Ellen & I met the Barneys & Travis out at the Farm yesterday afternoon for a bit of trail work, and to hang out. We didn't spend an excessive amount of time looking around, but turned out a few things. Of most interest in terms of bugs (for me, at least), were the few beetles that were active. The day-flying
Cicindella sexguttata, (six-spotted tiger beetle) proved (as usual...) to be a most challenging photo-adversary. A hind-shot is pretty much all I could muster........
this time!
A mating pair of net-winged beetles, genus Calopteron, made a nice exiting surprise......
Along the pond, there were also pairs of long-jawed orb-weavers, genus Tetragnatha, breeding.........
Perhaps the most unusual find of the day however, was not of the six or eight-legged variety.....but a five-leaved clover found by Ellen in one of the Trifolium rapens patches in the field behind the pond! She has always had an uncanny ability for finding four-leaved clovers (~10-12 yesterday alone......), but this was definitely a first!
[below] (L) forest tent caterpillars, Malacosoma disstria and (R) white-marked tussock moth caterpillar, Orgyia leucostigma
