This small grasshopper was found on the leaf of a daylily in our landscaping. I know very little about grasshoppers, but I believe it to be a Clear-winged Grasshopper, which are widespread in North America but only found in the most northern areas of Ohio.
Category Archives: Insects
Dolichopodidae
Dolichopodidae, or the long-legged flies, are a large family of “true flies” with more than 7,000 described species. Or so says wikipedia. They also tend to have beautiful metallic colors. These two were spotted on the pepper plants in my garden. I believe they were involved in a mating ritual or territorial dispute. The one …
Baltimore Checkerspot
A new “life butterfly” for me today, thanks to my wife who spotted it first: Euphydryas phaeton, aka the Baltimore Checkerspot. This butterfly was incredibly cooperative and allowed me to take as many pictures as I needed to get a good one.
Golden-backed Snipe Fly: Mating Event
I’ve posted photos of this fly in the past, but this is the first time I’ve captured the male & female together, and definitely the first time I have seen a mating event. The mating flies are still capable of flight, and I had to chase this pair across the grass to get the photograph. …
Two-Striped Grasshopper
Cleveland Metroparks – West Creek was exploding with this grasshopper species on Saturday. Thousands were hopping on the trails, meadows, and parking areas.
Feather-legged Fly
I get excited when I realize that I’m looking at something new. With the help of duckduckgo and the right search terms, I was able to identify it as a Feather-legged Fly, probably Trichopoda pennipes. It was flitting around on the grassy field at Bath Nature Preserve this morning.
Chickweed Geometer
If your yard has clover growing in it, it might have these too: Chickweed Geometer, a relatively small but colorful moth about 3/4″ to 1″ in width, resting in the grass with its wings spread. My records show that my last observation was also in September– its their time of year.
Wild Indigo Duskywing
I’ve noticed an unfortunate trend on my blog, where I post a photograph of something I’ve seen and I add a comment like “I’m not 100% sure what this is, there’s a bunch that look just like this, I’m gonna guess this is XYZ, etc.” Well, here I am again, although this time I’m pretty …
Northern Pearly Eye
Once you have learned to identify the most common butterflies, the real challenge begins: realizing when you have something completely new on your hands! At first I though this was a Little Wood-Satyr, but the brown line on the wing seemed too jagged and the time wasn’t right: here in the north, the flight of …
June Moth Roundup
Here is a sampling of the moth species I was able to photograph this month. To start off we have a tiny moth (that’s a blade of grass it is clinging too), known as Crambus agitatellus. It has no common name and few details are known about this moth, but it seems to be quite …