Procrastinationarium plus ID help needed!

[urbpan]

Oh, sure, it's really my only day off, and I have stuff to do, but now I would like to continue putting it off, this time with my traditional Monday picspam. The theme is yet more interesting wildlife I found at work, a lot of which I don't know what it is.








These are American toad tadpoles, in the Deer Enclosure pond at Drumlin Farm. I have seen toads singing, toads in amplexus and toad eggs--strings of black pearls--in this pond before, but never the tadpoles. I assumed that the bluegills and catfish ate all the eggs before they had a chance.




Last week this fly (or two individuals of the same species) hung around my office window. I don't know what it is. The marks on the wings suggest a deer fly, but it was a little too big, and the posture seems distinctive. It was a little bigger than a deer fly (about the size of a horse fly--slightly bigger than a honey bee, say).


This moth was on the screen door of my building all morning long. It would barely move as we opened and closed the door. From behind it looks like a white letter T. Any idea what it is?


Pretty sure that rockbalancer identified this caterpillar she found, but I don't remember what it is. Cute little monster, though!

Comments

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

Your fly on the window is a member of the family Rhagionidae, or snipe flies. The spotted wings, and tapering yellow & black abdomen are pretty diagnositic for this family. It's probably the same species as this specimen.

Snipe flies are predacious. The genus Rhagio is harmless to humans, though members of the western genus Symphoromyia are known to bite people.

You weren't far off with your guess of horse or deer fly, as both Tabanidae and Rhagionidae are members of the superfamily Tabanoidea.


The moth is in family Pterophoridae, the plume moths, but I can't do any better than that.

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/Files/Live/Living30.shtml

Might help you better ID that moth.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Wow, thanks so much! Good stuff there. Some of those plume moths look like crane flies.

p.s. resend me your mailing address and I'll send your t-shirt, and I'll slip in an inflatable Lactrodectus.

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

Awesome!

And for a hat trick, I'm pretty sure that caterpillar is either Polygonia comma or Polygonia interrogationis. Both have the correct distribution, though I think the black & yellow coloration is more common in the Easter Comma than in the Question Mark.

I'm really surprised it didn't sting you or< lj user="rockbalancer">.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I do seem to remember her saying it was an eastern comma! I also told her I wouldn't touch that thing on a bet (I can read insect messages that say "don't touch me!") but she didn't get stung.

[dragonwrites.livejournal.com]

i can't identify any of your organisms, but i can identify what's going on in this post: photocrastination!

[lucubr8r.livejournal.com]

I raised those tadpoles when I was a kid! So much fun.

That caterpillar's spines are not stinging, but they might cause irritation to sensitive people.

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

moth looks like a Hellisia.

It's waiting from somebody to start it's propeller so it can take off :D

somewhat off topic

[magid.livejournal.com]

*wave* from the newbie on Sunday's walk. I posted (http://magid.livejournal.com/1178586.html) about it.

Re: somewhat off topic

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Great! May I link to your journal with a new post?

Re: somewhat off topic

[magid.livejournal.com]

Of course.

(I'm of the "public posts are public" crowd.)

IDs

[(Anonymous)]

Hi!

The moth you see is called a Plume Moth and the caterpillar is of the Gray Comma Butterfly.