When we pulled our barbecue out in the middle of July, we found this mud nest partially constructed inside of it. Since it was going to be killed anyway by the heat when we used the grill, I carefully removed it so that we could get a better look, and see what was inside.
Chokecherries are a common small tree around here. They have edible[1] fruit that ripens right around the beginning of August, consisting of berries about the size of peas. At least, most of them are the size of peas. Sometimes, while they are still green, a few of the berries become enlarged and distorted. If you cut open one of these enlarged fruits, this is what is inside of them:
The little orange maggots inside evidently eat away the developing seed, and irritate the plant cells to force them to form a gall instead of a proper fruit, with a hollow inside that fills with fluid. It looks like they drink this fluid and get their nutrition from it.
In all the previous jumping spider pictures I’ve put up, I’ve muttered about the near impossibility of identifying them to species without an expert with a microscope. Well, I’m not going to make that complaint this time!
I found this large green dragonfly resting undamaged by the side of the road as I was pushing my bike up the hill on June 16. It wasn’t dead, but it was obviously dying of unspecified causes[1], as it let me pick it up with no more response than a slow motion of the legs and a slight vibration of the wings.
Back in early May, we noticed a number of clusters of eggs that had been laid on the eaves and siding of our house.
They had hatched within a couple of weeks after they were laid, producing dozens of tiny little caterpillars.
S_ found this large (probably 2 cm long), distinctive beetle in front of our garage on June 12.
It is very clearly an American Carrion Beetle, Necrophila americana. I actually think that this beetle species has already appeared on this site, as a larva.
This is Rosie’s[1] debut contribution to this page. While we were at Otter Lake collecting the crayfish, she came toddling up to me, held up her clenched fist in front of my eyes, opened her hand, and proclaimed “See! Bug!” And this is what I saw:
I used to think that (a) there was only one kind of cicada native to this area, and (b) I would know a cicada song when I heard it. It turns out I was sorely mistaken on both points.
For the last couple of weeks, we’d been hearing an obviously insect-produced sound around the yard that we hear pretty much every year and that I’d always thought was made by some kind of cricket. It sounded like this[1]:
Warning: This is quite probably the creepiest thing I have posted to date.
We were looking over our cherry tree in late May, and S_ found this fairly nondescript green caterpillar eating the leaves. There are a lot of kinds of green caterpillars, and it is hard to identify them until they turn to the adult form.
So, she gave it to me to raise up, so that we could find out what it would become. Little did we realize what that would turn out to be . . . (Cue Ominous Thunder [1]).
“So naturalists observe a flea/ has smaller fleas that on him prey/ And these have smaller still to bite ‘em/ And so proceed, ad infinitum” – Jonathan Swift
S_ spotted this mosquito in the house, and requested that I eliminate it. It then landed on the window screen, and I noticed something odd about it. So, I caught it, put it in the freezer to quickly kill it, and then after it was safely dead and immobilized started getting pictures. See those red bits sticking out to the side? That’s not normal.
