Tag Archives: natural history

Nature pics from Mohonk Mountain House

Below is a sampling of photographs I took during a June stay at Mohonk Mountain House near New Paltz, New York. If nature bores you please scroll to the end for food pics.


I believe these are sidewalk mites (Balaustium sp.). There were thousands on the flowers nearby, all apparently engaged in eating pollen. There are some species that eat only pollen but I gather from the BugGuide description that the more predatory species may eat it facultatively.

These galls are made a the larvae of Acericecis ocellaris, a midge (fly). The ones in this photograph are pretty drab but the galls can be bright red and white, like targets (example). For more on the natural history, please see Michael J. Raupp’s blog post on the species.

Whenever I’m at Mohonk Mountain House in the summer I spend a few minutes taking photographs of the webs along Lake Shore Path, in the rock face near the wood walkway. They are made by Ariadna bicolor, a member of the tunnel-web spider family (Segestriidae). Sadly, they are nocturnal so I don’t have any great photographs of the spiders themselves (I have only one, in fact). I hope to get some nighttime pics during my next visit.


Caddo agilis

This is Caddo agilis, an adorable little harvestman that looks remarkably like a cuttlefish or, perhaps, an alien. Once I got a search image for these beasties there were everywhere. Apparently parthenogenetic so this is almost certainly a female (a harvestwoman?). Males have been found but are super rare.

American green crab spider (Misumessus oblongus) with captured crane fly

American green crab spider (Misumessus oblongus) attempting to subdue a male sooty crane fly (Tipula fuliginosa). This unlucky fly is also carrying a parasitic mite (Trombidioidea).

Long-jawed orbweaver (Tetragnatha elongata)

This spider isn’t doing anything interesting but I’m including it because it was easily the largest long-jawed orbweaver I’ve ever seen. I’m pretty sure it’s a Tetragnatha elongata (more details).

Buttercup blood bee (Sphecodes ranunculi) on an inflorescence

I think this is a male buttercup blood bee (Sphecodes ranunculi). This species is kleptoparasitic on fellow halictids. I’d love to know more about why the abdomen is red.

Jagged ambush bug (Phymata sp.) eating a nude mining bee (Andrena nuda)

Jagged ambush bug (possibly Phymata fasciata) eating a nude mining bee (Andrena nuda). It’s awful to have your innards sucked out while paralyzed but an upside, for me, is that otherwise rare and fast-moving insects become easy to photograph.

Edge-striped shield bug (Elasmucha lateralis) guarding her eggs

Edge-striped shield bug (Elasmucha lateralis) guarding her eggs, something I’ve never seen in a bug. It’s in fact so rare that that is how I made the ID. Per Frost and Haber 1944 (as described on p 112, here), females of this species will vibrate their wings if you separate them from their eggs or squish the nymphs. In related and strange news, males of a related species do the guarding (Requena et al. 2010).

Euxesta notata

Spotted root maggot (Euxesta notata), also known as the cabbage root fly. Per the literature you can rear them by collecting rotting fruit and vegetables, especially onions. If you’re into that sort of thing.

Male Hylemya alcathoe (Anthomyiidae)

Male Hylemya alcathoe (Anthomyiidae). There were hundreds in the area, all perched at the edges of leaves, alert for females. Per Alcock 1983, males defend their leaves so aggressively that they’ll take flight to pursue small sticks and stones thrown to pass near them.

This tiny fly was perhaps the highlight of my trip. It’s a millipede-killing fly in the genus Myriophora, and they were hounding a millipede that was cruising around at top speed in an attempt to dislodge them. The flies just rode them around like sandworms on Arrakis, occasionally ovipositing into the gaps between the tergites.

Bladder campion (Silene vulgaris) with damaged calyx caused by nectar-robbing bumblebee

Flower of bladder campion (Silene vulgaris) that has been chewed by a nectar-robbing bumblebee. Once breached, other pollinators use the back door to more easily steal the nectar.

I was introduced to the mountain spleenwort (Asplenium montanum), above, on a nature walk hosted by Dr. Jackie Schnurr. It’s all over the place once you get a search image for it and the kinds of places it grows (cracks in acidic rock faces). Reeves 1974 reports the existence of a subspecies Asplenium montanum shawangunkense, but it’s not registered (yet) in iNaturalist. Per Reeves its range is between Lake Minnewaska and Lake Mohonk. And lacks sori, so definitely be on the lookout if you are in the area.

This beauty is a Pennsylvania toadskin lichen (Lasallia pensylvanica). This lichen features prominently in a 1974 article by Daniel Smiley (of Mohonk fame) and Carl George, “Photographic documentation of lichen decline in the Shawangunk Mountains of New York“. See figure 3 within for a photograph of the location with Albert Smiley for scale.

Common script lichen (Graphis scripta)

Common script lichen (Graphis scripta) growing on a tree. Or at least that’s what I think it is. Species tends to occur on smooth-barked trees such as birch. I found beetle mites on them.

Northern watersnake (Nerodia sipedon sipedon) basking at the Lily Pond. Per a book on watersnakes the bulk of their diet is fish, but they also eat amphibians, insects, millipedes, spiders, mollusks, and annelids. I was amazed to learn that they sometimes flick the surface of the water with their tongue to mimic a distressed insect (Gibbons and Dorcas 1963). I love how they always seem to use their bodies as chin rests.

And last but not least, here’s a pic of a charismatic megafauna: a North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum). It looked dazed or half asleep. I wonder whether it might have been injured, perhaps from a fall from a tree while it was grazing on leaves (this happens a lot to porcupines).

Food

Here’s a sampling of the meals I had while staying at the hotel. In related, unsurprising news, I gained weight.

If you’ve been to Mohonk but wondered what the kitchen looks like these days (it was recently remodeled), here are some pics from a tour led by head chef, Jim Palmeri. Last pic features me.

If you need more, a post with last summer’s pics is here. Building and landscape views of Mohonk Mountain House over the past 20 years are here.

Insects in the vegetable garden

Here are some photographs I took in June at my allotment in town.

Spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi)

First up is a spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi), perhaps the most common insect in my garden every year. In addition to being defoliators, the beetles are important transmitters of the Erwinia tracheiphila, which causes wilting. I think some of my zucchini fruits might be suffering from this wilt, but I’m not positive. The insect can also eat corn roots during their larval phase (hence its other common name, southern corn rootworm). If any of my corn plants lodge (fall over) I’m going to attempt to find and photograph the little bastards. For a beetle with “cucumber” in the common name it’s stunning how many different types of plants this insect can survive on (per one estimate, over 40 different families). More information on the species can be found at BugGuide.

Mexican bean beetle (Epilachna varivestis)

This is a Mexican bean beetle (Epilachna varivestis) next to some of the damage it presumably caused. If you provoke them they apparently “reflex bleed”, and the blood is laced with a toxic alkaloid (Eisner et al. 1986). I haven’t yet seen their larvae (here‘s an excellent pic) but those have a different alkaloid in their glandular hairs (Attygalle et al. 1993). BugGuide has information on identification, distribution, and life cycle.

Phyllotreta striolata

This is some sort of Phyllotreta, I think, on radish. I spent several hours online trying to identify it to species but got stuck with three options that all are rather similar: Phyllotreta striolata, Phyllotreta zimmermanni, and Phyllotreta liebecki (links go to respective BugGuide pages). But the first option seems the best: “Antennae black, basal 3 segments yellow-brown, 5th segment usually 1/3 longer than 4th, its width 1/4 its length” (BugGuide). Here‘s the iNaturalist observation in the event that an expert is reading this and can help with an ID. These beetles sequester the glucosinolates of their cruciferous hosts (Beran et al. 2014).

Potato stalk borer (Trichobaris trinotata)

This weevil is Trichobaris trinotata, the potato stalk borer. The larvae get inside the stems courtesy of small notches that the female chews prior to oviposition. If any of my potatoes, eggplants, or tomatillo begins to wilt I’m going to dissect the stem in search of the larvae (I’m easily entertained). Adults are easy to ID because of their all-black head and presence of three black spots in between the thorax and elytra. More information is available on BugGuide.

Eggplant flea beetles (Epitrix fuscula)

This is one of hundreds of eggplant flea beetles (Epitrix fuscula) in my garden. In addition to defoliating my eggplants every year they are extremely small and thus hard to photograph and identify. And apparently they might be eating my beets, too, as larvae. BugGuide has cursory information on identification but for more extenstive treatments plus excellent photographs see Deczynski 2014 and Deczynski 2016.

Epitrix brevis

Epitrix brevis is even smaller than the eggplant flea beetle, above, and thus really at the limit of my camera gear and patience. They are all over my tomatillo, slowly skeletonizing some of the leaves through hundreds of tiny excavations like the one in the background of this photograph. Pestiferous, but also rather cute due to their small size. BugGuide has a page on the species but doesn’t have any interesting information. Likely too small.

Lady beetle larvae

These are the larvae of some sort of coccinellid (lady beetle), still hanging around their eggs and perhaps entertaining themselves by eating each other, as one does. I’m wondering whether they might be Harmonia axyridis (Asian lady beetle), an introduced beetle so common that is often a good guess. I need to go back and check on this location (on pole bean leaf) to find later instars or adults. Here’s my iNaturalist observation.

Clouded plant bug (Neurocolpus nubilus)

This menacing insect is a clouded plant bug (Neurocolpus nubilus) and I’ve seen several on my borlotti beans. In perhaps related news, several of my borlotti beans suddenly died this week (early July) and I’m wondering whether this bug is responsible. It’s a known pest of cotton but I can’t find any evidence in the literature that it eats legumes. More details on BugGuide.

Broad-headed sharpshooter (Oncometopia orbona)

This gorgeous leafhopper is a female broad-headed sharpshooter (Oncometopia orbona). Those white spots are chalky deposits (brochosomes) that are often found on females. Females use the substance to coat their eggs, though I’m not sure whether she uses the material from those spots. For the life of me I cannot locate a photograph of eggs protected by this chalk. I gather both males and females of this species (and other leafhoppers and planthoppers) also “anoint” themselves with this goop after each molt to better protect themselves from the elements and from sticky substances (Rakitov 1996). They are really hard to photograph because when they sense your proximity they will quickly move to the other side of the leaf. More on BugGuide.

Swift feather-legged fly (Trichopoda pennipes)

This is a swift feather-legged fly (Trichopoda pennipes), one of my favorite dipterans. I love it because (1) it’s beautiful, (2) not easily spooked, and (3) is a highly motivated parasitoid of squash bugs. I’ve never seen it in action, but they slap eggs right onto squash bugs (and several related bugs), and they do this all day long, sometimes effectively controlling the pest without any need for pesticides. They are so common that if you scroll through pics of squash bugs you’ll see the fly’s eggs regularly (e.g.). Here‘s a nice summary of its life cycle by Susan Mahr (University of Wisconsin). BugGuide.

Condylostylus caudatus

This is a male Condylostylus in the sipho group. My garden has thousands of these flies, all of them likely eating the aphids and other small insects that are present in large numbers. They are extremely skittish and hard to photograph. To make things worse, they also take flight when they detect a flash pulse, so 90% of my shots have only a leg or two. Here’s the iNaturalist observation in case you can help me with the identification. Caleb Scholtens has an excellent guide to the Condylostylus groups on iNaturalist .

Squash vine borer moth (Melittia cucurbitae)

Finally, here’s an early-instar larva of a squash vine borer moth (Melittia cucurbitae) inside a zucchini stem. I found it by examining leaf stems for surface damage caused by oviposition and early feeding by the larva (see pic #3 on my Inaturalist observation to see the damage). These are horrible pests of zucchini and yellow squash, so I tend to wrap the bases of my plants in tinfoil, plus patrol the leaves and fruit stalks for larval damage. The adult, by the way, is stunningly beautiful. BugGuide has identification help, which I recommend checking just to be sure it’s not Melittia calabaza, which looks very similar.

Finally, here’s a non-macro photograph that shows where all these insects are spending their lives, my little allotment at the Scott Arboretum Community Gardens.

Allotment at community vegetable garden

All of the above photographs, plus thousands more, are at https://colinpurrington.smugmug.com.