I’ve always thought King Phillip’s Rock was the best insect hunting grounds around, but I’ve officially changed my mind. Borderland State Park, the trail that starts on Mansfield St. that connects to the Northwest Trail. Just the first few yards, I could spend all day on. There’s shade and there’s sun; there’s dead wood, leaf litter, shrubs and soil.
Linyphiids are always found there. Here’s a mating pair of Neriene radiata. Notice that the palps of the male are enlarged, because they’re transferring sperm to the female. (The jokes write themselves.)
Things got interesting: another male arrived, and the two started sparring for mating rights.
And here’s another mating pair, with a better view of the enlarged pedipalps for the male.
Here’s a Naphrys pulex. I desperately tried to get photos of it in midair, but was mostly unsuccessful (see below for more about that).
The jumping spider in mid-air is my white whale of photos; I’ve taken more than 1000 photos. And this is the best I land up with?
Cerambycidae: Cyrtophorus verrucosa (tribe Anaglyptini).
Ichneumonidae, Xoridinae:
It seems that there’s a healthy population of velvet ants here, I’ve seen multiple in the same spot. This seems to be Pseudomethoca cf simillima.
I was ready to file this away as a firefly such as Pyropyga. But it’s actually a Cantharid firefly mimic, Rhaxonycha carolina.
A sawfly, perhaps Pergidae:
Another sawfly, perhaps Tenthredinidae:
Dictyniidae, probably Emblyna:
Nice dramatic view of a Leucauge venusta:
Elateridae, probably Cardiophorus gagates:
Pompilidae, Anoplius:
Snipe fly, Rhagio mystaceus:
I have no idea about this fly, but it’s definitely cute:
Weevil, Curculinidae, Piazorhinus scutellaris:
Probably a gall wasp of some kind:
Don’t know who this moth is:
Stonefly, will try to pin it down further to genus/species:
This Buffalo treehopper, Ceresa was playing peekaboo a lot:
Angle moth? Need to look into it further:
Dictyniidae, Emblyna sublata:
Pelegrina proterva:
Syrphidae, Toxomerus marginatus:
Every time. Every single time I see a scorpionfly I get so excited I forget how to use a camera. Anyway. This is the best I got.
Nomada bees, and a flying photo! Nomada are cuckoo bees, and they look for other bee’s nests to lay their eggs in, kleptoparasitism.
Six spotted Tiger Beetle: Cicindella sexguttata.
a little wild 
The photos are so remarkable.
When I was a kid my best adult friend was a professor of entomology. He gave a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach to me as a pet. I named him Bernie Fife. He told me how to feed him and he never hissed because he was never afraid.
He helped me catch Horny Toads in the California sand dunes. Not insects, but now so close to extinction. They can spit blood out of their eyes when scared. He showed me how to hold them, and stroke their horny heads so they would fall asleep in my hand. To this day, I love horny toads, even though I never see them, anymore.
He would have crawling tarantulas on his body, and explain they won’t hurt you unless they are scared and shoot their fur at you. So he didn’t scare them.
He showed me Daddy Long Leg spiders and said their legs were too long to enable them to bite humans, so I played with them.
He showed me trapdoor spiders and their silken webs built underground, with the perfectly constructed trap door, only easy to spot if you knew about their wizardry.
I toured his basement, which as a kid, did freak me out because it was so full of collections of dead insects in formaldehyde.
When I was an undergrad, he had me click the button on time lapse camera repeatedly, at the same interval, to show that keyhole limpets, were not stationary crustaceans, but actually moving and hunting.
I now live at The Holler. It is like Hellstrom Chronicles here. Some of the insects are the ones that don’t exist anymore in most places, and in such
(con’t) overwhelming numbers. He would have loved it here, and so might you.
That sounds like such a fascinating childhood! Thank you for sharing!