I just have to emphasize one more time (probably not the last): WOW. It floors me nearly every day how rich the insect world is, even and especially in a nondescript semi-urban yard. The Golden Tortoise Beetle above was on long grasses in the back yard. Here is my jaw-dropping cool fact about this beetle: It can change its color depending on the weather or when it’s stressed! Here’s an article that explains it non-technically. They can look completely gold, hence the common name, but also green or bronze or with spots. I apologize if I scared this one, because in showing its orange coloring, I think it is flashing a warning.
All of a sudden this week, it was Beetle Days. In the span of two days I saw a bunch of species I hadn’t seen before. This longhorn is pretty small. I saw one on our laurel tree, another on a fern, and a third in the sunny, weedy part of the yard. It’s in the Phymatodes genus, and if I’m right about the nitidus species, they lay eggs in giant sequoia pine cones. Our city has just planted a couple thousand sequoias, so maybe that’s the source?
This friendly coleoptera is a click beetle! They have an incredible, mechanical hinge that snaps into place with a loud click. They can use it to right themselves if they’re upside down or to escape predators with a surprise bounce-off.
I got super lucky and caught a click beetle as it took off in flight (which it can also do). This isn’t the same individual as above, as you can see from the dirt on its right thorax. As I said, it was Beetle Week and I saw several of these Athous genus insects over two days.
Here’s the last beetle I’ll share. It’s (I think) a Gazelle Beetle. It’s native to Europe but now lives in Oregon, and may or may not out-compete some native insects here, as it eats grubs and eggs. Yet another example of the impacts of globalization.
Lest you think I only saw beetles last week, here’s an eye-catching fly. It’s in the Myopa genus. It’s bright red with a yellow face and a twice-bent proboscis (think tongue), and I was sure it was a wasp in flight. They’re parasites of honey bees and some ground-dwelling bees. I saw a couple on one day and haven’t seen any since.
Here’s the “twice-bent proboscis,” so you know it’s legitimate!
I also saw a couple of wasps this week, including an ichneumon with a bent abdomen. I didn’t get the greatest picture, but I’ll show it below:
These are really hard to photograph. They don’t rest very often, because they’re always snooping around for somewhere to poach and lay eggs. I think this is a male, because there’s no ovipositor, so in that case, it’s snooping around for a female.
Ticklehead 