Mystery bug on Oregon Sunshine flower, July 2022
Now that I have added a bunch of native plants to my yard, I’m looking forward to seeing many more bugs: bees, butterflies, moths, dragonflies, beetles, spiders, who knows what else.
This past summer I spotted some insects that baffled me as to what they were.
Like the one shown above. At first I thought it was a small shiny bee, but it didn’t look very bee-ish.
If you can get a decent photo, here are a couple of options for finding out what your bug might be:
– iNaturalist is a great website for identifying all sorts of flora and fauna: www.inaturalist.org
You can inspect iNaturalist data for possible species if you think you know what your critter is. It is best to sign up so you can post your photo to get an expert identification.
To do this, after logging in, click on the green Upload button on the right side of the screen and choose the photo of your bug. Then a meta data box comes up for you to note the possible species, or just general taxa, date and time you saw the thing, geographic location, and notes on your observation –what the bug was doing, weather, etc. Then enter the information and eventually you will get an email notice that someone has suggested a species.
An INaturalist photo submission meta data box
Once the species ID is certain, your bug will be added to the iNaturalist sightings for the species –contributing to the pool of community knowledge.
– BugGuide, bugguide.net, is similar, but the site only covers crustaceans, spiders and insects, including larval forms such as caterpillars. In practice I have found the BugGuide site to be more responsive for getting a quick ID. You must register – they need your contact information to alert you to an ID.
BugGuide has a comprehensive guide to species from high to low taxonomic categories, with photos illustrating each category down to species.
To get a BugGuide ID, click on ‘ID request’ on the top bar. You will be prompted to ‘add image’ and then a submission form will pop up, requesting a title for your photo, where and when you saw the thing, approximate size (best guess), browse to upload your image, and then enter remarks – any notes you want to make about what you saw.
Submit the image, and in due course – likely not too long – you’ll get an email with an ID. When it has been verified, the species will be added to the BugGuide data.
I received an immediate response from BugGuide after requesting an ID for this caterpillar, a two-inch long bag of nutrition for bird nestlings, as a larva of the Pandora Moth, Coloradia Pandora.
Pandora Moth caterpillar, Central Oregon June 2020
Both iNaturalist and BugGuide keep track of your submitted images and IDs.
Butterflies and Moths of North America
https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/, can help with identifying Lepidoptera, both as adults and caterpillars, but they really like for you to suggest a species when you submit a photo.
I usually use BugGuide to see what they suspect a butterfly, moth, or caterpillar could be, and then submit my find with that species suggestion to BAMONA for confirmation.
In the case of my mystery bug, BugGuide identified it as a blowfly in the genus Lucilia. While the larvae of blowflies are infamous for feasting on decaying flesh, adult blowflies feed on less dreadful stuff, like flower pollen.
A recent report highlighted in the website Salon made an ominous prediction, though: ‘Flies are taking over thanks to climate change — while moths and other pollinators disappear Climate change is killing off cute pollinators like moths and bees — and yielding tons more flies’: ‘Less fuzzy flies, especially houseflies, are just not as good at pollinating as bees or moths. Therefore, it’s not just the quantity of pollinators, but the quality that also matters. And the steep decline in moths and other specialized pollinators is worrisome.’
https://www.salon.com/2023/01/07/flies-are-taking-over-thanks-to-climate-change–while-moths-and-other-pollinators-disappear/
Geez, I hope my garden doesn’t become The Yard of the Flies!
I’d love to know about any interesting bugs or other critters that you come across.