Spittle Bugs

We have been seeing spittle bubbling out of trees, especially in today's rain.  Might be a spittlebug.

"a fat little dark-eyed green creature about the size of a sesame seed called a froghopper nymph, so named for the adult insect's squat shape, pop eyes and leaping ability. The nymph stage is better known as a spittlebug. Froghoppers/spittlebugs insert their "beak" & suck sap through their bodies, extracting nutrients. As the liquid comes out the other end, mixed with soapy abdominal secretions, the insect puffs air into it through a special organ, blowing bubbles. The froth flows down and around the nymph (they feed facing head down), keeping it cool, moist and hidden from you (unless you look)."

New Mexico Heritage Field Work

From New Mexico Work

drying up beaverpond

From New Mexico Work

From New Mexico Work

From New Mexico Work

Colorado Natural Heritage Field Work

measuring

From New Mexico Work

From New Mexico Work

From New Mexico Work

deep buried forest

From New Mexico Work

sky

From New Mexico Work

taking notes

From New Mexico Work

human in the landscape

From New Mexico Work

First Wildflowers of the Southern Rockies (for my sister)

This post is about a month late, but here goes...The First Wildflowers of the Spring! (as observed in the Sangre de Christos of Northern New Mexico)

Lupine (Lupinus)

From Botanizing in New Mexico

Paintbrush (Castilleja)

From Botanizing in New Mexico

Yellow Carrot (Pseudocymopterus)

From Botanizing in New Mexico

Daisy

From Botanizing in New Mexico

Draba

From Botanizing in New Mexico

Strawberry (Fragaria virginiatus)

From Botanizing in New Mexico

Pussytoes (Antennaria spp)

From Botanizing in New Mexico

Violet

From Botanizing in New Mexico

Clematis

From Botanizing in New Mexico

Frillary (Erodium)

From Botanizing in New Mexico

Iris

From Botanizing in New Mexico

Not pictured: Dandylion, Valerian, Senecio, thistles, Thermopsis (yellow wild pea), bluebells/chimingbells (Mertensia), orchids. Any other suggestions? How different are yours (if you live in another part of the country...)?

Can you name this Bug?

beetle on rush in alpine Colorado fen

From Flora and Fauna

beetle found on gravel bar, middle Verde River, AZ

From Verde River

caterpillar found in Sonoita Valley grass/mesquite woodland

From Sonoita Valley Grasslands

dragonfly found in Sonoita Valley grass/mesquite woodland

From Sonoita Valley Grasslands

mating "space cadet" grasshoppers, found in Sonoita Valley grass/mesquite woodland

From Sonoita Valley Grasslands

cool spider in saguaro east

From Saguaro National Park

butterfly and spider, Gila national forest, NM (ponderosa pine forest)

From Gila National Forest

Steep Gulch outside Leadville, CO

I started down from Hope Mountain in a light rain -- so light I could still look about normally. The Gentians were closed against the storm, though. The face of a deer caught the corner of my eye, and the recognition became an involuntary turn of the head, in time to see her do the same.

Down, down through the mats and then thickets and then forests of Engelmann spruce, as if dull silver-evergreen tips remember dry copper-containing ore. Where the spruce grow tall they let the mat juniper have the understory. And now mats of strawberries...I noticed a tiny wild strawberry sitting on the lip of the mountain squirrel's burrow; ripening in the sun or dropped from his paws when my oversize shadow darkened his door? Without hesitation I picked it up and ate it in two heavenly bites. No regret.

Two butterflies were fluttering over and on one another, surely engendering piles of caterpillars in the underbrush.