Day 240: Bowl-and-Doily Spider

 Backyard Nature, Insects, Natural History, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Aug 282014
 

It was a hot and dusty afternoon; holding the camera in the late-day sunlight, I dripped with perspiration, the droplets falling onto the parched roadway.  At last, I decided it was time to photograph the web of a Bowl-and-Doily Spider (Frontinella pyramitela) that I had been noticing every day for months now, about halfway down Piney Woods Church Road. In the waning sunlight, I also caught the spider’s silhouette close-up.  This tiny spider, about a centimeter across, waits patiently at the base of the web’s “bowl” for gnats and other small insects to happen by.  Judging by the various wrapped packages suspended in her bowl, this spider has been fairly successful.

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Day 239: A Katydid Wasp

 Backyard Nature, Insects, Natural History, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  2 Responses »
Aug 272014
 

I set out on my Piney Woods Church Road walk at nearly midday, and the heat of the day was starting to build.  Most photographers shun the hours around noontime, particularly due to the harsh direct sunlight that is less than ideal for landscapes and macrophotography alike.  It is, though, a great time for pollinators, still hard at work on the lingering Hoary Mountainmint blossoms.  Today I was delighted to note the return of an immense (well, bigger than any insects I have photographed lately) wasp, over an inch in length, with orange-red legs and long, curling antennae.  I had noticed one on the same flowers the previous day, but it darted away before I could even focus the lens.  This time, though it skirted quickly from flower to flower, I was able to take several successful images, my favorite three of which are below.  It turns out that the wasp is a Katydid Wasp, Sphex nudus, which, as the name suggests, preys on katydids.  In the lowermost image, it is joined on the same flowerhead by a Double-Banded Scoliid Wasp, Scolia bicincta.

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Day 238: “Come Any Closer, and I’ll Jump!”

 Backyard Nature, Insects, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Aug 262014
 

Today’s photograph features a Coppery Leafhopper (Coelidia olitoria) being pursued by an overly-enthusiastic (possibly slightly desperate) photographer, on a shrub along Piney Woods Church Road.  A few seconds after this photo, the leafhopper did, in fact, jump.  Another effort to photograph him (her?) ensued, culminating in a second jump — onto the photographer’s lens!  After that, it’s all a blur….

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Day 237: Fly Appreciation 101

 Agriculture and Husbandry, Backyard Nature, Insects, Natural History, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Aug 252014
 

I do not usually like flies, and I have largely avoided photographing them along Piney Woods Church Road. For one who espouses an appreciation for the commonplace, though, flies seem about as everyday as one might imagine.  Still, there are so many unpleasant flies out there:  deer flies, black flies, house flies, to name a few.  For some reason, though, I was able to put aside my distaste long enough to take this close-up of a fly on Hoary Mountainmint today.  Its visit offers a first lesson in fly appreciation.  It turns out that this fly is among the “good guys” of family Tachinidae, also known as Tachinid Flies.  They are predators, feeding on myriad garden pests, including caterpillars, beetles, sawflies, and borers.  Their larval stage is a bit grisly, though.  Host insects consume Tachinid Fly eggs laid on plants, and then the eggs hatch inside the insects and slowly feed on them.  Still, I will try to remember these flies with gratitude the next time I enjoy something fresh from the garden.

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Day 235: Dew Drops and Parasols

 Backyard Nature, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Aug 232014
 

Knowing today was going to be the steamiest day of the summer so far, I set out mid-morning on my daily Piney Woods Church Road adventures.  Beside the horse pasture fence, just along the edge of the roadway, I encountered a number of tiny parasol-like mushrooms, Parasola plicatilis, the Japanese Parasol or Pleated Inky Cap.  A common mushroom of urban and suburban lawns, it has a charming elegance that I found captivating.  My favorite photograph of the session was this one, in which I was able to use a fairly small aperture (f/6.3) yet, by turning my camera just so, bring both the mushroom cap and two tiny dew drops on a nearby grass blade into focus.

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Approaching Sunset, Fire Ant Mesa

 Backyard Nature, Golden Hour, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Aug 222014
 

I miss the American Southwest — the stark expanses of rock and sky, the bright red rock layers, the mesas and canyons. Today I was able to capture a fleeting taste of that along Piney Woods Church Road. As the sun sank low in the sky, I took this photograph of an old fire ant mound (I did not test it for current occupancy.) evocative of a western mesa.  Not quite Utah, but not quite the Eastern Woodlands, either.

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 Older Entries  Newer Entries