Bugguide Buggeroo

So, as everyone should know, Crumby attempted to integrate with Bugguide once before. Yet that try or attempt failed miserably. Mercy though! Crumby wishes to get Ray’s fly pictures and his own bee pictures identified to the lowest possible taxon levels. Only Bugguide can help, maybe.

But then, when Crumby began the process of cropping to fill the frame and downsizing pictures to 560 pixels at the widest side, he despaired. Good Goddess! Mercy! This can’t be right.

But alas. It is right. It is the rules. Good Goddess! Mercy! Merciful Heavens!

Later

No. Crumby has not submitted this bee’s picture to Bugguide. He can’t make himself do it. Because Crumby has already looked at all the pictures on display at Bugguide that feature Anthophorinae. Anthophorinae is the subfamily of bees that Crumby believes his depicted bee is a member of. And Crumby’s bee is not represented.

But Crumby does not believe anyone is likely to identify his bee to genus species from this picture. Somebody probably could identify Crumby’s bee to genus species from this picture. But they won’t. Perhaps from malice. No. That someone might say, well it is probably such and such, but the picture is so shitty, I can’t be sure. Do you have any better pictures of this same bee or better pictures of other bees you are confident is the same as the depicted bee.

Jeez Louise! That is precisely what Crumby’s ovational feelings or attitudes are telling him at this very nonce. Therefore, Crumby is going to think longer and harder about submitting a bunch of shitty pictures.

This sad business also reminds Crumby that he needs a camera with more megapixels. You may see, thus, that one miserable conclusion leads to another. Yes. Miserable conclusions come cascading down. Exactly like when you are fixing to ride your new pony through the draw. But suddenly your many enemies have concealed themselves up on the rims of the draw and they are now fixing to push boulders over the edge of the draw. Then those boulders which your many enemies have pushed over the edge come cascading down along with a great many other rocks or sticks which the original boulders dislodged so that all those sticks and stones come landsliding along together. They are fixing to engulf and afflict you and your new pony in precisely the same fashion that a miserable conclusion or two may lead to a landslide or cascade of the same general style and dimension.

More Hoar Frost, DY 5

Here we are at the tail end of DY 5 and the hoar frost is back. Which means that Crumby needs to climb up on the roof to clean the gutters. Mercy!

Yes. The hoar frost got shut of all the paper wasps that might have attacked Crumby up on the roof while he was cleaning the gutters. So that excuse is done for. Mercy!

The gradual, seasonal decline of the paper wasps has been interesting. This year, DY 5, produced a bumper crop of Polistes exclamans. We had maybe a tousand or two tousand total. First frost seemed to about halve the population. But then they declined gradually, until last night, when the last tiny few succumbed to the cold. Goodness!

Oh crap. I am too old and feeble to have to climb up on the roof. What’s needed in these parts is cold hardy wasps. Those cold hardy wasps could keep Crumby off the roof, perpetually.

Right here, this picture shows the situation we are now discussing. That wasp nest was once a thriving community, a hive of activity, a beacon of progress throbbing with the hum of industry. How much caterpillar mush was regurgitated up yonder?

But look at it now. Deserted. Done for. Those happy times of regurgitation gone forever.

OK. It’s time for yet another Druid dichotomy. Which would you rather have, wasps under the eaves, or full gutters?

The CB is Rodent Free

Yip! Yip!

This morning, still groggy with sleep, Crumby headed for the back door. The pets wanted out. Y'all need to go to see Mrs. Murphy. Yes you do. Yes you do.

But on the way, Crumby, even without his spectacles on, could barely espy the dead rat. Correct. The rat that has been infesting the CB all week was prone on a Saltillo tile, deceased. Yet before Crumby could say Jack Robinson, a pet grabbed the rat. OK. Good girl. Take the rat out in the backyard.

So now, the CB domicile is entirely rat free, maybe. Yes. Rodent free just in time for that great secular feast day, Thanksgiving.

A while back we got a ham. A big ham. That ham was originally so big that a great portion of it was left over and has been frozen for a while. So the test this morning was to see if we could eat of that same ham this Thanksgiving.

Praise the Goddess for refrigeration. Our left over ham has now passed a rigid Druid sniff test. Now we may safely partake of that ham in just a little while. Mmm. Ham! Plus we don't have to fret that a rat may suddenly jump out, grab the ham and make off with it.

Lightning Fast

Crumby once had a crumby job (is there any other kind) where one of the skills was to snatch birds out of thin air. Course Crumby and the birds were both enclosed in a pen. Therefore, even if Crumby missed his marks, eventually the birds would tire out and get caught. Monkey perserverance is a terrible thing!

But take note, thin air. The birds we are discussing were not pedestrian birds such as chickens. No. We are talking three dimensional bird snatching.

With that kind of historical experience under his belt, it's no wonder Crumby can catch rodents with his bare hands. Well. Generally Crumby wears gloves for rodent catching. But he could catch them bare handed. The fact is, bare handed would be easier except for the possibility of prhss. That's post rodent handling stress syndrome (prhss) in case you don't know what the heck Crumby is discussing here.

OK. Crumby needs to catch rodents because the cat brings the rodents into the CB to play with. But then the mouse or rat escapes temporarily. The cat goes to sleep. So up until just a while ago, we had one wild mouse and one wild rat in the CB. Yet Crumby, aided by the cat, just caught the mouse. Now we are down to one rat in the house. One rodent in the house at one time is fairly OK compared to larger numbers of rodents in the house. We can live with one.

Crumby’s Semi-Crazy Camera Talk

Take it from me, Crumby Ovate. If you need to do nature photography, Canon is the Japanese camera brand for you. And the best place to start learning about Canon nature photography is dpreview.com, at the Canon dslr lens talk forum. There are other forums on dpreview, but for nature photography, don’t waste your time and money anywhere else. Start there!

Do as I say, not as I did. Mercy! I wish I had followed this advice. But this advice was not available in those days when Crumby started out as a neophyte nature photographer. Nobody said. Crumby, look here or there. Nope!

OK. Here’s some excellent reasons why an average naturalist wishing to take nature photos should start with Canon. First, there’s the unique MP-65 1x5 macro lens. Properly lit, the tiniest of subjects may be photographed with this lens. Second, Canon has lots more macro lens options covering virtually any contingency. Third, the 400mm, 5.6 is a good option for far away. Then too, Canon has plenty more telephoto options, only more expensive.

So Crumby sadly wishes he had started out with Canon. Boo-hoo-hoo. And now, because Crumby’s teeth have decided to give out, he can’t buy into Canon. No. Instead, Crumby has to turn over his life savings to the dentists. Yes. The dentist’s kids won’t have to work. They will enjoy trust funds. Yes. Those little dentist’s snot noses will have all Crumby’s savings. And Crumby, if he’s lucky, may get to gum some oatmeal.

Uh. Crumby wishes Canon would give him some money for this extemporaneous review of some of the Canon products.

Crazy Muths from Crumby’s Past

The hard drive is practically full. When that happens, it’s finally time to do something about the ORF files. Only, the only alternative is, get shut of those enormous data hog ORF files. But while an average electric camera enthusiast fools with the RAW files; he may run across actually useful files containing unidentified muths from the past.

These pictures are from the banana feeder hey days at the CB, before the rats (Sigmodon) figured out the banana feeder. That’s correct. The rats were eating up the bananas faster than Crumby could deliver the bananas and faster than the pets could eat the rats. Rats!

What made Crumby seriously look at these old photos was, a copy of the Loxostege allectalis showing up at the window screen at night. Crumby thought. I may have seen that dern moth before . The other depicted muth is the armyworm moth (Mythimna unipuncta).

It took Crumby many moons to finally id these muths. Many!

We need to fire up the banana feeder again because the muths are generally in natural feeding poses. Assuming, moths naturally pose on bananas.

Copestylum mexicanum

Crumby could have sworn he already took this fly’s picture. Yet when he looked in the Diptera file, no similar fly was to be found there, or anywhere. So it’s a good thing Crumby got a new picture of this fly because the former image is lost, maybe. But a new picture obviates the need for hiring a tracker Druid to find the lost image.

This fly is bigger than it looks. Hmm. Well you know that flower it’s on is Eupatorium incarnatum which is a mighty small flower. So this fly only looks big while it’s flying about or around. The fact is, when this particular fly is on the wing, it favors a carpenter bee. That’s right. You could easily assume this fly is a carpenter bee unless you espy it quiescent.

The common name of this fly is Mexican cactus fly. That’s because the babies or maggots purportedly eat rotting cactus pads. And what do we associate with Mexico? Did you guess, cactus? Correct. Mexico is noted for a great amount of cactus or cacti. Hence, Mexican cactus fly.

Yet as everyone knows, Red does not allow any cactus at the CB. That’s because once upon a time Red got a new pair of Gortex lined hiking boots. But the first day Red had those boots, some dern old cactus thorns poked those boots through, severely. Then, lo and behold, the rains came. The rain fell for 40 days and forty nights. Anon, mass quantities of cold rain water seeped through the cactus holes made in the waterproof Gortex liners in Red’s boots.

That’s it. I shall banish cactus from the Cow Barn forever. Also, I shall never waste any more hard earned money on such foolishness as Gortex boot liners

But the neighbors have cactus. And probably, much of the cactus in these parts is rotting. Which explains why Mexican cactus flies occur at the CB even when we have no cactus.

All righty. One more comment on this particular fly. According to some, Copestylum mexicanum is the largest of the North American hoover flies. Hoover fly is another name for Syrphid flies or hover flies. Druids prefer the common name, Hoover.

The Lost Symbols of the Druids

Crumby has been fretting over symbols lately. Like just about all the social crap humans make up needs to be symbolized by a symbol or two. Countries have symbols. Sports teams have symbols. Corporations have symbols. Religions have symbols. Most crap has symbols. Ah yes. But here is a hitch in yer get-a-long. Religions have symbols except for the Druids. Mercy! No symbol for Druids.

Crumby would like to spell. Well now, the excuse for no Druid symbol is, because there is a symbol, or maybe even symbols, but they are secret symbols, known only to the Druids. However, since Druids don’t lie, Crumby can’t spell that. The truth is, there are no extant Druid symbols. Which may be why Druidry is not as popular as it should be. Popular human institutional crap needs a symbol.

But what about this noggin fruit? The Druids once had symbols, but those ancient symbols got lost. Ho-hum. If that were the case though, we Druids could have easily recovered our lost symbol or symbols. That’s because we have tracker Druids that can find anything, anywhere at any dern time. For example, Karl the Tracker Druid, while still encapsulated in his Mammy’s hot box, could find stuff. That’s when, while he was still encapsulated in yonder, afloat in warm embyoinc type fluid, Karl tracked down his Dad, even though Karl was in the womb at that particular time and place.

But Crumby, many may argue, finding your stray Dad, a wayward pig or a wallet is way different than finding the lost symbols of an entire religion. So what we need to do maybe is make up some new symbols.

OK. What should be the new symbol or symbols for the Druids or Druid religion as it is now constituted? We need to come up with a symbol or two.

Later!

All righty then. All the Druids have now voted on a new symbol for the old time religion. There were plenty of potential symbols, but in the end, after plenty of debate or hand-wringing this up-coming symbol was just about the unanimous choice of everyone.

Many may wonder how Druids could come up with an entirely new symbol so fast. Easy that, Druids think at light speed and communicate this or that feeling or opinion telepathically. So no wonder we could devise a new symbol for our religion in under an hour. High time and badly needed too.

OK. The new symbol of the Druids, the almost unanimous choice of all the Druids that voted, and after like a tousand or maybe two tousand ballots before virtual unanimity was achieved, is this:

Ta-ta! Does everybody recognize our new symbol? Hark yes! It’s the ample bosoms of the White Goddess displayed diagrammatically or as a symbol. Yes. It’s the ABs of the WG.

Now that we have a symbol again, we can easily draw or carve our symbol on stuff like uh, dolmens, tombstones, urns, comfort station walls, uh, desktops, trees, railroad cars, road signs, etc. Yes. Once again the Druids shall have a powerful symbol evoking this or that with respect to our religion. Praise the Goddess!

Insect Art

Insect art is art that features insects. Most of the time with insect art, the insect is an obvious feature of the art. But sometimes, the insect is less obvious. In fact, the insect may be only subtly hinted at in the art. The insect may also be abstract or virtually unrecognizable as an insect presently known to science. Or, the artist’s employment of the insect for this or that may be an effort to get the average art enthusiast to look at the insect art, but think of something besides the insect depicted or suggested in the art.

This is an example of what we are now discussing. Here we espy an insect, a morning glory loving plume moth (Emmelina monodactyla) caught out in the open in broad daylight. Normally, these moths are encountered nocturnally, lit upon a window screen or close by a porch light. Yes. There they are perched on the window screen, yearning to get past the window. Seeking the man-made light. Glory be!

Uh. But this one is diurnal so the artiste we are now discussing had the opportunity to actually photograph it during regular working hours. The result is this piece of art. Now obviously, the trained scientific eye or mind will immediately espy the moth. So it’s not like this moth or muth is abstract or less than obvious. Unless, of course, the average art consumer viewing the image for the first nonce is unfamiliar with muths in general or plume moths in particular. Then, in that case, the visualization may suggest something entirely different. Yes. Science may then take a back seat to fantasy and opinion.

It’s like, OK. What do you feel like you are espying? Hark! This could be one of those wretched, wicked souls, pinned to the wall of Arianrhod’s castle. Crucified! Awaiting the WG’s judgement.

Colorful Variegated Meadowhawks

Nice red and blue on these fornicators. The best color Crumby has espied on a pair to date.

Crumby’s Camera Pep Talk

Seems like the mirror may be fixing to come unglued again. As everyone knows, the mirror on Crumby’s E 330 is prone to come off at untimely intervals. Probably, Olympus got in a bad batch of glue that they used on Crumby’s model. The same glue was applied to the rubber. The rubber comes off too.

Yes. The mirror could be slightly out of adjustment due to loose glue, causing all my dang pictures to be slightly out of focus lately. Like this picture of this bug.

But what Crumby is actually discussing today are hot pixels. Hot pixels could potentially ruin your digital camera experience. Like in this example you may espy all those colored dots or spots at 100% magnification. Those dots or colored spots are about a gazillion, hot, stuck pixels. There’s no telling what causes those hot pixels, but there they are, making this out of focus (OOF) picture even worse looking than normal. Fortunately, Crumby’s Olympus camera features a utility that allows a semi-proud owner to map out all the hot pixels. You should, however, only use the hot pixel mapping feature once a year. And the year’s not up. Crumby is stuck with this batch.

Yes. Some camera models allow an average amateur photographer to map out the hot pixels. With other models though, the average enthusiast photographer must send the camera back to the manufacturer to get rid of the hot pixels. What a drag that would be! Goodness! Expensive too!

There is an additional bad or evil pixel problem known as pseudo hot pixels or luke warm pixels. These type pixels typically crop up in macro photography images where an average amateur photographer must employ flash to light up the nether regions of a particular vermin that is partially enveloped in stygian darkness. However, sometimes luke warm pixels can also show up on a vermin in natural light on a bright, sunny day.

For arguments sake, let’s say that vermin is a fly. Did you know that many flies are naturally oily or may have oily droplets scattered about on the vestiture? Furthermore, these oily droplets, may reflect light exclusively in a particular wave length, say red, thus imitating the behavior of a hot pixel. This is why your luke warm pixel is also known as a pseudo hot pixel.

Diolcus chrysorrheus of the Scutellaridae

Get a room!

No. You get a room!

As can be seen here, beetles are care free when it comes to fornication. Even the near proximity of entirely different beetles, also fornicating, does not put them off. Uh. This is like maybe a human couple plus a cow and a bull fornicating in the same motel room.

This makes me, Ray, appreciate just how rare and pure matrimonial sex in nature really is. I mean, if you consider all the sexual intercourse that goes on in nature, and how much of that is mere fornication, or adultery, versus sex enjoined in connubial bliss, then you may get what I mean. It’s like the latter type may be special. Yes. Sex between married individuals is probably special due to rarity.

On the other hand, these beetles are most certainly heathen savages, fornicating heedlessly in the wilderness. They have never heard the good news, that Jesus died for their sins. That’s because Jesus didn’t die for their sins. No. Jesus probably didn’t know about beetles in the first place.

Yet it’s not too late. These beetles could be saved easily once the language barrier is somehow taken down. Yes. What is needed is a mission to the heathen beetles. Save their souls!

That’s Acmaeodera flavomarginata on the left and Haplorhynchites eximus on the right. Or it’s a flower buprestrid and a wee, wee-weezille.

Leptoglossus phyllopus at Plague Like Proportions

OK. We have leaf-footed bugs for sale at the CB. Anybody need bugs. We are vending these for a dollar apiece. Even at that low price, there ought to be plenty to go around.

Actually this is a Cow Barn ecology note stuck in the venue to remind us that this year, once the goldenrod went to seed, every stalk sported a bug, or two or a dozen, all Leptoglossus phyllopus. Crumby wishes he could get a dollar per bug. The total for all those bugs would buy Crumby a fine new first rate brand camera and a couple of primo lenses.

Rayetta’s Butterflies - New CB Record - Western Pygmy-Blue (Brephidium exile)

Let me see. Is this one 82 or 83 for the Cow Barn - Butterfly Documentation System (CB-BDS)?

Ray! You need to check on how many.

This one is very beat up and likely to kick the bucket any second. But it was lively enough to keep me from getting a better picture. Darn! And now it seems to have moved on.

First Frost

The CB has been afflicted by frost two nights in a row now. Certainly, the vermin shall be thinned out by the frost. Which means Crumby needs to start fixing to categorize all the vermin pictures he took during the course of DY 5 alternative to galloping around the yard taking pictures. That shall be plenty of work because Crumby took plenty of pictures this year.

But there are also troubling historical facts to consider. Yes. Druids fret over history, hoping to keep our version as truthful as possible. So another winter job for Crumby is rewriting history. Like for example, Crumby has been hunting through this venue, RGVECB, for a spider picture he figured Ray “published” to the venue. The picture was taken about this time last year. So logically Crumby began his search in the November 2009 of the Julian Archive. No spider.

Apparently Ray did not publish that particular spider picture. But in searching the Archive, Crumby found two misidentified insect pictures. The Boopedon gracile is really Melanoplus angustipennis and the Lineodes interrupta is probably Lineodes integra. You may gather from this that experience is a great teacher. And as you gain experience, you can and should go back and change all the errors you made during your wicked and ignorant past.

So here’s the spider we are all discussing. By the look in its eyes Crumby has temporarily decided it may be a crab spider relative. The flower is Zexmenia hispida. It’s a small spider

Harbingers? Maybe, Maybe Not

This is about the palest multi-colored Asian lady beetle Crumby has espied, ever. It is also little as they go. At any rate, the common name for this one is apt.

Harmonia axyridis and Coccinella semptempunctata are both regularly encountered at the CB. Besides the CB, they have in common, large size for lady beetles, both are introduced from foreign parts, and both are perhaps more common than the native lady beetles at the CB. That’s excepting the runt Scrymnus which can be downright numerous.

Besides these twain, introduced, theoretically beneficial predators, the CB also sports the European mantis (Mantis religiosa). The fact is, Mantis religiosa is the only mantis we have identified to species so far. So are all these introduced predators really doing any good? Well, they are good for the green lynx spiders. Yet apart from good value as spider chow, are they generally good? Or, are they actually evil, harbingers of doom? Probably needs more study.

Crumby’s Fantasy Election Result

Cut off from the Booblican news, Crumby has had to ovate or make up the results of the most recent. And Crumby’s election result headline is, Ruling Class Kicks Ass.

It’s true. Our precious ruling class is totally out of new ideas and does not give much of a shit even if it had any new ideas. Nevertheless, the ruling class still wins elections, handily. It’s an inertia thing.

But, Praise the Goddess, there is one group of Americans that do give a shit. And that group is, moth or muth naturalists. For goodness sake, Crumby has been investigating the many muths at the CB lately. To find out about the CB's sometimes fuzzy, often nocturnal leps, also known as moths or muths, Crumby resorts to comparative imagery, that is, comparing his photos to the photos of others. And the many moth photographers or naturalists really do shine like Ogma Sunface on a dewy morn. Like the WG on a good night. Yes. There are plenty of good pictures of various moths with identifications to species attached. Many haha! Nay tousands or maybe two tousands. Seems like the moth or muth naturalists have it together. Especially, compared to the miserable wee-zille naturalists. Course wee-zilles may be harder than muths.

OK. What photo to show today? How about a wee-zille? No. No. No. Crumby can’t identify any of his wee wee-zilles to species. So how about another muth in tribute to the great muth naturalists who make muth identifications probable. Glyphipterix cirscumscriptella and potter wasp pal.

Election Day, DY 5

Mercy! Election day is upon us again. Man alive. Crumby is fixing to go vote a straight Democratic ticket. Sad because the Democratic Party, much like the Booblican Party, stands for monopoly capitalism and imperialism. Ugh! Crumby’s vote is maybe a lesser of two evils vote. What a cliche! Sad. But evil is evil and the lesser evil really is better.

Several weeks ago, realizing that the news has become a mere parade like synopsis of Booblican celebrity, Red banned all news at the CB. We get no paper, no TV news, no internet news. The fact is, the Booblican celebrity alerts by Yahoo News on the internet were the inspiration for the ban. Therefore, the Druid vote in these parts is independent of current events and based, entirely on fantasy.

So, with no Booblican news to fret over, Crumby has been focusing on moths or muths. Yet Crumby has expanded his moth or muth horizons. No longer does Crumby limit his observations to restrooms or comfort stations. No longer is Crumby content with the occasional diurnal flyer. No. Now Crumby is focused on those many moths and muths that come to lights at night. After all, what are those fuzzy leps famous for if not, coming to lights at night. Yes. They come fluttering out of the stygian darkness. Here they come, alighting on screen or window pane. Longing to get on in but thwarted. So they have to just sit where they are, hoping someone will open the door or window. They stare at the light, hypnotized. Mercy! It’s like the song says. Drawn like a moth or muth to the flame or electric light.

This interesting muth of the night may be Diacme elealis.

Dracunculoides!

Dracucnuloides is increasing at the CB. It is increasing so much that we put it on the draft plant list. It is unlikely to decrease now that it has increased. Drancunculoides is an increaser.

To know what an increaser is, you really need to have taken an introductory range science class. That’s range as goes with cowboys, not large kitchen appliances. Because only in range science class would you learn that certain plants increase in response to grazing. Those are the increasers as described in RS 101.

However, Crumby is a man of much experience. And Crumby has found out that dracunculoides increases regardless of whether its grassy competitors are grazed. That’s correct. Once dracunculoides gets a foothold it increases regardless. For example, the CB dracunculoides is increasing in parts of the CB that are ungrazed now and were ungrazed before the dracunculoides arrived. It’s just a fact of life. And it's better to have broomweed than grass anyway. Way better.

Dracunculoides is hugely interesting because it changes genera pretty much constantly. However, the genera shell game can make the keying out of your potential drancunculoides specimen an adventure. So it's best, if you collect a broomweed in these parts, to remember dracunculoides and forget the various generic appellations. Also, the disc florets are not fertile even though they may look fertile. You need to have actually fertile ray florets far enough along on your specimen for comparison. Either that or just check out the punky pappus on the respective flowers if you happen to have a good microscope handy.

No opinion on the fly, other than, it’s a very small fly. But Ray is working on the fly so we may have something anon.