From the trailhead on Billings Street. Purely through wetland area. Also spent a lot of time at one dead log busy with a lot of activity, especially some Ichneumonidae wasps who were ovipositing.
I’m still in the process of trying to identify a lot of these, so this is a work in progress. Please bear with me!
Diptera
I think a Dolichopodid, but I really have no idea which.
And another:
I missed the focus on this, so let’s call it an interesting study of leaf texture, okay?
Didn’t miss the focus on this one:
Caught these two flying while mating:
Muscidae?
Crane fly, Tipulidae
Is this a Limoniid crane fly? Bugguide on Limoniid fly identification:
“Identification
terminal (fourth) segment of maxillary palpus short or subequal to third segment (elongate, longer than first three segments combined in Tipulidae)
antennae usually with 14 or 16 segments (13 in Tipulidae)
Interpretation of the wing venation can be difficult, especially on the subcostal and radial fields. See Alexander (1927, 1929-1930)(4)”
Chironomus cf ochreatus?
wing pattern:
Perhaps Platypalpus in Hybotidae
Very low confidence in identifications. But I’ll say that the root-maggot fly, Anthomyia oculifera, looks very similar to this.
I dunno. Anthomyiidae?
Psychodidae, Pericoma? Pericoma cf signata? Wait, is Pericoma being re-categorized to Pneumia, so Pneumia cf signata?
Interestingly, there’s only one record of Pericoma in BugGuide, and two in iNaturalist, although of course Tom Murray has a record of it in his book.
Why is this crane fly so white? Is it…tenebrous?
Coleoptera
A dead buprestid?
Cantharidae, something like Rhagonycha
Podabrus?
And another:
Lampyridae, firefly. Photinus. Some advice on distinguishing different genera:
“Photinus is small and will often have the elytra outlined. Pronota will be more rounded
Pyractomena generally have their pronota shaped triangular or shovel shaped
Photuris are larger species and legs will look very “spidery.” But they’ll usually have faint lines on their elytra, like stripes. They will also be more “hump backed.@
I think Pyractomena stand out very easily from the previous two. But you can usually separate the two based on perceived size and other characteristics.”
Elateridae:
EDIT: I found a *lot* of wasps nearby that seem like a very good fit to Arotes amoenus. BugGuide says that their host is Melandrya striata (“false darkling beetle”, Melandryidae), which actually seems pretty close to this. I think I might need to change my mind on this.
ORIGINAL: Maybe Tenebrionidae, Capnochroa cf fuliginosa? Maybe Androchirus instead? Capnochroa is “comb-footed”, but I don’t have enough details on the feet.
These beetles were everywhere. I’ve seen them before and I seem to have a tough time identifying them, even to family.
EDIT: Wait, it could be Isomira cf sericea, in Tenebrionidae! I’m excited that there’s a reasonable candidate for this beetle, now.
Elateridae:
A crime scene? Not sure why there are a dead ant and a dead beetle right next to each other. Any good detective will tell you they don’t believe in coincidences!
Looks to be Elonus, in Aderidae, the “ant-like leaf beetles”.
Trichoptera
Caddisflies:
Lepidoptera
Is this a grass veneer? Immaculate grass veneer does not seem to fit exactly.
Tortricidae –> Olethreutes? I think Banded Olethreutes.
Not even sure this is Lepidoptera:
And I don’t know if this is Lepidoptera:
Hymenoptera
Ichneumonidae –> Pimplinae?
Here’s the ichneumonid, . Please forgive me for so many photos, but I was very excited to finally get photos of ovipositing!
There were several of these females. They were flying and walking all over, flicking antennae, looking for someone in the dead wood to lay their eggs in.
A group of boldly-patterned, medium-sized ichneumonid wasp. See photos.
Black and yellow coloration, long ovipositor, dorsoventrally depressed abdomen with apical portion laterally compressed, the first tergite narrowed anteriorly and broadened posteriorly and apical dark wing spots.
Here’s some ovipositing!
Wing venation:
Pimplinae?
Spiders
Spider seen but not photographed: dark morph of Maevia inclemens.
I think Theridiidae, not sure which:
Theridion cf frondeum, perhaps, as T. albidum is rarer, but could be that too. Male.
Philodromidae, Philodromus marxi
Uloborus glomosus. Whenever you display one of these, it is mandatory to mention that Uloboridae is the only spider family lacking in venom.
So gorgeous!
Theridiidae –> Euryopis, perhaps E. funebris? Looks okay-ish, but the opisthosoma is supposed to be teardrop shaped. Maybe gravid?
Castianeira:
Zygoballus rufipes, hammer-jawed jumping spider?
Eustala
Theridiosoma gemmosum, Theridiosomidae egg sac
Not a spider, some sort of mite. Just possibly Anystis, in Anystidae?
Not a spider, a woodlouse:
No bugs
Probably crown-tipped coral, Artomyces pyxidatus, suggested to me.
A very rainy day, with a walk in the evening after the rain tailed off. Not too many bugs, but the ones we did see were a little more docile and accepting of being photographed, I think. Except for the Dolichopods, they never stand still, ever.
A caddisfly, Trichoptera. I always have a tough time identifying Trichopterans to genus.
Araneus diadematus? Mangora placida. Took me longer to find the identification than it should have :-).
An unusual angle for a Leucauge venusta:
Philodromidae. In fact, all the similar Philodromids were classified as Philodromus, so there’s a strong chance this one is too.
Molorchus bimaculatus Cyrtophorus verrucosus, in Cerambycidae, I think. This one fooled me the first time I found it, as it seems very atypical for Cerambycidae, and it fooled me again this time. Took a long time scrolling through Staphylinidae and Cleridae to finally get the answer.
Tarpela micans (Tenebrionidae) displaying its typical rainbow coloration, appropriate for Pride month:
The star of the show! A Luna moth. He (male, look at the antennae) has been through a lot, as seen by his wings. I hope he had a good life and reproduced!
Braconidae? Don’t know how to distinguish from Ichneumonidae from this photo, given lack of wing venation.
My best guess for this one is family Ichneumonidae, perhaps Cryptinae. Will need to look further to see it I can find a fit. Note the large ovipositor as a clue.
Lycosidae (wolf spiders) –> maybe Schizocosa sp.?
Looks like a hammerjawed jumping spiders, Salticidae –> Zygoballus cf. rufipes. Genus looks solid, but being confident of species level identification may be tricky.
a blurry view, but you can see the eponymous jaws:
This is probably a Melandrya cf striata, in Melandryidae (false darkling beetles). Not too many instances of them in the US, so something of a nice sighting!
Lovely mayfly, and for once, it’s actually May!
Maybe Xylophagidae? If this turns out to be Rachicerus genus, it would be a state first for Massachusetts.
Some sort of Trichoptera (caddisfly). Best guess, something like Chimarra? There aren’t that many reports of adult Chimarra in Massachusetts.
Perhaps the latest start to the bugwatching season I’ve had for a long time! The weather was cold-ish (14 C/57 F approximately) so not a lot of insects, but the ones I could see were fairly low-energy, allowing me to take some very close up photos.
For some reason, there were dozens of march flies (Bibionidae). I’ve never seen that many in one walk.
Diptera
As promised, tons of Bibionids. The large eyes belong to the males. But which ones?
And honestly, I don’t know which one is a good fit with the images below. My best guess is Bibio ‘Boston’ species, nr. lanigerus, compare with https://bugguide.net/node/view/182418.
First, here are some views with the wing patterns.
This one is a female.
Tachinidae, I think. I believe that’s the diagnostic large post-scutellum at the end of the thorax.
Hemiptera
Leafhopper, I think Erythridula. Tom Murray in Insects of New England calls this Arboridia plena, but I think that’s a deprecated name.
Coleoptera
I think this is Pedilus lugubris, in Pyrochroidae (“Fire-colored beetles”). EDIT: Actually, I guess Silis in sub-family Silinae, family Cantharidae is just as likely.
Hymenoptera
Ichneumonidae –> Ophioninae –> Ophion sp. perhaps
I’ve seen this before, and I don’t have an explanation: the head of an ant, partially buried in the soil. Caused by some sort of parasite?
Spiders
As always, Leucauge venusta all over the place. They’re the first spiders I see in spring (along with Cyclosa conica) and the last ones I see in fall.
First set of photos at the vernal pool; then photos from the boardwalk.
Very happy with the fairy shrimp photos from the vernal pool, those creatures are so picturesque!
As an introduction for anyone encountering them for the first time: fairy shrimp are freshwater crustaceans. They are obligate dwellers of vernal pools — they are found nowhere else. They tend to swim upside down, and they have some very nice wavy appendages that are used for swimming and for wafting food to their mouthparts. I have photos of the mouthparts, which is something I haven’t done before, and also some extremely shaky video.
I believe these are fatty globules rather than eggs, but am not sure.
I’m sharing multiple edits of this photo, as it was a challenge. It’s a tough photo to process, getting the globules to look good while at the same time bringing out detail in the rest of the shrimp wasn’t easy. In addition, there’s plenty of noise and at the same time lots of subtle detail, so tough to balance those two issues. What do you think?
The first two were processed in GIMP using the curves feature.
Adding a couple of my RawTherapee edits of the same photo so I can stare at them and compare.
A view down the feeding maw:
Sorry this is so shaky. It’s not easy, you know!
Collembola on the surface:
And another:
Copepod:
And another. You can see why they are known as “cyclops”, they look like they have one eye.
Chironomid midge larva writhing around:
I was recording a midge to show its writhing behavior, when a fairy shrimp photobombed. It was that kind of day.
Ostracods, so many of them:
I don’t know what this is. EDIT: perhaps Psychodidae larvae (“drain fly”)
And I have no idea what I’m looking at here. EDIT: probably Atherix, which would make it the first sighting in Massachusetts for the genus (as always, I actually mean the first record in BugGuide and iNaturalist). These are gill-like terminal appendages. I saw the rest of the creature, and it does look like Atherix larvae, but couldn’t get a photo.
Some photos without exoskeletons now.
What a cluster of bubbles looks like under the lights of the lens:
Snowy and frigid (about -10 degrees C). A pancake of clouds, so the skies were featureless, and no nice sparkly sunshine to play with the ice. Had to work with that.
Two types of flamingos: the lesser flamingos have been here longer, and are pinker, because they’ve been having algae in their diet here that create the caratonids. The greater flamingos are larger, arrived more recently, and are therefore still black/white/gray (but not for long).
a little wild 