Cottonwood Borer (Plectrodera scalator)
Photograph by Dan Winters
Texas is crawling with insects literally. It’s not just that an estimated 37,000 different species can be found here (although we
do have more than any other state). It’s the frequency with which we’ve seen them many of them, at least during the past year.
What’s behind our entomological explosion? The rain has a lot to do with it. Texas weather has been particularly wet of late, a fact that is music to the antennae of most insects, who feed off the plant life that thrives in such conditions. Another reason is the state’s varied topography. Just as Texas’ terrain is different enough to suit city folk and country folk and everyone in between, so too does the land attract insects with diverse environmental tastes. If a creature isn’t happy living in the pine flatwoods woods, magnolia swamps, or thickets of East Texas, there’s always the evergreen scrub to the south, the ponderosa forest and bear gras