Busy as a fly!!! Flies (#1 & 3 - Syrphid/Hover flies) have only 2 flight wings, short antennae, bees (#2 - Honey) have 2 pair flight wings and longer elbowed antennae.
Fine eye!!! It's a land octopus, I think; very rare.
Yup. Good guess. Green Lacewing eggs (or close relative). The larvae are voraciously predatory, and the stalks presumably keep the hatchlings safe until they are able to climb down (and defend themselves) - I've never seen this tested - an (un-)urban myth??? See https://bugguide.net/node/view/592416 and https://bugguide.net/node/view/2171830 and https://bugguide.net/node/view/2040578 for examples.
Yes, long antenna, but some non-bee-like flies have them too.
These are genus Polistes. Check https://bugguide.net/node/view/1730461 for one similar, but WikiP lists 224 species (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polistes ) with more discovered regularly, so a ‘look-alike’ is certainly not a sure ID.
Polistes generally make smallish annual colonies in temperate regions and are not very aggressive (others much larger colonies, more aggressive, and continuous in wet tropics), but if you bother the nest directly, watch out. I recently opened an electric box; it had a nest on the lid I lifted, and only one (Polistes but not your species) decided to let me know of my transgression. I’d rank the sting quite low on the scale of Yellow Jackets (very aggressive!), Bald-faced Hornets (both very high pain), tropical ants (2 kinds – WOW!!! and loooong lasting), Ophion Ichneumonid Wasps (about even), Wheel Bugs and Corsairs (decidedly worse), and a few others equal or lower in scale. The question is, knowing this, why KILL, KILL, KILL!!?? Just avoid disturbing them. They’ll get used to you wandering about. Unless one is seriously allergic, there’s only minor (yes, most stings are minor) discomfort on the very rare chance of a sting.
Temperate colonies tend to stay small, I think I read, as the 'queen' is only a current dominant female, and others will cause strife as the colony grows, until either one or more strike out on their own, or winter comes and they split to go dormant. In any case, a single level comb will house less than 8-12 stacked combs 5-14" in diameter in a single globe Hornet nest will.
Sippy did good. Looks like a photo creation - part of the rear has been 'nibbled' away, beyond that the tip of the abdomen is an added piece (got a double-bum), not part of the main beetle photo. Can't find any info on clam pizza - is [he?] real??? Agree with BBurns.
Sips; I too show the signs -- I think we're about even there, or I'm a smidgeon ahead (or is it behind??) in my 8th decade. There's just so much to learn from Mother. Sincerely thanks for your never-ending eye-openers.
Oh, I guessed that of the speculae - but are you saying that that isn't the serial # hilited on purpose? I'm mortified! AO:0000123D looked so intentional, but the last '3' needs more work.
Nice!! You may be mixing Scorpionflies ( their own order Mecoptera; they are not 'flies' in order Diptera, hence one word like Dragonfly) with Crane Flies (that are really 'flies', hence two words, like House Fly) -- the latter have no functional mouthparts and don't eat as adults, but Scorpionflies have well developed chewing mouthparts, just 'south' of your fine photo, and depending on the family may be herbivores (1 fam) or carnivores, omnivores and scavengers (the rest). In many kinds, males actually collect and present a tempting meal nicely wrapped in silk to a potential female, and mate while she opens it and partakes. Not everything works as planned (an anthropomorphism, admittingly), as some females accept the meal but not the mate (snooty, they are!), while in others the males make cheap foodless bundles to give and mate while she finds out she was duped, the cad (but not a Caddisfly!). The wars of the sexes never end!!! In many Cranes, as the female exits her puparium in the soil, she gives off a potent pheromone, and many males in the area join in a mating 'ball', each trying to 'connect', until one 'makes it', turning off the pheromone, and all but the lucky one depart virtually immediately, leaving the couple in wedded bliss -- or something like that.
I really enjoy your fine photos!!! I mean no criticism when I comment, just adding a smidgeon of info that I've come across or that might be interesting to other bugofiles. Considering the couple of million bug-kinds out there, we're all missing a lot of smidgeons!!!!!
PS. Did you notice the model number on the schnoz?
That's just fine!!! ?Did she lose her talons on the left foot in editing, or was she 'clawless'? Big loss for her - those'r her killing and tenderizing tools when kneading prey, as well as her catchers.
Yup, a moth. Many families of small moths, I can't do more. The mayfly is a 'dun', an interesting 'extra' stage in development - not an adult, not a nymph (naiad), but an intermediate that sheds its skin, including on the wings, to become adult. I've never understood how this developed unless solely to feed the fish. The mayflies are the only order of insects that do this.
Super neat! Wonder if, to a bird's eye, it resembles a sporulating fungus, inedible.
What I can't figure is why a twig would want to look like a cat? Fine photo!
Fine set. BTW, the ?butterfly is in excellent shape, not at all battered for real, just faking it. The tattered edges may help in confusing the edges of the wings for aerial predators, or disguise it on a perch, or even make it appear unappetizing, not worth the effort to chase.
Over the last week I've had two pairs visiting my yard. At first, they just ate seeds, then the females started dogging other female birds, mostly large sparrows and grosbeaks, and the males rarely showed up. Last, they picked one female each to follow around, often sidling up to them or stretching their necks up (soliciting grooming? - never saw it realized). I think next, based on research and memory, after becoming so familiar to the target females, they will follow to their nests as familiar, harmless 'friends'. When the host bird lays eggs and leaves the nest, the cowbirds remain and lay an egg in the nest, then look for another potential host. The CB egg will hatch first, and the birdlet will outcompete the host young for food and survive. Or sometimes, the host will abandon the nest or even build a new liner over the eggs and all the earlier eggs-chicks will die. Nice portraits of nefarious visitors!
Can't help yet ... ever??? Some insects growing up as nymphs (relatively similar to the adults) hatch with a very short post-egg stage that allows the bug to adjust from the extreme confines of the eggshell to a mobile bug jr. Give these a while and see it they look more recognizable after they shed again. Spiders may do this too.