Red-banded Leafhopper (Graphocephala Coccinea), Taken May 21, 2025, In Georgia, US

glurg

Common Watersnake (Nerodia sipedon), juvenile, taken September 2, 2024, in Georgia, US

I found this little guy while flipping rocks in my creek looking for salamanders! I'm obsessed with how the water makes his face look angry while he's submerged, but he's adorable and friendly looking when he pokes his head out. I don't see enough snakes! Literature says they're all around me, but clearly they don't want to be friends because they never show themselves!!

Eastern Fence Lizards (Sceloporus undulatus), taken October 6, 2024, in Georgia, US

I hiked a mountain and these guys were all over the top! Before this, I'd never seen this species despite living only 20 minutes from this mountain. They must prefer the more arid, primarily pine forest as opposed to my creekside, primarily deciduous one. I've been up this mountain several times before, but I guess I never cared to look for microfauna before. Not sure how I missed these guys!

Psyllid (Genus Craspedolepta), taken April 4, 2025, in Georgia, US

Psyllid time!!! I was very excited to see one of these guys while inspecting some flowers for exciting stuff. These definitely count as exciting! I've only seen a few psyllids ever, but they're so, so cool. Much like aphids, they are very picky about what they eat from, and many are single-host specialists, so it's important to know what the psyllid you find is eating from (if it's feeding) or sitting on to have the best chance at a species ID! I tend to document all of the flowers I see insects visiting to annotate them on iNat, but I don't have this one yet (somehow), so I'll have to get back outside and check lol. For now, genus is as far as I can go with this!

Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), juvenile, taken May 9, 2025, in Georgia, US

A young mockingbird eating like an absolute weirdo from the woodpecker feeder! This newly-independent teen could barely fit on the feeder ledge and kept almost falling off. Apparently the taste was worth it, though, because it kept trying! I can tell this is a juvenile because it's smaller and leaner than its parents, and they also never eat from this feeder due to the inconvenience. They prefer the easy to access barn feeders that are accessible to everyone, but this little guy hasn't figured out the tech yet—or maybe they haven't figured out his!

Globular Springtails (Order Symphypleona), taken March 20, 2025, in Georgia, US

In order of appearance: Ptenothrix curvilineata (1), undescribed Dicyrtoma sp. (2), Ptenothrix marmorata (3), undescribed/unknown Ptenothrix sp. (4)

I've been in a globular springtail phase for a couple months now, and the past few days I've been doubling down in my efforts to find as many as possible. I spent a couple hours yesterday digging through dead wood and found and photographed 40 individuals! I love the diversity of patterning in this group—they're absolutely tiny, but so so gorgeous.

P. marmorata is definitely the most common customer in my part of the woods, but I found lots of the 4th individual as well. That guy is a bit of a strange situation, since it might actually be a regional color morph variant of P. marmorata! It doesn't look much like it, but animals are weird and this stuff happens sometimes. Hopefully we find out what it is soon!

Marbled Oak Dagger (Acronicta marmorata) + wing detail closeups

Four-banded Stink Bug Wasp (Bicyrtes quadrifasciatus), female, taken August 3, 2024, in Georgia, US

Digging a hole in the sand! There were a few different species of sand wasps flying around this area, but most ran before I could get to them. I missed this lady initially storing her prey, but I did get her filling in the hole! She posed very prettily at the end, maybe showing off her hard work!

Calico Pennant (Celithemis elisa), female, taken April 22, 2025, in Georgia, US

What I thought was a lifer dragonfly, but turned out to be the female of a species I've seen once before! This lady seemed quite relaxed around me, flying almost lazily through the air and allowing me to get very close (for a dragonfly). As far as dragonflies go, this species is quite small, and so is the rest of their genus, aptly named "small pennants"!

Cambarid Crayfishes (Genus Cambarus), taken June 30, 2024, in Georgia, US

Assorted crayfish faces! These are both most likely Variable Crayfishes (Cambarus latimanus), though I do not know anything about crayfish ID so I don't want to assume anything lol. As it warms up I plan to spend more time catching salamanders and crayfish, though it can be a bit painstaking if they're smart. Once i got them into the container I was using for photos, I had to use a stick to gently push them to the edge to get my macro lens close enough. They behaved well, but it took forever!