{"id":857,"date":"2013-08-02T13:06:25","date_gmt":"2013-08-02T17:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/?p=857"},"modified":"2014-04-07T01:11:42","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T05:11:42","slug":"arboretum-giant-water-bugs-and-biocontrol-beetles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/arboretum-giant-water-bugs-and-biocontrol-beetles\/","title":{"rendered":"Arboretum: Giant Water Bugs and Biocontrol Beetles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exploring in the meadow of the Arnold Arboretum last weekend, I came upon this giant water bug<\/a> (Belostoma sp.<\/i>). This large insect — they named it “giant” for a reason — preys on creatures as large as small fish. It can inflict a very painful bite, and so is also called toe biter. Thanks to John Epler<\/a> for the ID.<\/p>\n

\"Giant
Giant water bug<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n
\nAt this time of year, the path running through the meadow is overrun by plants, including stinging nettle (Urtica dioica<\/i>), which was in fruit.<\/p>\n
\"Fruit
Fruit of stinging nettle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The sunny-yellow flowers of tansy (Tanacetum vulgare<\/i>) were a welcome sight. Native to Eurasia, the plant has fern-like foliage topped by round flowerheads consisting of numerous tiny flowers.<\/p>\n

\"Tansy
Tansy flowers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I found a few white-margined burrower bugs (Sehirus cinctus<\/i>) hiding in the tansy flowers. They are also known as mother bugs because they are one of the few insects that care for their young<\/a>, bringing them seeds to feed on for a few days after birth. More photos here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"White-margined
White-margined burrower bug<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Goldenrod (Solidago sp.<\/i>) was in flower. From a distance, these plants look like the tips of the plant have turned a bright yellow.<\/p>\n

\"Goldenrod
Goldenrod in bloom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The goldenrod blossoms were covered in beewolves (Philanthus gibbosus<\/i>). While the ones I saw were foraging for nectar, these wasps sometimes visit flowers to hunt for bees<\/a>. They paralyze the bees and carry them to their nest in the ground to feed their beewolf larva. Thanks to John Ascher<\/a> for the ID.<\/p>\n

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

Close by, a possible victim foraged in a jewelweed flower (Impatiens capensis<\/i>). The flower’s structure forces the bee to emerge covered in pollen.<\/p>\n

\"Bee
Jewelweed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Common burdock (Arctium minus<\/i>), whose flower buds could be mistaken for those of a thistle, was also in bloom.<\/p>\n

\"common
common burdock in flower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Purple
Purple loosestrife flowers<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nEver-invasive purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria<\/i>) reared its flower-heads here and there.<\/p>\n

Most of the plants looked healthy, but I found a few plants whose leaves had been thoroughly chewed through. I know that biocontrol beetles had been released in the Neponset River Watershed<\/a>, and so wondered if those beetles had made their way here.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, I found a small brown beetle with beady black eyes, a purple loosestrife beetle (Neogalerucella pusilla<\/i>). This guy and his kin were doing their job keeping the plant in check.<\/p>\n

\"Purple
Purple loosestrife beetle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I mistook a nearby plant for purple loosestrife, but its flowers were of a purple with a greater share of blue. It turned out to be swamp verbana or blue vervain<\/a> (Verbena hastata<\/i>). As one would expect, these plants like wetlands.<\/p>\n

\"Blue
Blue vervain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I found a brown-lipped snail on a cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum<\/i>). I picked it up and it retracted into its shell, but it wasn’t long until it re-emerged to check me out.<\/p>\n

\"Brown-lipped
Brown-lipped snail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wild carrot or Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota<\/i>) lay just outside the meadow area. The floweheads have many small white flowers and, usually, a purple one right in the center. The purple one in the photo below is so dark that it looks like a piece of dirt. Microscopy UK<\/a> has some excellent photos and information on this plant.<\/p>\n

\"Queen
Queen Anne’s lace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Japanese beetles were all over a porcelain berry vine (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata<\/i>). As you can see in the photo below, some of the leaves looked like nets. These beetles took time off from devouring the plant to propagate their species.<\/p>\n

\"Mating
Mating Japanese beetles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I had seen this leafhopper nymph (Coelidia olitoria<\/i>) earlier in the year. This individual still has green eyes but it is not as yellow and brown markings can be seen on its curved abdomen.<\/p>\n

\"Leafhopper
Leafhopper nymph<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I found a katydid nymph (Microcentrum sp.<\/i>) on a leaf. Note how long its antennae are, much longer than its body. It also has a yellow strip running down its back, that appears to split in two midway. Thanks to metrioptera<\/a> for the ID.<\/p>\n

\"Katydid
Katydid nymph<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I flushed this garden tortrix moth (Clepsis peritana<\/i>) out of the grass.<\/p>\n

\"Garden
Garden tortrix moth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, I saw this wolf spider (Pardosa sp.<\/i>) which jumped from leaf to leaf as I approached. Wolf spiders carry their egg sacs behind them, which is what this one appears to be doing.<\/p>\n

\"Wolf
Wolf spider with egg sac<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As always, the Arboretum is full of interesting creatures!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exploring in the meadow of the Arnold Arboretum last weekend, I came upon this giant water bug (Belostoma sp.). This large insect — they named it “giant” for a reason — preys on creatures as large as small fish. It … 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":[365,359,7,224,279,190,280,364,363,367,358,366,348,86,304,331,300,493,362,266,356,43,334,281,368,357,355,360,361,305],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1415,"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions\/1415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}