I went to the park the other day and got some shots of some new insects. Here's what I found:
Some nice small blue flowers (Forget-me-nots, Myosotis sp.) growing by a shaded stream which was overgrown with duckweed. OK, now on to the bugs!
Flying around the slow-flowing stream were many damselflies. This one is the Ebony Jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata), also known as the Black-winged Damselfly. It is a very distinctive species and I commonly encounter them in the summer.
This fly was a new one for me. I think it is a type of Marsh Fly or Snail-killing Fly (family Sciomyzidae). My best guess is that it is in the genus Dictya but I can't say for certain. I'm hoping a fly expert can come along and verify it.
Here's another new fly for me. The machine-learning algorithm spit out the genus Homoneura which looks correct as far as I could tell...That places it in the family Lauxaniidae.
BugGuide states this of Lauxaniid flies:
"Small flies of woodlands, yellowish-brown or black. Wings often clear, but some groups, such as Homoneura, have patterned wings. Most(?) species have iridescent reddish/purplish or greenish eyes."
Here is a closeup of a Neurocolpus bug. They were swarming over a mullein plant.
On the same plant I found this tiny weevil. An expert identified it as Glyptobaris lecontei, another lifer beetle! Not too shabby for a quick walk around the local park.
Here's another beetle. This time a buprestid. I thought it was a common Red-necked Cane Borer (Agrilus ruficollis) but it was ID'ed on iNaturalist as a Agrilus smaragdifrons. A. smaragdifrons is actually an asian species that was first spotted in North America in 2014. Its host plant is the Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus), which is only also introduced in North America and you can see its leaves in the picture above.
If it truly is the asian species then that is an exciting find for me since it is only the third observation on iNaturalist in the world. Of course there are other records on other platforms but still its pretty cool to contribute to our scientific understanding of this species range and spread across the world. I'm not sure what affects this beetle will have on our native ecosystems however, maybe it only needs its host plant and will leave other flora alone?
Here is a research paper I found: First North American Records of the Eastasian Metallic Wood-Boring Beetle Agrilus smaragdifrons Ganglbauer (Coleoptera: Buprestidae: Agrilinae), a Specialist on Tree of Heaven ( Ailanthus altissima , Simaroubaceae)
Thanks for letting me share.
