I’ve never been here, but this is a really good place to go to! Lots of bugs I don’t really see a ton of in my locality.
Also, in case you’re interested (because I was): it’s a park named after a man name D. W. Field, not a park with a field named “DW”.
Hymenoptera
What an absolutely stunning gorgeous beautiful Great Golden Digger Wasp, Sphex ichneumoneous.
Lepidoptera
Monarch, Danaus plexippus
Talking of stunning, this Eremnophila aureonotata, gold-marked thread-waisted wasp, Sphecidae.
And this Ceropales maculata, a kleptoparasitic spider wasp in Pompilidae:
My first sighting of this Aphilanthops in Philanthidae, which is apparently now a family. Aphilanthops captures queen ants, which to me seems a weird kind of speciality.
And this Philanthus bee-wolf. Confusing iNaturalist puts this in Crabronidae –> Philanthinae. To be investigated further
Velvet ant female in Daymutilla, I think
I think Ectemnius in Crabronidae:
I think this Crabronidae is a sand wasp, but not sure
I initially thought this was an ant alate, but the antennae don’t look like that now. Need to dive in a bit.
Hemiptera
Phymata pensylvanica ambush bug, one of many species that have lost the extra ‘n’ in “Pennsylvania”.
One with prey:
Diptera
I had never heard of this Mallota bautius, “bare-eyed mimic fly”, in Syrphidae.
Odonata
Pachydiplax longipennis (blue dasher)
Sympetrum vicinum, autumn meadowhawk, apparently.
Coleoptera
Calopteron in Lycidae
Broad-nosed weevil
Diptera
The oddly named genus Dialysis in Xylophagidae. Note that they were all over the place in yesterday’s moth lighting, too.
Rainiera antennaepes in Micropezidae. Wasp mimic, which is why it usually keeps its front legs ahead of it, to mimic antennae. I guess I photographed it in a moment when it was tired.
So many moths, so many. So many that adding all the identifications took too much time, but I will be adding identifications to this post as and when I get time. In any case, you should be able to find the correct identifications here: https://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/gaurav1729/2026/7/25
I’ve never been on these trails before! What a great place to preserve.
Some views of the ensign wasp (Evaniidae) that I found. They are parasitoids on cockroach eggs — except, we know almost nothing about nearly every species in this family, so maybe a lot of them are not?
I almost never see multiple Evaniids hanging out for such a long time on a bush. Frustratingly, I only realized later that my camera was set on f/3 or so, which is why my photos were so tough to take and turned out so bad.
“Three species of Dryomyza sensu lato are found in eastern USA:
Dryomyza anilis, the common species with strongest wing markings and the anterior margin of the frons covering the lunule
Dryope decrepita (formerly Dryomyza flaveola), with weaker or absent wing markings and the lunule exposed
Dryomyza simplex, the only eastern species without prescutellar acrostichal bristles
All of our Dryomyza sensu lato are keyed in Steyksal (1957). Note that Nearctic D. flaveola are now Dryope decrepita and D. bergi is now Pseudoneuroctena senilis.”
Based on this, based on the list of Dryomyza species reported and identified in Massachusetts, this seems to plausibly be Dryomyza anilis?
Empididae, dance flies? BugGuide says Empidoidea is correct, at least.
The long legged flies Dolichopodidae are very common but always beautiful. Presumably Condylostylus.
Hymenoptera
I think this is Ichneumonidae –> Pimplinae
Lepidoptera
Crambus
Coleoptera
Margined carrion beetle, Oiceoptoma noveboracense
Lucidota atra, black firefly
Apparently family Throscidae, “small false click beetles”. I can vouch for the smallness and that it looks like a click beetle.
I think Eropterus trilineatus, in Lycidae:
Photinus in Lampyridae, “rover fireflies”.
Odonata
Male fragile forktail?
Bugguide: “Pale shoulder stripes resemble exclamation points—true of both sexes(1).
Males are yellow, yellow-green, or green”
Exuvium of dragonfly nymph:
Spiders
Agelenenopsis.
I was so damn excited to see this Phidippus clarus. Such an exquisite Salticidae.
Check out her green chelicerae
I really wish I had taken the time to get better photos. This spider was in an orb web, but was clearly not an orb weaver. Perhaps Faiditus, but that would be a very aggressive/optimistic determination. The best I can guess is that it’s in Theridiidae, somewhere in the Argyrodes/Faiditus/Neospintharus/Rhomphaea group.
But definitely a kleptoparasite! They steal food from other spiders’ webs.
If this can be validated as Faiditus, it would be the first report in New England for this species, according to BugGuide and iNaturalist.
Diplopoda
iNaturalist says Oxidus, a member of the family Paradoxosomatidae, “paradoxical keeled millipedes”, which is a very interesting name.
Archaeognatha — or Microcoryphia?
iNaturalist calls it Archaeognatha, BugGuide prefers Microcoryphia. It’s a bristletail either way.
Slime molds
There’s no single taxon that corresponds to slime molds. I had never seen a confirmed slime mold before today, and confirming one by myself would involve ruling out every single fungus in existence, which is well beyond my abilities. So having Jef find me two was an absolute joy.
Slime molds are some of the interesting creatures on earth. They are related to amoebae. They live much of their lives as a, well, slime. In some of them, the cell walls dissolve and they become a multi-nucleate mass.
At some point, the different constituents in the slime can decide that it’s time to differentiate. Some of them develop into fruiting bodies and are able to reproduce; how is this decided, I’m not sure.
Crabronidae but tough to get any finer (EDIT: iNaturalist says Trypoxylon, which looks reasonable)
Lots of these tiny ants, a few mm in size. iNaturalist suggests Temnothorax curvispinosus, the acorn wasp, which looks about right, and is pretty cool.
iNaturalist says Lasiini –> Nylanderia flavipes. Something like this: https://www.bugguide.net/node/view/1721749 ? (“An Asian species increasingly common from NJ to DC to NE Ohio.”)
Ceratina, small carpenter bee, always lovely
Plecoptera
Rolled wing stonefly? Nemouroidea?
Hemiptera
I think this is Paraulacizes irrorata, the speckled sharpshooter
“Ozyptila and Xysticus are both distinguished from either Coriarachne or Bassaniana by the lateral profile of the carapace: as Lynette mentioned, in both Coriarachne and Bassaniana the carapace is roughly flat all the way from front to back. The side profile of the carapace for Ozyptila and Xysticus, on the other hand, will be higher near the front and will drop down near the back at around coxa three. Coriarachne and Bassaniana maintain roughly the same level height from front to back.
So, the order of things to check when separating Xysticus, Ozyptila, Coriarachne and Bassaniana is:
1) Check carapace flatness first, to separate Coriarachne and Bassaniana from Ozyptila or Xysticus
2) Then, check the ventral macrosetae on tibia I and femur I length/width ratio to separate Xysticus from Ozyptila.
Ozyptila: – no more than 2 pairs of ventral macrosetae on tibia I …. femur I length-to-width ratio is about 3:1
Xysticus: – 3 to 4 pairs of ventral macrosetae on tibia I …. femur I length-to-width ratio is about 4:1
Anyway, that’s how I’ve been separating these genera, using the information from Spiders of North America, Ubick et al. (2005) page 247. ~ John Sloan 2 Aug. 2009″
Hot day, about 32 C (90 degrees F). I go to Borderland State Park so very very often, but I always seem to go on the Northwest Trail, or near the lake. Which means that I’ve neglected all the other parts, especially the pollinator patch. Which is weird since I am all about the bugs.
An attempt to fix that today.
Diptera
Laphria robberfly with prey. EDIT: bugguide says Laphria index or ithypyga.
Syrphidae, Sphaerophoria
Hymenoptera
I think the ants are interacting with a spittlebug. This is not a symbiosis such as ants and shield bugs.
Looking closer — it appears the spittlebug is laying eggs, and the ants are going ahead and taking the eggs as they get laid.
a little wild 