Sand Ridge and Emiquon Trip 2026

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Northern Fungus-farming Ants tending to the hive. This particular mound was very large and had lots of activity. While the individual workers' lives are ephemeral, the queen can live several years to over a decade. The workers carry in dead plant matter to feed to the hive's fungal crop, which is possibly 50 million years old. You see, when a newly hatched queen leaves the hive in a nuptial flight, she takes a fragment of the fungus with her. And because it's at least a common cultivar of the fungus agricultural ants started out with, the same individual fungus hasbeen cloned for tens of millions of years.

From 6.2.26-6.3.26 my family and I drove from Chicago, IL to Sand Ridge State Forest and Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge and back.

Day 1. 6.2.26 Chicago, IL to Sand Ridge State Forest, IL:

Illinois: Sand Ridge State Forest (ants, bees, wasps, and spiders): Pictured: Cellophane bee, sweat bee, wasp, Feather-legged Scoliid wasp, Harvestman, Filmy dome spider, Long-jawed Orbweaver, ground-hunting spider.

Illinois: Sand Ridge State Forest (fungi and plants): Pictured: Turkey-tails, False Turkey-tails, Violet Toothed Polypore, Cracked Cap Polypore, Eastern White Pines, Purple Crownvetch.

Illinois: Sand Ridge State Forest (large-winged and juvenile insects): Pictured: Hackberry Emperor, Silver-spotted Skipper, Common Whitetail, Golden-eyed Green Lacewing, Banded Tussock Moth, Variegated Cutworm Moth, White-margined Burrowing Bug, Grasshopper Nymph, Prosternine Click Beetle, Cockroach nymph.

Day 2. 6.3.26 Sand Ridge State Forest, Chautauqua and Emiquon:

Illinois: Sand Ridge State Forest (Solitary animals and Landscapes): Pictured: Red-spotted Admirals, Hackberry Emperors, Question Mark butterfly, Jumping Spider, Pecan Spittlebug, Eastern Giant Swallowtail, cockroach, Soldier Beetle, Red-eared slider, and Landscapes.

Illinois: Sand Ridge State Forest (Social Insects): Pictured: Northern Fungus Farming Ants, Southern Yellowjacket, and Brown-belted Bumble Bee.

Illinois: Chautauqua National Wildlife Refuge, Mason County: Pictured: Variegated Fritillary, Common Whitetail, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and Silver-spotted Skippers.

Illinois: Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge, Fulton County, IL (not bugs): Pictured: Musk Thistle, Northern Bobwhites, Canada Geese, Killdeer, Cliff Swallows, Yellow-legged Mud Dauber, American White Pelicans, Turtle Egg Shells.

Illinois: Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge, Fulton County, IL (bugs): Pictured: Great Spangled Fritillary, Tiger Swallowtail, Monarch, other moths and butterflies, Ants tending to a Treehopper, Damselflies and a Clubtail dragonfly.