Predatory stink bugs reared from eggs – I’m calling them “Webworm destroyers”
On July 7, 2013, Sandy found this clutch of eggs on a branch of a spruce tree in the yard. They were in the process of hatching out tiny stink bugs.
Now, this is hardly the first time we’ve found stink bug eggs, but on previous occasions I found that it is surprisingly difficult to get an ID on the eggs and nymphs. So, this time I decided to try rearing them to adulthood to see what we got.
Here is a horse fly that I caught on July 2, 2013 when it was trying to bite me on the back of the head[1]. I only squashed it a little, so it was still in OK shape for photographing.
On July 2, 2013, we noticed hundreds of these moths fluttering around the clump of Black Locust trees just southeast of our house, so we caught one.
I was out walking the dog on July 7, 2013, and found this mostly-white “true bug” nymph, suborder Heteroptera. I could tell it was a nymph, because it didn’t have its wings grown in yet.
Dragonfly Nymph Shed Skin – More elongated than usual
Here’s a shed skin from a dragonfly nymph that Sandy and Rosie found while they were out fishing. This one has a longer, thinner abdomen than dragonfly nymph molts that we’ve found previously.
Crane Fly with Large, Branched Antennae
I found this good-sized crane fly in the road on July 1, 2013. It had apparently been banged up by a near-miss from a car, so it wasn’t in any shape to flee.
Its most striking feature is its large, branched, antler-like antennae.
Sandy was digging a post-hole in the yard on June 29, 2013, and Sam happened to notice this fine, large beetle falling into the hole.
It is clearly predatory. Those mandibles are obviously best suited for, say, dicing caterpillars and slugs into bite-sized chunks.
I found this mostly black fly with red legs on our dining-room window on June 6, 2013. Here it is on my fingertip, for scale:
It looks like one of the “March Flies” in the genus Bibio.
For our 500th posting[1], here is an old “friend”: a Deer Tick that Sandy found on our dog[2] on June 6, 2013. Unlike the previous deer ticks I photographed, this one hadn’t attached and drawn blood yet, so we get to see what they look like before they become grotesquely bloated.
I was walking in the woods to the northwest of the house with the girls[1] on June 2, 2013, when we quite literally stumbled across this big anthill. As in, Rosie tripped over it. So, I made a note of the location, and came back later with a camera and a ruler. The mound was a mixture of dirt and bits of dead grass, with live grass growing in it. It stood about six inches tall, and was about a foot wide.
