Nature Moncton Nature
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well as any naturalist in New Brunswick or beyond, are invited to share their
photos and descriptions of recent nature sightings to build a fresh (almost)
daily edition of Nature News.
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Proofreading courtesy of
Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca
**Brian Coyle shares
another mushroom photo, the chrome-footed bolete, that is nicely
photographed to show all parts to make for better identification. The features
illustrated are quite diagnostic, but foraging for edible boletes should be
done with caution due to the many look-alikes.
**Lisa Morris shares
photos of two insect observations. The harvestman, a.k.a. daddy
longlegs, is quite easy to identify, but the dung beetle species
photographed has many look-alikes.
**Verica LeBlanc spotted a
small grasshopper on one of her coneflowers on Saturday to get excellent
photographs. It was smaller and did not hop around but rather dragged itself
up and down. We have many species of grasshopper in New Brunswick, but Verica’s
photo is an excellent match to one of the short-horned grasshopper species,
with Melanoplus sanguinipes
seemingly the best match.
Verica comments, “It was
interesting to see him ward off the other insects on approach; he has a
powerful little leg kick backward that seemed to work!”
**Jane LeBlanc found a
goldenrod crab spider in her milkweed patch. It has been hanging around
for a while. She also found a very tiny monarch caterpillar on a
milkweed leaf. She first noticed the damage done to the leaf... the caterpillar
was so small she would have missed it otherwise. She always looks for damage to
a leaf, or droppings that may signify monarch caterpillars nearby.
**Pat Gibbs has a chipping
sparrow coming to enjoy her “natural” feeder.
**Not to be outdone by
Jane LeBlanc, Nelson Poirier spotted his first monarch butterfly caterpillar
that had obviously just hatched in the Miramichi area, as it was still feeding
on the hairs of the common milkweed plant leaf.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
