Mantis, Mantis, Mantis!

Yesterday, Shara (Mrs. LeValley) stopped at my office to go to lunch with me.  When she came to the office door, she waved at me to grab my camera and follow her outside.  She found a praying mantis just outside the entrance to the building.
 

We decided to move the mantis to a better location - a nearby garden.  Although the mantis probably could find plenty of food on the side of the building, it was a little conspicuous right next to the door.  We figured a garden full of green plants would be a better place for its long term survival.

There are two species of mantis that can be found in Mid-Michigan - Chinese Mantis, and European Mantis.  Both of these species were introduced to North America for pest control.  A third species, Carolina Mantis, has been recorded in southern Michigan and appears to be expanding its range.  This one is a European Mantis (Mantis religiosa).  It can be identified by the dark spot on the inside of its upper foreleg.

 

This individual is a nymph.  It will pass through approximately ten stages of life (instars) before it becomes an adult, molting its exoskeleton each time.  I can tell this is a nymph because it lacks wings; adults of both sexes will have wings, but large females are often too heavy to fly.

Praying mantids are ambush predators.  They will sit motionless in one place waiting for their prey to appear.  Alternately, they may slowly stalk their prey.  Prey includes insects such as bees, butterflies, flies, and some moths; other invertebrates such as spiders; even hummingbirds!

There's a hole, there's a hole...

The photo above shows a small section of our yard.  The grass is starting to become green and grow, but what is really interesting to me are the hundreds of holes spaced every few inches throughout the entire lawn.

Here's a closer look.

So what's making these holes?

What's this bug? - Locust Borer

One of the common features of my job is that people are always asking me to identify things they have found in the wild.  If someone walks into the office carrying a jar, I can be assured that I am going to be asked to identify an insect.  I am not an professional entomologist (someone who studies insects), but I try to help if I can.  With that in mind, I am going to start a semi-regular feature of this blog on insect identification.

So... What's this bug?

Locust Borers exhibit a type of mimicry known as Batesian mimicry.  This means that they are harmless, but look like something dangerous (such as a wasp)

First of all, the animal pictured is a beetle not a "bug".  Both beetles and bugs are insects - animals with an exoskeleton, three body segments (head/thorax/abdomen), and six legs.  Bugs are a certain type of insect (shield shaped body, wings that cross over to form an x-shaped pattern while at rest, and a piercing mouth used for sucking juices), but the word "bug" is often used to mean any insect regardless of species.  Unlike bugs, beetles have a mouth designed for chewing.  Beetles have two pairs of wings, but the outer pair of wings have hardened into a protective covering for the soft inner pair.  This hard outer pair of wings is known as elytra (singular is elytron).

So we have established that this insect is a beetle, but which one?

Specifically, it is a Locust Borer (Megacyllene robiniae).

Locust Borer feeding on goldenrod pollen.

Locust Borers are named because their larvae bore (tunnel) into and through the wood of Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) trees.  In small Black Locust trees this tunneling may actually kill the tree.  The adult can be found in the fall feeding on pollen, especially goldenrod pollen.

The tree and beetle are probably not native to Michigan.  The tree was introduced in the 1800s and often grown for use as fence posts due to its natural rot resistance.  The beetle was likely introduced at the same time.

With its yellow and black color scheme, the Locust Borer is easy to see.  This might seem like it would be a bad thing.  It's easy to see so birds and other predators should be able to pick it off.  Instead these colors act as a form of protection.  By mimicking the color pattern of bees and wasps, this harmless beetle is protected from animals that would be wary of a wasp's sting.  This type of mimicry is known as Batesian mimicry.

The impact of invasive species

Earlier this week I shared a photograph of the tunnels created by Emerald Ash Borer larvae (Agrilus planipennis) under the bark of a Green Ash tree (Fraxinus pennsylvanica).  This photo was taken on Monday at Chipp-A-Waters Park in Mt. Pleasant.

Emerald Ash Borer galleries in a Green Ash log

As the larvae chews through the layers of phloem, xylem, and cambium under the bark of the ash tree, it disrupts the flow of water, dissolved minerals, and sugar throughout the tree.  If there are enough beetle larvae making these tunnels, the tree soon dies.

Dead Green Ash trees at Chipp-A-Waters Park

Beetle Graffiti (a haiku)

Temporary lines

Scrawled across the work of others.

I ask - Is it art?

Field Trip - Grand Traverse Butterfly House & Bug Zoo

Last Saturday I visited one of my favorite new destinations in Michigan - the Grand Traverse Butterfly House & Bug Zoo.  Located at just east of Traverse City 8840 E. M-72, Williamsburg, MI, the Grand Traverse Butterfly House is about a two hour drive from Mid-Michigan.  It's well worth the trip.

 
After a one-month trial run last October, the Butterfly House officially open on May 1st, 2015.  Their open season will run until the end of October.  Daily hours are from 10:00AM to 6:00PM.  Admission is $9 for ages 13 and older, $6 for ages 4-12, and children under age 3 are admitted free.  Groups of 10 or more qualify for reduced rates.

The Grand Traverse Butterfly House & Bug Zoo

Although the facility small it packs a lot into its space.  With the butterfly house taking up about half of its floor plan.  In the photograph above, the gift shop, bug zoo and offices are in the portion of the building to the left and the butterflies are in the translucent paneled section to the right.

The Butterfly House is operated by a helpful and knowledgeable staff of paid employees and volunteers.  After a brief introduction that included information on the life cycle of butterflies and moths we were off on our self-guided tour.

A butterfly mural

First stop, the butterfly house.  One thing that we liked about the butterfly house is that the rules are clearly posted both outside and inside the entrance.  The one rule that we particularly liked was the "no touching" rule.  In butterfly houses that allow touching, the butterflies are often so harassed by visitors that they rarely land in places where they can be closely observed.

Rules must be followed

Immediately inside the entrance to the butterfly house is a small glass-fronted room where the butterflies (and moths) emerge from the chrysalises and cocoons before being released into the habitat.  Like most other butterfly houses, the Grand Traverse Butterfly House does not rear its butterflies from eggs.  instead it received regular shipments of chrysalises and cocoons from facilities that specialize in rearing. Upon receipt, the chrysalises are pinned to foam covered rods where they can be observed by the public.

A volunteer talks to Shara about butterfly rearing

Freshly pinned chrysalises

Newly emerged butterflies

One of the best things about this butterfly house was its openness.  There was lots of room to move around inside.  I am sure that this design feature was largely done to make sure that it was accessible to individuals in wheelchairs, but after experiencing the often-cramped conditions of other butterfly exhibits this openness was refreshing.

Inside the Grand Traverse Butterfly House

The butterflies in the exhibit were very active during our visit.  Temperatures inside the butterfly house were over 90 degrees with a very high humidity.  Most of the butterfly species in the exhibit are from the tropics and love this combination of heat and humidity.  They were especially active when the sun was out.  When a cloud drifted over, many of the butterflies would stop flying.

A male butterfly courts a female

Butterfly fight!

Because the butterflies were so active, many of them were very difficult to photograph.  However, when they are really active, they need to pause occasionally to feed.  The butterfly house has lots of nectar plants for this purpose.

An Emerald Peacock butterfly

  

A Scarlet Mormon butterfly

In addition to nectar, many of the butterflies will also feed on over-ripe fruit.  Several dishes with bananas, oranges, and other fruits were scattered throughout the exhibit.

The rule about not touching the butterflies - there is no rule about the butterflies touching you.  Shara and I both had several butterflies land on us while were walking around.  We ended up having the butterfly house to ourselves for nearly more than 20 minutes!  At that point another family came in.  We stuck around for a few more minutes before exiting to check out the "bug zoo".  This also did not disappoint with a demonstration honeybee hive, several species of tarantulas, scorpions, beetles, mantids, and roaches.  They also had axolotls!

One of many tarantula species

A whip-scorpion from Vietnam

A Giant Cave Roach - right at the top of the stump

One of several axolotls in the "bug zoo"

 

Another axolotl shows off its gills that it retains as an adult

 

Before leaving, we walked through the Butterfly House's gift shop with its selection of butterfly and insect related products.

The giftshop at the Grand Traverse Butterfly House

Grand Traverse Butterfly House & Bug Zoo quickly jumped onto the list of must-visit places for us.  It's one more reason to plan a visit to northwest Michigan.

Queen Anne's Lace Against an Azure Sky

Queen Anne's Lace against a clear sky

Just a photograph for today. 

This Queen Anne's Lace seed head was photographed this morning behind the Conservation District office.  Also known as Wild Carrot, Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota) is native to Eurasia but is naturalized across much of North America.  It gets along well in the landscape and rarely out-competes native plants.

Native Pollinator Garden Updates - Winn Elementary and Morey Public School Academy (30 June 2015)

Recently I posted an update on the status of two of our native pollinator gardens.  Today I stopped at the gardens at Winn Elementary and the Morey Public School Academy. 

I spent about an hour doing maintenance at the Morey PSA garden on June 18th.  This garden had some weeds, especially around the edges, and quite a few plants that had seeded in the walkways and needed to be removed.  Here are some photographs from today (30 June) as well as from the 18th.

The Morey PSA Native Pollinator Garden is listed as a Monarch Waystation

Lance-leaf Coreopsis is the most prominent flower in the garden right now

Looking up through the coreopsis

Honeybees visiting the Common Milkweed in the garden

Butterflyweed

Another honeybee on a Common Milkweed

The garden at Winn Elementary has required more of my time this year than any other garden.  Today was my second trip to this garden in the past month.  There have been some weeds that have required removing (White Clove, Black Medick, Common Dendelion, etc.), but the biggest headache has actually been the spread of plants that we placed in this garden.

I rarely advise against planting a native plant, but I will do so now.  Do not plant Canada Tick-trefoil (Desmodium canadense) in a garden.  Let me repeat that warning:  Do NOT plant Canada Tick-trefoil (Desmodium canadense) in a garden!

In the wild, I rarely find more than one or two plants of this species, but in a new garden, this plant can quickly overtake other species. 

This perennial produces hundreds of "sticky" seeds each year.  We started with four plants and I think every seed that was produced by those four plants has found a home in the soil and germinated.  Last year I cut off and removed every seed head that I could see, but seeds that had sat dormant in the soil for a year decided to try to take over the world this spring.  I am now in the process of trying to remove every single one of these plants from this garden.  I expect this will be a multi-year battle as dormant seeds continue to spring forth. 

Anyway... here are a few photographs from the Winn Elementary Native Pollinator Garden.

The garden at Winn Elementary is between major blooms right now

A few Butterflyweed plants were showing off their orange flowers

Red Baneberry berries are ripening from green to red

New Jersey Tea was attracting lots of pollinators (bees, flies, and wasps)

The view from the other end of the garden

This coreopsis was transplanted into this garden in 2014 from the Saginaw Chippewa Academy

Dead Bees in Honeycomb

Last week one of the ladies that works in our building brought me a section of honeycomb.  She said that bees began building it on the exterior of her house over the summer and then mysteriously disappeared after a couple of weeks.  The comb was in a protected area under the eaves of her home and was inaccessible until high winds blew it down last week. 

When she brought me the comb it was obvious that the bees had not all disappeared.  Instead, many of them could be found dead, facing headfirst into the comb.

After doing a little research I found out that finding a comb like this is an indication that the bees starved.  This is usually found in hives that did not have enough honey stores to survive the winter, but starvation among honeybees can happen at any time of the year.  It is possible in summer when periods of drought cause flowers to temporarily shut down pollen and nectar production.

I wanted to preserve the comb with the dead bees inside it, but unfortunately many of the bees were decaying and smelled rather funky.  So I spent the better part of an hour plucking individual bees from the cells of the honeycomb with a pair of tweezers.  Some of the bees came out whole, while other broke into pieces and had to be teased out carefully.

At the end this is what I ended up with.

I plan on making a frame for the comb, with plexiglass on both sides so you can see the structure of the comb with the light shining through it.