The things you seldom see in the garden

Gardens are great places to study wildlife. It doesn't matter if it is a veggie garden or an ornamental flower garden or a native wildflower garden. If you grow it, they will come!

The challenge is to see the myriad creatures and photograph them so that they can be identified. Some are fairly large and obvious, while others are so small you hardly can see them even when you are looking at them, and they don't really show their spectacular selves until you are able to enlarge them on the computer!

Bees, of course, are welcome pollinators. There are many kinds which show up on their own schedule over the course of the season. This first one is called a type of Cuckoo Bee.

 I haven't figured out exactly what this next one is. I've even posted it on the BugGuide site, and no one has responded yet.

 This next one is the Pruinose Squash Bee. The males especially are often found in the flowers of members of the squash family. They will often spend the night inside the flowers, and apparently if you gently squeeze the flower early in the morning, the bees inside will give a buzzing sound that presumably is meant to say something like 'don't disturb me, I'm trying to sleep'

A large and intimidating member of the bee and wasp family is this next one: the Great Black Wasp. It's body is ~5 cm (2") and its quick darting flight makes one cautious. However it is apparently quite harmless unless you handle it. I've never been bothered by any bee/wasp types even when sticking my camera lens within a few centimetres of their face.

 There are some bee look-alikes, such as this Syrphid Fly.

 One creature you don't want to see, especially if you are trying to grow squash or zucchini, is this next one, the Squash Bug.

 It lays clusters of eggs on the underside of the leaves, and when the larvae emerge, they dig into the plant stems, causing the plant to wither and die.

 Fortunately if you have this next one around, the Feather-legged Fly, it is a predator of the Squash Bug, so it may reduce the negative effects of the Squash Bug.

Beetles abound. These next two images are of the Wedge-shaped Beetle.

 The antennae of this male in the next photo is pretty impressive!

 Some look-alikes include the Goldenrod Soldier Beetle, shown in these next two images.

 Sometimes you may see a caterpillar like creature. It is likely the larva of a beetle of some type.

 The Swamp Milkweed Beetle is often found on any kind of milkweed in the garden.

 Plant 'bugs' are different than beetles, since their wings fold and overlap. These next two bugs are members of the plant bug group, probably in the Lygus genus.

 Flies of various kinds are around, some of which are pollinators. This one is a Tachinid fly.

 A very large one is this Robber Fly.

 At the other end of the size scale is this Long-legged Fly, a very shiny and iridescent but very small fly.

 Grasshoppers of different sizes and colours can be found. These next two are very small, barely 4-5 cm in total length. Since grasshoppers develop from egg to nymph to adult, it is likely these may be nymphs (a small version of an adult)

 If you happen to be a bug crawling around on a flower head, you have to be on the lookout for this next creature. It is an Ambush Bug, and although it is small (barely 2-3 cm) it is quite the predator.

 Day flying moths may show up. This one is quite distinctive, known as the Eight-spotted Forester.

A caterpillar that is often found around milkweeds is this Milkweed Tussock Caterpillar. A group of them can eat a lot of milkweed leaves in a short period of time.

One of the tiniest creatures I've been able to photograph is this leafhopper, of the Scaphytopius genus. It is barely two millimetres in total length!

The garden is a never ending source of fun to explore with a camera and macro lens!

Backyard wildlife

Sometimes you don't have to go very far to shoot and enjoy all sorts of wildlife. And on the warmer summer days, since I don't tolerate the heat and humidity all that well, it is nice to have access to A/C in the house. So brief forays into the back yard can provide some fascinating wildlife, and numerous macro photography opportunities.

Of course it helps to have a diversity of wildflowers, shrubs and trees.....something I've been working on for more than a few years. And Marie has a great diversity of more functional (a.k.a edible) garden plants to add to the attraction for wildlife.

Milkweed and Purple Coneflower are perfect for attracting butterflies and many other insects.

Monarch

Black Swallowtail

Red Admiral

Silver-spotted Skipper

Tawny Emperor

This Tawny Emperor was actually one that visited our garden in 2013.....I'm still looking for my first one for this year!

One critter that may look like a butterfly is actually a day-flying moth, the Eight-spotted Forester. It is very distinctive.

Eight-spotted Forester

Another few moths which one seldom sees, but are likely around, are the underwing group. This Dark Red Underwing was actually on a neighbour's house.

Dark Red Underwing

This pose does not show the deep red and black patterned underwing, but if it is startled, it will flash its wings and the colour and pattern will be quite obvious.

This next moth is small but very distinctive. It is not native; the larvae depend on non-native species such as Tree-of-Heaven, an aggressive fast-growing tree that is often found in abandoned lots and other disturbed sites. We don't have any Tree-of-Heaven in our immediate area that I know of. The adults feed on the nectar of flowers, which they do find here.

Ailanthus moth

There are lots of other pollinators around, and may be different ones each day or week.

Bumblebee sp

There are quite a few different kinds of bumblebees, and even some members of the fly family that look a lot like a bumblebee.

This next photo is of a Long-legged Fly....it is very small, as the size of the fly compared to the leaf venation indicates.

 

 This next image is of a type of Blowfly, probably of the Lucilia genus. Its iridescent green colour and the many black hairs make it quite attractive up close.

 The next image is of a type of fruit fly also known as a Sunflower Maggot Fly. The term maggot has an undesirable connotation.....but I think this tiny delicate fly is quite attractive.

Beetles are common amongst these wildflowers. This first one is a Margined Carrion Beetle. It gets the term 'margined' for the pinkish margin around the head.

Margined Carrion Beetle

Long-horned Beetle

Red Milkweed Beetle

A tiny insect I always look forward to finding is this Red-banded Leafhopper. Being only about 5-6 mm long, it isn't going to get your attention from a distance, but up close, it is a real crowd-pleaser!

Red-banded Leafhopper

Milkweeds attract aphids, among other things.

Occasionally a dragonfly will stop by. They are always on the lookout for insects, their main diet. This is a female Common Whitetail.

Common Whitetail

A very undesirable insect to have around, especially if you have veggies such as squash or zucchini growing, is the Squash Bug. Their eggs are easy to find under the leaves of the plants.

Squash Bug eggs

A recent surprise to find in our yard was this member of the katydid family. It is a young one, with its wings not fully developed. It was crawling around a milkweed plant as well as a Red Cedar. In looking at the tail plate from another photo I took, it appears to be a Fork-tailed Bush Katydid. For some sub-groups of katydids, particularly the bush katydids, an examination of the male's tail plate shape is important for identification.

Fork-tailed Bush Katydid

Katydids are members of that interesting group of insects that sing. There are many species across the province and elsewhere. A very useful book was published in 2006, entitled The Songs of Insects by Elliott and Hershberger, complete with fabulous photos and a CD of their songs. As they were publishing it, they came across a couple of images that I had of unusual colour forms of one kind of katydid....a pink colour form and a yellow one, which they asked to publish. I was quite pleased to let them include it in their book.

And finally, at least for this post, I leave you with another more common type of wildlife that many of you have likely seen in your yard.

Eastern Cottontail

There is a family of cottontails that really like to hang out in or near our yard. We don't cut the lawn often, so there is always lots of clover for them to munch on when they want a change in diet from our garden plants. And on more than one occasion, they have found a suitable nesting spot somewhere amongst our yard vegetation. An adult regularly hangs out in the front yard prairie patch on cool fall and winter days, soaking up some sunlight.