July 16, 2011

How quickly the summer can sweep by, with no thought to the idle passing of time through photography! Fostering dogs, keeping busy with work, home improvement projects and Colorado's apparent recent fascination with severe rainstorms and Seattle-like weather have all conspired to fill the days! Fun, and slightly wet, activities to be sure, but it is good to sneak back out and visit with the smaller residents of this planet!

The gardens at the Westminster Butterfly Pavilion have really come along nicely (helped quite a bit, no doubt, by the interesting spate of moisture currently enjoying an extended stay) and offer numerous opportunities to photograph a host of invertebrates!

I was able to finally track down a great little milkweed beetle in the garden, and got this rather nifty shot of his mouthparts (look at that sharp cutting portion for munching through the tough milkweed leaf).

Here is another good view of our little milkweed beetle (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus), showing the pretty cool bisection of the eye by the antenna!

The ubiquitous harvestman makes a regular appearance throughout the garden. We can be pretty confident of capturing harvestman, aphids and bees every single visit.

I managed to sneak up a rather amorous pair of striped cucumber beetles. I think that the smaller male is on top and the larger female is resting on the leaf. Ah...le parfum doux l'amour!

While few insects visit the rather poisonous milkweed beyond our previous friend the milkweed beetle (and, of course, the monarch butterfly), bees certainly provide their timeless and critical pollination skills!

Here's a nice shot of a Rocky Mountain Bee Plant (Cleome serrulata) just as a local namesake arrives on the scene to take advantage of the full gorgeous blooms.

A neat shot of a honeybee in mid-flight, heading towards the beautiful flowers of the Rocky Mountain Bee Plant. I really like how the wings are a vivid blur as the bee motors along in search of pollen.

Clearly, the summer has been a bit rough on this young lady, as evidenced by the rather tattered condition of her wings. I am still amazed at how bee's eyes are so furry!

Just as I was preparing to head indoors to teach a photography class, I managed to snag a final photo of this little fly with amazing green eyes and really nifty markings on the wings. Perhaps a deer fly?

May 22, 2011

If you live in Colorado, you may have noticed that we are apparently enjoying Seattle-like weather these days. Long periods of rain with brief bouts of hail, followed by more rain. As a result of this quite wet spring is the grand influx of dandelions in my back yard. Not only do I have wonderful patches of bright cheerful yellow flowers, along with the very busy bee population, but I have the perfect subjects on which to try out new macro lenses! Thus, while generally we try to really focus on the more buggy aspects of Colorado nature, today I thought I would take a short break and celebrate the marvelous symmetry of that often over-look and frequently (and perhaps unjustly) cursed visitor to everyone's lawn.

I absolutely love how getting in close to nature often reveals some pretty incredible and rather nifty details. Such as the cool little barbs on dandelion seed heads. Not only are they quite cleverly designed to catch the slightest breeze, but the also have a handy backup plan in the form of catchy little arrow-like sticky ends.

I have always been fascinated by the structure of flowers, especially now that I have the macro equipment that allows me to really get in close and see the inner harmony of seed and petal, stem and leaf!

When you get in really, really close, I think that dandelion seed heads have an almost bucky ball appearance. One can just imagine building a series of tiny geodesic domes!

May 06, 2011

Ah, the heady time of spring. Trees heavily ladened with flowers, the growing hum and buzz of bees, life erupting from the very soil beneath our feet! Finally, we have returned to the garden to greet whom, or what, ever might be visiting now that the cold chill of winter has bid us a fond farewell. Not only do we see increasing activity including bees and spiders, but we see the debris of the past year as the earth slowly reclaims its own.

Like the bleached bones of some great animal, the desiccated exoskeleton of a common woodlouse slowly gives up its nutrients. Better known as "roly poly," or "pillbug," these familiar visitors to Colorado gardens are actually born as minute white offspring.

With the continued high winds of spring, we had very little luck finding insects to photograph around the flowers and shrubs of the garden. However, the soil yielded a rich bounty of last year's visitors (or at least their cast off sheddings as it were). I managed to locate this rather interesting millipede husk, just one of several insect bodies that had manage to survive in spite of snow and rain.

One of the best finds of the day was an almost intact bumblebee. The beautiful orange and yellow stripped body can be seen gently glowing through one of the wings in this rather nifty shot.

Those of you who have noted my previous posts will remember that jumping spiders rank high on my list of favorite invertebrates. Not only are they some of the tiniest of spiders, but they often sport some of the most incredible colors of any spiders I've photographed (at least currently). This little fellow, for example, exhibited bright yellow legs close to the body.

Here are a couple of very close shots of yet another woodlouse that did not make it through early spring. I was especially fascinated by the intricate pattern on the exeskeleton as well as the fine hairs that sprouted from each leg.

This is just a fun shot of a young harvestman on concrete. I've tweaked up the contract so that you can actually see him (her?), but initially the camouflage was actually pretty good!

Digging around a bit in the wood chips and dirt, I managed to come across this very cool molt from a small spider. I love how you can see down into each leg as well as the depression which would contain the sternum. Imagine if we, like spiders, needed to molt every so often as we grew!!

The one lone bee that actually cooperated with me during the morning's shoot. Sticking her head right into the grape hyacinth flower, she has started her busy morning early and provided a fine shot to a very happy, and satisfied, photographer!

October 22, 2010

Even with rain, cold winds and the previously mentioned lack of insects, we managed to sneak out this morning and capture some rather nice images of late season residents. The Butterfly Pavilion was absolutely packed with kids today, including several school groups as well as the usual Friday crowds. Lots of fun, but also lots of activity in the gardens!

I managed to get a quick shot off of this common fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) inside the Wings of the Tropics exhibit before we opted to head outside and try our luck in the field. These guys are extremely fond of the rotting bananas left out for the owl butterflies.

Of course, being this near to Big Dry Creek, we can always find mosquitos ranging around the outdoor gardens!

Art managed to locate a very nice example of an orbweaver spider, although I fear that her web was not in the best shape. After we managed to get off a couple of shots, she returned to the task of repair.

I have to say that this might be one of my favorite unlikeable insects, simply because of the association with my other favorite activity. A nice shot of a european hornet (Vespa crabro).

Working hard to get that last minute pollen, this honeybee is covered from head to toe (antennae to thorax?), but still managed to allow a couple of moments for photos. Quite nice really.

October 15, 2010

It is becoming painfully apparent that we are quickly approaching the end of fall and the inevitable creep of winter. There is a chill in the air, the leaves are rapidly collecting on the lawn...and the insects have almost completely disappeared. The small wetlands across from the Westminster Butterfly Pavilion, which used to be alive with the hum of dragonflies, yellowjackets, damselflies and myriad other residents, is a veritable ghost town. Oddly enough, we are finding the same four or five insects during these late season visits. Its as if each species has left one representative to keep the photographers happy while the rest head off on whatever winter adventures each prefers.

After looking for some time, we did manage to locate one lone crab spider valiantly clinging to a cattail leaf as the increasing winds of the morning whipped the vegetation around.

A very patient and cooperative blue damselfly. As with the dragonflies, the more I read about this very neat insects, the less I actually know. I was somewhat surprised at how many possible species there were in Colorado, and (at least to my untrained eyes) how often the differing species had similar markings.

Our old friend, the caterpillar of Henry's marsh moth (Simyra henrici), which we found practically on the very same plant as last time. Apparently, once these guys find a good thing they do not stray far.

I decided that a fun way to spend the morning would be to crouch quietly along the edge of the wetland waiting for the one remaining meadowhawk to make his way across the pond (hoping, of course, to get a shot on the wing). After about 40 shots...I managed to get this rather acceptable shot!

October 8, 2010

You can really tell that autumn has arrived in the garden! We're seeing all of the late season insects (generally you can read this as a ton of grasshoppers!), and what non-grasshopper insects we do see are generally few and far between. However, determination and a dogged persistence still manages to yield some nice results!

This honeybee was having a very rough time for some reason when I came across her in the grass. She was struggling to gain air and finally gave up and simply rested on a handy blade of grass and actually stayed pretty still for this nice portrait before finally recovering her senses and taking flight.

A few moments of digging in one of the mulch beds revealed this lovely blonde spider of unknown species. The coloration (and location) had me leaning towards guessing that she might be an agrarian sac spider (C. inclusum).

This little example of a paperwasp (Polistes aurifer) was busy checking out drippings from an apple tree that is just above an electrical panel within the garden. We managed to get several quite close shots while the wasp enjoyed the sweet diversion.

One of the most prevalent little critters for the late season macro photographer are these (relatively) large silky ants (Formica subsericea). Hopefully, I am not confusing these with carpenter ants (Camponotus pennsylvanicus). To me their butts look pretty smooth and without the fuzzy hair of carpenters.

A very nice shot of a classic seven-spotted lady beetle (C. septempuntata).

This wonderfly colored and spotted beetle immediately caught my eye while I was searching through the foilage for possible photo subjects. My best guess on this one is (and feel free to help me correct this) spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica undecimpuntata howardi), which is a mouthful!

I am wondering if this fellow might not be a differential grasshopper (Melanoplus differentialis). I can tell you that he was very interested in munching on the flowers and not terribly concerned with the proximity of my camera lens (much to my delight).

If you remember my earlier post of the rather aggressive and posturing sweat bee, I almost hate to admit that this might be the same poor young lady based upon her rather less than friendly greeting upon my approach. Can you say "restraining order?" As far as specifics, my guess on this (based upon the yellow and black coloration in the back) would be agapostemon sweat bee (Agapostemon virescens).