Black lighting at Newport Forest

I've been doing a lot more black lighting lately. Regular readers may have noticed. It is a different kind of nature photography, certainly emphasizing the macro end of things but rewarding just the same. It takes a fair bit of patience not only to set things up and attract critters, but to get good enough photos which can hopefully be identified since a lot of the subjects are relatively less known.

I recently had the opportunity to set up and photograph night time creatures at Newport Forest, in Elgin County. I don't know all the background of Newport Forest, but a few years ago two people, Kee and Pat Dewdney of London, purchased it with the intention of conserving and restoring it. It was a mix of forest, floodplain, creek systems and former agricultural land along the south side of the Thames River. On the former agricultural lands, many native trees and shrubs have been planted and are now thriving amidst the old field vegetation. Not only was the intent to conserve and restore it, but to do as complete an inventory as possible of all life forms they and others could discover.

In more recent years, the property has been transferred to the Thames Talbot Land Trust, an amazing group of volunteers which has acquired several properties in Middlesex and adjacent counties with the goal of preserving and protecting the natural features occurring on them.

Using black lighting enables one to attract creatures that may otherwise be difficult to inventory for. Kee Dewdney has set up a black light on several occasions in the past few years, and I was fortunate to join him a few evenings ago with my own black light equipment, hoping to increase the list of species, or at least getting some good photos of species already known for the site.

Not everything that we captured by black light has been identified down to the species level, so it is uncertain at this stage just how many of the creatures we documented are in fact new. Kee puts out a periodical bulletin to interested people which summarizes the latest findings and activities on site. My post here is not intended to usurp Kee's report, but to share some of the photos that I obtained.

Many types of creatures are attracted to lights...moths, beetles, orthoptera, flies, bugs, etc. Even though October is not the most productive time for black lighting, it can still fill in some gaps. A bonus is that the mosquitoes aren't much of a nuisance.

Beetles, and in particular leafhoppers, are interesting but challenging to photograph due in part to their very small size, some of which are a mere 3 mm in total length. Against a white sheet, they all look black and it isn't until one gets a bright light on them and a good close-up photo that you can see the various patterns. There are hundreds of species, making them one of the more difficult groups to identify. Many of them don't have common names.

Bandara sp

Gyponana octolineata

Jikradia olitoria

Prescottia lobata

Texananus sp

Related to the leafhoppers are the planthoppers. This next one is a member of the Flatidae family, known as Flatormenis proxima.

A type of Plant Bug is this next one, in the Miridae family.

Lygus sp

Next is a spittlebug, the nymphs of which can be found in the frothy spittle like substance found on vegetation. This photo is of an adult, only about 3 mm in length.

Clastoptera obtusa

Crickets, grasshoppers and katydids are fairly abundant in these habitats, but don't often come to lights. This next one is a Two-spotted Tree Cricket, one of the more distinctive members of the Orthoptera in the area. I believe this first one is a female with both a side view and a top view. The third photo is of another Two-spotted Tree Cricket showing the variable pattern on the top side.

Neoxabea bipunctata

Crane Flies are relatively large creatures, looking a bit like a giant mosquito. This one has not been confirmed as to species, but is likely Tipula sayi.

 Caddisflies are numerous, and often difficult to identify to species unless they are collected.

Moths are one of the larger groups of night time creatures that visit black lights. Here are some of those that had the best photos turn out.

Clandestine Dart Spaelotis clandestina

Common Idia Idia aemula

Common Tan Weave Pleuroprucha insulsaria

Copper Underwing Amphipyra pyramidoides

Diamondback Epinotia Epinotia lindana

Pale-spotted Palthis Palthis asopialis

Green Cloverworm Hypena scabra

Maple Spanworm Ennomos magnaria

The Wedgeling Galgula partita

Spotted Grass Moth Rivula propinqualis

Although the black lighting season is winding down, there may yet be opportunities to see what is still around at the end of the season.

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.

Backyard wildlife......more but different!

Many people have relatively well-manicured, even relatively sterile lawns. Not us! The less grass to cut, the better, and so a lot of it has been put into trees and gardens. The latter may be of the veggie type or the ornamental flower type or even the wildflower/tallgrass prairie type. It is amazing what one can get into a small space!

And that leads to a wonderful diversity of fauna making use of it. Some of the interesting critters you may have already seen on previous blog posts. But there is often something new popping into view.

The Echinacea in particular attracts a wide diversity of insects. Bees are buzzing around like crazy, as are various fly type pollinators that look like bees.

On the dill, we see the larvae of Black Swallowtail.

Black Swallowtail larva

This guy is still pretty tiny....it has a lot of growing to do before it becomes an adult.

Black Swallowtail adult

I came across another immature katydid recently. This appears to be another of the Fork-tailed Bush Katydid type. It spent some of its time on this Echinacea, but was on its way to a nearby tomato plant.

Fork-tailed Bush Katydid female

One morning, tucked up under some raspberry bushes, was this magnificent moth. It is a Pandorus Sphinx, one of the largest moths of the area. It feeds on wild grape among other things. It looks very fresh, so it may have just emerged from its cocoon in the previous few hours, and was spending the day drying its wings and waiting for nightfall to begin the next chapter in its life.

Pandorus Sphinx

Much smaller than this sphinx moth is a planthopper, looking very much like a small leaf with legs on the move. It isn't much larger than your thumb, and usually gets around by walking on the vegetation, but it can both leap and fly at least for short distances.

Acanalonia conica

On the underside of some cucumber leaves were these tiny Lace bugs, just a few millimetres in body length. They get their name because upon a closer look, part of their body has a delicate lace-like pattern. The adult is on the left and the much smaller nymph is on the right and lower down.

Lace bugs

Attached to a stem that had been cast into a future compost pile was this empty case of a Cicada. There are several kinds of cicada in this range....I am not sure exactly what species this one is. Maybe now I will hear the adult singing/buzzing away in the tree tops on a warm day.

Cicada sp nymphal case

Not a true insect, but a member of the Arachnidae family, are spiders. They aren't the favourite critter to warm up to, but they do catch lots of insects! This Garden Cross Spider had its web stretched across some plants, and had already captured several small insects.

Garden Cross Spider

This Orchard Orb Weaver had its web stretched between a couple of milkweed plants, and likewise had had several feeds of insects that became entrapped. It really is an attractive critter when you get up close to it. Go ahead....take a closer look!

Orchard Orb Weaver

Because we use a lot of composted material in our garden, fungi appear from time to time. The parts that we typically see are just the fruiting bodies of the much larger organism below ground. There, the 'roots' of the fungi (called mycorrhizae) are busily devouring dead plant material. The fruiting body above ground lasts just long enough to have the spores disperse, to enable more of them to find a suitable substrate to live on. This one is, I believe, a type of Coprinus or Inky Cap. Many of them are much larger.....this one's cap is only about 1.3 cm in diameter.

Inky Cap

At the opposite end of the size spectrum, we have our resident bunnies......you will be hearing more about their exploits in life and death in a future post.

American Robins have several broods over the season. I think our local ones are on their third brood already. This recently fledged youngster was hanging out along the pathway through our prairie/forest patch.

 It then hopped up to the fence, and seemed to be interested in the nearby house wren nest box. I'm not sure what was going through its mind!

Just below this spot, a fledged young Song Sparrow was resting, waiting for one of its parents to come by with food.

Song Sparrow fledgling

And above the house late today, this adult Mourning Dove had it own 'aerial view' of the property......perhaps it was getting ready to view the super moon tonight.....or not.

No, we don't have cable or satellite tv.....we only graduated from bunny ears a couple of years ago, but with this set of rooftop aerial, we can get all the channels we 'need'. We can spend more time in the garden or elsewhere observing nature, and we provide a good resting place for birds.....what would they use if we had cable or satellite :-).