Erik Brians reports a large infestation of leafhoppers in the Campbell Flat Road area, Jamestown, 28 June 2018. Erik reports large numbers from other areas near Jamestown, as well.

These are Euscelidius variegatus, as we reported on this post.

I watched two mud daubers twisting around together on my front porch step, and then this tiny, dead winged ant appeared to fall off of one of them. The smaller mud dauber managed to get on the back of the larger one, and they flew away in tandem. I collected the ant and took some photos, pasted below. 9 May 2018. Columbia California. It seems that the dead ant was attached to one of the wasps, and then shaken loose during the mating behavior. Dr. Philip Ward believes it is a male odorous house ant.

This large mud dauber nest has served several generations of wasps.

Spiders still inside a chamber that did not have an exit hole.

Salamander. 31 May 2018. MiWuk Village, under a wine barrel. Photo by Steve Deaver.

Three arthropods in the bag. May 2018.

Springtail

Unknown

Parts of the unknown insect.

Mite.

Mite. Ruler marking is millimeters.

Steve Deaver took these photos of a large number of ladybugs at a residence in Twain Harte, California.  29 May 2018. We presume the ladybugs are getting ready to migrate. The season has been relatively cool until now.

Ryles Richards, the same technician that discovered the first case of snailcase bagworms in Calaveras County, brought in a specimen of a snailcase bagworm from Pine Mountain Lake, Groveland,  Tuolumne County, California. The insect was on the siding of a house on Pleasant View Drive.  This was a new pest control service for us, and the main problem was pine tree ants. The customer usually found these snailcases inside her house, and vacuumed them up. She had recently found them on the exterior, as well. She removed most of the snailcase bagworms with a vacuum, but she missed this one. Ryles spotted it on the wall, and explained to her what it was.

To our knowledge, this is the first report of snailcase bagworms in Tuolumne County. Earlier this year we reported that snailcase bagworms were discovered, by Ryles Richards, in Calaveras County. It is clear that this insect pest is widespread in the Mother Lode, but has been undetected until now.

Below are photos of the specimen that Ryles Richards collected. Great job, Ryles!

14 May 2018

These are barn swallow bugs, Oeciacus vicarius.  Collected in Bear Valley, Alpine County, California. 23 April 2018.  AKA swallow bugs, cliff swallow bugs.

Swallow bugs are very similar to bedbugs, but have a few distinguishing characteristics:

1. Small size. These specimens were about 3 mm long.
2. Long hairs; hair length longer than width of eyes.
3. The fourth (terminal) antennal segment is about the same length as the third antennal segment.

In this case, they were found in an upper loft area. Hopefully we will get more information on what birds are nesting on the structure.

For detailed biology, see The life history and ecology of the cliff swallow bug, Oeciacus vicarius.

Barn swallow bug, highlighting some distinctive features. Note too that this insect is small, at about 3 millimeters long. We created this detail from one of the images below.

Barn swallow bugs next to a ruler. Those are millimeter lines, so these bugs are about 3 mm long.

Note how long the hairs are.