Blog post about this interesting interaction: Leptogaster vs. Argiope spider
https://robberfly.org/2023/05/06/leptogaster-stealth-spider-hunters/
One of many Heteropogon of this species out today, but this one had a curious interaction: I watched it sit next to the beetle, then fly around nearby in the hovering (courtship?) dance, and then sit again. It seemed like it was trying to court the beetle?! Maybe just because of the visual similarity since the beetle was sitting on a twig tip like the Heteropogon do. Or maybe some pheromone mixup? I managed to save both specimens, I’ll make a duplicate for the beetle when I can get better photos of it for ID.
I finally looked at these under a lens and wow, the males are so cool looking! I finally see why Martin named the species “mica”! The spatulate abdomen is remarkable, too. So I've duplicated this observation to show them off.
As Martin's description says: tergite 2 brown tomentose on posterior 2/3, tergites 3-6 densely gray stippled pollinose, tergites 1-3 with short reddish yellow hair, middle of mystax with some orange hairs, tibiae red.
Saw dozens of these little shiny brown Holopogon out on palo verde or mesquite twig tips about head high down near the (dry) wash. Specimens in coll. These are closely related to the shiny blue species also out now (sapphirus), and this is the type locality. I think this is just my second time finding this species (also once outside Madera canyon in 2019).
Found some Heteropogon on my way out of the Leptogaster site at sunset. One regular H. paurosomus on a tree twig, then one male (here) and female of this super fuzzy and big species perching on some waist-high grasses in the field. I put a leg from each in ethanol.
Identifying these was a trick— Wilcox didn’t include the species in his keys because it was only known from Mexico at the time. So they key out near H. johnsoni, and I think a bunch of the specimens in the UAIC are misID’d as such because they were just working through the key. But johnsoni males supposedly have a black tuft on the middle tibiae (like many other Heteros), which these don’t. And Eric Fisher at least believes H. divisus comes up here— he included it in the draft checklist and has iD’d them on Bugguide as such (e.g., https://bugguide.net/node/view/1739923). This one seems a little orange (especially vs the white female) but I guess that sometimes happens.
5226 We walked up Mimosa Creek from the Ring Rd and looped back to the Ring Rd.
Looking for scorpions with blacklight flashlight and happily discovered this species flouresces, too!
Found up high originally on dead branch (location shown in 2nd picture) before it flew down, landed on my shoulder and then took off again. Followed it probably 100ft to where it was perching low to the ground on a maple branch (final picture). Tons of wasps and bees around for food. I'll try to revisit this site again before the season is over, not feeling well today but glad I took a chance.
The male stroked the females eyes and thorax then approached from behind with forelegs raised. The female raised the tip of her abdomen. I accidentally scared them away before they could copulate.
ID tentative; improvement welcomed.
Another exciting find!
Possibly E. formosa or E. pubera?
It moved when I got too close and landed nearby. That worked a couple of times, but then it had enough and vanished.
I joined Jonathan Mays (FWC invertebrate scientist) on his ongoing survey for Machimus polyphemi. This species is only found within gopher tortoise burrows, and thus far, it has never been found away from a burrow. It preys on the diverse invertebrate community that lives within tortoise burrows. Here it is eating a cave cricket.
Dirk Stevenson devised a method for surveying for these, which he describes in this excellent post:
https://gophertortoisecouncil.org/newsletter/31-volume-41-number-1/104-sandhill-robbers
Note that it's illegal to harass tortoises, so a permit is needed to survey for these.
For the robber. Found with Dirk Stevenson.
Woohoo, after a few weeks of trying I finally found a Promachella! @myelaphus Specimen saved in 95% EtOH and freezer for us.
In a sketchy but biologically nice park (I get the sense “greasewood” doesn’t just refer to the tree, I’d you catch my drift… I can be clueless, but even I eventually started to notice there were rather a lot of fit looking men wandering around the desert here!)
This weevil was pulled from a stream, and as such was wet. May complicate ID?
Collected while hovering: slowly drifting flight near ceiling of porch. Occasionally lunged 4-6 inches upward to ceiling, but did not see it actually taking prey. Legs hanging in flight like a wasp. Did not land during ~3 minutes of observation.
Family: Asilidae
Subfamily: Leptogastrinae
Tribe: Leptogastrini
Genus: Ophionomima
Possibly Ophionomima solocifemur
Due to hind legs and locality
1 Feb 2021
stunning beast, but can't find a match.....
Purple eye Asilidae (Robber flies),
Ommatiini?
Is the fungi Entomophthora?
Purple eyes deflated and have like snow like fungi on body and part of the legs.
1 Dec 2022
A very odd Leptogaster I found last month. Doesn't seem to match any species in the Martin 1957 monograph, and there aren't any specimens with genitalia like this in the UAIC, either. I got this mating pair this day in September and then one other male three weeks later in October, all spotted flying through grass under the same tree by the side of the dry wash. Specimens in my collection, with legs in EtOH. Posting here in case anyone starts working on Leptogastrinae and gets curious.
Update: I heard back from Eric Fisher: "Your Leptogaster looks unusual and my guess is that it is new. I looked through my material on hand (I have 30 identified US species of the genus [...] Of course, it could be something unknown to us, from Mexico." Torsten Dikow also sent me a preliminary response saying he didn't know it offhand and would check specimens sometime.
So hunch confirmed that it's an odd one.
OHAS-790 collected by Rose Fromer with permission. Specimens collected as bycatch from Ohio Bee Survey.
OHAS-931 collected by Rebecca Thomas with permission. Specimens collected as bycatch from Ohio Bee Survey.
OHAS-795 collected by Rose Fromer with permission. Specimens collected as bycatch from Ohio Bee Survey.
Another guess. Saw some of these mating the other day.
Just basing this on iNat's suggestion -- I know there are no other observations of this genus in Ohio.
I went back after finding this species the previous day, and I found this pair! First Gulf coast locality.
Update: timestamp was messed up for some reason. Corrected by synching to the photo and re-saving
2 individuals seen at one time. may be more. Known population I'm pretty sure.