Over the centuries, the scientists who name the various species of wildlife sometimes have included hints about the appearance of a species both in the common and scientific names. Word clues about the colour of a species is one example such as red admiral butterfly, green stink bug, or black-legged tick. Physical attributes may be highlighted, such as narrow-headed fly or short-winged katydid. Geographical location may be hinted at such as the northern pearly-eye butterfly, or dock spider. We have come to appreciate that at our cottage in Lanark, many species’ names include the word ‘long’.
One of our favourite long ‘beasts’ is the notable sawyer which is a member of the longhorn beetle family. Many people would simply call it a longhorn beetle, and it is easy to see why, considering their very, very long antennae. Fortunately, it is not considered to be a pest because the female usually chooses dead or dying pine and spruce trees on which to lay her eggs, although she may pick the wood you are seasoning in your wood pile. This beetle is so large it brings to mind the large beetles of the tropics.
Other parts of a beast’s body can be long including the jaw. The common name of the longjawed orbweaver spider refers to the extended length of its jaws compared with those of other orbweaver spiders. In the photograph, we have labeled the long jaws of this spider as well as the pedipalps which are the long, skinny appendages in front of the face. The pedipalps make the spider look as though it has little boxing gloves. Spiders use their pedipalps to manipulate and transfer food to the mouth. The longjawed orbweaver uses its jaws to eat flies and mosquitoes making them another of our favourite spiders. We have seen longjawed orbweavers at the cottage throughout the summer.
While nursery web spiders do not have the word ‘long’ in their name, to us they appear to be very long in body, especially when they rest with their two pair of front legs held together facing forward, and therefore are deserving of being in our article about long beasts. Nursery web spiders can be seen in forests and fields. We see them most often on plants lining the road. When its eggs are ready to hatch, the egg sac is placed within a “nursery web” built on some foliage, and the mother stands guard. We see them every summer.
Longlegged flies are around every year, but move a lot and are tiny, providing a great challenge to our intrepid photographer. Typically, they are found at forest edges on foliage, but often enough they wander to the picnic table on our lakeside deck. This particular metallic green species lives throughout Lanark and the Canadian southeast, but not for long as the adult life span is measured in days. Adult longlegged flies feed on soft-bodied invertebrates such as mosquito larvae and are, in turn, preyed upon by such beasts as the nursery web spider, making both these long beasts favourites of ours.
No article about long beasts in Lanark would be worthy of reading without the inclusion of a flower longhorn beetle, and therefore we are including one here despite our having talked about a flower longhorn beetle recently. We have at least six different species of flower longhorn beetle at the cottage, probably many more that we have not yet noticed. All have the same common name. All are long in body. This illustrates well why entomologists insist on referring to insects by their official scientific name. The flower longhorn beetle below is of the genus Typocerus, while the one in our previous article about new species was of the genus Trachysida. It is much easier to call them flower longhorn beetles. We find the adults eating pollen while hanging out on flowers.
Scientists have used the word long in common names to describe physical attributes such as the length of various body parts, including the overall body, legs, jaws, antennae, and other parts. Sometimes the word long describes time … long may we enjoy the long wildlife of Lanark.
For this article we used John Acorn’s Bugs of Ontario, a book we love for its readability; also, Sharon Rose’s Spiders of North America.
