New mysteries and mysteries solved
This last weekend I had the chance to get out and take some more photos in our backyard. After taking Eitan and Nathan through the entire zoo (and I do mean the entire zoo) while Nelya held an open house, I had a short opportunity to see what I could find. I decided to turn over some bags of paver sand we had and lurked there for a bit, anxious to see what I could find. I found a bunch of earwigs – one of my favorite subjects to photograph. The day was somewhat of a bust photography wise, but what I found out in the research after more than made up for it.
Instead of wandering around from rock to rock, log to log, I decided to dig around in the dirt a bit and see what popped up. Interestingly over the few minutes I hung around there, new insects popped up and I found some things I hadn’t seen before. The first thing that popped up was this little thing. It moved quite quickly and this was the best photo I could get of it.
This is a rather poor shot, but after looking at it I think I have a good idea what it is. It looks like a juvenile Devil’s Coach Horse Beetle. The pincers on the front and longish tail seem to give it away. While searching through my books for some of my other finds of the day, I solved one of my previous mysteries.
At the time I photographed this, I knew this was obviously a moth but I had no idea what kind. As I was aware that there exist a great number of moths out there, many of them very similar looking, I didn’t spend much time trying to figure it out. However, while flimming through my insect books I found it. Rather unspectacularly, it is called a “whitefly”. I could have come up with that name! More ominously, these flies are one of the most damaging bugs in the world, causing billions of dollars in losses to crops – especially in the developing world. The problem with them is not that they eat plants, but they transmit very dangerous diseases to them.
However with every mystery solved comes a new mystery. This one though I think may be close to being solved.
The shape of this bug certainly says “springtail” to me, and from looking at the springtail website this appears to be a Lepidocyrtinae. Much more about this particular springtail I can’t say. Unfortunately it does not appear that someone has written a handy guide to springtails – likely because there aren’t too many people that would buy it. Eventually I suspect I will have to subscribe to one or more entomology journals.
Finally I turned over a planter that had been sitting for awhile and found something interesting. At first I took it for another earwig, but the back of it from the brief view I had seemed to reject this notion. It quickly burrowed back in the soil so I took a small garden shovel and dug it out.
Unfortunately Nelya called me in right when I was in the middle of photographing it, so this is the best shot I got. I feel rather dumb that it took me a bit of research to figure this one out. However this certainly appears to be a termite – specifically the Pacific Coast Dampwood Termite, or Zootermopsis angusticollis. As this wasn’t far from my house, I’m rather glad that I only found one – though as I understand these aren’t the kind that normally cause the most damage. I must admit that I haven’t seen a termite in person before, and I was shocked that they are so big. For some reason I always thought they were the same size as ants.
This research and these photos show me that I still have a tremendous amount to learn. However, unlike previous days I at least have a vague idea what I found at the end of the day. I suspect with more books, studying, and photographing I will slowly learn more about the fascinating creatures that live around us.
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