May 12, 2024

Spring is here, though still cool.  Plants and animals are growing and spreading.  It's really exciting to see how much is happening every day, all day.  One thing I always end up coming back to and that's the Pond.  It is really a life form of its own.  The Fishes and the Frogs are always in motion.  The courtship of the Frogs and Toads last week seems to have resulted in a lot of little wriggling things that at first I thought were baby fishes, but now I think they are Frog or Toad tadpoles.  In picture 2, they are tiny creatures.  We'll keep an eye out for them.

First let's divide the insects into their big categories: Ants, Bees, Beetles, Bugs, Flies, other kinds of Insects.  This first little Ant reminds me of our usual Nearctic Carpenter Ant.  Next seems to be a slightly bigger kind of Ant -- yes, it's the European Black Carpenter Ant!  Is third an Ant at all? 

Yes, today there are Beetles.  Here is the Asian Lady Beetle.  I like how it displays a "W" insignia behind its head.   The second one MIGHT be a tiny Beetle, maybe the Lily Leaf Weevil.  Third was identified as a  Brown Leaf Weevil (Phyllobius oblongus) by @sdjbrown. 

One Beetle I didn't see this week was the new little black Weevil Ceutorhynchus alliariae seen last week that likes to eat Garlic Mustard and has been pushing Phyllotreta ochripes out of its habitat.  And we had Bugs too. Here are two different Assassin Bugs, Zelus luridus.  They may win the popularity contest on this website!  Third is a good-sized True Bug of some sort.  

Here is one of the Stink Bugs.  Second is either a Fly or a Bug, which I just don't do well at distinguishing!

Speaking of Flies, here are a few Mysteries for you!

A few more Flies.  The second has red eyes.  Third is a Midge or a Mosquito.

One more Fly. 

 The first and second pictures are of the same creature.  Third is something totally different!  What can it be!

We have begun to see critters of a "None of the Above " class.   They belong to the Barklice, or Psocids.  I guess they like to wait till it is warmer to show up in the Spring.  This first one looks like Graphopsocus cruciatus and one of its mob of nymphs.  Number 2 is an infantile Harvestman (Daddy Long-legs)!

Here are some more creatures that I've submitted to iNat.  The ID app in iNat put this first one into family Philopteridae.  It called the second one an Eastern Giant Swallowtail (Heraclides cresphontes).  I let it do that since you have to call things something!

What a lot of tiny animals out there.  But the Plants are coming along too.  For instance, it's just the right time for the Dame's Rocket to start bursting forth with either purplish or white flowers that resemble Spring Phlox.   And surely enough, this week those pretty purplish flowers seemed to sneak forth from everywhere in the back yard.  

The Ajuga is springing up in places too, with its bouncy blue flowers.  

Here is the Ranunculus, or Buttercup, blooming in the path from back yard to front.

Raspberries are beginning to fruit all the way down the big wild bed from back to front.  But at the front end, they seem to turn into Blackberry brambles (picture 3).

Jack-in-the-Pulpit.

Lots of things that you might call "weeds" unless you saw them every day.  

Frogs, big and small.  Some so small they can sleep on a lily leaf. 

And Fishes!  We'll all see you next week!