Gnat-ogre

If you've got wings, and would fit between the one and two millimeter marks on a ruler, I'd advise staying out of the sights of the creature above. This is the tiny but deadly Gnat-ogre, Holcocephala fusca, and I photographed this individual last Thursday at Resthaven Wildlife Area.

Gnat-ogres are robberflies, just on a nearly impossibly small scale. I like this group of carnivorous flies, and have written about them many times. The robberflies are certainly a successful lineage of the massive Dipteran Order, and the various species come in many forms. The largest of their lot in this part of the world is the giant Red-footed Cannibal Fly, Promachus hinei, a true horrorshow. It would take possibly thousands of the Gnat-ogre pictured here to make a cannibal fly.

Small as it may be, the Gnat-ogre is every bit as aggressively predacious as its larger brethren. The animal in my photo has a victim - some sort of small winged creature that would be nearly invisible to the naked eye. Given that the ogre is only 2-3 millimeters in length, you can get a sense of how truly elfin its prey is.

There are predators operating at every level. While the mighty Peregrine Falcon is millions of times larger than this Gnat-ogre, their modus operandi are essentially the same. And each is equally deadly, in their own way.

A few cool bugs, featuring Northern metalmark

A little while back, on a bright hot sunny day, I made a short foray to a local meadow in search of the Northern metalmark, a rather hard to find butterfly. This site is full of native plants, and in addition to the metalmarks there is a rich insect fauna. Following are a few photos of various bugs that I encountered.

A dun skipper, Euphyes vestris, tees up rather boldly. A plain jane of the butterfly world, duns do have their charms. Sneak into close proximity of one, and be dazzled when it roars off - they make a loud wing buzz reminiscent of a large wasp.

I was pleased  to see this one, a Delaware skipper, Anatrytone logan, a butterfly I don't see all that often. It has beautiful cinnamon-yellow underwings when seen with wings folded overhead.

Watch for a bit, and the Delaware skipper is apt to splay its wings out like so, revealing a stunning orange and black pattern.

A gorgeous female widow skimmer, Libellula luctuosa, suns itself. This specimen is very fresh, and was probably still in the larval (nymph) stage a day or two before I photographed her. Newly emerged dragonflies, and females that have mated, often retreat to meadows away from water to avoid hyper-aggressive adult males, which tend to remain in the wetlands.

Tiny but fierce, a gnat-ogre, Holcocephala fusca, commandeers a conspicuous perch. Such a collection of gnat-ogres I had never seen - there were dozens throughout the meadow. Gnat-ogres are miniscule robber flies, but are every bit as ferocious as their larger more easily seen counterparts. The proboscis, by which the fly dispatches its victims, can be seen in this photo. It is the little black syringe projecting downward between the eyes. Twenty-five of these flies could probably fit on your thumbnail.

I was somewhat surprised to see several individuals of this rather intimidating looking bee, but perhaps I shouldn't have been. It is the giant resin bee, Megachile sculpturalis, and these were the first that I've seen in Ohio. The giant resin bee is indigenous to Asia, and has been rapidly colonizing eastern North America. The first U.S. record came from North Carolina in 1994, and they've spread far and wide since. Resin bees appropriate carpenter bee burrows for nesting sites. This is one to watch for.

Finally, after wandering through the lea for a bit, a flash of brown shot by and lit on a black-eyed susan - Northern metalmark, Calephelis borealis!

There seems to be two vital botanical ingredients necessary for metalmark production: round-leaved ragwort, Packera obovata, and black-eyed susans, Rudbeckia hirta. The butterflies lay eggs on the former, and it serves as the host plant for their caterpillars. The adults are drawn to the latter as a nectar source.

The metalmark's underwings are a beautiful shade of soft orange, stippled with black dashes. It was a real treat to once again share company with these showy little butterflies, and most of their six-legged companions weren't so bad, either.