On a bridge over a small freshwater wetland near the shore of Puget Sound at low tide. Looking for ID for whatever produced the white filament coming from the thorax.
Guess. Small black bee with many white hairs, beefy hind legs, longish antennae, male probable. Not sure where in Curlew we saw him, maybe along the train trail.
Eggs covering a dried grass stem in meadow/field habitat.
Fast-moving. Totally thought this was a spider wasp when I was chasing it.
On the underside of a seed head on a dried stem of grass.
Very small. The initial ID is just a CV suggestion.
My favourite little parasite this season:
There were at least 2 individuals of this small braconid wasp stalking the green vegetable bugs on the Cleome in my garden. (Were they first discovered in NZ by you, Stephen?)
The first one (photos 1-7) quite obviously was successful in parasitising a bug, but the second one (photos 8-17) was never quite able to connect, despite a number of attempts.
It was fascinating to watch the behaviour. Mostly the wasps managed to stay behind the bugs, and so out of sight. However, occassionally they were rumbled and then got short shrift from the Nezara.
Inactive nesting aggregation in clay/adobe like substrate? Looked Anthophora(ish)...
Big! Maybe an inch long? With oddly opaque, light-colored wings. It walked along the sidewalk for a bit, twitching it’s wings occasionally, before flying into the bushes.
Found on a rocky beach in Puget Sound at an extremely low tide.
When I first noticed this snakefly clinging to one of last season's dried grass stems, I thought perhaps it was a male because I couldn't see any ovipositor. But then, when I looked at my initial photos more closely, the abdomen shape didn't look right for a male and I wondered if perhaps the reason I couldn't see the ovipositor was because it was currently in use. Sure enough, further photos confirmed that she was in the process of inserting eggs.
Very uncertain of this ID.
Update: here's an observation for the host plant: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/98230479
Looking for ID for the leafminer (I think?) that made the circular blotch.
Obs for the host plant is here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/98343846
Obs for the other leafminer is here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/98343849
This obs is for the gall-inducing organism. I'm looking in Russo's Plant Galls of North America, and I don't see any willow-associated ones that look exactly like this, on the midrib of the leaf.
Oookay, this is the outcome of my attempt to key this out using Eiseman's Leafminers of North America, but I am reeeeally unsure of it.
This obs is for the organism that created these leaf shelters. The obs for the host plant is here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/88289702
This obs is for whatever creature constructed something by bending some of its pinnules together.
This is a new one to me!
Are those baby spiders on her back?!
Gorging on a bee. Video here: https://vimeo.com/419486567
This observation is for the parasite. The observation for the bee is here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/71927414
This observation is for the bee that is alone in the first two photos and is on the left in the last photo. It's in the Anthophora aggregation: https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/eebee/47186-anthophora-nest-aggregation-in-my-yard
Remind me never to get on the wrong side of those mandibles.
These tiny creatures were on a disabled bee, where the head meets the thorax. See the last photo in this obs for a view including more of the bee, and separate obs for the bee here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/71401890
In the hole where I previously saw this bee: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/70430894
I think this bee might have just emerged when I observed it. It stood there in the sun and slowly rotated, as if modeling for me. After a few minutes it flew away.
I finally got good pics of more of the body of a female in the Anthophora aggregation in my yard! The bee that is the object of this observation is alone in most of the photos, but in the last three photos, she is the one partially in shadow. The separate obs for the male in full sun is here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/71346892
A. pacifica has been one ID in the running for these bees based on how the males look (thanks @trevorsless and @johnascher), but the A. pacifica females on BugGuide look really different, much darker, to me: https://bugguide.net/node/view/384793
Thoughts, anybody?
I was astonished to see this bee flying so early in the year! It was 43 degrees F outside according to my weather app. This was on a south-facing hill in bright sun, though, so the local temp might have been slightly higher. I was also surprised to see what looks like an Anthophora over on this side of the mountains; it looks like there are just a few other records in King County. I'm very curious about whether I'm right on the initial ID. The plant it’s on is a cultivated Rhododendron: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/69327006. It was skittish when I approached, and I took this from >6 ft away with a 300mm lens rather than with a 100mm macro.
Looking for ID for the orange... whatever it is. Found under a log.
It jumped onto the already-dead insect (midge?), picked it up, rejected it, and jumped onto the vertical cord visible in some of the later photos.
This bee let me take some photos of it, then walked all the way into this flower, out of sight.
Small, maybe about 1/4" long. I went through the male Megachile guide on Discover Life but a lot of species were left after I narrowed down based on the characteristics I could figure out. Looks a lot like this Megachile rotundata on BugGuide: https://bugguide.net/node/view/1871938/bgimage
This observation is for the prey, which looks pretty unmistakably like a male Agapostemon. I've also seen male Agapostemon flying at this site.
The last pic is an hour after the first series and the prey seems to have been largely consumed.