Ambiguity about Assassin Bugs

On November 18, I found a Wheel Bug, Arilus cristatus - a member of Assassin Bug family - by our patio. She didn’t seem to be in great shape, but I moved her to the Rudbeckia plants and went in to get my camera. When I came back out she appeared to have made herself comfortable, centered on a remaining bloom, legs spread out (maybe to keep her balance in the breeze…)

Back when I was in school I managed to keep a small assassin bug alive in a terrarium until January one year. I thought the long proboscis - or beak - must be for piercing plant material, so I gave him a grape…

I’m not pleased with the reality that these bugs stab and drain hapless nectar seekers.

I’m generally quite fond of insects - including bees and wasps. I have a sort of respect for mosquitoes… I just wish the mosquitoes didn’t love me so much.  But assassin bugs - especially large Wheel Bugs - give me the heebie-jeebies. I was afraid I’d have unpleasant dreams about this one after taking macro photos of it. The beak of a Wheel Bug is like a dagger, and the fact that this ones beak is blood-red doesn’t make it less scary. (I’ve read that one will inflict a nasty “bite” in defense if manhandled.) They frequently feast on bumblebees here, which is a bummer. But assassins are considered beneficial bugs because as nymphs they eat aphids, then webworm caterpillars, sawflies, and locust borers.

Creepy as I find this insect’s piercing-of-pollinators lifestyle to be, I sympathize with almost any creature who is just trying to survive. So I apologized to this one for disturbing her and I left her alone, wishing she could find a good meal and that she didn’t have to die soon.

Rowdy Downy Woodpeckers

Two female Downy Woodpeckers, Picoides pubescens, were like pinballs around our patio and pergola a couple of days ago. One was noticeably showing more white on back of her head. At first I thought it was because she was raising her crest (or lack there of), which is something I don’t think I’d seen a Downy do before.  (sorry, no feather-raising photo yet)

The first made her way down to the ground/patio and drank from the rim of an overturned half-barrel. You can see the “tuft of nasal bristles” (Sibley) around her beak, at right.

Above is the second female, showing more white. She seemed more nervous also, but in my brief reading I haven’t found the white (crown line?) as a juvenile indicator.

Look at that wicked long toe. Very handy for clinging.
I’ve been hearing these little woodpeckers knocking at the back of the house around the roof trim. I hope they're culling the Carpenter Bee larvae.

Brown Creeper

I’m refraining from saying “jeepers creepers,” at least for now. This cool little bird, a Brown Creeper, Certhia americana, - on the Sugar Maple tree in our yard today - was doing less creeping and more hopping and tumbling, Chickadee fashion, than I’ve observed a Creeper do in the past.

Peeking under the bark for food.

As you can see - or not - a Brown Creeper is quite well camouflaged against the bark of a tree.

may contain nuts

A few days after Trick-or-Treat, I noticed this squirrel bouncing up our driveway with a little silver package in his mouth - A special treat he wanted to savor while sitting in the River Birch.  He saw the writing "may contain peanuts..." and hoped for the best.

Just what we need, a squirrel on a sugar high.

He tried two bites of the 3 Musketeers Bar and then buried it in a pile of leaves.

An Adorable Wasp on the Wahoo

I'm still working on this, but I'm certain this must be one of the Ichneumon wasps...

Jumbo Jumping Spider just for Halloween

An uncharacteristically large and colorful jumping spider, that I will attempt to I.D... (Phidippus audax, Bold Jumping Spider, atypical?)...  But for now, just admire her colorful and seasonally-appropriate backside (abdomen) ~ The same applies to the native paper wasp below, which I think is a female Northern Paper Wasp, who seemingly would like to be inside the greenhouse for winter.

An Excellent Day for Insects

I believe this is a Sawfly (Macremphytus) larva, of the Dogwood variety, evidently trying to molt.  Looks like his siblings already molted and left.

And this is an awesome wasp-mimic in the Syrphid fly family, probably Spilomyia longicornis.

Eastern Comma butterfly, yes?

Berry True

“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”  Frank Lloyd Wright

That quote, which I should confess I just saw in an email from ODNR, seems particularly appropriate to me recently.  I was experiencing some stubborn doldrums, and no amount of spicy food, espresso, nor even a hernia exam could lift my spirits… Then I got home and noticed berries on a young Red Chokeberry bush. (Aronia arbutifolia, below) We just planted the twigling chokeberry, from Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District, this past Spring. And it produced a cluster of fruit already! Seeing this, I instantly felt better than I’d felt all day.

I had a similar upturn last week just witnessing a tiny dark creature dash across the garden - A short-tailed shrew who I’d pined for all summer! That same afternoon I saw a White-breasted Nuthatch in the yard who I’d also missed. We used to have a White-breasted visit regularly but I hadn’t seen it for over a year. (I think maybe he had been confused and left in the spring of 2008 along with a pair of irregular wintering Red-breasted Nuthatches ; ~ )

Clematis virginiana - Virgin’s Bower seed plumes, which give it the occasional name ‘Old Man’s Beard‘:

Hermit Thrush and Winter Wren, Together Again

The following substandard photos are for species documentation only - Sorry, but I took these pics through window glass and screen. It was shady, cloudy, and the subjects were bouncing and darting all about!

The Thrush was making an odd shivering motion, I assume just to foil my attempts to focus… (I wonder if he was actually making a low call that I couldn’t hear.)

I’m fairly certain this is a Hermit Thrush, Catharus guttatus. Coming down from summering in Canada or northern Michigan, etc. Some winter in southern half of Ohio or as far as Florida and Mexico.


The diminutive bird below moves like a mouse under leaves and over logs: a Winter Wren - Not a common sight - Troglodytes troglodytes is the scientific name. (Groovy, I can remember that one.) The first time I saw a Winter Wren it was under our pergola and reminded me of a moth in flight ~ Its stubby little wings had to beat so fast to carry its comparatively stout body ~ Then it materialized almost perpendicular on a post, and I fell in love!
I usually see this one in the yard once or twice a year as it passes through. These winter in Midwest, Southeast and Atlantic States… But since Winter Wrens summer in Canada, they call them…?

In Preparation for a Fresh Start

On a brilliant native shrub ~ Wahoo, Euonymus atropurpureus ~ a fruit capsule offers forth a seed.

...Common Milkweed, Asclepias syriaca …already fluffing and sending off its own hopefuls.

....And I’m still taking photos of Augochlora pura sweat bees.


I need an upheaval. A fresh start ~

I wonder what the sweat bees are like on the northwest coast … ( ^ ;

Glacier Ridge Metro Park Wetlands

So this BlogSpot is supposed to be about my backyard wildlife... Not today!  Besides, Glacier Ridge wetland area is essentially surrounded by houses, and an unfortunate stone’s throw from Route 33. 

I’m posting these photos from a year ago…for several reasons. This migrating Marbled Godwit was a rare sight for central Ohio, so I've read.  I was lucky enough to be stumbling down the boardwalk that day, and had my camera for once!  So glad.  (This was August 26, 2008) 

Now this past September I visited Glacier Ridge a few times, and even after what seemed like a good deal of rain, the wetlands area was only just damp.  I was surprised to realize that we're still behind for rainfall this year... 
Finally, just last Saturday, October 3, there was a little standing water. (But I didn’t see any birds.) I did find a sad and adorable tiny Masked(?) Shrew, dead on the multi-use trail. I picked him up and moved him to tall grass. (Otherwise within a half-hour he would have been pureed in the wheel of a rollerblade.)

Saturday I also saw what appeared to be predaceous diving beetles in a very shallow puddle also on the asphalt multi-use trail!  I thought that was pretty interesting.  ~ No camera that day, of course. ~

(click photos to view large images)

Please click on photo to view.  You must see the large image of this one!  A Green Heron ripping from the mud what appears to be an already dead frog.  The frog reminds me of a sandbag/ragdoll I had as a child...

The Queen of Nothing

This is a Bald-faced Hornet queen, Dolichovespula maculata, I believe.  (That sounds like an Italian coffee drink, doesn't it?)  It's actually a type of paper wasp and not a true hornet.  Her kind are the builders of those familiar large oval lantern-like nests, constructed from chewed wood and plant fiber.    

A fertilized female, or queen, is the only member of the hive to overwinter.  The one pictured here on our deck may have been looking for soil or leaf litter in which to spend the winter.

A Marble-ous, Araneus Day!

I was excited about this one.  A spider more difficult to I.D. than I expected.  It’s a different genus than our other large Orb Weaver, which is genus Neoscona, posted here Sept. 7.   I searched around internet, went to List of Ohio Spiders - by OSU - to confirm occurrence, then back to BugGuide.net  ~ This appears to be Araneus marmoreus - a Marbled Orbweaver ~

This species is incredibly variable in coloring, from typical orange, to bright yellow, pale to white, even white with black. I think mine is the most beautiful ~ the abdomen is like a Ukrainian painted egg! Or a hermit crab with a custard swirled shell!  My photo doesn't do it justice…

Her web was like a sheer sail in the wind, and she moved about, hurriedly repairing the strands. And there I was, backed against a pine tree with needles dropping down my shirt, as I tried to compose a photo.

I’d say I’m tickled, but I’m really itchy. It was like suicide by encephalitis out there today!  Mosquito shift change overlap.  Maybe I was one last buffet before the mosquitoes were blown away by the cool wind.  I'm still counting the bumps ~

I’ll stop now… We have at least two of these large Marbled Orbweavers. The other snuck back up under an overhang while I was getting my camera. We also have at least four Neoscona (crucifera?) barn spiders surrounding the house, in addition to a dozen funnel web spiders, and company.

Anyone have an arachnophobe you would like to torture?

False Potato Beetle

The following subject is seasonally inappropriate, but I came across my mystery moon-grub photo and finally looked it up at BugGuide.net. And - pleasant surprise - it led me to properly I.D. a beetle I also photographed this summer:

This is the larva of a False Potato Beetle, Leptinotarsa juncta, in the Leaf Beetle family. It reminds me of the moon, above, which I photographed the same evening that I found this little blob under the arbor.

These feed on horse-nettle, Solanum carolinense, other solanaceous (?) plants, such as species of ground cherry or husk tomato, Physalis spp., and common nightshade, Solanum dulcamara. (Mine must have been going for nightshade.)

Below is the adult, which looks very similar to the misnamed Colorado Potato Beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, but the False has some brown striping on the wings that the Colorado does not. (Sorry about the less than sharp photo, but he was scurrying up and down the ninebark shrub as if I had a jar of ether for him.)

A bit of advice for other beginning naturalists: check at least two, maybe three different guides or resources before you determine identification of most creatures, especially invertebrates.
Be alert, of course, and don't let anyone tell you a turkey vulture is a red-tailed hawk.  ; - ]

Song for this day: The Jam “Bitterest Pill”