small creature pics

[quetzal]

Well now that summer's over I'm going thru alot of my pics and labeling ones that aren't labeled. Here's some that I took on my property and at several different parks in my area:

This one's taken at a state park, not exactly sure what species it is:



This was taken near my backyard, not sure what it is but i thought it was pretty:



A crayfish, taken down by the creek in back of my house after one of the times that the creek flooded. When the water went down some the day after the rain stopped, I walked down along the edge and all over the ground where the water had been, there were crayfish everywhere.

It was cool day, the creek washed up all kinds of interesting critters - there were small pools of water filled with minnows, baby catfish, tadpoles, crayfish and some weird aquatic bugs that i've never seen before but i wasn't able to get good shots of them.


This was taken at another state park, I've identified it as an American Giant millipede. That's my Dad's finger next to it to show its size. There were a bunch of them all over the woods:

[Loupey]

I'm already feeling a bit blue. These make me smile

That millipede is gorgeous! Did you follow it around? The red and black bands would make a great abstract close-up.

thanks for posting!

[Dylan8i]

the crayfish looks like a rusty, which are invasive in PA, but i;m not an expert and its hard to tell from pics.

[quetzal]

Thanks for looking guys.
Loupey - Yeah, isn't it beautiful? I saw some crawling up trees, across the trail, and most
of them were crawling around the leaves on the ground.

Dylan8i - I see those crayfish quite frequently but i'm no expert either so I'm not sure what all species we have.

[Loupey]

So was the millipede recent? Sounds like you stumbled onto their "season"

Wow, I'd love a crack at them. I'm thinkin' like one up high on a twig to show all their feet

[Dylan8i]

i tried taking pics of a milipeed like that a while ago, and i couldn't get one that wasn't blurred :-) the smallest critter, but it wouldn't stop moving.

[Chrislowshow]

hehe yea, i love the little pede guy, though the finger throws it off a bit, i think the rocks were good enough measurement

[quetzal]

Loupey - yeah, it was a recent pic, during the Labor Day week.

I took a bunch of pics of them but most were rather blurry. It was practically the only interesting thing i saw at that particular park that day, other than a baby ringneck snake my Dad found that was so cute!
This is the best pic i have of it. It moved fast so I picked it up to set it where I could get a good shot of it. It wiggled around in my hand so much but I was afraid to hold it too tight as it was so thin and tiny.

[AmberC]

I love that caterpillar! I have not seen one like that before! Great shots!

[payn817]

Not sure about the rest, but the caterpillar is a hickory tussock moth.

Nice shots.

[quetzal]

Thanks all, and thanks for the ID, payn817.
Thats the first time I've seen one of those caterpillars myself.

[Chrislowshow]

i like the ringneck snake, arent they poisonus?

[Dylan8i]

i like the ringneck snake, arent they poisonus?

not at all. only poisinouse snakes in PA are northern copper head, timber rattle snake, and the massassuaga rattlesnake. (and the hognose is very very slightly poisinouse if your allergic to it, it might be a concern)