Critter pictures. It has been a while! Here are more pictures from the previous summer. I have been very slow in sending them out. Beetles dominate this small batch. First up is a Rove...

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Critter pictures. It has been a while!

Apr 30, 2024 22:42:11 #

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

Here are more pictures from the previous summer. I have been very slow in sending them out.
Beetles dominate this small batch. First up is a Rove Beetle, possibly Platydracus, from a staged focus stacking session on the dining room table. Rove beetles form a large family of very active predatory beetles (Staphylinidae), and they are easily identified by their short wing covers. They can be difficult to photograph since sitting still is not what they do, so I got this one to pause for a moment on a perch.

Rove Beetle by Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr

Next up is a pea-sized Dung Beetle, Canthon sp. There were several of these trundling around little balls of dung in the amazing place I call the Magic Field, where one can find critters that I see nowhere else. I tried hard to get pictures of them rolling their little treasures, but they would immediately stop and bury themselves in the soft soil on approach, refusing to come out and do what Dung Beetles do best. I hope better luck this season. Dung Beetles are in another large family, the Scarabaeidae. I think most species have nothing to do with dung, but rather feed on roots, leaves, pollen, or fruits.

Dung Beetle by Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr

Here is a small beetle from another large family called the Leaf Beetles (Chrysomelidae). No matter the species, Leaf Beetles seem to always be are bright and shiny, and they sit out in the open on vegetation. I somehow always know that I have a leaf beetle, even if the species is new to me as this one was. This one is the Sumac Flea Beetle Blepharida rhois. Flea Beetles are Leaf Beetles that can jump.

Sumac Leaf Beetle by Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr

Next up is an Assassin Bug, Zelus luridus. These common predators in the Hemipteran family Reduviidae can be found openly lurking on leaves along forest trails. Their extremely laconic nature makes me wonder how they ever catch anything.

Assassin Bug by Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr

The caterpillar shown in the next picture is the Bronzed Cutworm, Nephelodes minians. The larvae are generalist feeders on grasses, and are considered a pest on cultivated crops. No doubt I’ve seen many of the brown adult moths at the porch light, but there are so many species of “little brown jobbies” in their family (Noctuidae), that I doubt I would know them on sight. This larva was strangely inactive. Even moribund. It was either about to pupate, or it was terminally parasitized.

Bronzed Cutworm by Mark Sturtevant, on Flickr

Back at the Magic Field, in the very early season one can find nymphs of my favorite grasshopper, the Coral-winged Grasshopper Pardalophora apiculata. These spend the winter as nymphs (in fact I just got back from visiting this field in February during a freakish warm spell, and sure enough the wintering nymphs were revived and hopping everywhere). But come this spring they will quickly grow up to be a robust Band-Winged Grasshopper with pinkish-orange hind wings, as can be seen in the link. They are a delight to watch as they ponderously launch themselves to fly, but they never fly far owing to their chonkyness. The Magic Field proudly hosts at least six different species of Band-winged grasshoppers alone. Grasshoppers in this group usually have brightly colored hind wings, which among other things are used as a kind of deception to fool predators into thinking that they brightly colored, while in fact when at rest they are well camouflaged. Band-wings belong to the short-horned grasshopper family Acrididae.