Well it was even cooler today, 97! I like this trend. 🙂
From a distance I thought I had found a common brown June Beetle (Phyllophaga). But wait this one has a dark head and pronotum with black spots on elytra! Since it was dead, it was easy to catch. 😉
Since it was caught ;-), I took it home for a photo shoot!
Here you can see the characteristic spots on the elytra (covers wings) and pronotum (between elytra and head). However this specimen is a bit unusual from most photos I found. Usually it is all the same light brown as the elytra for the whole beetle. Furthermore sometimes the species doesn’t have the spots.
The head and the pronotum also had a slight green shimmer. Ruler is millimeter.
Under the dissecting scope you can see the punctures in the hard shell. Punctata is Latin for “marked with pricks or punctures.
Look at all those lens on the eye! They were a cool beetle. Oops I forgot to tell you that it the Grapevine Beetle, Pelidnota punctata. ☺️
There are 2 on the tail and at least 5 up front. And maybe one more. Really hard to count. And yep every feather! Our daughter is an amazing photographer!
Ditto on the precious possums – those little ones look to have a firm grip on mama! And the Oregon birds are wonderful.
So sad to read the BLM docs – very frustrating maddening and disheartening.
Precious possums. They went by so fast i couldn’t count the babies. How many? Oregon backyard photos are so good i can count every feather.
There are 2 on the tail and at least 5 up front. And maybe one more. Really hard to count. And yep every feather! Our daughter is an amazing photographer!
Ditto on the precious possums – those little ones look to have a firm grip on mama! And the Oregon birds are wonderful.
So sad to read the BLM docs – very frustrating maddening and disheartening.
Time to call again the reps. 😡
Emily is such a talented photographer! Fun that your camera spotted that opossum family out for a stroll.
Mama and babies was a new one for us. Usually just single opossums.
Wait so who was the beetle? A different Phyllophaga?
Love the possums!!!
Oooops, I forgot…it is Pelidnota punctata.