July 24th, 2008
guess who’s back in town?
Guess who’s back in town?
Yes, it’s those wonderfully bizarre Mantidflies (Climaciella brunnea). This summer’s weather has been a little odd – cool and rainy – so insect activity hasn’t seemed to be entirely normal. I’d been watching for the return of the Mantidflies, and perhaps they have been around for awhile, but I didn’t see the first ones until July 19th. Other years, I’ve begun seeing them in late June or early July. As in the past, I found this one clinging to the flowers of a Common Milkweed plant in small area of one of our fields. It seems that they are most attracted to a particular stand of milkweed with flowers that are a bit deeper shade of pink — it’s probably some subspecies of Milkweed, but I haven’t taken the time to figure it out. The mantidflies seem to gather on the flowers that are sticky with nectar and pollen.
I won’t write much about these insects today as I have a second post that I’d like to put up. However, if you’d like to see more photos and read more about Mantidflies, please visit these earlier posts. Here are some links:
unexpected arrival of a mythical beast – June 22, 2006.
they’re baaaack! – July 1, 2006.
dance of the mantidfly – July 2, 2006.
Mantidfly roundup – July 22, 2006.
like clockwork – June 22, 2007.
Tags: Mantidfly, Climaciella brunnea