It was the tail end of
Arachtober, and I was running out of spider photos. Oyster Bay seemed a good place to look for a new candidate. I stopped first, to look at the trees in their glorious late fall outfits.
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| From the meadow, looking back at the parking lot. |
Then on to snoop in the corners and crevices.
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| First find: a cherry-faced meadowhawk. On the parking lot fence. |
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| Under the eaves of the public washroom (centre, top photo); a tightly-wrapped cocoon. |
I found one of these cocoons
on my doorstep four years ago. I kept it in a container for a month, and a wasp emerged.
BugGuide identified it as a parasitoid wasp, but the cocoon would have belonged to the larva of a caterpillar. I couldn't reach this one to capture it; I may go back with some long-handled tool.
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| Also on the washroom: a house spider with her four egg cases. Too small, too high above my head for an Arachtober photo. |
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| And finally, on the pilings by the shore, a running reddish and black spider. Mission accomplished. |
