Favorite Observations and Winter Reading

Thank you everyone who has participated in our project this year! It was wonderful to see all the different insects that inhabit our farms and gardens. And now that everything is asleep, it is a great time to think back on the insects we encountered last year (good and bad!).

Did you know that VIPPB publishes a biweekly newsletter featuring a pest and a beneficial insect during the growing season? Winter is a good time to look back and review them. You can find all the past newsletters here: https://us6.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=9f86e069f3634feb73ae1a3a8&id=0ab22bd905, and can learn more about VIPPB at this link: https://mailchi.mp/vifarmmonitoring/welcome-to-vippb.

If you are interested in improving VIPPB in future years, please take this short survey: https://forms.gle/aWE6NNpZAxRfBVfM7

Here are some of the many highlights from the year!

Always great to see photos of the threatened Western Bumble Bee.


Western Bumble Bee (Bombus occidentalis) © michalinahunter, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)

Not so happy to be seeing the invasive Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, but it is important to track!


Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys) © theobroma85, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)

The Cinnabar moth is an example of an intentionally introduced biological control of the weed ragwort.


Cinnabar Moth (Tyria jacobaeae) © tatloroadfarm, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)

There are so many beautiful bees spotted by our members!


Texas Striped Sweat Bee (Agapostemon texanus)© Burl Jantzen, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)

This snakefly is a predator of other small insects such as aphids!


Snakeflies (Order Raphidioptera) © katiec2013, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)

This pink slug-like caterpillar will grow up to be a beautiful butterfly.


Gossamer-winged Butterflies (Family Lycaenidae) © prairiegirlgonecoastal, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)

There are some tiny, tiny insects spotted by our keen-eyed observers, like this minute weevil.


Minute Seed Weevil (Ceutorhynchus erysimi) © jrozinsky, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)

What were your favorite observations from this past year?

Posted on December 14, 2022 07:58 PM by bzand bzand

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