Category: Uncategorized

From  Jim McClarin

Puffball Beetle

Pytho niger

Orchesia sp.

Synchita fuliginosa

Canifa sp.

Neomida bicornis

Centronopus calcaratus

Mycetochara binotata

False Mealworm Beetle

Valgus seticollis

Osmoderma eremicola

Osmoderma scabra

Asemum striatum

Graphisurus fasciatus

Aegomorphus modestus

Dermestes talpinus

Varied Carpet Beetle

Trogoderma ornata

Trogoderma glabrum

Anisotoma sp.

Gyrophaena sp.

Sepedophilus sp.

Two-lined Chestnut Borer

Slime Mold Beetles

Dirrhagofarsus sp.

Melasis pectinicornis

Dromaeolus badius

Denticollis denticornis

We have two new contributors, and two more life cycles from MJ.

MJ sent life cycles of two moths:

Peacock Brenthia

and

Splendid Palpita

The two new contributors both contribute many of their images to BugGuide – a site that’s well worth checking out.

Beatriz Moisset is a retired biologist who is particularly interested in pollinators.  She contributed our first fly life cycle.

Surphid Fly

Jim McClarin studies beetles in the US and other countries – particularly Ecuador.  He contributed several beetle life cycles – and there will be more coming as soon as I can get them linked to our site!    He also shares lots of information on his techniques for collecting, and rearing insects.  I’ve put links to his information on the “tips for rearing” page.

Boros unicolor

Eleates depressus

Marcie O’Connor

I’ve added links to Chris’ techniques for rearing caterpillars to our “tips on rearing” page.  He has some great ideas for techniques and inexpensive equipment to make rearing more successful.

Chris has also done life cycles using still photos.    He’s put in many photos of each stage of the rearing of these insects.  It’s an amazing amount of work, and very well documented.   Here are links to the new life cycles:

Pale Swallowtail

Anise Swallowtail

Desert Black Swallowtail

Pipevine Swallowtail

Lorquin’s Admiral

California Tortoiseshell

Gabb’s Checkerspot

Sonoran Blue

Great Purple Hairstreak

Ceanothus Silk Moth – from egg to larva

Ceanothus Silk Moth – pupa images

Polyphemus Moth

Western Sheepmoth

Electra Silk Moth

Burns’ Silk Moth

Walter’s Silk Moth

White-Streaked Silk Moth – be sure to visit all the pages – there are links to photos of the eggs, larvae, pupae, and eclosion

Piatrix Underwing

Gloveria arizonensis

Ford’s Swallowtail

Indra Swallowtail

Mendocino Silk Moth

Velda Pine Moth

Marcie

I just discovered some amazing videos of butterfly and moth life cycles.  They’re done by Chris, of JCM Digital Imaging.  He lives in California and is especially interested in Lepidoptera of the Los Angeles area.  He’s now one of our contributors – I look forward to seeing more of his videos!

Here are the ones that I just linked to on Buglifecycles:

the butterflies:

Giant Purple Hairstreak

Pipevine Swallowtail

Indra Swallowtail

California Dogface

Cloudless Sulphur

Painted Lady

Gulf Fritillary

and the moths:

Electra Buckmoth

Ceanothus  Silkmoth

White-Streaked Saturnia Moth

Marcie

We have a link to a new life cycle – the Multicolored Asian Ladybird Beetle,  and a new contributor.

Matt Simon lives in Boston, and is especially interested in insects found in urban environments.  I’ve been reading and enjoying his blog for some time – it has detailed photographs of the insects he finds, and lots of interesting information about them.

Marcie O’Connor

Buffalo County, Wisconsin

MJ sent two new PDFs which are now up on the site:

Banded Tussock Moth

and

Pastinaca Webworm also called Parsnip Webworm.  This is a non-native moth that eats Wild Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) – a very fast spreading exotic that’s fast becomming a big problem in wetlands and along roadsides in the upper midwest.

I’ve also added a new page to the site for questions and information on rearing insects.  We need your help with this!

I’ll put up questions we have, or that people have asked us, and any tips we’ve come up with.  If you have ideas or questions about rearing, please leave them in a comment on this page, and I’ll incorporate them into the text.  We need to learn about better ways of rearing insects in order to better explore and understand their life cycles.

Marcie O’Connor

Buffalo County, Wisconsin

Here’s a nice PDF from MJ about a wasp that she found inside the stem of a plant.

Ectemnius sp.

I just put up lots of MJ’s PDFs – here are links to them:

Butterflies:

American Lady

Banded Hairstreak

Red Admiral

Silvery Checkerspot

Moths:

Henry’s Marsh Moth

Salt Marsh Caterpillar

Artichoke Plume Moth

Yarrow Plume Moth

Dogbane Saucrobotys Moth

Pussytoes Miner Moth

False Boneset Flower Moth

Polyphemus Moth

Fawn Sphinx

Abbot’s Sphinx

Sunflower Tortricid Moth

Bugs:

Stink Bugs

Wasps:

Silphium Gall Wasp

Beetles:

Puffball Beetle

Beetle

I found numerous small caterpillars on some small sunflower plants that were growing along a path through our woods.   Most of the caterpillars were on top of the leaves.

I brought them home and fed them more sunflower leaves.  The caterpillars had some color variation – I don’t know if it was individual variations, or differences in instars.

After about a week, they began to make chrysalises.  There were two color variations in the chrysalises.  I wonder if it was because of the different materials they were formed on.

This one was formed on the underside of a sunflower leaf.

This one formed on the screening at the top of the cage.

The butterflies hatched about a week later.

Here’s one with its old chrysalis in the background.

And one that’s ready to fly

Marcie O’Connor

Buffalo County, Wisconsin