NatureNotes

Talitridae is a family of amphipods. Terrestrial species are often referred to as landhoppers and beach dwellers are called sandhoppers, beach hoppers, or sand fleas. The name sand flea is misleading, though, because these talitrid amphipods are not siphonapterans (true fleas), do not bite people, and are not limited to sandy beaches.

Notonectidae is a cosmopolitan family of aquatic insects in the order Hemiptera, commonly called backswimmers because they swim "upside down" (inverted). They are all predators and typically range from 0.5 to 1.5 cm (0.2–0.6 in) in length. They are similar in appearance to Corixidae (water boatmen), but can be separated by differences in their dorsal-ventral coloration, front legs, and predatory b...

Florida betony (Stachys floridana) is native to Florida and began appearing in other states in the 1940s and 50s. It has become an aggressive weed in residential and commercial landscapes in South Carolina.

A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the order Odonata, infraorder Anisoptera. Adult dragonflies are characterized by a pair of large, multifaceted compound eyes, two pairs of strong, transparent wings, sometimes with coloured patches, and an elongated body. Dragonflies can be mistaken for the closely related damselflies, which make up the other odonatan infraorder (Zygoptera) and are simil...

Assassin bugs belong to a large family of true bugs called the Reduviidae. There are approximately 160 species in North America, and many are commonly encountered around the home. The group is exclusively predaceous and many feed on a wide variety of landscape and garden pests including the fall webworm, tent caterpillar, Mexican bean beetle, and June beetles.

Mantis shrimp, or stomatopods, are carnivorous marine crustaceans of the order Stomatopoda, branching from other members of the class Malacostraca around 340 million years ago. Mantis shrimp typically grow to around 10 cm (3.9 in) in length, while a few can reach up to 38 cm (15 in).

Members of the Prionus genus are large and usually brown or black. All members of the genus Prionus have twelve or more strongly toothed or even flabellate antennomeres on their large antennae. Common North American species include the "tile-horned Prionus", Prionus imbricornis, the "California root borer", Prionus californicus, and the "broad-necked root borer", Prionus laticollis.

A 'rookery' is breeding colony of rooks.

Anisota stigma, the spiny oakworm moth, is a moth of the family Saturniidae. The species was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1775. It is found in North America from Massachusetts and southern Ontario to Florida, west to Minnesota, Kansas and Texas.

Aplysia fasciata, common name the "mottled sea hare", or the "sooty sea hare", is an Atlantic species of sea hare or sea slug, a marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusk in the family Aplysiidae. This sea hare occurs in the Western Atlantic from New Jersey to Brazil, and in the Eastern Atlantic including the Mediterranean and the West African coast. They have also been sighted along the Atlantic coa...

Xerophyllum asphodeloides is a North American species of flowering plants in the Melanthiaceae known by the common names turkey beard, eastern turkeybeard, beartongue, grass-leaved helonias, and mountain asphodel. It is native to the eastern United States, where it occurs in the southern Appalachian Mountains from Virginia to Alabama, and also in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.

A listener and his young daughter find what might be a fossil on Edisto Beach...

The timber rattlesnake, canebrake rattlesnake, or banded rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) is a species of venomous, sometimes highly venomous, pit viper endemic to eastern North America. This is the only rattlesnake species in most of the populous Northeastern United States and is second only to its relatives to the west, the prairie rattlesnake, as the most northerly distributed venomous snake in...

Monobia quadridens, also known as the four-toothed mason wasp, is a species of solitary potter wasp found in North America. It grows to a wingspan of 18 millimetres (0.71 in), and feeds on small caterpillars and pollen. There are two generations per year, with one generation overwintering as pupae. It nests in a variety of cavities including tunnels abandoned by carpenter bees, old nests built by...

Rudy shares some of his favorite poems.

The longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae), also known as long-horned or longicorns, are a large family of beetles, with over 35,000 species described. Most species are characterized by extremely long antennae, which are often as long as or longer than the beetle's body.

Caterpillars can be difficult to identify because they go through 5 stages of growth. Each stage is called an "instar." As a caterpillar grows, it "molts" 5 times before it becomes a chrysalis.

Dynastes tityus, the eastern Hercules beetle, is a species of rhinoceros beetle native to the Eastern United States. The adult's elytra are green, gray or tan, with black markings, and the whole animal, including the male's horns, may reach 60 mm (2.4 in) in length. The larvae feed on decaying wood from various trees.

Psocoptera are a paraphyletic group of insects that are commonly known as booklice, barklice or barkflies. The name Psocoptera has been replaced with Psocodea in recent literature, with the inclusion of the former order Phthiraptera into Psocodea (as part of the suborder Troctomorpha).

A listener finds some bones washed up on Sullvan's Island...

The Bombyliidae are a family of flies. Their common name are bee flies or humbleflies. Adults generally feed on nectar and pollen, some being important pollinators. Larvae generally are parasitoids of other insects.

Scale insects are small insects of the order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha. Of dramatically variable appearance and extreme sexual dimorphism, they comprise the infraorder Coccomorpha which is considered a more convenient grouping than the superfamily Coccoidea due to taxonomic uncertainties. Adult females typically have soft bodies and no limbs, and are concealed underneath domed scales, ext...

Lucanus elaphus, the giant stag beetle, is a beetle of the family Lucanidae native to eastern North America. They are sometimes kept as pets. Stag beetles are a family of about 1,200 species of beetles in the family Lucanidae, currently classified in four subfamilies.

The diamondback terrapin or simply terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) is a species of turtle native to the brackish coastal tidal marshes of the Northeastern and southern United States, and in Bermuda. It belongs to the monotypic genus Malaclemys. It has one of the largest ranges of all turtles in North America, stretching as far south as the Florida Keys and as far north as Cape Cod.

The eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus) is a chipmunk species found in eastern North America. It is the only living member of the chipmunk subgenus Tamias, sometimes recognized as a different genus. The name "chipmunk" comes from an Ojibwe word which translates literally as "one who descends trees headlong." First described by Mark Catesby in his 1743 The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and t...