More assorted news

 

I photographed the fully macropterous form of Gryllodes sigillatus a few days ago! Unlike most of the "rare" specimens I encounter, it is genuinely rare and not merely underdocumented-but-common. I kept seeing full macropters in my yard but failed to catch any until today (they kept jumping off). I managed to catch this one mainly because it barely jumped and seemed slightly weak (I felt bad for it, so I fed it a rice blob before releasing it).

I also managed to photo a semi-macropterous female (also rare) a while before this. Not posting my pics of it here, since they were of poor quality, but it looked just like a full macropter lacking the long needle-shaped hindwings. Its forewings were the same length as those on the full macropter though. 

Neither the semi-macropter nor full macropters ever used their wings in my presence by the way.

On an unrelated note, I made another trip to the Californian coast in hopes of finding some Xanthoria parietina. Once again I did not see a single foliose lichen of any sort; the whole place was coated in generic range/yellow/black/white crust lichens just like last time. Here is a pretty pic I took there though!