Chicago Nature Blog: Stranger than fiction

Science fiction films contain some pretty odd stuff. A semi-invisible "predator" that hunts its prey (including people) from trees in the jungle. A hybrid race of spiders that infest a small American town and kill its residents with one bite. A giant dinosaur-like creature that lives in the sea by day, and wreaks havoc on cities by night. One thing all these movies have in common is that they are wholly or in part inspired by real creatures, creatures with appearances and habits so strange that most people are surprised to discover they actually exist. Certainly, I am always amazed at what I witness when I enter the realm of nature. And that is one of many reasons why I am passionate about nature - its denizens are the subjects of my own "creature features". Thwarting convention, so many of the insects, arachnids, and other "bugs" I find are so otherworldly, they'd easily star in their own movies if only they could be blown up many times their size. Stopping and admiring these fascinating animals up-close in their natural habitat is quite an experience.

I spent a short time yesterday morning walking through a dry upland prairie in Cook County. Small in size and located between a road an an expressway, it cannot support the kind of life that could be found in larger, more balanced prairies. It did, however, contain enough really cool bugs to keep my attention hostage nearly the whole time.

These gregarious insects were looking for love atop a prairie rose (Rosa arkansana). I watched as what appeared to be multiple males battling for a female. I cannot recall seeing these insects before.

This little insect larva will NOT make it to adulthood. It lives its last moments in the beak of a grey catbird (Dumetella carolinensis).

A beautiful orange and black damselfly. Dragonflies and damselflies are just two of many types of insects that begin life as aquatic larvae. Mosquitoes are another. I like damselflies more.

A crab spider lurking on a thistle bloom. These spiders are true predators - most insects aren't aware of the presence of these arachnids until it's too late.

I saw a few of these brown jumping spiders. They are not easy to photograph as they are quite shy. They need to be approached slowly and quietly. This photo has actually been cropped to show some detail - in reality I was probably four feet away.

This sinister-looking eight-legger has caught itself a boll weevil lunch. These black spiders also were pretty common, and they too wanted nothing to do with me and fled upon approach.

This insect is probably the single most notorious bug the United States has witnessed over the last decade or so. The emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) was unintentionally introduced to the Midwest region of the United States from Asia in 2002, and since then it has single-handedly destroyed hundreds of thousands of ash trees. It lays its eggs under the bark of ash trees and its larvae feed on the layer of a tree between the heartwood and the bark (typically the phloem and sapwood). Many ash trees die long slow deaths. Here in Chicago, the city has been busy planning and implementing the removal of most ash trees. Sadly, the ash borers spread rapidly and new sightings of these invasive pests are documented every day. This particular ash borer represents the first time I have ever seen an adult insect.

One more crab spider, only this one is even more cryptic than the first. You can see that it is poised to capture any insects that visits the flower. The camouflage they exhibit is spectacular.