Wow, has it really been five months since the last Super Crop Challenge?! Well, it’s time to start a new BitB Challenge Session (this will be #7), so what better way to start? Can you name the structure shown in the photo below (2 pts), the organism to which it belongs (order, family, genus, and species—2 pts each), and its significance (2 pts)?
Note: If you are not completely familiar with them, please read the full rules for details on how and how not to earn points. Good luck!
Copyright © Ted C. MacRae 2012
Beetles In The Bush 
As stated in the last post I am a rooky at this but I think it is a Diptera with a parasitoid inside of it. I can not get it past that yet.. It very well could be a bee however the abundance of scholoratized hairs makes me automatically think Diptera. Maybe some sort of fruit fly with a perasitoid for sure.
Well, I really don’t know what this is. My guess is that it’s some type of chemoreceptor for detecting pheromones. Is it from some type of butterfly or moth (Lepidoptera)?
Hi Ted – Do you have any advice about fall garden cleanup? I’m writing about the topic for our local paper. What’s the balance between getting rid of harmful bugs and leaf litter vs leaving habitat? Thanks for your thoughts.
Sorry, I’m not much of a gardener so I don’t have any first-hand knowledge about this.
It seems this challenge was a bit too tough – the structure in the left center area of the photo is the epigyne (or epigynum) of an adult female marbled orb weaver spider (Araneus marmoreus). The epigyne is the external genitalic structure of female spiders and functions to direct the male pedipalps for sperm transfer. The form of the epigyne is often diagnostic for even closely related species – an even closer view of the epigyne of this species can be seen in this BugGuide photo.