Misc pictures, July 31 & Aug 05

[mistressofmuses]

Some random pictures...

July 31st was a trip to one of the city parks to take the dogs for a walk. So of course I took pictures of bugs!


Oh the drama! An ambush bug, having caught a small bee, with a very tiny ant trying to steal it!


More ambush bugs, and a very small jumping spider.

August 5th was the night my dad was playing a house concert.


No great pics I'm afraid, but that's my dad in the turquoise shirt.


The clouds cast weird shadows, which was sort of cool.

Comments

[soc_puppet]

I'm about 95% sure that the "bee" in the first pic is actually a fly who is mimicking a bee for safety! They caused a lot of drama at the after school program I went to 😂

[mistressofmuses]

I don't think this one is a bee mimic, though we do have a lot of those, too! (And yes, they cause so much panic when they approach people, especially kids, I imagine!) I think this one is something out of the cerceris genus... probably a weevil wasp. Womp womp, nabbed by a bigger predator! (And it makes the tiny ant a borderline cannibal, lol). Though it could be a mimic fly - it's harder to tell when they're dead.

[soc_puppet]

Lol, my 5% uncertainty was, "I guess it could be a rather small species of wasp?" even, so I wasn't totally off the mark there 😂 The thorax does seem a little bit big/long for a bee mimic, I suppose. And maybe that's an antennae leading to the assassin bug's foreleg, instead of like. An extension of the assassin bug's leg? Like how mantises have those extra bits in addition to their mighty graspers. Visible antennae would definitely spell "wasp" more than "bee".

I had so much trouble trying to convince my schoolmates that bee mimics were actually flies, I tell you. "It's a bee!" "No, it's a fly that looks like a bee." "What, no! It has black and yellow stripes, that makes it a bee. How could it possibly be a fly instead?" "Uh..." I didn't have the language at the time to explain why it was a fly and not a bee, but to me they really do just... look more like flies than bees as soon as you get over the stripes. Nowadays I could point out things like how they only have two (visible) wings, the smooth thorax, the way the eyes are positioned and the size of them, the lack of fuzz, stuff like that. Back then, though? Nope.

Anyway, bugs! Bugs are cool.

[mistressofmuses]

You were spot on! A weirdly small wasp! (I think it is, anyway - I worked with preserved insect collections for a while as an intern, but I'm not an entomologist, ha.) And I did say bee in the post, just because that IS most people's "it's got black and yellow stripes" go-to. Just like trying to explain "no, no: it's actually a fly!" haha.

Bugs are SO cool! I love them!

[olivermoss]

Huh, never seen/heard of an ambush bug before. Do they pretend to be part of the flower?

Cool pic of your dad!

[mistressofmuses]

Weirdly, I haven't really seen anything talking about ambush bugs having real camouflage, but looking at the ones in our nearby park it's clear that they do! The ones on the white daisies are much more white, with some brown or gold patterning, while there are ones on the black-eyed-susans that are predominantly yellow and orange. It's not perfect, but it is noticeable. So I think they DO attempt to look like whatever flowers they're on. Though they also attack by hiding under the petals and then very quickly springing up to nab things!

Thank you! :)

[olivermoss]

Interesting! I wonder if it's just... flowers in an area changing faster than they can adapt.

[mistressofmuses]

I wonder about it, too! It's clearly not a perfect camouflage system - the ones on the purple sage flowers aren't at all purple, but are more like the white ones - but it's noticeable between white and yellow. I wonder how it works... they're eating the same things regardless of the flower color, so it doesn't seem dietary...

I'm sure there's a grad thesis in there!

[spikedluv]

Ha, the bug drama!

It's really cool that you got to see your dad perform.

[mistressofmuses]

SUCH drama!

And yes - it was very nice that I got to go see him.