2021 February 20

 

   More springtails from Ian Cooper, kindly identified for us by Dr Frans Janssens.   Most of us rarely see these tiny animals, so it is quite an education to see them so close up.

 

Globose springtail Ptenothrix sp. nov.  (Symphypleona – Dicyrtomidae)  Ian Cooper

 

Dicyrtomina minuta f. saundersi  (Symphypleona – Dicyrtomidae)  Ian Cooper

 

Dicyrtomina minuta f. saundersi  (Symphypleona – Dicyrtomidae)  Ian Cooper

 

   And here are two spiders.   Among the numerous small creatures we come across, we cannot always identify every one, and we’ll have to settle with admiring and appreciating these two without necessarily being able to attach a label to them.

 

Linyphiine spider     Ian Cooper

 

Immature male spider   Ian Cooper

 

   Rosemary  Jorna photographed this gnat on a maple in her Kemp Lake garden.  I am not expert enough, writes Jeremy Tatum, to make an identification, but I think it is probably either a limoniine tipulid (a sort of small crane fly) or a trichocerid (winter gnat).

 

Dip.: probably Tipulidae – Limoniinae,  or Trichoceridae  Rosemary Jorna

 

   Caterpillars are easier for me to identify.  This one, on Indian Plum, is Paraseptis adnixa – first shown as a very young caterpillar on February 8, now almost full grown, perhaps one more instar to go.

Paraseptis adnixa (Lep.: Noctuidae)   Jeremy Tatum