August, 2025 Weston Cemetery Prairie field trip
We visited Weston Cemetery Prairie (0.5 miles east of Weston, IL) on August 17, 2025. Although it was a hot summer day, we had roughly 10 souls make the trek. We spent about an hour at the site observing a number of insects. Surprisingly, we did not see many...
Insect of the week (August 18, 2025)
Our insect of the week for August 18, 2025, is Chrysobothris femorata. The common name is flatheadded appletree borer [COLEOPTERA: Buprestidae]. It also belongs to the family commonly called metallic wood boring beetles (just like the beetle featured last week). It is...
Insect of the week (August 11, 2025)
Our insect of the week for August 11, 2025, is Agrilus obsoletoguttatus. There is no common name for this beetle [COLEOPTERA: Buprestidae]. It belongs to the family commonly called metallic wood boring beetles. The larvae often burrow just under the bark of various...
Insect of the week (August 4, 2025)
Our insect of the week for August 4, 2025, is Catocala ilia (Cramer, 1776) [LEPIDOPTERA: Erebidae]. The common name is beloved underwing. Adults fly from June through September. Larvae feed on various species of oak. Some larvae grow to roughly 3 inches in length....
Peoria approximella (a moth named in New York for Peoria, IL). Photo of Michigan specimen courtesy Jim Vargo (used with permission).