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Sometimes it is fun to look at the fails.  This is a photo of my computer screen after running a speed test. I am paying for 1.5-3.0 Mbps service. Clearly I need to ditch Verizon as my service is terrible.  A nice vase broken during our move back to the US.  There were a lot of crickets on this tree in Mt. Hope, NJ  And I failed to get a good pic even with excellent conditions to do so
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We rented a red Kia Soul, and at one point found this. The mirrors were actually touching, so I pulled mine in. I had to get in via the passenger seat. Such is what is in Falls Church, VA
 Two slugs doing the deed  A leopard slug, I think The Mount Hope Mine In New Jersey is a monitoring site for bats. It has a history of large-scale bat swarms, and is a site where the endangered Indiana bat finds a place to hibernate. But the bats have been dying from White Nose Syndrome, so the numbers are down. I am not going into that here, as it is a topic worth much effort but not the point of this post. So here are a few pictures from our work at the mine, without comment on the larger issue.of how WNS is affecting the bats, as that is something outside of our work. 
Aaron handling a bat.
And it is a little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus)
Note the sterile gloves. These are used to prevent White Nose Syndrome from being passed along during our work, and we go through a lot of gloves when we are catching a lot of bats. 
Jennifer and Jenna working the bats.
And here Jennifer is making notes on a bag with a bat, while Jenna is working out the ID on a bat. Jennifer is an expert, while Jenna is still working on her skills. The bats can be tricky to identify, and this bit gives the new techs a chance to work out the differences between an Indiana bat from the other similar species. 
An Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis)
Here is the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis). Note that it has a forearm band from a previous study and that the teeth are worn down. This is an old bat. Good news that there are old bats still out there with the plague of WNS killing off so many bats. 
Indian bat foot
The Indiana bat is pretty similar to the little brown bat, but a couple characteristics set them apart. Among them, the foot and calcar. The foot is quite small, and does not have toe hairs that go beyond the toe nails. But the definitive feature here is the keeled calcar. The calcar is a cartilaginous spur that comes off the ankle. Many bats have this. But a key feature of some is a flap of skin sticking out from the calcar, known as the keel. This photo shows a keeled calcar from an Indiana bat. And after we caught the bats and identified them and got the particulars, we released them. But we released them with a pile of acoustic monitors handy. Getting a library of bat calls, with known species, is pretty important these days. And to make sure the Indiana bat calls were correct, a light stick was glued to the bats. 
An Indiana bat with a light stick glued to it.
Three or more hands making sure the light stick is glued properly.
And, thus light tagged, the bats were released and the echolocation calls recorded and much good data was in the bag.
So a monitoring site was surveyed, and a lot of data recorded. All in one fine weekend of work. 
A night crawler (fishing worm vernacular).
This one is a worm that everyone knows, and quite useful if you are a fisherman. But I can't find a species for it quickly. 
And while this looks like a silverfish, is is apparently not such a thing.
I should have IDs on both of these soon. But for now, this remains a blog post lacking the identifications of the photos. And not so great photos either way.
And thus is what is.  A leaf hopper, or plant hopper from Mount Hope, NJ  A Katydid of note  I should have an ID on this spider, but don't have such handy. And thus I provide three pics mostly without IDs. And that is that for this blog post, because I had a tech failure tonight that made getting even this bit up time-consuming.
Continuing to ignore the bats totally, here are more cool critters.  Northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon) at Mount Hope Pond.  Time for a close up!  An unusually high number of caterpillars were seen, so to continue that bit here is the caterpillar of a tiger moth (family: Arctiidae)  The banded wooly bear (pyrrharctia isabella) was on the scene.  A beautiful caterpillar I haven't worked out yet.  And then there was this dragonfly, which was pretty awesome. I have recently been in New Jersey, US, catching some bats. I will post more about the bats soon, but for now, I present two caterpillars. One is well-known and strikingly beautiful, while the other is something out of an Alien movie that I will probably never figure out. First up, a favorite of all insect aficionados, the Saddleback caterpillar (Acharia stimulea) although a search for Sibene stimulea should find you the same animal (we all just love re-classifications of things). Here is a beautiful specimen, merely a half-inch long, hosting an array of highly venomous spears. And yes, these spikes are venomous even to human-sized things, and you would do well not to get one of these down the back of your shirt when out hiking. But what a grand looking animal.  The Saddleback caterpillar, Acharia stimulea, from Mount Hope, New Jersey And in a rare bit on the Blog, I give it a second photo to show the eye spots on the right. So, without leaving this site, can you honestly say whether its head is on the left or the right?  The Saddleback caterpillar Acharia stimulea  This snake-like caterpillar I can't give an ID on, but look at those chompers! It doesn't seem to have just a jaw to eat with, but an artillary of jaws. This one will likely remain unknown unless someone in the field chimes in. Today it was 92 degrees out at 7pm, here in northern Virginia. So while Fall is quickly approaching, we still have the heat of summer upon us. Another day of temps above 90 is forecast, and then it should get back to normal. And I have been thinking about Fall in Virginia, with the wonderful weather and abundant things to do. So here is a pic of corn at the end of the season, taken a few years ago at, well, the end of the season, which is quickly approaching. 
The edge of a corn field in The Plains, Virginia
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