TRR photo by Ed Wesely At a June 2 picnic in Monticello, Daniela Mercado, left, and Arly Marin transmitted their gaiety to a ladybird puppet, left, and to Daniela’s monarch butterfly. The season’s first live monarch was observed near Galilee, PA on June 4.

Dobsonflies. Fierce looking hellgrammites, prized as bait by trout fishermen, are the aquatic progeny of awkward dobsonflies, such as the female in my picture.

Males and females, generally about two inches long, are found near water and at nearby street and porch lights. Adult males resemble females but are outfitted with long pincers they employ in mating. Both adult sexes are short-lived and harmless.

White, gauze-like secretions that attach dobsonfly eggs to large rocks are common in the Delaware River.

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‘Leaves of Grass’: who needs ’em?

“And limitless are leaves stiff or drooping in the fields / And brown ants in the little wells beneath them, / And mossy scabs of the worm fence, heaped stones, elder mullein and pokeweed,” writes Walt Whitman.

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Shad watch

By Ed Wesely

Shad fishing continues on the Upper Delaware with “some fish spawning,” according to Steve Andrusiak of Milford, PA, “and some still on the move and not close to spawn time. With any luck, we should be able to keep this going through June, if the conditions hold up.”

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Also in this issue:

• Dorsal tag found on main stem brookie