11 October 2021

The invasive spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) hasn’t taken over Pittsburgh yet but it’s only a matter of time. Since first seen in western Pennsylvania in January 2020 at the Norfolk Southern railyard in Conway, Beaver County, the bugs have expanded their population and range. They’ve been seen on the North Side, in Homestead, and elsewhere near the railroads that brought them here.

Fall is breeding time for spotted lanternflies which are now in their winged adult phase. The adults won’t survive the winter but their egg masses will, so the more adults we eliminate now before they lay eggs the better.

Smashing a spotted lanternfly is easier said than done. The bugs have instant reflexes and jump when approached. However you can catch them in a water bottle. Easily! That’s why this video went viral.

Save a couple of plastic water bottles and lids. You’ll need lids to keep the bugs in the bottle.

Catch the bugs early in the day before they go too far up the trees.

Freeze the bottles containing lanternflies. The bugs die when they’re cold. Ta dah.

Good luck!

p.s. UPDATE, 5 November 2021: I saw my first spotted lanternfly in Schenley Park. It was in the SLF trap near the Bartlett tufa bridge.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons, Bugwood and Kate St. John; videos embeded from YouTube)

21 September 2021

Yesterday was the last really hot day before tomorrow’s storms and a return to cooler temperatures. We found many active insects, including mosquitoes!, as we looked for birds at State Game Land 63 in Clarion County yesterday morning.

Above and below, an apparently pregnant praying mantis looks for a place to lay her eggs.

Many monarchs flew by on their way south. Will they reach Pittsburgh before the storms?

And a field of grass and goldenrod was a-flutter with small orange butterflies. (I think one may be a pearl crescent. Can you identify these two?)

Bugs are having their last big fling.

(photos by Kate St. John and Donna Foyle)

18 September 2021

This gorgeous yellow caterpillar is an American dagger moth (Acronicta americana), a 2-inch long member of the owlet family Noctuidae. As a caterpillar he attracts attention.

As a moth he does not.

The difference is a matter of self defense. The adult American dagger moth is probably good to eat so he does his best to hide.

The caterpillar is conspicuous because he has a toxin in his black bristles that cause a stinging sensation when the bristles break off and embed in skin. Like many poisonous animals he’s using aposematic coloration and behavior to simultaneously attract attention and warn off predators, “Look. Don’t eat me.” Other examples include poison frogs, monarch butterflies and skunks.

However, this caterpillar is not invincible like the hickory tussock moth. If you know what you’re doing it’s possible to flatten the black bristles and touch the dagger moth caterpillar as Rebekah D. Wallace does, below, to show the spiracles under the caterpillar’s “fur.”

No thanks. I’ll look but not touch.

(photos by Kate St. John, Wikimedia Commons, and Rebekah D. Wallace, University of Georgia via bugwood.org; click on the captions to see the originals)

14 September 2021

This bug attracted my attention as it fluttered by so slowly that I thought it was a moth.

When it landed I could see its body shape and antennae were wrong for a moth. Moths usually have feathery antennae like this …

… whereas this bug has segmented antennae, as seen in this photo from Wikimedia Commons.

iNaturalist told me it was an “end band net-wing beetle (Calopteron terminale).” The black tip on the elytra (wing coverings) is the “end band.” The large and membranous “net-wings” are covered when the beetle is at rest. Click here to see him with open wings.

In flight I thought he was a moth because “This beetle is a strong, but slow, lumbering flier,” according to North American Insects and Spiders.

Check the antennae to narrow the possibilities. On beetles they can be whimsical.

(photos from Kate St. John, Chuck Tague and Wikimedia Commons)

5 September 2021

Have you seen an unusual white squiggle on a green leaf? The pattern was made by a leaf miner, a tiny insect larva that eats a path between the top and bottom surfaces of the leaf.  The path ends when the larva is ready to pupate. When the insect departs it leaves a hole.

There are many tiny moths, beetles, sawflies and flies that make leaf mines. Some create blotches. Others, like this one, make serpentine paths. You can identify the insect(s) that made the paths — or at least narrow the number of species — by noting the type of mine and identifying the plant host.

This serpentine leaf mine was on white snakeroot (Ageratina altissima) in Frick Park on 19 August. Based on the Illinois Wildflowers list of insects that feed on Ageratina altissima, here are two possible suspects that create serpentine leaf mines and live in Pennsylvania.

• The larvae of a tiny fly, Liriomyza eupatoriella. (NOTE: While researching this insect I discovered Charley Eiseman, an expert on leafminers and author of the only photo of the bug at bugguide.net. More on Charley Eiseman below.)

• The larvae of a tiny moth, Leucospilapteryx venustella.

If you want to know more about leaf miners, go to the expert. Check out Charley Eiseman‘s book, Leafminers of North America or visit his BugTracks blog where he writes about all kinds of insects. He’s even discovered new species.

(photos by Kate St. John, screenshot of bugguide.net and photo from Wikimedia Commons)

28 August 2021

Last night at sunset I heard a bug outside my window and found a scissor-grinder cicada (Neotibicen winnemanna) perched on the bricks outside the glass. He sang his courtship song to attract a mate, a repetitive WEEE ah, WEEE ah, WEEE ah, WEEE ah that tapers at end. It’s a sound so unique that he can be identified by song. Click here to hear.

When the cicada left he flew directly at my window and bounced off the glass, over and over again. I imagine his 5 eyes were fooled by a reflection of the sky.

Don’t confuse our annual cicadas with the 17-year periodical cicadas that emerged in D.C. last May and disappeared in July. Scissor-grinders emerge every year in July and peak in September and they look different from each other.

Annual cicada in Pittsburgh, probably scissor-grinder.

17-year cicadas are not in Pittsburgh this year. See the red eyes!

(photos by Kate St. John, Dana Nesiti and from Wikimedia Commons)