2021 Insect Reflections

This was my first year as an instructor at Art and Science in the Woods since 2018. As before, I am so appreciative of the Sun Foundation for asking me to be an instructor and to Bob and Joan Ericksen for allowing so many to visit their home and farm and roam the fields and forests looking for insects. It was a great opportunity to share my knowledge and passion for insects with so many. I particularly liked the visiting instructor format this year. I believe it allowed me to meet a wider spectrum of students and teachers than I have been able to do in the past (with a major class and minor classes each afternoon). Hopefully, many people now have a greater appreciation for the little things which run our world.

Since there was a different format this year and students had liited opportunities to learn how to collect and observe insects, I thought it might be helpful to provide a brief overview of what we encountered in the way of insect diversity. This does not include the ticks, chiggers, spiders and other arthropods we found.

  • Monday (1 class) – 6 orders, 18 families
  • Tuesday (1 class) – 7 orders, 29 families
  • Wednesday (1 class – all day) – 8 orders, 46 families
  • Thursday (2 classes) – 8 orders, 27 families in the morning class; 7 orders, 27 families in the afternoon class
  • Friday (2 classes) – 7 orders, 23 families in the morning class; 7 orders, 15 families in the afternoon class.

Obviously, many families of insects were encountered more than once. If we eliminate duplicates for the week, there were a total of 11 orders of insects encountered representing 82 families.

Unique insect taxa encountered this week

When you examine all the insects we encountered during the week (and remove duplicate orders and families), we arrive at the following list of taxa. I think this is reasonably impressive for one week’s worth of observations by students in various classes at the Sun Foundation Art and Science in the Woods event.

Order Blattodea (cockroaches)

Order Coleoptera (beetles)

Order Dermaptera (earwigs)

Order Diptera (flies)

Order Hemiptera (true bugs)

Order Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps)

Order Lepidoptera (butterflies, moths, skippers)

Order Mantodea (praying mantids)

Order Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies)

Order Orthoptera (grasshoppers and crickets)

Order Phasmatodea (walkingsticks)

2021 ASIW Day 5 – July 23

During the final day of Art and Science in the Woods for 2021, I was a visiting instructor in two classes (one in the morning; the other in the afternoon). Here are the insects encountered by each class.

Taxa encountered during the morning class (Coyote warriors)

These are the insects we encountered during the morning class. I was only able to spend about an hour with this class as they had other visiting instructors as well in the morning. As before, the insects we encountered are alphabtically arranged by order and family within each order. Each link will open in a new browser window/ tab.

All told, we encountered insects classified in 7 distinct orders and 23 families. Not bad for one hour’s worth of observations in the morning.

Order Coleoptera (beetles)

Order Diptera (flies)

Order Hemiptera (true bugs)

Order Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps)

Order Lepidoptera (butterflies, moths, and skippers)

Order Mantodea (praying mantis)

Order Orthoptera (grasshoppers and relatives)

Taxa encountered during the afternoon class (Drawing and sculpting)

These are the insects we encountered during the afternoon class. We did spend a fair amount of time at Crow Creek as it was the last day and everyone needed to splash in the creek (and observe insects, of course). The insects encountered are arranged in alphabetical order by order and family as for the morning class.

In total, we encountered insects representing 7 orders and 15 families during our afternoon excursion.

Order Coleoptera (beetles)

Order Diptera (flies)

Order Hemiptera (true bugs)

Order Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps)

Order Lepidoptera (butterflies, moths, and skippers)

Order Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies)

Order Orthoptera (grasshoppers and relatives)

2021 ASIW Day 4 – July 22

During the fourth day of Art and Science in the Woods, I was visiting instructor in two classes: Drawing with the Sun (morning) and Treasure Hunt for the Past (afternoon). I have separated the taxa encountered for each class. I was able to spend a couple hours with each class and am most thankful to the instructors for inviting me to their classes to share some information and insights about insects.

Taxa encountered (Drawing with the sun class)

These are the orders and families of insects we encountered as I spent time discussing insects with students during the morning. As I typically do, these are arranged alphabetically by order and family within each order. Links to more information will open in a new browser window/ tab.

During the morning, our class encountered insects in 8 orders and 27 families.

Order Coleoptera (beetles)

Order Dermaptera (earwigs)

Order Diptera (flies)

Order Hemiptera (true bugs)

Order Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps)

Order Lepidoptera (butterflies, moths, and skippers)

Order Orthoptera (grasshoppers and relatives)

Order Phasmatodea

Taxa encountered (Treasure hunt for the past class)

These are the orders and families of insects we encountered as I spent time discussing insects with students during the afternoon. As I typically do, these are arranged alphabetically by order and family within each order. Links to more information will open in a new browser window/ tab.

During the afternoon, our class encountered insects in 7 orders and 27 families.

Order Coleoptera (beetles)

Order Diptera (flies)

Order Hempitera (true bugs)

Order Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps)

Order Lepidoptera (butterflies, moths, and skippers)

Order Mantodea (praying mantis)

Order Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets and relatives)

2021 ASIW Day 3 – July 21

I was able to spend the entire day at Art and Science in the Woods on Wednesday (as well as Thursday and Friday). I was able to spend most of the day with the Young Naturalists class. They were most enthusiastic about the insects we encountered and had many questions.

Insect taxa encountered

As I have done for previous days, I provide a list of the families of insects we encountered. Most were located by the students, instructors, and teaching assistants. I tried to keep a running list of the families encountered. As with prior days, one of the teaching assistants recorded the data on paper as we walked along the trails at the Sun Foundation. Insects encountered are listed by order (in alphabetical order) and family (also by alphabetical order within each insect order). Links to more information will open in a new browser window/ tab.

We encountered 8 orders/ 46 families of insects during my time with this class. Well done!

Order Blattodea

Order Coleoptera (beetles)

Order Diptera (flies)

Order Hemiptera (true bugs)

Order Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps)

Order Lepidoptera (butterflies, moths, and skippers)

Order Odonata

Order Orthoptera (grasshoppers and relatives)

2021 ASIW Day 2 – July 20

I was only able to spend time with the morning class today (their focus was on the Monarch butterfly). Although my time at the Sun Foundation this day was limited, we managed to observe a number of insects.

Insect taxa encountered

As I did yesterday, the taxa we encountered are arranged alphabetically by order, then alphabetically by family within each order). This is what we observed. Links to more information will open in a new browser window/ tab.

All together, we encountered 7 orders / 29 families of insects in a few hours.

Order Coleoptera (beetles)

Order Diptera (flies)

Order Hemiptera (true bugs)

Order Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps)

Order Lepidoptera (butterflies, moths, and skippers)

Order Mantodea

Order Odonata

Order Orthoptera (grasshoppers and relatives)

2021 ASIW Day 1 – July 19

Art and Science in the Woods did not happen in 2020 due to the pandemic. This year marked my return to the Sun Foundation. This time, I was a visiting instructor. The format changed from major and minor classes to a limited number of day long classes supplemented by visiting instructors every day. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to share my knowledge and passion for insects and the biodiversity around us with students in many different classes throughout the week. Many thanks to the instructors who asked me to join their classes during the week.

The first day, I visited the Aboriginal Survival Arts Program (ASAP) class in the afternoon. During the first morning, instructors spent time with their classes and covered what would happen during the entire week. I spent roughly 2 hours with the class during the afternoon. Since this was a survival class, I began the afternoon with a discussion of insects as food and we sampled some cooked crickets and meal-worms (at least some students sampled them). We played my version of insect bingo and the first student to observe sufficient diversity won a prize (which was awarded at the end of the day).

Insect taxa encountered

I provide this list of insect taxa we encountered. They are arranged alphabetically by order and family within each order. These are the families of insects we observed during this class. Please note that each link to more information will open a new browser window/ tab.

Totals for this afternoon – 6 orders, 18 families of insects. We also observed spiders, chiggers, daddy long legs (Opiliones). and other arthropods during the afternoon.

Order Coleoptera (beetles)

Order Diptera (flies)

Order Hemiptera (true bugs)

Order Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps)

Order Lepidoptera (butterflies, moths, skippers)

Order Orthoptera (grasshoppers and crickets)

  • Family Gryllidae (snowy tree cricket in this case)

Illinois Insects 2018 Reflections

Thank you

First, a big thank you to Bob and Joan Ericksen for allowing us to wander through the many different habitats and for the foresight to establish the Sun Foundation and promote art and science (and the interactions). I understand this was the 44th Art and Science in the Woods.That is an incredible accomplishment.

Although I taught previously about insects for many years at Art and Science in the Woods, I have not been able to participate in these events for roughly 15 years (as I was running a national web design contest – which happened at the same time every year). This was the first year that I was able to return (the web contest has moved to the last week of June this year). I felt as welcome as the first time I taught and was able to reconnect with many friends (and was able to meet many new friends). To me this is a fantastic opportunity and one of those “well kept secrets” in central Illinois. Again, many thanks to Joan and Bob for making this happen and providing opportunities for so many people over the years. You are changing peoples lives (for the better).

A big thank you also to those who helped me throughout the week. This includes the TAs (Allison, Olivia, Elijah, and Mary). You were engaged with the students and helped them have a great time (and I hope you learned a little more about insects during the week as well). And we managed to get a little exercise by walking to various habitats throughout the week *grin*.

Thank you also to the parents of students in both the major and minor Illinois Insects classes. It takes courage to send your child to such a camp in a rural setting (a setting which may well be beyond their comfort zone). I hope your children learned a lot and are more enthused about the natural world around us.

To the students

I hope you now have a better understanding of the life that surrounds us on this planet. Insects play a significant role in making this planet the wondrous spot it is. Although we keep searching for other spots that may harbor life in the universe, this is the one spot we know for certain does. We need to understand as much as possible so we can properly preserve our environment. If you got nothing else out of this week, I hope you now watch where you step as there are wonders at your feet.

Bio Blitz

Throughout this week, students, TAs, and I completed a bio blitz documenting the diversity of insect life in the vicinity of the Sun Foundation. We examined a number of different habitats (including ponds, prairies, pastures, forests, creeks, and more). Students learned about many different ways to collect insects. These included sweeping with nets, using a beating sheet, sifting rotting wood and leaf litter, using Berlese funnels and Winkler eclectors, using aquatic nets, malaise traps and more. If we had evening sessions, we would also have set up a mercury vapor lamp. We were asked to tread gently on the land and not kill specimens. I respect that and therefore tried my best to complete field identifications (to the family level). I have been working with insects for multiple decades so most of the identifications are reasonably accurate. Yes, my vision is getting poorer so there may have been a few mistakes. However, we were able to find over 80 different families of insects representing nearly 20 separate orders over the course of 5 days. Most of the specimens were collected by students.

When we plot the numbers of families and orders encountered over the course of the week, we see some trends. I think we approached finding the majority of insect orders which occur at and near the Sun Foundation. As you see, those numbers stabilized by the end of the week. However, the number of families continued to go up each day we made observations. I suspect there are many more families of insects remaining to be discovered.

Diversity of insects discovered at Sun Foundation during the week.

Perhaps we will be able to expand our observations next year (and begin to make some simple comparisons as to the overall diversity of this area). Since the farm is organic, I suspect the absence of many insecticides and other chemical factors impact the overall diversity observed.

My final observations

For all who participated in the Illinois Insects classes this past week, I offer some thoughts, reflections, and insights.

  • I hope those who directly participated appreciated that they got to “be kids” for a time. This was a great opportunity to roam the fields and forests and make observations. Sure, a lot of walking was involved, but we also saw a tremendous diversity. Everyone also had time to participate in somewhat unstructured activities. In my opinion, this is something many miss out on when each day is highly structured. I think my son described it best – it is like the game Pokeman Go in real life. We don’t know what we will find when we explore and we learn a little about what we find as we move through the various habitats.
  • For those who listened, they were exposed to many different scientific concepts (from the simple process of how to make an insect collection to what convergent evolution means). We tried to look at the “big picture” including how these habitats have changed significantly over time. Yes, we even talked about the evidence many plants still show to being grazed upon by the long extinct mega-fauna. It seems there is such an emphasis on specialization these days that it can be very beneficial to step back and examine with a broad perspective. I hope I was able to convey this during the week.
  • We live on a wondrous planet, but our observations only make sense when grounded in science. Someone once said “nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” This is a core concept I continually try to instill in anyone who will listen.
  • I hope students gained a bit of perspective. We observed the many inter-relationships between plants and animals. Again, someone else once said “when you pull on a string, you find it attached to everything in the universe.” I hope that students began to understand those connections.
  • Lastly, we hopefully began to understand the one question all organisms ask each day “what is there to eat?” and the implications. Whether it is “hiding in plain sight” like spittle bugs and goldenrod gall flies to avoid being eaten or being an active predator (like a dragonfly or robber fly) and still needing to be faster than a bird (or at least able to out maneuver them). We encountered many questions which arise from that fundamental question. A number of the behaviors and discussions we had this week would be great subjects for Ph.D. dissertations. There are so many unanswered questions all around us.

Personally, I am already looking forward to ASIW 2019 and hope that we gain even more insights about the world around us during our week together next time.

June 15, 2018 Final day ASIW

Habitats

This was the final day of Art and Science in the Woods for 2018. We had the major class all day. We visited a number of different habitats (including the old white oak and Dry Run Creek). Here are a few photos of the habitats we visited today (and on prior days).

This is the main pond by our tent.

Panaromic view of main pond by our tent.

This is the smaller pond (half way up the hill).

Panorimic view of smaller pond

Lastly, this is Dry Run Creek.

Dry Run Creek

Final List of Insect taxa encountered in 2018

As we explored the fields and woods, we continued to put together a list of insects we encountered. We were able to identify most to family level. I have organized these below (by order). This is an updated list (new families/ orders encountered today are marked with an asterisk). This list expands on the insects encountered on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

For those who are curious about our running total. Over the course of all five days, we have encountered:

  • 17 orders of insects (16 if you exclude Collembola)
  • 87 families of insects (86 if you exclude Collembola)

Again, most of these insects were captured by students in the Illinois Insects classes (both major [morning] and minor [afternoon] classes). Since they are just learning about insects this week, I find this to be a most impressive list so far. Since this is the final list, I have also included links to more information for each of the families on Wikipedia (just follow the links).

Class Entognatha – Subclass Collembola

Order Entomobryomorpha

Class Insecta

Order Blattodea

Order Coleoptera

Order Dermaptera

Order Diptera

Order Ephemeroptera

Order Hemiptera

Order Hymenoptera

Order Lepidoptera

Order Mantodea

Order Mecoptera

Order Neuroptera

Order Odonata

Order Orthoptera

Order Phasmatodea

Order Plectoptera

Order Thysanoptera

Other Arthorpods

 

We spent most of the day walking. My total mileage was over 8 miles (not the usual 7). Coupled with the 33 miles I walked previously, I have now walked over 41 miles at the Sun Foundation in 2018. I think that must be some sort of record. In case anyone is curious that is roughly 85,000 steps.

Again, my sincere thanks to Allison, Olivia, Elijah, and Mary for all their help during this week. You helped make the class what it was.

Allison decorated her hat throughout the week and recorded those insects that she found most interesting. Here is one view of her hat at the end of the week.

Allison's hat

Personally, I am already looking forward to the class in 2019. I hope to see you there.

June 14, 2018 Fourth day ASIW

Habitats

Today, we spent a fair amount of time investigating the pond with our morning class (and we walked again to the ant hill for the afternoon class). I also started examining the insects coming out of the Winkler eclector. We sifted rotting wood (mostly brown rot and red rot logs) yesterday. The device is shown below. Not as many species were found as expected. I did note the tent was rather warm. I fear that the sifted material dried out more quickly than anticipated.

Exterior of Winkler eclectorin our tent

Even More Insect taxa encountered

As we explored the fields and woods, we continued to put together a list of insects we encountered. We were able to identify most to family level. I have organized these below (by order). This is an updated list (new families/ orders encountered today are marked with an asterisk). This list expands on the insects encountered on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

For those who are curious about our running total. Over the course of four days, we have encountered:

  • 17 orders of insects (16 if you exclude Collembola)
  • 79 families of insects (78 if you exclude Collembola)

Again, most of these insects were captured by students in the Illinois Insects classes (both major [morning] and minor [afternoon] classes). Since they are just learning about insects this week, I find this to be a most impressive list so far.

Class Entognatha – Subclass Collembola

Order Entomobryomorpha

  • Family Entomobryidae

Class Insecta

Order Blattodea

  • Family Ectobiidae (wood cockroach)

Order Coleoptera

  • Family Buprestidae
  • Family Cantharidae (soldier beetles)
  • Family Carabidae (ground beetles and tiger beetles)
  • Family Cerambycidae (long horn beetles)
    • Tetraopes tetraopthalamus [milkweed beetle]
  • Family Chrysomelidae (leaf beetles)
  • Family Cleridae (checkered beetles) *
  • Family Coccinellidae (lady beetles)
  • Family Curculionidae (weevils)
  • Family Dytiscidae (predaceous diving beetles)
  • Family Elateridae (click beetles)
  • Family Gyrinidae (whirligig beetles)
  • Family Haliplidae (crawling water beetles)
  • Family Lampyridae (fireflies)
  • Family Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles)
    • Popillia japonica [Japanese beetle]
  • Family Silphidae

Order Dermaptera

  • Family Forficulidae (earwigs)

Order Diptera

  • Family Asilidae (robber flies)
  • Family Bombyliidae (bee flies)
  • Family Culicidae (mosquitoes)
  • Family Dolicopodidae (long legged flies)
  • Family Muscidae (house flies)
  • Family Mycropezidae (stilt-legged flies) *
  • Family Rhagionidae
  • Family Tabanidae (horse flies)
  • Family Tachinidae *
  • Family Tephritidae
    • Eurosta solidaginis (goldenrod gall fly)
  • Family Tipulidae (crane flies)

Order Ephemeroptera

  • Family Ephemeridae

Order Hemiptera

  • Family Aradidae (flat bugs) *
  • Family Belostomatidae (giant water bugs)
  • Family Cercopidae (spittle bugs)
  • Family Cicadellidae (leaf hoppers)
  • Family Coreidae (leaf-footed bugs)
  • Family Corixidae (water boatmen)
  • Family Gelastocoridae (toad bugs)
  • Family Gerridae (water striders) *
  • Family Membracidae (tree hoppers)
  • Family Myridae (plant bugs)
  • Family Naucoridae (creeping water bugs)
  • Family Nabidae (damsel bugs)
  • Family Nepidae (water scorpions) *
  • Family Reduviidae (assassin bugs)
  • Family Scutelleridae (shield-backed bugs)
  • Family Tingidae (lace bugs)
  • Family Veliidae (riffle bugs)

Order Hymenoptera

  • Family Apidae (bumble bees and honey bees)
  • Family Bethylidae
  • Family Braconidae *
  • Family Evaniidae (ensign wasps) *
  • Family Formicidae (ants)
    • Formica pallidefulva
    • Formica exsectoides
    • Lasius neoniger
    • Leptothorax curvispinosus
    • Monomorium minimum
    • Myrmecina americana
    • Ponera pennsylvanica
    • Strumigenys sp.
  • Family Ichneumonidae *
  • Family Sphecidae (thread waisted wasps) *
  • Family Tenthredinidae (sawflies)
  • Family Vespidae (potter wasps and others)

Order Lepidoptera

  • Family Erebidae
    • Haploa confusa
  • Family Geometridae (geometer moths)
  • Family Lycaenidae [blues]
  • Family Nymphalide
    • Asterocampa celtis [hackberry emperor butterfly]
    • Checkerspot butterfly
    • Speyeria cybele [great spangled fritillary]
  • Family Papilionidae (swallowtails)
  • Family Pieridae (sulphurs and whites)
  • Family Pterophoridae (plume moths) *
  • Family Pyralidae
  • Family Satyridae (wood nymphs)
  • Family Tortricidae *

Order Mantodea

  • Family Mantidae
    • Tenodera sinensis [Chinese mantis nymphs]

Order Mecoptera

  • Family Panorpidae (scorpion-flies)

Order Neuroptera

  • Family Chrysopidae (green lacewings)

Order Odonata

  • Family Aeschnidae (darners)
  • Family Coenagrionidae (damselflies)
  • Family Libellulidae (skimmer dragonflies)

Order Orthoptera

  • Family Acrididae (band-wing grasshoppers)
  • Family Gryllidae
    • Phyllopalpus pulchellus [handsome trig]
  • Family Rhaphidophoridae (cave crickets)
  • Family Tettigoniidae (katydids)
  • Family Tridactylidae (pygmy mole crickets)

Order Phasmatodea

  • Family Diapheromeridae
    • Diapheromera femorata (common walkingstick)

Order Plectoptera *

  • Family Nemouridae (spring stoneflies) *

Order Thysanoptera

  • Family Thripidae (thrips)

Other Arthorpods

  • Diplopoda (millipedes) *
  • Isopods
  • Geophilomorph centipede
  • Scolopendromorph centipede
  • Spiders (mostly wolf spiders and relatives and Salticidae)
    • Geolycosa wrighti was the large brown spider we found in the afternoon)

 

We covered a lot of ground today as well. My total mileage was 6 miles (not the usual 7). Coupled with the 27 miles I walked previously, I have now walked over 33 miles at the Sun Foundation in 2018.

June 13, 2018 Third day ASIW

Habitats

We visited several different habitats today (and spent more time searching for specific insect species). This likely reduced the overall count of families encountered today. For example, I wanted to show students a toad bug. We have observed them every year that I have been at the Sun Foundation. This year it took much longer than anticipated to locate some.

I also set up a Winkler eclector (with new material from a red rot log) and a Malaise trap (photo below). This trap is located at the top of a south facing ridge (and typically receives a gentle breeze most of the day). We will examine the contents tomorrow.

Malaise trap set up and awaiting flying insects

Still More Insect taxa encountered

As we explored the fields and woods, we continued to put together a list of insects we encountered. We were able to identify most to family level. I have organized these below (by order). This is an updated list (new families/ orders encountered today are marked with an asterisk). This list expands on the insects encountered on Monday and Tuesday.

For those who are curious about our running total. Over the course of three days, we have encountered:

  • 16 orders of insects (15 if you exclude Collembola)
  • 66 families of insects (65 if you exclude Collembola)

Again, most of these insects were captured by students in the Illinois Insects classes (both major [morning] and minor [afternoon] classes). Since they are just learning about insects this week, I find this to be a most impressive list so far.

Class Entognatha – Subclass Collembola

Order Entomobryomorpha

  • Family Entomobryidae

Class Insecta

Order Blattodea

  • Family Ectobiidae (wood cockroach)

Order Coleoptera

  • Family Buprestidae
  • Family Cantharidae (soldier beetles)
  • Family Carabidae (ground beetles and tiger beetles)
  • Family Cerambycidae (long horn beetles)
    • Tetraopes tetraopthalamus [milkweed beetle]
  • Family Chrysomelidae (leaf beetles)
  • Family Coccinellidae (lady beetles)
  • Family Curculionidae (weevils)
  • Family Dytiscidae (predaceous diving beetles)
  • Family Elateridae (click beetles)
  • Family Gyrinidae (whirligig beetles)
  • Family Haliplidae (crawling water beetles)
  • Family Lampyridae (fireflies)
  • Family Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles)
    • Popillia japonica [Japanese beetle]
  • Family Silphidae

Order Dermaptera

  • Family Forficulidae (earwigs)

Order Diptera

  • Family Asilidae (robber flies) *
  • Family Bombyliidae (bee flies)
  • Family Culicidae (mosquitoes)
  • Family Dolicopodidae (long legged flies)
  • Family Muscidae (house flies)
  • Family Rhagionidae
  • Family Tabanidae (horse flies)
  • Family Tephritidae *
    • Eurosta solidaginis (goldenrod gall fly) *
  • Family Tipulidae (crane flies)

Order Ephemeroptera *

  • Family Ephemeridae *

Order Hemiptera

  • Family Belostomatidae (giant water bugs)
  • Family Cercopidae (spittle bugs)
  • Family Cicadellidae (leaf hoppers)
  • Family Coreidae (leaf-footed bugs)
  • Family Corixidae (water boatmen)
  • Family Gelastocoridae (toad bugs) *
  • Family Membracidae (tree hoppers)
  • Family Myridae (plant bugs)
  • Family Naucoridae (creeping water bugs)
  • Family Nabidae (damsel bugs)
  • Family Reduviidae (assassin bugs)
  • Family Scutelleridae (shield-backed bugs)
  • Family Tingidae (lace bugs) *
  • Family Veliidae (riffle bugs)

Order Hymenoptera

  • Family Apidae (bumble bees and honey bees)
  • Family Bethylidae *
  • Family Formicidae (ants)
    • Formica pallidefulva
    • Formica exsectoides
    • Lasius neoniger
    • Leptothorax curvispinosus *
    • Monomorium minimum
    • Myrmecina americana *
    • Ponera pennsylvanica *
    • Strumigenys sp. *
  • Family Tenthredinidae (sawflies)
  • Family Vespidae (potter wasps and others)

Order Lepidoptera

  • Family Erebidae
    • Haploa confusa
  • Family Geometridae (geometer moths)
  • Family Lycaenidae [blues]
  • Family Nymphalide
    • Asterocampa celtis [hackberry emperor butterfly]
    • Checkerspot butterfly
    • Speyeria cybele [great spangled fritillary]
  • Family Papilionidae (swallowtails)
  • Family Pieridae (sulphurs and whites)
  • Family Pyralidae
  • Family Satyridae (wood nymphs)

Order Mantodea

  • Family Mantidae
    • Tenodera sinensis [Chinese mantis nymphs]

Order Mecoptera

  • Family Panorpidae (scorpion-flies)

Order Neuroptera

  • Family Chrysopidae (green lacewings)

Order Odonata

  • Family Aeschnidae (darners)
  • Family Coenagrionidae (damselflies)
  • Family Libellulidae (skimmer dragonflies)

Order Orthoptera

  • Family Acrididae (band-wing grasshoppers)
  • Family Gryllidae
    • Phyllopalpus pulchellus [handsome trig]
  • Family Rhaphidophoridae (cave crickets)
  • Family Tettigoniidae (katydids)
  • Family Tridactylidae (pygmy mole crickets)

Order Phasmatodea

  • Family Diapheromeridae
    • Diapheromera femorata (common walkingstick)

Order Thysanoptera

  • Family Thripidae (thrips)

Other Arthorpods

  • Isopods
  • Geophilomorph centipede *
  • Scolopendromorph centipede
  • Spiders (mostly wolf spiders and relatives and Salticidae)
    • Geolycosa wrighti was the large brown spider we found in the afternoon)

We covered a lot of ground today as well. My total mileage was just at 7 miles again today. Coupled with the 20 miles I walked previously, I have now walked over 27 miles at the Sun Foundation in 2018.

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