Bug Eric

Note : Special thanks to Bob Carlson and David Wahl for reviewing these images and confirming the identification. Ichneumon wasps are a tr...

Palo Verde trees are a fixture of the Sonoran Desert landscape in southern Arizona, so it comes as something of a surprise that so little is...

The spider family Homalonychidae is so obscure that there is not even a common (English) name for them. I would never know they even existe...

One of the most conspicuous wasps in the Sonoran Desert is the paper wasp Polistes flavus . This is a large wasp that frequents the same na...

Have you ever been involved in a hit-and-run accident? If so, then you know what it feels like to be a scarab beetle grub being attacked by...

Here in southern Arizona there are several species of paper wasps in the genus Polistes . What intrigues me is that you seldom find more th...

Without a doubt, one of the iconic animals of the Sonoran Desert is the tarantula. What would a Western, or desert horror movie be without ...

Leaf beetles of the family Chrysomelidae seem to be particularly diverse here in southern Arizona. One of the most common species is Leptin...

The sand wasps are among my favorite insects. They are incredibly industrious, colorful, and kill pesky insects like flies for a living. M...

Spring has definitely “sprung” here at the Tucson Botanical Gardens. Many flowers are in bloom, and native butterflies are taking full adva...

Mary Klinkel, one of the volunteers for the Butterfly Magic display at the Tucson Botanical Gardens, invited me to join her in her quest to ...