Mayfly

Posted on July 10, 2026 by tspuckler

When visiting northwest Ohio, I sometimes see very large numbers of these creatures. This insect belongs to an order that is part of an ancient family of insects termed the Palaeoptera, which also contains dragonflies and damselflies. This designation has been traditionally applied to those groups of winged insects (most of them extinct) that lacked the ability to fold their wings flat over the abdomen.

Mayflies have other ancestral traits that were probably present in the first flying insects, such as long tails and they lack any smell centers in their brains. Their immature stages are aquatic and their presence indicates a clean, unpolluted and highly oxygenated aquatic environment.

These invertebrates are found throughout North America and worldwide. Mayflies emerge as adults from Spring to Autumn (not necessarily in May), in enormous numbers, sometimes attracting tourists. Fly fishermen make use of adult Mayflies by choosing artificial fishing flies that resemble them.

Their aquatic larvae feed on detritus and other plant materials; but the adults, which only live for a few days, do not feed as they lack functional mouthparts. Instead, their sole purpose during this stage is reproduction. They rely on the energy reserves accumulated during their immature aquatic stage to sustain them through their short adult life.

Another intriguing feature of Mayflies is their translucent wings. These delicate structures allow them to blend seamlessly with their surroundings, making them less visible to predators. The transparency of their wings also adds to their ethereal beauty, as they flutter gracefully in the sunlight.

Mayfly swarms are a gift for many insect-eating birds, including eastern kingbirds and tree swallows. They also provide sustenance for fish, spiders, beetles, dragonflies, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals.

The world of insects is vast and diverse, with each species playing a unique role in the ecosystem. Among these fascinating creatures, Mayflies stand out for their intriguing characteristics and ecological significance. This small and delicate insect, has a life cycle that is as fascinating as it is brief.

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Thalassica Grasshopper

Posted on June 19, 2026 by tspuckler

While visiting Henry W. Coe State Park in California, I saw a few of these insects on my hike. They inhabit coastal mountains, dry open grasslands, and areas associated with low vegetation, often on rocky substrates or near manzanita (also seen on this hike).

The Thalassica Grasshopper belongs to a group known as Band-winged Grasshoppers. An ancient group dating back to the Early Triassic Period (around 250 million years ago), this family of grasshoppers are found almost everywhere in the world except Antarctica.

The body colors of many grasshoppers tend to simulate the color of their habitat background. This is particularly true of species inhabiting rocky or sandy environments. This insect is diurnal and relatively tame, flying short distances when disturbed, and is commonly observed on rocks, grasses, or in flight over open areas, like meadows- but when resting it can be hard to see.

The Thalassica Grasshopper is endemic to California in the United States. Its head is notably broad above and below, featuring large and prominent eyes. Its hind legs are strongly developed for jumping, with the inside coloration being black and the hind tibiae being blue.

This herbivorous creature feeds on a variety plants available in its habitat. Foraging occurs mainly during the day, with adults and nymphs grazing on vegetation in grasslands and shrublands, particularly on warm, sunny days. The Thalassica Grasshopper can survive in highly saline environments, a rare trait that sets it apart from many terrestrial insects.

It was neat to come across this unexpected find while on my California trip.

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Texas Bush Katydid

Posted on December 12, 2025 by tspuckler

It’s always fun to come across “big bugs,” and this insect certainly fits that description. While exploring the edge of a forest in southern Illinois, I came across this example of a leaf lookalike. It is medium-sized, usually about an inch and a half, with long antennae.

The Texas Bush Katydid is considered less arboreal than any other species of katydids; it is commonly found clinging to tall course grasses and sedges growing near the edges of wetlands, lakes, ponds, damp ravines and amid prairies, meadows, weedy fields, roadsides and fencerows.

This creature is also often found in forests, woodlands, and shrublands where known for its distinct rattling or lispy songs. Immature examples feed mostly on flowers, while adults feed on the leaves of a variety of plants, especially deciduous woody plants.

When disturbed, it flies a long distance, silently, in a zig-zag manner to another clump of grass or weeds. This insect relies on camouflage to avoid being detected by predators. It has been observed congregating in small colonies of six or more individuals in favored microhabitats.

The Texas Bush Katydid overwinters in the egg stage. Babies hatch in mid-June or July and adults can be found from mid-July to mid-September, sometimes to mid-October, depending on frost occurrence.

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American Bumblebee

Posted on October 31, 2025 by tspuckler

While walking through a field in southern Illinois, I noticed a bumblebee that looked different from all others that I had seen previously. The American Bumblebee is a large insect with the queen measuring almost an inch. The queen is mostly black, including the legs, spurs and the base of the wings.

Once the most prevalent bumblebee in the southern United States, populations of the American Bumblebee have decreased significantly in recent years. Overall, the population dropped nearly 90% in just the first two decades of the 21st century. These declines are most pronounced towards the northern extent of the species’ range.

Like most bumblebees, it faces threats from multiple sources, including pesticides, habitat loss or degradation, urban development, climate change, and diseases that can be introduced by non-native bee species. It is strongly suspected that the American Bumblebee was infected with a virus when European Bumblebees were imported into North America to pollinate greenhouse tomatoes.

This insect tends to live and nest in open farmland and fields, where it feeds on several food plants, favoring sunflowers and clovers, and functions as a pollinator. In order to release the pollen, they are able to grab onto the flower and move their flight muscles rapidly, causing the flower to vibrate, dislodging pollen. This process is known as “Buzz Pollination.”

Bumblebees are active under conditions during which Honeybees and other smaller bees stay at home, and can readily absorb heat from even weak sunshine. They are beneficial and effective pollinators, helping to pollinate not only wildflowers, but also crops and gardens. The easiest way to help bumblebees is to provide them with some undisturbed natural habitat.

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Fork-Tailed Bush Katydid

Posted on September 26, 2025 by tspuckler

While in a wooded area at the edge of a glade in Missouri, I came across this cool creature. It ranges throughout the lower 48 states and southern Canada. Its color is usually leafy green, but different populations, in different regions, may have brownish, rusty, pinkish, or other casts – especially in Autumn.

The Fork-tailed Bush Katydid is one of about 250 species of katydids, also called Long-horned Meadow Grasshoppers (family Tettigoniidae), they occur in North America north of Mexico. They all have very long antennae, and many resemble green leaves. They eat the foliage of a variety of shrubs and other plants.

Males have a split “tail” on the tip of the abdomen called a furcula that is key in identification. This appendage is where their species name of furcata came from and helps identify them from other similar species. Females have a long appendage extended from their abdomen as well, called an ovipositor, that is used in egg laying.

This species and others in its genus are called “Bush Katydids” because they are most common in bushes, thickets, and other shrubby areas. You may also find them in the margins of woodlands and overgrown fields. Fork-tailed Bush Katydids are mostly nocturnal and may be attracted to lights at night. They are good fliers and hoppers.

It’s hard to imagine a late-summer night without the many sounds of katydids, crickets, and their relatives. Few people are aware of the diversity of insect singers that fill our Summer days and nights with distinct, unique songs, as identifiable as various bird songs.

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Ovate Shieldback

Posted on March 21, 2025 by tspuckler

I found a couple of these cool creatures while driving at night on little-used Mojave Desert roads. It was the first time I’ve encountered these rather bizarre looking insects.

Ovate Shieldbacks are related to crickets and grasshoppers. They have a prominent plate-like structure called a pronotum that covers part of their body that resembles a shield. They are a mottled brown, blending in with dead grasses and the desert floor.

Shieldback Katydids are the linebackers of the katydid world, with robust bodies and a fierce looking demeanor (they may look mean, but like most katydids, they are harmless when handled). An extremely diverse group, there are 123 species of Shieldback Katydids in North America – nearly all are western in distribution.

These are usually the first katydids to emerge as adults. Males can be heard singing as early as mid-to-late June in weedy fields and brushy woodland understories.

Females have a long curved ovipositor protruding from the abdomen. It is not a stinger, though it looks like one. Ovipositors are used to deposit fertilized eggs deep into the soil.

Unlike their vegetarian relatives, Shieldback Katydids are scavengers on dead insects and are active predators of other insects. They do eat plants too, though.

These were a super cool find on my Las Vegas Area adventure.

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Short-horned Walking Stick

Posted on February 28, 2025 by tspuckler

I’ve only found a few Walking Stacks in my travels, but these bizarre-looking, slow-moving, plant-eating insects are hard not to like. Not only do they have a widespread distribution, fossil records indicate that they have evolutionary roots that reach back more than 200 million years, to the Triassic geologic period.

These intriguing creatures have raised camouflage to a art form. This is the only example of one that I’ve ever found in the desert and it’s easy to see how well it blends in with dead twigs. Its taxonomic family name, “Phasmatidae,” is derived from the Greek word “Phasma,” which means, appropriately, phantom or apparition.

Short-horned Walking Sticks are found in dry, arid regions of the Southwestern United States in the Summer and Autumn. Their habitat is in chaparral and open fields where they can be found feeding on the foliage of Globemallow, Deerweed, and other native plants.

The “short-horned” part of their common name refers to their antenna, which are just little stubs. The species that lives near me has much longer antenna, about one-third of the insect’s body.

The walking stick is the longest of all the modern insects, with a documented specimen from Borneo measuring more than two feet in length. Its other common names: Specter, Devil’s Horse, Devil’s Darning Needle and Witch’s Horse – reflect its hold on the human imagination.

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Lesser Angle-winged Katydid

Posted on December 27, 2024 by tspuckler

This was another neat creature that I came across while visiting the Land of Lincoln. It is found in the tops of broad-leaved trees in the eastern United States, from Long Island to southern Illinois and eastern-most Texas.

The Lesser Angle-winged Katydid belongs to a subfamily called False Katydids. It doesn’t sing “Katy did, Katy didn’t,” like similar looking species. Instead, its song consists of two or three short rattles in sequence, often phrased in such a way that each rattle sounds like a comment in response to the preceding one.

The diet of most Katydids includes leaves, flowers, bark, and seeds – but many species are exclusively predatory, feeding on other insects, snails, or even small vertebrates such as snakes and lizards.

Mainly nocturnal, like its relative the Greater Angle-wings Katydid, it may be attracted to lights. When Katydids go to rest during the day, they enter a roosting posture to maximize their cryptic qualities. This position fools predators into thinking the insect is either dead or just a leaf on the plant.

It was neat to come across this cool and well-camouflaged creature while on my travels.

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Wrinkled Grasshopper

Posted on October 4, 2024 by tspuckler

While exploring a glade in Missouri, I found a couple of these intricately marked insects that I had never seen before. This is a large, heavy bodied grasshopper that feeds primarily on short grasses, especially Bluegrass and Japanese Brome.

This species inhabits prairies, pastures, open woodlands, roadsides, alfalfa fields, and almost any grassy area within its geographic range. Unlike other grasshoppers, it is most commonly found in areas with dense grass. Its pattern helps to conceal it when it hides in tangles of vegetation.

The Wrinkled Grasshopper occurs across the eastern two-thirds of the United States, as far west as southwest Montana, eastern Wyoming, and Colorado, and southward into Mexico. It is absent in Canada, New England, and the Great Lakes states.

This is one of those creatures with a common name that seems a bit “off”. The “wrinkled” name came from the species name that was in use at the time, but not quite interpreted right. That species name actually referred to the roughened, sometimes ridged upper surface of the insect’s back. In reality, this is one of the smoothest and least “wrinkled” of the Band-winged Grasshoppers.

Wrinkled Grasshoppers overwinter as eggs. Adults are mostly seen in July or August into October or November in much of their range, and sometimes through Winter in the southernmost part of their range. When flying, its hind wings display yellow, orange, red, or pink with a dark curved band running around outer edge and with a dark spur from this band near the front margin of the wing.

Males are usually active, alert, and difficult to approach or catch. Females are powerful fliers as well, but may rely on camouflage instead of trying to escape, taking to the air only as a last resort. Wrinkled Grasshoppers were indeed a fun find with on my trip to the Midwest.

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Two-striped Grasshopper

Posted on September 6, 2024 by tspuckler

While hiking in Brecksville Reservation, I sometimes come across these cool insects. They are commonly found in North America, with high quantities inhabiting Canadian prairies and farmland.

A pair of pale yellow stripes running along the top of it body from above its eyes to the hind tip of its wings identify this species. This characteristic also gives this species its other common name, the Yellow-striped Grasshopper.

The Two-striped Grasshopper is polyphagous, which means it is capable of eating a wide variety of foods. Its diet includes diversity of grasses, forbs, trees, shrubs, and many cultivated plants.

It is a large insect. Females, like this one, can seem enormous compared with the males. The smallest females are larger than the largest males.

A grasshopper about 1 inch long can leap 20 inches. If a person 5 feet tall could jump that well, he or she could leap from one end of a basketball court to the other.

In addition to leaping, grasshoppers are also known for their musical talents. Many communicate by sound and have unusual ways of making their songs.

The Two-striped Grasshopper is highly adaptable and occupies many habitat types. It prefers habitats with lush vegetation, but is also associated with disturbed sites along roadsides, field borders, gardens, and agricultural sites.

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Category Archives: Insects – Other

Mayfly

Thalassica Grasshopper

Texas Bush Katydid

American Bumblebee

Fork-Tailed Bush Katydid

Ovate Shieldback

Short-horned Walking Stick

Lesser Angle-winged Katydid

Wrinkled Grasshopper

Two-striped Grasshopper