Journal #5
USA, California, Alameda County, Lat: 37.863630 Long: -122.261120, Elev: 64m, 5 May 2020, Coll: E. Antunez
Method: Hand catching
Time: 4:30pm-5:15pm and 7:15pm-8:00pm
While scrambling to finish the collection, I went for two very nice strolls around my neighborhood. I noticed that a lot of homeowners have gardens in their front yard. I first noticed a trail of ants originating from some old fruit that was on the ground. I followed it for a while and snapped some cool pics. They were a bit larger than the ones from my home in SoCal; turns out they were small honey ants. I continued walking and stopped at a big vegetated patch and noticed quite a few ladybugs. I walked into the patch a bit and something jumped out. I looked around and saw a grasshopper had jumped onto the cement and I knew I wouldn’t be able to catch it without it flying away, so I took a pic as quick as I could! After that, I was mostly looking at bunches of flowers and trees and saw a couple of small moths greatly camouflaged on some trees. There was a dying hornet that I almost stepped on, rip to that guy. As I passed the hornet, I began flipping leaves to see if I could find any aphids and found some cool looking Rhopalosiphum (not sure if they have a general name) which I had never really paid attention to but they are real cute. I also saw a blue-ish calliphora that looked really pretty basking in the sun. I decided to go home cause it was pretty hot out with my mask. I went back out around 7:15 and noticed a very tiny mantis on the ground! I have no idea how I noticed it because it was so tiny but I was able to catch it in a vile and take a couple photos. While looking at some leaves, I saw a tiny Thaumatomyia on the edge of a leaf and some little brown moths. When I was walking back home, I saw something chillin on an apartment building. It looked super cool and the wings formed a heart (somewhat. When I posted it on iNaturalist, the first recommendation was Myrmeleontinae. Overall, I had a pretty successful day.
Species List:
A couple small honey ants
A couple seven-spotted lady beetles
1 grasshopper
Small brown moths (unidentified)
1 hornet
1 Rhopalosiphum
1 calliphora
1 mantis
1 Thaumatomyia
1 Myrmeleontinae
Species Account:
I was really excited about catching the little mantid mostly because I have no idea how I saw it on the ground! It was literally so little and near the edge where the cement stopped and a grassy patch started. I wasn’t able to identify it more distinctly, but someone on iNaturalist recommended to me that it was an Arizona Mantis, which when I looked at the map of observations shows that there have been sightings in the Bay Area. I was curious to know how long it would take the mantis to grow into its mature form so I looked it up and I was so shocked. Maybe I am uneducated on mantis life cycles but I did not know that they molt! They molt about 5-10 times in their lifetime, so the little guy still has a long time to go!