The Good Thing About Japanese Beetles

You'd never expect to see a word like "good" relate to such a prolific and invasive insect, would you? But it turns out there is a silver lining when it comes to Japanese Beetle infestations.

Last Sunday Reina and I spent a huge amount of time outdoors, ignoring many of the various chores that beckoned. That's when we found one of our newly planted cherry trees was under siege by no less than forty beetles. To put that in context, this tree only has about twenty leaves. We then noticed many of the plants in our various gardens were hosting "JBs". We found our afternoon mission: eliminate JBs from our yard.

I wondered if I should turn a hose on these Japanese Beetles before
collecting them. I decided to let them have one last fling.

We set up the standard pheromone-and-bag traps, a solution that may or may not be the gardener-landscaper's best friend. On the plus side, everyone agrees they work brilliantly to attract all JBs in the neighborhood and beyond. On the down side, several would-be-trappers noted many of the beetles never make it into the trap. Instead, they're rumored to take up residence nearby, skeletonizing the very plants you were trying to save. Instead of reducing the population you've swelled it to immeasurable numbers.

We watched a pair of Song Sparrows collecting insects to feed their young.
Sadly, JBs are not a food source. I'm not sure what this one is holding.

In our experience the traps work extremely well. Each year we find the bags fill quickly and we note a huge, though never scientifically demonstrated, decrease in JB numbers in the yard. This year we couldn't sit idly by while our plants were suffering such an extreme bout of herbivory. We each grabbed a jar and headed for the garden. We were determined to collect as many as we could.

That's when we noticed the silvery outline of the black JB cloud. While capturing hundreds of JBs we discovered a good number of other interesting insects. Here's a showcase of butterflies and moths we found last weekend. I think I've identified most of them, save one. Any help and/or corrections appreciated!

Note: click on an image for larger version.

A first for our yard: a Black Swallowtail visits our Bee Balm patch.
I believe it's a female based on the amount of blue on the hind wings.

A newly-emerged Baltimore Checkerspot, the state insect of Maryland.
Wikipedia says they only lay their eggs on the Turtlehead
(Chelone glabra) (source), but I cannot verify that elsewhere. Anyone?

A side view of the newly-emerged Baltimore Checkerspot.
Brock and Kaufman write, "Beautiful, distinctive, unlike any other
eastern butterfly." Hard to find fault with that description!

A yellow-form female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. I've noticed a couple similarly
marked swallowtails this summer, I wonder if they are Canadian Swallowtails.

A Virginia Ctenucha, the largest and most
broad-winged wasp moth in North America (source).

UPDATE: Identified as a Confused Haploa (Haploa confusa).
Thanks, nishiki_85 and Meena!

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