Four-humped Stink Bug

Four-humped Stink Bug (Brochymena quadripustulata)

I went for a short walk in the rain this evening. It's the first day of school and autumn is in the air. The leaves have started turning on the poplars and the grass was sprinkled with freshly fallen yellow leaves.

I found this large bug slowly climbing up the trunk of an ash tree. There are many different bugs that have the basic body type of a shield bug, but this is the largest one I have ever encountered. I would estimate this guy was about 3/4 of an inch long. The lighting was quite poor for this picture but there is a much better picture of one of these fellows in the link to bugguide.net.

Down by the parsnip

There is only one patch of wild parsnip in any of the naturalization areas. Three, 6ft tall plants are in the 2010 planting area by the raspberries. In one respect it is a bit like the Mara river on the Serengeti: it is a very convenient spot to photograph the wildlife.

Typocerus velitinus (Banded longhorn)

Orthops scutellatus (Carrot Plant Bug)

Brachiacantha ursina (Orange-spotted Lady Beetle)

Depressaria pastinacella (Parsnip Webworm Moth)

Podisus nymph (Spined Soldier Bug)

Polistes fuscatus (Northern Paper Wasp)

Cosmopepla lintneriana (Twice-Stabbed Stink Bug)

Eupithecia miserulata (An Inchworm)

Misumena vatia (Goldenrod Crab Spider)

A mystery caterpillar

This last caterpillar is a bit of a mystery. It is all over the wild parsnips and behaves much like a parsnip webworm. Even though it has quite distinctive markings I wasn't able to find it in the bug guide or elsewhere on the web. It is probably the caterpillar for some small, nondescript moth.