[Last night I was extremely lucky to find this wasp mantisfly at my mercury vapor light in my backyard. This is only the second one I have seen and both times it was at my light in my backyard in July. While it looks like a small preying mantid, it is actually closely related to the lacewings. This particular species is probably Dicromantispa sayi but there is another very similar species Leptomantispa pulchella.]

Last night I was extremely lucky to find this wasp mantisfly at my mercury vapor light in my backyard. This is only the second one I have seen and both times it was at my light in my backyard in July. While it looks like a small preying mantid, it is actually closely related to the lacewings. This particular species is probably Dicromantispa sayi but there is another very similar species Leptomantispa pulchella.

The common name is really interesting, combining a wasp (which it apparently mimics), a mantid and a fly, although it isn't any of these insects. I would not want to be a smaller insect when this thing came trekking around. It reminds me of an insect from those old Japanese Saturday afternoon science fiction flicks I grew up watching or the thing at the end of Men in Black that scales up the tower in New York. In any case, what an incredibly cool insect...enjoy.

EastBrusnwickPatch

[a stink bug killer]

Behind closed doors at the Phillip Alampi Beneficial Insect Rearing Laboratory here, entomologists with the state Department of Agriculture have quarantined a stink bug killer in the form of egg parasites from Asia.

http://wildnewjersey.tv/2011/08/10/times-of-trenton-raising-an-insect-army-just-outside-of-trenton.aspx?ref=rss YAY, we're getting a Stinkbug Army!!!

[Fifty-one of them, as best I could count them, with at least an equal number of Great Blue Herons and even a couple of Sandhill Cranes at the far side of the pool closest to the thruway]

http://blogs.democratandchronicle.com/birds/2011/08/08/a-gathering-of-egrets/

Fifty-one of them, as best I could count them, with at least an equal number of Great Blue Herons and even a couple of Sandhill Cranes at the far side of the pool closest to the thruway

[Chicks abused by older birds are more likely to grow up to become abusers themselves, scientists have found.]

Chicks abused by older birds are more likely to grow up to become abusers themselves, scientists have found.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/14418174  Just like humans!

[Gulls In The OutfieldYou can see them at work on a visit to AT&T Park. In the bottom of the 9th inning, the San Diego Padres are up, 5-3, over the hometown Giants.As the crowd cheers the late-inning comeback, hundreds of gulls appear from across the water. Like clockwork, they show up just before the game ends."Don't ask me how — they just know," says Mike Krukow, a broadcaster with the Giants. "They come in, and it's always with two outs to go in the 9th inning, and there they are."]

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/09/139029759/in-san-francisco-look-out-for-gulls-gone-wild more

Gulls In The Outfield

You can see them at work on a visit to AT&T Park. In the bottom of the 9th inning, the San Diego Padres are up, 5-3, over the hometown Giants.
As the crowd cheers the late-inning comeback, hundreds of gulls appear from across the water. Like clockwork, they show up just before the game ends.
"Don't ask me how — they just know," says Mike Krukow, a broadcaster with the Giants. "They come in, and it's always with two outs to go in the 9th inning, and there they are."

Beauty on FCT.

He's cute - looks a lot like my baby picture!   

 

 

Here she is!!

http://www.peregrinefalcon-bcaw.net/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=715&p=148776#p148776 Go here for an excellent pic of S2. She looks wonderful, considering. 

  What a gal!! She wants to get back to Pa and kick butt!!

  12,000... I'm shocked!!!!!  How can that be possible? You're hardly ever on this website!!      

I know right! Someone must have hacked my name! 

It's Beauty time!! Hi Pretty!

[Oh boy, um THANKS?]

just noticed, congratulations on exactly 12000 posts!

Oh boy, um THANKS? A little quicker than I thought!

Hi Neil and welcome back. I see you have been very busy. Great videos and I'm still going through them. Fantasia is still my Favorite. Watching the Woodpecker movie right now! Awesome. Thanks and good luck in your movie career.