a little wild   (a small slice of wildlife)

A leaf suspended in a spider web:

A nice autumn fall day.  There’s no way should anyone be indoors.  I went on the Ridge trail at Moose Hill Mass Audubon in time for sunset.

It got late and as I was going back, the yellow autumn leaves were pretty much glowing in the dark.

There was a large flock of swallows gyrating.  I tried to take some time exposures. Still working on it, but these are reasonably interesting.

One of our favorite walks.  The boardwalk is now open, too.

The Handsome Trigs were everywhere!  Seriously, though, that’s their official name.  This one seems to be eating some prey?  As katydids, I assumed that they would eat plants.  Perhaps a larva? [Edit — I learned that most Orthoptera are in fact opportunistic eaters of other insects or carrion, so this is certainly food.  And armed with this knowledge, I can never look at locust swarms in the same way ever again.]

My first geometrid moth caterpillar ever!  These are known for their spectacular camouflage.  I would never have realized that this wasn’t a twig, except that it mistook the wooden railing for the branch of a tree, and so stood out:

In case you’re still not convinced, here’s a closeup of the head:

A beautiful spreadwing damselfly.  This photo was taken on a stretch of the King Phillip’s Cave path that I call Damsel Alley; it’s never without its damselflies.

A shock of color.

It was late in the day, so I took the opportunity to get some backlit photos of this flower:

Pelecinid wasps are always a thrill:

I like this color combination:

There’s nothing very extraordinary about this photo.   I just like something about the balance of it.

I haven’t posted in a while, so I’m going to add a mishmash of miscellaneous photos to this.  Playing with the new telephoto (remind me, please, to crop this one better).

Reverse photo of an ambush bug (Phymatidae) on our window:

This photo of the crane fly reminds me of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man drawing.

Wasp on our flowers:

Dolichopodidae (long-legged fly)

Borderland State Park:

Taking the new macro lens for a walk.  A lot of flies and moths, and not that much by way of identification.  A wonderful walk nevertheless!

This was suggested as more likely to be a cluster fly than a Sarcophagid.  I’ll look into this in more detail; I’m not familiar with cluster flies.

The stiletto fly, Thereva frontalis, I think.  What is it doing with its abdomen, ovipositing perhaps?

A long-legged fly (Dolichopodidae), gorgeous as always, and a closeup.  Something like Medetera?

This Salticid is probably Naphrys pulex:

I believe these are march flies (Bibionidae), perhaps something like Penthetria sp.  But I don’t know how to distinguish this from the dark-winged fungus gnat, Sciaridae (Epidapus or Sciara genus).  Or, for that matter, Axymyiidae.

Perhaps a Prionyx searching for a grasshopper or a cricket to parasitize?  On further thought (look at the orange legs!) something in Sphex, like S ichneumoneus looks better to me.  In any case, it was found on a path in the woods, not necesssarily great grasshopper or cricket area.

Probably a tachinid fly.  A suggestion give to me was this.

Best guess: Toxomerus geminatus.

In Corinnidae, this is Castianeira longipalpa (a male).  This site helpfully adds that “Castianeira” means “endowed with a pre-eminent husband.”  These are considered ant-mimic spiders, but it doesn’t seem that close a mimic to me.

My ignorance of Lepidoptera is profound.  This one is close to Olethreutes fasciatana.

And this beauty is something close to Olethreutes astrolagana.  First July sighting in Massachusetts that was recorded in bugguide.

Crane flies mating, and a closeup of the eyes.  My best guess for the genus is Tipula, maybe paludosa?

Probably a sepsid fly:

Maybe Perithemis tenera (Eastern Amberwing).

After many years of interest in insect photography, I finally went ahead and bought a macro lens.  I got about fifteen minutes today to go into the backyard and see how it worked.  Initial impressions are very positive!  Even though about half way through the session I realized I had my Raynox filter on, reducing the depth of focus.

“Valets do it, surfer babes do it,

Even summertime Syrphidae do it.”

From Tom Murray’s book, I would guess Toxomerus marginatus, based on the abdominal pattern.  I don’t know if you’re allowed to guess species based on that, though.

An assassin bug nymph.  Perhaps Zelus luridus?

Perhaps a katydid nymph (identified for me as genus Scudderia):

Here is a Platycryptus undatus on my house window.

Aglossa caprealis, the stored grain moth.

A groundhog in our backyard.  My son felt they were cool, not pests!

I’ve been interested in insects for about ten years now.  Until a couple of months ago, I had never met anyone face to face with the same interests; until a couple of days ago, I had never gone on a walk with anyone else.  It’s been a completely solitary hobby, which is fine with me, but it was nice to finally have a change.

I took part in Bugshot Delaware, and had an amazing time.  The instructors, John Abbott, Alex Wild, and Piotr Naskrecki were incredibly knowledgeable and happy to share, and Kendra Abbott shared her own knowledge and took great care of the arrangements.  An old college friend Huzefa was there, too, which made it more special.

It took place at St. Jones Estuarian Reserve for a very good reason: this is the site of the great annual horseshoe crab spawning, on full moon nights in May and June (and apparently new moon nights, too, which I hadn’t realized).  Keep reading for more photos.

I’ve always been a sucker for photographs of flying insects.  John explained that 1/4000th of a second isn’t really fast enough to freeze most insects (high speed flash photography was later a major theme for the workshop).  However, I’m always happy to share my photos of insects in the air, no matter how crappy they are.  Heaven knows that each photo takes plenty of blood (from insect bites), sweat (from holding tough positions in the sun) and tears (from hours and hours of patience) to obtain.

Here’s a takeoff and a landing:

Genus Toxomerus.

Hover fly mouthparts look weird:

The wheel position:

The luckiest single aphid in St. Jones reserve, to walk away from this encounter unscathed:

A millipede showing off:

And now for the stars of the show, horseshoe crabs.  Magnificent, magnificent beasts, materializing from the rising surf, each one a memorial to all they have survived.

Some more insects.  I fell in love with this gorgeous Dolichopodidae member.

This was either the “Charlie Brown” beetle, or the “batman” beetle:

Everyone knows that Salticids are the smartest, most charismatic and most endearing of arthropods, but not everyone knows that they can fly on magic carpets.

A wasp and a beetle I need to look up when I get the time (watch this space for better IDs).

A hairy click beetle dreaming of exploration and discovery.

Finally, an absolutely gorgeous fly identified for me by Alex as a Sepsid fly.  Beautiful purple that I didn’t know could be found in the natural world, contrasted with the glossy green thorax.  Alex also pointed out that the wings are supposed to be very bright in the UV, which is why this one just happened to be sitting on a branch, displaying his wings, playing with his ball of spit.  Pretty much the equivalent of sitting on a motorcycle wearing a leather jacket and puffing some sort of leafy green.

And here are the other photos for the sake of a better record of the arthropod life there:

Some sort of sac spider?

Rove beetles:

Firefly trails: