Hi All, Well, I did think this was a grasshopper until Peter W set me straight! Look at the huge antennae. It flew onto my Jeep driver window after a lovely Fall walk along the Mel DeAnna trail, in late September. But when I first saw the insect, it was totally brown. I thought that this grasshopper would blow off the window as I drove, and come to no harm. Then it quickly started to turn bright green, as I could see out of the corner of my eye, starting at the top of the back, spreading downwards onto the legs, taking no more than a couple of minutes. I could actually see the green move down the legs. It folded its rear legs over its wings as I accelerated to 90 km/h, but did not blow off the vehicle, moving its legs back into normal position as the speed dropped to 50 entering Castlegar. The sun was very bright and shining directly on the insect. I found both of these behaviors very interesting. A quick Google search seemed to imply that katydids come in different colours, with no mention of a change in colour. While I thought it was a grasshopper, I looked for reference to the change in colour and was directed to a scientific paper from Europe, where the researchers were aware of colour change in one species of grasshopper, but failed to observe it in the laboratory. Regarding the folding of the legs over the wings in a gale force wind, that is really remarkable. Somewhere in their history the ancestors must have lived in very windy places. The story has a happy ending, I think. The creature was still on my window when I parked the car only 2-3 km as the Katydid flies from the Mel D’Anna trail, but had disappeared an hour later. Of course one of my avian friends may have felt like eating greens for lunch. Who knows? - Peter McIver, West Kootenay Naturalist
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I was gently swinging in my hammock, minding my own business, when I felt some thing sweep its long spidery legs across the back of my neck. I brushed it off and away before I could see what it was, and a mighty stink instantly arose. Some say stink bugs stink of cilantro, but I quite like cilantro, thank you very much. This smelled nothing like that to me. No, this smelled like something foul and rotten, something like a garbage-poop-dead-thing fragrance spray. I held my breath and hoped it would pass like gas, but it persisted long enough that I gave up and went inside. The odour followed me right into the shower, but happily no further. I never saw the bug that skunked me and will never know what kind it was, though by its stench I can narrow it down to a few likely suspects, pictured above. These three bugs are native to BC. The Rough Stink Bug can be distinguished from the similar-looking invasive Brown Marmorated Stink Bug by the lack of big white bands around its antennae and by its spiny shoulder edges. The Western Conifer Seed Bug isn’t technically a stink bug (pentatomae), but if stinky is as stinky does, then this bug fits the description, leaf-footed (coreidae) or not. The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (not pictured) is invasive in BC and has been spotted throughout the province since about 2015. This is bad news, not least because of the damage they can cause agricultural crops. If you find one in BC (outside of Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, where they are known to be common), please send a picture of it to the Ministry of Agriculture (contacts and more information at https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/agriculture-seafood/animals-and-crops/plant-health/insects-and-plant-diseases/tree-fruits/brown-marmorated-stink-bug). - Tarah Reesor, West Kootenay Naturalist
Thanks to club member and entomologist Peter Wood for identifying this creature as an adult Square-headed Snakefly of the Inocelliidae family, found only in the USA and Western Canada. Its larvae are usually found under bark, and adults and larvae alike feed on soft-bodied insects.
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West Kootenay Naturalists' AssociationTo know nature and keep it worth knowing. Archives
June 2023
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