Wow, what a week or two. I've spent hours out in the yard looking at some creatures almost too small to notice. The purple asters are in their fall glory (already!) and full of bees (and flies). Made me think of w.b.yeats in his "bee-loud glade". Bumblebees and honey-bees with their saddle-bags full of pollen. several kinds i've never seen before. The little red-eyed striped flies flit so quickly from flower to flower it was hard to get any picture at all and suddenly this clear one!
Click on any picture to enlarge it. Click again to REALLY enlarge it.
In the eye of one rather passé aster flower I found THREE tiny insects about an eighth inch across.
Late in the afternoon, the candy-striped leafhoppers found love on a hibiscus leaf.
While I tried to photograph a loose leafhopper, he tried the old run behind a stem trick. Suddenly a bold jumper spied him and
that was it for the leafhopper. Sorry guy.
It was in fact a great week for spiders. The smallest one was of course in an aster - I think it's one of the crab spiders.
This next one is the debris a grass spider had pushed out of its web - I thought it was quite a beautiful lump of colorful creatures he had processed - looks as if he probably had caught another leafhopper.
Last for this time: something I had never ever seen. I am so excited. Here on a lily pad is a newly emerged damselfly. Until last night when I was reviewing the day's haul I thought the one on the right was one that had emerged more freshly - but then I whacked my forehead with a fist. That thing is the cast-off skin. That's why it looks so much like a nymph (or naiad, as they call the nymph of a dragonfly/damselfly)! You always learn something new!
While I tried to photograph a loose leafhopper, he tried the old run behind a stem trick. Suddenly a bold jumper spied him and
that was it for the leafhopper. Sorry guy.
It was in fact a great week for spiders. The smallest one was of course in an aster - I think it's one of the crab spiders.
This next one is the debris a grass spider had pushed out of its web - I thought it was quite a beautiful lump of colorful creatures he had processed - looks as if he probably had caught another leafhopper.
Bugguide.net: