It's a little odd to see a pelagic animal like a siphonophore next to a terrestrial treehopper!
Here's a better picture of one of the siphonophore swimming bells. This was a relatively large bell, ~3-3.5 cm long.
(For more about siphonophores, review a post from last April.)
Many of the treehoppers we observed were still alive. One hopped onto Eric's sweatshirt:
I don't have much experience identifying treehoppers, but I gave this one a try. My first guess is a Three-cornered Alfalfa Hopper (Spissistilus festinus). If you can confirm or correct this identification, please do!
Ladybird beetles and winged ants were also common:
A variety of other insects were represented in lesser numbers. An example is this click beetle (elaterid) that was crawling actively across the sand:
Last June I wrote about encountering lots of insects in the wrack line on Salmon Creek Beach. At that time I wondered if it had to do with warm weather, strong winds, and large waves. This time there was warm weather (on 8 March) and relatively large waves (on 9 March), but I wouldn't say there were strong winds. Perhaps the warm weather was enough to cause some of these animals to disperse, but they went a little too far and got caught out at sea and then washed back to shore with the larger waves?
Interestingly, during both events (March 2014 and June 2013) I noted treehoppers and ladybird beetles, but it appears that different species were associated with the two events. Click here to compare the species from 2 June 2013.
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