(Full disclosure: I used a sweep net to find bugs at Bald Hill. I know the name of the site is Oregon Beat Sheet, but I need to use other tools sometimes. My sincerest apologies if you you feel I have unfairly misled you. I promise to get back to hitting plants with a stick soon.)
Bald Hill Natural Area is a park just west of Corvallis on Harrison Road. It’s a great place for local insect collecting, as there are huge grassy pastures for sweep netting, as well as dense shrubs and foliage and huge oaks and other trees for beat sheeting. In the past I’ve found lots of Neottiglossa undata by sweep net, but I haven’t had any success getting them to reproduce in the lab. I need to get a reproductive colony of them going in order to test them for our wasp. This trip was a success, and I found a ton of them. I also found Cosmopepla litneriana. I love Cosmopepla. I will probably do a post of them all on their own as soon as I can find Cosmopepla integressa but so far this year my search for them has been fruitless. However, I know a spot where I think they like to hang out. Near that spot is a really awesome Mexican place, so I should check it out soon.
Following a great seminar by my friend Todd, who did more work just to justify one of his research methods than I did for my entire masters, we went to Bald Hill while he and Melissa “botanized”. I came across this weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) early in the afternoon. They are relatively small – this photo is of the insect sitting on the tip of my thumb. I found this under a tree where in the past I have also found another insect that is supposed to be very common but I had never come across, the oak membracid. I’d never see a rostrum like this in person, so this was exciting for me. The rostrum on weevils are highly modified mouthparts, and they can chew through foliage and plant matter with just the tip of that big ol’ schnoz. They are a favorite of many entomologists.
Crab spiders (Araneae: Thomisidae) are very abundant right now all over Corvallis and the Willamette Valley. Everytime I swing my sweep net or bash on something with a beating sheet, I find between 5 and 50 crab spiders running around. I find them in my hair. I find them on my person. I find them in my car on the way back to the lab. This one had some dimples in it’s abdomen (not visible in this photo) that Todd suggested looked like something out of a Miyazaki film, and I agree.
I don’t know what kind of fly (Diptera) this is, other than that there were lots of them in the shady parts of the trail to the top of Bald Hill. This one was very patient while I tried to take its photograph. My fly ID is admittedly terrible so I won’t even try, except to say that it appears to have a ptilinal suture, so it belongs in the Schizophora. In latin, this would mean “schism carrier”. The suture comes from a bag that inflates from it’s face (the ptilinum) when it comes out of its puparium upon entering the adult stage. Flies are fascinating and gross.
Frogs are very often falling out of trees and bushes onto my beat sheet, and sometimes ending up in my sweep net. Frogs are not insects (which I know because I have a Master’s Degree in Entomology), but that’s ok because I like them and I am excited to see them when I do. This charmer was just hanging out on a leaf, enjoying the sunshiney day. Todd poked him and he jumped on me, which was thrilling. There is a tiny arthropod on his head, perhaps a small beetle or some kind of mite. You have mites living in your eyebrows. You should feel fortunate that they are not as large as the one that is on this frog’s eye.
Speaking of things that jump, Jumping spiders (Family Salticidae) are also very plentiful right now (and also not insects – I really earned that degree!). A ton of these bad boys are hanging out all over the sides of houses, including my own. This spider is a Phidippus sp. (maybe P. audax) chomping on another spider. Jumping spiders have great vision and are usually fairly curious if you put your finger near them. They won’t hurt you and are important beneficial arthropods to have around your home or garden. This genus has iridescent chelicerae (those huge fang looking on its face). They also look like they have a Miyazaki-inspired face on their abdomen. I like their infantile hairstyles. The identical twin-brother of Oregon State Professor David Maddison‘s brother is a salticid expert at UBC.
Watch the video below to see it chowing down on another spider. The video has been slowed to 50% it’s real speed.
Oregon Beat Sheet 
Who knew weevils were so cute?