Tuesday, June 18, 2024 post by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Facebook:
One in every three bites of food we eat is created with the help of pollinators. Pollinators help to make coffee, apples, squash, and of course, honey
But climate change is affecting pollinators throughout the country, threatening food security and ecosystem health.
USDA Climate Hubs work to ensure that farms, grazing lands, and forests across the U.S. can support healthy pollinators. Because whether it’s a home garden or a forest, pollinators thrive in healthy environments. Learn more about pollinators and climate change from our stories today!
#10YearsClimateSolutions #USDAClimateHubs #PollinatorWeek
Bees
Tuesday, April 10, 2018 post by Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens on Facebook:
Don't forget to look for native bees in early spring on woody plants. Willows and maples are some of the first forage plants in spring for native bees. Photo: male cellophane bee visiting red maple flowers. Thanks to Bee and Pollinator Books by Heather Holm for this photo and reminder! #bees #nativeplants
Cicadas
Tuesday, May 25, 2021 post by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission on Facebook:
From the NHPRC-supported Founders Online, Thomas Jefferson's 1775 Memorandum Book:
"Dr. Walker sais he remembers that the years 1724 & 1741. were great locust years. We all remember that 1758. was & now they are come again this year 1775. It appears then that they come periodically once in 17 years. They come out of the ground from a prodigious depth. It is thought they eat nothing while in this state; laying their eggs in the small twigs of trees seems to be their only business. The females make a noise well known. The males are silent."
Memorandum Books, 1775
Wednesday, May 15, 2024 post by the U.S. EPA Region 5 (Great Lakes Region) on Facebook:
#CicadaWeek: Did you know that cicadas are great timekeepers? As nymphs, they keep track of how long they’ve been underground by sensing how the tree ages and recording the annual tree flush in the spring. That’s how they know when to emerge!
Friday, May 17, 2024 post by the U.S. EPA Region 5 (Great Lakes Region) on Facebook:
No need to spray! Cicadas won’t harm mature trees, flowers, produce, or smaller plants—including farmed plants. In fact, cicadas can actually help your garden, because they can aerate lawns and improve water filtration. Cover younger trees with netting if needed! #CicadaWeek
Tuesday, June 4, 2024 post by The Library of Congress on Facebook:
"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood." - Marie Curie
It seems many of you are dealing with a convergence of periodical cicada broods this summer, the likes of which hasn't been seen since Thomas Jefferson was president! The Library has created a new reference guide to help you understand these harmless creatures a bit better.
Included in the guide: Books, journal and historical newspaper articles, and even a 1939 USDA educational film, which this image was taken from.
Learn more: Buzz in the Air! Announcing Periodical Cicadas: A Resource Guide June 3, 2024 Posted by: Jennifer Harbster.
The Library has created a new reference guide to help you understand these harmless creatures a bit better. Included in the guide: Books, journal & historical newspaper articles, and even a USDA educational film from 1939.
Saturday, June 8, 2024 post by Newspapers.com on Facebook:
Are the cicadas out where you live? This cicada map from 1919 shows where that year's 17-year brood and 13-year brood were expected to appear.
See this map and the accompanying article in the Peoples Herald on our site: Cicadas in 1919/ "17-Year Locust" Due This Year - Most Mysterious Insect Known to Scientists Will Invade Large Parts of the United States.
Fireflies or Lightning Bugs
Some Americans say 'firefly' while others say 'lightning bug,' and a series of maps highlights an interesting theory why Mark Adadi July 25, 2018 Business Insider.
Thursday, May 16, 2024 post by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Facebook:
Where did all the fireflies glow?
We get asked the question all the time - hey, why don't I see that many lightning bugs anymore? The simple answer is, maybe your community is no longer a good habitat for them. Before we get to the longer answer of why you're not seeing them anymore, you need to know how this beetle starts out life.
Fireflies lay their eggs in the ground where they then mature into glow worms. It's during this larval stage where they spend all their time eating other, tinier insects. Born and raised in the duff, they need the leaves that naturally litter the ground.
That’s why it's important to leave your backyards and street sides as untouched as possible every autumn to preserve the larvae and small insects living in the leaf litter. This helps to ensure a healthy, new year of fireflies.
Ok, leave the leaves, but what are some other ways to help?
Turn off outdoor lights in the evening. If you have inside lights on, close the blinds
Plant native plants
Mow grass less frequently and raise the length of the cut to 4 inches
When leaves drop in the fall, rake them if you want, but keep them in your yard
Use non-pesticide solutions for insect control
Check out the comments for more ways you can help re-glow and re-grow the firefly population.
Photo courtesy of Jessica Lucia (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Friday, May 17, 2024 post by the U.S. Forest Service - Hoosier National Forest on Facebook:
North America alone has more than 100 species of fireflies; but that may be changing.
Butterflies, bees, and now fireflies, are all struggling to find places to live and reproduce. Across the country and world, people are wondering where the fireflies went.
Those who remember spectacular light shows report how they have now subsided. These observations have been verified by numerous scientific studies which cite massive population declines in insects.
Both the public, and scientists alike, are curious to know how our actions are affecting this major center of the food web.
For more on what's happening and ways you can help: Save the fireflies Looking through a microscope, a firefly’s head can be seen peering out Your childhood may be gone, but do the fireflies have to go with it?
Butterflies
Saturday, June 24, 2023 post by Fox Island County Park on Facebook:
Mourning Cloak (l) and Question Mark (r) butterflies photographed on the Fox Island Upper Dune Trail 6-22-2023. Both of these species overwinter as adults and emerge in early spring to start their mating cycle. Mourning Cloaks have a life span of 11-12 months making them among the longest lived lepidoptera. Question Mark butterflies are identified by the 2-part mark on their dorsal hindwing. Comma Butterflies are very similar but with a single "C' shaped mark on their hindwing. Question Mark butterflies have a preference for rotting fruit, dung, carrion and tree sap when they emerge in the springtime when flower nectar may be scarce.
Photos: Jeff Ormiston
Monarch Butterfly
Sunday, May 19, 2019 post by Metea County Park on Facebook:
On Saturday, 5-18-2019, a Monarch was spotted at Metea Co. Park!
It’s not too early to start checking for eggs. [ photos of eggs in comments to original post ]
Wednesday, April 3, 2024 post by the U.S. Department of the Interior on Facebook:
At the start of the spring breeding season, eastern populations of monarchs leave their winter habitat in the oyamel fir forests of Mexico to begin a northward journey. They move northward as milkweeds start growing on their migratory route.
These monarchs live for a few weeks with the females laying eggs along the way. Planting milkweed and other flowers native to your area is the perfect way to help monarchs as the next generation continues another stage of the northbound expedition.
Photo by J. Jurado / NPS
Wednesday, June 26, 2024 post by The Nature Conservancy in Indiana on Facebook:
Monarch butterflies are back across Indiana for the summer! Now is a good time to check your milkweed leaves for butterfly eggs and small larva. The eggs are very small and often on the underside of the milkweed leaf. Can you find the monarch egg on the common milkweed plant? TNC's Trevor Edmonson discovered it yesterday just outside the Kankakee Sands Preserve Office.
I was looking through my archives earlier and came across these monarch butterfly photos taken at Fox Island County Park a few years ago. Thought I'd share them again.
Posted by Mike Durbin on Thursday, June 27, 2024
Thursday, June 27, 2024 post on Facebook:
I was looking through my archives earlier and came across these monarch butterfly photos taken at Fox Island County Park a few years ago. Thought I'd share them again.
[ See Fox Island County Park ]
Saturday, June 29, 2024 post by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region on Facebook:
Species Spotlight: Monarch butterfly
Monarch butterflies are famous for their impressive migration each spring and fall. It's so far that each leg of the journey to the northeast in the spring is completed by a new generation. Monarchs feed on wildflowers along the way, but will only lay their eggs on milkweed, which makes up 100% of the monarch caterpillar's diet!
At the end of the summer, the last generation of monarchs complete the final leg back to Mexico all by themselves, covering 3,000 miles, before starting the process over again in the spring. Leah Riley/USFWS #pollinatorweek
Honeybees
Honey bees some claim they were called white man's flies
by the Native American Indians. One story is that the honey bees often preceded European settlements by a 100 miles or so as the settlers spread across North America.
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August 20, 2023 post by Historic Jamestowne on Facebook:
Did you know that honey bees were not a part of the indigenous environment at Jamestown? Though bees did exist, honey bees were imported by the Virginia Company in the 1620s. Today, you can buy honey from local beekeepers at Magnolia at the Dale House Cafe or seeds for native plants when you're visiting Jamestown!
Yarrow plants at the Memorial Gate, donated to Preservation Virginia by The Colonial Dames of America in 1907 and restored in 2019. Photo by Chuck Durfor.
- Honey Bees Crossing North America- Call the 'Whitemans Fly' by Native Americans discussion on Beesource.
- Honey Bees in Early America: White Man’s Flies – Fact and Fiction Harry Schenawolf August 8, 2019 on the Revolutionary War Journal seems to be the most referenced discussion of this subject.
- The White Man’s Flies December 6, 2019 on Black Outdoors.
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November 17, 2020 post by Blue Green Horizons on Facebook:
“white man’s flies” - another Bee myth to stop using
From the Revolutionary War journal Project:
"Since Native Americans had never seen a honey bee, they had no word for the insect, wax, or honey. As such, they called them “white man’s flies” since they weren’t around until the Europeans showed up.
Not quite true as ‘white man’s flies’ is really a ‘white man’s myth.’
Native Americans had seen bees before, hard to miss 4,000 species of bees spread throughout the continent, but not honey bees until the early 16th century.
They also had never seen nor tasted honey, for native bees do not produce the sweet byproduct (unless one had traveled south to the tropics where the local Milapon bee makes honey).
They had no word to describe the honey bee.
That didn’t stop a Puritan pastor named John Eliot (1605 – 1690) who is credited for coming up with one. A missionary, he arrived in New England in 1631. He immediately rolled up his sleeves and did what missionaries do best, converted the local ‘savages’ to Christianity.
He decided he could be better at his job if he learned the native tongue, but do one better, he would translate the bible into their language.
By 1661, after fourteen years of hard labor, Eliot did just that. During his efforts, he also produced a dictionary of sorts of the Algonquin language of Massachusetts, at the same time producing the first published works at the first printing press in America., at Harvard College.
He discovered there was no word for honey bee so, being a creative and persistent fellow, he came up with one. It literally meant ‘white man’s flies’ and he assured anyone who asked, that indeed he had heard his Native American translators use the term.
Four hundred years later, trivial pursuit games and the internet are full of references to Native Americans referring to the honey bee as ‘white man’s flies’, except that is not the case.
Since Eliot’s inventive mind came up with the ‘Indian term’ for honey bees, there are few if any examples of Native Americans actually calling honey bees ‘white man’s flies’, outside a few romantic novels whose covers are graced with shirtless Native America ‘hunks’ and some historical texts written by ‘experts’.
Sorry to all those witty folks who have impressed their friends with this quaint ‘white man’s flies’ trivial gem.
Title page from John Elliot’s Algonqian Indian Bible 1663.
[Mamusse wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God naneeswe Nukkone Testament kah wonk Wusku Testament. 1685 edition on Archive.org]
[ First Bible Printed in US is Algonquian December 1, 2015 Roberta Estes on Native Heritage Project ]
Zebra swallowtail butterfly
Wednesday, June 21, 2023 post by Fox Island County Park on Facebook:
Today ( summer solstice) while walking the Upper Dune Trail at Fox Island Dan Preest and Jeff Ormiston observed two Zebra Swallowtail butterflies among the few standing Paw Paw trees. The Paw Paw is the host plant for the Zebra Swallowtail caterpillars but seldom seen in the park.
Photo: Dan Preest, 6-21-23
I often see zebra swallowtails flapping around in the spring in areas near rivers and streams, which is often the...
Posted by Andy Adams on Thursday, June 6, 2024
Thursday, June 6, 2024 post by Andy Adams on Facebook:
I often see zebra swallowtails flapping around in the spring in areas near rivers and streams, which is often the habitat of its preferred host plant. After overwintering in the chrysalis, the adult butterfly emerges around this time of year to find mates over the next few months. The pawpaw is an important part of their life cycle, as this is where females will lay their eggs after mating. The larvae will then spend most of the later summer mowing down paws paw leaves before entering their metamorphic state.
In my experience, these butterflies are extremely flighty and rarely hold still, but they do enjoy puddling, where they land on organic-rich mud to suck up the tasty nutrients. After spotting this individual, I waited patiently until it found the perfect mud pile, where it sat and allowed for close photos.
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