Erastria cruentaria

The wings of spring specimens are dull gray to brown, and straw yellow to olive-colored in summer specimens.  Antemedial and median lines complete or incomplete; postmedial line complete and sharply defined.  The apex of the forewing is somewhat recurved.

Scientific Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Suborder: Amphiesmenoptera
Superfamily: Geometroidea
Family: Geometridae

They are likely seen many as they look exactly like a falling leaf in flight, and would not normally be noticed. Talking about bio-mimicry. 

Satyrium sylvinus

Family: Gossamer-wing Butterflies (Lycaenidae)

Subfamily: Hairstreaks (Theclinae)

Identification: With or without tails. Upperside gray-brown or reddish with blue sheen; hindwing with small orange patch at lower edge. Female with yellowish tinge. Underside pale gray to white. Postmarginal band of small black dots; some individuals may have only a few spots. Yellow to red spot at hindwing lower edge.

Life history: Males perch on low vegetation near host plants to watch for females. Eggs are laid singly on stems of host plants where they hibernate until spring. Caterpillars feed on leaves.

Flight: One flight from May-August.

Wing span: 1 – 1 3/8 inches (2.5 – 3.5 cm).

Caterpillar hosts: Various willow (Salix) species.

Adult food: Nectar from flowers including milkweed and Indian hemp.

Habitat: Willow thickets, open woodlands, streams, oases.

Range: British Columbia southeast to Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico; south through California to Baja California Norte.

Conservation: Not usually required.

NatureServe Global Status: G4 – Apparently secure globally, though it might be quite rare in parts of its range, especially at the periphery.

Management needs: None reported.

Cercyonis meadii

Let’s take a look at few identified moth species. Species identification solely depends on the physical characteristics and it’s behavioral on site.

The above moth is identified as Cercyonis meadii. It is identified as having a chocolate-brown color, with a forewing with has a reddish patch which surrounds the eyespots.  The upper eyespots is usually the largest.  The underside of the forewing is mostly reddish, hindwing is mottled brown and white with only a few small eyespots.

It comes from the brush-footed butterfly (Nymphalidae) with a sub-family of Satyr and Wood-Nymph (Satyrinae)

The life history of patrol all day is to find the females.  Eggs are laid singly on the host plant.  Caterpillars hatch and then go into hibernation, not feeding until the following season.

The wing span is roughly 1 3/8 to 1 3/4 (3.5-4.5 cm)

The caterpillar hosts is the grasses.  It explains the reason why the moth is found at grass area, where the adult food is mostly a nectar.

Moth

Moths members of an insect order characterized by two pairs of large, scale-covered, membranous wings. Adults are additionally characterized by a pair of well-developed compound eyes, mouthparts consisting of a long, coiled, sucking tube, or proboscis, and prominent antennae. Approximately 148,000 species are known worldwide; by 1993, 11,286 had been described in North America. As a group of animals, butterflies and moths are surpassed in diversity only by the beetles.

 

Life cycle

Butterflies and moths undergo complete metamorphosis. Their life cycle consists of four stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (cocoon or chrysalis), and adult. After mating, the adult females of most species usually lay eggs on a plant that serves as the food source for the larvae when they hatch. In a few species, however, the larvae are predators. Some butterfly caterpillars, for example, eat aphids; some form complex associations with ants, live in their nests, and eat ant larvae. Some larvae eat stored cereals or even woolen clothes. Caterpillars have rather elastic cylindrical bodies, simple eyes, chewing mouthparts, three pairs of true legs on the thorax, and usually five pairs of prolegs (legs that occur only on larvae) on the abdomen. They eat continuously, periodically shedding their skin as they grow to hundreds of times their original size, and finally reach the stage where they spin cocoons and become pupae. During pupation, the structures of the larvae totally transform; internal systems are reorganized and adult external structures develop.

Adult butterflies and moths feed on a wide variety of substances: nectar, pollen, rotting fruit, carrion, dung, urine, and other plant and animal secretions. Most species actively seek flower nectar; they aid in plant reproduction by pollinating, carrying pollen from flower to flower. In many species, such as sulfur butterflies, egg production is impossible without nectar meals. In others, such as the checkerspot butterflies, unfed females lay about half as many eggs as those provided nectar. A few adult moths do not have functional mouthparts and lay all their eggs without obtaining nourishment.

 

Characteristics

No absolutely consistent characteristics exist for separating butterflies and moths. Butterflies generally have scaleless, threadlike antennae with a club on the end. Their wings are often brightly colored; the wing color and pattern play a key role in mate recognition and courtship. Nearly all butterflies fly during daylight, but some tropical species fly at dawn or dusk, and a few are nocturnal. The largest butterflies (birdwings of Melanesia) have wingspreads of up to 25 cm (10 in); the smallest (pygmy blues) may barely exceed 1 cm (0.4 in).

Social insects!

Ants are social insects having more than 12,000 different species. These insects which belong to the order Hymenoptera had evolved some 110-130 million years ago from wasp-like ancestors. Ants are known to be very organized and they live in colonies. A typical ant colony has three types of ants i.e. queen, workers (female) and drones (fertile males). Each type of ant has a specific function to carry out – the queen ant lays eggs, drones mate with the queen while worker ants carry out tasks such as gathering food, building colonies, etc. The female worker ants also have a sub-group called soldiers which protect their fellow ants.

Scientific Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Superfamily: Vespoidea
Family: Formicidae

The body of ants is broadly divided into three parts which are the head, mesosoma and metasoma. The body part which connects metasoma and mesosoma is known as petiole. The head consists of three parts which are the eyes, antenna and jaws. Owing to the number of lenses which form eyes, the ants can catch movements easily. These eyes however, don’t provide ants with a high resolution. Some ants from the subterranean region cannot see at all; most of the ant species don’t have a well developed eyesight. Ants have 6 legs and all of these are attached to their trunk. Internal systems of the ants body are covered in a protective covering called exoskeleton. Ants do not possess lungs; spiracles, the valves present on exoskeleton of ants act as entry points for oxygen. Carbon dioxide and other gases are expelled out of body through the same spiracles.

If you are wondering about what do ants eat, then you need to know that young and older ants feed on different types of food. The larvae are however, fed with a liquid substance by the elder, worker ants. Worker ants travel in search of food and directly eat what is available to them. The food which they bring back is processed (broken down) into a liquid state by smaller ants. It is interesting to note that few adult ants don’t eat at all after attaining full growth. Specialty of ants is that they act as herbivores, predators and also carry out the work of scavengers.

Cricket

One of the invertebrates that we found on site is the cricket.  Cricket are from family Gryllidae.  There are approximately 2,400 species of leaping insects with a worldwide distribution.  Cricket are known for the musical chirping male.  It is vary in length, from 2 to 50 mm, thin antennae, hind legs modified for jumping, three-jointed tarsal (foot) segments, and two slender abdominal sensory appendages/cerci.  The two forewings are stiff and leathery, and the two long, membranous hind wings used for flying.

We managed to found two species of cricket on site in which is shown in the photos on the left and below.

Like all insects, crickets have a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), six jointed legs, and two antennae. Their body is covered with a hard exoskeleton. Crickets breathe through a series of holes called spiracles; they are located along the sides of the body. Crickets are brown or black. Crickets are very similar to grasshoppers, but the cricket’s antennae are very long, the wings are held flat over the body, and the ovipositor is very long. Not all crickets have wings. Crickets sense sounds using tympani (hearing organs) located in their front legs.

Cricket like all other insects, are cold-blooded, they take on the temperature of their surroundings.  Many characteristics of cold-blooded animals, are like the rate at which crickets chirps, or the speed at which ants walk, follow an equation called the arrhenius equation.  This equation describes the activation energy or threshold energy required to induce chemical reaction.  For instance,  crickets have many chemical reactions occuring within their bodies.  The the temperature rises, it becomes easier to reach certain activation or threshold energy, and chemical reactions, like those that occur during the muscle contractions used to produce chirping, happen more rapidly.  As the temperature falls, the rate of chemicals reactions inside the cricket bodies slow down, causing charactristics such as chirping to also slow down.

Scientific Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Orthoptera
Suborder: Ensifera
Superfamily: Grylloidea
Family: Gryllidae

Crickets are omnivores (they eat both plants and animals). They scavenge dead insects and eat decaying material, fungi and young plants. Their predators include birds, rodents, reptiles and other insects (including beetles and wasps), and spiders.

The Habitat

The satellite image below shows the location of the site.  The site (5°21′ 13” N, 100° 18′ 15″ E) is sandwiched between the Eureka complex and the Hamzah Sendut 2 library. The stream is approximately 190m in length from the main road to the USM perimeter fence.

The studied site is demarcated and zoned in lime green as depicted in the google earth image above.