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Firefly, tentatively Common Eastern Firefly (Photinus pyralis) |
They are a gateway animal that help many people connect with
nature, charismatic and highly visible (not to mention audible!) reminders that
we are not alone in this world. We feed them, we watch them, hopefully we
garden for them and advocate for them. It’s very easy to be captured by avian
magic!
But as I spend more time on the trail, I find myself drawn
to those small, often overlooked lives: our insect neighbors. Like birds (only with twice as many wings, and three times the legs!), they
have their charismatic ambassadors in pollinators: colorful butterflies,
industrious bees…insects that are useful, or at least not harmful to our
interests. Yet they are such a tiny fragment of that class Insecta.
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| Variegated Fritillary |
A massive — and tiny — universe
For as little attention as they receive from humans in day
to day life, insects are a reminder that the world is both vastly more massive
and infinitely smaller than we imagine. There are 433 species of birds that
can be found in Iowa. There are 300-400 species of bees and wasps alone
in our state…and thousands
of moths! Add ants and grasshoppers, dragonflies and damselflies, ladybugs
and lightning bugs, aphids and ambush bugs, mayflies and mosquitoes and mantids…and
those are just a few of the big and…charismatic? groups of insects that most
people have heard of.
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| Blue Dasher |
Beyond simply identifying the insects that share our space, what do we really know about them? What do they eat? What do their lives look like? Do they undergo complete metamorphosis like butterflies and bees, or incomplete metamorphosis like crickets and cockroaches? What do they do in winter?
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| Seven-spotted Lady Beetle |
For many people, the answer is, “Who cares? They’re [gross/creepy/pests/scary/etc.]”. Sure, I’ll admit that some insects — or even some life phases of insects — are a little bit each of those things. But they’re also fascinating, and there is so much to explore, especially when you’re starting from a knowledge base as minuscule as most of us have.
They are so different from everything we know! The way they
experience the world, through compound eyes and simple ocelli and antennae.
They have so many limbs! Six legs, usually two pairs of wings; some of them
have highly specialized legs for running quickly, leaping far, grasping prey,
digging in dirt. Some have mouthparts for piercing and sucking like cicadas,
some for chewing like grasshoppers, some for mopping up pre-digested material
like flies.
The diversity of insects is fantastic, and you’ll never run
out of things to learn.
The mystery bonker strikes
I had thought I understood grasshoppers, confidently
declaring that they overwinter as eggs, hatching in spring and early summer as
tiny nymphs, then spending a several weeks growing through a series of four to
six instars until they reached adulthood.
Until one balmy February afternoon, lurking in the grass
while creeping on the cranes, a hefty insect bonked off the brim of my cap and
landed, clinging to a blade of dry grass nearby. I wasn’t surprised at an
insect in February, as I’d been seeing small winter craneflies out and about.
But when I turned my camera lens on the mystery bonker, I was in for a
surprise.
I saw a familiar body shape, with strong hind legs for
jumping, a heavy pronotum behind its rounded head. A grasshopper? In February?
How in the world could an egg have hatched and a nymph developed into an adult
so quickly when most grasshoppers aren’t noticeable until June or July?
Not even knowing the species in order to investigate its
lifecycle, I turned to a few trusty resources for insect identification: BugGuide, iNaturalist, and Insects of Iowa. iNaturalist
and Insects of Iowa both use AI to suggest identifications, with BugGuide going
a step further and offering a probability for its suggested IDs. Both pointed
in the direction of genus Tetrix, but disagrees on the species
(iNaturalist preferred Tetrix arenosa, Ornate Pygmy Grasshopper, whereas
Insects of Iowa recommended Awl-shaped Pygmy Grasshopper, Tetrix subulate).
The mystery bonker, Tetrix sp.
The experts at BugGuide confirmed Tetrix, and also
explained that grasshoppers in this family often overwinter as nymphs or
adults. They also noted another common grasshopper, the Green-striped
Grasshopper, in our area also spends the winter as an adult (or near-adult)
and may be seen very early as well.
All this to say...you will never run out of things to learn
if you spend some time with our insect neighbors! And though it is daunting, you
can ease into their world by focusing on just one small part of it this spring
and summer, maybe join a citizen science program dedicated to a small group. Butterflies and bumble bees are both easy to spot
and have abundant resources to help you identify them and learn more about
their lifecycles. There are also programs and resources for ladybugs and fireflies.
You don’t need to identify every insect down to species. Heck,
you don’t have to identify them at all to observe their activity and appreciate
their unique place in our neighborhood (though it helps to have a name, at
least a genus, to learn about their lifecycle). Why not have a goal this year
to make five new arthropod friends?
Sources/Additional Reading:
- Field Guide to Common Western Grasshoppers: Life Cycles
- A Guide to Grasshopper Control in Yards and Gardens
- Reiman Gardens: Insects
- Xerces Society
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