Six-spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela sexguttata)
What a beautiful day it was today. We’ve had a bit of rain this week, and as pretty as that is, it was nice to have such a lovely, sunny day today. I got to spend it in a really lovely way, too. I spent about two hours getting caught up with a good friend over coffee (thanks, Erin, for loaning me Dave for a while). Then, in the afternoon Cathy and I went for a walk in Rock Creek Park.
We saw a few members of the insect family (I guess it’s a class, actually). There were some small butterflies about, mostly from the family Lycaenidae (this time, it really is a family), the blues, coppers, hairstreaks, and harvesters. We also saw a few of these bright, metalic, green beetles. It is a six-spotted tiger beetle (Cicindela sexguttata) and twice I was able to get close enough for a reasonable photograph.
Erythronium americanum (Yellow Trout-Lily)
The flowers we saw the most of were the marsh marigolds (Caltha palustris). They were out in great profusion. There were also a few blood root (Sanguinaria canadensis) and spring beauties (Claytonia virginica). We saw a lot of leaves of the yellow trout-lily (Erythronium americanum) but this is the only one that actually had a bloom on it so far. Within a week there should be hundreds of them along the banks of Rock Creek.