An Example of Convergent Evolution
This robber fly (subfamily Asilinae, I think[1]) was hanging out on our mulberry bush. It didn’t move when S. broke off the branch and brought it inside, and I actually thought it was dead while I was photographing it. But then, after getting several good pictures, it suddenly flew off. It was the most cooperative subject I’ve had since the millipede (and the dead ones, of course). These are carnivorous flies that prey on other insects. I suppose they would be capable of biting people, too, but I’ve never had one try to bite me.
They change so much as they grow up!
In the middle of June, S. found this little caterpillar on an aspen tree
Every morning when I bicycle to work, I go past “Houghton Medical Arts”, a private clinic. For a long time, their sign out in front has said “Try Acupuncture for Pain”, and whenever I saw this, i would think of a scenario kind of like this:
Acupuncturist: Now hold still . . . [Jab]
Patient: Ow! Hey, that hurt!
A: Well, what did you expect? Didn’t you read the sign? [Jab]
P: Ow!
[and so on]
A few weeks ago, I posted pictures of a predatory beetle, and mentioned that I’d like to get a picture of the larva of that beetle, because they were pretty wicked-looking[1]. Well, here’s a nice example, which I found crawling across the kitchen floor[2]. Correction: this is evidently some type of carrion beetle (see comment from “Anthony” below). The small squares on the grid are 1 mm, so this larva is close to 2 cm long.
Aaahh! Zombie Mouse!
OK, so on Wednesday, June 13[1], there was some stuff I had to haul out of the basement. The basement has one of those outdoor cellar entrances, with a slanting hatchway covering a set of concrete steps leading down. Since this was the best way to haul out bulky things, I opened up the lid . . . and saw . . . a dead mouse laying on the stairs [2]. Ok, kind of nasty, but not too bad, except . . . then . . . it started to move. Not just a little motion, it hopped up, rolled over, and fell down to the next step! Gah!
And then, the cause became obvious. These two large [3] beetles disengaged themselves from the corpse and scurried off.
This time, we have several different individuals of a single species. First, in April, we started occasionally seeing worker ants in and around the house, like this one:
This is pretty clearly a black carpenter ant, Camponotus pennsylvanicus. As ants go, these are pretty big, about 8 mm long. It is possible to get them to bite, say, the edge of your fingernail, but they don’t so much hurt as just hang on. Anyway, after seeing these for a while, this next one showed up on the kitchen floor, so I refrigerated her for photography:
We found these two stink bugs on the lilac bush in the front yard. They were very focused on the task, and stayed coupled the whole time they were being handled and photographed.
I tried to get a side view, but they were big enough that it was hard to get them completely in focus with the macro lens.
My, Grandma, what big mandibles you have!
This one I did *not* find in the house![1] It was out front, crossing the road[2]. It was strong and fast, and I had to hold onto it pretty firmly to get that face shot.
After a long strech of arachnids here, I think it’s time to get back to insects. This one we found on the kitchen window. She’s evidently a common yellowjacket, Vespula vulgaris
Given the time of year, she’s certainly a queen yellowjacket that was looking for someplace to establish a nest. I quieted her down for photography by putting her in the refrigerator for a bit, she then sat still for several minutes until she warmed back up again. Just for grins, here’s a closeup of her head:
Well, once again, it’s Tick Time. They hang out on tall objects (mostly dead weed stems and the sides of buildings) with their little front legs outstreched, and grab on when someone brushes past unsuspectingly. They don’t bite right away, so we usually find them when they are still crawling around looking for a place to latch on (at this time of year, every little tickle and itch becomes suspect). The ones we have around here are good old Dermacentor variabilis, which some people call a “dog tick” and others call a “wood tick”, while just about everybody calls it an “eeewwww” when they find it crawling up their leg.
