Gnat-ogre

If you've got wings, and would fit between the one and two millimeter marks on a ruler, I'd advise staying out of the sights of the creature above. This is the tiny but deadly Gnat-ogre, Holcocephala fusca, and I photographed this individual last Thursday at Resthaven Wildlife Area.

Gnat-ogres are robberflies, just on a nearly impossibly small scale. I like this group of carnivorous flies, and have written about them many times. The robberflies are certainly a successful lineage of the massive Dipteran Order, and the various species come in many forms. The largest of their lot in this part of the world is the giant Red-footed Cannibal Fly, Promachus hinei, a true horrorshow. It would take possibly thousands of the Gnat-ogre pictured here to make a cannibal fly.

Small as it may be, the Gnat-ogre is every bit as aggressively predacious as its larger brethren. The animal in my photo has a victim - some sort of small winged creature that would be nearly invisible to the naked eye. Given that the ogre is only 2-3 millimeters in length, you can get a sense of how truly elfin its prey is.

There are predators operating at every level. While the mighty Peregrine Falcon is millions of times larger than this Gnat-ogre, their modus operandi are essentially the same. And each is equally deadly, in their own way.

A few cool bugs, featuring Northern metalmark

A little while back, on a bright hot sunny day, I made a short foray to a local meadow in search of the Northern metalmark, a rather hard to find butterfly. This site is full of native plants, and in addition to the metalmarks there is a rich insect fauna. Following are a few photos of various bugs that I encountered.

A dun skipper, Euphyes vestris, tees up rather boldly. A plain jane of the butterfly world, duns do have their charms. Sneak into close proximity of one, and be dazzled when it roars off - they make a loud wing buzz reminiscent of a large wasp.

I was pleased  to see this one, a Delaware skipper, Anatrytone logan, a butterfly I don't see all that often. It has beautiful cinnamon-yellow underwings when seen with wings folded overhead.

Watch for a bit, and the Delaware skipper is apt to splay its wings out like so, revealing a stunning orange and black pattern.

A gorgeous female widow skimmer, Libellula luctuosa, suns itself. This specimen is very fresh, and was probably still in the larval (nymph) stage a day or two before I photographed her. Newly emerged dragonflies, and females that have mated, often retreat to meadows away from water to avoid hyper-aggressive adult males, which tend to remain in the wetlands.

Tiny but fierce, a gnat-ogre, Holcocephala fusca, commandeers a conspicuous perch. Such a collection of gnat-ogres I had never seen - there were dozens throughout the meadow. Gnat-ogres are miniscule robber flies, but are every bit as ferocious as their larger more easily seen counterparts. The proboscis, by which the fly dispatches its victims, can be seen in this photo. It is the little black syringe projecting downward between the eyes. Twenty-five of these flies could probably fit on your thumbnail.

I was somewhat surprised to see several individuals of this rather intimidating looking bee, but perhaps I shouldn't have been. It is the giant resin bee, Megachile sculpturalis, and these were the first that I've seen in Ohio. The giant resin bee is indigenous to Asia, and has been rapidly colonizing eastern North America. The first U.S. record came from North Carolina in 1994, and they've spread far and wide since. Resin bees appropriate carpenter bee burrows for nesting sites. This is one to watch for.

Finally, after wandering through the lea for a bit, a flash of brown shot by and lit on a black-eyed susan - Northern metalmark, Calephelis borealis!

There seems to be two vital botanical ingredients necessary for metalmark production: round-leaved ragwort, Packera obovata, and black-eyed susans, Rudbeckia hirta. The butterflies lay eggs on the former, and it serves as the host plant for their caterpillars. The adults are drawn to the latter as a nectar source.

The metalmark's underwings are a beautiful shade of soft orange, stippled with black dashes. It was a real treat to once again share company with these showy little butterflies, and most of their six-legged companions weren't so bad, either.

Gnat-ogre

A sunny opening along a woodland trail - perfect habitat for one of our coolest, tiniest insects, the gnat-ogre. I encountered quite a few of these barely visible beasts the other day, including several that were hunting in this very glade.

A gnat-ogre, Holcocephalus fuscus, teed up and ready to kill. I should caveat this identification. There are three species of Holcocephalus gnat-ogres and I THINK this is H. fuscus. The literature on gnat-ogre identification is rather lacking.

Aptly named, gnat-ogres are miniature robber flies, and every bit as carnivorous as their larger, more visible brethren. You've just got to look closely to see them. The gnat-ogre pictured above would be measured in millimeters. They are so small that a person would likely dismiss them as gnats or perhaps extremely tiny flower flies. With the naked eye, they are scarcely visible unless one happens to be closely studying the area in which gnat-ogres have staked out. To get these photos, I was using a heavy-duty macro lens, flash, and a tripod. Fortunately, gnat-ogres are fearless and will allow very close approach.

This blade of grass offers a size scale. The gnat-ogre typically hunts from a conspicuous perch such as the tip of a plant, and it is this habit that first drew my eye to them. From five or ten feet, it was hard to make out any details, but I noticed that the little bugs were darting out in yo-yo flights in the manner of a flycatcher such as an Eastern Wood-Pewee. I figured that whatever they were, they were predators that were actively hunting and moved in for closer study. My inaugural encounter with gnat-ogres occurred a few years ago and now I watch for them wherever I go. And finally, I've got camera gear that is powerful enough to pull them in and reveal their charms.

This is a bug-eyed Triumph Speed Triple motorcycle. They are very cool British-made three cyclinder bikes, and one has to wonder what inspired some of the design influence. Possibly the engineers were hip to gnat-ogres. Look at the bike closely, then scroll back up to the gnat-ogre shot. Perhaps in a subconscious nod to my like of gnat-ogres, I nearly bought a Speed Triple last year, but it was my love of twin cyclinder bikes and the slight goofiness of a three-cylinder motor that tipped me to getting a Ducati Monster 1100S - my fourth consecutive two-cylinder sport bike.

Anyway, here we see the gnat-ogre living up to its name. This one has just captured some little insect so small that we'd probably never notice it on its own merits. And that's what gnat-ogres do - dart out after extremely miniscule bugs that happen past, or sometimes rather clumsily fly through foliage picking insects from leaves in the manner of a damselfly. They are not the powerful, purposeful flyers of their larger robberfly brethren, but have a somewhat weak and fluttery flight.

The same gnat-ogre grooms fastidiously after consuming its meal, like a cat. Say what you will about gnat-ogres but if they are nothing else, they are neat.

Now is peak season for these cool little insects. Next time you are out and about, watch for gnat-ogres.