Text by Becky Hamm; images by Kent Anderson (aka “surfman”) in his iNaturalist entries, except as noted. 

Ah, summer: Warm breezes, colorful flowers, and lots of pollinating butterflies, bees, and … beetles? Oh yes, and flies and wasps too.

While they might be overshadowed by pollinating insects that are cuter and more colorful, these less popular insects are also crucially important to the success of our food web.

These three types of winged insects are not what most people—including me!—think of when they consider “important” insects, but I was surprised to learn of their pollination, predation, and decomposition functions that enable us to have a balanced ecological system.

Non-bee pollinators are critical for pollinating much of the world’s agricultural crops. In fact, certain flies are starting to be bred specifically for the task since they are easier to raise than bees. Wasps are excellent predators of pest species, and beetles aid in decomposition of dead animals and plants. It is tempting to silo these insects into a single function, but many perform multiple tasks well, making them workhorses of the insect world. With the planet’s insect population in decline, we need to raise awareness of their importance.

Wasps

So formidable, there’s an NBA basketball team named after them (Charlotte Hornets), wasps are much feared in our culture. However, understanding their behavior may help you better understand their place in your yard.

Wasps are in the family Hymenoptera—cousins to bees and ants. Some wasps are eusocial, meaning they live together in a nest, typically with a queen. This includes species common in Virginia like the yellow jacket (Vespula spp.) and the paper wasp (Polistes spp.). These types of wasps are known to be aggressive but will leave you alone if unprovoked, so don’t swat at them! To discourage yellow jackets, make sure all trash is sealed off, especially fruit, sodas, and other sweets, as they are attracted to those food sources. (Yellow jackets are sometimes confused with honeybees. Here’s a guide to learn the difference.)  

Wasps play an important role in our food web. And despite their bad rap, only 1.5% of wasp species are likely to sting people if provoked.

Most wasp species are solitary. Common solitary wasps in Virginia, like the scary-looking Ichneumonid (parasitic) wasp, pose no actual threat to humans or pets because they do not sting. Others, like the yellow-legged mud-dauber (Sceliphron caementarium) wasp that built a nest near my back door this summer, only sting if provoked.

Many people also assume that wasps are carnivores. However, it is more accurate to say that wasp larvae are carnivorous while adult wasps are herbivores, feeding primarily on nectar.

Wasps are known to visit between 20% and 25% of the world’s crops, making them important pollinators in agriculture. Some of their favorite native plants locally are goldenrod, mountain mint, and buttonbush.

However, wasps really shine when viewed as natural pest control, via predation and parasitism. Commonly seen in Virginia, the parasitoid braconid wasp, Cotesia congregates will lay eggs in the skin of the tomato hornworm. The hornworm is then rather gruesomely eaten from the inside out. The diminutive Aphidiinae are a subfamily of parasitic wasps that lays eggs on or near aphids, so their larvae have a ready-made meal next to them when they hatch.

As predators, wasps help to control aphids, grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars, and flies. For example, the Hidalgo Mason Wasp (Euodynerus hidalgo), Blue-winged Scoliid Wasp (Scolia dubia), and yellow jacket will paralyze their prey and bring them back to their nest for their larvae to eat.

Beetles

Beetles are the most diverse group of any living animal; there are nearly 30,000 species in North America alone. Beetles are distinguishable from other insects due to their hard outer forewings that protect a set of inner wings that are used in flight. While some beetles, especially those that are from other countries, are seen as pests both in the garden and agriculturally, many beetles serve ecological functions such as pollination, predation, and decomposition.

If you have a compost pile, there is a good chance a species of beetle may be helping your table scraps decompose. Beetles such as the American Carrion Beetle (Necrophila americana) eat decaying plants and deceased animals, providing a miniature “trash removal” service for us.

Beetles were the first ever pollinators, starting to visit flowers in the Jurassic period. “Beetles are still the primary movers of pollen for numerous plant families, especially primitive ones like magnolias”, said Alonso Abugattas on his Capital Naturalist blog. In our area, they will feed on pollen and nectar from plants such as spicebush (Lindera spp.), yarrow (Achillea spp.), and sunflower (Helianthus spp.).

One beetle everyone likes is the firefly (Photuris spp.). Widely miscategorized as flies, fireflies are in the Lampyridae family of beetles. They are best known for their bioluminescence, though not all adults can produce light. They are also predators of snails, slugs, worms, or other insect larvae, and some adults eat pollen and nectar.

Flies

There’s a world of flies beyond the common and annoying house fly or fruit fly. In fact, there are over 85,000 species in the order Diptera, including some remarkable beauties. Take a look at the Golden-backed Snipe Fly (Chrysopilus thoracicus), a stand-out that can be spotted on understory leaves locally in spring. 

Believe it or not, we would be in trouble without flies: they are the second most common pollinator behind bees, even more helpful in crop pollination than butterflies!

Hoverflies (in the family Syrphidae, also known as Syrphid flies or flower flies) and metallic-colored blow flies (Calliphoridae family) are the “powerhouse” pollinators. Hoverflies are best known as bee mimics, usually sporting stripes that belie their inability to sting. Hoverflies are also capable of flying huge distances and some species are migratory, giving them the ability to spread pollen much further than most bees. They are known to lay their eggs near aphid infestations; they are tasty morsels for the larvae, which can eat up to 400 aphids before pupating.

Key players in a balanced ecosystem

To keep them around, try planting natives and avoid using pesticide sprays that will kill wasps, beetles, and flies along with mosquitoes. While you may also be trying to target aphids or pesky slugs, other beneficial insects are greatly affected by these chemicals. Also, consider letting leaves decompose naturally in beds and create a brush or dead wood pile, since many beetles, including fireflies, pupate in leaf litter while wasps use stems and wood to make their nests. 

While they may never be cherished like butterflies or revered like bees, wasps, beetles, and flies play a key role in the ecosystem. Accepting and even celebrating their role in nature can help lead to a healthier world for all of us.

Text and photos by Eric Weyer

Nature is a never-ending source of wonder, offering an abundance of intricate details, some so tiny they can barely be seen with the naked eye. That makes “loupes” (or hand lenses) one of the most important tools in any naturalist’s arsenal. 

During a recent training exercise for ARMN volunteers learning to teach young people about nature, I also saw what a powerful tool a loupe can be in a child’s hand.

A loupe is essentially a super magnifying glass that allows users to see small details up close and personal. Before I became a member of the Arlington Regional Master Naturalists in 2021, I didn’t know what a loupe was. 

My first use of loupes was practical. As a volunteer stream monitor for Arlington County, I used them to identify the macroinvertebrates that live in our streams. Telling the difference between broad-winged and narrow-winged damselfly larvae is tricky without magnification. 

However, it wasn’t until early April, during a training with Bobbi Farley and Serenella Linares, that I truly learned what a world of wonder loupes can open.

The goal was to teach volunteers with an ARMN after-school program called “Nature Core Outdoors” some tips and tricks for interpreting nature to children. Nature Core is a partnership between ARMN and the Arlington Housing Corporation (AHC Inc.) that aims to introduce elementary-age residents in AHC’s after-school program to nature. The program is led by Alison Sheahan and Romana Campos, and includes volunteers from ARMN and other local nature groups including Virginia’s Extension Master Gardeners and Tree Stewards of Arlington and Alexandria.

Volunteers commit to teaching six weekly one-hour after-school sessions, with the goal of sparking joy and wonder in the children for the nature living in their own backyard.

Bobbi, a naturalist at Long Branch Nature Center in Arlington, kicked off the session by describing an insect lesson she teaches to kids. She stopped throughout to explain techniques she uses to keep the children’s attention, such as call-and-response shouts or claps. She showed how to engage children with different learning styles by varying her questioning techniques—asking for a shout or a raised hand or directing a question to a specific person. And she shared some silly, interesting facts. (I believe poop came up at least once.) 

Serenella, a Park Naturalist at Mt. Rainier Nature Center in Maryland, then took us outside for another example lesson. She gave us a set of loupes and told us we had five minutes to find something interesting to discuss with the group. 

Being an enterprising fellow, I took out my phone and snapped a few pictures of a beetle crawling on an American Hornbeam (Carpinus carolinia) leaf. Others wandered around the area outside the nature center, looking at flowers, leaves, even the lichens growing on a branch by the trail.

After five minutes were up, I was the first to show my photo to the group. Everybody oohed and ahhed when they noticed the little bits of pollen stuck to the beetle’s elytra (forewings) and legs, an example of pollination up close! We shared a few other findings, then reluctantly returned our loupes to Serenella and headed back inside, where she used this experience to teach us some more child-focused interpretation and group management techniques.

I was inspired by Serenella’s lesson. If this activity evoked such joy in us adults, I could only imagine the wonder it would create with our group of around 20 eager-to-learn 8-to-10-year-olds at the Woodbury Park Apartments in Arlington.

In our first lesson with them, we had spent a long time looking at seeds with only our eyes. I knew how amazing those seeds would look under 30x magnification!

At the next class, I showed up with 32 loupes I had purchased online. From the moment I told the students, “You can look through these at small things like the seeds we observed last week,” they started running off in search of cool things to look at. They were so entranced that I, along with the other Woodbury Park volunteers Barbara Raizen, Eileen Miller, and Liz Macklin, decided to forget about our planned lesson and join them.

We spent about 15 minutes marveling at how different all the little things we see in everyday life look when blown up. The first thing we studied was a dandelion, noticing how its deep yellow bracts looked like those on other flowers nearby. Then we looked at some leaf galls. We decided that the teardrop-shaped green and purple galls were “nature’s Hershey Kisses.” The others we couldn’t quite agree on names for—alien spaceships and Alice in Wonderland were the top votes.

Later we gave up our loupes for our final event, a bird scavenger hunt. Liz highlighted some common birds in the area and we split into small groups to start our search, stopping every fifteen seconds or so to observe something new. Whether a bird or a bug, it was always a perfect thing to look at with our loupes. We even found a skull that we were able to identify as a rabbit’s skull.

At the end of the lesson, we could see the excitement in the children’s faces as they talked about everything they had discovered. Seeing their enthusiasm made us all feel like we had accomplished something meaningful, thanks to fabulous leaders and teachers—and a few dozen loupes. 

By Colleen O’Hara

This is the time of year when baby animals make their entrance into the world, and often times, into our hearts. Who can resist a fluffy baby bunny? Or a sweet, speckled fawn?  Very often we see baby animals on their own in the wild and wonder: Does it need help? Should I intervene? Or perhaps you’ve come across an injured animal.  What should I do and who should I call?

In Northern Virginia, there are two main resources to turn to for help and advice when dealing with wild animals. 

The all-volunteer Wildlife Rescue League receives on average 3,000 calls to its wildlife assistance helpline (703-440-0800) every year. The non-profit supports a network of licensed wildlife rehabilitators in Northern Virginia who help and care for hundreds of animals that they receive every year.

The Animal Welfare League of Arlington is part of the County’s Animal Control Department (703-931-9241). It responded to over 4,000 calls last year regarding pets and wildlife, including sick and injured animals. Over 1,000 animals went through its Wildlife Resource Center, which assesses injured, orphaned, or sick wildlife and transfers them to licensed rehabbers. 

When Should You Intervene?

Sometimes it’s obvious when an animal needs our help, and sometimes it is not. 

According to the Wildlife Rescue League, an animal needs help if it shows signs of flies, maggots, or worms, was caught by a dog, cat, or other animal, has a wound, is a baby and its parents are dead or separated and cannot be reunited, has suffered trauma such as being hit by a car or fallen from a high nest, is very cold and weak, is unable to move, or is not fully feathered or furred. 

However, in some cases, well-meaning citizens think an animal needs assistance, when it actually doesn’t, said Carolyn Wilder, the Wildlife Rescue League’s Chair of the Rehabilitator Committee, and Co-Chair of the Education Committee. For instance, baby cottontails and fawns are typically left unattended for most of the day by their parents, and fully-feathered baby birds on the ground are fledglings and are fine on their own.

“They do not need our help,” Wilder said. “They are learning to fly and they will continue to be fed by mom and dad.” Sometimes a fledgling will lean on one wing and it appears as if it is injured, but it is actually using it as a “training wheel”, she said. 

Raptors are an exception, however. A juvenile eagle or owlet that is on the ground and unable to get back to a tree, will need rescuing because their parents will not feed them if they are on the ground. Most raptors are transferred to Blue Ridge Wildlife Center for rehabilitation, Wilder said. 

Other Guidelines and Tips  

If you find an injured bird, or you witness a bird striking a window, place it in a box in a quiet location and call for advice. Do not give it any food or water unless a rehabber tells you to. Typically, a bird does not survive a window strike, even if sent to a rehabber, Wilder said. 

If a baby bird falls out of a nest, try to return it to the nest or make a nest out of a small plastic bowl and place it high up on the tree. The bird will not be rejected by the parents just because it has been touched. A bird egg on the ground cannot be saved, however. 

If a baby squirrel falls out of the nest, keep it warm in a box lined with a towel or heated rice sock, and play baby squirrel sounds on your phone (you can find this online). The mother will typically come down, retrieve the baby and return it to the nest. Raccoon babies that have fallen out of the nest will usually be rescued by the mother at night. It’s a good idea to put it in a box near where it was found, such as the base of a tree. 

If you see a fox kit during the day, they are often just playing and exploring, while adult foxes are often looking for food or a new den. If a kit becomes separated from the adult, the adult will return to get it if it does not have a human scent on it, according to the Wildlife Rescue League. If the kit has been alone for two hours, then it’s time to call for help. 

If you happen to find a baby opossum on the ground, it’s time to call a rehabber whether it is injured or not. The mother opossum carries her babies on her back once they emerge from the pouch. She is transient, so if a baby falls off en route and she doesn’t notice, the baby can’t survive on its own. 

If you come across a baby turtle, leave it alone. When turtles fully hatch, they are able to survive on their own. However, if you find a turtle that is in a precarious location such as in the middle of a road, move the turtle to a safe spot in the direction it was headed. 

Legal Dos and Don’ts

In Virginia, it is illegal to take, possess, buy, sell, or liberate wildlife, or destroy bird nests that have eggs in them, with the exception of English sparrows (aka house sparrows), starlings and pigeons, which are considered non-native invasives. Rehabbers do not treat these birds, either. 

In addition, only a licensed rehabber is legally permitted to treat a fox with mange in Virginia.

Typically, if a fawn is crying, begging or showing other signs of distress, it would need help. However, a law that took effect May 1, 2023 in Arlington, Fairfax, and several other counties prevents any rehabber from taking in a baby deer because of the potential of spreading Chronic Wasting Disease, Wilder said. More information about Chronic Wasting Disease can be found at: Wildlife Center of Virginia. Note also that adult deer cannot be rehabilitated anywhere in Virginia.

Citizens can’t kill or trap wildlife without a license, either, although they can trap wildlife on their own property—they are just not allowed to relocate it. They can’t transport wildlife across state lines unless it’s a bird, and it’s illegal to keep wildlife as pets. However, a Good Samaritan law allows citizens to capture and transport wildlife to receive care, provided they have received permission from a veterinarian or a rehabber first, Wilder said.

The Wildlife Rescue League and the Animal Welfare League of Arlington welcome support for their wildlife rescue and rehabilitation efforts, Wilder said. Consider becoming a wildlife rehabilitator, care provider, or transporter!   

by Rosemary Jann

Spring came unusually early to the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic this year, including here in Arlington. Many of us have been delighted to see trees, shrubs, and plants emerging early all over our area because of our unseasonably warm winter. 

For scientists who study phenology, these seasonal variations hold a more specific significance.

Phenology studies the timing of recurring life cycle phases in plants and animals and their relationship to weather and climate: when leaf or flower buds break, when insects hatch, when birds start to nest or fruit starts to form. Maintained over multiple years, phenological data can contribute to prediction models that influence decision-making in many fields.

Phenological trends can help determine the best time to plant crops or to treat for insects that damage them. They can predict when flowers are likely to bloom and thus when allergy season is likely to peak, or the best dates for scheduling events like Washington’s Cherry Blossom Festival. Phenological data can help scientists identify the drivers of environmental change and project future trends.

One of the most significant uses for phenological data lies in demonstrating the effects of climate change. “Changes in phenological events like flowering and animal migration are among the most sensitive biological responses to climate change,” according to the USA National Phenology Network (NPN). 

Of particular concern is accumulating evidence that rapid climate change is producing mismatches in phenological events that have negative impacts on animals. The chart below, for instance, depicts what happens when caterpillars hatch before migrating birds are ready to feed the nestlings that need those caterpillars to survive. 

The NPN was established in 2007 to collect, store, collate, and share phenological data. Since then, it has accumulated more than 30 million individual observation records from over 15 million observers, many of them citizen scientist volunteers who log their data through the NPN’s online tool, Nature’s Notebook. The NPN database currently includes records for more than 1750 species of plants and animals found across the United States.

Volunteer observers for plants follow the NPN’s list of standardized life cycle events or “phenophases” for specific individual specimens, like breaking leaf buds for a tree or open flowers on a perennial. The goal of observation is not necessarily to establish the exact date that buds break but rather through regular weekly monitoring over multiple years to help track trends in the overall timing of onset, duration, and intensity of phenophases in particular species and places.  

In 2022, a team of 10 ARMN members began our own multiyear citizen science project to study local phenology at three sites: Arlington Central Library, Marcey Road Park, and Potomac Overlook Regional Park. The project selected plant species from some of Nature’s Notebook’s special regional campaigns in order to maximize the usefulness of our data for scientists and decision makers. Nature’s Notebook’s “Green Wave” campaign targets leaf break and color change in oaks, maples, and poplars to help model the ways climate change is affecting deciduous trees. Also, “Nectar Connectors” studies the availability of nectar for monarch butterflies and other pollinator insects by tracking flower bloom in a selection of common nectar plants like the milkweeds, cardinal flowers, and buttonbushes that the phenology project is monitoring. The beauty of the Eastern redbud tree has made it a ubiquitous landscaping plant across the eastern United States. The new  “Redbud Phenology Project” will track flowering and fruiting to determine the effects of latitude, elevation, and climate on redbud phenology. 

In addition to contributing to these national campaigns, the ARMN phenology project also hopes to produce information to educate our local constituencies about the effects of climate change. Watch this space for more information about our results later this year.

The National Phenology Network welcomes volunteer observers, and your own front yard or local park could become an observation site. Nature’s Notebook provides all the information you need to get started, including a “how to observe” course. Sign up for an account, register your site, choose your plants or animals, and you’re ready to start monitoring through their mobile phone app or the Nature’s Notebook website. Join the thousands of citizen scientists who are advancing our understanding of climate change through the National Phenology Network!