Suddenly September!
Although the bulk of summer has come and gone, we still have many summer insects in the city. Below are some recent favorites.
Trigger warning: there are some (non-insect) spider photos at the end of the post.
Cute little Skipper in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn:
This is a Common Meadow Katydid nymph on Governors Island. It's extremely tiny - barely the size of my pinky nail. As they were jumping around in the grass, they looked like fleas.
Check out the enormously long antennae on this one. The insect was so small, I didn't see the antennae until I enlarged my photo.
Pretty emerald-colored Sweat Bee:
This Long-Legged Fly is another tiny creature, but is really beautiful when viewed close up.
Common Buckeye butterfly:
A pair of Eastern Pondhawks mating. The male is the blue one up top, and the female is bright green and has her abdomen curled under the male. They will then take off from this perch and the male will dip the female into the water so she can lay her eggs.
These dragonflies were laying eggs in one of the water features at Green-Wood Cemetery. As they did this, turtles who were lurking below the water's surface would snatch them. This kept happening, but I wasn't able to get a photo as the turtles were so quick...and terrifying!
Female Pondhawk:
This is a Marl Pennant Skimmer and was not seen in NYC, but further south when I took a trip. They generally do not venture north of Virginia in the East.
Spiders below...
I wait all year to find these little guys, and this year, I found more than I ever have before, which I hope is a good sign. These are Bold Jumpers, and they are also only about the size of my pinky nail.
They noticed me right away and would skitter away if I moved too much, so I stood back about four feet and had to use my telephoto lens to get these pics. A macro lens would reveal more of their beautiful details, like the iridescent greenish-blue mouth parts.
It's hard to see in this photo, but the spider has several eyes and it looks like they circle back around the head.
This informative video has some really nice footage of a jumper, and is a good starting point for getting to know these cool little creatures.
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