Watching Insects

October 13, 2006

It got into the low 30s this morning and warmed up to around 60 F. It was sunny but windy.

I hadn’t seen a dragonfly for a while and was starting to think I had seen my last one until spring. But I saw one today in Cole County. At first, I thought it was a Ruby Meadowhawk (Sympetrum rubicundulum), but when I got a closer look realized it was a Blue-faced Meadowhawk (Sympetrum ambiguum). I’ve seen this species only once before, in New Jersey.

I saw 9 species of butterflies: Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme), Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus), Red-Banded Hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops) , Gray Comma (Polygonia progne), Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia), Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta), Monarch (Danaus plexippus), Common Checkered-Skipper (Pyrgus communis), and Sachem (Atalopedes campestris).

I also had several wasps: thread-waisted wasp (Sphecidae, tentatively identified as Ammophila sp.) and paper wasps (Vespidae, tentatively identified as Vespula sp. and Polistes sp.). I tentatively identified several Syrphid flies as Toxomerus sp., Chrysotoxum sp., and Eristalis sp.