On Tuesday I saw a monarch butterfly fly past my 6th floor window on its journey south. Every night that butterfly it will rest in sheltering vegetation and feed on flowers the next day. But what if those amenities aren’t available?
On Wednesday I noticed landscaping staff clearing a garden in front of an Oakland office building. Monthly gardening schedules, sometimes based on pre-climate change temperatures, call for clearing the garden or changing the plants in October. Salvia looks “leggy” now. Perhaps they were going to plant chrysanthemums.
Fortunately Saving Monarchs sends this helpful Facebook reminder for all gardeners. Take a break and let your garden sleep in!
Some have messaged me asking if they can buy the sign, yes, they’re available for purchase. The large aluminum signs measure 18”x 12” are 50 plus shipping. I also make them in pvc size 9” x 11.5” and are 25 plus shipping. No extra shipping if you purchase more than 1. Obviously, due to shipping costs no posts are included, just the signs. Message [Saving Monarchs on Facebook] if you’re interested.
Read more about the benefits of leaving the leaves for insects, pollinators, birds, and even salamanders.
Triangle fly on our window, 30 Aug 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
31 August 2024
After yesterday evening’s rainbow a “triangle fly” landed on our dining room window and spun its body slowly like a top. Google Lens identified it as genus Rhagoletis, a member of the fruit fly family Tephritidae.
There are about 25 species of Rhagoletis native to North America, each with its own host fruit. Those who eat the fruits we grow commercially, such as cherries and walnuts, are considered agricultural pests.
Since my photo shows the bug’s underside, Google Lens picked up on the yellow body and identified it as the walnut husk fly, Rhagoletis completa, though it may have been a different species such as the closely related Rhagoletis suavis. There are black walnuts in Pittsburgh’s parks so these species are possibilities.
Adult female Rhagoletis inject their eggs into the host fruit so that the larvae have something to eat when they hatch. If you open an infested fruit it looks like it has maggots. Here’s a walnut husk (yes, it’s a fruit) with R. completa larvae in it.
Some species mimic jumping spiders. The wing-waving apparently deters the approach of jumping spiders, important predators of the flies. Other species have brightly-patterned bodies, and may mimic wasps.(3)
“Spider predation has been intense enough to mold the evolution of prey characteristics: predation by salticids (jumping spiders) has shaped the morphology and behavior of some tephritid flies. Their wing markings resemble the pattern of the legs of jumping spiders; the flies also wave their wings in a fashion that appears to mimic the agonistic behavior of salticids – making them ‘proverbial sheep in wolf’s clothing’.”(8)
Could this native North American jumping spider be a predator of our Rhagoletis flies? Do you see a resemblance between its angled legs and the pattern on the fly’s wings?
Spotted lanternfly on my window on 2 Aug 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)
28 August 2024
I was beginning to think we were safe this year but now I’m not so sure. After surprisingly few spotted lanternflies (Lycorma delicatula) in July and August, there are suddenly more of them in the air and on buildings and trees. Uh oh!
Have you seen more spotted lanternflies, too? I think I know why.
Their peak population was in September last year so we probably haven’t reached the peak yet. But it’s coming.
Spotted lanternflies love heat and it has been hot this week. Yesterday’s high was 94°F –> 13° above normal.
Why do I see them fly by my 6th floor windows? They love height as well.
Last year I mused on their love of height and heat. I sure hope their population doesn’t get so bad this year!
Pawpaws (Asimina triloba) are the quintessential wild fruit for browsing animals that eat the only ripe fruit on the branch and then move on. The fruit tastes like mango and has the consistency of banana. But don’t eat the seeds. They are poisonous.
The skin is thin and bruises easily so they cannot be shipped.
Pawpaws don’t ripen all at once. You must come back later for the next batch because …
If you pull a hard, unripe fruit from the tree it will never ripen.
Pawpaw fruits lose their flavor if you heat them.
The bark, leaves, fruit and seeds of pawpaw trees contain the disabling and potentially lethal neurotoxin annonacin so …
Do not dry or cook down the fruit because that concentrates the compound that — fortunately — makes you vomit. (see more in the WESA article).
However, the neurotoxin is a benefit for zebra swallowtails (Eurytides marcellus) whose only host plant is the pawpaw tree. Zebra swallowtail caterpillars eat pawpaw leaves, become toxic themselves and are protected from predators.
If you want to eat a pawpaw and learn more about them, your best bet is at an upcoming Pawpaw Festival. The complete schedule of 12 festivals plus additional events are at Heppy.org: 2024 Pawpaw Festivals and Events. Here are a few close to Pittsburgh on the Heppy.org list in order of occurrence.
Ohio Pawpaw Festival in Albany, Ohio, 13-15 Sept
Paw Paw Festival in Duncansville, PA, 22 Sept, 9a-4p
West Virginia Pawpaw Festival, Core Arboretum, Morgantown, WV, 28 September
Gabrielle Marsden is restoring zebra swallowtail butterflies to southwestern PA by planting pawpaw trees and encouraging others to do the same. Her YouTube channel is here. She also has two upcoming events:
Schenley Park outing participants, 25 August 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
26 August 2024
Yesterday morning 13 of us found 24 species of birds in Schenley Park plus flowering plants and insects.
Best Birds were the six+ ruby-throated hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) sipping nectar at orange jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) along Phipps Run and at Panther Hollow Lake. Between sips they chased each other everywhere.
Orange jewelweed, favorite of hummingbirds, Schenley Park, 25 Aug 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
So many hummingbirds was a happy sign after 7-8 years without big numbers in Schenley Park. Orange jewelweed is their favorite food on migration but it was eradicated 7-8 years ago by Schenley’s overabundant deer population. This year jewelweed patches thrive in inaccessible places at Phipps Run and among the cattails in Panther Hollow Lake. If you want to see hummingbirds, pause here and watch the jewelweed. Also check the wires above the lake.
Best insects were several red spotted purple butterflies flitting on the Lake Trail. Hailey Latona found one resting … but not for long. (Bug people: If I’ve misidentified this butterfly please correct me!)
Red spotted purple butterfly in Schenley Park, 25 Aug 2024 (video by Hailey Latona)
We also found a Honeybee Heaven near the railroad tracks. I had never noticed Japanese hop (Humulus japonicus) growing there but yesterday I could hear the flowers humming and saw it swarming with honeybees.
A species of hops at Schenley Park. Is it Japanese hops? 25 Aug 2024 (photo by Kate St. John)
By 10:30am it was getting hot but we found a chestnut-sided warbler so we paused to look harder. Alas, it was the only warbler species for the outing. Here’s our checklist.
Schenley Park, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, US Aug 25, 2024 8:30 AM – 11:00 AM
Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) X Maybe 40 on Flagstaff Hill; evidence at Panther Hollow lake Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) 4 Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica) 2 Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) 6 — Lots of chasing Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) 2 Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) 2 Eastern Wood-Pewee (Contopus virens) 3 Heard Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus) 5 Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) 6 Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) 4 Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) 1 Heard White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) 2 Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) 4 Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) 3 Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) 1 Seen American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 4 Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) 9 House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus) 4 American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) 10 Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 8 Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula) 2 Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) 3 Chestnut-sided Warbler (Setophaga pensylvanica) 2 Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) 2
It’s relatively hard to find a singing cricket because the male is on the ground, probably hidden by vegetation, and facing the entrance to his burrow. He rubs his modified leathery front wings, called tegmina, to make his chirping sound.
The burrow entrance provides an echo chamber that amplifies his sound and, if his chirping attracts a predator, he can quickly zoom underground for safety.
Did you know that the cricket’s chirp can tell you the temperature? Count the number of chirps of a lone cricket for 15 seconds, then add 37. That should tell you the temperature in Fahrenheit … probably. If it doesn’t, I like to imagine that the burrow entrance is colder or hotter than the ambient air. 😉
Read more about the cricket’s chirp here at the Songs of Insects.
p.s. Did you ever have a cricket in your house? In my experience they are really hard to find unless they’re in the corner of a gleaming white bathroom and you’ve moved everything out of the way to find the cricket in the corner.
Female black swallowtail butterfly in Betty Rowland’s garden, 18 August 2024 (photo by Betty Rowland)
20 August 2024
You may remember in early August when I wrote that two friends had black swallowtail caterpillars (Papilio polyxenes) in their gardens. By now those caterpillars are, or will soon become, butterflies.
After Betty Rowland discovered her caterpillars on 1 August her neighbor, Aaron Johnson, loaned her a butterfly tent.
Two black swallowtail caterpillars on fennel, 1 August 2024 (photo by Betty Rowland)Shelter to protect the caterpillars from predation, 2 August 2024 (photo by Betty Rowland)
Soon thereafter, on 4 August, one caterpillar posed in the pre-chrysalis position and the other had already become one.
Black swallowtails: Caterpillar in pre-chrysalis position (left) and chrysalis (right), 5 August 2024 (photos by Betty Rowland)
Last Sunday I heard from Betty that after two weeks both black swallowtail butterflies had eclosed (emerged from chrysalis).
Two black swallowtail butterflies, discarded chrysalis is circled, 18 August 2024 (photo by Betty Rowland)
Both are female (photo at top) which is easy to see from their coloration. Female black swallowtails have orange and blue highlights; males have yellow highlights with only a hint of orange and blue (male pictured below).
The fogging is done at dusk and night by a pickup truck with a dispersal (fogging) unit using insecticide Zenivex E20 (active ingredient etofenprox). I don’t have photos of ACHD’s trucks — this mosquito control truck is in Cuba, not in Allegheny County — but the photo gives you an idea of what fogging looks like. See photos of local fogging in the PublicSource article, linked above.
Etofenprox is a pyrethroid derivative which disturbs insect nervous systems following direct contact or ingestion. It is active against a broad spectrum of pests including Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants), Diptera (flies and mosquitoes), Hemiptera (cicadas, aphids, leafhoppers, bed bugs, shield bugs), Coleoptera (beetles), and Thysanoptera (thrips).
The fogging creates a miniature insect apocalypse for small night-flying insects touched by the insecticide. This ripples up the food chain to the plants, birds and animals that rely on them. One of them is my spark bird, the common nighthawk. PublicSource points out:
A bird conservation advocate agreed that nighttime pollinators could be affected, which could have ripple effects in bird populations, such as the common nighthawks that feed after dusk.
“Even when these products are used with the best intentions … in a highly targeted manner, they certainly do have the potential to affect non-target invertebrates,” said Hardy Kern, director of government relations of the birds and pesticides campaign at the American Bird Conservancy. “And these non-target invertebrates are really important food sources for birds.”
— PublicSource: Allegheny County ramps up mosquito control. Could it harm local ecosystems?
However, “The county wouldn’t need to spray as much if more people knew how to keep mosquitoes from breeding near their homes.”
And that’s where you come in. Mosquitoes breed in stagnant water. If you have standing water in your yard mosquitoes will breed there — even in a bottle cap. Dump out the standing water to kill the larvae. Dump out abandoned tires!
If you are being bitten by mosquitoes it’s most likely that those mosquitoes are being produced on your property. Mosquitoes do not like to travel very far. They are very weak fliers, and if they can find all the things that they need to survive on your property that’s where they will begin and end their life cycle.
— quote from PA DEP Video: Help Prevent Mosquitoes from Breeding
Though the number of adult spotted lanternflies (Lycorma delicatula) is growing this month in Pittsburgh, their population does not match the invasion we saw a year ago. Among the many reasons for this happy news is that local bugs are eating them.
On Wednesday Kalehism Kheshgi found a small praying mantis eating a spotted lanternfly on Carnegie Mellon’s campus.
video by Kaleem Kheshgi, Pittsburgh, 2024-08-14
Several species of praying mantids were imported for pest control: Green ones are from Europe, brown ones are from China. If the brown mantids have deep ancestral knowledge, they will recognize the lanternfly as food from home. 😉
Spiders, yellowjackets, wheel bugs and birds (including northern cardinals!) all eat spotted lanternflies. For photos of the devouring, see this 2022 article.
If you aren’t already avoiding black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) because of Lyme disease, yesterday’s announcement is another reason to be very careful.
The Allegheny County Health Department has announced that the first human case of Powassan virus disease has been detected in the area. It’s the first time the tick-borne virus has been seen in the county, and the first case in the state this year.
Powassan is a rare, but growing, disease that can only be caught from a black-legged tick bite. Initial symptoms can include fever, headache, vomiting, and weakness but it can also cause severe illness including inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) or the membranes around the brain and spinal cord (meningitis). This can result in long term neurological effects.
There is no treatment for Powassan and no vaccine. All that can be done is to wait for it to run its course and mitigate the symptoms.
#1. Check your body for ticks after you’ve been outdoors. There may be ticks in your own backyard so check every time.
How to do a tick check (image from PA Dept of Health & CDC.gov)
#2 Keep ticks off your clothes and skin. Wear long pants and long sleeves and spray your clothes with permethrin. Some suggest using DEET on your skin (if you wear shorts) but I can attest that long pants sprayed with permethrin is much better.
It’s Spray Your Clothes Day (photo by Kate St. John)
