What is your Favorite Lifer from this week?


A lovely American Pelecinid Wasp, hanging out on a leaf. The elongated structure on the back of the abdomen, is in fact, a modified ovipositor, not a stinger! These wasps are incapable of stinging, and parasitize caterpillars.

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https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/310689069 .

He is Neil. He’s got some life story there.

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https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/310254259

I’ve never seen this guy in person! I had seen it a bunch on my states biodiversity but it was so tiny I didn’t even see it if I wasn’t just browsing the outside wall lining while I waited for a coworker that morning!

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Real good beach day today! Got bored of sunbathing and got out in the open sea, in a deeper water. Here’s the best I got:

A garfish: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/311213091 , among other fishes.

Then, I got back to a rock I wanted to check, and it was worth it!

Lipophrys trigloides: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/311215950

Honorable mention, a Sphynx Blenny, so cute!

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/311216506

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Two beautiful clown beetles! I thought they were ladybugs at first, then realized they were probably some kind of weevil. And yes! A lifer!

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/311375287

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I found a Notch-backed Cuckoo bee and multiple Hump-backed Beewolf. I’ve become fascinated with Wasps lately, and it’s spiraled into a complete fascination of all Bees, Wasps and related.

Epeolus scutellaris

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/311329143

Philanthus gibbosus

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/311119750

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This week I get to hike a part of a preserve that I had not hiked before. This yielded many new lifers, including this Acer spicatum (mountain maple) observation

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/310795935

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It’s kinda crazy to think that a bumblebee that was once so universal in E. North American has become a lifer bee for me.

Either way, today I spotted an American Bumblebee queen hard at work before the cold sets in! I CAN’T STOP GEEKING ABOUT HER

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/311746668

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I haven’t seen a Leopard Frog in a long time so this was an exciting sight for me.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/311814573

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I have been on the lookout for this ever since I started to use iNat and here it is:
Phytoplasma asteris, Ladies and Gentlemen:

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Oh wow, I am envious! They are considered to be “likely extirpated” in New England. Guess I’ll have to come to your neck of the woods to see one!
And you got such nice photos…

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Through the reading I have been doing, Ohio has very few of these lovelies too- but I am going to watch this area like hawk while the weather still allows it to see if there are signs of an established set of colonies in the preserve.

I and going to be doing a lot more running again, it looks like :sweat_smile:

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It’s not often that I get a dragonfly lifer. I think this is a black meadowhawk, but my dragonfly identifying skills are next to nothing, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I was wrong.


https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/312093009

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Is a lifer something you’ve waited your whole life to observe, or just something you’ve never observed before in your life?

My first owl observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/310705999 (among crickets)
My first skink: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/311420396
And my first true toad: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/311811163

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I’m pretty sure it’s just something you’ve never observed before.

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This little guy that I escorted outside today! Not quite sure what he is, image searches keep suggesting different things, but I learned the hard way that he’s got wings! (He jump-scared me as I was setting him down, bounced right off my glasses :sob:)

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A brown wasp mantidfly; so incredibly cute and chill and was so much fun to watch. It crawled all over my hands, my camera lens, etc. I thought it was a wasp at first, but its little grabby front legs suggested mantis. What a cutie!!

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/312229619

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https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/312256217

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/312260674

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/312312799

Canadian Imperial Moth caterpillar.

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Not from what I can see. :slightly_smiling_face:

So far as I know, both are right. The most important part is that it’s your first time seeing this thing.

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Compare him to other members in the Neoclytus genus. Example from my own finds:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/279704601

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