Author Archive
Early October in Borderland State Park means Halictidae all over the place! Not sure which species or genus these are (Auguchlora, Agapostemon, Auguchlorella?).
In this first photo, the protruding part is the bee’s glossa, similar to the tongue.
This utterly fascinating caterpillar seems to be an ant or beetle mimic on its front end! The Caterpillar identification group suggested something like Dichomeris (e.g. https://bugguide.net/node/view/26909) as a good place to start. And here is a Dichomeris caterpillar with a similar webbed leaf: https://bugguide.net/node/view/668363/bgimage.
When dragonflies mate, the male tries to hold onto the female as long as possible, in order to reduce the chances another male will mate with her.
Tetragnathid spiders, Tetragnatha sp. perhaps.
A few miscellaneous denizens from our neighborhood. An Araneidae orbweaver. Identifying them is a pain in the butt for me, they all look the same and have a large degree of variability. But this might be in the genus Eustala.
Alternative view, showing more of the abdomen:
A tiny little wasp crawling on top of my computer, just a few millimeters long.
Baby Leucauge venusta
I think this is Bembidion quadrimaculatum — a ground beetle, except it seemed to be hanging out in the flowers. But could it be Lebia fuscata instead? Sure, what the heck.
On a dead mushroom. Perhaps Drosophila.
What the hell is in its mouth?
Basilica orb-weaver, with its web (Mecynogea lemniscata)
Some miscellaneous insects found around the house, and rather more insects than are strictly desirable found inside it.
First, the copper underwing, Amphipyra pyramidoides. If this photo seems a little strange, it’s because it was sitting on a mirror.
Next, a dermestid beetle larva.
Finally, a planthopper I found when taking out the recycling, sitting on the bin. Best guess: Acanaloniidae, genus Acanalonia, maybe Acanalonia conica?
Well, this first one is actually from Devil’s Rock, but I didn’t want to make a new post just for one photo:
Tipulidae: perhaps a Limoniid crane fly?
Fireworks:
A Limoniid crane fly? (EDIT: identified as Limonia annulata.)
Mangora maculata in Araneidae. This has only one photo from Massachusetts in bugguide.net, and none in iNaturalist.
Leafhopper, Jikradia olitoria. A female, males are more uniformly green.
Lauxaniidae?
Uloborus glomosus, I have a soft spot for these spiders:
Pine needles
Linyphia triangularis? But it could also be Frontinella or Neriene. Linyphiidae, at any rate.
This could be Haplandrus fulvipes. Except that it was pointed out to me that Xylopinus also has a red-legged race (see this and this). So, well, $@&!! that ID. Note the large numbers of mites on the poor thing.
The Isle of Skye, folks. Somewhere I’d always read about, never thought I’d actually go!
Fossils we found at the Flodigarry fossil walk:
The fairy pools walk on the Isle of Skye:
Armadale, while waiting for the ferry to Mallaig:
Cairngorms National Park, no longer on the Isle of Skye:
Speyside Dolphin Center.
Like I’m going to go that far and not take photos of insects. A syrphid fly:
