Welcome

To all those interested in the natural world. Please add your sightings.

In the woods we return to reason and faith-Emerson

Best-Lynn

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

10-16

10-16
Porkies are on the prowl, looking to fatten up before winter sets in.
John

Monday, October 14, 2013

10-15

10-15
Today I found this Praying Mantis egg case stuck to a piece of dead oak limb.
John

Sunday, October 6, 2013

10-6

10-6
A Red Velvet Mite (Trombidium ssp.) explores the heel of my sneaker.
RedVelvet mite adults eat insect eggs. Larva are external parasites of insects, spiders, daddy-long leg, etc.
While only, perhaps, 3/16 of an inch long and of no threat, this mite looses appeal when seen close up!
John

Partridge on Partidge Road

Today I found a partridge on Partridge Road.  Who knew they still lived here.  This one didn't make it.  The culprit- my greenhouse.



Wednesday, October 2, 2013

10-2

10-2
One of the Mantids, probably a European Mantis, one of a group commonly referred to as "pray
ing" mantises, poses nicely for a picture.
European Mantises were introduced into this country as biological control agents because they are voracious consumers of many other insect species.
John

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

10-1

10-1
One of the Blister Beetles, family Meloidae, played dead after I poked it with a pine needle. When squeezed, blister beetles exude blistering agents in a defensive tactic called reflex bleeding.
Blister beetle larvae hatch from the egg as active "triungulins" that scale flower stalks and then climb aboard a visiting solitary bee. Once in the bee's burrow the larva molts into a sedentary grub and feeds on pollen and nectar stored by the bee.