Looking for scorpions with blacklight flashlight and happily discovered this species flouresces, too!
Found up high originally on dead branch (location shown in 2nd picture) before it flew down, landed on my shoulder and then took off again. Followed it probably 100ft to where it was perching low to the ground on a maple branch (final picture). Tons of wasps and bees around for food. I'll try to revisit this site again before the season is over, not feeling well today but glad I took a chance.
This was the Yerba Santa of your nightmares
The male stroked the females eyes and thorax then approached from behind with forelegs raised. The female raised the tip of her abdomen. I accidentally scared them away before they could copulate.
ID tentative; improvement welcomed.
Another exciting find!
Possibly E. formosa or E. pubera?
It moved when I got too close and landed nearby. That worked a couple of times, but then it had enough and vanished.
I joined Jonathan Mays (FWC invertebrate scientist) on his ongoing survey for Machimus polyphemi. This species is only found within gopher tortoise burrows, and thus far, it has never been found away from a burrow. It preys on the diverse invertebrate community that lives within tortoise burrows. Here it is eating a cave cricket.
Dirk Stevenson devised a method for surveying for these, which he describes in this excellent post:
https://gophertortoisecouncil.org/newsletter/31-volume-41-number-1/104-sandhill-robbers
Note that it's illegal to harass tortoises, so a permit is needed to survey for these.
Woohoo, after a few weeks of trying I finally found a Promachella! @myelaphus Specimen saved in 95% EtOH and freezer for us.
In a sketchy but biologically nice park (I get the sense “greasewood” doesn’t just refer to the tree, I’d you catch my drift… I can be clueless, but even I eventually started to notice there were rather a lot of fit looking men wandering around the desert here!)
This weevil was pulled from a stream, and as such was wet. May complicate ID?
Collected while hovering: slowly drifting flight near ceiling of porch. Occasionally lunged 4-6 inches upward to ceiling, but did not see it actually taking prey. Legs hanging in flight like a wasp. Did not land during ~3 minutes of observation.
Family: Asilidae
Subfamily: Leptogastrinae
Tribe: Leptogastrini
Genus: Ophionomima
Possibly Ophionomima solocifemur
Due to hind legs and locality
1 Feb 2021
stunning beast, but can't find a match.....
Purple eye Asilidae (Robber flies),
Ommatiini?
Is the fungi Entomophthora?
Purple eyes deflated and have like snow like fungi on body and part of the legs.
1 Dec 2022
A very odd Leptogaster I found last month. Doesn't seem to match any species in the Martin 1957 monograph, and there aren't any specimens with genitalia like this in the UAIC, either. I got this mating pair this day in September and then one other male three weeks later in October, all spotted flying through grass under the same tree by the side of the dry wash. Specimens in my collection, with legs in EtOH. Posting here in case anyone starts working on Leptogastrinae and gets curious.
Update: I heard back from Eric Fisher: "Your Leptogaster looks unusual and my guess is that it is new. I looked through my material on hand (I have 30 identified US species of the genus [...] Of course, it could be something unknown to us, from Mexico." Torsten Dikow also sent me a preliminary response saying he didn't know it offhand and would check specimens sometime.
So hunch confirmed that it's an odd one.
OHAS-790 collected by Rose Fromer with permission. Specimens collected as bycatch from Ohio Bee Survey.
OHAS-931 collected by Rebecca Thomas with permission. Specimens collected as bycatch from Ohio Bee Survey.
OHAS-795 collected by Rose Fromer with permission. Specimens collected as bycatch from Ohio Bee Survey.
Another guess. Saw some of these mating the other day.
Just basing this on iNat's suggestion -- I know there are no other observations of this genus in Ohio.
I went back after finding this species the previous day, and I found this pair! First Gulf coast locality.
Update: timestamp was messed up for some reason. Corrected by synching to the photo and re-saving
2 individuals seen at one time. may be more. Known population I'm pretty sure.
This pair was mating peacefully until a third one came and scared them off the perch. It kept flying towards them then flying away repeatedly until bumping into the mating pair, scaring them off. Glad I was able to document the whole thing in photos, never seen anything like this happen before. Clear shots of the black hairs on the abdomen and tibiae for species ID, same size visually as the ones I measured to be 10mm last time I came here,
Perching approximately 15ft off the ground on a dead branch of a walnut (?) tree. The area is surrounded by dense vegetation that is primarily invasive species like privot, multiflora rose, and european alder. Also plenty of grape vine. Near to the lake, so soils are somewhat sandy and well drained. Watched it pursue prey 4 or 5 times. It would follow the prey 20-25ft and then return to the same perch. Same general area I found the other individual. When netted it did not try to fly up, instead landing on the ground and refusing to fly. I was able to slip a container over it. In the container it did not buzz at all like some of the other large robbers. Will post pinned photos in a separate observation when I get the chance. Last photo is of the location it was found, the dead branch sticking straight out was its perch of choice.
This physically pains me and I don't expect anyone to confirm this. Feel free to flag this as casual or whatever if it's felt appropriate. I was working and did not have my net or my camera so this was the absolute best I could do. At least it's a data point from a somewhat trustworthy source?
Approximately the size of a carpenter bee. Thick abdomen Flew slowly with prey, back legs down like a wasp. Perched roughly 5ft off the ground horizontally, when I scared it it flew maybe 6ft away and perched facing down on a thicker piece of grapevine 10ft or more off the ground. Relatively tolerant of me being around but could not get close enough to attempt to catch it with a container (probably wouldn't have worked anyway).
The small area it was found in was recently cleared and is surrounded by dense vegetation. There are also piles of dead trees and brush stacked up around the area. Area receives mostly full sun except on the edges.
Rocky Oaks
Really curious as to what this is--perhaps it's a S. luteus but looks a bit different to me--could be the angle
Appears to be ovipositing?
Was doing a buzzing behavior with tail on rough paving stone surface.
White Mountains Wilderness, CA
Elevation 11,500 feet
INJURED OR DEFECT? He had a limp in his right foreleg, and one antler was much shorter than the other. In addition, there was a patch of fur on his back that I confirmed was not a trick of shadows, I'm not sure why it looked like that on his back. Anyone know if this is concurrent with a set of birth defects in deer? Or was it an injury, maybe due to a fight? He didn't look injured by a hunter or a car, although occasionally he would lick and tend to the left side of his back.
The white larva visible in some of these photos is actually a chalcidoid. The observation here is for the gall.