This fly belongs to the Sciomyzidae family in the genus Sepedon. The larvae are prey on snails. This particular individual is participating in a behavior called ‘bubbling’.

It is thought that flies regurgitate food from their crop (food storage organ) to form a bubble on the tip of their proboscis in order to concentrate the fluids via water evaporation.

Been trying out a new hobby, more on that later, but haven’t been able to keep my eyes off the insects that are around me. Here are some photos of dragons and damsels from tonight.

The nymphs, or naiads as they are called in the aquatic system, spend most of their life (some up to several years) under water and eventually climb their way up vegetation to morph into an adult. The picture below is of a dragonfly’s exuviae (i.e., the shed exoskeleton).

Below is a female damselfly laying eggs.

Some damselfly love…the male (above) deposits sperm in a pouch up near the base of his abdomen, then grasps the female and guards her while she bends her abdomen forward to pick up the sperm.

Josh and I went back to our new favorite spot, the cedar swamp, with the kayaks this morning. We didn’t see any black-crowned night herons like the previous time…but saw tons of green herons.

We watched this great blue heron for a while in hopes of getting a picture of it with a fish…but no luck.

And how many people can get a picture of an osprey defecating in mid-air? My husband can…

Lastly, this pictures was taken back at our condo and is of a male gypsy moth. He’s a little dirty.

Just some selected photos from this past week…

This is a stink bug nymph using its piercing-sucking mouth parts to feed on a woodwasp.

Cicadas are out and about…here are a series of photos of the nymphal exuviae (shed exoskeleton) and the adult.

The white stringy things in the exuviae are the old trachea (breathing tubes)…when insects shed their old skin and emerge into an adult they even shed their old breathing tubes.

And lastly, a chrysomelid beetle.

Tiger beetles, that is…

Found a whole bunch of tiger beetle love going on today. She is actually laying eggs in the sandy soil while the male guards her.

I’m still out in NY, but luckily I have a husband who is nice enough to drive out and spend the weekend with me. I made the poor guy come work with me today but I at least gave him a toy (the new Nikon he bought me) to play with

Here are some pictures he took today while at the field site.

Caught in the act, Ornate Snipe Flies (Chrysopilus ornatus).

Soldier Fly, Hedriodiscus spp.

A Treehopper (Ceresa spp.)

Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio spp.)

Couldn’t tell you which Mayfly this is, but I like those big white eyes.

…lots of good finds.

We found a new resident in one of our insect traps today, a flying squirrel decided to make a home out of the top of the trap. This is the first time I have ever seen a flying squirrel…and it was pretty darn cute.

And speaking of pretty darn cute, I almost stepped on this little toad that was about the size of my thumbnail.

It was a bugger’s paradise yesterday…

This next insect is actually a fly (Copodidae) that mimics a wasp in order to avoid predation. The antennae, proboscis, and halteres give it away as a fly.

This last one is one of my favorite groups of insects, a horse fly. Not sure on the species though, probably Hybomitra spp.