wasps
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Tiger, tiger, flying bright
… until caught in a web. An ichneumon wasp — of some kind. You might think something this distinctive looking would be easy to identify. For instance, doesn’t “Tiger Wasp” sound good? But there are a LOT of ichneumon wasps. The Ichneumon genesis alone includes about 143 species in Neartica (most of North America). Here’s…
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Wasps and Caterpillars
This Euodynerus hidalgo wasp was digging into this old rudbeckia (or maybe it’s a coreopsis). For almost nine minutes. This European Tube Wasp (Ancistrocerus gazella) seemed interested. Ah-hah! Caterpillar! From deep inside the flower. I think it’s Homoeosoma genus. The Tube Wasp did not steal this prize. The wasp flew her prey off to her…
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Discovery Week IV
An Eumeninae, one of the potter and mason wasps. Taking a break to clean itself, including its antennae. There are some very similar-looking wasps in this subfamily. This one has been identified on iNaturalist as Parancistrocerus leionotus, a species with no common name. Genus Stenodynerus has some near-look-alikes. There are 110 species world-wide in the…
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Discovery Week II
Look at those rear legs! It’s like they banded this one. Which would be a feat, since these are rather small insects. This is the Common Hoover Fly Parasitoid Wasp (Diplazon laetatorius). A member of the wide and wonderful world of Ichneumonidae, the ichneumon wasps, this one, as its name tells you, parasitizes hover fly…
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Monday Galls
Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres… At the tips of a young oak, small round nestled in filamenty nests. Galls (not Gauls, pace Casesar) with exit holes. Big question in the wonderful world of galls is: what emerged, the gall inducer or the inquiline (parasite)? Not just on the bud tips. Possibly something in…
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Sassy!
A venerable sassafras (Sassafras albidum) in Green-Wood. May be the state record holder for tallest: 69′ in 2016. 138″ in diameter at 4.5′ height. More interestingly, at least to me, is the question of age. Does this pre-date the establishment of the cemetery in 1838? If not it must come close. Sprouting adjacent. Sassafras is…
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Unwrapped
A couple of weeks ago, I saw a large Bald-faced Hornet nest being whipped around by the wind way up a tree overlooking the Dell Water. More recently, I looked up and saw nothing. A clump of hornet paper stuck on a bush was my first clue. I scanned the ground up the slope with…
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11th Month Insecta
There are still a few insects in the cold. On Friday, this wasp, bumble bee, and fly were active. There were other flies about, and other impossible-to-photograph diptera, and a lovely leaf-hopper or two. Some kind of gall on a crab apple. Exit hole visible. Remember last January when I found a large cocoon that…
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Late Insecta
Not a single bee, wasp, or butterfly spotted yesterday in Green-Wood during lunch. There was a suggestion or two of fly, and at least one spider. The first real day of winter, then, bug-wise. Last weekend, though, these stragglers were spotted: Differential Grasshopper, a big one. One of the confusing Syrphid flies. Clouded Sulphur. Vinegar…
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In the Queen’s Chamber
Let this be a lesson to me. I turned over a rotten old log that was about two feet long and a quarter of that in diameter. It came apart in three pieces. This stirred up this Bald-Faced Hornet, all covered in saw dust. Must be a queen in her over-wintering chamber. A thousand pardons,…
Backyard and Beyond 