Here are more pictures from last summer, all photographed over a two-day period.
The first pictures are of beetles. The first two are
Typocerus velutinus and
Brachyleptura champlaini (on a bergamot flower). These are two of our ‘flower longhorn’ beetles, since they spend much time eating pollen on flowers.
Banded longhorn beetle by
Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
Flower longhorn beetle by
Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
The third is another longhorn beetle that also forages on flowers, but it is described as one of the ‘wasp beetles’ since it is considered a wasp mimic. I think it most closely resembles a potter wasp. Wasp beetles move around rather quickly and erratically, so in life they really do look like a wasp. This species is
Clytus ruricola.
"Wasp beetle" by
Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
In the same field as the above beetles were several colonies of rather disgusting tortoise beetle larvae feeding on wild bergamot. As many here will know, tortoise beetle larvae carry a ‘fecal shield’ of their poo over their bodies, and this probably serves as a repellent to their enemies. This species is
Physonota unipunctata, and they will also feed on horsemint although I have never seen them on those plants in my area. This is what the adult beetle looks like:
https://bugguide.net/node/view/1764630/bgimage Tortoise beetle larvae by
Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
Next is one of our nursery web spiders. This species is
Pisaurina mira, and if you look closely you can see she appears to be eating another spider.
Nursery web spider by
Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
One of the immediate features that one would note in the place that I call the Magic Field is that it supports a lot of grasshoppers, even though the terrain seems rather barren. Before this post I knew of eight species that are common in the field, including four species of band-winged grasshoppers.
One day I was walking about the Magic Field when I noticed a striking grasshopper nymph, and here it is.
Dense mats of lichens are common in the MF, and one can see that this one is beautifully camouflaged to match the lichens! This is definitely a new species of grasshopper for me.
Northern marbled grasshopper nymph by
Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
Northern marbled grasshopper by
Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr
I later learned that this is the northern marbled grasshopper (
Spharagemon marmoratum), and it is actually a band-winged hopper. All along, they were actually fairly common but the adults have the same wing color of another species (the mottled sand grasshopper), and so I failed to recognize these were also present. So nine species at least in the MF.
I occurs to me that I have never shown a picture of the Magic Field. So here it is. Not much to look at, but it is still my favorite hunting ground.