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2 December 2013
Monday macrobug: tube spiders
Today, a few spiders that live in cylindrical webs of their own construction… Exhibit A, the grass spider, although this one’s not in the grass: Exhibit B, an unidentified spider on one of my exterior lights: Creepy! Crawly! Tubular!
25 November 2013
Monday macrobug: Baxter spies a wheel bug
We were out on the deck the other day when Baxter spotted a wheel bug. He can say “bug” now, and this was such an occasion. The kid’s a chip off the ol’ block! He has a good eye for the bugs.
20 November 2013
First shots from the Fort Bentley wildlife cam
I was hoping for some more exciting wildlife than this… Three tufted titmice – Not what I was shooting for. Instead, I was hoping to catch sight of what I initially inferred must be a flying squirrel nesting under the eaves of the house. But I guess not – must just be a mouse in the wall…
11 November 2013
Monday macrobug: milkweed bugs on milkweed pods
Monarch butterflies aren’t the only insects that like visiting milkweed…
4 November 2013
Monday macrobug: backstroking grub
The Monday macrobug is a juvenile beetle with an odd means of locomotion.
28 October 2013
Monday macrobug: baby stinkbugs
Here’s a recently hatched clutch of stinkbug eggs seen in September on a houseplant that we let live out on the porch for several months: The cute little bugs there are juvenile brown marmorated stinkbugs.
7 October 2013
Monday macrobug: Female walking stick
Here’s a big plump female walking stick (“stick insect”) I saw last week… These bugs are all over the place right now. I frequently find them in flagrante delicto, with the smaller male mounted on the female’s back, and the tips of their abdomens pressed together.
5 October 2013
Birdprints
A long time ago, I posted here an image of an “owlprint” – the pattern of duff left on a pane of window glass when a screech owl smacked into it. We’ve had a couple of new avian impacts lately out at Fort Bentley… Here’s a clear mourning dove imprint on the upper level window glass (viewed from below, both inside and outside). No flash in either case… And here’s …
7 September 2013
Monday macrobug: Colonial spiders at the Fort Valley Library
I volunteer on Wednesdays at the Fort Valley Public Library. We have some bushes out front, and in the past month, I’ve noticed something about the bush closest to the library door… It’s having some trouble, and the trouble seems to be coming from… (( brace yourself )) … a colony of spiders! You’re seeing a single giant dense web there, occupied by many many individual spiders, and full of …
Callan Bentley is Associate Professor of Geology at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. For his work on this blog, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers recognized him with the James Shea Award. He has also won the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia, and the Biggs Award for Excellence in Geoscience Teaching from the Geoscience Education Division of the Geological Society of America. In previous years, Callan served as a contributing editor at EARTH magazine, President of the Geological Society of Washington and President the Geo2YC division of NAGT.