Science

Black widow ventral side. Note the hourglass is incomplete, composed of two unconnected triangles. This is a normal variant.

HumBug: Revisiting Old (Poisonous) Friends

by Anthony Westkamper on November 24, 2019 at 4:27PM

Back on Oct 2., 2016, I posted an article on the infestation of western black widow (Latrodactus hesperus) spiders at the Carlotta Post Office. Just this week my wife and I had occasion to visit the area again.

HumBug: Late Butterflies, Hornets and Moths

by Anthony Westkamper on November 17, 2019 at 5:37PM

A quick walk along the Van Duzen River turned up one each variegated meadowhawk and shadow darner dragonflies neither of which allowed me to get close enough to get a photo. It's OK, I have hundreds of shots of the meadowhawk and dozens of the shadow.

Wooly Aphid on my fingertip. the "Smoke" over its head is actually a cloud of fine filaments.

HumBug: Ashes and Dancers

by Anthony Westkamper on October 27, 2019 at 1:30PM

While I was doing a bit of outside work atop a ladder, several tiny chalk white dots flew with slow grace. They often appeared almost magically as they meandered through shafts of sunlight and then disappeared into the shadows.

HumBug: Late Bloomers Get All the Action

by Anthony Westkamper on October 20, 2019 at 3:23PM

Flowers being few and far between lately, nectar-sipping insects are also scarce. A few straggling rabbit brush plants concentrate relict butterflies, having completed their reproductive cycle living out their lives on instincts alone.

Carolina grasshopper blends into the rocks behind.

HumBug: Fall along the River

by Anthony Westkamper on October 13, 2019 at 3:13PM

There are next to no flowers blooming now. Most adult insects have lived out their lives, their eggs and larvae sequestered in anticipation of winter.

HumBug: Hello, Handsome

by Anthony Westkamper on October 6, 2019 at 4:54PM

While moving firewood, I happened on a small beetle with an interesting pronatum. Its orange thorax was flared outward.

A mosquito skates on the water surface, most likely laying eggs in a pan of water in my backyard.

HumBug: Friends and Enemies

by Anthony Westkamper on September 29, 2019 at 11:22AM

This week I started to write about spiders and ended up buying a book on mosquitoes. In the recently published book The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator, author Timothy Winegard calculates nearly half the people who ever lived died of mosquito bites.

Prionyx wasp prepares a den in which she will deposit a paralyzed grasshopper and an egg to perpetuate her species.

HumBug: An Autumnal Walk

by Anthony Westkamper on September 22, 2019 at 11:03AM

Walking along the Van Duzen River, we spotted a medium sized black and orange wasp industriously digging a hole in the sand. Although similar in many ways, she was smaller and had a slightly different color pattern than the locally common great golden sand digger.

A rather large adult specimen at a light trap.

HumBug: Caddisflies and Fishing Flies

by Anthony Westkamper on September 8, 2019 at 11:19AM

When I was a boy, my dad introduced me to the joys and frustrations of trout fishing. In his opinion the best bait were what he called "periwinkles," little bugs that cover themselves with twigs or stones and crawl around in creeks.

Western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus).

HumBug: Butterflies vs. Moths

by Anthony Westkamper on September 1, 2019 at 10:59AM

One of the most common questions I get as a bug guy is, “What's the difference between butterflies and moths?” Although most consider them separate clades within the order lepidoptera, another answer is “maybe nothing.” Some authorities regard butterflies as a day flying sub group of moths. Depending on the time of year individuals of the species Acmon blue vary from small to what may be the smallest species of butterfly in our area.

North Coast Journal

HumBug Online

» topic: Science