Here’s a 1:1 section from another frame in this series viewed at 100% to show the green winged insect that the Chestnut-sided Warbler was eating at Boyce Thompson Arboretum on Sunday, January 4, 2009.
If anybody knows what this insect is I’d be grateful if you let me know.
For the photography crowd, this was taken with a Nikon D200, an AF-S 300/2.8 lens mounted with a TC20E 2x converter, at ISO 500, 1/30th second wide open at f/5.6. No flash at all, just the existing low light.
Input from others as of January 7, 2009, on the identity of the insect is:
- a Hemiptera (true bug), most likely of the family Pentatomidae
- a Katydid (Microcentrum rhombifolium). The general color is good and the wings are semi transparent.
- I can’t be sure but looking at your picture it looks like a Lace Wing, a very beneficial insect.
- Although the insect is semi-crushed, I am reasonably certain it is a treehopper, f. Membracidae. These bugs have a pretty hard pronotum that might make them tough to eat. The are also called three-cornered hoppers because of the thorn like processes. Looking like a thorn also allows these bugs to hide in plain site. Here’s a link to a pretty good picture of the bug in uncrushed form: http://bugguide.net/node/view/230006/bgimage
- The insect is to squished and bleary for a comfortable id. The bird looks great! Possibly a stink bug. Pentatomidae.
- a Hemipteran (something like a leaf hopper) in the suborder Auchenorryncha and the family Cicadellidae – based on the shape of what he thought was the head and the size/shape of the wing. It could also be a small green cricket but he couldn’t see any antennae.
