Crazy in Alabama Trivia Quiz

Answer: cow ant

The cow ant is a member of the Mutillidae family of wasps. The females, which is what I captured, are wingless and vary vastly in appearance from the males. Only females are capable of stinging, using her ovipositor to deliver a powerful punch rumored to be very painful (thus their nickname, the "cow killer"). Male cow ants have wings and will carry the female off during mating.

Unlike true ants, the cow ant is fairly solitary and does not operate within a colony.

Answer: butterfly

This crazy looking caterpillar will eventually become a beautiful orange butterfly called the Gulf Fritillary. The creature feeds exclusively on passionflower leaves, and this batch stripped my entire vine bare. The butterfly it will become is bright orange with black spots.

Although the caterpillar looks fearsome with all those spines, they are actually soft to the touch and do not sting. The caterpillars are toxic if eaten, thus birds avoid them.

Answer: skipper

This particular skipper, the long-tailed skipper, is a member of the Hesperiidae family. The butterfly is brownish in appearance initially, like a moth. The bright blue of the body is seen when the wings are spread, and this feature in collaboration with its daytime activity and clubbed antennae set it apart from moths.

This skipper is primarily found in South America, but its range does extend north into the extreme southern United States.

Answer: Mydas fly

The Mydas fly is a large fly from the family Mydidae. It is common of these creatures to mimic wasps, which is what threw me off as I'd never seen one before. These flies are commonly found in arid areas, being are rare elsewhere. The adult's life span being exceedingly short. Short enough, that there is not a lot of information on this type of fly, with experts disagreeing even on what they feed upon.

Answer: moth

As they say, things are bigger in the South. Using the clues that this creature appeared at night, was drawn to my front porch light, and appeared mottled brown and black, it is safe to assume this is a moth. I haven't been able to identify the exact moth, but I've narrowed it to a type of hawkmoth from the family Manduca.

Answer: Tachinid fly

I was quite fascinated to learn about Tachinid flies after capturing this one and photographing it in high resolution. Most flies are a essential nuisance, but the Tachinid fly is a particularly useful insect in that its larvae help keep crop-eating caterpillars in check.

As mentioned, the Tachinid's young are parasitoids, meaning they bore into the insect or caterpillar host, destroying them from within. The fly comes from the family Tachinidae, and they are true flies having two wings.

Answer: Wolf spider

Yes, this spider is dead. I screamed like a girl when I found it in my daughter's clothes hamper. It was very large, bigger than a U.S. fifty-cent piece (you can see the edge of that coin in the photo). Wolf spiders are members of the Lycosidae family, a word derived from the Greek word for "wolf." Unique of spiders are their eyes, with eyes of various shapes (many spiders have only six eyes and/or eyes that are fairly symmetrical in size).

The wolf spider has a bottom row of four small eyes, middle row of two large eyes, and top row of two medium-sized eyes.

This gives them excellent eyesight, coupled with their venomous bite, making them great hunters.

Answer: Zebra swallowtail

Easily identified by its distinctive wing patterns, the zebra swallowtail is dependent on trees of the pawpaw species, rarely venturing far from them. The butterfly feeds exclusively on the pawpaw tree and lays its eggs on the tree as well.

This particular butterfly was trapped in my screen room, so I revived it with some sugar water before sending it on its way.

Answer: Sphinx moth

The Sphinx moth, or Pandora Sphinx moth, is a large, green moth native to North America. The moth is a member of the Sphingidae family, which also includes hawk moths and hummingbird moths. The Sphinx moth caterpillars feed almost exclusively on grape leaves, with the caterpillar a striking red-brown with a row of white spots.

Answer: Black widow spider

My skin crawled while reading about the black widow spider. This particular spider was a female as the males are different in appearance, being smaller and drabber. The female black widow is widely rumored to eat the male after mating, however this only occasionally happens.

The black widow in one of the most venomous of spiders in the United States, however, deaths from widow bites are rare as the spider is not very large and does not inject a large amount of venom when it bites.