Beech woolly aphids do the boogie-woogie (2020) Bug of the Week 2026-09-25 | Beech woolly aphids do the boogie-woogie (2020)
Spotted lanternfly life stages 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-08-21 | In April and May when millions of spotted lanternflies hatched, this year’s crop of lanternflies was at its zenith. As tiny black and white nymphs dispersed, they fed on myriad herbaceous and woody plants. Their colors changed from black and white to red, black, and white as they developed. Their numbers dramatically declined as weather, beneficial insects and diseases, and human interventions took their toll. Although fewer survived, when large adults gather to feed on favored trees or land on humans and buildings, their presence will be observed by more people. Many will perish on sidewalks and roads beneath the tires of vehicles and feet of humans.
Imperial moth 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-08-14 | High intensity security lights like one above this door attract many night-flying insects. Beneath the light, on the leg of a plastic lawn chair, a beautiful Imperial moth quivered in the morning breeze. Is it likely that a mate will be found in this alien environment? Not so much, but an inattentive footfall could bring an end to this pretty creature. The moth was rescued and released in a sweet gum grove far from artificial lights.
Green June Beetle adults 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-08-07 | At first glance, this backyard appears perilously infested with large swarming insects that just might sting. On closer inspection, these aerial acrobats turned out to be harmless Green June Beetles. They love to eat fresh fruit. This one took a break from its antics to enjoy a sweet cherry I placed in the lawn.
Jumping worms 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-07-31 | If worms in your garden behave more like snakes than slowly moving nightcrawlers, it’s a good bet that they are jumping worms. Wrangling them for fish bait can be challenging. Watch as one begins to drop its tail, a clever trick called autotomy which may help it escape from predators.
Hammerhead worms 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-07-22 | In a small Tupperware bowl filled with soil and earthworms, hammerhead worms reveal how they got their name and how they roll. Their genus, Bipalium, is Latin for two-shovel and their expanded head does indeed resemble a two-sided shovel or spade. Watch as one cruises the container, investigating soil with its expanded head. Awhile later, I found it caressing the carcass of an earthworm. Potent tetrodotoxin secreted by the worm may help it subdue prey. Soon thereafter the worm investigated the deflated remains of one of its kin. Hammerhead worms are cannibalistic. Worms courtesy of Kevin Ambrose.
Larger elm leaf beetle Bug of the Week 2023-07-17 | A beautiful larger elm leaf beetle surveys the possibilities from the edge of a leaf while nearby another adult battles a forest of hairs on the stem of a wild berry plant. Larger elm leaf beetle larvae chew ragged holes in leaves, often leaving behind tough leaf veins.
Praying mantis hunting and eating Bug of the Week 2023-07-10 | Legs are used for stalking and catching prey, and grooming legs appears to be important business even for small praying mantises. Watch as this youngster slowly stalks a fly. As the fly (upper left corner) comes into range, the mantis makes a lightning-fast strike. Did raptorial legs of the mantis hit the mark? You bet. Resting on a lower leaf, the mantis enjoys a well-earned meal held snugly by its spiny forelegs.
Mantisfly grooming Bug of the Week 2023-07-10 | This small mantisfly stopped by for a short photoshoot. Notice its spiny forelegs designed by nature to snare unsuspecting prey. After glamming for the camera, it flicked me off and said “see ya’ later.” Placed on a milkweed in my garden, it groomed for a few moments, bowed twice, and took flight. Though similar in appearance, mantisflies are not close relatives of praying mantises.
Elephant stag beetle 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-07-03 | Check out the jaws on a male reddish-brown stag beetle. Now look at the jaws on the largest stag beetle in the US, the elephant stag beetle. Wow. Watch as this handsome male explores the trunk of a maple tree. The ginormous mandibles are battle-gear used to combat other males for mating rites to female stag beetles. Before returning this one to the wild, I invited this guy in for a fruity snack. Watch as tiny mouthparts beneath his jaws lap up juicy liquids. With grapes, bananas, and cherries on the menu, cherries turned out to be the winner. Good choice.
Thistle head weevil mating Bug of the Week 2023-06-26 | Spiny plumeless thistles, native to Eurasia, have invaded this pretty pollinator meadow in Virginia. But thistles are besieged by small exotic beetles called thistle head weevils, leaf munchers that deposit eggs in developing flower heads. Weevil larvae hatch from eggs and bore through the flower head, eliminating the flower’s ability to produce seeds. Over a period of several years these beetles can dramatically reduce invasive thistle populations in an area. Unfortunately, they also attack thistles native to North America, imperiling some endemic species. Watch as a mating pair are soon joined by other hungry weevils.
Spicebush swallowtail caterpillar 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-06-19 | With two large, glistening eyespots, at first glance a spicebush swallowtail caterpillar looks like a snake. This clever ruse may help it escape predation by birds and other predators. Young caterpillars build shelters to avoid detection by clipping and folding leaves. They too have false eyespots and their bodies resemble bird droppings. Yuck! Older caterpillars sport eyespots on an emerald green background which may turn banana-yellow before they form a chrysalis and emerge as adults. This trickster fooled a human and is thought to fool other predators as well.
Tick identification 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-06-12 | Could this blood-engorged tick carry Lyme disease bacteria? By flipping the tick on its back morphological structures can be seen. The dark brown circle in the center is the anus (yes, ticks have these too). A faint, right-side-up horseshoe or cup-shaped line called the anal suture below the anus indicates that this is not a blacklegged tick. Concerns about contracting Lyme disease from this tick can be put to rest. That’s good news.
Columbine sawfly life stages Bug of the Week 2023-06-05 | Columbines are among the most beautiful perennials to grace natural landscapes and gardens. But trouble is afoot when tiny black wasps called columbine sawflies arrive on the scene. Female wasps use a saw-like appendage to slice leaves and insert eggs into tender leaf tissue. Eggs hatch and tiny caterpillar-like larvae with black heads munch nutritious leaves. As larvae grow and develop, they remove ever larger portions of leaf tissue and may completely defoliate plants. If you discover these rascals on your columbine, pick them off, dispose of them, or feed them to the birds!
Fourlined plant bug 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-05-29 | A few weeks ago, tiny red nymphs of fourlined plant bugs hatched from overwintered eggs in plant litter. Their feeding distorts leaves and creates necrotic spots. A very pregnant female will soon deposit eggs in plant tissue. Digestive enzymes secreted into leaves produce dark lesions on leaves that remain long after adults scurry away.
Paper wasps building nests 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-05-22 | This covered entryway welcomes not only human visitors but also paper wasps ready to make a home. In one corner a female prepares an anchor for her paper nest. One week later, several cells have been created and the first of her eggs has been deposited. In another corner, two females are a bit further along with nest construction with several cells completed. On a nearby wall a third wasp has laid several eggs. By late summer, nests will bustle with females preparing food for dozens of hungry larval mouths.
Culex mosquito larval stages 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-05-15 | A garbage pail lid full of water becomes the perfect nursery for a crop of Culex mosquitoes. Two egg rafts contain scores of eggs ready to hatch. Nearby, fleets of mosquito larvae called wrigglers filter tiny particles of food from the water. In just a few short weeks, this lid will be bustling with fully developed wrigglers suspended beneath the water by breathing siphons. Amidst the milieu, zany mosquito pupae called tumblers bumble about. With warm temperatures predicted, adults will emerge, and yes, there will be blood.
Bronzed tiger beetles Bug of the Week 2023-05-08 | Bronzed tiger beetles dash about a sandy riverbank along the Potomac on a sunny afternoon. A curious tiger stares back at an iPhone before moving in for a closer look. Watch at full speed and then at 70% reduced speed as a bronzed tiger jets away from an annoying stick. A hearty welcome to our regular viewers and to the many Ze Frank viewers who have subscribed to Bug of the Week.
Spotted lanternfly nymphs hatching 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-05-01 | Watch as spotted lanternfly nymphs hatch from eggs deposited on Tree of Heaven by their mother last autumn. These time-lapse video segments reveal wraithlike nymphs rising from their egg cases over the span of about a half an hour. After hatching, nymphs move away from the mass. Within an hour, their body color changes from creamy white to jet black with pure white spots. They scramble to the tree’s canopy to suck sap from leaves. Nearby, a small herd of slightly older nymphs assemble to feed on vascular elements within a cherry leaf.
Maryland Day Insect Petting Zoo 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-04-23 | Come to the Insect Petting Zoo at Maryland Day, Saturday April 29 at the University of Maryland, College Park. Travel around the world to meet rocking Vietnamese walking sticks and giant Australian walking sticks pretending to be dead leaves. Amazing Malaysian leaf insects will try to fool you and watch out for the whip scorpion and its smelly surprise. Hold a giant tarantula if you dare and look at, but don’t touch, the black widow spider. Meet the deadliest creature on our planet, blood-thirsty mosquitoes, and pet a friendly, furry Eastern tent caterpillar. Fast moving green tiger beetles will prowl their cage while blue death feigning beetles will be stuck in second gear. Learn why carpenter bees make holes in your deck and why iconic honey bees and their kin are imperiled in our rapidly changing world.
Male carpenter bees swarm Bug of the Week 2023-04-21 | Along the C & O canal near milepost 85 at Dam 4, an old guard house makes the perfect home for wood boring carpenter bees. Swarms of males chase each other for possession of prime mating sites. On the sidelines, females watch the guys perform. Who will impress?
Male carpenter bees antics 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-04-17 | Wooden structures like this play set bear telltale damage as woodpeckers search for carpenter bees inside the wood. Male carpenter bees zoom around nearby, sensing that nubile female bees will soon emerge from these galleries. They divebomb other competing males and nosy humans, aggressively defending their mating territory. When females emerge, they will be quickly mated by diligent guy bees patrolling nearby. Once inseminated, females build new galleries in wooden structures creating nesting sites for their young.
Bee fly feeding 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-04-10 | VideoOn a chilly spring morning a bee fly performs a pre-flight warm-up by rapidly fluttering its wings. Bee flies require huge amounts of carbohydrates, which they obtain from nectar, to power flight. Watch as the Greater Bee Fly, Bombylius major, gathers nectar from a dandelion with its ridiculously long proboscis. Busy mouthparts dance across the blossom. Bee fly cousins with tongues as long as their bodies provide similar pollination services to beautiful wildflowers in the Mojave Desert.
Honey bee tree 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-04-03 | Enjoy one of Mother Nature’s most important pollinators busy at work along the Swamp Rabbit Trail in downtown Greenville, South Carolina. Honey bees made a traditional home in the hollow of an ancient Osage orange tree. Watch as workers return to the hive, leg baskets overflowing with bright yellow pollen, while outbound workers quickly depart to gather new loads of pollen and nectar for their nestmates. Nearby a fragrant white hyacinth seems just the right place to load up on supplies. No humans or honey bees were disturbed or harmed in the making of this video.
Eastern lubber grasshopper nymphs and adults 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-03-19 | Tiny lubber grasshoppers warm themselves on the sunny side of my tent while slightly older nymphs dine on leaves of beggar tick nearby. As nymphs age and molt, color patterns may change and wing buds appear just behind the head. As adults, whether it’s a romantic interlude in the sunshine or a stroll along the boardwalk to gawk at humans, heavily armored and chemically defended eastern lubber grasshoppers seem to fear no one.
Smiley face spider (Spiny orbweaver) Bug of the Week 2023-03-19 | This ten-foot gator isn’t the only one smiling in the Everglades on a beautiful sunny day. Nearby, a spiny orbweaver has constructed its web. Adorned with scarlet spines and a ghoulish grin, a female boldly awaits a hapless victim to be ensnared by her web. White tufts of silk produced by the spider hang from several radial strands. These tufts may alert birds to the presence of the web and reduce destructive collisions that result in lost time and materials if a bird wrecks the web. These successful predators make their webs not only in the wild but in urban habitats near high rise condos as well.
Eastern tent caterpillars hatching 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-03-13 | Watch as an eastern tent caterpillar emerges from its egg. It will join dozens of siblings that have already hatched on the surface of an egg mass deposited by its mother last year on a black cherry tree. But will this early arrival spell doom by starvation for the caterpillars on a tree yet to produce tender buds and leaves to sustain caterpillar growth? Scientists fear that climate change may result in harmful seasonal mismatches between herbivores, pollinators, and plants on which they depend.
Mealybug destroyer feeding Bug of the Week 2023-03-06 | Watch as adult mealybug destroyers move across an infested leaf and gobble up small mealybug nymphs along the way. On another leaf, the wax covered larva of a mealybug destroyer searches for prey and when it finds one, it settles in for a juicy mealybug meal topped off with a little wax from the mealybug.
Green June Beetles take flight Bug of the Week 2023-02-27 | Watch as green June beetles take flight, first at full speed and then slowed by 95%. See the unusual position of the wings where hard outer wings remain closed and membranous hind wings are extended outward and used for flight.
Thrips feeding (adults and larvae) 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-02-13 | This white swamp lily is really in the hurt locker with leaves yellowing and crumpling in a death wilt. Zooming in on a leaf, we see silver streaking and a row of tiny black adult thrips dining near a leaf vein. Herds of larval thrips, many wearing a black fecal droplet on their rear end, feed on leaf tissue. Watch the digestive tract of a thrips larva pulse and quiver as it imbibes liquids from a leaf. Nearby, an adult thrips seems more intent on grooming its antennae rather than dining on a leaf.
Cellar spider 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-02-06 | With the late autumn sunlight at just the right angle, a cellar spider takes a stroll with its shadow along a piece of lumber near my workbench. High on an interior wall with her egg case snugly tucked beneath her body, a mother cellar spider rests. While she spends most of her time building webs, catching prey, or just chilling out, watch what happens when she is disturbed by a bug geek. Rock on spider, rock on! Rocking the web is believed to be an anti-predator behavior in cellar spiders and many of their kin.
Hawaiian picture-winged fly Bug of the Week 2023-01-30 | At the Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve and Garden just north of Hilo, strange cannonball trees produce fragrant flowers along the length of their trunk. After visitations by pollinators, they rain to the ground and provide a rich source of nutrients for decomposers. Picture-winged flies swarm over the rotting blossoms and rest on vegetation before depositing eggs on the rotting flowers. Maggots like this one slithering across a leaf are important recyclers of organic matter. Hawaii’s diversity of plants, habitats, and isolation help generate roughly a quarter of all known drosophilid species worldwide.
Mason wasp activities 2023 Bug of the Week 2023-01-23 | Mountain mint looks like a super food for mason wasps as they carbo-load in preparation to search for caterpillars. Watch as this female sips nectar from several blossoms before the hunt. Natural holes made in wood by other insects and human-made holes drilled in logs for mason bees make great nurseries for mason wasps. A little tickle with a wisp of wood brings a female out of her nursery. A quick look around reveals nothing amiss and back she goes into the gallery to resume her work. To my surprise, a weep-hole made in the vinyl frame of my living room window makes a great nursery for a mason wasp. After provisioning galleries with paralyzed caterpillars to feed their young, mothers gather balls of mud which will be used to seal the nursery chambers. Using jaws and patience a female makes a beautiful mudball. With the mudball complete and cradled beneath her legs, she flies back to her nursery. It takes several loads of mud to seal the gallery completely. Here a mother puts the final touches on her handiwork. A solid coat of mud plaster helps prevent enemies from attacking and killing her developing brood.
Keyhole wasp preparing nursery Bug of the Week 2023-01-16 | Keyhole wasps use holes in wood made by humans and wood-boring insects as nurseries for their young. One little lady inspects a potential nest site and decides it isn’t quite right. An industrious female nearby prepares the nursery by removing trash left behind by former occupants. Once the perfect gallery is cleaned and ready for occupation, it’s off to find and paralyze delectable caterpillars to feed her youngsters. Caterpillars returned to the nursery provide fresh nutritious food for developing wasp larvae that hatch from eggs deposited in the gallery by their fierce mother.
Invasive cockroaches and yellowjackets in Hawaii Bug of the Week 2023-01-09 | Small German cockroaches like this one are unwelcome visitors in any home, including ones in Hawai’i. Another invasive cockroach, the American cockroach, gets a come-uppance from an invasive yellowjacket. This voracious female predator stung and paralyzed the cockroach. She will dismember it and return with meaty morsels to the nest to feed developing larvae. Yellowjacket colonies can be populated by hundreds of thousands of workers, disrupting local ecosystems and posing health hazards to humans and pets.
Hawaiian Gulf Fritillary butterflies Bug of the Week 2023-01-02 | The introduction of passion vines to Hawaii in the 1800’s opened the door for pretty Gulf Fritillaries to colonize. In their new home butterflies sip nectar from a wide variety of flowering plants. Females deposit eggs on leaves of passion vines and caterpillars consume leaves to obtain nutrients for growth and defensive compounds for protection from predators. Caterpillars often move from vines to pupate and their chrysalises can be found on human-made objects. While some species of passion vines are considered invasive on the Hawaiian Islands, Gulf Fritillaries are gorgeous colonists enjoyed by islanders.
Hawaiian monarch butterflies 2022 Bug of the Week 2022-12-18 | In the Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve and Garden, eggs on laid on milkweeds by female monarchs hatch and young, pooping caterpillars become leaf-eating machines before forming a gorgeous chrysalis. From the surrounding landscape, males arrive in the milkweed garden to sip nectar and find mates. Called by some "the wanderer", marvelous monarch butterflies and their milkweed hosts reached the Hawaiian Islands more than 150 years ago.
Hawaiian ants on bamboo orchid Bug of the Week 2022-12-12 | The lava lake on the floor of erupting Kilauea volcano creates new land. Among the first plants to colonize a recent lava flow is the beautiful non-native bamboo orchid. Not surprisingly, an unidentified species of ant is one pioneer to make this newly formed land its home, where it searches orchid blossoms for sustenance.
ʻŌhiʻa tree psyllid Bug of the Week 2022-12-05 | Spectacular eruptions of Mauna Loa and Kilauea volcanos on Hawai’i transport lava from deep within the earth to the surface to form new land. One of the first plants to colonize virgin larva flows is a keystone species, the sacred ʻŌhiʻa tree. Strange Hershey-kiss-shaped leaf galls are home to one of some three dozen psyllid species that evolved on the Hawaiian Islands. Tiny sap-sucking nymphs with wing buds will soon mature and pop the top of their gall to emerge as winged adults ready to mate and colonize new ʻŌhiʻa trees. Adult psyllids utilizing ʻŌhiʻa are similar in appearance to the adult boxwood psyllid depicted here next to its shed nymphal skin.
Crapemyrte bark scale Bug of the Week 2022-11-28 | Monocultural plantings of crapemyrtles and other street trees often support outbreaks of pests in cities. Beneath the snowy white egg-sac, we find a bizarre female crapemyrtle bark scale. She can lay more than 300 bight pink eggs. Eggs hatch into pink crawlers that sally forth to settle new patches of bark. They molt before producing their own egg-sac. Heavy infestations kill branches and foul the bark with honeydew, which supports the growth of ugly sooty mold fungus.
Gall wasps on oak trees Bug of the Week 2022-11-21 | Let’s visit some gall wasps on oak. Strange horns decorate the outside of the horned oak gall while the pupa develops within. These small round leaf galls are home to developing wasp larvae. When we open these green round galls on branches, we can see the larval cell with an exit hole used by the wasp to escape the gall. Rough bullet galls wear exit holes outside and inside you see where the wasp chewed through the larval chamber and gall to get out. Pretty midrib galls and a couple spangle galls decorate this oak leaf. Potato-like galls and pouch galls adorn small twigs. Green spongy oak galls in summer turn to brown papery balls in autumn beneath oak trees.
Blackflies (noseeum) feeding Bug of the Week 2022-11-14 | Fast moving streams and rivers are prime breeding sites for blackflies. A rock plucked from the river harbors a black fly larva hiding in the vegetation. A series of video clips show the expanding abdomen of the black fly as she feeds. When she is done, my flesh continues to ooze blood from severed capillaries. Watch as an even tinier no-see-um tanks up while feeding on my arm.
Variegated fritillary caterpillars and butterflies feeding 2022 Bug of the Week 2022-11-07 | Whether munching leaves of hooded violets or petals of a pansy, variegated fritillary caterpillars find these members of the Viola clan delectable. Adults love to nectar on cone flowers in the summer and can be seen in late autumn basking in the sun among fallen leaves before heading south for the winter.
Wheelbug nymphs and adults hunting 2022 Bug of the Week 2022-10-31 | Tiny wheel bug nymphs enter the world orange and yellow but soon the head and thorax darken to black. An older nymph grabs an ill-fated lightening bug and prepares to drain the beetle’s blood with its impressive beak. Nefarious pests including brown marmorated stink bugs and pesky fall webworm caterpillars fall victim to this assassin and even bristly spines of a smartweed caterpillar can’t save it from this terrifying predator.
Milkweed and Orange assassin bugs 2022 Bug of the Week 2022-10-31 | Watch as a juvenile milkweed assassin bug takes a wild ride on a hibiscus plant. Note the black wing buds on its back. At the next molt, these will develop into pairs of jet-black wings as seen on this camera-shy adult. Nearby, on a goldenrod flowerhead an orange assassin bugs hunts. Soon a hapless leafhopper meets its doom at the end of this spooky predator’s beak.
Oak lecanium scale biology 2022 Bug of the Week 2022-10-23 | Oak trees lining city streets are sometimes plagued by sap-feeding insects called soft scales. Colonies of mature, bump-like female scales line branches, sucking sap, and excreting a sticky waste product called honeydew. Females can produce more than 1000 eggs which hatch into offspring called crawlers. Crawlers migrate from branches to leaves in spring where they rob trees of vital fluids. In autumn before leaf-fall, they move back to branches to pass the winter before maturing into adults next spring.
Elm cockscomb gall aphids in flight 2022 Bug of the Week 2022-10-15 | On bright autumn afternoons the air near my elm is filled with a flurry of elm cockscomb gall aphids returning to their winter home, which is a Princeton elm. Watch as a female alights on an elm branch briefly before taking off, perhaps in search of another place to lay eggs or to escape my camera lens. For a much closer look, check out the aphid through the lens of a microscope. These are pretty cool insects.
Stinging caterpillars 2022 Bug of the Week 2022-10-03 | This quintet of pretty caterpillars packs a wallop delivered by stinging, urticating spines. The puss caterpillar looks like Cousin Itt from the Addams Family to me. Next up are attractive caterpillars that turn into white flannel moths, but their sting does not feel anything like flannel. Io moth caterpillars are relatively common throughout much of eastern North America. Just look at their long spines. The buck moth caterpillar is in a hurry, perhaps to find oak leaves, a favored food. They too can give a nasty sting. And my favorite of the five is the very strange and adorable hag moth caterpillar. What are those wavy arms about?
Steel-blue cricket-hunter 2022 Bug of the Week 2022-09-26 | As field crickets chirp a farewell to summer, they are stalked by a formidable enemy, the steel-blue cricket-hunter. With wings twitching nervously, a female takes off on her quest. First stop, a patch of mulch which turns out to be not quite the right spot to find her prey. Next stop, a stone wall where crickets hide in dark rocky crevices. After disappearing briefly, she emerges with her prize, a paralyzed cricket soon to be delivered to a subterranean nursery as food for her young.
Clubtail dragonfly eats Pearly-eye butterfly 2022 Bug of the Week 2022-09-19 | Northern pearly-eye butterflies are common denizens of riparian forests in the eastern United States. They rest on vegetation and tree trunks. But when in flight, they are hunted by fierce aerial predators, clubtail dragonflies. Watch as a clubtail chows down on a hapless pearly-eye butterfly. Clubtails show no kinship loyalty when it comes to dining. This one is happy to feast on an unlucky damselfly.
Hickory horned devil caterpillars 2022 Bug of the Week 2022-09-12 | ‘Tis the season when hickory horned devil caterpillars will be seen strolling on patios as they search for places to pupate. Their story began weeks ago when male and female royal walnut moths hooked up and the female deposited eggs on leaves of hickory and other members of the walnut family. Eggs hatched into bizarre tiny caterpillars with very stout spines. They grew into gorgeous green giants before moving to the soil to form a pupal case to pass the wicked winter. Next spring beautiful royal walnut moths will emerge from these pupal cases.
