Uh, wow. In my driveway.
a guess on the ID
Caught in a flowerhead of Tanacetum vulgare, body length 1.3 mm
Moss-bug Hemiodoecellus fidelis, Mount Wellington, Tasmania, Australia, December 2018
Bowerbird.org.au record being moved to iNaturalist because the former website is shutting down.
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.
Found two blephs fluttering around the bridge over Cliff Falls in Kanaka Creek during a light rain. Only my second or third time catching adult Blephariceridae, I think! The wing venation seems to key out to Dioptopsis in the manual of Nearctic Diptera, but the body seems a little too big. I’ll have to see what taxa the local museums have in their material. Specimens in collection.
mostly spherical globular galls on the midrib of dandelion. Most galls visible on the top and bottom of the leaf.
The cocoon(?) was being carried through the air from flower to flower by the insect.
Erineum pockets and rolled galls are typical for this mite. These leave exhibit both forms.
Possible leaf mines on red huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium).
Under stone on rocky hillside. Lots of males and females were present hovering near the ground around Euphorbia plants, though none were observed visiting Euphorbia flowers.
I found this pseudoscorpion by picking up a piece of fallen lichen (Genus Platismatia, I think), then gently tapping it against the edge of a small plastic container. After taking this series of photos, I returned the pseudoscorpion back to the lichen where I found it. I always do my best to minimize how much I disturb the critters I wish to photograph -- my aim is to leave them unharmed and in the exact same microhabitat/location where I discovered them.
Suction cup-like structures on the bottom.
I was stunned to see a complete demon like face on this bug..!!
To me this face is complete with the beautiful crown formed by the limbs... :-)
size: 1cm approx
Blackberry stem gall I’ve never seen. Neolasioptera nodulosa isn’t known from the area but it’s a good visual match
Swept from Quercus.
Body length about 6mm.
fly pupa emerged from spider abdomen.
The adult:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/103403671
spider while alive (Anyphaena sp.):
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/102977015
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/88418142
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/87502530
At UV light at night, collected, wing length is 6.5 mm, possibly T. columbiana based on Pratt 2003? Also posted to BG here:
https://bugguide.net/node/view/2071914
My favourite little parasite this season:
There were at least 2 individuals of this small braconid wasp stalking the green vegetable bugs on the Cleome in my garden. (Were they first discovered in NZ by you, Stephen?)
The first one (photos 1-7) quite obviously was successful in parasitising a bug, but the second one (photos 8-17) was never quite able to connect, despite a number of attempts.
It was fascinating to watch the behaviour. Mostly the wasps managed to stay behind the bugs, and so out of sight. However, occassionally they were rumbled and then got short shrift from the Nezara.
Found inside the melon
Second of 2 types of strange new galls found on the same doug fir. These consisted of swollen twigs containing a single long larval chamber with a caterpillar-like larva inside.
SLAM trap in lower canopy (ca. 10m above ground)
on proposed highway trail
Holotype
TASZAKOWSKI, A., KIM, J., DAMKEN, C., WAHAB, R., HERCZEK, A., & JUNG, S. (2021).
A remarkable new genus and two new species of the Gigantometopini (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Miridae, Isometopinae) from Brunei
. Zootaxa, 4970(1), 171–181. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4970.1.9
Maybe 5mm. Seems to have eyes facing upwards, reacts to movement.
Found on an Oak tree. Many specimens were attended by Lasius foliginosus ants.
Here are a few more shots together with the ants https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/63996431
Front shot of a different one: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/97135560
Note: I have photographed this Hexatomini at Cedar Bog in Champaign County, Ohio for at least 17 years. Always in the same area.
I've added two other observations; one from back in 2004.
Links to those observations:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/88273567
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/84762884
From inside a small fig - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/39877322 - Ficus ingens
https://www.figweb.org/Fig_wasps/Pteromalidae/Otitesellinae/Otitesella/Otitesella_rotunda.htm
looks like a pair to me.
giving back to the earth. such a sacred journey.
The kids found these flicking/twitching about on the muddy bottom of Lower Lake, accessible from the day use area. We have no idea what they are. I'm guessing some sort of fly larve but the star nosed mole look is throwing me off.
Micropezidae?
Two found together on a dead pine log. Possibly mating