Little Park, first time seeing this species IRL
Revisiting the skunk cabbages with a group of interested folks - there were a lot more up now than when I checked them the first time this year (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/200809465), including some color variants.
First flowers of the growing season poking out of the mud - ah, the sweet smell of spring. :-)
My annual trip to Sugarloaf Mountain to see these beauties
“White Admiral” color variant (morph, whatever)
Galerita sp. Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC, USA.
Fungi growing on the pronotum & elytra of a false bombardier beetle. I'm guessing that these are related to the ones we so often see on ladybugs.
In addition to the main spider photo, I've added more, showing where there were hundreds of thee spiders in their orb webs. There's a "scene" photo, in the middle of which you can see the main lit informational kiosk where there had to be something around 80 webs, most of which were these (including this spider). The whole structure to its left was also covered in webs - some even inside that vending machine, which contains fishing tackle, not snacks. They were around back, all the way around that stuff. That tree to the right was a veritable apartment building of webs, and I've added a screencap of a video I took showing that. They were on the signs and Dasani machine, and then you see the railings of the dock there - they were in between each upright, often multiple webs, and I included photos of that, too. There was another dock that had the same situation. On the far side of the parking lot is a fish processing station? Kind of a small roofed structure with counters, a wooden deck with railings, and three or four sets of bleachers. These spiders were in the deck railings and all over the bleachers as well.
4th photo: 30 Oct 23, she produced her 2nd egg sac sometime in the last day.
5th pic: 19 Nov 23
photos 6-7: egg sacs 30 Jan 2024
photo 8: egg sacs 13 Apr 2024
Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve
Seen with @kevinemetcalf
I spotted bioluminescence on the hillside beside the trail on the Night Owl Hike; some photos with flashlight
The larvae look typical of beetle grubs, females look like the larvae (larviform, neotonous, or paedomorphic: retaining juvenile features into adulthood), both larvae and females having luminescent organs ("lanterns"); however, females communicate with males via pheromones (chemical perfumes), not light intensity, (explaining the male’s lovely, sensory antennae, for in his brief life he does not eat but lives only to mate), and then the female lays eggs in clusters on the ground, encircles and guards them, glowing the whole time, until her death about a week later; eggs may not glow immediately but may luminesce before hatching
For the adult male beetle here at the Betsy-Jeff Penn 4-H Center, cf. inaturalist.org/observations/157456482
First time we've ever seen one of these
Bluffs above Neuse River.
Just sprouting with buds in a spiraling whorl.
Specimen examined and determined by Mike Thomas
two days in a row
Bud/stem gall on Cornus florida. Used gallformers website and chose a likely ID from the search results for Cornus florida. I am not at all sure if this is correct
on Ulmus americana (or possibly alata). They grow at the base of the buds and only on one side of the twig, the lower "brown" side (the upper side is more gray). Typically one "body" per bud. I've been seeing these for 18 years, just like this.
When wet, they plump up (see last photos for dry shots).
Here's the first observation I made in 2005: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/106470935
Here's my entry at bugguide: https://bugguide.net/node/view/2088360
I'm not sure the white watery blobs (photos 4 and 7) are related. I found a few of them on the tree itself when rain had just stopped. I closely examined many twigs on the tree two days in a row, one rainy and the next sunny. I've found some of the "bodies" on one of the trees itself but so far they are smaller than the ones I've been finding on the ground underneath the tree.
I've been through the scales here and don't think I've found any matches: http://scalenet.info/associates/Ulmus%20americana/
Here's a definite scale from the same tree: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/151059428
This is one of the elms I'm finding them under: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/151217612
I did an experiment with a "plumped" one I found on wet ground after a rain. I brought it home and several hours later it was dried out and "deflated". I put it in a small bowl of water and checked it in 15 minutes to find that it had rehydrated again. See last 3 photos.
I added a set for smaller ones found on a tree (not on the ground): https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/151839406
Mar 23: After a rain, I noticed quite a few of them forming ascocarp trype structure. 5 photos added.