Wednesday, August 14, 2013

The Dogbane Beetle

Our third unusual and interesting bug for this week -- so far is this very attractive Dogbane Beetle [Chrysochus auratus] sitting still on our green bin (food compost recycling bin).



Stump Stabber

So whats with all the weird bugs. Over the last week I have found 5 unusual and very interesting insects. Today I also found a Stump Stabber [Megahyssa spp.] which appears like a wasp with a very long tail as shown in the photo.


This insect preys on eggs of a horntail -- another wasp that lays eggs in the wood of trees. It apparently 'sounds' the wood looking for horntail eggs to lay its eggs in.  This is likely the [Megarhyssa macrurus] as shown on Wikipedia.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Dog Day Cicada

Today was one of those hot dog days of summer when you can hear the high pitched buzz of the "heat bug" as we used to call it as kids. In my 60 years I have never seen a cicada until today. While climbing the TV tower to do some work, I found this green Cicada on the roof next to the stabilizing bar of the tower. And there was also quite a buzz in the trees above.



According to Bugs of Ontario, by John Acorn, ISBN 1-55105-287-3, this is the Dog Day Cicada [Tibicen canicularis.]


Sunday, August 11, 2013

Bear Tracks

Sunday, while clearing some trail we came across this bear track of a fairly young bear. Relatives say that they have seen a small 300 lb or so bear near here. There is only one species of bear here which is the black bear.