a little wild   (a small slice of wildlife)

A feather on our front lawn, a-misted with dew.

It’s so annoying that I didn’t get the tree on the left fully into the photo.

Woolly Alder aphid, Prociphilus tessellatus:

No Bugs

Waterflow

I apologize for so many photos, but just a little.

Time exposure with the reflection of the sun.

Hymenoptera

Lasioglossum, subgenus Dialictus

Proctotrupidae wasps.

From BugGuide:

Identification

Antennae with 13 segments

Terminal abdominal segment narrow, elongated, and down-curved in many species

Non metallic. Often black, sometimes red.

Forewing with large stigma, beyond which is a very small marginal cell.

Parasitoids of beetle larvae, fungus gnats

Cryptinae, I think.

Is this Diapriidae? EDIT: Probably not. That appears to be a stigma on the wing, in which case it’s likely to be another Proctotrupidae.

Odonata

Spiders

Agelenopsis. Note the distended palps. That’s a male mating with the female.

Perhaps Mangora

Mangora placida

Sergiolus in Gnaphosidae.

Leucauge venusta

Trichoptera

Diptera

Stunning mosquito! Or gnat.

My first time taking the Laowa 24mm probe lens to a tide pool. As a reminder, the tip is waterproof and can be introduced underwater. It has its own light source, and can focus down to 2:1 magnification.

Beavertail State Park is in Jamestown, RI, at the southern tip. Deserves a lot more time — I didn’t know we had sea arches that close by!

Usually, I have to chase my subjects, especially with the razor thin depth of field in macro photography. However, the tide pools were full of shrimp, and the shrimp were full of aggression. The moment I tried to take a photograph, they came right up to the lens, presumably to attack it. Which meant that they were close enough it was tough to get the whole shrimp in the field of view. And a lot of the photographs of other objects had shrimp photobombers.

So very colorful!

Some type of skipper

Perhaps Stictocephala:

Perhaps Dictynid?

Stink bug, Mormidea lugens

Ammophila. Evolution bought the WÄSP kit from Ikea, got drunk, and decided she didn’t need to read the directions.

I don’t really know this wasp. Ichneumonidae?

Unidentified Lepidopteran.

Hymenoptera

This is a bee, Hylaeus, aka the masked bees. The front view is very distinctive.

One of the stars of the show: a cuckoo wasp, Chrysididae. This particular one is in genus Chrysis. I’ve gotten photos of them before, but they were the type you wouldn’t show anyone else, because they would silently pity you.

I haven’t been able to narrow down the identification. The gorgeous combination of iridescent green and iridescent blue over the thorax should stand out, but I haven’t found a match yet.

The reason I was able to get some decent photos this time (ahem, besides my outstanding skill and perseverance) was that it seemed to have found an area to investigate and stayed there for a while. I can only presume that that area was a nest for some other wasp, but it didn’t seem to be so to my own eyes.

The iridescence (?) on the antennae is something that shows up in several of my photos. Not sure whether it’s a reflection of her body or something else.

Further investigation of the purported nest:

Side view

My best guess for this next wasp is Ichneumonidae –> Cryptinae

Lepidoptera

I have no idea what this one is. Which is no surprise because I don’t know my Lepidoptera at all.

EDIT: identified for me as a silver-spotted skipper.

“Epargyreus clarus, the silver-spotted skipper, is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae.”

Ephemeroptera

This mayfly was swinging its (his?) cerci all over the place. I presume that it was trying to smell a mate?

Hemiptera

Coreidae (aka leaf-footed bug) nymph

I wish I had taken the time to get a better photo of this bug:

Arachnida

Agelenids always look spectacular in their webs, especially after the rain

I really really tried hard to get a good image of this presumed Acariform. Compare with Erythraeus. Wikipedia: “These are large red mites with two pairs of eyes and long legs (the first and fourth pairs are often longer than the body).”

This spider spent quite a bit of time hauling its prey up. I’m guessing Parasteatoda. It’s weird seeing them actually in nature, outside a house or garage.

It looks like a mite on the left side of the cephalothorax.

Another star of the show! I’ve been trying for so, so, so long to get photographs of a mama Lycosid (wolf spider) with all of her many spiderlings on her back. It was exciting finally getting them!

Pardosa sp., in Lycosidae, aka wolf spiders. The main genus that could be confusing is Arctosa. Two points of difference are the legs spines and the shape of the face: “[Pardosa have a ] narrow cephalic area. Arctosa have a chunky face”

Other

I just liked this very prominent layer in the rock. Not sure what geological transition it corresponds to. Although, could it just be an intrusion joining together two pieces?