{"id":922,"date":"2013-08-16T11:33:39","date_gmt":"2013-08-16T15:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/?p=922"},"modified":"2014-04-07T01:13:25","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T05:13:25","slug":"cape-ann-campsite-insects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/cape-ann-campsite-insects\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Ann Campsite Insects"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve posted about the birds<\/a> and sea creatures<\/a> that we saw on our camping trip at the Cape Ann campsite<\/a>. We also found a few bugs during our explorations.<\/p>\n

The office on the campgrounds has a nice flower and vegetable garden a few feet away. We found a couple of Peck’s skippers<\/a> (Polites peckius<\/i>), which settled on a leaf after chasing each other.<\/p>\n

\"A
Peck’s skippers<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n
\nOne of the ubiquitous cabbage whites<\/a> (Pieris rapae<\/i>) sipped some nectar.<\/p>\n
\"Cabbage
Cabbage white<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A pearl crescent<\/a> butterfly (Phyciodes tharos<\/i>) fed on the nectar of white clover flowers (Trifolium repens<\/i>).<\/p>\n

\"Pearl
Pearl crescent butterfly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We had to leave the campground to see this eastern tiger swallowtail<\/a> (Papilio glaucus<\/i>), which came to rest on some shells in the salt marsh at low tide.<\/p>\n

\"eastern
eastern tiger swallowtail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some of the bathrooms in the campsite don’t have great screen doors, so moths fly in at night, attracted to the lights. People might get suspicious when they hear a shutter repeatedly going off in a bathroom, but this is sometimes what it takes.<\/p>\n

The moth in the bathroom was a hemlock looper (Lambdina fiscellaria<\/i>). These moths can be serious pests, especially on hemlock, fir, and white spruce trees.<\/p>\n

\"Hemlock
Hemlock looper moth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A number of wood lice crawled on the bark of trees around our campsite. This one is probably Porcellio scaber<\/i>, the European rough woodlouse. These creatures are close relatives of pill bugs but they don’t roll up in a ball. Porcellio<\/i> species have bumps on their backs, which distinguishes them from other types of wood lice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Rough
Rough wood louse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We found a sac spider (Elaver excepta<\/i>) crawling on the ground near our campsite. Common Spiders of North America<\/i> says that these spiders forage on the ground among leaf litter or on lawns.<\/p>\n

\"Sac
Sac spider<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The green weevil (Polydrusus<\/i>) in the photo below is a little washed out. It appears greener in real life, although that green appears to have rubbed off in the middle of its back. Note the large black eyes.<\/p>\n

\"Green
Green weevil<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I initially mistook this planthopper for a moth (I’m not the only one to make this mistake<\/a>), but John Maxwell<\/a> helped with the ID. It came flying down from the trees and landed on a large rock. Whitish-green except for its feet, the northern flatid planthopper (Flatormenis proxima<\/i>) has the eyes of a chameleon. Here’s some more information on the blog Living with Insects<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"northern
northern flatid planthopper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The number and diversity of wasps I have seen this year have surprised me. I found this potter wasp (Ancistrocerus adiabatus<\/i>) just outside the campground (ID confirmed by Richard Vernier on bugguide). Note the yellow smiley-face on its thorax. They are called potter wasps because their mud nests resemble clay pottery.<\/p>\n

\"potter
potter wasp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now, on to the flies. This green bottle fly (Lucilia<\/i>) was feeding on a zinnia flower (ID by John Carr). Apparently these flies are more commonly found in less-appealing environments: garbage and feces.<\/p>\n

\"green
green bottle fly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A yellow long-legged fly (Condylostylus<\/i>) rests on a leaf. These flies are predatory<\/a>, chasing insects much smaller than them.<\/p>\n

\"long-legged
long-legged fly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A species of hoverfly, Meliscaera cinctella<\/i>, shows us its translucent abdomen with a T marking its first segment.<\/p>\n

\"hoverfly\"
hoverfly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I found this tachinid fly<\/a> (Gymnosoma<\/i>) on the blossoms of Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota<\/i>). Note its fat, spider-like orange abdomen marked by black spots.<\/p>\n

\"tachinid
tachinid fly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The last insect we found was this deer fly<\/a> (Chrysops vittatus<\/i>), resting on the car’s side mirror. I was captivated by its psychedelic green and purple eyes, unaware that it could inflict a painful bite. Thankfully, it did not.<\/p>\n

\"deer
deer fly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve posted about the birds and sea creatures that we saw on our camping trip at the Cape Ann campsite. We also found a few bugs during our explorations. The office on the campgrounds has a nice flower and vegetable … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[279,393,234,326,388,237,389,315,86,390,394,493,266,374,387,386,392,368,395,222,305,391],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1421,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922\/revisions\/1421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}