This week in the woods, a boxelder bug ambled among the leaf litter below its namesake host tree. This true bug (order Hemiptera) infests its host tree, other maple species, and ashes and feeds on seeds both ripening on the tree in late summer and fallen to the ground. Sightings peak in the autumn, as temperatures drop and the insects retreat into homes seeking warmth. Boxelder bugs pose no threat to people, pets, or buildings and, if relocated outside, will overwinter in bark crevices or rotting wood.
A Clemens’ false skeletonizer – named for both the 19th-century entomologist James Brackenridge Clemens and the grapeleaf skeletonizer it resembles – fed on goldenrod and resembled a miniature, black-robed, day-walking vampire on a bright burst of sunlight (it even has a little red collar). This moth will reach the end of its flight season this month.
After some time searching the Northern Woodlands pollinator garden for monarch caterpillars, staff member Nancy Farwell found one dangling from clapboards on our office building. After another day dangling upside down and assuming a telltale “J” shape, the caterpillar formed a chrysalis. The toxins consumed by the larvae will carry through pupation and into the insect’s adulthood; the chrysalis’ bold colors signal its toxicity just as the bright greens and yellows of the caterpillar and bright orange of the butterflies do. The butterfly that emerges in a week or two most likely belongs to the “super generation” that migrates to Mexico for overwintering.
After a rain, this coral tooth fungus (Hericium coralloides) emerged from a dead downed hophornbeam. The fungus grows on all species of deceased hardwoods; its long branches give way to spines – shorter than those of its unbranched lookalike, lion’s-mane (Hericium erinaceus). It shows a striking white when fresh but yellows and browns with age.
What have you noticed in the woods this week? Submit a recent photo for possible inclusion in our monthly online Reader Photo Gallery.