Monday, July 25, 2011

Something Old, Something New, Something Yellow, Something Blue

I guess I put up my 'Butterfly Bush Buddies' post a day too soon because Saturday I had two more unusual visitors.

The 'something old, something yellow' was a rare visitor from last summer that I saw for the first time this summer - a yellow warbler.  They come not for the bird seed in the feeder, but for the bugs on the butterfly bushes.


(I know - not such a great picture, but since I took it from inside my house without a telephoto lens...)  They are supposed to be fairly common, but I had never seen one until last summer.  Here's a closer, better look courtesy of Wikipedia.

Source:  Wikipedia

Yellow warblers also like fruit as part of their diet and have a wide distribution across the mid and northern U.S. and Canada during the breeding season.

And the 'something new, something blue'?  Later on Saturday there was a beautiful yellow swallowtail butterfly on my butterfly bush when I went to get my mail.  Of course, by the time I got my camera it was gone.  But then I noticed a beautiful blue bug on the sidewalk and took its picture instead.  When I first noticed it, there was a cricket along side it.  The blue bug kept getting on top of the cricket and I wasn't exactly sure what it was trying to do!


The cricket was almost as big as the bug.  It must have finally gotten it in the right position and balance because then it picked up the cricket and flew away with it.  Funniest thing - turns out it was a cricket hunting wasp!  These wasps (Chlorion aerarium) enjoy the flower nectar, but the females also hunt crickets, paralyze them with their venom and then carry them back to either a burrow or hole.  They lay a single egg on the cricket and when the egg hatches the larvae eats the cricket.  They can either put several eggs in one hole or give the egg and its 'host' a burrow all to themselves and then plug up the hole.

I had noticed something dark flying very erratically around the butterfly bushes, but they hardly ever seemed to land.  They are basically solitary wasps and the males are smaller than the females.  Like in a pride of lions, the females do all the work!  They do their cricket hunting on the ground - also making very quick darting movements as they hunt in cracks and crevices and grass for their favorite prey.


They can be very aggressive if disturbed so I tried to keep my distance while trying to get the second picture.  The successful wasp with the cricket was too preoccupied, I think, to be too concerned with me.  (That was also before I had identified it as a wasp!)  Very interesting species.  And I know my neighbors were entertained if they were watching me trying to capture its image!

For a video, click here.

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