Dicyrtomina ornata site - Dicyrtomina ornata Nashua, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, USA December 3, 2006 Size: 1.0 - 1.9 mm
Because this may be the first US record of this species I went back to the site three days after collecting the original batch of photo subjects, which I released after the shoot. I wanted to collect more specimens and preserve them for confirmation of species and also take a few shots of where they were found (4 Franconia Drive, Nashua, New Hampshire).
Because the day was drier, no specimens were on the unpainted wooden fence where I initially saw and collected them. I did not have far to look, however. Under a rumpled sheet of polyethylene film lying near the fence I found at least 50. The plastic lay atop a rather compressed layer of red-dyed so-called bark mulch.
My efforts to photograph one with natural sunlight were unsuccessful and a flash-assisted image was barely usable. But I easily collected 25 or 30 specimens in a vial of 70% ethyl alcohol using both my aspirator and sweeping across the exposed area under the plastic with my seven-day plastic pill sorter with all seven lids open, then snapping them quickly shut.
Images of this individual: tag all
Contributed by Jim McClarin on 3 December, 2006 - 3:05pm Last updated 22 December, 2006 - 8:02am |