Sluggish Fly on A Pyritic Boulder

It's not like it's a meme or anything, but I saw a sluggish fly on limestone at Really Going Places — after taking these photos on the first day of November — and thought, what an opportune time to post photos of this fly, also sluggish, on a pyritic parking lot erratic (glacial erratic? not sure).

Iron-stained rock with a large mass of pyrite in the upper right, with fly for scale
(a bit left of the large pyritic mass)..

The same mass with the fly close to a large pyrite cube.

Now the fly has wandered over a bit to the left (out of the first photo's range), and is standing at a small precipice, appearing to check out the tiny pyrite cubes below.

Here, I've had to give the fly a gentle nudge, because I wanted it to move closer to the tiny pyrite crystals (that's how sluggish it was!).

The fly now looks like it's interested in mining the tiny cubes!

And now the fly has moved over a bit back to the right (barely into the first photo), and is checking out a couple veinlets.

And here's one last photo, for those of you who prefer not to see a fly for scale.

The funny, almost sickly yellowish green color on the outside of this rock indicates that you should be able to find some kind of sulfide mineral inside — in this case, a heckuva lot of pyrite. This color can be used as an exploration guide, provided that one wants to find an ore deposit rich in sulfides.

Update from the Lake: Hornets' Nest

It's a beautiful thing, but has got to go.

And, AFAIK, it's gone by now. At this stage, it reminds me of a delicately spun, upside-down dreidel. I think you can just barely see a few of the little suckers up near the top: the black variety, not the more common (in our area) yellowjacket type.

Things You Find in the Field: Fauna on and near Rocks...OR...on and amongst the Flora

Blue belly lizard near some foliated andesite (this is the Great Basin Fence Lizard, or Sceloporus occidentalis longipes).
(click any photo to enlarge)

The lizard was rather skittish, and I couldn't get very close.
Read more about blue bellies in an earlier post.

A lizard of unknown denomination running over a lichen-covered outcrop.

A very small gray and white bird perched on a gray rock
atop an iron-stained outcrop (upper right).

Two shining leaf chafers or "Little Bears."

AKA Paracotalpa granicollis, a kind of scarab beetle.

Ladybug!

And finally, a meadowlark atop a sagebrush.

I hear meadowlarks often, but am not always quite so lucky as to see them. This time, I was crossing a muddy little stream by a meadow, on my way to take the long way home (I didn't know it was *such* a long way, but oh well) when I heard this one singing.

The Orbweaver at Our Door

This spider, a type of Orbweaver, has taken up residence just outside our front door.
When I moved in to try to get a closer shot, it moved over, taking a cockeyed stance on its web. I decided not to bother it any further.
The next day when I went out for mail, its web, which had been attached to the mailbox, was gone, and it had retreated to the wall right next to the door.

This is a cat-faced spider, Araneus gemmoides, and I think you can see the little cat face from this straight-overhead angle.

Our spider has now formed a new web, high above the door in the eaves, with a few strands still attached to the mailbox. Hopefully it won't be disturbed in its new location.

Genus Araneus
Family Araneidae
Order Araneae
Class Arachnida
Phyllum Arthropoda

Macrobug Meme: Ants on Flower

I've been trying to join Callan's bug meme at least since June (also see Dynamic Earth), thinking I could get a nice shot of one of the beetles (Elm beetles?) that perpetually come into our house through the summer, or get a sage beetle walking through the sage while out and about, but those things haven't yet come together. Finally, ants!
These aren't true bugs, but they are arthropods (phyllum Arthropoda) of the insect type (class Insecta), in the family Formicidae. The closeup (1) and enlargement (2) were as close as I could get the lens to to this flower in our garden the other day, so these are tiny little ants. It was cool outside, maybe 45°F, and the ants were barely moving.

Indoor Flora and Fauna

At first, MOH and I saw this little spider-like being running around on one of the chocolate mint shoots, and we thought it was the teeniest, tiniest itsy-bitsy spider. To be fair, MOH saw this first, not me.
The web it was making when we first saw it.
Turns out these are several itty bitty spider mites, not the sorts of things one wants to have on plants.
Here's one of the little nasties up close; you can see not only the strange legs, but some of the little hairs coming out from its body.
Another view...
...and another enlargement. I googled "tiny green spider" and finally came up with photos of spider mites, at which point we went directly into eradication mode. These appear to be twospotted spider mites (Tetranychus urticae). Hopefully, they won't be too hard to kill. They suck the blood, I mean juices, of stems and leaves, and are generally undesirable.
Here's one hanging out on it's little web. Oh, so cute.