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.

 One of the smaller species is this next one.

Graminella nigrifrons

This next photo shows the previous two species side by side for size comparison.

Japanese Leafhopper Orientus ishidae

Scaphoideus sp

Osbornellus sp

Lemon-banded Leafhopper Empoa venusta

Bandera sp

That is it for this instalment. Next time I will feature a variety of moths, some colourful and some not.

Late Season Backyard Wildlife in Macro Mode

The ongoing warm weather has certainly been a boon for insects. So I have been busily photographing whatever I can find in my yard and immediate area. This colourful Orchard Spider was in our rain barrel.

On our continuing tomato plants was this Tobacco Hornworm, the larval form of the Carolina Sphinx Moth.

 The 'horn' at the tail end is where it gets part of its name.

On some late flowering goldenrod were a number of wasps, but they were more interested in sipping the nectar than they were about my camera lens bearing down on them at close range.

Northern Paper Wasp (Polistes fuscatus)

A Spotted Beet Webworm was visiting the Echinacea. There are still quite a few flowers of the Echinacea in good condition, with more developing heads that will likely continue until the weather takes a serious turn for the cold. As noted in my previous post, there are still butterflies congregating on the Echinacea. It is not surprising to find Painted Ladies and Peck's Skippers still feasting on them, with the occasional Common Buckeye and more numerous Cabbage White, Orange Sulphur and Clouded Sulphur in the vicinity.....as well as Monarchs.

Spotted Beet Webworm

Speaking of Monarchs, they are still developing! I had this one form a chrysalis not that long ago, and it finally emerged in due time.

 It is interesting to see the chrysalis case turn clear, showing the folded up adult inside. When it gets to this stage, it is typically ~24 hours until the adult emerges, usually within an hour or two of first daylight.

 The frustrating thing is that the actual emergence can happen in as little as a minute or even less! There has been more than one occasion when I was keeping a close eye on the chrysalis only to step away for perhaps less than 10 minutes and when I returned, it was out with partially opened wings. But for those who have watched this more successfully, it is said to take less than a minute, sometimes no more than 30 seconds. The wings begin to unfold shortly after emergence.

 Eventually the wings are fully extended, and the butterfly spends an hour or two waiting for the fluid it has pumped into the wings to dry and harden, allowing the stiffness required for flight.

After this Monarch finally got its wings spread and dried and ready to fly, it took flight for a ways only to return and land on my shirt. After a minute or so, it then flew off for good. Although it seems a tad late for this stage of monarch life, there are still some in the chrysalis even now. My next door neighbour had a caterpillar on one of several milkweed plants in his yard up until a few days ago, and now has a chrysalis hanging on a wire beside the house. It has been in that form for about a week. I check it every morning, and it could emerge any day now.

Blacklighting after dark is always an adventure. Each time is different. On this occasion when I had the light set up in the back yard for about two hours, it was great to see such diversity of insects arrive at the white sheet. One of the most peculiar critters was this Nut or Acorn Weevil (Curculio sp).

Chickweed Geometer (Haematopis grataria)

Crane Fly

Dingy Cutworm (Feltia jaculifera)

Greater Black Dart (Xestia dolosa)

 This next one is a type of Green Lacewing, perhaps the Golden-eyed Lacewing (Chrysopa sp).

 

I had seen the following things in the garden earlier, but didn't know at the time what left them. They are the eggs of a Green Lacewing.

Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba)

 An unexpected but significant visitor was this next one: a Round-tipped Conehead (Neoconocephalus retusus). According to the accepted range maps in a couple of my grasshopper/katydid reference books, it doesn't occur in Ontario or even Canada, and I wondered if it was something else. It does occur both to the east and west of Chatham-Kent at a somewhat similar latitude, however, so not beyond the realm of possibility. I posted it on BugGuide and an orthopteran (grasshopper/cricket/katydid) specialist from the New England states confirmed its identity, so this could possibly be the first Canadian record.

 This next one is anything but rare. It is the Striped Cucumber Beetle (Acalymma vittatum).

 Although insect activity is winding down as the weather approaches more normal condition, undoubtedly there will be more opportunities to capture some late season critters on digital film....stay tuned!