Week in Pictures
Mid-late October, 2020
First, a little bit of scenery. The rains, the ash and the warming weather … green growth, flowering forbs, and a sea of grass tree spikes!
The grass tree sea
feeding on the spikes
This caterpillar is now in care, so hopefully we’ll have an ID (in a month or four)
Family: Psychidae
life up close
I watched as this Tau Emerald flew in low and uncharacteristically clumsily over the pond … and then splash down, never to fly again.
Hemicordulia tau
Helpis minitabunda … an especially large and bold salticid. He repeatedly leaped at the camera lens during the photo shoot. The other common name: Bronze Hopper
I’m still puzzling out what’s happening here. She’s gripping him in her mandibles and her head is in a drop of liquid. Feeding I guess, but not as I’ve ever seen it before.
Thynninae
The identification of grasses and other tiny flowers requires very close examination of tiny structures. Paul’s been busy.
