emilita's Favorites

Found entombed in White Pine sap, a few mm from an entrance into the bark. Large ant, uniform black color. Long erect and appressed golden hairs on the gaster (and a few large natty golden mustache hairs). Unnotched clypeus.

Abundant in reservoir outlet stream. I don't know what depth in the reservoir the outlet comes from, but the reservoir level is quite low at this time of year. The water was crystal clear, if slightly yellow - most of the seston in the water column had fallen out when the reservoir froze over. Diagnostic features include: Middle pecten of postabdominal claw long and robust; Concave ventral head margin; Small, symmetric polygonal markings on rostrum; dorsal spines relatively close together. Length of adults, about 2.5 mm. Many of the individuals of this species were heavily colonized by epizoic diatoms, which I'll post separately. That's apparently a seasonal risk.

The crows called me over to see this. The owl did not waste anything. Within a few minutes of finishing off the first chipmunk, it swooped down to catch another groggy chipmunk emerging from the snow. It held it under its claw for a midnight snack and went to sleep.

From a surface water sample from a drainage canal in the peatland, First seen free-swimming, but soon attached and extended itself. You can see it capture a euglenid (I think). The bigger, golden vacuole just below the euglenid is a dinoflagellate, Glenodinium (maybe).

Doing calisthenics under a maple branch. Males show this behaviour during mating leks (Zalom 1976) though I didn't notice other males or females around. Flexing, upside-down, in the shade, in a sun-dappled forest glade.

Zalom, F.G. 1979. Notes on Male Assemblages of Helius flavipes (Macq.) with Reference to Mating Habits (Diptera: Tipulidae). J. Kansas Entomol. Soc. 52(3): 553-555.