Incredible Insects

On Saturday June 3, I helped lead a walk on the "Incredible Insects" of the Lehigh Gap Nature Center. We worked our way around in the Kittatinny Ponds in search of butterflies, dragonflies, damselflies, and any other insects. Here are some of the species that we found:

Damselflies:

Elegant Spreadwing
Swamp Spreadwing
Variable Dancer
Powdered Dancer
Blue-fronted Dancer
Azure Bluet
Fragile Forktail
Eastern Forktail

Variable Dancer

Fragile Forktail

Dragonflies:

Common Green Darner
Black-shouldered Spinyleg
Lancet Clubtail
Common Baskettail
Eastern Pondhawk
Spangled Skimmer
Slaty Skimmer
Widow Skimmer
Twelve-spotted Skimmer
Blue Dasher
Common Whitetail
Meadowhawk sp.
Black Saddlebags

Widow Skimmer

Blue Dasher

Butterflies:

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Spicebush Swallowtail
Cabbage White
Orange Sulphur
Great Spangled Fritillary
Pearl Crescent
Red Admiral
Wild Indigo Duskywing
Crossline Skipper
Northern Broken-Dash
Little Glassywing
Delaware Skipper

Other insects:

Carolina Locust (Dissosteira carolina)
Backroad Tiger Beetle (Cicindela longilabris)
Asian Multicolored Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis)
Margined Leatherwing (Soldier Beetle) (Chauliognathus marginatus)
Red Milkweed Beetle (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus)
Banded Longhorn (Typocerus velutinus)
Antlion (Brachynemurus sp.)
Long-legged Fly (Dolichopodidae)
Beefly


After the walk, I came home and walked around the field. In a milkweed patch, I found numerous butterflies including this hanging Monarch caterpillar ready to begin its pupa stage.

In another section of the field, I found several fairly small dragonflies perched on the tips of grasses. These yellow and black dragonflies, the pennants, are some of the coolest odonatans (dragonflies and damselflies) in Pennsylvania. I found two species, Halloween Pennants and Calico Pennants.

Calico Pennant

Halloween Pennant