Range/Habitat: Entire East coast, spanning westward into Missouri through Texas.

Size: Wingspan of 1 - 1 ¼ inches (2.5 - 3.2 cm)

Appearance:

• Butterfly: Underside of wings are brown and distinctly two-toned, with the outer half being much lighter brown in color. Stomach and bottom of wings dusted with silvery-white hairs.

• Caterpillar: ½ inch slug-like shape. Primarily maroon, though there are tan and green variants. Two parallel lines of light spots run down their body vertically.

Diet: Caterpillars eat a wide variety of plants—primarily blossoms—but are most likely to be found on Redbuds. Redbuds are also the butterfly’s main supply of nectar, though they also feed on willows, wild plums, and hawthornes.

Range/Habitat: East coast from Long Island south through Florida, stretching westward to Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. They are found primarily in coastal hammocks (patches of forests within primarily coastal ecosystems), overgrown fields, and forest edges.

Size: Wingspan of ¾ - 1 inch (1.9 - 2.5 cm)

Appearance:

• Butterfly: Underside of wings are a light gray-brown, with an orange or red band lined with a thinner white band running vertically along both the fore- and hindwings; the width of this bang varies. They have a blue spot and at least one black eyespot near their tails (protrusions at the bottom of their wings). The upper wing surfaces vary by sex: males are slate gray, females are gray with irridescent blue scales.

• Caterpillar: Hairy and pinkish-brown.

Diet: Adults consume flower nectar from yarrow, wild cherry, tickseed sunflower, sumac, sweet pepperbush, New Jersey tea, common milkweed, and dogbane. Caterpillars eat decaying leaves of its host plant.

Range/Habitat: Eastern half of the United States up to the Rocky Mountains, stretching vertically from southern Canada to central Texas and the Gulf Coast.

Size: Wingspan of 1 ¾ - 2 ½ inches (4.5 - 6.4 cm)

Appearance:

• Butterfly: Underside of wings mimics the appearance of leaf litter—a mixture of tones of brown and orange with scattered dark spots. Top side of upper wings is always a brownish-orange with dark spots; top side of lower wings varies by season: mostly black in the summer, orange with black spots in the winter. Outside of top side of wings is thinly lined with a white/silver color. No tails, but their wings are secontined into lobes like a leaf.

• Caterpillar: Black to greenish brown, with a white band and several rows of pale, branched spines that stick out of their backs.

Diet: Caterpillars eat leaves. Adults eat rotting fruit and tree sap.

Range/Habitat: Mid-Atlantic to Florida peninsula, stretching west along Gulf Coast to Texas and other Southern States. They are found in grassy places and woodlands, as grasses host their caterpillars.

Size: Wingspan of 1¼ - 1½ inches (3.2 - 3.8 cm)

Appearance:

• Butterflies: Top of wings is brown with no markings. Underside of the wings is light brown with two vertical, darker brown stripes down both wings. Both wings have many small eyespots rimmed with yellow.

• Caterpillar: Pale green with darker green stripes and short, yellow hairs. Hind end tails are very short. The head is rounded and does not have the typical horns that are typical of satyr caterpillars.

Diet: Caterpillars eat leaves; adults eat sap and rotting fruit.

Range/Habitat: From Mid-Atlantic to Florida Peninsula. Stretches west to the western border of the Southern States. They breed in moist low woodlands near swamps and rivers. Adults fly to nectar plants in open fields and brushy areas.

Size: Wingspan of 2½ - 3½ inches (6.0 - 8.9 cm)

Appearance:

• Butterfly: Top of wings have black stripes on a pale whitish-blue background. Red spots above black eyespots eyespots on back wings. Back wings also have long, slender tails—they are black lined with an accent of white. Early-spring form is smaller and lighter colored. Spring forms are smaller, lighter, and have shorter tails.

• Caterpillar: Several color forms: green, green with light blue and yellow stripes, or charcoal black with white and yellow stripes. All have a plump, humped appearance.

Diet: Caterpillars eat the leaves of the genus Asimina (pawpaw) in the Annonaceae family, where they also live, pupate, and hibernate. Adults sequester moisture from sand and nectar from flowers including blueberry, blackberry, lilac, redbud, viper's bugloss, verbena, dogbane, and common milkweed.

Range/Habitat: From Canada to Northern Florida, stretching west to Wisconsin through Texas. Found near clean, freshwater streams that run through sun-dappled forest openings. Sometimes in meadows near forests but always close to water.

Size: Body length 39-57 mm (approximately 2¼ -3 inches); wingspan 58-76 mm (approximately 1½ -2¼ inches)

Appearance:

• Males: Iridescent green body with dark wings. Wings of the male ebony jewelwing are completely black.

• Females: Bluish-green body but lacking the brilliant iridescence of the male’s. Wings of the female are smoky bronze with a distinct white spot (pterostigma) at the tips of each wing.

Diet: Resting arthropods but can also catch prey in mid flight, such as gnats, mosquitoes, and crane flies. They use their densely spined legs to trap their prey.

Other: Ebony jewelwings have a short average lifespan of just 15-17 days in the wild. Can be spotted March to October.

Range/Habitat: Eastern US and southeastern Canada. Habitat is around ponds, lakes and slow streams.

Size: Body length 21-29 mm (approximately 0.8-1.1 inches)

Appearance:

• Males: The male's thorax (closer to head) is black above with broken yellow, yellow-green, or green shoulder stripes (resembling exclamation marks) and pale green sides. The abdomen (longest part of body) is black above with thin pale rings. Occasionally, the abdomen has a blue spot near the tip.

• Females: The female is similar in structure but the stripes areas are bluish. As the females mature, they become pruinose blue-gray, obscuring the distinctive shoulder stripes.

Diet: Small, flying insects

Other: Active from Spring to early Fall

Range/Habitat: Eastern United States and southeastern Canada. Can be found in shallow, shaded woodland ponds, including temporary bodies of water; also some swamps and slow streams.

Size: Body length around 90mm (approximately 3½ inches) (one of the largest dragonflies in the USA!); wingspan 127mm (5 inches)

Appearance: Males and females look alike. Large, broad-headed, maroon/brown bodied with thin, lime-green circular rings on the abdomen.

Diet: Predatory. May form swarms to feed on swarms of winged termites and ants. Often feeds very high in the air.

Other: Peaks late May - mid July.

Range/Habitat: Found in the 48 contiguous states and the range continues south into Mexico and north into these Canadian provinces: British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Habitat includes aquatic areas such as muddy bottomed ponds, lakes, marshes, slow streams, and stream pools, as well as stock ponds and rarely even bogs.

Size: 4.32 cm (1.7 in)

Appearance:

• Male: Chalky bluish-white abdomen (back-half of the body) and single broad dark band per wing. Young males’s abdomen resemble females; it grows white as the Common Whitetail matures.

• Female: Females have a brown body with a row of pale yellowish triangular marks on each side of the abdomen. Each wing has 3 evenly spaced, dark blotches.

Diet: Flies, midges, ants, butterflies, and other insects

Other: Active in the summer. Females can be easily confused with the Twelve-spotted Skimmer; difference lies in solid, rectangular, brown abdominal stripe on Twelve-spotted Skimmer that is not found on the Common Whitetail.

Range/Habitat: Eastern half of the United States up into Southeast Canada. Habitat includes sunny, marshy streams and small stream-fed ponds.

Size: 4.3 cm (1.7 in)

Appearance:

• Males: Brown base, yellow on the sides of the tip of the abdomen. Tip of abdomen is also vertically wider than the rest of the abdomen, giving them their moniker of “clubtail.” Yellow stripe from thorax down abdomen.

• Females: Similar in appearance but lacks “clubtail.”

Diet: Other insects

Other: Peaks late May through June

Range/Habitat: Indigenous to the Yangtze River valley in China, but can be found in pockets throughout the US (See range map). Common habitat includes shallow, slow moving, or stagnant artificial water bodies such as ornamental ponds, reservoirs, gravel pits, and quarries.

Size: 5-25mm

Appearance: Translucent whitish, greenish, bell-shaped jelly. Five opaque, white canals that aid with digestion and circulation visible through the bell—four radially to form a cross, one perpendicular and at the intersection of the radial ones. Four long swimming tentacle, 50-500 shorter feeding tentacles.

Diet: Opportunistic predator. Feeds on zooplankton.

Other: The Peach Blossom Jellyfish was likely introduced via ornamental aquatic plants, especially water hyacinth, from its native region in China. Found in the Crim Dell!