9 August 2025

Such a variety of insects this week! Thursday was especially good for bugs during a short walk from the Hutchinson ball field to Commercial Street in Frick Park. When we weren’t swatting mosquitos I found five other “bugs.” Here are my best guesses at their identity. As always, please leave a comment if I got it wrong.

Above, a zabulon skipper (Poanes zabulon) flew up and perched on my right hand. I’m pretty confident with this identification because “zabs” are the only skipper species that ever lands on me. Click here to see one on my left thumb on 12 Aug 2021. This week’s photo was quite a challenge because I had to take the closeup with my left hand.

Below: I think this is a little wood satyr butterfly (Megisto cymela) perched on Viburnum plicatum. If the dorsal view is key to its identity … well, alas, I never saw its back.

I know this gray bug is a planthopper but I don’t know what species. Google Lens identified it as a citrus flatid planthopper (Metcalfa pruinosa).

This stag beetle (family Lucanidae), though impressive in size, was nearly dead.

We saw exposed branches and chomped leaves on a young northern catalpa (Catalpa speciosa) and found out why when we looked under the leaves.

The tree was infested with catalpa worms, the larval stage of the catapla sphinx moth (Ceratomia catalpae). The “horn” is actually its tail end trying to masquerade as a head.

When the caterpillar grows up it will look like this.

Meanwhile listen for the daytime drone of cicadas. Even if you don’t see them you can often identify them by sound. My guess at Frick Park on Thursday was lyric cicada because their sound is a puttering drone.

I wish there was a Merlin sound ID app for insects.