Yesterday, it rained in the morning and then cleared and ended up being a steamy kind of day. The continuation of the hot, humid days are really no inducement for us to go back to the vineyard for the second shift. But, the vines called and we answered.
We are still shoot tucking, but now in our Chenin Blanc. My husband and I were working from the north end and tucking the shoots until we reached our marker for the half way point. We were doing the second alley and I was working my way back, when he said, "You need to see this!" The "this" was this. A perfectly laid row of some kind of eggs and then something kind of spiky on a trellis wire.
We took several pictures and went home to interrogate the internet for what this weird juxtaposition of eggs and spikes could be. Even after a few hours of searching, neither my husband nor I could come up with what this was. I then searched on "insect eggs in a row" and the first image to pop up was exactly what we took a photo of! We found the photo on
The LarvalBug Bytes Archives and the site identified what we had as owlfly eggs!
The owlfly belongs to the order Neuroptera which also includes Antlions, Lacewings, Mantidflies and Allies. They belong to the family
Ascalaphidae. The adult form kind of looks like a dragonfly.
What is so exciting about finding these eggs, aside from the fact that they are so unusual looking, is that the larvae as well as the adult owlfly are voracious predators. The adult cruises the air, snatching and eating insects as they fly! In our book, an insect that eats other insects is a keeper!
References:
1.
The LarvalBug Bytes Archives.
2. Information about the aborted owlfly egg is from
Bug Guide.
3.
Missouri Department of Conservation: Owlflies.
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