One young camper had a talent for catching almost anything from lizards to skippers. He ran towards me one day with this juvenile Carolina Anole, saying, “Mr. Mike, it’s eating a moth”. Just as I snapped a photo, it gulped down its meal, oblivious to all the commotion (click photos to enlarge)

We witnessed a lot of the “cycle of life” these past two weeks. Here a Bumblebee Mimic Robberfly has captured a bumblebee.

Another view of robberfly and bee – you can see some differences in the mimic and the model here – the robberfly has short antennae and very different eye structure

Green Lynx spiders are now large enough to easily see in the wildflowers, where they prey heavily on pollinators, including wasps and bees

Another Green Lynx with a fly. These active hunters do not build webs for capturing their prey, but instead pounce on them like a large cat

Perhaps a nymph of one of the Spiny Assassin Bugs?

We had a lot of critters land on us during camp. This jumping spider (Hentzia sp.?) picked one of our more squeamish instructors to hitch a ride on.

An ant dragging a dead wasp. One camper told me “ants are the strongest animals in the world and they can carry over 10 times their own weight”. I googled it and found that ants are, indeed, incredibly strong and are believed to be able to carry 10-50 times their own weight (equivalent to a human lifting ~9000 pounds). Their body structure and movement are being studied by engineers in the hopes of designing powerful microbots to perform all sorts of tasks. Who is teaching who in this camp?

Hackberry Emperor butterflies frequently perch on humans to imbibe our salts (sweat)

Our visit to the vernal pool in the woods yielded a variety of newly transformed amphibians. Eastern Narrow-mouthed toads, actually tiny toad-like frogs, were everywhere along the edge of the pool.

Fowler’s Toad toadlets were also common

A very tiny Cope’s Gray Treefrog (note the diagnostic white patch under they eye)

This American Dagger Moth caterpillar provided a lesson in being a naturalist and observing the world around you. I found some frass (insect poop) on the trail. After helping them figure out what it was, I asked the campers where to look for the caterpillar that made it. After a couple of guesses in all directions, one camper figured it out and pointed up. We brought it into the classroom to observe for a few days before releasing it back into the wild. The campers named this hairy caterpillar, “prickly pear”.

We all witnessed an amazing act – a female Dobsonfly laying her egg case on the wall outside the classroom (it took over an hour). Unfortunately, the hatchlings will not fall into a suitable aquatic habitat when they emerge.

A short-horned grasshopper nymph

A newly emerged damselfly with exuvia on an emergent stem of Pickerelweed

Newly hatched leaf-footed bug nymphs and eggs (click photos to enlarge)

Wheel bug (aka Assassin bug)

Silver-spotted skipper – these are incredibly abundant at the Garden right now

Chinese mantid nymph eating a butterfly

A really large Six-spotted fishing spider that has pulled its prey up onto a lily pad to dine

A closer look shows it captured a dragonfly nymph. Also note what appears to be a freeloader fly dining on the spillage (look just above the spiders eyes for the fly)

Great blue skimmer at the Turtle Pond

Our hike to Morgan Creek is always a highlight. We caught several dobsonfly larvae (hellgrammites) in the swifter water

The campers spotted this water snake dining on a catfish. We watched it for about 15 minutes as it slowly worked the fish into its mouth

A jumping spider (Phidippus sp.) was one of many things caught while sweep netting

One of my favorite critters to catch while sweep netting is this tiny plant hopper, Rhynchomitra microrhina. It really needs a common name, so we usually call it the pointy nose thingie

Lacewing larva – the huge jaws are used to capture prey such as aphids. The larvae have bristles on the dorsal surface to which they attach debris and the bodies of their victims. Secretions from the corpses may help the larvae move through a group of prey without being detected

One of the campers described a butterfly he saw as looking like a buckeye underneath and a monarch when it opened its wings. We finally saw this American lady and solved the riddle

A child’s eyes can often find the most beautiful object lying on the trail. This is one half of the elytra (hardened forewings) of a beetle, probably a Fiery Searcher Caterpillar Hunter (now that’s a name!)

Cope’s Gray Treefrog, juvenile (click photos to enlarge)

Green Lynx Spider

Green Treefrog

Don’t bother me

Carolina Anole

Variegated Fritillary chrysalis

Gulf Fritillary chrysalis

Freshly emerged Gulf Fritillary

Black swallowtail larva, early instar

Monarch butterfly stretching her wings after emerging from the chrysalis (click photos to enlarge)

Some monarchs are not so lucky. This one was brought to me by a wonderful volunteer. She was hoping to release an adult butterfly, but a tachinid fly larvae emerged instead. Its pupa is the brown case beneath the damaged monarch chrysalis.

Tachinid flies are common parasitoids of many butterflies and moths. But I had never found a caterpillar with the white eggs of one of these flies on it until I stumbled across this one this week.

This female Green Lynx Spider laid her egg sac in the protected cover of a Hooded Pitcher Plant.

Another Green Lynx female sits next to her recently hatched spiderlings atop a Cardinal Flower seed stalk.

These Green Lynx Spider babies have molted once and will soon disperse away from their protective mother.

After our wet summer, the Garden is now alive with many tiny Cope’s Gray Treefrogs.

A co-worker alerted me to this Black Swallowtail pre-pupa one afternoon this week. Knowing it would shed one more time and reveal the chrysalis in the next 24-hours, I brought it to our volunteer training  the next morning.

I carried the pre-pupa along on a training session and, right on schedule, the last molt occurred and everyone was able to witness the amazing transformation to the chrysalis.

Monarch butterfly shortly after emergence from its chrysalis (click photos to enlarge)

One of the horticulture staff spotted this female marbled salamander (females have gray markings, males have white  ones) among the soil around some plants in the Display Gardens. She will be laying eggs soon in a wetland depression and will guard them until rains fill the pool.

Seed pods of Hearts-a-bustin, Euonymus americanus, one of my favorite native shrubs of autumn.

A purple-crested slug moth caterpillar (Adoneta spinuloides) that has recently molted.

This larva has fallen victim to a wasp parasitoid. The white silky blob beneath the caterpillar are the wasp cocoons. One study estimated that 10 to 25% of all last instar caterpillars are parasitized by wasp or fly parasitoids.

The day after my caterpillar program we discovered this group of turbulent phosphila moth larvae feeding on their host plant, greenbrier. It can be hard to tell which end is which on this gregarious feeder.

Certainly one of the stranger-looking groups of moths, the plume moths, resemble tiny gliders.

The week ended rather poorly for this male carpenter bee that was prey for this Chinese mantis.

Fall is just around the corner when the goldenrods (Solidgo sp.) are in bloom.