The Daily R-r-r-ibbit

Awesome Arrowshaped Micrathena

I found a very awesome spider down in the holler a couple of days ago. The first pictures I got were not that great because it was early in the morning and breezy. Yesterday I did the holler walk a little later in the day, and found her in the same place. The photos came out a little better.

After a long search, I located this species on BugGuide -- my go-to identification resource for insects -- and determined that it was one of the Orb Weavers, the Arrowshaped Micrathena (Micrathena sagittata).

This species builds its webs in open woods of the eastern United States and west to Texas and Nebraska. The females are about twice the size of males (Female 8-9mm, Male 4-5mm) and do not have spines on the abdomen. I believe this one is a female (compare to an identified female at BugGuide). I saw a couple of images that appeared to have spines in the center of the abdomen, but they were not identified by gender.

Here are some views from different angles:

 

 

 

This species is one of my new finds for 2011. Hurray for biodiversity!

 

Bugs and Butterflies in the Holler

I just posted several photos from the past two weeks at my HollerPhenology blog, but there have been so many awesome encounters with other species in the holler lately that I thought I'd post a few here as well.

First, the spider beings:

Crab spider on Echinacea, 20 June 2011 [Photo credit: Cathie Bird]

 

 A spider works on some kind of bug caught in its web, 25 June 2011 [Photo credit: Cathie Bird]

A big "catch" for me this week was this banded hairstreak. There were several of them in the grass and on the Echinaceas, so busy that they didn't mind me being close and taking photos:

[Photo credit: Cathie Bird]

And here's the only one I was able to get a "wings open" or top view of:

[Photo credit: Cathie Bird]

On June 20th, I found this skipper on newly flowering Echinaceas. I have not positively identified it, but I think it is likely a Little Glassy Wing (Pompeius verna):

[Photo credit: Cathie Bird]

The common elder has healthier looking flowers this year. As usual, it seems to host a lot of different insects and larvae. Here's one I found on the 20th of June:

Possibly a saw fly larva. It looks a lot like one I found on the same shrub last year. [Photo credit: Cathie Bird]

We are finally getting some rain after several weeks without any. The dogs and I (with a cat or two on occasion) have been enjoying cool morning walks. Just to close this post, here's a photo of Shadow in the morning sun and fog:

[Photo credit: Cathie Bird]

 

Scorpion encounters in the holler

On Saturday, in my new HollerPhenology blog, I posted some stories about some wild folk that have made their way into my house and methods I used to get them out. Right after I hit the publish button, I came across this little creature in a bathroom sink:

I decided not to take it outside, but kind of wished I had when I came back later and he wasn't there, which always leads to the question, "Okay, then where is it now?"

This morning I was washing some dishes, first a fork and a spoon, and then I shook the dish cloth out a little to wash a bowl and realized I'd hand my hand around this:

I decided to shake this one into my bug jar and release it back into the wild.