A firefly larva, Lampiridae:

Hydrachnidia in the swamp:

And finally, the vernal pool (off the Vernal Pool trail).

Some nice choreography, Mother Nature! Well played.

A classic Hollywood horror movie jump scare, while I was poking around in a vernal pool with the Laowa 24mm probe lens.

It gives out a thin beam of light, so you can only see a limited angle. Everything is totally, unnaturally still and quiet. See some movement out of the corner of my eye. Root around in nooks and crannies looking for what was scuttling, and suddenly come face to face with this impressive beast.

Once my heartbeat calmed down again, nothing but respect, well played.

EDIT: “That is the rear end of an aquatic isopod. Most likely family Asellidae. Maybe genus Caecidotea

https://bugguide.net/node/view/1271342″

April 8th, 2024: My second total eclipse — 44 years, 1 month, 3 weeks after my first one.

An absolutely stunning experience. I had forgotten how eerie the sixty seconds before the eclipse are. I brought along a white sheet, and was able to see the shadow bands for the first time, which was a huge thrill.

Photography wasn’t a priority, visual observation was. And honestly, I was lost in the moment and didn’t really even pay attention to details, was just feeling how amazing it was.

All shots were exposed for the corona, rather than the chromosphere. I wish I had at least one shot exposed correctly to bring out the chromosphere.

Hymenoptera

(Or King Phillip’s Cave, as it’s better known as.)

First nice warm weekend day of the year! Which means the first bug walk of the year.

Braconidae. Agathidinae (most likely) or Helconinae.

Nomada. It would be a better photo if they stopped moving for a second.

Diptera

I’m going to look in Anthomyiidae to start. (EDIT: or Muscidae)

Fungus gnat?

I’m not really sure, will need to take some time looking. (EDIT: Muscidae probably)

Lepidoptera

Spongy moth egg mass unfortunately 😦

Coleoptera

Ellychnia corrusca

Spiders

Mangora

Linyphiidae, but which one? Maybe Neriene radiata.

Little baby Leucauge venusta, I believe:

Naphrys pulex:

Lycosida, Gladicosa.

Cyclosa cf conica

No bugs

The background was the splatter of sunlight on leaf, judiciously spread like butter.

Not sure black and white works for this, but adding the photo anyway so I can stare at it for a while

First of all, checked on the amphibian egg clutches. There are now three egg clutches I can see! Not sure if they’re salamander or frog. They look a little smaller in size, so if they’re salamander, then they are probably blue-spotted salamander. But what do I know. They’re either far away or covered in lots of algae, so I don’t know if I will be able to take photographs as they develop.

Secondly, Daphnia! For some reason, I’ve hitherto spent hours looking at the vernal pools and marsh without really seeing something I could point to as Daphnia, even though it’s supposedly one of the more common invertebrates there. Anyway, here’s one I’m fairly confident of.

In this next photo, we can clearly see the digestive tract. The bump closer to the start of the digestive tract *may* be the heart. I don’t know if those are eggs towards the right.

Springtime at Moose Hill means vernal pools, wood frogs crying, salamander eggs, fairy shrimp…

First, salamander eggs:

Tried for one of those fancy photos showing both above and below water. You will agree that the level of success is very moderate.

Caddisfly larvae with casings:

You can see the actual larva peaking out of the casing here:

And here is video of one of them moving around. You don’t usually see them poking out this much, but I think it was trying to navigate through the algae.

Here was the vernal pool:

Please listen to this video with your volume turned up. The sound of the wood frogs is incredibly moving.

White breasted water hen

Looks like a Chrysomelid beetle. Compare with Aulacophora lewisii.

I think it is Tephritidae, something like Bactrocera dorsalis? The body looks like it, but the wing pattern looks different from what I’d expect.

Ah, it turns out it’s Zeugodacus cucurbitae, also in Tephritidae:

A wasp in Pompilidae, aka the spider wasps. I think I count 11 flagellomeres in the antenna, so perhaps a male; females have only 10.

Birds do it, butterflies do it. I didn’t realize they were mating until I took a closer look at the photo. They are in Pieridae.

Hooded mergansers:

Needle ice, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needle_ice:

“Needle ice is a needle-shaped column of ice formed by groundwater. Needle ice forms when the temperature of the soil is above 0 °C (32 °F) and the surface temperature of the air is below 0 °C (32 °F). Liquid water underground rises to the surface by capillary action, and then freezes and contributes to a growing needle-like ice column. The process usually occurs at night when the air temperature reaches its minimum.”