a little wild   (a small slice of wildlife)

I’ve never been here, but this is a really good place to go to! Lots of bugs I don’t really see a ton of in my locality.

Also, in case you’re interested (because I was): it’s a park named after a man name D. W. Field, not a park with a field named “DW”.

Observations here: https://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/gaurav1729/2026/7/26

Hymenoptera

What an absolutely stunning gorgeous beautiful Great Golden Digger Wasp, Sphex ichneumoneous.

Lepidoptera

Monarch, Danaus plexippus

Talking of stunning, this Eremnophila aureonotata, gold-marked thread-waisted wasp, Sphecidae.

And this Ceropales maculata, a kleptoparasitic spider wasp in Pompilidae:

My first sighting of this Aphilanthops in Philanthidae, which is apparently now a family. Aphilanthops captures queen ants, which to me seems a weird kind of speciality.

And this Philanthus bee-wolf. Confusing iNaturalist puts this in Crabronidae –> Philanthinae. To be investigated further

Velvet ant female in Daymutilla, I think

I think Ectemnius in Crabronidae:

I think this Crabronidae is a sand wasp, but not sure

I initially thought this was an ant alate, but the antennae don’t look like that now. Need to dive in a bit.

Hemiptera

Phymata pensylvanica ambush bug, one of many species that have lost the extra ‘n’ in “Pennsylvania”.

One with prey:

Diptera

I had never heard of this Mallota bautius, “bare-eyed mimic fly”, in Syrphidae.

Odonata

Pachydiplax longipennis (blue dasher)

Sympetrum vicinum, autumn meadowhawk, apparently.

Coleoptera

Calopteron in Lycidae

Broad-nosed weevil

Diptera

The oddly named genus Dialysis in Xylophagidae. Note that they were all over the place in yesterday’s moth lighting, too.

Rainiera antennaepes in Micropezidae. Wasp mimic, which is why it usually keeps its front legs ahead of it, to mimic antennae. I guess I photographed it in a moment when it was tired.

Biting midge, Ceratopoginae:

Spiders

Probably Neriene radiata?

Bonus Phidippus audax from home

Other

So many moths, so many. So many that adding all the identifications took too much time, but I will be adding identifications to this post as and when I get time. In any case, you should be able to find the correct identifications here: https://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/gaurav1729/2026/7/25

Hymenoptera

Trichoptera

Ephemeroptera

Neuroptera

Coleoptera

Hymenoptera

Hemiptera

Diptera

Orthoptera

I’ve never been on these trails before! What a great place to preserve.

Some views of the ensign wasp (Evaniidae) that I found. They are parasitoids on cockroach eggs — except, we know almost nothing about nearly every species in this family, so maybe a lot of them are not?

I almost never see multiple Evaniids hanging out for such a long time on a bush. Frustratingly, I only realized later that my camera was set on f/3 or so, which is why my photos were so tough to take and turned out so bad.