Insects & Spiders

 A number of interesting insects have visited in the past month or two. (I'll ignore the gnats, chiggers, and mosquitoes that have given us unwelcome itching bites.)

A walking stick on our window screen. I've seen more walking sticks this year than I remember seeing in past years.

Also on our screens: a praying mantis, looking directly at me.

A praying mantis has five eyes: two large compound eyes, and three in the middle.

A rosy maple moth on our grill cover.

Another rosy maple moth (I think) met a worse fate - being consumed by a Cordyceps fungus. Each species of Cordyceps parasitizes a specific species (usually an insect).

Spiders aren't insects, but to most of us, they still fall in the "creepy-crawly" category, and we've had some interesting ones this year.

August and September are the peak times for orb weavers to spread their webs across trails and small roads. The Spined Micrathena (Micrathena gracilis) hardly looks like a spider, but they are probably our most common encounter.

A side view of the spiny abdomen.

Another commonly encountered orb weaver is the Triangulate Orbweaver (Verrucosa arenata) with its namesake triangle on its abdomen.

Just outside our front door, an unidentified spider consumed a stinkbug over a day or two. We really could use spiders that would eat two or three stinkbugs a day.

This orbweaver (species not identified) was hard at work creating its web in the morning.

The same spider in action.

These "bowl-and-doily" webs are very common. They are easy to see when they capture early morning dew and become very easy to see. They also standout when they collect early or late season snow. (See a blog post from April.)