Can anyone tell me what’s so significant about this stick that the Smithsonian would put it on display?
Filed under: geology | 5 Comments »
3 bugs + 1 lizard
Posted on May 2, 2010 by Callan Bentley
Yesterday, Lily and I embraced my first day of no-more-classes by taking a hike. We drove out to Massanutten Mountain and hiked up to Signal Knob, a ten-mile (roundtrip) jaunt with about 1500 feet of elevation gain. Along the way, we saw a lot of Massanutten Formation quartz sandstone (Silurian), a few trace fossils, a few good birds (eastern towhee male + female, some warblers), and some good wildlife, by which I mean more insects and reptiles.
Here’s a young bug (literally, from the order Hemiptera). Sorry for the lack of scale; this guy is like 2-3 mm long:
Fat, juicy caterpillar:
Beetle of some sort, with a lovely golden iridescence: 
And a lizard:
Enjoy. Happy May!
Filed under: biodiversity, insects, reptiles, virginia | 4 Comments »
Callan Bentley
