Labor Day Morning Hike
The family joined me on my chore hike around the property this "morning". We stumbled upon two really interesting critters.
*Identified and described by Grok.
The first was "a Locust Borer (Megacyllene robiniae), a flashy longhorn beetle that’s basically wearing a wasp costume."
"That bold black-and-yellow zigzag pattern (especially the “W” across the wing covers) plus the reddish legs and extra-long antennae is its signature look. It’s a classic example of Batesian mimicry—pretending to be a stinging wasp so birds and other predators give it a wide berth. Adults are out and about in late summer and early fall, which is exactly when you snapped this photo. They love hanging out on flowers (goldenrod is a favorite) to sip pollen, but they don’t eat much as adults. Their real job is finding a black locust tree so the female can lay eggs in bark cracks."
"The larvae are the ones that do the damage: they tunnel through the wood of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), weakening branches so they snap in wind. Black locust isn’t native here but gets planted a lot in the Pacific Northwest, so these beetles have followed it west. They’re not a threat to other trees or to people—just a colorful reminder that even “introduced” insects can look like they belong in an Oregon forest. Pretty sharp-dressed hitchhiker you spotted!"
The second was a "pair of Distinct Tolype moths (Tolype distincta)—or as Pacific Northwest moth-nerds affectionately call them, Fuzzy Butts."
"These adorable fluffballs belong to the lappet moth family (Lasiocampidae). They’re basically living balls of yarn with wings. The body is densely covered in long white-and-gray hairs, the wings show pale gray bands with bright white veins, and they rock a distinctive dark metallic “mohawk” of curly scales on the thorax plus that signature tufty rear end that earned them the nickname. The one with the extra-feathery antennae is the male; the slightly bigger, paler one is the female. They’re stacked like that because they’re in the middle of moth romance on the tree bark."
"Gales Creek’s moist conifer forests (Douglas-fir, western hemlock, true firs) are exactly their favorite hangout. The caterpillars munch on those needles in spring, then the adults emerge in late summer and fall—perfect timing for your September find. Adults don’t even have working mouthparts, so they skip eating entirely and just focus on finding a mate before winter. The gray, bark-camouflaged thing in your close-up shot is almost certainly one of their silk cocoons or an empty pupal case, blending in like a tiny piece of the tree itself."
"They’re completely harmless to people and usually not a big pest to the trees. Just a couple of fuzzy forest wizards doing their thing. Pretty cool find!"
