Three Insects and a Spider

[RandyRFJP]

Orland Grassland - Cook County Forest Preserve District, IL

Image 1 - Brown Grasshopper Nymph (Franciscanus malanoplus)



Image 2 - Goldenrod (?) Crab Spider on Partridge Pea
This spider is missing one of his long legs from the second anterior-most pair.



Image 3 - Red-Footed Cannibal-Fly (Robber Fly)
This is probably a female fly, based on the sharply-pointed ovipositor.



Image 4 - Northern Paper Wasp



C&C is welcomed.

[Dave A]

Nice series Randy.

Dave

[Ziggy]

Nice variety Randy.

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[Wavelength]

Very nice set of images

[RandyRFJP]

Thanks, Dave, Jim, John & Nandakumar. I appreciate your feedback.

[bnnrcn]

Nice set Randy

[Geoff F]

Just a guess but I wonder if your unidentified fly is some form of Robberfly (Asilidae) ?

All good shots.

[RandyRFJP]

Nice set Randy

Thank you, as always, for your kind comment, Binnur.

[RandyRFJP]

Thanks, Geoff, I'm glad you liked the shots. I believe you are correct regarding the ID of the fly shown in Image 3. This is only the second time I've seen a specimen like this, with the first time being a few days prior to photographing, and at the the same location as, the specimen I posted. I identified it as a Red-Footed Cannibal Fly based on this blog post: http://jimmccormac.blogspot.com/2007...nibal-fly.html I also thought that because the distance from Ohio to Illinois isn't that great, and the climates of the two states are very similar, the insect I photographed just SW of Chicago was probably within that species' range.