Wasps are TERRIFYING -- particularly if you're a caterpillar. I pictured the webs of tent caterpillars as being a defense against birds, but that was before I watched a wasp spend twenty minutes gnawing its way into the web, claiming its prey, and ripping its way back out again.
Its determination was impressive. The wasp was examining the web when I arrived. It poked around, got tangled up, got untangled again, groomed, poked around more, chewed some, got frustrated, flew off, came back. This process was repeated about five times before the wasp finally chewed an entrance into the web, wiggled in through the silk like it was trying to swim in syrup, and managed to catch a fleeing caterpillar. It chewed the caterpillar into a more portable ball, and then spent several minutes struggling through the silk again -- to the point I thought it would be stuck there like a fly in a spider's web. It finally made its way to a twig with better footing and managed to rip its way back out of the web, triumphantly gripping its soggy mass of chewed caterpillar. Impressive, but a LOT of work for one meal.
This was on a native persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) and I'm pretty sure the caterpillars were fall webworms (Hyphantria cunea).
Feeding voraciously on a spicy wing from Pizza Hut...
On submerged twig in lake
In a suburban neighborhood. My yard (where she was found) is pretty wild and full of natives, but the rest of the neighborhood is quite sterile and landscaped. She was around the size of P. fuscatus and flying maybe 6-8 feet above the ground when captured.
Black Point Wildlife Drive
Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge
So much polen! And the wing seems to dark to me to be a Honey Bee.
Light antennal tips, ridge on the front of the thorax, and I don't see any pronotal fovea!
https://cjai.biologicalsurvey.ca/bmc_05/bmc05images/keys/b10-14_15.jpg
Photo by Cat Hannan
This Is A Dragon !!!
NOT A HUMAN !!!
🐉🐉🐉🐕🦺🐕🦺🐕🦺🐉🐉🐉
Fighting over an insect larva which broke in half giving each a meal.
Greenish tint to the big splotch on the wings
Moonless night produced a lot of insects! This observation is from a sheet I set up with a Bioquip blacklight at Mitchell's landing campground. The RV hookups had power so this is a great spot to set up a sheet! I have a lot to post.. I was so busy photographing stuff at the first sheet that I ran out of time and didn't even really look at the midges and probably missed a lot of the cool little things. I spent even less time photographing what came to the Pinecrest campground sheet.
Below are links to my other observations from blacklighting on this night.
Mitchell's landing (bioquip blacklight):
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?nelat=25.758457112654717&nelng=-80.92094902011767&on=2021-06-10&place_id=any&swlat=25.7531424781247&swlng=-80.9372826003967&user_id=joemdo&verifiable=any
Pinecrest campground (two cheapy DJ blacklights):
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?nelat=25.76498840377109&nelng=-80.90974887564009&on=2021-06-10&place_id=any&swlat=25.759674061574785&swlng=-80.92608245591911&user_id=joemdo&verifiable=any
I did this last summer and posted a video from Pinecrest campground, talking about my set up. You can see that here: https://youtu.be/tavmTa7WoPk
On pentas trying for shoulder pictures
Several individuals observed. One was male and had light antennal tyloids.
Photographed an Eastern Calliopsis bee at this location a week ago, so this makes sense.
Male Trypoxylon collinum in hole. They always look grumpy and angry. Its mate was a few inches below: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/15314448.
The bottom one.
For the top one: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/88346754
Band around neck is inconsistent with this species I think
What are these
Presumably a parasitic plant since no leaves were observed and no plants nearby.
right after molting; per bugguide the red color is normal for a while after they molt
Two cheapy DJ LED blacklights set up with USB battery packs facing a sheet along the wall of the little bathroom building at Mitchell's Landing campground in Big Cypress (location is exact)
More info about the light set up used here: https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/damontighe/11836-diy-moth-light
I had another sheet set up at the first campground with a Bioquip blacklight (the first campground has a few sockets with electrical sockets)
Other blacklighting observations from tonight:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2021-07-02&d2=2021-07-03&nelat=25.758012227117206&nelng=-80.9227526832082&place_id=any&subview=map&swlat=25.752697572677093&swlng=-80.93195022151933&user_id=joemdo&verifiable=any