Happy Leggy Green Jello Monster Day to all who celebrate! It commemorates the first sighting of the year of adult Lyssomanes viridis; the date varies by person and location.
I celebrate by making weird happy noises at the creature and taking lots of pictures. 馃挌
This past weekend I finally completed a silly challenge I gave myself a few years ago: Finding and shooting representatives of all 4 of our ant spood genuses in one day (bonus: at one location)! In order of appearance: Synemosyna (petrunkevitchi), Synageles (noxiosus), Peckhamia (americana), and Sarinda (hentzi). 馃弳
My mental health has been a mess recently. Remaining alive is a minor accomplishment. Finding bugs is good for grounding one's self but there's only so much that can do when brains just don't work.
Mating pair of big-headed flies provided a little joy this past weekend though.
Late this afternoon I was about to turn back on my walk, and there was a small patch of leaf litter along the fence of the preserve I was at. Stopped to watch and see what appeared. After a few minutes I could only chuckle; the ant mimics seemed like they were outnumbering the actual ants I was seeing! So I figured I'd make a little game of it for y'all: how many ants are in this post?
At rest and while snacking, this bronze-y little encyrtid keeps her wings down like normal god-fearing wasps. On the hunt (for whatever it is this species is after), she flips her wings straight up and keeps them that way as she runs. No idea why, I just like it. 馃