Tag Archives: fly

Late Bloomer

Posted on October 31, 2011 by

This time of year I’m always on the lookout for witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) flowers.  One last burst of life before everything shuts down for the winter.  They usually start to appear in the middle of October, but this year … Continue reading →

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Tiny Things With Frilly Wings

Posted on October 12, 2011 by

On a recent crawl through the woods near my house, a white and thoroughly nondescript bracket fungus caught my eye.  It was so plain-looking that I didn’t imagine I would ever know its name, but looking in George Barron’s Mushrooms … Continue reading →

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Stinkhorns

Posted on October 1, 2011 by

Not far from the dead squirrel, I encountered something else that was attracting a lot of flies.  The smell was far more intense and unpleasant than from the squirrel parts, yet it wasn’t decomposing at all, but in the prime … Continue reading →

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Disappearing Squirrel

Posted on September 27, 2011 by

Today I found some squirrel parts lying in the woods.  A red fox had killed a gray squirrel and had done a pretty good job eating it, leaving just the tail (left), the stomach (right, largely covered by a chunk … Continue reading →

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Fly Buffet

Posted on September 23, 2011 by

Happy autumn!  I am now exactly three months behind in sorting my photographs.  To celebrate the occasion, I thought I’d share this quaint little scene I just came across from the first day of summer: a whole bunch of different flies … Continue reading →

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Dog Bot

Posted on September 20, 2011 by

Hey, so this is pretty gross:  Last week my brother-in-law sent me a picture of a larva he had squeezed out of a lump in his dog’s back.  I knew it had to be the larva of a bot fly … Continue reading →

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Life on a Bolete

Posted on September 4, 2011 by

Time for another installment of my celebration of fungus fauna.  The day after Hurricane Irene came through my woods, I went for a walk to survey the damage.  There was practically none, as it turned out, other than the hickory … Continue reading →

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Good Bugs & Bad Bugs

Posted on August 9, 2011 by

By far the most common question I’m asked when I identify an insect for someone is, “is it a good bug or a bad bug?”  I usually don’t give a straight answer.  Maybe this post will help illustrate why.  For … Continue reading →

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Fly Eyes

Posted on July 26, 2011 by

I’m about two months behind in sorting my photos.  I just made it to the morning of June 1, when I was at a campground in Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in Virginia. Here is one of the first faces … Continue reading →

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Hanging Flies and Hangingflies

Posted on July 25, 2011 by

Three years ago in Noah Charney’s mother’s driveway, I spotted a long-legged insect hanging from the edge of a leaf.  I wondered if I had found a hangingfly (Bittacidae), which is not a true fly but a member of the … Continue reading →

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