Photuris firefly, PNP

I'm leading a walk in a couple of weeks for the local garden club, and going out into the field with a collection of knowledgeable botanists always gives me pause, since the participants, no doubt, may well know more about plants than I ever will. That said, I'm pretty decent on a number of wild plants, so, in answer to one walker's desire—"show me something I don't know"—I should be able to come up with a surprise or two, particularly in the non-floral department. In surveying the refuge we'll be visiting, I spotted, atop a grass flower head—I think it's Bluegrass—the first of this year's fireflies. I'm not sure of its identity, but, thanks to Tufts Lampyrid beetle biologist Sara Lewis and her splendid new book, Silent Sparks: The Wondrous World of Fireflies, I at least know the bug to be a male. The size of the lantern on the back segments of the abdomen is a giveaway.

In terms of another breed of sexual dimorphism—and a nice surprise I'd love to be able to give my group—this White-tailed Deer popped up a respectable distance from me, and I managed to get a few pictures before the critter spooked and vanished, snorting annoyance all the while. The roundness of the head is typically a sign of a female, so that, even on deer without antlers, the observer can usually tell the does from the bucks.

Deer doe, PNP