Day 82, one individual.
Relacionado con // Related to:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2667158
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2667199
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2667420
That was(p) a congregation! On Artocarpus heterophyllus leaf
Just for interest, added cycad seeds being sorted . Nobody seems to know who brought them in or where they came from, but many of the seeds have similar holes, similarly empty. None of our cycads have cones now, so thinking this beastie came in with the seeds.
Photographed with DNR biologist
This observation is for the prey.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/219415599 for the predator.
Collected on a deciduous stump with evidence of wood boring beetle infestation.
Our yellowwood paper wasp nest was visited by a stranger. She inserted her ovipositor into each cell and then flew off... No sign of our resident wasps while the attack took place. Today they were back on their nest as usual... There is an interaction on its way.
After I eventually collected the nest I was surprised to observe two completely different wasp species appear, I've loaded them here:
- larger species
- smaller species
Blue colored frog on Cow parsnip. I have never seen a blue one before.
Found on driveway, appears to be injured (bird?). Found and photographed by Thom Charles
Mycetophilidae: Mycetophila marginepunctata ?
Tonnoir 1927 indicates a row of dark spots along the wing margins and dark markings on the femurs and tibiae, as this fly seems to have.
Most people have a strong dislike for flies but many, like this one, are quite colourful and completely harmless. Flat-footed Flies, named for their enlarged and flattened hind feet, are quite small (this one is only 4 or 5 mm long). They can often be found on foliage along forest trails where their larvae feed on nearby fungi. This is one of my favourites and the entomologists who first described it must also have had a fondness for it---Callomyia is Greek for beautiful fly and venusta is from the Latin for charming.
Lindneromyia flavicornis male. Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC, USA.
Keys to Platypeza flavicornis in Johnson 1923. The current valid name for this species is Lindneromyia flavicornis according to diptera.org.
Zonotrichia hatrick! Harris's Sparrow at left in photo.
Melanistic Song Sparrow. Singing male, ID'ed as Song Sparrow by song, and similar face pattern (visible in photo though muted due to melanism). The bird was also associating with a standard-issue SOSP, possibly a mate.
Caught in a yellow sticky trap set out to gather data (arthropods) to further add to the documented diversity in the Hansen Park Heritage Garden.
Continuing bird. Watched it eat several snakes again today.
A scrappy expanse of silky refuges and capture webs littered with body parts of previous victims. When preferred prey is entangled, the female spiders emerge from their 'nests' and overpower it by grabbing its extremities. In this case, a wasp https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319446.
Presumably they inject venom because after a minute or so the prey stops struggling. Then they snip it out of the web and carry it into one of several 'nests' or refuges.
Unwanted prey, often beetles (see https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319435 ) are also killed but sometimes left in the web, uneaten. Ants, in this case, Maranoplus ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319390 )scavenge around the periphery of the webs, feasting on unwanted beetles or other left-overs.