I knew this was a new species for me, and it was all I could do to stay outside taking photos instead of running in to get my snail and slug book to figure out what he was. It turned out that this fellow is a Grey Fieldslug, a.k.a. Deroceras reticulatum. It's pretty exciting to find all these different molluscs and whatnot hanging out in the planting beds just beneath my condo.

I spotted a Harvestman on the cement wall to the planter on the opposite side, and took a few photos of him. I liked the way his legs bent one way and then the other.

Many folks mistake Harvestmen for spiders (I know I certainly used to). Once you know about them, though, Harvestmen and spiders are easily distinguished; Harvestmen have a one-part body and spiders have a two-part body. (The two parts of the spider's body are the cephalothorax and the abdomen. Insects, of course, have three parts: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen.)

Those were my only two subjects from the outside of the building. I headed for the courtyard, where water drops on our Japanese Maples caught my attention.

Maybe she was laying eggs.

On another plant, I found somebody's larva. This was pretty exciting, because I often check for larvae around holes in leaves and rarely find them.

I have no idea what that guy will grow up to be.

After completing a circuit of the courtyard, I decided to take another trip out to the riverside. On the way I found an interesting empty shell in the planting beds. This one appeared to have a white coating that was starting to flake off.

I like the metallic colors on bottle-flies, and their big red eyes.

My next find was a small thing wandering around on a laurel leaf. This insect is probably only 3 or 4 millimeters (an eighth of an inch) long, and he appeared to be coated in white powder. There are only a few types of small white powdery insects, and this one turns out to be named for that characteristic—he's called a Dustywings.

Dustywings are in the family Coniopterygidae, which is in the order Neuroptera (the "nerve-winged" insects). This fellow was my first-ever neuropteran, which was pretty neat, and he was an unusual one at that. (The most commonly-found neuropterans are lacewings and antlions.) Check out my guy's big mouthparts.

Along a wall I found one of our big Carpenter Ants. I like these ants' color scheme, with the red legs, black head and thorax, and silvery striped abdomen. The little eyes on the spadelike head are a nice touch, too. Whoever made these guys has a real flair for design.

I like that ant shot quite a bit, as the overall look is helped out quite a bit by the detail and colors on the wall, including the green moss, yellow lichen, turquoise something-or-other, and pink and orange rocks. It's colorful without being overwhelming.

Speaking of lichen, I found the following ring-shaped growths, which are either lichen or fungus, on the stem of a bush. The stem was vertical, but I turned the photo sideways because it seemed more attractive that way.

Those delicate little structures were the last subjects of my day.

Gathering dust on my wings,
Tom