Wednesday, July 09, 2025

Counting spots and lines

 Flying critters, long and skinny, short and fat:

Four-spotted skimmer, Libellula quadrimaculata. Beautiful stained-glass wings! With 2 black spots on the leading edges of each wing, making 8 spots. Plus 2 at the hinge of the rear wings. So, 10.

And here's the June beetle my cat brought me. A 10-lined June beetle, Polyphylla decemlineata.

She was in a bad mood, hissing her complaint about the cat, and I let her go without insisting on a clear antenna shot.

She's a female: the males have huge antennae that they spread out like fans to detect female pheromones.

Male antenna, collapsed. Photo from 2011.

And another bluet. These have 4 black and blue wing spots, one on each.

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Tres criaturas voladoras, largas y delgadas, o chaparritas y gordas:
  1. Una libélula de cuatro puntos, Libellula quadrimaculata. En el borde anterior de cada ala hay dos manchas negras, dándonos 8 en total. Y con las dos manchas cerca de la articulación de las alas posterioras, son 10 "puntos". Pero la llaman la quadrimaculata.
  2. Esta es la escarabajo rayado hembra que me trajo la gata. Una Polyphylla decemlineata, con 10 rayas negras en el dorso, 4 largas, 1 muy corta.
  3. Estaba de muy mal humor, quejándose del trato de la gata con su siseo, y la dejé irse sin sacar una foto buena de su antena. Es hembra; los machos tienen antenas grandes, que abren en forma de abanico para oler las feromonas de las hembras.
  4. Una antena de un macho, cerrada. Foto de 2011.
  5. Y otro caballito del diablo. Estos tienen 4 manchas, azules con negro, una en cada ala.

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