June Bugs

[Sylvaneous]

First june bugs showed up today (no idea how the soft plastic color June Bug got that name) and it's just a few days after the 1st fishable sulfurs appeared on Little Sandy creek. And the first phlox wild flowers appeared a week ago. I'm just trying to triangulate the season. Anyone else see these correlations, or are they just things that happen in the last 1/3 of May in NW PA? I've seen june bugs earlier. Things were late this year from the hard shots of arctic weather this spring. Everything correlates. Don Douple told me that the phlox precede the sulfurs, hearlding their coming. I found the yellow water iris precede the green drakes. I haven't seen any yellow iris yet. Now, I don't have the green drake experience that others do, but I have a fair bit and I've never seen green drakes around without the yellow iris already in bloom. (where they are growing, that is. )

 

[Sylvaneous]

The banner creek for green drakes is Penns. Are the yellow Iris out yet? (well-out, not just a few precocious flowers)

 

[Tups]

Sylvaneous. I like your correlations, or triangulations, regarding the seasons. Rather than phlox, I believe you may be referring to Dame’s Rocket (Hesperis matronalis) growing wild (naturalized) along the roadsides, having four flower petals in the shape of a cross in purple, lilac, or white. Dames is in bloom just preceding the sulphurs and through much of the hatch. Also, the barn swallows are building their nests right now, just as the sulphurs begin.