Nature Nuggets: Creatures of the Night

Saturday 22 September 2018

Creatures of the Night

Most of us feel more comfortable in daylight, or in some other lit up situation. However in the natural world there is a whole lot of critters out there that mostly go under appreciated, at least by the human segment of the world.

One way to find what is out there is to spend time around lights at night, or checking around them in the morning if they have been left on all night. Another way is to set up a light in an area not normally lit up by anything other than the moon and stars.

On several occasions I have taken my black light equipment, along with a big white sheet, and gone to a hardwood forest clearing at Rondeau. It is an area that has no artificial lighting. In the declining daylight it looks like this.

In full darkness with only the black light on. The black light makes every white thing really stand out, which is why I choose an area that doesn't have any competing artificial light.

There are noises in the forest after dark, ranging from Eastern Screech Owls and Great Horned Owls calling back and forth as well as one or more coyotes howling, sometimes at a fairly close distance. And just before it gets totally dark, the hum of insects almost drowns out the owls. But once it is fully dark, the insect chorus diminishes almost completely.

So there I am, usually by myself and the insects that are investigating this strange light in their back yard. It isn't long until hundreds of insects arrive. Many are too small to really identify, but others are at least large enough so that I can use my macro lens, extension tube and ring flash and get some worthwhile photos.

Moths are one group that I like to see. There are hundreds and hundreds, and many are very small and appearing drab, at least until the flash of the camera highlights the intricacies of pattern and colour.

However this post will deal with only the various beetles and bugs I managed to 'capture'. I will leave the moths to a future post. Many of the critters I was able to identify using my own literature references. However there were some that were just not apparent, and the online database BugGuide was very helpful.

One of the first big critters that arrived was this Diving Water Beetle (Dytiscus verticalis). It is normally found in wetlands on the prowl for smaller insects to feast on. Its body is about 4 cm long.

By contrast was this much smaller beetle, about a quarter the size of the diving beetle. It is of the genus Berosus, a member of the aquatic beetle group.

I was pleased that this planthopper arrived for a photo session.

Flatormenis proxima

A few stinkbugs were roaming around, sometimes on the sheet and sometimes on the pole holding the black light.

Banasa calva

Large craneflies put in an appearance.

Tipula cf.furca

Other 'flies' were around, including this member of the Chironomids, or midges. The feathery antennae indicate it is a male.

Ablabesmyia sp

And another midge. I believe that the chorus of insects humming so loudly just before dark was due to a great number of these midge types of insects. Mosquitoes were hardly noticed at all, and I wasn't needing any repellant.

Chironomus sp

The type of flies that we normally see were very uncommon. This Pollenia, a species of cluster fly, was one of the few.

Syrphid flies, also known as Flower Flies, are more typically seen during the daytime. This one came by to check me out.

Toxomerus politus

This next one is a Lace-wing type of fly.

Green Lacewing

Even members of the Orthoptera can show up, although they have been quite few and far between during the times I've been out this year. This one landed on the sheet and kept moving, making it difficult to get any part of it in focus. It is a type of Tree Cricket, probably a Snowy Tree Cricket, but one needs to see some of the small dots and markings on the front of the antennae to know for sure which species it is. This one kept on moving and left after a few seconds, making this the only photo I was able to get.

One of my favourite groups of insects to photograph via the black light is the Leafhoppers, which are members of the True Bugs (Hemiptera). There are hundreds of kinds, and they are either small at about 5-8 mm in length, or smaller, as small as 2-3 mm!

They can be quite colourful, or not. Some are hard to identify to species, as an underside photo is required to look at features there.

Bespeckled Leafhopper, Paraphlepsius irroratus

One of my favourites is this next one, the Sharpshooter, easily identified as one of the larger ones and with a very pointed nose.

A quite colourful one is this next one, the Gyponana octolineata. It is often green, but can have some distinctive reddish lines marking the wing veins. It, like the Sharpshooter, is one of the larger species.