MY FAVORITE INSECTS

      Several kinds of unusual and attractive insects in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania are of special interest to me.  They have intriguing features and/or life histories.

     Furry, rounded, half-inch bee flies are active in April when they visit flowers, such as spring beauties, bloodroots, trout lilies and others, on local, woodland floors, to sip nectar from those blossoms.  They have a protruding mouth that siphons up the nectar.  Some bee flies perch on woodland, soil trails where they fly up when people approach. 

     Spittle bugs are the nymphs of froghoppers that suck sap from grass and other green plants in meadows and on lawns.  Each spittle bug produces a froth around its body to keep it moist, and hidden, while sucking sap.  The nymphs can be spotted by looking for "spit" on the grass, which is their spittle.  

     Adult eyed click beetles and the caterpillars of spicebush swallowtail butterflies have two large, black, fake "eyes" on their thoraxes that scare away would-be predatory birds, skunks and other creatures.  Green caterpillars protectively roll themselves in spicebush leaves and eat that foliage.  Click beetles live on dead-leaf covered forest floors and in fallen logs, where they and their larvae ingest dead wood. 

     Male black-winged damselflies, with their four black wings and iridescent-green bodies, are beautiful when fluttering in beams of sunlight over clear streams flowing under shade-casting trees.  Males fight over streamside territories and mate with the plainer females.  Pairs of these flying-insect eating damselflies spawn eggs in quite, shallow water, where their prey consume tiny invertebrates.

     At dusk, during July, male fireflies climb plant stems and take slow flight to shrubbery and trees, flashing cold light from their abdomens as they go.  Soon the bushes and trees are full of fireflies flashing their lights in the dark, as if in a fairy land.  Those multitudes of charming flashes invite female fireflies to spawn in soil, where the larvae are predatory on tiny invertebrates.

     Three kinds of common, aquatic insects, including whirligig beetles, water striders and water boatmen, are intriguing to me.  Little groups of whirligigs swirl among each other, without collision, in the surfaces of ponds and puddles.  Their horizontal bodies are half in the water and half above it, which allows them to see above and below the water surface for small food items.

     Water striders ski on the water's surface, without breaking through, while they watch for invertebrates that fall onto the water from shore.  Their middle and hind pairs of feet are so long that, like skis, they distribute their one inch body weight widely.  Their long middle legs are like ski poles, pushing these insects over the water surface.

     The middle pair of legs on water boatmen are long like oars, flattened and fringed to easily push these interesting insects through the water after tiny food items.             

     Years ago, I heard what sounded like one or two frogs in some local meadows during September.  I learned, however, those chirping sounds were being emitted by mole crickets in their shallow, underground burrows in damp soil where they consume the roots of plants.  

     Mole crickets are well shaped for life underground.  They have shovel-like front feet for digging and their small hind legs are not built for leaping, but are used to help push through the soil.  

     The light-green, winged snowy tree crickets live on shrubbery and chirp through August and September nights.  The higher the temperature of the night, the faster they chirp.  If one counts the number of chirps in fifteen seconds and adds 40, one can know the outdoor temperature.  

     Multitudes of male true katydids in woodland treetops use their wings to rasp out "Katy-did, Katy-did"incessantly through August and September evenings and nights.  That calling brings these leaf-eating grasshopper relatives together for spawning the next generation of true Katydids.    

     Some sunny October afternoons, bristly, black and orange wooly bear caterpillars of the Isabella moth are interesting to see crossing country roads in their quest to find a shelter for the coming winter.  However, I don't think these pretty caterpillars can predict the severity of the coming winter.   

     These are some of my favorite insects in Lancaster County.  They help make my time spent outdoors more intriguing, inspiring and enjoyable.  And these insects can do that for readers, too.