The Backyard Arthropod Project

Three Click Beetles

Tim Eisele — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:00:24 +0000

Last winter, on March 16, 2011, a friend found this click beetle in his supply of wood for his wood-burning stove (Hi, Bill!). Since he thought it was odd to find an active beetle in what is, for us, still the middle of winter, he brought it to me to see if I had any [...]

Deer Fly

Tim Eisele — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 10:00:27 +0000

This is a fly that tried to bite me on the back of the head on July 20, 2011. She was about a centimeter long. Yes, I killed her. I’m not even a little bit sorry. She’s a pretty typical deer fly, subfamily Chrysopsinae, except for one thing: most deer flies seem to have these [...]

Eastern Tent Caterpillar Adult

Tim Eisele — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:00:57 +0000

Sandy found this moth indoors, fluttering around the lights in the bathroom, on July 15, 2011. It was a pretty good-sized moth, with a body about 2 cm long (almost an inch). While it was found in the house, it was our fault that it was inside. You see, Sam and Rosie like to play [...]

Orange Skipper

Tim Eisele — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:00:21 +0000

Here’s another of the little orange skippers that are common around here in the early summer (this one was photographed on June 16, 2011). It has some white mottling on its underwings, which is a bit different from the nearly pure orange skipper that was posted in the past. It looks like one of the [...]

Cellar Spider Eating a Clover Weevil

Tim Eisele — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:00:26 +0000

This is another species (well, actually two species) that I’ve already posted before: on June 26, 2011, a cellar spider (Pholcus phalangioides) on our back porch eaves was wrapping up a Clover weevil (Sitona hispidulus) that it had caught for its next meal. The previous cellar-spider pictures were, frankly, kind of lousy, so hopefully these [...]

Mosquitos on window screen

Tim Eisele — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:00:27 +0000

On July 2, 2011, I was upstairs early in the morning in our home office, writing something for this very blog. It was kind of hot inside at the time, so I had the window over the desk open. After a bit I glanced out the window, and happened to notice these on the window [...]

Green Crane Fly, and Mating Crane Flies

Tim Eisele — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:00:57 +0000

Here’s a small (body about 5 mm long) crane fly that came to our porch light on July 4, 2011. This one caught my eye because of its almost emerald green color, which is pretty unusual for a crane fly, After searching around, it looks like there is only one local species of crane fly [...]

Fall webworms, and “Art Deco Bugs”

Tim Eisele — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:00:08 +0000

This white moth came to our porch light on July 4, 2011. Its wings look a bit ratty at the edges, so this was probably near the end of its life. Which suggests that the main flight period for this species was probably earlier, maybe most of the month of June. After a bit of [...]

Tiny reddish-brown ants sharing a Pavement Ant burrow

Tim Eisele — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:00:07 +0000

On June 26, 2011 I turned over a concrete stepping-stone to see what was underneath. There were ants. The ones I saw first looked to be Pavement Ants, which are a species that has been here before. Here’s one trying to lug an ant cocoon to safety after I exposed their nest: But then, looking [...]

Fat Jumping Spider with Green Patches

Tim Eisele — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 10:00:43 +0000

I caught this large jumping spider with a sweep-net in the back yard on July 3, 2011. She was pretty close to a centimeter long, which for a jumping spider around here is pretty huge. She was also obviously full of eggs, which would be why her abdomen was bulging so much. Spiders are hard [...]