Wordless Wednesday, 'cause I've got time for that...

Summer's bounty--flowers & bugs, living fast & hard

Summer.

Time for county fairs and beautiful nights...

and for plants to leap skyward,

providing room and board for the myriad bugs that live among them.

Turquoise-eyed flies (probably related to horseflies)

none of which I noticed when I took the photo. Flies 4, bb 0. =)

In a quest to improve my attitude about summer

(it gets bloody hot here & I'm the first to drop)

I'm shining a light on summer-associated goodies that I adore.

Tiny plume moth. I've NEVER seen one before last week. SO exciting.

 ID thanks to Chris Grinter (@skepticalmoth). That body is less than a centimeter long.

A small ant (lower left) to provide scale for this wee, tiny moth.

Spotted assassin bug (Rhynocoris ventralis) on gaillardia.

First time I think I've seen this particular, dashing predator.

Nicely color coordinated with the gaillardia, eh?

Tarnished plant bug (Lygus hesperus).

A tiny little charmer.

A day later, the same species played peek-a-boo with me

Here you get a better idea of how tiny it is. =)

Crab spider dining upon an earwig, underneath a chrysanthemum bloom.

So many mysterious (and frequently tiny) creatures

to find and try to name.

An assassin bug (that I cannot ID, so far) dining on an unlucky bee or fly of some sort.

An ever-changing populace of

invertebrates in the garden. 

Ants, seemingly obsessed with carrot flowers.

For the plants

the plant pollinators,

the plant eaters,

and plant-associated-bug predators,

summer is no joke.

Lovely, little lynx spider female living on a mint plant.

She's so spiky.

Live life now,

for tomorrow is never guaranteed.

Which reminds me of two views I gained from the Ferris wheel:

the quick,

and the dead. 

It's always good to have a reminder.

Nature will do that for you.

xoxobb

TINY mothies: apparently I've been DYING to see them & I DID!!!

I've REALLY wanted to see 

a really small moth ever since I learned about them

from Chris Grinter (@skepticalmoth).

Last night I DID spy tiny moths & got some photos.

Dark thing in lower left corner is a small ant, for scale...

Nectaring on a gaillardia...

Same moth, with flash... sparkly!

Only took a few shots w/automatic flash--seemed to upset the poor creature.

Paparazzi--SO gauche.

Here's a different (slightly larger) individual w/in (my) reach of the 1st.

That body plan confounds me.

Chris thinks these are probably plume moths, from the family Pterophoridae. 

He is ALL about these tiny little animals,

plus lots of other fabulous inverts, has a great blog,

and takes SUCH great photos, you may want to slap him.

Here's just one example of the

amazing images he shares of microleps

(what the pros call the TINY lepidopterans).

Meanwhile, back on the ranch...

The wings!!

Flying tiny apparently poses different challenges,

hence microleps are known for narrower, feathery wings

versus the big, dusty plates of their larger brethren.

Like feathery oars...

If I remember correctly, when you're REALLY small,

the air is relatively more viscous (thicker),

so different structures work better to move your tiny bod.

When they fly, you just see a wee blur,

drifting past, like plankton.

And you think, "What the heck was that?!?"

Legs, legs, legs.

So spiky.

I'm guessing all those spikes help them hang on,
and not get blown away by the tiniest breeze?
Although the other one's legs aren't nearly so spiky.

Can you tell I'm fascinated?

*sigh*

So, didn't get to sleep until LATE (for me) 'cause I was SO pumped about this. =)

I've been SO richly rewarded for the pollinator-attracting seed mix I planted years ago.

I HIGHLY recommend it. Best part of summer, IMHO.

Well, that and perfectly ripe peaches.

=)

xoxoxoxo bb

Bugs on my house, inaugural edition

If you've not noticed, I added a new page to this blog

(see BB Pages, right column)

explaining #BugsOnMyHouse, a campaign to

document & learn about bugs wherever you are.

EASY-style.

EVERYONE is welcome to participate. =)

Bloggy, tweety, instagram-y, tumblr-y, however you wish.

#BugsOnMyHouse will unite them.

Feel free to "comment" links to your work if you like. =)

*********

Here's First Batch, from Saturday, 31 May.

Beautiful bug: guessing it is a hemipteran,

that is, a member of the Hemiptera order, true bugs.

 As with the rest of these, will look them up as I have time.
I've already updated this post once to improve the IDs.

Here's another hemiptera candidate, 2 views:

 My SUPER unscientific 1st guess was stink bug,

'cause I tend to think they're cute. And this guy was cute.

Update: looking at Laws Fieldguide to the Sierra Nevada and bugguide.net,
I now think it's a shield bug, in the genus Eurygaster.

Side view of same.

This one was SO dark, I had to lighten it a LOT to see anything.

Some kinda beetle?

Guessing it's a treehopper or a planthopper... 

 Those beautiful wings are almost iridescent.

Ladybird beetles are having a banner year. 

Maybe because it didn't freeze forever so there are 10 million aphids.

Update: best guess is convergent lady beetle, Hippodamia convergens.

Mayfly. Pretty intricate, when you look closely.

 the Ephemeroptera order.

Update: it may be a female Callibaetis ferrugineus hageni,
one of the small minnow mayfly species
(btw, the photo at that link is AMAZING).

I remember from water quality monitoring (looking at benthic macro-invertebrates),
finding this species indicated good water quality. =)

DONE.

See?!? EASY.

That's the point:

photograph, post, guess & go.

=) Happy Summer Bug Time!

xoxobb

Returning home late last night fm. fieldwork, I see this out the bathroom window

Some little greenish light glowing from the grass.

Is it a shiny beetle, spotlighted by the bathroom light?

Did my husband drop his cellphone?

So, despite the late hour, I go out w/fast fading flashlight, and see this:

Just a wee thing, and here you can see the bum-bum glowing (left)

despite the bright flash I'm using.

It's a California glowworm! Maybe Ellychnia californica, tho' I really don't know.
It's much smaller than I thought it would be.

Here it is the next day, by my pinky (appropriately enough):

Honestly, SUPER thrilling for me.
I NEVER thought I'd get to see one.

Cute little face...

Myrmecos has an interesting blog entry
about how glowworms, which are actually beetles,
 retain their larval form into adulthood.
An uncommon strategy, as you might imagine.

I feel super fortunate to have seen this very interesting animal.


M.I.A.
So, this a.m. I had to relocate it 'cause of Bear's weed whacking plans.
A little later, having learned that it prefers moist habitat,
I return to its dry location to move it to damper spaces.

And cannot find it.
Make several attempts, sifting through leaf litter.

Then I see a shadow move in front of my head.
Looking up slowly, I see a female western bluebird watching me closely.
Silently, from six feet away...

*sigh*

She was probably looking to see if I was going to lay out
any additional tasty pink morsels for her.

Drat. =( My bad.

Well, perhaps the glowworm is now part of
a tiny western bluebird chick?


Next time I relocate something larval-looking,
I'll be sure & hide it from busy bird parents.

xoxobb

Excellent exuvia (photo quiz answer) & spring haps (bugs, lizards, birds & cats)

So, ANSWER TO THE Phriday Photo Quiz, which asked what this is:

It's a robber fly (Asilidae) pupa exuvia.

Most likely subfamily Laphriinae.

Got the answer from the ever-on-target Ted C. MacRae 

(of beetlesinthebush.wordpress.com & @tcmacrae on the twit).

He's a ROCK star! =)

I LOVE robber flies--they're like the fighter pilots of the bug world.

Found this one last week resting on our gutter.

If you've never seen them in action, it is NO JOKE

when a robber fly is on the hunt. Wow.

According to the California Robber Flies page,

California is where robber flies have speciated LIKE MAD:

386 species in California, 170 endemics (only found in CA).

The author describes California as "the nuclear blast zone of robber diversity."

For much better photos of these impressive & diverse animals,

check out their Robber Fly home page. So cool.

WINNERS of PHRIDAY PHOTO QUIZ

As ever, there were MANY great guesses,

many guessing cicada and sundry other inverts.

Thank you to EVERYONE for your thoughts & words.

I always learn from you. =)

1. Most Precise & Accurate: Ted C MacRae

for

NAILING it via twitter

(which was great 'cause I didn't know, yet).

HE is the one who suggested robber fly

AND the subfamily (via twitter) & it's CLEARLY a match.

2. Accurate Yet Adorably Vague: Sarah

for

"some sort of bug-related empty shell thingy."

Exactly what I thought! =)

3. Most Profound: Imperfect & Tense

for

"Or possibly the personification of the spirit of a small rooster."

Deep thinker, that one...

4. Best Pun: Susannah Anderson

for

"Just another crazy BCer after doing the winter challenge."

Presumably they are shells of their former selves, after voluntary flash-freezing.

Other Spring Bio Haps

Found this beauty embedded in a carrot flower.

Spied her in my Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada.

At the SAME time, I got the answer from Andy Warren (@AndyBugGuy)

who is SO generous with his bug IDs for hapless bug enthusiasts such as moi.

A female dimorphic flower longhorn beetle (Anastrangalia laetifica).

The males are all black, so this is clearly a female.

Speaking of lady bugs, here's a ladybird beetle (a.k.a. ladybug) pupa post-rain:

turning into an adult, right there on the iris blade.

It's about as big as my pinky nail.

Zooming in I noticed a little TINY guy on the back, left spot:

I love how the scale of nature keeps going up or down,

whether or not we can perceive or comprehend it.

Is my garden dead?

This turkey vulture cast a wary eye over my garden this weekend...

These birds are already big.

Wingspan is between 5' 7" and 5' 10".

Then they do this, and freak my hen out completely.

VERY Dracula in its silent, dark power... =)

But, really, it's just sunning itself on a cool morning.

Watching the Watchers

Every now & then, when I see this:

or this

I follow their gaze to see what they're staring at.

And sometimes am rewarded by things like this:

An apparently preggers (gravid) female greater brown skink (Plestiodon "gilberti" gilberti),

so sayeth California herps

and the laudable Hugh of Rock Paper Lizard fame.

Man knows his herps.

A real treat to see her, and gladly my hen didn't spy her.

I've seen a hen-killed skink before, and it's not pretty. =(

It SERIOUSLY takes a village to figure out what just a FEW of the things living here are.

THANK YOU to all who help ID stuff,

or just share an appreciation for the myriad things

that live on this amazing planet.

=)

xoxobb

The Sponge Code & a coastal dune JEWEL

Gonna try to be brief; just finished a major project, so wanna DO STUFF!

SPONGE CODE:

A scientific approach to a visible Hierarchy of Filth

Inspired by wildlife/feral animal fieldwork techniques,

I FINALLY figured out how to readily distinguish among my 

otherwise-identical yellow sponges.

No clips = use for people dishes & food situations

1 clip = use for people non-food situations

2 clips = chicken action so could be Salmonella City

Notoriously, chickens get Salmonella, hence the Shunned Sponge.

FYI, the CDC has a Salmonella Atlas, in case you're interested...

ANYhow, I just found this amusing due to wildlife study origin. =)

COASTAL DUNE JEWEL

I started my NPS career in a tiny, gorgeous coastal park,

Cabrillo NM, in San Diego, CA.

So,  my First Ecosystem Love, was coastal sage scrub

(way more css glamour shots in that post). 

*sigh* It's so dreamy...

And that park had teeny, tiny bits of sandy action w/some straggling native plants,

like beach evening primrose (Camissonia spp.) and/or

 southern sun cup (Camissoniopsis spp.--possibly bistorta).

Park has a LOT of visitors and an informal trail system, so it's hard for those

pups to hang on. It's a rare & ever-diminshing plant community.

This weekend, however, we discovered Oso Flaco Lake State Park.

Holy healthy dune ecosystem!

It seriously feels like a MIRACLE that some
California dune habitat still exists that's this intact.

 Not-quite-in-focus cutie caterpillar on lupin.

There was bush lupin there that was TALLER THAN I AM! Wow.

A 1-mile hike to the ocean gets you here: view to the south.

NICE signage & great view of real coastal dunes w/native veg.

See little white sign on the right?
These areas are well protected due to presence of breeding
California least terns and western snowy plover.
Consequently, the whole ecosystem benefits. SO great.

View north:

Note that where people are allowed to walk, there is NO vegetation.

This is why I firmly believe that if you want to preserve native coastal dune habitat,
and other habitats on friable soils (incl. CSS on sandstone),
you've GOT to keep people off of it.

THAT way, while walking in designated areas,
you get to see something WAY more interesting & rare
vs. another sandy, bare trail.

Before we got to the beach...

Bear hiking across Oso Flaco Lake, lookin' at birds...

It's a GREAT place to view water birds. Saw lots of lovelies. Highly recommend.

Didn't have the proper lens for wildlife photos, but here's a ruddy duck pair

and I TOTALLY get why she's following him. Rawr! 

If I'm inspired later, I might fling a few more photos of the beachy part.

However, the dune action ROCKED my world
and made me feel SO GOOD,
literally just to know that something like this still exits.

Somewhere.

Conservation biologists don't get a lot of happy news,
and I'm savoring this one. =)

If you're EVER in  northern Santa Barbara County

or southern San Luis Obispo County,

I HIGHLY recommend a visit.

xoxobb