mjandersen's Favorites

Absolutely crazy! I noticed a large woolly gall on Quercus turbinella and decided to collect it, and right after I plucked the gall off of the tree I noticed a small insect on it that I immeadiately realized was a gall wasp! The wasp was mid-emergence from the gall and I had the insane luck of collecting the gall as this was happening. The first two photos are in the field, right next to the tree the gall was on. I put the gall and the wasp in a plastic bag I had with me and still have them both at home. The wasp crawled around the bag for a while and it seemed to take about 20 minutes for its wings to dry. A bit after collection I noticed a drop of liquid on it's wing as it was flexing it. I intend to preserve the wasp for ID and to hopefully help in future studies to get the species described.

My first Lower 48 moose! Finally, after many years of trips to New England and being in moose territory. I pulled the fastest U-turn ever to come back for a photo. Unfortunately, it walked away right after this pic, so I couldn't get a better one.