A wonderful bug walk, led by Jace Porter, of Global Entomology Coalition: https://www.entomologycoalition.org/
Hammond Pond, near Chestnut Hill. I didn’t know we had these nice woods so close to town.
Observations, with latest edits, found here: https://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/gaurav1729/2025/8/17
Hymenoptera
Ammophila, in Sphecidae. They love stocking up on caterpillars as food for their babies.
This confused me at first. Episyron bigutattus, two spotted spider wasp, Pompilidae.
Lasioglossum
Lovely wasp in Ichneumonidae. Anomalon:
Hemiptera
Ambush bug, Phymata pennsylvanica
Flatid planthopper, Flatidae. Probably Flatormenis.
Classic Zelus luridus nymph
Stink bug, Pentatomidae. Dendrocoris humeralis.
Diptera
Lovely fly in Micropezidae. They are consummate wasp mimics, and even hold their front legs in front of them to mimic the wasp antennae. They had me completely fooled.
Specifically, Rainieria antennaepes
iNat called this a Bellardia bottle fly. I tried to foolishly persuade Jef Taylor that it wasn’t a bottle fly, which should teach me something. If it is in fact Bellardia, it’s fairly rare, but I don’t know if we can go that fine.
Neuroptera
I think this is a lacewing larva. I can’t rule out other Neuropterans though.
And Neuropteran eggs:
Spiders
Ghost spider, Anyphaenidae. Anyphaena genus was suggested.
A highlight for me!! Micrathena
Dictynidae. iNaturalist AI suggests Nopalityna, which I’m not familiar with, but am skeptical about.
a little wild 
Leave a comment