Exact map location approximated. Specimen collected by Zach Vogel, taken home by me for better photo ops. This is an uncommon species this far west.
Elderberry borerbeetle (Desmocerus palliatus)
Update:
I found several of these at Cedar Bog again this year. The last one might be Hexatoma brevicornis, so if you have expertise, please D.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/172420801
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/172420799
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/172420798
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/175243975
Note: I have photographed this Hexatomini at Cedar Bog in Champaign County, Ohio for at least 17 years. Always in the same area.
I've added two other observations; one from back in 2004.
Links to those observations:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/88273567
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/84762884
Here's an observation this year (2022) with better pics of wing venation. Same location.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/124010854
a) The jumping spider resemblance is insane. b) The range of sizes among adults is insane. What is up with this fly.
EScarabajo buceador
Larger than garter. Heavily keeled scales. 2+ feet long. Girth close to 3/4”
Decided to collect seeds from the Solomon’s plume this year. They require double stratification but what the heck, I’m very comfortable with failure.
What I like about this plant is that I found it in much smaller numbers, limping along 15 years ago when I first started clearing invasives like honeysuckle. The seed bank under invasives has never gotten better in southwest Ohio, only worse. This means that the natives that have managed to persist amidst this flood are particularly important. The reason for their persistence must be either geography or genetics.
If the reason is genetics, it might be more important to propagate natives from the exact places where invasives are the worst.
4th pic - what the seeds looked like after being removed from the pulp and just before the first stratification.
Looks like it only recently eclosed.
Biggest freaking ant I’ve ever seen
Growing where sulphur water is welling up from beneath the ground.
Melanistic juvenile (likely male based on size relative to the Great-tailed Grackle it was feeding upon). Verified by William Clark, and Lance and Jill Morrow. First observed by M. Silvas with me, and I shouted "melanistic Cooper's Hawk, OMG" as I identified the bird preliminarily, before submitting it to experts for review.
N31.070728 W-97.369269
JPK-2925
My first time seeing this beauty!
Wild Hyacinth (Eastern Camas, Atlantic Camas) - Camassia scilloides
I found a pretty patch of these on the roadside bordering Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area in central Ohio. I was enchanted by its delicate color and the form of its buds.
References
visiting Bebbia
Un macho que acaba de eclosionar en mi jardín. Su coloración y marcas son muy extrañas. Las alas de abajo no funcionan y no puede volar.
Bilateral gynandromorph Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.
unusual coloration
Mutated white leaves! So cool!
Alligator Snapping Turtle (Macroclemys temminckii) from Iota, Louisiana. Weighted over 100 lbs. and probably that many years old too!
Reserva Aguas do Brilhante, Itajai, Santa Catarina, Brasil - foto de Maria Isabel Weyermanns.
This bee was reared up on its hind legs and appeared to be in distress. In the images there is a tiny brown beetle biting the bee's proboscis. They stayed this way for 5 or more minutes before I walked away. Edit: Looking into it, I think the beetle is Antherophagus ochraceus, the silken fungus beetle, which clamps onto bumblebees and hitches a ride back to the nest. The beetle lays eggs in the nest and the resulting larvae eat organic debris.
Crazy, this poor thing got suck in the screen of our window 3 floors up. Rescued it and hopefully it'll fly away soon.
Likely the victim of a loggerhead shrike hiding out somewhere nearby
Taken at the salt flats under supervision in Oklahoma I was told these are called Interior Least Terns by the park management that was with us while we were on this shoot.
Finally got a better picture of my albino friend (is albino the best descriptor of this pigment lack? with xanthophores? Erythrophores? Unsure)
exquisite animal. my heart
It came and sat on our dinning table at Home.
she made a hammock inside of a cicada molt...
Probably not identifiable directly from media shown here, but this is the species that has been hatching here the past few days.
On a road-killed coyote (photo 2).
Black and White Giant Fly (Formosia speciosa)
Published on Bowerbird 16 Jan 2017
Potter Wasp
Rhynchium haemorrhoidale (Fabricius, 1775)
Vespidae