Reading outdoors early this afternoon, I had placed my chair in the shade of a large Siberian elm that overhangs our driveway. Off to the west, a thunderstorm had begun to form and I hurried to finish a chapter before I was forced inside.
Just before my goal was realized, something struck the chair that sounded like a drop of rain; several other impacts soon followed as a breeze picked up from the approaching storm. As it turned out, the "raindrops" were tiny, yellowish slugs, a fact that was made clear when one struck the book. Looking around my chair, I found dozens of the larvae on the asphalt, writhing about in search of vegetation. Before I was forced indoors by rain, a robin turned up to feast on the hapless invertebrates, efficiently picking them off the driveway.
I suspect the tiny victims were the larvae of elm-leaf beetles, known to favor Siberian and Chinese elms and to lay two broods of eggs, one in late spring and the other in late summer. After falling from or traveling down the tree, the tiny, translucent larvae find a safe spot to pupate into the adult stage. Of course, an asphalt driveway is not an ideal landing spot and the robin surely enjoyed the windfall. Since we do not use insecticides on the farm, there should be plenty more larvae for our resident insectivores.
Just before my goal was realized, something struck the chair that sounded like a drop of rain; several other impacts soon followed as a breeze picked up from the approaching storm. As it turned out, the "raindrops" were tiny, yellowish slugs, a fact that was made clear when one struck the book. Looking around my chair, I found dozens of the larvae on the asphalt, writhing about in search of vegetation. Before I was forced indoors by rain, a robin turned up to feast on the hapless invertebrates, efficiently picking them off the driveway.
I suspect the tiny victims were the larvae of elm-leaf beetles, known to favor Siberian and Chinese elms and to lay two broods of eggs, one in late spring and the other in late summer. After falling from or traveling down the tree, the tiny, translucent larvae find a safe spot to pupate into the adult stage. Of course, an asphalt driveway is not an ideal landing spot and the robin surely enjoyed the windfall. Since we do not use insecticides on the farm, there should be plenty more larvae for our resident insectivores.
