VES NEWS The Newsletter of the Vermont Entomological Society Number 102 Winter 2018-2019 www.VermontInsects.org VES NEWS Number 102 Winter 2018 — 2019 The Newsletter of the CONTENTS Vermont Entomological Society Treasurer’s Report by Deb Kiel Page 2 VES Officers Michael Sabourin President Member News Page 3 Warren Kiel Vice President Deb Kiel Treasurer VES Calendar Page 3 Laurie DiCesare Compiler / Editor Bryan Pfeiffer Webmaster Preston Pond (8.30.2017 & 8.19.2018) Page 3 By Laurie DiCesare Emeritus Members Programs of Interest Page 4 Joyce Bell Ross Bell John Grehan Shelburne Bay Boat Launch (9.24.2018) Page 5 Gordon Nielsen By Laurie DiCesare Michael Sabourin Mark Waskow “Winter” Moths in VT Page 6 By JoAnne Russo The Vermont Entomological Society (VES) is devoted to the study, conservation, and VT Atlas of Life at iNaturalist… Page 8 appreciation of invertebrates. Founded in 1993, By Kent McFarland VES sponsors selected research, workshops and field trips for the public, including children. Our quarterly newsletter features developments In Memoriam: Richard G. Dearborn Page 11 in entomology, accounts of insect events and By Bob Nelson field trips, as well as general contributions from members or other entomologists. VES Treasurer’s Report 2018 by Deb Kiel VES Financial Statement 2018 VES is open to anyone interested in VES remains strong with positive assets. Assets at Start $4,346.78 arthropods. Our members range from casual Our membership dues again covered the insect watchers to amateur and professional cost of printing our quarterly newsletter Income: entomologists. We welcome members of all which remains our biggest expense. ages, abilities and interests. Membership Dues $960.00 Member donations were also gratefully Donations $ 20.00 received. A large royalty check from Ross You can join VES by sending dues of $15 per Book Royalties $224.00 Bell’s Carabids of Vermont and New year to: Refund of Publisher $200.00 Hampshire helped round out our income. Deb Kiel Newsletter Purchases $ 12.00 147 Allen Irish Road Our assets also allowed us to provide cash rebates to VES members who were Total Income: $1416.00 Underhill, VT 05489 registrants or presenters at the Northeast Natural History Conference this year. We Expenses: had one registrant and one presenter. Newsletter Printing $928.60 Cover Photographs: VES dues for 2019 are due now. They are Postage $129.43 (Front) Bruce Spanworm (Operophtera bruceata) $15 for an individual or a family per year. Publisher Purchase $117.69 Photo by JoAnne Russo Thank you to several folks who have Conference Rebates $200.00 (Back) already paid for the year. People receiving Memorial $149.99 Potter’s Wasp Nest (Vespidae: Eumenes) a hard copy of VES news can check their Paper Statement Fees $ 24.00 Photo by Laurie DiCesare mailing label which will show the month Misc. Supplies $ 18.25 and year their membership expires. Checks may be made out to VES and Total Expenses: $1,567.96 mailed to Debra Kiel, 147 Allen Irish Road, Net Difference $ -151.96 Underhill, VT 05489. I will also be For more information on the sending out a general email for all our Assets at End of Year $4,192.84 Vermont Entomological Society, visit members receiving our newsletter electronically regarding membership www.VermontInsects.org status. If you have any questions contact me at [email protected]. Page 2 VES News - Winter 2018 - 2019 Member News Thanks to Janine Gydus for her editorial expertise and her skill with transforming our VES articles from Word to Publisher format for the past year. She will continue to be an avid VES member…but with more time to spend with her family. As of Jan. 1, 2019, she has passed the editorial baton to Laurie DiCesare, our new VES Newsletter editor. Laurie and Treasurer Deb Kiel are both learning to use the Publisher program with technical assistance from Westford Librarian Bree Drapa and Janet Foster at Kimball Office Services, in Bristol Thanks, Bree and Janet! VES Calendar: March 24, 2019 (11 a.m - ~2 p.m.): VES Pot-luck / Planning Meeting: Please bring show-and-tell items and stories from your 2018 adventures to share. If you have a favorite site you’d like us to visit in 2019, please let us know…especially if you’d like to lead or host a trip. Our gracious hosts for the pot-luck will be Doug and Mary Burnham, 11 Summer Street, Montpelier, VT. E-mail [email protected] or phone 802-229-9578. R.S.V.P.s appreciated but not required. Field Notes PRESTON POND (AUG. 30, 2017 & AUG. 19, 2018) By Laurie DiCesare On a warm (72˚ F.), sunny afternoon in late Frog, bobcat, Destroying Angel mushrooms…) August of 2017, naturalists Bill Boccio, Shirley Zundell depicting the unseen wildlife that were known to and I first explored Preston Pond in West Bolton, VT. inhabit the area. From Route 2 in Jonesville, we travelled up Stage Road On the rocky shoreline of the pond, we watched and turned right into an unpaved, two-car parking lot as a Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus (at #3638.) As soon as we started walking up the impatiens) pushed its way into several bright-blue logging road, we saw damselflies flitting around in the Closed Gentian (Gentiana clausa) blossoms. We also roadside vegetation with a Spotted Spreadwing photographed Eastern Forktails (Ischnura verticalis), (Lestes congener) damselfly alighting long enough for Slaty Skimmers (Libellula incesta) and Autumn a photo op. Along the half-mile wooded trail to the Meadowhawks (Sympetrum vicinum.) We all agreed pond, we saw a good diversity of fern and fungal that this would be a great site to revisit in 2018. species, and occasional hand-painted signs (Wood Spotted Spreadwing (Lestes Common Eastern Bumble Bee Bill Boccio and Shirley Zundell congener) (Bombus impatiens) Photo: Laurie DiCesare Photo: Laurie DiCesare Photo: Laurie DiCesare VES News - Winter 2018 - 2019 Page 3 On August 19 of 2018, Shirley and I retraced (dragonflies and damselflies) appeared. A few minutes our steps to the Pond with naturalist Don Miller who, later, we were snapping photos of the abundant according to Michael Sabourin, has a “keen interest in darners and skimmers patrolling past us on the grasshoppers, dragonflies and ground beetles.” Don shoreline, flying a few feet above the water surface and helped Shirley and me identify many “new” fern occasionally landing on nearby rocks and logs. species, including the Lady Fern (Athyrium felix- We identified a Slender Spreadwing damselfly femina), Hay-scented Fern (Dennstaedtia and several species of dragonflies (including Slaty punctilobula), and New York Fern (Thelypteris Skimmers, Autumn Meadowhawks) that we had noveboracensis.) previously encountered. We also saw Blue Dashers Upon arriving at the pond, we were (Pachydiplax longipennis); a possible Lake Darner disappointed to find that although the temperature (Aeshna eremita); and several other dragonflies that was warm (75˚ F.) the sky was overcast and very few were flying too fast for us to identify. I’ve already insects were visible. As we started identifying the local added Preston Pond to my “Favorite Sites” list and vegetation , like Common Pipewort (Eriocaulon hope to visit again this summer. aquaticum) and Water Shield (Brasenia schreberi), the sun emerged from the cloud cover and the Odonates Shirley Zundell and Don Miller at Preston Pond Photo: Laurie DiCesare References: For a species lists from our two Preston Pond field trips, e-mail Laurie at [email protected] (with “VES: Preston Pond Species” in the subject line) or call 802.893.1845. Programs of Interest: For more information on these and other programs at Eagle Hill Biodiversity University Summer 2019 programs: Institute (edible plants, fungi, lichens, natural history June 29 Caterpillars of New England: The Whole Story drawing…), please see https://www.Eaglehill.us or email June 29 – July 3 Moths and Butterflies: Identification, [email protected]; phone 207-546-2821 ext. 1; or write Eagle Taxonomy and Specimen Prep. Hill Institute, P.O. Box 9, 59 Eagle Hill Road, Steuben, Maine For more information about these and other programs 04680-0009. e-mail: [email protected]; phone 802-229- 6206; or write: North Branch Nature Center, 713 Elm Street, Newsletter Schedule Montpelier, VT 05602. North Branch Nature Center is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Trails are open Spring: Deadline April 7 - Publication May 1 Summer: Deadline July 7 - Publication August 1 24 hrs. per day / 7 days a week. Fall: Deadline October 7 - Publication November 1 Eagle Hill Institute Week-long Summer 2019 Seminars: Winter: Deadline January 7 - Publication February 1 June 9 – 15 Chironimids (Midges): Classification, Morphology, Identification and Life cycles. Membership June 23 – 29 Insect and Spider Biology “Through the Lens.” Check Your Mailing Label July 7 – 13 Marine Benthic Invertebrates The upper right corner of your mailing label will inform you July 14 – 20 Trichoptera (Caddisflies) of the Northeast of the month and year your VES membership expires. Dues July 28 – Aug. 3 Leaf and Stem Mining Insects are $15 and can be sent to our Treasurer: Aug. 4 – 10 Microlepidoptera (small butterflies): Collection, Vermont Entomological Society Preparation, Dissection… c/o Deb Kiel Aug. 11 – 17 EPT Taxa: Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera 147 Allen Irish Road (Stoneflies) and Trichoptera (Caddisflies) Underhill, VT 05489 VES News - Winter 2018 - 2019 Page 4 Field Trips SHELBURNE BAY (SEPT. 24, 2018) BY LAURIE DICESARE On September 24 at 1:30 p.m., It was about 70˚ F., partly sunny with naturalist Shirley Zundell and I made an only a light breeze. The dragons were mostly impromptu field trip to Shelburne Bay Boat flying eight to ten feet above our heads and Launch. It was late in the season, so we did repeatedly evading capture on closer fly-bys.