What is your Favorite Lifer from this week?

Any new wasp I see that I haven’t seen before or is potentially undescribed :)

This week: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/129660898

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Depending on whether Sunday is the first or the last day of the week, my favourite Lifer from this or last week - that is from yesterday - is Felimare picta. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/129961195
I had seen photos of it before and dreamt about seeing it, but they were from divers off Tarifa or Nerja. To see this beautiful animal 10 cm below the surface on a beach in the centre of Málaga made it even more special for me - and possible, because I don’t dive, just snorkel and I don’t have a car, so can’t get to “wild” coastal areas.

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While this moth’s species may or may not be a lifer for me, I’m certain I’ve never seen a moth with a wing like this before!

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:open_mouth: Could it fly well?

Yesterday I saw my first protonothary warbler, they are already migrating south! I can’t believe it, I just remember when a few months ago birds were heading North to breed and now they’re coming back.

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August has been good to me. Two lifers in one capture for me here: Diogmites crudelis predating Triorla interrupta


https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/129905586

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Amazing shot! One Asilidae preys on another one and both can be identified!

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I think the Speckled Dun is rather elegant:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/130006774

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I hesitate to put this one, because I’m worried that someone will disregard my research and reasoning, but it is honestly my favorite:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/130190328
The backstory should be apparent from the extensive notes and conversation.

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Not quite the end of the second week of August, but I have no doubt that this globemallow-visiting goblin bee is my favorite of the week: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/130428520. Not much I can do about the picture quality, but the head colors match the previous record of Macrotera magniceps in Los Lunas, New Mexico, USA.

According to my notes and iNaturalist account, this little bee could be my 100th native bee species observed in New Mexico! With nearly 1,000 iNat bee observations in NM so far, I have a lot of ground to cover for the remaining 1,000 species. I especially want to find Bombus cockerelli, Ancylandrena larreae, and any of the oil-diggers.

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Just saw this Neanalcocerus hortelanus fly Neanalcocerus hortelanus


And these Mischocyttarus wasps (very sure there not mimics now :wink::grin:). But I’m still not sure of the species, quite possibly M. angulatus.

And @susanhewitt now I went out to get some shots of them, and here they are:



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Mud snake. I’m not a herper. I was birding and spotted it crossing the road very slowly. Moved it rest of the way across so it wouldn’t get run over.


Edit
Here is my observation. I used the photos I took before I picked it up. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/130863577

@teellbee

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Surprisingly yes, it flew up to the light and fluttered around a bit while seeming fine. :)

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Cool!

Drove 6 hours again this weekend to see an orchid I had never seen before (Platanthera integrilabia) which was as spectacular to see in person as I had expected - as always however some completely unexpected tiny plant stole the show and won the spot as my favorite new lifer: Dwarf sundew (Drosera brevifolia) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/130730083

This is the 4th species of sundew I’ve seen now, and I always found them fascinating plants but also never paid too much attention to them - this one however was so tiny it was hard to even see on the ground, I’d say the entire plant would fit on my fingertip (I really need to start bringing a ruler with me and put in pictures…). For some reason that tiny size made me instantly fall in love with it :grin:

(The picture is just the leaves, I never managed to catch any Drosera in bloom yet - even when I found some of the other species at bloom time they refuse to open their flower heads when it’s not completely sunny…)

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Oh, What an amazing observation! Well done!

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I can see why your were engrossed - such a wild structure to that plant!

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I got a horrible photo of it, but I finally photographed a Loggerhead Sea Turtle!

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Oh, hard to decide! I got some cool lifers on the weekend, my favourites of them would be:

Great Frigatebird
Brown Booby
Roseate Tern
Ruddy Turnstone
Piano Fangblenny
Pearly Monocle Bream

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Nope, not buying it

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