Insects

Mystery of the Tawny Sac: Understanding the World of the Praying Mantis

By Gary August 27, 2024 Leave a comment

i ‘My childhood home was one of the thousands of post-World War II houses constructed on land that once was farmed for potatoes and other crops on Long Island. Yet, my yard was bustling with nature: butterflies visiting flowers, eastern cottontails hiding in the landscaped shrubs, and English sparrows nesting in the eaves of our […]

Six-legged Sex

Six-legged Sex

By Gary October 2, 2019 Leave a comment

Stepping out my front door, I walk right into an orgy of sex. I am surrounded by couples attached abdomen to abdomen. Crawling entangled bodies writhe in a mass next to the front window of the porch. It is late summer in Florida and the love bug mating season is upon us. Love bugs are […]

The Vanishing Butterfly

The Vanishing Butterfly

By Gary May 27, 2019 Leave a comment

It is May on Long Island and as I walk down a trail that winds through oak woodlands, my attention is drawn to flashes of blue about a foot or two above the ground. As I get closer, I see that the flashes are from a metallic blue colored butterfly fluttering across the trail. I […]

The Robin of the Butterfly World

By Gary May 8, 2019 Leave a comment

It is early April and even though the weather is still chilly, today is a warm spring day. As I walk into the pine barren woodlands in a park on Long Island in New York, I see nothing but a gray landscape made of leafless oak trees and various heaths. Slate colored juncos (sparrow sized […]

Horror in the Milkweed Patch

Horror in the Milkweed Patch

By Gary January 17, 2019 Leave a comment

Anne walks out the front door into our yard to look for caterpillars on the milkweed. She has seen some Monarch butterflies recently and thought they may have laid eggs on the plants. A few minutes later, she knocks on the dining room window and tells me to come quick with my camera. As I […]