That's not a Caterpillar

Butterfly watching has me attuned to caterpillars, so when I spotted this on a dogwood leaf this evening I was excited to find out which one I had discovered.

Our Peterson First Guide didn't offer a match, so I went online to search on characteristics. That got me nowhere. Then I went to 'caterpillar maine dogwood' and up popped two images from Jim McCormac's blog entry on sawflies and yellowjackets.

It's not a butterfly or a moth, it's a sawfly. bugman clued me into dogwood sawflies on What's That Bug? which itself pointed to Penn State's Susan Parker with an Integrated Pest Management perspective and a Chris Adams entry on bugguide.net. On the latter site, danielj reports that correspondent Millie's image was a first for bugguide.net. There are others there.

This squirmy thing had climbed to the tip of a pagoda dogwood, but we've got red osiers aplenty. Time to think twice about the positive first impression?

"This is an insect you can enjoy" said Dave Smitley in his alert (PDF) for Michigan State, though he makes disclaimer about the question being asked in September.

One last (?) thing: A look at an adult from Minnesota Seasons.

Another last thing: bugguide.net genus discussion mentions four species, three in the east, two of which are common: Macremphytus tarsatus and Macremphytus testaceus.

Comments

The Elusive Subja Seed

Why am I so captivated by the idea of drinking tasteless, slippery, crunchy-kerneled seeds? Because subja seeds sound like fun. I first learned of them by browsing The Indian Spice Kitchen , where Monisha Bharadwaj describes them, but Osimum basilicum seeds seem impossible to find. I made a special trip to Seattle's Uwajimaya to track them down, but came up empty. I stopped at Market Spice at Pike Street, where they hadn't heard of them (but they suggested another shop down the street). I went into Souk, where the gentleman understood what I was looking for only after I described it; he knew the seeds by a different name, which he couldn't remember, and said his sister gets them at a shop (the name not in his memory) on Roosevelt Avenue. But I was out of time in the city and couldn't follow up. (But before I took more than a few steps out Souk's door, the proprietor called me back in, because he had asked his arriving friend what those seeds were called. Tukmaria, ...

1AQD / NU1AQD / W1AQD QSL Collection

My great uncle Louis C. Brown, "Brownie" in Maine, was active in amateur radio between 1927 and 1936. I have 250+ of his QSLs from United States stations and additional cards from DX hams. I will gladly provide digital images of individual QSLs for relatives or others who wish to have them for their research or records. Calls are listed by call area then suffix W1ABG (2), W1ACR, NU1AHY, W1AIC, W1ALO (3), W1AMG, W1AMQ, 1AOF, W1AOT, W1APR, 1AQL, W1AQW, W1ART, W1ARW, 1AUR, W1AUR, 1AVJ, NU1BBM, W1BEF, W1BEO, W1BEU, W1BFT, W1BFZ, W1BIG, W1BIR, NU1BJC, W1BNG, 1BNL, W1BOK, W1CE, W1CIB, W1CPF, W1CQL, W1CQR, W1CTF, W1IVZ, W1KL, W1LQ, W1NS, W1QH (2), W1UR, 1VE, W1VM, W1VS, W1WV, NQ2AC, W2ACD, U2AET, W2AGI, W2AHU, W2AVO, 2AVP, W2BAK, W2BDX, NU2BHB, W2BVT, W2BXA, 2PO, NU2RK, 2WI, W3ADX, NU3AEL, NU3AEL, W3AER, W3AIA, W3AWS, 3ARC, NU3ASC, NU3BNS, W3EZR, NU3QE, NU3TR, 3AWQ, NU4ACC, NU4ADL, W4AFM, NU4AFP, 4AGE, W4AII, W4AJL, NU4CS, W4CWH, 4DS, W4HC, 4HH, W4KA, W4LY, W4MF, W4NE, W4TN, W4...

WBR update

The WBR Receiver is now pulling in 60m SSB from W3, W4, G1, and elsewhere. Removed a single winding from each side of L1 and a tagalong cap (10 picofarad?) in parallel at C8. Maximum signal was achieved by grounding the antenna center conductor at its entry to the board. (But the signal pot still has little or no influence, so something else may be amiss.) Great to have the "new" ham band in the ears for the first time since privileges were granted. Nice foundation for a 60m band plan . It will be a help while I try to sort out frequencies and tuning range. Edits 2007-03-06 At the top of my tuning range are NPR broadcasts carried on 5446.5 by American Forces Radio. AFR is just below some cross-Atlantic meteorological observations in a female voice. Another useful resource via HFLINK . Alerted by LA3ZA to 7N3WVM regen, which Sverre merged (PDF) with N1BYT's. Makoto suggests a ferrite bar antenna.

follow that qar!

Search This Blog