HOLY CRAP ON A CRACKER! Lucky Friday the 13th indeed! Stumbled across the elusive (in Ore.) Steel-blue Cricket-hunter wasp (Chlorion aerarium) (and a very unfortunate cricket; Gryllus sp.) 10 iNat & 1 BugGuide sightings in Ore. Very difficult to differentiate from Common Blue Mud-dauber Wasp 1/2
It's unfair that "vanilla" has come to mean 'standard or simple'. It's made from an orchid that only grows in a few very specific tropical paradises. But one of the most interesting stories about vanilla is their utter dependence on the sex life of the Euglossini orchid bees. (📷: Raquel Lonas)
I have so many photos to process from this year that I'm wildly jumping from folder to folder to work on the cooler stuff. Here's a Tamaulipan Rock Rattlesnake (Crotalus morulus) from Nuevo León, Mexico a few weeks ago. Kicking off the pumpkin spice season.