Formica subsericea

This photo was taken in 2007 but the ants were only identified today at bugguide.net. The identifier said that this is "a common eastern North American species, here recognizable by its slightly silky sheen (as the specific epithet suggests) and rounded rear margin of the head." In the references I read on the web, these ants are also slave holders. I only just learned about slave ants this past summer from Summer World: A Season of Bounty. Summer is coming. I urge you to click the link and buy the book in preparation for this coming summer. It is a valuable guide to the forests and meadows of New England.

I found an ant blog today at http://www.antweb.org/antblog. Go check it out and see if you want to subscribe to the RSS feed like I did.

Ants Set

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It's A Calopterygidae!

Do you remember this bug from the aquatic insect and crustacean expedition? It's been identified by John & Jane Balaban at bugguide.net as Calopterygidae — the larva of a broad-winged damselfly. I have played liberally with the white balance in order to display features of the larva. The full-size photos will open in a new window when clicked. This has been cross-posted at my main blog, meeyauw.

Technorati Tags: Calopterygidae, larva, broad-winged damselfly

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Unidentified Bug

The red on the boy's hand is from magic marker, not blood! We thought this was a cranefly but it isn't. I will try to have an identification later. I enjoy seeing the way it was walking on the boy's hand. When clicked, this photo will open, full size, in a new window. This was shot with my Canon Rebel and I'm still not used to the different type of focus so some parts are fuzzy.

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Welcome to Photo A Day from meeyauw.

This butterfly or, more likely, moth was on my phlox Sunday, August 5. This photo is blurry but I like the curled antennae. They were not curled when the butterfly was on the flower as seen here.

When clicked, this photo will open, full size, in a new window.

Technorati tags:phlox butterfly moth

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