We had a welcome visitor on our door. I love mayflies — please read this blog post. This one was tired enough to let me take a lot of photographs. Take a look at this photo, and let me know if you notice anything missing:
Did you notice that there are no mouthparts? Many species of mayflies do not eat in the adult stage, and so don’t need mouthparts. They have one order of business: reproducing. That’s why their (adult) lifespans are proverbially short — the order is called Ephemeroptera for a reason.
Good luck, buddy!
I hadn’t been to King Phillip’s Rock in a long time. It’s the best place I’ve found for insects, for whatever reason.
Here’s a gorgeous wasp, Ichneumonidae:
I love scorpionflies for their alien appearance:
I think this is a bee-like tachinid fly. Maybe Epalpus cf signifer.
A beautiful Derbid planthopper:
I like the light in this photo:
Caterpillar:
Theridiidae?
There was a stag beetle I was trying to photograph, but it escaped. As it escaped, it led to a congregation of dozens (maybe hundreds) of click beetles (Elateridae). I think this was mating behavior, don’t know what else it could be.
This is either a robber fly (Laphria) or a golden-backed snipe fly, with its Elateridae prey.
There was a major infestation of moth caterpillars, perhaps gypsy moths.
Nothing improves my mood like a walk in the woods.
a little wild 