The Eyes (and Legs) Have It

One of my favorite things about having a wild-ish yard & garden is seeing amazing tiny critters there. While I love birds, there are only so many species that are likely to stop by my feeders. I never seem to run out of new insect sightings, however, right on my own property! I think maybe I should have considered entomology as a career path, I find the insects (and similar invertebrates like spiders) so fascinating.

So today I want to show you a few of my favorite recent sightings. I'm not even including any butterflies in this post; these are just some other cool bugs and spiders up close. Judging by the photos I've been taking lately, I am particularly fascinated by eyes and legs. Who knew?

My first observation this week comes with hundreds of legs, although it's not just a single individual.  It turns out that some species of wolf spider carry their offspring around on their backs for weeks until the babies are big enough to catch their own food. I encounter a lot of wolf spiders in my yard and garden, but don't often get to see them with spiderlings still attached. I found this little family while weeding my gravel driveway. That's a lot of little ones!

I managed to get a couple of photos while she was still out in the open...

...before she scurried under a chunk of mulch. Look at all those legs!

Where spiders have eight eyes, I think insect eyes are often even cooler. The giant multifaceted eyes of dragonflies, for example. But this little syrphid fly that I found sitting on the center of an echinacea flower,  is definitely in contention for best insect eyes ever! I *think* it's a Wavy Patterneye (Orthonevra nitida); I'm still waiting for confirmation/correction from other folks on iNaturalist. 

The fly almost looks like someone drew squiggles on its eyes-- Wavy Patterneye indeed.

And finally, I've finally confirmed that my yard is hosting leafcutter bees. I've been seeing a lot of clean little bits taken out of leaves on several kinds of plants, with no caterpillars in sight. I haven't found any leafcutter bee nests in my bee hotel yet, but then I spotted this cute little bee on some Woodland Sunflower (Helianthus strumosus). It looks a lot like a bee another naturalist I know recently tweeted as a Western Leafcutter. So I'm thinking it's at least the same genus-- Megachile-- which includes Leafcutter, Mortar, and Resin Bees. Leafcutter bees line a tubular nest with bits of leaves and then lay eggs in separate cells, provisioning each cell with pollen or maybe a mix of nectar and pollen. The little larvae eat the food when they hatch, then cocoon and later emerge as adults. Pretty neat! 

Gathering nectar or pollen, for a nest perhaps?

As for where the leafcutters are nesting, we do have a lot of Carpenter Bees around that make their nests in our wooden fencing and porch eaves. Maybe the Leafcutters are using old carpenter bee burrows? I'll keep looking for the leafy cocoons... meanwhile I think this striped little bee is pretty darn cute! Click the above picture to enlarge it so you can see its big gorgeous eyes. 

That round stripey bottom!

Here are the signs of leafcutter bees that I've been seeing-- neat, semicircular bits cut out of the edges of leaves. Have you seen similar signs on leaves in your area? Pretty cool what you can discover if you just keep your eyes open! (See what I did there?)

Interesting how there were different size chunks taken out of these leaves-- sometimes small, sometimes large.