a little wild   (a small slice of wildlife)

His name is Duke. This was a large stately grass spider we found in our basement, and he very graciously posed for some closeup photographs. The genus is Agelenopsis.

From 20140820_spiders

From 20140820_spiders

From 20140820_spiders

From 201408_1000islands

From 201408_1000islands

From 201408_1000islands

From 201408_1000islands

From 201408_1000islands

From 201408_1000islands

From 201408_1000islands

From 201408_1000islands

From 201408_1000islands

From 201408_1000islands

From 201408_1000islands

From 201408_1000islands

From 201408_1000islands

From 201408_1000islands

From 201408_1000islands

From 201408_1000islands

From 201408_1000islands

An ichneumon wasp:

Agrilus ruficollis, the red-necked cane borer:

A tiny little wasp on my laptop screen. Note the individual pixels.

There’s no such thing as “just a fly”.

I’d been seeing these little webs all around the bushes, almost always on the higher branches. Didn’t realize who lived in them until I took some photos.

From 201407_around_house

From 201407_around_house

From 201407_around_house

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From 201407_around_house

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From 201407_around_house

Tiny fly, not a great photo but very cute! Genus Chlorops, according to Facebook entomology group.

This beetle was backed into a little niche in a boulder, hanging out on the lichen. Hairy click beetle, in Elateridae.

Here’s a closeup — it was pretty hairy.

From 201407_king_phillips_ant_war

From 201407_king_phillips_ant_war

From 201407_king_phillips_ant_war

I was taking out the garbage, and noticed a swarm of ants on our walkway. It turned out to be a war between two colonies of ants. Always take out the garbage!

Akash insisted on taking photos, and I’m glad he did.

You can see the ant on the upper left rending the poor gal in the middle, who definitely has seen better days:

From 201407_king_phillips_ant_war

From 201407_king_phillips_ant_war

From 201407_king_phillips_ant_war

Symphyla (classified under myriapoda), found under a rock:

Crane fly:

Lady slipper. Another person on the trail told me that it was the first one he had seen in twenty years. In this photo, you can see how it tricks the insects into brushing against the stamen to help pollination:

Saw a *lot* of Longhorn Beetles (apparently Lepturinae, probably Anthophylax).

In this closeup, you can see it had a passenger: a pseudoscorpion, perhaps!

A Globular Springtail (Collembola), perhaps on a beetle grub:

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From 20140601_moosehill

From 20140601_moosehill

From 20140601_moosehill

From 20140601_moosehill

From 20140601_moosehill

From 20140601_moosehill

From 20140601_moosehill

Psychodidae:

From 20140421_bonaire

From 20140421_bonaire

From 20140421_bonaire

From 20140421_bonaire

From 20140421_bonaire

From 20140421_bonaire

From 20140421_bonaire

From 20140421_bonaire

Psychodidae:

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From 20140412_king_phillips

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From 20140202_geocacheing_manns_pond