Macro photography in my yard

[urbpan]

Some of these are pictures I took for aesthetic reasons, and some are creatures I'm not confident enough of to use in my project. If anyone knows more specifically what these things are, let me know and it'll count as one of the hundred. Otherwise, just sit back and enjoy.



This is a wireworm, the larva of a click beetle. They live in the soil feeding on detritus or plant roots. I found a bunch when I was pulling up the knotweed. I hope they eat the knotweed roots.


This is a nymph of an assassin bug, a predator that pierces it's prey with a beaklike proboscis, sucking out the goo inside.


A jumping spider crouches camouflaged in the duff.


The big tree in my front yard has these flowers. I'm starting to get the sad sinking feeling that it's Norway maple.


Dandelion, super close up.


Tulip, which will have its own entry soon. I just liked catching it immediately before blooming.


Some miniscule silk spinner tangled its gossamer between the petal tips!


This small attractive ornamental grass sedge is festooned with yellow pollen.

Comments

[bill_sheehan.livejournal.com]

Is the problem with the Norway Maple that it's not a native species?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Not just that it's not native, but that it's invasive. (Alexis deliberately planted several non-native Japanese maples.) Already I've pulled out a dozen tiny sapling Norways. In an urban forest it tends to crowd out everything else. We appear to have three big ones and a whole mess of little 4 inch diameter ones. The little ones help create privacy, so I'm torn about removing them.

[anais2.livejournal.com]

But...those are male flowers, aren't they? The Norway?
They need an accomplice.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I had to look it up: "Norway Maple can be monoecious or dioecious, producing male (staminate) flowers and female (pistillate) flowers on either the same or separate trees." http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/trees/plants/norway_maple.htm

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

norway maples are fast growing and get huge and then fall apart and smash children with falling limbs. japanese maples take forever and are like 20 feet tall.

[featheredfrog.livejournal.com]

First one's a stink bug or fellow-traveller.

http://www.uoguelph.ca/pdc/Factsheets/Insect/TrueBugsHome.htm

ids

[jenn forman orth (from livejournal.com)]

Yep, that is indeed Norway maple in bloom. The grass is actually a sedge, likely genus Carex.

Re: ids

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Ah! Thank you!

norway maple

[stephanie radner (from livejournal.com)]

Dedham is full of norway maples, those bright lime green trees lining every street. I had one removed last fall, I'm getting a sugar maple from the town for arbor day. Check out the town website: http://www.dedham-ma.gov/index.cfm?cdid=19589&pid=11808

suspicious comment?

[stephanie radner (from livejournal.com)]

why is my comment suspicious?

Re: suspicious comment?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I don't suspect you!

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

It's a ultimate or penultimate nymphal rough stink bug, probably Brochymena. The spines on the prothorax and the protuberances on the connexivium give it away.

I also suspect that's a nymphal damsel bug, Nabidae, rather than Reduviidae. Assassin nymphs tend to be broader and more brightly colored. But there are some narrower-bodied assassins like Stenopodines, so I could very well be wrong.

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Dang- badnoodles beat me to the Reduviid that doesn't look like one. Usually much bolder and/or warningly coloured. Unless it's a Thread-Legged? Haven't seen their nymphs.

A friend of mine in Washington is currently being inundated with Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs. I've suggested Assassins to help cull them, but he insists on trying out every chemical on the periodic table :)

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

You're so awesome.
The stink bug flew to land on me, by the way. Ultimate then?

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

If it flew, it's an adult. The angled ridge in the clavus made me think it had wing pads, not complete wings. Silly camouflage, messin' with my ID.

[elainetyger.livejournal.com]

Dandelion?! Wow!

[weofodthignen]

Aww, Norway maples are lovely trees.

M