Regular Mark Sturtevant has contributed photos of four insect species:
Here are various pictures from my collection.
A nymph of the Chinese praying mantis (Tenodera sinensis). I picked this big girl up while visiting my in-laws in New Jersey, and raised it to the adult stage. She turned out magnificent! I will be sending pictures of her later.
A cute couple consisting of a Skipper (I think Poanes zabulon) and a Small carpenter bee (Ceratina sp.).
A Syrphid fly (I think Eumerus sp). This one is a male, with its extra expansive compound eyes. He was diligently searching back and forth on this spot of the forest floor, perhaps sensing that a female was about to emerge from her pupa down there.
I picked up this Dobson fly at the porch light of our rental lakeside cabin in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is one of the larger species, known as the ‘Summer fishfly’ (Chauliodes pectinicornis) It was (activate Donald Trump voice) Huge.
And three cold homeotherms come from Stephen Barnard, with his email called “The usual subjects”:
American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis), House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus), and Desert Cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii) warming up in the morning sun.
Beautiful photos!
Stephen, I thought Christmas was over: your birds look like nice tree decorations 🙂
Interesting how puffed up and fat the finches are in Idaho. Lots of them here and they don’t look like that.
Must be the potato diet. 😉
Simply beautiful…. thanks!
SO lovely, all those!
Beautiful!
But, but, but… it is the same bird, no ? Somebody told him something very rude between the two photos, hence the blush.
Beautiful photos. Who needs National Geographic?
Brrrrrrrr. Those are some puffy finches!