There’re enough endemics for your whole life.) pm me as it’s an interesting topic, but I don’t want to clutter this one.
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So, the new week is starting on a Wednesday this time around!
Today, much to my surprise, I found a fabulous metallic-green carabid beetle, Flower Lebia Beetle, Lebia viridis (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/135276)
Not new to NYC, but so far only the 6th record of this species in all of New York City.
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Nice little dude.
I’m still uploading so many observations from the last two weeks, but here are a few of the highlights so far. (May 8-13)
Ground-Ivy
Marsh Marigold
Lesser Periwinkle
Large turtle (I don’t know the species)
Virginia Opossum
Killdeer
European Carp
Forget-Me-Nots (I don’t know the species)
Common Mullien
Possible Bacteria Crown Gall
Staghorn Sumac
Nannyberry
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Thanks – I thought it was really great, even though it was small.
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Was it on a dandelion? Or it’s just a similar flower?
Yup, it was on a common dandelion.
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Cool! So small but so beautiful at the same time.
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Yes, totally gorgeous, even though a bit tiny.
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Do you know if they eat flowers?
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No, they don’t eat flowers – almost all carabid beetles are predatory and carnivorous. Maybe this species likes to catch and eat smaller insects that land on flowers.
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I know species in Amara are granivorous (larvae even make stashes of grains), but they will eat dead insects/molluscs too. Wiki says Lebia are phytophils, so you must be correct, they hunt things that fly to flowers!
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I thought they ate pollen or flower petals.
That’s interesting about Amara!
Thanks for telling me that!
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Thanks for asking about them. It’s all very interesting.
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So, a fun lifer from yesterday, a tiny fungus that lives on another fungus.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/119109383
The tiny one is called Fairy Pins, Phaeocalicium polyporaeum (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/127377) and it lives on Violet-toothed Polypore, Trichaptum biforme.
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This parasitic wasp in my garden Genus Leucospis on May 29, 2022 at 01:27 PM by Elliott Gordon
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This time, a strange Centris bee I saw buzzing around. I’ve seen Centris with reddish abdomens before, but this appears to be my first time seeing one of the black abdomen species. It flew extremely fast and never landed.
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I just found my first bird-dropping moth!
Update: Wait I have to share another one I just found, hope that’s okay! Not sure if this technically counts as a lifer since I think I’ve seen this species once before, but it was in the larval stage and not an adult. But look at this Hickory Tussock! I love him/her!
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