A new addition

I'm on my way to the pet store to pick up some small crickets... if this jumping spider (Phidippus audax) eats well, she'll get a nice cage and be my pet for a while.

She was captured by my neighbors - I haven't seen a jumping spider this large since I was about 10 years old! Most definitely a female, and I can already tell she is full of personality.
How can anyone resist that face?
They tend to live for only about 5 months, and as she is already quite large, I'm not sure how much longer she has to live. She will be a fun addition for a little while at least.

Time for change

My white-dotted prominent caterpillar is on its way to adulthood... I'm so proud!

Upside down

Found this big guy in our neighbor's pool - transferred it to my pond.
There is something wrong with this picture, though...
It's upside down! That's right... this is how they're supposed to be...
Backswimmers are quite common in my pond.
Like the lace bugs in the last post, they are in the order Hemiptera. Take a look at that beak!
Backswimmers are in the family Notonectidae, swim upside down, and are proficient predators. This one had a body length of a bit over 1cm.

Elegant lace

A few weeks ago, as shown in this post, I noticed a lace bug next to some eggs on our oak tree.
Yesterday I checked the tree, and it was covered in young and adult lace bugs!They are true bugs in the order Hemiptera, family Tingidae.
They can be pests on plants, but at the same time are rather beautiful (if you can get a good enough look at them, they are very small).

Water snake hunting

She's back again! The boys and I watched the northern water snake catch and eat one frog, but she kept hunting for more. So I ran to get my camera, and took a video of her hunting along the edge of the pond. What neat behaviors! She does a lot of poking around, lunging onto land, and wiggling her head back and forth.

She does not seem to mind us too much, in fact before I took the video, we all got to pet her. I think she's starting to associate us with food.

All silked up

Looks like someone else is getting ready to pupate...
My white-dotted prominent caterpillar has been looking funny lately - getting brown spots on its body, not moving much, sitting on the bottom of the jar, yet still eating and pooping in great quantities (just look at the size of that frass!). Yesterday I noticed it silking up around the bottom of the jar, so I ripped up a few leaves and threw them in to act as a substrate (better than glass alone, I'd think). We'll see if it follows through, I'll surely take more photos of the whole process.

Luxury accomodations

When I kept those camouflaged loopers for a day, I put them in one of my large plastic critter-keepers. Well one of the caterpillars decided the side of the cage would be a good place to pupate. So while the rest were released, I kept this one because it had silked up its decorations to the plastic. Over the next couple days I've watched it slowly transform, and today it finally looks more like a pupae than a caterpillar.
Only problem - now I can't use that whole big cage til this little guy is done!
Oh well, it'll be worth it to see the emerald moth that emerges.

Teensy tiny

Caterpillars!About a week ago the boys brought over a dead leaf with four tiny, perfectly round eggs on it. Two days ago they hatched into the tiniest caterpillars I have ever seen. I could only find three out of the four, and they had mostly eaten their egg shells. Since the eggs were laid on an oak leaf I have given them a piece of oak to eat, but I have not seen much evidence of feeding yet.

To give a sense of size, the vial in the above photo is only two inches tall, about an inch wide. The caterpillars are about 3mm long. Not sure if an ID is even possible at this point, but they sure have some distinctive hairs.

If I don't see them eating the leaf soon, I'll transfer them to a larger enclosure with more plant choices. Would be really fun to watch these grow!

How to eat a frog... backwards

Nature has really been spoiling me lately.

Northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon) takes down a little green frog (Rana clamitans) for dinner.

Camouflaged loopers - again

Remember those decorated caterpillars? I kept them overnight after placing a pink flower in their cage. Lo and behold...Cute little opportunists, aren't they.