I walked over to the north pond yesterday, hoping to get some photos of the big crane that’s been hanging out the past few weeks. He flew away before I could do that, so I sat at the water’s edge waiting for him to return. He never came back (thanks to you, Mr. Loudmouth Cell… Continue reading The Sci-Fi World of Insects
Category: Wildlife – Invertebrates
Posts in this category contain references to insects, spiders, worms, aquatic creatures such as clams, mussels, jellyfish, octopuses, etc.
Mantid cannibalism “fairly rare,” except when it’s not
We’ve all heard stories about the tendency of the female praying mantis to bite the head off the male after mating, right? Well, that’s a gross exaggeration, and unfair to the species. In point of fact, the female bites off the head before mating, which, according to this article, spurs the guy on. Hard to… Continue reading Mantid cannibalism “fairly rare,” except when it’s not
Dragonfly
Debbie spotted this dragonfly as we were walking around the pond earlier today. I didn’t have my camera with me, but we returned about 30 minutes later and the insect was still hanging around (actually, there were two of them, chasing one another with unknown motivations). According to this website, this is a Scarlet Darter… Continue reading Dragonfly
High Wire Act
This walking stick was hanging from an electrical line over our B&B at Canyon Lake last week, barely in reach of my zoom lens. I don’t know what he thought he’d find up there, and he seemed to make a great target for a hungry bird, but I guess he knew what he was doing.… Continue reading High Wire Act
Stalking the wily cursor
We once had a neighbor whose hyperactive Maltese terrier would chase a flashlight beam around the room for as long as we had the energy to move the light. His seriousness in attempting to capture what was obviously a highly annoying if not downright dangerous prey never failed to amuse. Nor does the following: If… Continue reading Stalking the wily cursor
Butterfly and Flower
I failed in my quest to get better photos of the snapping turtle, but I was determined to bring something back in my camera. When I took this photo, I had no idea it would turn out as beautiful as it did. The wind was blowing and the autofocus on my zoom lens wasn’t cooperating,… Continue reading Butterfly and Flower
And yet another bug pic
We’ve were hit with a veritable plague of grasshoppers a couple of weeks ago. Occasionally, we’d pick up a hitchhiker on the car, including this one that landed on the windshield, and provided a rather unique perspective for a photo.
Yeah, it’s another bug pic
This critter was on the wall outside the studio where we had our dance lesson tonight. It’s some variety of walking stick insect but I’ve never seen one quite like it before. It’s about six inches in length, and more delicate-looking than most walking sticks I’ve seen.
Bugged
I seem to be in a photographic rut lately, but the insect world has presented some opportunities too good to ignore. I spotted this unknown variety of shield or stink bug on one of the red-tipped photinia in our front flowerbed. I browsed in vain through more than 500 photos via Google’s image search without… Continue reading Bugged
Heavy Backyard Air Traffic
The bees were working over the yellow bells (aka esperanza) in my father-in-law’s backyard, and so I hauled out the camera on Saturday to try to capture some of the action. I was so focused (pun intended) on the bee leaving the bloom in the following photo that I didn’t notice the one that’s on… Continue reading Heavy Backyard Air Traffic