Ryan M Miller wrote:Does anybody have an idea what insect this is?

It looks a little like an antlion.  Honestly, when I don't know, I email someone at entomology department since I work on campus.

https://www.insectidentification.org/insects-by-state.asp?thisState=Ohio

This is a helpful web site.

For a split second I thought this was an Asian hornet (which would have been bad news).  Then I realised its face and the way it flew and everything about it was saying "fly" so I went and looked it up.  It is Volucella zonaria, the hornet mimic hoverfly.

It certainly looks like a hornet Hester, how strange.

Here's a selection of some of our bugs.

Scorpion Fly - Panorpa communis (look at its tail)



Convolvulous Hawk Moth Agrius convolvulis (Wingspan Range - 80-120mm - This is probably a male)



Black-headed Cardinal beetle Pyrochroa coccinea on a Tayberry



White spotted rose beetle (Oxythyrea funesta) Called Drap mortuaire in France (Translates to "Mortuary sheet" in English!)



A Hummingbird Hawk-moth stuck in a Star Jasmine (I ripped the flower open to release the moth once I'd taken the video)

I went outside this afternoon to a favorite patch of milkweed to find monarch caterpillars. I found more insects in addition to monarch caterpillars:

I was out cutting some black locust today, and after cutting up one tree, I go back where I started and crawling out of a small hole in the trunk was a slug! I was quite surprised and a slug is probably the last thing I ever thought I would see crawl out of the interior of a tree.

This Hercules beetle was found in a parking lot a few weeks ago.

I've been taking photographs of all the black parsley swallowtail caterpillars I find in my garden. I don't really see them as a garden pest like cabbage butterfly (Pieris sp.) caterpillars. If they pose any real threat to my parsley or carrots, I simply move them to a new host plant. The adult butterflies are beautiful anyway.

Whenever I see this grasshopper, it cracks me up. Look at it's stupid face! I feel like it needs a monocle.

Amy Arnett wrote:Whenever I see this grasshopper, it cracks me up. Look at it's stupid face! I feel like it needs a monocle.

So cool.  I love Japan!

I've grown accustomed to my morning routine.  Coffee, dogs out and standing by the Mexican sunflowers loaded with Bumbles and Monarchs.  This A.M. 11/13/2019 I noticed that there is no activity and two of the flowers have dead bumbles on them.  Frost I think but very strange.  I though Bumbles nested at night?

Scott Foster wrote:two of the flowers have dead bumbles on them.  Frost I think but very strange.  I though Bumbles nested at night?

They'll often hang out on flowers overnight so they have a food source first thing in the morning. Are you sure they're dead? Might just be waiting for the sun to warm them up enough to get going.

Jan White wrote:

Scott Foster wrote:two of the flowers have dead bumbles on them.  Frost I think but very strange.  I though Bumbles nested at night?

They'll often hang out on flowers overnight so they have a food source first thing in the morning. Are you sure they're dead? Might just be waiting for the sun to warm them up enough to get going.

Jan, I actually touched this guy.  He is dead for a sure.  One other I touched actually moved.  I think it was a gentle frost that did him/her in.

Scott Foster wrote: He is dead for a sure.  One other I touched actually moved.  I think it was a gentle frost that did him/her in.

Poor bumbler! I'd still pick her up and breathe on her for a bit before I gave up, but apparently I'm pigheaded :)

Here's a red emperor from earlier this year. Don't remember what the second caterpillar is.

These guys hang out in my tomatoes (among other places) and make a fantastic racket. Louder than a cricket and usually more of a sustained trill.

Banana spider and some sort of butterfly larva

Found this praying mantis in the rye straw this morning and it reminded me of the baby mantis picture I took in the spring.