I can’t believe I was thrilled to find a cockroach the other day. I was removing deadwood from a shrub when I disturbed a bug and managed to get a quick shot good enough to identify on www.iNaturalist.org. — a Surinam cockroach.
My yard is still bug shy from winter storm Uri — the drought and wind don’t seem to be helping. And, sadly, the neighboring farm fields are being aerial dusted this morning and the wind is travelling toward our property. I must admit, I do worry that the birds won’t be able to find enough food to raise their broods this spring.
Despite what seem to be major hindrances, Friday’s the big day!
City Nature Challenge 2021 begins Friday, April 30, at one minute past midnight and goes until midnight on Tuesday, May 3.
That’s four full days of photographing wildlife and signs of life. The five days following, from May 4 through May 8, are set aside for uploading all the data onto www.iNaturalist.org.
I’ve had a swoop of swallows the past couple of weeks — I’m holding my breath that they’ll remain long enough for me to include them in this year’s CNC. I suspect they are barn swallows; their aggressive display of aerial combat is most likely waging war on what iNatutralist has identified as non-biting midges: pale brown flying insects in the Chironomidae family.
Most species of chironomid midges are highly beneficial in aquatic habitats. Midges are an important food source for fish, shoreline birds and predatory aquatic insects and bats. Adult females lay eggs on the surface of the water. Larvae clean the aquatic environment by consuming and recycling organic debris. During adult emergence periods, it’s not unusual for several thousand adults per square yard of surface to emerge on a nightly basis — and that’s what’s keeping the swallows busy during the daytime, too.
In the absence of bugs on vegetative growth right now, I set up my moth sheet to see if I could get a preview of what bugs I might have in the yard. I‘ve attracted several moths to the moth sheet so that will mean caterpillars, eventually — the more caterpillars, the more food for birds. Some familiar geometer, owlet and tussock moths have
I can’t say an enormous number of insects have been attracted by the black light and landed on the moth sheet compared to last year and the year prior, but I’m trying to be encouraged.
Here is a sampling of what’s visiting the sheet in the early morning hours:
Glyphonyx, a Genus of beneficial click beetles,
An interestingly-designed four-spotted mantidfly,
Strigoderma Genus insects, in the family Scarabaeidae (Scarab Beetles), tribe anomalini are beginning to arrive. There are 1,300 described species in Anomalini worldwide, including 60 in North America
A first for me finding in the yard, an ashy-gray lady beetle. All lady beetles are beneficial.
A couple of weeks ago, hundreds of common lovebugs were flying tandem. The moth sheet caught this one without its partner.
Annoying but beneficial, common lovebugs play a vital part in their ecosystems. The adults only live long enough to eat nectar, copulate, lay eggs and die, according to Evan Siemann, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Rice University in a May 14, 2013 article by Brooke Crum at beaumontenterpfise.comnews. The female plants her eggs in moist soil, and when hatched, the larvae consume the detritus that surrounds them, which is the thatch left by clippings after a lawn has been mowed. Lovebugs do not bite or sting and they don’t hang around long.
Lacewing eggs — these are good! Leave them be. Lacewing larvae devour aphids and other pests like mealybugs, thrips and juvenile whiteflies in massive numbers, according to animals.morn.com. Check out the little white baubles hanging from a blade of grass in the below photo. Those are the lacewing eggs. Adult lacewings also are beneficial in the garden.
Flies are annoying, too, but remember, they’re pollinators, too!
A colorful although small visitor is the Festive Diabrotica — they can be found around May through December. They are in the leaf-eater family — not a friend to squashes, gourd plants and melons. — hopefully the birds and spiders will take care of the diabrotica before they do much damage in the field.
SO! Pick a beach, pick a park, pick a roadside, pick a neighborhood — or stay home and document your own yard — but do participate in the 2021 CNC!
Read more about the annual City Nature Challenge and how to participate at the following links: