Category Archives: Interesting insects
Citrus flatid planthopper
These poor insects. Stuck with a name that sounds pretty boring–even to an entomologist. And the scientific name is little better: Metcalfa pruinosa is a type of planthopper, a relative of the aphids, scales, whiteflies, and leafhoppers. It belongs to the family Flatidae, hence the name flatid. And it is found on citrus, but also lots of other plants. For some reason, these little insects seem to be pretty abundant this year, so you may be more likely to see them in your garden. They may show up on… Read More →
Boozy beetle: the Camphor Shoot Borer
Every now and then entomologists get calls that border on the bizarre. Last week I received an email from a citizen in far east Texas. He was having problems with what he said were “insects boring into his riding lawn mower gas tank”. Of course my first reaction was that insects don’t eat plastic, nor do they drink gasoline. Why should they be boring into a gas tank? But the caller had photographic proof. Not only did he have pictures of the holes, he was able to pry about 15 of… Read More →
Bug blitz is a blast
Marking perhaps the beginning of insect season, last weekend the Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area (LLELA) held its first ever “bioblitz”. In case you’ve never heard of a bioblitz, it’s a concentrated effort among volunteers, naturalists and professional biologists to go to the field and document as many species as possible over a certain time period (usually a day). This year’s LLELA bioblitz included trees, reptiles, birds and insects. Our insect group consisted of myself and three other enthusiastic collectors/photographers (actually, mostly photographers–seems like only entomologists want to… Read More →
Revenge of the (cricket) nerds
One of the great mysteries of my career as a Texas urban entomologist has been understanding the clouds of crickets that descend on lights and businesses nearly every year. So I was intrigued last summer when I got an email from a PhD student at Cornell University interested in coming down to study our swarming crickets. Jay Falk is actually a native Texan, who grew up in the Austin area and got his undergraduate degree at the University of Texas. That’s where he got his first introduction to… Read More →
Simple experiments, like art, sometimes the most delightful
Have you ever been to a modern art exhibit and wondered how an artist could become famous for such a simple work as a colorful abstract, or a painting of Campbell Soup cans? I could have done that, we’re tempted to say. The point, however, is that we didn’t. The artist did, however; and now is laughing all his way to the bank. The same could be said about some of the most elegant scientific experiments. Once you hear of them, you think: “That idea was so simple; I could have… Read More →
Caterpillars in fall not so bad
Finding a caterpillar on a plant or tree in your backyard can be cause for excitement. But they should be little cause for concern, especially during the fall months. To most human eyes caterpillars are alien creatures. With their squishy, worm-like bodies, and accordion gait, they are weirdly unique among other insects. Some are large and fantastically showy. Others have ominous-looking barbs and hairs. And some are skillfully camouflaged, nearly invisible among the leaves and shadows. When gardeners do encounter a caterpillar, reactions range from “cool!” to “yuck!!!” Caterpillars, of course, are the larval stage of moths and… Read More →
Turning the tide against ash borer?
On one hand, we’ve learned a lot about how to fight emerald ash borer with pesticides in the past 14 years since it was first discovered devouring ash forests in Michigan. But we’re still learning how nature keeps EAB in its place in its native Asian home. Insect parasites and predators are almost certainly the reason EAB is not a major pest on the other side of the globe. If only we could put some of those same beneficial insects to work for us! Then maybe we could… Read More →
Closer than you’ve ever been
Photographer Levon Biss started out with portrait and sports photography, but got hooked on insects. Now his extreme photographic skills have landed him a gig at the Oxford University’s Museum of Natural History. Biss shoots his images through a microscope to create scenes that no human eye has seen before. That’s because, even for an entomologist with a very good microscope, it’s impossible to see a full insect, like the mantis fly image shown here, in complete focus all at once. Biss achieves this by piecing together around 30… Read More →
Crane flies, not mosquitoes
While concern about mosquitoes floats over the digital airwaves this month, annual flying hosts of crane flies quietly fill the real air over cities and fields throughout Texas. Crane flies are most apparent each year in our state during the late winter/early spring. I think of them as one of the first signs that spring is nearly upon us. The common name “mosquito hawk” is sometimes given to these flies; however the name usually comes with the belief that these clumsy, long-legged insects are predators, perhaps on mosquitoes. Nothing… Read More →