a little wild   (a small slice of wildlife)

I promised I would be expanding my range. This is a Trustees of the Reservations area on the Charles River in Needham, and my first trip here.

First, some non bug photos. It was a bright sunny day, so many attempts at shooting towards the sun to show off the backlighting, made a little harder by the fact that the sun was still high in the sky.

Time exposure:

Diptera

Syrphid fly. Epistrophe, or perhaps Eupeodes cf americanus. Or Syrphus cf torvus. Syrphus cf ribesii? Parasyrphus, but I don’t think so. EDIT: Sphaerophoria suggested

Really don’t have a good idea.

Gold-backed snipe fly? Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. Chrysopilus thoracicus.

Dolichopodidae, something like Condylostylus. I think it was a male displaying its wings to attract a female.

Hymenoptera

Looks to me like Ceratina. EDIT: also perhaps Osmia

Pteromalinae

Hemiptera

Leafhopper nymph?

Spittlebug nest? Spittlebugs are froghopper nymphs.

Odonata

Perhaps Eastern forktail

Coleoptera

Lucidota atra in Lampyridae?

Some gorgeous kind of weevil? Maybe Myrmex? However, the antenna doesn’t seem to match too many weevils. Trichapion? None of these match the color, either. Odontopus cf calceatus? Tanysphyrus cf lemnae? Cylindria cf prolixa?

EDIT: Eugnamptus angustatus in Attelabidae, leaf-rolling weevils.

A golden tortoise beetle!!!! Cassidinae. Deloyala guttata looks quite similar. Plagiometriona or Cassida are less likely.

Who is this? Carabidae, but I don’t know too much else.

fuzzy but head view. kind of looks like a tiger beetle from this angle

Lepidoptera (?)

Is this a monkey slug moth caterpillar? (Limacodidae)

Spiders

Castianeira. C. longipalpa and C. variata are the ones we have here: this looks closer to C. longipalpa, but I don’t know how to be certain.

Parasteatoda tepidarorium?

I know, not a spider, it’s in Opiliones. But what a face!

Vertebrate riff-raff

Tree swallow