In the last week or so Western Giant Ichneumonid Wasps (Megarhyssa notrtoni) have oviposited on a dying spruce tree in our yard. Today a female horntail (Xeris indecisus) is ovipositing on the same tree, with a couple male horntails hanging around. The ichneumons parasitize the horntail larvae.

An Ichneumon wasp is trying to oviposit in a dead spruce tree in our backyard. Yesterday a Western Giant Ichneumonid (Megarhyssa nortoni) oviposited on the same tree (www.inaturalist.org/observations...).

Giant Ichneumonid wasp (Megarhyssa) ovipositing in a dead spruce tree in our backyard. The whole process took at least 40 minutes.

And here she pulls it into the burrow.

Here’s a video of the cutworm wasp bragging the caterpillar to her nest.

This afternoon I watched this cutworm wasp (Podalonia sp.) dig a burrow, drag a caterpillar to and into the nest, and then cover it so that it was completely invisible. The entire process took about an hour. www.inaturalist.org/observations...

In the last few days, several Ichneumonids emerged from spider egg sacs that I collected last month. The males are winged and the females wingless. I'm pretty sure they're in the subtribe Gelina, but I'm not sure of the genus. Here's a photo of one of the females.

Rare moth becomes Wicken Fen's 10,000th recorded species

While I watched and photographed a couple of goldenrod crab spiders mating, a nearby male dropped onto my finger.

This afternoon I saw goldenrod crab spiders mating on ocean spray flowers. This may be the same female that I saw eating the mining bee a few hours before. The two stayed together for at least 15 minutes while I took their pictures.

As I walked on to the porch this morning, I saw this scene on ocean spray flowers: a female golden rod crab spider with her mining bee prey.

A Common Digger Bee (Anthophora) that I caught on our golden currant this morning. I cooled her down in the fridge, took photos, and let her get back to business.

A few things I saw on the side of the shed this morning. A pair of cutworm flies (Gonia sp.), a sawfly (Dolerus sp.), and an Early Tachinid Fly (Epalpus signifer).

There is a lot of functionality on IoNA (ichsofna.org) that most people aren´t aware of. Here are a couple of videos explaining what can be done with the filterable galleries. #Ichneumonidae #Ichneumoninae #biodiversity #JavaScript #insect #wasp #parasitoid

I saw the first bee in the yard today. A male mason bee checking out the holes in a spruce stump. Looks like a blue orchard bee to me (Osmia lignaria), but I'm not sure. www.inaturalist.org/observations...

It must finally be spring! I saw a bagworm (Psychidae: Dahlica sp.) climbing up the side of the garage today. The larvae are encased in a silk lining that is covered with sand and other debris.

A quote for #DarwinDay: "I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae [a family of parasitoid wasps] with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars." - Letter to Asa Gray, May 22, 1860

DOGS ARE MY GODS 😇

I’m not sure I’ve ever felt this kind of visceral fear before: www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Artistic expression, bug style. These sawfly larvae make quick work of defoliating the quaking aspen saplings in our yard each spring. I don't mind. I adore photographing them. #bugsky

A 0.9mm long female Chaetostricha similis parasitoid wasp of the Trichogrammatidae found 27.8.2024 in the garden birch tree. #UKWildlife #wasps #Trichogrammatidae

Annual General Meeting Eugene, Oregon: Mar 17-20, 2025 Registration is through the Northwest Scientific Association website: www.northwestscience.org The meeting has talks, a workshop, and one or more field trips. Schedule and summary of lichen activities for the meeting will be posted there.

Ichneumonids have a bad reputation for being hard to ID because there are so many species. I'm trying to change that so on ichsofna.org I've got an image classification model to identify subfamilies and a filterable gallery for Ichneumoninae species (shown below).

I had a bit more luck on my bird walk today. As soon as I left the house I got a good view of a Cooper's Hawk.

Went to one of my favorite nearby birding spots this afternoon. I walked for an hour or so and saw not a single bird. So this memorial there seemed especially appropriate.

2 minutes of wonder, from the always great Deep Look. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tw3...

Lichen are a remarkable fusion of fungi, algae, and other microorganisms. Dr. Hannah Prather and Dr. Jesse Miller join us to discuss their crucial role as indicators of air quality, as well as their striking colors and forms.

This animation shows the incredible migration of the Beijing Swift (Apus apus pekinensis). Each coloured dot is an individual bird tracked from the Summer Palace. See https:wildbeijing.org/the-beijing-swift-project/

Interesting PNAS article on the overall biomass of life on earth. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Plants have a biomass of 450 gigatons of carbon. Animals 2 Gt C. Humans and their livestock have more than ten times the biomass of all wild mammals and birds combined.

Day 29 of my 2023 favorites: Unknown Leptochilus - and a new interaction! I noticed a tiny potter wasp poking around an old oak gall, and, on a hunch, collected the gall with her inside. And, well, I'll let the discussion on iNat take it from here: www.inaturalist.org/observations... 🌿 🐝#InverteFest

I found this ground #spider on our dining room table a couple days ago. It looks like Sergiolus montanus, but I'd have to microscopically examine its genitalia to know for sure. Body length 4.5 mm.

Great evidence that posting weird bugs in iNaturalist really does help us do a better job detecting invasive species. entomologytoday.org/2024/11/19/c...

A giant (about 3cm) Lichenomphalia umbellifera with its green thallus…on a stick. #lichens #fungifriends

An amazing story about the importance of leaving leaves in the yard. Done with (mostly) home-made emergent traps on square meters of yards, with and without leaves. I can't wait until spring to give that a try. www.indefenseofplants.com/podcast/2024...

One year ago I discovered a new gall on the Southern Live Oaks at Rice University. Upon sequencing the larva inside, it turned out to be an entirely unknown species of gall wasp in the genus Neuroterus. 🧵 #galls @scottpegan.bsky.social @megachile.bsky.social

I found this on the bark of our honey locust tree. It looks like it might be a Hoary Rosette Lichen (Physcia aipolia) - but I'm far from sure about that. The thallus is about 15 mm in diameter. www.inaturalist.org/observations... #lichen

There aren't many insects around this time of year, but I found this one inside the house on a curtain. It looks like a Codling Moth (Cydia pomonella) to me - which we have plenty of in the summer. But what is an adult doing around here in the winter?

Here is a great into to Perdita and Panurginae of Washington State. This from a presentation by Nathaniel Green of WSU to the WA Native Bee Society. So far I've only found two from that subfamily in the yard. Both Panurginus. But this summer I'll be looking for more! youtu.be/f63O_5Vwcak?...

There is a project on iNaturalist cataloging first known photos of live specimens. I've got a couple that might qualify so I submitted two observations today. Here is one, a fantastic little longhorn beetle found in the Amazon rainforest. (Stenolis dulcissima) Cuyabeno Reserve, Ecuador

Here are some (mostly) black flies that have visited our yard. #BlackFlyDay

This lichen is growing on the twigs of our apple trees. I'm thinking it might be in the sunburst lichen family (Xanthorioideae). #lichens www.inaturalist.org/observations...

I found this little guy in the bathtub this evening. Anyone recognize the family? Body length ~ 6 mm. #spiders www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Intricate mosaic! Protoparmeliopsis muralis on metal, Holt, TG04/VC27 East Norfolk, England. Associated with bird perches; also adapted to variety of N-enriched artificial substrates in farmland, towns. Easy to ID if you know what to look for. Field notes and more: aspenecology.com/protoparmeli...

During my PhD at the #ASUBiocollections, I digitized over 3,000 #Anthribidae specimens 🥰. This was possible with the wonderful #Symbiota portal ecdysis.org, now updated with new tools! Let us know if you want to join to #digitize your collections 🥰.