Insects, Spiders, Centipedes, Millipedes

There are many varied species of insects, spiders, centipedes/millipedes, and scorpions found here at Ninety-Six National Historic Site. Here are a few that you may see and are interesting to learn more about.

 

Spineyback Orbweaver

NPS/Stewart

Spinyback orbweaver spider (Gasteracantha cancriformis)

Diet: The Spineybacked orb weaver's diet consists of small insects that are captured in its web. Insects such as beetles, moths, mosquitoes, and whiteflies
Lifespan: Unfortunately, the spiny orb weaver does not live exceptionally long. Females die after producing an egg mass, and males die six days after mating with the female.
Habitat: Edges of woodlands and shrubby gardens.
Breeding Season: October through January.
Fun Fact: They get their common name from the spines that protrude from their abdomen and their body shape that looks like that of a crab.

 

Green Lynx Spider

NPS/Stewart

Green Lynx Spider (Peucetia viridans)

Diet: beneficial bugs like butterflies, honeybees, pollinating flies wasps and other nectaring insects, including many that are larger than itself.
Lifespan: 1 year.
Habitat: All kinds of shrub-like plants. You can find the Green Lynx Spider in woods on tall grasses and in meadows of tall wildflowers, especially on the heads of wild buckwheat.
Where to find: Southern United States, Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, and the West Indies.
Breeding Season: September-October.
Fun Fact: These spiders are one of the only ones that can spit or squirt venom.

 

White Jawed Jumping Spider

NPS/Stewart

White Jawed Jumping Spider (Hentzia mitrata)

Diet: Insects like flies, moths, and crickets. They are carnivores, though they have been known to eat nectar. In general, jumping spiders eat anything they can get their chelicerae (jaws) around. Flies, mealworms, moths, and other small, defenseless prey are their favorites.
Lifespan: 6 months to 2 years.
Habitat: Gardens, wooded areas, shrubby areas.
Where to find: United States, Canada, and Bahama Islands.
Breeding Season: May
Fun Fact: Use their legs to pounce on their prey, which is typically other insects. Amazingly, jumping spiders do not have special leg muscles, like grasshoppers, to help them leap. They propel themselves by suddenly changing the blood flow in their body.

 

Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly

NPS/VIP Rusty Wilson

Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly (Protographium marcellus)

Diet: Nectar of some flowers like blackberry, redbud, bugloss, paw paw, verbena, blueberry, and common milkweed.
Lifespan: 6 months.
Habitat: Corridors of wooded land alongside bodies of water such as riversides, lakeshores, marshes, and open moist woods.
Where to find: Throughout the Eastern United States but is more often found in the Southern States.
Breeding Season: Spring/Summer.
Fun Fact: Their bold stripes and theri low erratic flight pattern make tracking them difficlut for predators.

 

Velvet Ant

NPS/Stewart

Eastern Velvet Ant (Dasymutilla occidentalis)

Diet: Nectar.
Lifespan: Less than a year.
Habitat: They are loners and arefound singly in open, sandy areas in most parts of South Carolina.
Where to find: Texas and Oklahoma through the Southern states and into New England
Breeding Season: May through September.
Fun Fact: often called cow killers because their stings were said to be powerful enough to kill a cow.

 

American Wheel Bug

NPS/Stewart

American Wheel Bug (Arilus cristatus)

Diet: caterpillars and beetles, such as Japanese beetles, the cabbage worm, orange dogs, tent caterpillars, and the Mexican bean beetle, all of which they pierce with their beak to inject salivary fluids that dissolve soft tissue.
Lifespan: about 100 days (around 3 and a half months).
Habitat: Sunflowers, goldenrod, cotton, trunks of locust trees, and various fruit and tree groves.
Where to find: throughout the southern half of the United States, ranging northward to the upper Midwest and southern New England. While Southwest Pennsylvania is within its natural distributional range, it appears to have become more common in our area over the last decade.
Breeding Season: March
Fun Fact: A "monster" of the insect world. With its bizarre appearance and deadly beak, it is a dreaded foe of other insects. The wheel bug spears its unfortunate host with its sharp beak and sucks up the victim's body fluids.

 

Millipede

NPS

American Giant Millipede (Narceus americanus)

Diet: Decaying leaf litter or fungi.
Lifespan: Up to 11 years.
Habitat: Forests and agricultural areas of eastern North America. Active in spring through fall, they can be found under rocks, rotting logs, leaf litter, and other decaying plant material.
Where to find: The eastern seaboard of North America west to Georgetown, Texas, north of the Ottine wetlands.
Breeding Season: Early Spring through early Summer.
Fun Fact: The are nearly cylindrical and tend to be grey in color in the wild. They can reach lengths of around 4 inches. Most body segments have 2 pairs of legs each and individuals can have 150-200 legs total.

 

House Centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata)

Diet: silverfish, firebrats, carpet beetle larvae, cockroaches, spiders, and other small arthropods.
Lifespan: Up to 7 years.
Habitat: Areas of high moisture.
Where to find: areas of high moisture, such as in rotting logs, under stones, in trash or piles of leaves/grass. When they invade homes, centipedes are commonly found in damp basements, crawlspaces, bathrooms, or potted plants.
Breeding Season: Spring.
Fun Fact: These insects are quite vain. House centipedes take their self-grooming very seriously, paying special attention to their 15 pairs of legs. After each meal, they spend a significant amount of time cleaning themselves off. So, they are like the cats of the insect world.

 

Southern Devil Scorpion (Vaejovis carolinianus)

Diet: small spiders and insects.
Lifespan: 2 years.
Habitat: leaf piles, and under wood stacks and stones. They may venture into homes and are commonly found in cellars or crawlspaces.
Where to find: Appalachian states – Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Viginia, and West Virginia
Breeding Season: Late Spring and in the Summer.
Fun Fact: These scorpions are very feisty but are not very toxic. That does not make them any less dangerous. If you see one it is recommended that you look and observe but to not touch.