Treecicles and ice-coated lanternflies

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager.

We walked in a magical wonderland of ice today while monitoring a couple conservation easements in Chester County. The high temperature was at dawn today and so the ice that normally would melt soon after sunrise hung around to make everything crystal. These properties are beautiful under any circumstance but today was sublime.

Under the ice on one ailanthus tree was a coated lanternfly. Now, this insect probably died (after laying eggs) at first frost in October or early November, and, along with many others, stuck to the tree in death over the last few months of storms, wind, and now ice.