Cicadas (two cicadas are in the insect collection in the Visitor's Center)
The high pitched whine heard from the trees comes from moderate sized insects known as cicadas. These insects are starting to die off now (in the lowlands - they still seem quite prominent higher up the mountains) having mated and laid their eggs, and so things are getting a bit quieter around here. See the June 1-14 sheet for more information.
Butterflies and Moths
Most common orange butterfly in the lowland (numbers have dropped) - Variegated Fritillary
A larger orange butterfly similar to the Monarch (not seen in numbers) - Queen
Most common white butterfly in the lowland (numbers have dropped) - Checkered White
Large dark butterflies around - Pipevine Swallowtails and Eastern Black Swallowtails
These two butterflies like to nectar at the New Mexico (I think) thistle blooming now.
Pipevine Swallowtails have been playing around the oaks at Frijole Ranch in the middle of the day.
I encountered Pipevines along the Tejas Trail and a number of the Black Swallowtails at Hunter's Point on June 19.
Largest butterfly around now - Two-tailed Tiger Swallowtail (in the Visitor's Center collection)
This large yellow butterfly with black stripes can be seen in wooded areas and along stream courses.
Largest day flying moth (numbers have dropped) - White-lined Sphinx Moth (see earlier sheet)
Flies (there is a large robber fly in the bottom right of the Visitor's Center collection)
Robber flies are still quite common along all the trails. See the June 1 - 14 sheet for more information.
Dragonflies and Damselflies (the Filagree Skimmer is in the middle of the collection)
Dragonflies, hungry robust flying machines, are showing up in various places. These predators are aquatic insects as juveniles (lifetimes as juveniles for our species are normally 1 to 2 years but it can be up to 10 years for some species). After dragonflies emerge as adults, they leave the vicinity of their childhood and can roam far and wide as they mature sexually and their bodies strengthen enough to handle the rigors of mating. When they are ready to mate they return to the water. The active orange-red ones seen flying near still waters such as Manzanita and Smith Springs are called Flame Skimmers.
Less robust, the pencil thin damselflies also are predators, although of smaller prey. Since they are weaker fliers they often do not venture far from the waters they lived in as juveniles. They are harder to identify than the dragonflies because their identification depends on subtleties of the color pattern.
Like the butterflies, North American dragonflies and damselflies have been given common names which are accepted as species specific.
True Bugs
To the average person there is not much difference between insects, spiders, scorpions, roly-polies, etc. in the sense that they are all "bugs". To the entomologist (someone who studies insects) only a subset of these "bugs" are actually insects, and of those, only a subset are actually bugs. For that reason the word "true" is often used to indicate the real bugs to the entomologist. It's all very confusing really, suffice it to say that a bug to you is not necessarily a bug to an entomologist, but a bug to an entomologist would also be a bug to you.
There is a very prominent (ie large), dark colored bug on the Yucca elata (Soaptree Yucca), particularly the old flower heads and the seed capsules. There are also a number of young (similar looking, but smaller and lacking wings) on these plants. True bugs have piercing, sucking mouthparts, and these particular bugs feed on the plant juices of this Yucca. I don't know whether they are specific to Yucca elata, but some plants have a large number of these bugs. With their broad hind legs, they are one of the leaf-footed bugs. (A specimen is in the insect collection in the Visitor Center.)
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