Common Buckeye Butterfly

 I have been trying all summer to get a picture of a Common Buckeye Butterfly. They are so skittish, though. Now matter how I tried to sneak up I could never get close enough for a good picture.

I few days ago my son when outside on a chilly morning and found this Common Buckeye Butterfly on the play set. He knew I would be so excited. He was able to handle it and bring it inside for me to see.

Isn't it beautiful!

Common Buckeye caterpillar's host plants include snapdragon and plantain.

Raising Butterflies website has some nice pictures of the eggs and caterpillars at different instars. They say that Common Buckeye Butterflies can be fun to raise. I will keep that in mind. Maybe I'll be able to find an egg to raise next year.

Annual Cicada And More Insects

Yesterday, my son found a cicada, freshly emerged, late in the afternoon. I was hoping that we could see it molting. My son rigged up a habitat for the cicada.

But, we didn't check it frequently enough. A few hours later it was fully molted and drying it's wings. I find these creatures to be fascinating!

I am glad that he found it. I didn't know that annual cicadas emerge this late into the summer.

A month ago we were doing some excavating in our yard and found a young cicada larva.

We recently moved and the variety of insects that I have seen on this new property are very wide. I have even learned some new types of bugs.

I was surprised to find a velvet ant!

I captured some shots of the comma butterfly.

See the comma? It is a tiny white mark on the underside of the wing.

I had to look this one up. I was thinking it was like a cricket and it turns out that I was right. It is a Carolina leaf roller cricket.

Have a nice weekend! And remember to be fascinated by the variety God made in nature!

Mydas Fly

I captured a picture of this large fly last week. I wanted to be able to ask my entomologist friend what kind of bug this was. I have a friend that goes to Church with us who is a real entomologist. 

So there we were, two church ladies geeking out over a picture of a bug. It is a little comical in my mind. :)

She said I had captured a really nice picture. The insect was definitely not a wasp.  She didn't know the common name, but she told me it was a type of pollinator fly. You can even seen pollon or perhaps flower petals stuck to the fly's feet.

After some Google searching I found that this fly is a Mydas fly. They lay their eggs around dead wood and stumps. The larva eat grubs and larvae of other bugs that feed on rotting wood, including June Bug grubs. Which makes sense of why I found this fly by a tree stump. It was quite determined to stay by that stump. Every time a I frightened it away it came back in a short time.

Mydas flies are believed to feed only on nectar as adults. 

They are very large, for a fly. The one I saw was about and 1 1/4" I am guessing. They have unusually shaped antenna, for a fly. I noticed how the antenna have a little lump at the tip, like a butterfly antenna.

Further reading on Mydas flies:

Missouri Department of Conservation 

MSU Extension 

Bug Guide.net