Showing posts with label insects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label insects. Show all posts

Gloria's Insects: Opened our front door and saw the loveliest moth

Sunday, September 15, 2024

The White Satin Moth. 

Took a zillion shots, so excited was I. 

He never moved.

They were introduced in the U.S. in the 1920s, probably from Europe. 

I love the "furry" mane (so like a horse!) and the comb looking antennae. 

This is likely a male; they take flight just before dusk, says the internet, which may explain his long interlude on our door. 

They're found here in the summer.

--Gloria Z. Nagler



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Gloria's Insects: Sylvia the Sachem...

Thursday, September 12, 2024

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

Yep, said Sylvia, doesn't take much to attract me to a plant... even just one blossom meets the criteria, photog.

(Sylvia is probably a Sachem Butterfly, aka grass skipper. Skippers' antennae are looped backward at their tips like a hook. Other kinds of butterflies have clubbed tips. Skippers are also smaller but stockier than other butterflies. And they're extremely fast fliers! Skippers are one of my favorite animals to spot in the summer garden... so glad I found this one even so late in the season.)

--Gloria Z. Nagler


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Gloria's Insects: Saw this wasp (first time seeing this kind)

Thursday, September 5, 2024

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

on a walk last week and, looking online, id'd it as a Great Black (Digger) Wasp. Then, today, I researched a little further and learned that those wasps are found everywhere in the continental U.S. EXCEPT the Pacific Northwest!

So, might be a Thread-waisted Wasp, or some other species (any thoughts on that?), but I love it nonetheless;). 

Look at the tiny, light hairs on its thorax,abdomen, and head...fuzzy wasp. I also admire her translucently black wings! 

Hope I see one again, sometime.

--Gloria Z. Nagler


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Gloria's Insects: We've got a deal, said Sylvia the sweat bee (Green Metallic!) to Adam the flying ant

Tuesday, August 20, 2024

Green metallic sweat bee and flying ant
Photo by Gloria Z. Nagler

You take the smaller blossoms, leave the biggies to me! 

(Don't think I've ever seen so much pollen on so many legs! Go, Sylvia! 

Seen in Seattle park last week. And l am not 100% certain on species i.d.)

--Gloria Z Nagler


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Gloria's Insects: One more sip for the road, photog,

Sunday, August 4, 2024

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

said Beulah the Yellow-faced Bumblebee, proboscis extended, as she revved up for takeoff...  (At the community garden in King County last week)

--Gloria Z. Nagler


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Gloria's Insects: Ooohh, thanks for the black background, photog

Thursday, July 25, 2024

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

said Yvette the Yellow-faced Bumblebee.  I love the contrast with my yellow pollen sacs.

--Gloria Z. Nagler


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Dragonfly with fashion sense

Thursday, July 4, 2024

Photo by Mary Lynn Potter

He sat on the lavender in our backyard as if he were posing for us, while we took several pictures of him.

--Mary Lynn Potter

Wikipedia:

There are about 3,000 extant species of dragonflies. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threatens dragonfly populations around the world.

Swarming dragonflies could be responding to a high mosquito populations, but they also eat several fly species. It’s best to let dragonflies be; they’ll eat up pests, and they’re fun to watch while they do it.

Scientific name: Anisoptera

Lifespan: 7 - 56 days (Adult). 


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Gloria's Insects: On her way to work

Monday, July 1, 2024

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

I believe this is an Asian Lady Beetle, not a true ladybug, brought to the U.S. to control other insects that live on plants such as aphids and mites. 

Apparently, they sometimes reproduce enough to be pests themselves. 

Spotted this lovely creature in a community garden in King County last week.

--Gloria Z. Nagler


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Butterfly at Kruckeberg Gardens

Saturday, June 22, 2024

Photo by Barbara Twaddell

This tiger swallowtail butterfly just loved to pose for pictures today at Kruckeberg Gardens.

--Barbara Twaddell


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Gloria's Insects: Locked and Loaded


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Gloria's Insects: Guess I'm not the only one who notices Spring's blossoms...

Thursday, May 9, 2024

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

Note the bug delicately tiptoeing across the plant...


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Gloria's Insects: Caitlin was head over heels when she came upon unoccupied lavender...mine, all mine!

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

(Caitlin's a lovely Cabbage White Butterfly, common in the garden I frequent in Seattle mid-summer. And no, I didn't turn the image around. Caitlin really was flying upside-down briefly.)

--Gloria Z. Nagler


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WSDA entomologists continue to track and study Giant (aka Murder) Hornets

Sunday, November 26, 2023

A hornet worker sporting a new,
ultra-light solar powered tracking tag
Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) entomologists recently returned from their second trip to Korea this season, completing a second season of collaborative field research with Kyungpook National University on the northern giant hornet in its native range.

The goals of that project are to learn more about hornet foraging behavior (to better deploy the food-based traps currently used), colony cycles and diurnal behavior patterns, and potential dispersal behavior of newly produced queen hornets.
 
The latter is particularly important for establishing response areas upon detection of hornets in new areas. The season was wracked with challenges, including a typhoon that impacted some of the data collected. 

Nevertheless, the team returned with over 200 tethered flight mill trials (a way to estimate the physiological maximum of queen hornet flight ability), 250,000 data points for worker hornets entering and exiting their nests, and over 120 hours of camera footage of activity outside of the hornet nests.

A male hornet pausing for a juice
break while attached to a flight mill
They also collected months of data from hornets tagged and moving throughout their foraging areas, although this data is compromised by the hornets literally chewing their tracking tags to pieces.

They also tested new, smaller tags that are not yet commercially available – the tags seem to have promise for studying many different insect species.

All told, the team assembled a very large data set that will provide unique insights into hornet biology, even given the many setbacks of 2023, which was not a great year for hornets in the local area.

WSDA has placed around 800 traps in Whatcom County where the hornets were first discovered in Washington state. The program is continuing to monitor and check traps for hornets. They will begin removing traps in December.

There have been no confirmed detections of northern giant hornets so far in 2023.

It is still important to be on the lookout. Dead or alive, northern giant hornet reports are helpful. In December 2019 and September 2020, dead hornets were collected. One hornet was found on a porch, and the other was inside a lantern-style electric yard light that had a paper wasp nest inside.

British Columbia continues to do surveillance with traps and urge beekeepers to do the same. They are wrapping up their season. This year they have had no northern giant hornet detections.

Any confirmed report can help guide trapping efforts, and collected hornets can aid in future research. If you think you have seen a hornet, report it online, email hornets@agr.wa.gov, or call 1-800-443-6684. Include a photo if you can safely obtain one. If the specimen is dead, you may collect it and wait for our response.

The so-called "murder hornets" can be lethal to humans with venom allergies and wipe out an entire honeybee colony in two hours.


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Gloria's Insects: Harmonious Honeybees...

Saturday, October 21, 2023

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

(I often witness this scenario in the community garden. Bees working on the same blossom without obvious conflict, and apparently without fear of one another; they cooperate both inside and outside the hive.

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

We could learn something from them, doncha think?)

--Gloria Z. Nagler


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Gloria's Insects: Bumblebee takeoff

Monday, October 16, 2023

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler
From this summer at the community garden.
 

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Suspect attempts to carjack vehicles in the Aurora tunnel; chased by police; everyone stung by wasps

Wednesday, October 4, 2023

They are on a steep hillside along Aurora in Seattle
Photo courtesy Seattle PD

On August 13, 2023, Seattle Police officers arrested a 22-year-old male suspect after he attempted to car-jack multiple vehicles in East Queen Anne. 

Shortly after 6:00pm, several 911 calls were received regarding a male suspect attempting to car-jack multiple vehicles armed with a knife. According to the victims, the suspect blocked traffic then attempted to stop and take vehicles. The suspect caused significant damage to multiple victim’s vehicles as they passed.  

Video from victim's dashcam - followed by police cam video of takedown and wasp attacks

Officers arrived and located the suspect on Dexter Way North in a tunnel under Aurora Avenue North. The suspect ran from officers and was caught in a nearby greenbelt area. 

While taking the suspect into custody, both the officers and the suspect were stung by wasps several times. One of the officers also suffered a laceration during the arrest.

Both the officer and the suspect were transported to Harborview Medical Center to treat their injuries. The suspect was then later booked into King County Jail for investigation of assault, property destruction, and attempted robbery.


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Gloria's Insects: Hey, Hilda, room for one more?

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

 We Mason Bees are practically nanoscopic... you won't even know I'm there!

(And Mason Bees outperform honeybees in pollinating flowers...so c'mon, Hilda, let her in!)

--Gloria Z. Nagler




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Gloria's Insects: Holly the Honeybee wasn't much for nuance;

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

  she saw everything in black and white.

--Gloria Z. Nagler




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Gloria's Insects: Bee meets blossom

Monday, August 28, 2023

 
Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

The way honeybees (and other bees) often draw their legs together when in flight is, for me, photogenic, but also interesting. Aerodynamic? Helps stabilize during flight? I haven't yet found an answer, so lemme know if you have one!

--Gloria Z. Nagler



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Gloria's Insects: I can see clearly, now, the rain is gone...

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Photo copyright Gloria Z. Nagler

(Yellow-faced Bumblebee astride a petal, having a look-see. Wouldn't bet the farm on my i.d. so I'm open to other options:).

--Gloria Z. Nagler



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