History, Natural History & the Arts
A stunning moth visits my deck in late summer. At an inch long, it doesn’t have the stature of a luna or cecropia moth, but the brilliant gradient of vermilion to gold across its wings and body, offset with contrasting black bars, is eye-catching.
It’s a painted lichen moth, a member of a group of small moths whose caterpillars are known for feeding on lichens. [Read more…] about The Miniature Mysteries of Lichen Moths
Among the most widely cultivated and recognizable plants growing in gardens this time of year are sunflowers, members of the genus Helianthus. The showiest species and hybrid varieties within this cheery botanical club, such as common sunflower, often steal the limelight for their size and color. But it’s worth getting to know the Northeast’s three most common native Helianthus species: woodland, pale-leaved, and thin-leaved sunflower. [Read more…] about Native Sunflowers: Solar Avatars
The black and orange stripes catch my eye as I swing the scythe through dew-laden grass. My eyes typically follow the tip of the 28-inch blade as I mow, trying to keep it level with the ground, but the contrasting color pattern pulls my attention to milkweed plants just a few feet to my right.
A group of seven very hairy caterpillars, sporting alternating tufts of black, white, and orange hairs, are nibbling away at a leaf. [Read more…] about How Milkweed Tussock Moths Evade Predators
Within the past several years, at least three terrestrial pests have invaded the forests of the Lake George watershed. Among them: emerald ash borer, which was first detected in Warren County in 2020, along the Schroon River near Chestertown.
That discovery was the first indication that the invasive species might have established itself in the southern Adirondacks. [Read more…] about Emerald Ash Borer: A Threat to Trees, Mohawk Traditions
By midsummer, the deck in our backyard is lined with a profusion of tall orange flowers. Each flower is shaped like a small funnel with a curved spur and hangs from a slender arched stem.
Hummingbirds zip back and forth, hovering in front of the flowers and probing them with their long beaks to sip nectar. [Read more…] about Jewelweed: A Hummingbird Favorite
Imagine you’re a fruit fly by a pond on a sunny day, whirring along in search of food or other flies. Suddenly, you’re scooped up, whisked to a perch, and efficiently devoured by a blue dasher dragonfly. For little flies like you, blue dashers have a 97 percent capture rate. For comparison, great white sharks only catch their prey 50 percent of the time. What makes dragonflies such successful hunters?
Stacey Combes and graduate student Christofer Brothers film dragonflies hunting inside a greenhouse to learn more about their technique. Combes and Brothers focus on “perchers,” species that wait on perches and take short flights to nab prey. [Read more…] about Dangerous Dragonflies: Fast & Furious
One predator-prey interaction always leaves me torn. Birds sparked my love for the natural world years ago, but after my interest lapsed during adolescence, bees brought me back into the fold.
So I found myself split between two allegiances the first time I watched a bird, in this case, a gray catbird, swoop into the garden and snatch a bumblebee on the wing. [Read more…] about Birds Preying on Stinging Insects: A Meal Worth the Sting?
My first sighting of a cecropia moth was from a boat. It was a sunny morning and I was paddling along the lakeshore, expecting to see familiar birds. Instead, my eye was drawn to a large brown spot covering an alder leaf.
My first thought was that it was a discoloration, perhaps from a fungus. Paddling closer, I saw it was a moth – a very, very big one. [Read more…] about Cecropia: A Big Moth On A Mission
In the deepening twilight, the pines edging my backyard merge into a wall of shadow. I hold my breath, staring hard into the darkness. Will they come? No matter how many times I repeat this ritual, I’m never sure… but then the magic happens.
A little greenish pulse of light, floating somewhere in the middle distance. Then another. And another. Those memories are decades old, but the magic of encountering fireflies remains undimmed. [Read more…] about The Hidden Diversity of Fireflies: Glow-Worms, Blinkers, and Ghosts
The sudden en masse appearance of meat-eating, airborne insects with wingspans up to six inches across does not sound like welcome news. Because usually when the topic is bugs and descriptions range from “invasion” to “infestation,” it applies to bad actors: locust swarms that can decimate farm crops, cockroaches that can overrun our living spaces, spongy-moth caterpillars that strip trees of leaves and needles – the list of troublemakers is long.
However, damsels and dragons are exceptions. Damselflies and dragonflies, carnivorous insects in the order Odonata, date back more than 300 million years. [Read more…] about Dragons and Damsels to the Rescue
The spongy moth (Lymantria dispar) is a non-native insect from Europe. In New York, spongy moth caterpillars feed on a variety of trees, with oak as their preferred species.
Spongy moths have naturalized in our forested communities, which means they are always present in New York in some capacity. In recent years, spongy moth populations have experienced a boom throughout the Northeastern U.S. [Read more…] about 2026 Spongy Moth Outbreak Outlook for New York State
If you tromp around in the woods during winter, especially on mild days, you may notice dark specks collecting in depressions in the snow. If you look closely you’ll see these little pepper flakes bouncing around. [Read more…] about Snow Fleas Are Not Really Fleas
A New York Natural Heritage Program survey from 2017 to 2021 found that at least 40 percent – and as much as 60 percent of pollinator species native to New York, including bees and butterflies – are at risk of disappearing from the state.
These losses are largely driven by habitat destruction, overuse of pesticides, and climate change.
The New York Community Trust and the Office of the New York State Attorney General have announced 2026 grants from the New York Pollinator Conservation Fund, supporting pollinator conservation efforts in disadvantaged communities across New York State. [Read more…] about Pollinator Conservation Grants for Disadvantaged Communities
Late fall and early winter are the best times of year to spot giant silk moth cocoons. Perhaps you’ve seen these creatures in the summer, fluttering by your porch light in the evening or resting on your garage wall in the early morning after spending the night at its light.
These large, showy moths in the family Saturniidae live only briefly as winged adults, are strikingly colored, and, as moths go, are huge. [Read more…] about Cocoon Spotting: Giant Silk Moths in Winter
Spiders can sometimes be dangerous in weird ways. At a Michigan gas station in 2015, a man tried to kill one with a lighter and torched a pump island, and in 2014, a guy in Seattle burned his house down trying to kill spiders with a blowtorch. But fire isn’t typically why we fear spiders. [Read more…] about Be Nice to Spiders – For Your Own Good
In summer 2025, DEC and Cornell University’s New York State Hemlock Initiative (NYSHI) confirmed the first establishment of Leucotaraxis argenticollis, a type of silver fly, in New York State.
These silver flies were released to help control hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA), an invasive insect that attacks and kills hemlock trees. The silver fly population was confirmed in the own of Bath, in Steuben County, NY. [Read more…] about Silver Fly Combating Invasive Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
In April 2024, AdkAction, a non-profit environmental conservation and community development organization, was awarded a grant through DEC’s Adirondack Park Community Smart Growth Grant Program. AdkAction will use the grant funds to convert an eight-acre grassland located on a capped landfill to a native pollinator habitat. [Read more…] about Capped Adirondack Landfill Becoming Native Pollinator Habitat
The staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) is a ubiquitous shrub of human-impacted northeastern habitats. Sumac stands occur along most highways and county roads, as well as in disturbed areas and abandoned fields transitioning to shrubland.
With the onset of late summer’s cooler nighttime temperatures and shorter days, staghorn sumacs are among the first leafy plants to lose chlorophyll from their cells. The breakdown of this pigment triggers the transition from green foliage to yellow, orange, and red, often starting as early as mid-August. After a striking autumnal display, their rich red to burgundy-colored fruit clusters remain all winter. [Read more…] about Sumac Galls & Aphids: An Ancient Association
Mayflies are aquatic insects in the order Ephemeroptera (meaning short-lived). They are also known as shadflies, fishflies, or up-winged flies. Folks who live along rivers are more familiar with the “hatch” of mayflies which can number in the thousands or millions, when conditions are just right.
In the past rivers like the Hudson, Mohawk and Susquehanna could see hatches of mayflies so large they became international news. What follows are two stories reporting mayfly hatches of enormous proportions in September 4, 1880. [Read more…] about ‘A Storm of Flies’: Mayflies on the Hudson River
When I imagine scientists discovering new animals, I picture them traveling to far-off jungles or remote mountaintops – not investigating local roadsides, utility cuts, or other edge spaces of human habitation.
Yet late last summer, naturalists with The Caterpillar Lab in Swanzey, New Hampshire, found an unknown caterpillar on an unlikely host plant in an unassuming location. [Read more…] about Finding the Pink Star Caterpillar
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