I think velvet ants lay their eggs in underground wasp burrows so that would make sense:)
It’s a new week, right? Found this queen ant on her nuptial flight over the weekend and, without iNat, I probably never find out what I saw. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/84780773
4 Likes
Yes they do. They look pretty but their life cycle is pretty “nasty”. They are parasitoid wasps.
1 Like
Brings back memories of my old apartment. Once a year for a day the bathroom was COVERED in winged ants. The first time it happened I just stood there in awe. But as sudden as they appeared they disappeared the following day.
This used to happen a bit earlier in the year, though, now that I think of it.
Are we rolling this into a new week?
This week I spent iding Nephrotoma species found on the wall of my home, 5 species so far, 4 of them new for me, “best” one is Nephrotoma crocata which is super beautiful and the hardest one to catch!
Also Nephrotoma aculeata males that have beautiful colouration and memorable genitals (which can’t be underrated in Tipulimorphs 
).
And Nephrotoma dorsalis – species with the longest antennae of our Nephrotomas.
Beautiful and fragile Limonia trivittata feales with unique green body!
First long-headed limoniid of mine, Helius longirostris.
Look forward to find more species!
5 Likes
Why of course! That’s my hope for this thread!
1 Like
This is my favorite from this week, Paramordellaria triloba, a great-looking beetle, ID’ed thanks to BorisB:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/84918242
3 Likes
I was out photographing visitors to our milkweed patch, and noticed that every plant had a couple of these cool-looking nymphs.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/85269840
Tentative ID of Scaphoideus incisus; I read on BugGuide (I think) that these seem to be associated with milkweed, but I’m waiting for an expert to weigh in.
I enjoy finding insect/plant associations - seems there’s always something new to find.
7 Likes
Very pretty!
Noticing the flies pollinating my dill crop. Although the folks at BugGuide are not as nice about low-quality images as the iNat folks are. And they don’t seem to like context, either, i.e. the plant that the insect is pollinating.
Anyway: Genus Allograptus and Genus Lucilia.
1 Like
Finally! A yellow banana slug:
I had not seen one in a decade. These used to be much easier to find in the redwood forests than they are now . The docent I spoke with today said he thought maybe there was a die off.
5 Likes
I am posting again because this week I saw two new dragonflies here in NE Ohio. Both are saddlebags: Carolina saddlebags and black saddlebags. I went to an area of wetlands where there were a lot of dragonflies/damselflies. I didn’t expect to get nice photos of these species of dragons. They usually just patrol the wetlands. My camera isn’t very expensive and can’t capture flying insects well at all. But, they were very cooperative perching close to the trail.
6 Likes
These are cool slugs. I saw one many years ago in Muir Woods National Monument. I wish I still had that old film photo so that I could use it here on iNat.
1 Like
I love your profile description: “Theoretical physicist interested in fungi”
My favorite this week was an aphid colony that I actually photographed back at the end of May, but I did not try to ID it until now. if I am correct on the ID, the species is new to the iNat database:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/81102828
Here is another cool insect observation from that same day which did not get a proper ID until today. A water-treader. They do “tread on” water, but they don’t look too happy about it.
6 Likes
Week ending July 4: Yellow/orange aphids that look like cartoon characters.
3 Likes
What a coincidence! I picked aphids too!
These are the same aphids that take over the milkweed in my yard up in the midwest! They look so strange, like something Studio Ghibli dreamed up.
1 Like