a little wild   (a small slice of wildlife)

Hands down the best bugwatching area I’ve ever encountered. This may be normal for some people, but it feels incredibly rich for me!

Here are the observations, with updated identifications: https://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/gaurav1729/2025/7/30. You can see how species rich the walk was.

The highlight had to be the three observations of scorpionflies within half an hour of each other. I’ve never even had three scorpionfly observations in a season before.

Hemiptera

We’ll keep this at tribe Scaphoideini and hope that that is safe enough.

True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies (Hemiptera) » True Hoppers (Auchenorrhyncha) » Cicadas, Spittlebugs, Leafhoppers, and Treehoppers (Cicadomorpha) » Leafhoppers and Treehoppers (Membracoidea) » Typical Leafhoppers (Cicadellidae) » Deltocephalinae » Scaphoideini

Acanthocephala

Brown stink bug, Euschistus:

Berytidae, stilt bug

Diptera

iNaturalist says genus Ilisia, but Limoniidae at least seems safe.

iNat says Sargus in Stratiomyidae, but of course going to genus is a bit aggressive.

Flies (Diptera) » Orthorrhapha » Stratiomyomorpha » Soldier flies (Stratiomyidae) » Sarginae » Sargus

I think this is Microdon, in Syrphidae. The question then is, which one?

NOTE: Eumerus was suggested in iNaturalist, in Erastalinae. Microdon has much larger antennae, I’m told.

Dolichopodidae, perhaps Chrysotus:

Hybos reversus, according to iNaturalist:

And another

Picturesque Bombylid:

Another Dolichopodid:

Toxomerus geminatus:

Coleoptera

Eucnemidae, false click beetle.

Hymenoptera

Is this something like Isodonta mexicana (leaf carrying wasp)? I think so, but I personally can’t even rule out Eumeninae (potter wasps).

EDIT: “not vespidae by the wing shape (the majority of vespids will hold their wings out like this at rest but will also fold them lengthwise giving them a characteristic thinner look, for ex: https://bugguide.net/node/view/947720) and the thin thread-like petiole bt thorax and abdomen puts this in sphecidae, isodontia is the only sphecid in the region to hold wings out like this”

These Ichneumonids were all over the place. I also got some mildly unsatisfactory photos of one ovipositing.

“Probably Pimplinae”

And hey, another one:

Ant alate

Camplopegine Ichneumonid, I think:

This could be Spathius. Notice the folding of the ovipositor. There are also stray strands around the ovipositor, and I don’t know what they are.

Odonata

Ischnura, a forktail? Ischnura posita, fragile forktail, was suggested.

Mecoptera

As promised, multiple scorpionflies, all in Panorpa! Here’s the first:

Number two:

Mr. Panorpa number 3:

Spiders

Lovely Leucauge venusta

Tiny spiderling:

No exoskeletons

A nice gall