I have a tough time with beetles that look like this. Maybe Podabrus?
Tachinus fimbriatus, in Staphylinidae
Another rove beetle, “compare with Oxyporus quinquemaculata”
Scirtes cf tibialis, in Scirtidae
Lucidota atra in Lampyridae? EDIT: Plateros in Lycidae suggested instead. Perhaps the distinguishing feature is the absence of a carina (keel) on the pronotum.
Isomira cf sericea, in Tenebrionidae.
Probably Elonus basilis in Aderidae
“I would tentatively place it in Elonus basalis based on coloration, locality, and whitish elytral pubescence.”
Hymenoptera
An Ichneumonid that is so amenable to pose for the camera, deserves a better and closer identification. Note the “horsehead” cell in the wing.
Another Ichneumonid?
Hemiptera
Adorable Fulgorid planthopper nymph
Psocoptera
(Barklouses)
Polypsocus corruptus
Again, Polypsocus cf corruptus
Diptera
These Syrphid flies aka hover flies were all over the place! Temnostoma cf balyras complex, see below
Amphigonalia cf gothica, looking like a Maori warrior. It was flinging honeydew, I wish I had taken better photos of the process.
the honeydew
There was a puddle, not even a pond, and a lone Notonecta (milky backswimmer). From my vantage point, the backswimmer was swimming in the reflection of an electrical powerline tower, and that made for some very nice patterns in the water.
Hemileuca caterpillars, not that far from where I first encountered them many years ago
Coleoptera
Dermestidae beetle, maybe Cryptorhopalum
I think Pachybrachis is a reasonable fit (in Chrysomelidae). The best fit that’s been found in New England is Pachybrachis femoratus or “Black Pachys” which doesn’t seem to be an actual taxon.
An egg case being laid. A warty leaf beetle, Fulcadini, perhaps Neochlamisus cf eubati. Compare with the photo here: https://bugguide.net/node/view/2294569
And I think this is also Pachybrachis, but maybe a different species. But I don’t see a great match among the Massachusetts records.
Cryptocephalus cf basilis, or C. quadruplex maybe, in Chrysomelidae, mating:
Elateridae, click beetles. Anything further is a guess, but maybe Limonius cf quercinus, the Oak click beetle.
Rhagonycha, but maybe Podabrus?
Synolabus bipustulatus
Hymenoptera
Maybe Andrena mining bee:
Andrena, apparently:
Ceratina, I think. (EDIT: perhaps sub-genus Zadontomerus)
Osmia, pretty hairy as expected. “Only two submarginal cells, for one thing.”
Lovely Ichneumonid, Anamalon genus.
Lovely Dasymutilla ursus in Mutellidae, aka velvet ant.
Orthoptera
A very photogenic grasshopper. Is that a parasite/parasitoid on its face?
Melanoplus
Diptera
My first Bombyllius major (bee flies), somehow. And I caught it flying too, a terrible photo, but flying nonetheless (upper right).
These are brood parasites, and are famous for dive bombing their eggs into other insects’ nests, literally on the fly (was the pun intended? I’ll never say).
A slightly better photo at rest:
Toxomerus in Syrphidae:
iNat says Muscoidea:
Odonata
Common whitetail, Plathemis lydia.
Spiders
Phidippus, perhaps P. clarus
Maybe Phidippus too
Habronattus, Habronattus viridipes complex.
If you want to be really really optimistic, you could go to Habronattus calcaratus maddisoni, https://bugguide.net/node/view/51312, but I think that is much too fine to be a real identification.
No bugs
iNat says Silene (catchflies)
I said no bugs, but these are bug nests of some type:
I don’t know what these globules are, but I wish I did.
EDIT: Here is a useful comment:
With regard to those “globules” you had observed (and photographed), If they are not a type of aquatic/aero-aquatic fungus, then they most likely are Spotted Salamander spermatophores. These are picked up by a female salamander, fertilized internally, and then in a few days she deposits them (as egg masses) on vegetation in a seasonal pool. *And remember, along with that unique matrix covering them below water, they can often appear opaque in color, so quite different from Wood Frog egg masses. Of course, both A Field Guide to the Animals of Vernal Pools by Kenney and Burne, and Vernal Pools: Natural History and Conservation by Colburn are terrific resources that will impart much, much more information.
A predaceous diving beetle. There were tons and tons of them. Every now and then one would climb out like this.
Moose Hill boardwalk
I don’t know what these are:
Copepod
This terrible photo of a spider, maybe a dwarf spider, Erigoninae?
In the past, I’ve been fooled (actually: I’ve fooled myself) into believing that I’ve found tardigrades, because I’ve wanted to find them pretty badly. This time, I’m sure, though.
I went to Moose Hill Mass Audubon and took three small samples home:
Moss from a dead tree trunk
Lichen attached to a piece of bark, lying on the ground
Moss from the top of a medium sized rock
I added water and waited a couple of hours, then looked at them under my (rather poor quality, but excellent value for the money) Tomlov electronic microscope. Please don’t confuse this with a scanning electron microscope :-).
The first two samples were completely devoid and bereft of any animal life I could find. The third one, the moss from the top of the rock, for some reason was utterly chock full of life. It was difficult to find a field of view that didn’t have some animal or the other. I don’t understand the reason for the difference, the samples were from similar-ish samples, not far from each other. I don’t know if this is a systematic issue, but next time I go exploring, I know I’m going to definitely look at the rock moss.
We’ll get to the tardigrades, please be patient. First, a movie with a flatworm (planarian) on the lower left. There’s also a green blob on the lower right that I’m unable to identify any further than “green blob”.
Here’s a spectacularly transparent worm, which I think is some sort of Nematode worm:
Here’s another one that gives some idea of all the activity going on. There’s at least one planarian, one tardigrade (not the best view of it, though) and a bunch of other creatures that I can’t pin down.
There were a lot of good views of the tardigrades, which were very common. I’m going to just share one. It’s translucent, so you have to look a little carefully, at center-left. You can see that it’s the right size, shape, and you can see its (adorable little) lobopods (aka, legs).
Warm weather has been breaking up our ice cover on the lake. It’s a sunny day so I pointed toward the sun and cranked open the aperture to decrease the depth of focus. Unfortunately, I had my zoom, which doesn’t open up too wide, only up to f/5.6. This would have been better with a better lens.
a little wild 