Mt. Hough #5: A Faunal Sampler

For such a quick trip up Mt. Hough and back, I am quite satisfied with the variety of invertebrate life I saw.  In this post, I'll stick with the "common" or "popular" names of the critters with one exception, and that's the second photo.  If any readers want help with the scientific names or locating natural history lore, feel free to email me or make a request in the comments section below.  So, from the top, we have: 1.) A Checkered Clerid Beetle eating pollen of a Purple Milkweed, AKA Heart-leaf Milkweed.  2.) What the locals call Stink Bugs, the field guides mostly call the Dentate Eleodes, Eleodes dentipes.  It's a Tenebrionid beetle, and as far as I know has no common name that distinguishes it from other bugs.  "Stink bug" is applied locally to hundreds of different species. 3.) A Centipede resting beneath a large piece of bark on a cold morning.  It wasn't interested in moving. 
4.) & 5.) A Butterfly dining on nectar of a Dusky Horkelia.  The larger green leaf behind the butterfly is of Sulphur Flower, a kind of wild buckwheat.  The Horkelia is beneath the butterfly and is only clearly visible in photo number 5.  6.) The protective "spittle" of the Spittle Bug on a stem of Salsify.  The nymph stage of the bug is hidden within the white stuff.  When it emerges as an adult, it is a Treehopper or Froghopper, and is the world champion jumper, outdoing fleas, by jumping up to 100 times its body length.  7.) My first Goldenrod Crab Spider of the season is this baby one on a Purple Milkweed, the same plant, in fact, as the top photo showing a Checkered Clerid Beetle.  8.) Another photo of a different species of Crab Spider eating a fly while perched on a Blue Gilia.  I ran this photo a few posts ago, but I love it, so I'm posting it again.  It was right at the side of the road.  I'm glad I got out of the car and walked around a bit.  9.) Scorpions are suddenly abundant under large hunks of Ponderosa bark, especially in areas that have experienced fire around the lower foothills of Mt Hough. This one was near Gilson Creek, a tributary of Spanish Creek.  10.) A group of caterpillars on a nearly dead Thistle.  From a distance, it looked like the beautiful Red-Shouldered Ctenucha moth.  I knew it was too early in the season to find those, but I had to get pretty close before I realized I was looking at a swarm of moths.  11.) An unidentified (by me) beetle on a blossom of Arnica.  12.) A Hover Fly caught in the act of dining on a blossom of Yerba Santa.  Questions about any of these are welcome in the comments section or by email.  I'll do my best to answer them.