With things being so busy over the last couple weeks I have not had time to upload any photos here. Here are some photos from the last couple weeks.

First, I came across this beautiful common stonefly (Perlidae) 2 weeks ago.

Stoneflies are way cool. The nymphs are found in flowing water with high oxygen content. They often act as indicators of good stream quality. Common stonefly nymphs are carnivorous and eat other insects that are in the streams.

This week we came across a bald-faced hornet nest, on accident.

They make those famous paper nests by chewing wood and mixing their saliva to form the end-product that dries into paper. Nests are set up in the spring and are active through the summer and fall. Once winter hits though, the young fertilized queens hibernate underground or in decomposing trees and usually the nests are abandoned altogether.

So, I think in a couple months I will try to go back and maybe split open the nest to get some pictures from inside the hive.

Lastly, we came across these goofy looking mushrooms. No idea what they are.

This first photo is of a pelecinid wasp (Pelecinus polyturator) I ran across while at a field site south of Syracuse, NY. There is only one extant genus of this family. This parasitic wasp uses its long ovipositor to lay eggs on scarab larvae in the soil.

The next photo is of a grasshopper ovipositing in a red pine tree. I don’t think I have ever seen grasshoppers laying their eggs in trees, I always think of them as laying eggs in the soil. But as you can see from below, thats not always true.

Some pictures from this weekend…

Thanks to a reader, I have some new friends More tenebrionid beetles!

Thanks Mel!

Caught this beautiful horse fly today, I’m a sucker for a tabanid I guess.

Not a great photo for seeing the defining characteristics, like the legs, but a nice profile of the goofy looking body.

We went to Monomoy Island yesterday, which is a 7,600 acre national wildlife refuge off of Chatham (Cape Cod) that is home to several endangered and threatened animals as well as being a hot spot for migratory birds. Some of the important animals on this island include the Roseate Tern (added onto the endangered and threatened wildlife list in 1987), the Piping Plover (under the protection of the Endangered Species Act since 1986) and the Northeastern Beach Tiger beetle.

Other very cool birds on the island include the American Oystercatcher

Semipalmated Plovers

Common Terns

And even Horned Larks

I didn’t find any of the Northeastern Beach Tiger beetles, but did find this Big Sand Tiger beetle.

Don’t you think this grasshopper is cleverly camouflaged?

The island is also famous stopping point for sea lions…

It was just last weekend that people reported seeing a great white shark feeding on a sea lion off of Chatham here on the Cape.

We originally went because there were reports earlier in the week of a tricolored heron, sandwich terns, and roseate terns spotted there. No luck on seeing those species though.