen) pollen, and that is why it needs insects and birds to pollinate it by picking it up and carrying it to other flowers. Ragweed, however, has light, dusty pollen that is carried by the wind, miles, and miles, and miles. You could have an allergic reaction to goldenrod even if there wasn't a plant for hundreds of miles, because the wind could carry it to you on the air, and you could just breathe it in. Goldenrod is, as you can see, an important food for pollinators, especially in the late summer, and into the fall, when there's not much else blooming. So don't pull out goldenrod thinking you are getting rid of the source of your itchy eyes and runny nose. Leave it for the bees, and the many, many other things that feed on its nectar.

Can you spot the moth?

I saw a lot of ailanthus webworm moths. Ailanthus is their food source as caterpillars, but as adults they really love goldenrod. That is nearly always where I see them (aside from on my front porch).

But ailanthus webworm moths were not the only Lepidoptera I saw on the goldenrod. I think this is a red-banded hairstreak butterfly.

Here we have two kinds of bees, a fly, at least two kinds of beetles, and some ants.

Wasps love goldenrod:

Plant bug

Of course, as usual, there are predators lurking among all of those tiny, golden blossoms... which this bee did not notice...

Female jagged ambush bug, and two males who would like to get to know her better. I feel bad that she dropped the bee when I moved the plant to see her better.

And here's a baby ambush bug, too, already hunting on the goldenrod. Although I guess it's more apt to say lurking–they are ambush predators, after all.

Also found on goldenrod, today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

Elephant mosquito, my favorite species of mosquito. I know, it sounds crazy, I have a favorite species of mosquito! But these are not like other mosquitoes. They don't feed on blood, so they don't bite. They feed on flowers, so they are pollinators. Their larvae eat the larvae of other mosquito species. They are beneficial insects! They are big for mosquitoes, and quite beautiful.

It was still quite breezy today, which made it hard to take pictures of bugs on goldenrod, so a lot of my pictures didn't come out, but I want to show you a couple of my bad shots just because they at least show the beautiful colors of this mosquito.

On the same plant as the elephant mosquito (and visible in the first picture of it above), the only caterpillar I found on goldenrod today:

Many of the caterpillars that feed on goldenrod are quite small, and in colors that blend in with the plant. This one doesn't blend in very well, in spite of its yellow markings. Brown hooded owlet moth caterpillar. It is often the case that bright, showy caterpillars become drab, brown moths, and this is an example of that phenomenon.

How about some more flies?

I think this is a tachinid fly.

A pair of thick-headed flies, apparently practicing their circus act...

I got a better shot of them when they flew to a raspberry leaf. I know they look like wasps, but they are flies.

Another unfortunate wasp that didn't notice the predator lurking. To see the predator, you have to check out Arachnid Appreciation today...

Another predator, a lady beetle

So, to recap, on the goldenrod today I saw many species of bees; many species of flies (some of which I couldn't even show you because I didn't get good enough pictures); one species of moth, but with many specimens; several butterflies (but one species, I think), a caterpillar; ants; a few species of beetles; ambush bug adults and a nypmph; a plant bug; wasps; and a mosquito. Also a couple of spiders, to be shown later...

Not EVERY bug I saw today was on goldenrod:

Not a bug. Not even an insect. It is an arthropod, though. Millipede

In my last post I showed a picture of a monarch butterfly egg. As I expected, the next day on my walk I found that it had hatched, and saw the tiny caterpillar. But it was raining, so I didn't have my camera. Then yesterday I wasn't able to venture into the woods to check on it. Today I found the leaf damage it had done in its first meals, but no caterpillar. Sigh...

In the meadow in the woods I saw quite a few grasshoppers and katydids, but they were too quick at disappearing into the tall grass for me to get pictures, except for this one.

Ugh:

Here's something I have learned about spotted lanterflies–they are difficult to catch. Things I have read on the internet make it sound like it's so easy–hold the mouth of a bottle over them and they will jump in! Well, that make work on a big tree trunk, but on small plants they just scoot around the stem, or... jump before you get a chance to get a bottle over them. I saw about twenty of them today. There's more every day.

As for the other wildlife:

In the last couple of weeks I have seen a lot of little American toads around, but they always hop/crawl away too fast for me to get a picture. Today, I finally got one that let me take a couple of shots.