Hoping for More Grasshoppers, Finding Something New Instead

On Friday I went back out earlier in the day before it started to rain, when the sun was in and out of the clouds and the breeze was a little higher than the day before. I immediately went to my sloped front lawn hoping to get closer to some of the many grasshoppers I saw the day before (but had eluded my close inspection). Even though there SO MANY on Thursday hopping all over the place, not a single one buzzed and leapt away as I walked through the yard. Where did they go? Were they only out the day before because the sun was strong and warm? I know that insects are cold-blooded, and perhaps these grasshoppers needed more warmth to get them active and hopping about again.

I did get to see a tiny American Copper butterfly again in the same area as the day before, flying low to the ground around the same flowers. I don't know for sure it was the same one, but it did seem to be just as pristine as the one I saw Thursday.

I went back up the slope of my yard to an area just between my rhododendron bush/tree and a shrub, and came across a swarm of tiny insects just above the ground. As I moved through they would fly a little, landing again in the grass. I had never noticed or paid attention to these before, and they looked kind of like miniature dragonflies when I got closer (around a centimeter in length). I began to notice some mating, and thought at first it was a different bug because one seemed to have redder legs, different eyes, and held its wings differently, but I noticed the other was definitely the same insect I first observed. I researched this further online after identifying it as Bibio vestitus, a type of March Fly, through iNaturalist, and the females can have redder legs than the males. In the photos I saw, there were also some with their wings closed over their bodies that looked much more like the mating one I had seen, and smaller eyes. I love when there's sexual dimorphism, it makes identification a little trickier, but the challenge is fun!

Publicado el mayo 9, 2020 07:00 TARDE por danivaill