This observation was on a young Tree-of-Heaven.
With the large number of (visible) egg masses in my neighborhood in the fall and the large number of black and red nymphs, I fear it will be another booming year.
In 2025, I made 1,519 observations in Arlington, Virginia.
I thought that documenting this species would be easy, since it's quite common, however, once I started digging in, it turned into quite a taxonomic rabbit hole that is not quite fully resolved (from a bibliographic citation trail) in my mind.
First issue, GBIF, via the Catalogue of Life, lists the citation for the species as:
Say, T. (1832) In New species of North American insects found by Joseph Barabino, chiefly in Louisiana. New Harmony, Indiana. 1–16 pp. [1831]
I wasn't able to find a copy of this item on BHL, but HathiTrust did have a copy (see here). I went through this sixteen pages way too many times and found no mention of Leptoglossus oppositus (or Anisoscelis oppositus as first named by Say).
Finally, I went to the collected works of Say (on BHL):
Say, Thomas, & LeConte, John Lawrence. (1891). The complete writings of Thomas Say on the entomology of North America (Vol. 1, p. 327). A. E. Foote. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/24631474
And went page by page through the 1830-1832 publications. As I expected, I didn't find anything in New species of North American insects found by Joseph Barabino, chiefly in Louisiana. But, I did find A. oppositus described in:
Say, Thomas. 1831 December. Descriptions of new species of HETEROPTEROUS HEMIPTERA of North America. New Harmony, Indiana. (BHL page link -- see page image below).
So, it looks like GBIF and the Catalogue of Life need to do a bit of cleanup on their citations!
From Wikipedia: Leptoglossus oppositus a species of leaf-footed bug (family Coreidae) found in North America. It resembles Leptoglossus fulvicornis but can be distinguished by the deeper scallops in the leaf-like feature of the hind tibia and the addition of three white spots across the hemelytra. This species is widely dispersed from New York to Florida and as far west as Iowa and Minnesota, as well as the southwest regions of the United States into Mexico.
HISTORIC DOCUMENTATION
Leptoglossus oppositus was first described by Thomas Say in 1831 (December) (as Anisoscelis oppositus):
3. A. oppositus. — Reddish-brown; hemelytra with a white point in the middle of the corium; antennae rufous; head trilineated; posterior tibiae dilated and sinuated.
Inhabits Indiana.
This is very closely allied to albicinctus nob., but is uniform in its differential characters. It may be known by the small white point of the hemelytra.
Say, Thomas. 1831 December. Descriptions of new species of HETEROPTEROUS HEMIPTERA of North America. New Harmony, Indiana. Reprinted in The complete writings of Thomas Say on the entomology of North America (Vol. 1, p. 327). A. E. Foote. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/24631474.
This trip to the Netherlands was quite productive from an observation standpoint. I was able to visit Leiden (great observations in the Hortus Botanicus), Delft (again, the visit to the TU Delft Hortus Botanicus was great), Amsterdam, Den Haag, and Scheveningen (mollusks!).
Green Immigrant Leaf Weevil
Observations: 242
Species: 110
Netherlands: My Observations (All Time)
Notables
Top Species: Eurasian Coot (19)
Zebra Jumping Spider (Salticus scenicus)
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| Mordellochroa abdominalis |
Observations: 158
Species: 72
Finland: All My Observations (All Time)
Here are my iNaturalist observations on a trip to the Helsinki area, 26-30 May 2026.
Notables
Top Species: Barnacle Goose (15 observations)
Eurasian Oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus)
Fourteen-spotted Lady Beetle (Propylea quatuordecimpunctata)
New to the Merlin Life List
Willo Warbler
Barnacle Goose
Eurasian Oystercatcher
Red Crossbill
Common Eider
As of this date, I've had 11 observations of the species (with some additional observations from the genus Podisus). A few days before this observation, I had another observation of a P. maculiventris attacking a much larger Nearctic Carpenter Ant (Camponotus nearcticus)
"Podisus maculiventris, the spined soldier bug, is a medium-sized predatory shield bug common in North America. It has prominent spines on each "shoulder" and preys on a wide variety of arthropods, particularly the larval forms of Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. As a generalist predator of many agricultural pests, P. maculiventris is generally considered a beneficial insect in gardens and crop fields." -- Wikipedia
P. maculiventris was first described by Thomas Say in 1831:
P. maculiventris, Hemelytra with a line at tip ; venter with five series of black points.
Inhab. U. S.
Body yellowish or pale brownish, with dense, rather large punctures : thorax acutely angulated each side behind the middle ; edge granulated before the middle : hemelytra having an abbreviated fuscous line at tip of the membranous portion : antennae, first joint short ; 2d longer than the third : tergum on the lateral margin with a blackish dot on each incisure : beneath yellowish : feet immaculate ; thighs sometimes having numerous minute blackish points ; anterior tibiae with an obvious spine over the slight emargination : venter with five obvious series of small black dots.
Say, Thomas. 1831 March. Descriptions of new species of North American insects, found in Louisiana by Joseph Barabino. New Harmony, Indiana. [page image from the HathiTrust].
Atalantycha bilineata was originally described by American entomologist Thomas Say in 1823 under the binomial name Cantharis bilineata in the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (volume 3, page 182):
6. C. bilineatus. Rufous; elytra black; thorax with two black lines. Inhabits the United States.
The eagle-eyed will note that Say indicates the species as C. bilineatus, not C. bilineata. Why you ask, well, the discrepancy arises from the gender of the species name, which must agree with the genus name Cantharis (feminine). While it was sometimes historically listed with the masculine suffix -us, the correct scientific name based on ICZN rules is Cantharis bilineata.
The species had kept the Cantharis bilineata name until 2005 when Sergey Kazantsev's review of the genus established the new Nearctic genus Atalantycha to accommodate certain species, including A. bilineata as a new combination.
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| Nesting Mute Swan |
The weather wasn't really good for a lot of observations and I didn't get out of the city, so many of my observations were of birds (especially around the Lakes).
Observations: 89
Species: 38
Notables
Eurasian wigeon (Mareca penelope)
Great Tit (Parus major)
Deer (partial jaw)
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| Jaw of a species of Dear |
In 2025, I made 1,519 observations in Arlington, Virginia.
The hooded crow (Corvus cornix), also colloquially called just hoodie, is a Eurasian bird species in the genus Corvus. Widely distributed, it is found across Northern, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, as well as parts of the Middle East. It is an ashy grey bird with black head, throat, wings, tail, and thigh feathers, as well as a black bill, eyes, and feet. Like other corvids, it is an omnivorous and opportunistic forager and feeder. -- iNaturalist
Total: 14-20 February 2026 (as of 28 February 2026)
Observations: 28
Species: 17
Notables
Saw quite a few Hooded Crows (Corvus cornix)
The firebug, Pyrrhocoris apterus, is a common insect of the family Pyrrhocoridae. Easily recognizable due to its striking red and black coloration, it may be confused with the similarly coloured though unrelated Corizus hyoscyami (cinnamon bug or squash bug). Pyrrhocoris apterus is distributed throughout the Palaearctic from the Atlantic coast of Europe to northwest China. Beyond its native Palaearctic range, it has been recorded in the United States, Central America, India, and Australia. It has been reported as recently expanding its distribution northwards into mainland United Kingdom and eastward on to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.They are frequently observed to form aggregations, especially as immature forms, containing from tens to perhaps a hundred individuals. - iNaturalist
Total: 20-25 February 2026 (as of 28 February 2026)
Observations: 58
Species: 31
Notables
European Firebug (Pyrrhocoris apterus)