American lady butterfly spots aren’t camouflage, but what they are remains a scintillating mystery
American lady butterflies have two large eyespots on each hindwing. Animals often evolve patterns to help camouflage themselves from predators, but eyespots make butterflies stand out. Why would American ladies want to stand out?
Though great black digger wasps look fearsome, they’d rather hunt for insects than sting humans
This wasp paralyzes its prey and feeds it to her offspring. But don’t worry. Its sting will not immobilize you.
Painted turtles can survive intense watery cold, but climate change could make them all female
A fascinating fact about painted turtles: The temperature of their eggs determine the sex of a baby. Warmer egg temperatures produce females, which is why scientists fear that climate change bringing higher temperatures of just 2 degrees might lead to population collapse or even extinction
American goldfinch: A lemon-colored acrobat that’s the strictest of vegetarians
Goldfinches are seed eaters who wait until their food is plentiful in July and August before nesting and raising their young, which means you may be able to spot them right now in sunflowers and thistles.
Are the honeybees raised in urban environments beneficial or detrimental? Ask a native species.
Today there are about 2.8 million farmed bee colonies in the United States, and farmed honeybees compete with and put pressure on native bee species, many of which are already in decline.
Blue dasher dragonflies have incredible eyesight and can consume hundreds of mosquitoes daily
If you visit ponds or walk along slow-moving rivers, marshes or other wetlands in the summer, you have probably seen the blue dasher dragonfly hovering or roosting at night in trees from the end of June until September. They are remarkable creatures for several reasons.
After spending their winters in central Mexico, monarch butterflies we see live just a few weeks
The milkweed-munching monarchs are beautiful orange-and-black butterflies well-known for their annual migration to Mexico, where they overwinter before starting their journey north and east to our region.
A brown-belted bumblebee buzz pollinates, meaning it shakes to make your blueberries
Each summer in early July, the brown belts arrive in the community garden en masse and take over for the rest of the summer, dependent on access to a succession of flowering plants and especially adept at pollinating the tomatoes, blueberries and eggplants that require “buzz pollination.”
Double-crested cormorants dive like an otter because they’re not similar enough to a duck
In the Mystic River and Mystic Lakes, you might spot a fairly large, gangly black bird with a long, kinky neck. Perhaps just its head and neck can be seen bobbing along in the water while it searches for fish. This is the double-crested cormorant.
The red milkweed beetle may behave like a pest, but let it eat, coexisting with monarch butterflies
More people are aware of the benefits of milkweed as a host plant for monarch butterflies. But if you look carefully in the plant, long before the monarchs arrive you may see a spotted, long red beetle with curled black antennae – the red milkweed beetle.
