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.

 

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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.

 

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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….

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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Day 233: A Mysterious Mason Wasp

 Backyard Nature, Insects, Native Plants, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Aug 212014
 

On my morning walk down Piney Woods Church Road today, I encountered this wasp with the most slender waist that I have ever seen, apparently gathering nectar from a Hoary Mountainmint.  I mistook it for a Thin-Waisted Wasp at first, but an expert at BugGuide on Facebook set me to rights.  It is actually a species of mason wasp, Zethus spinipes.  Researching this species further, I was astonished to find that relatively little is known about it.  Supposedly it nests in abandoned burrows of other insects, but this has not been confirmed.  One source, a web page from the Extension Service of the University of Florida, even cited a source on the genus dating back to 1894, though noting that it was likely in error.  If anyone is looking for a biology research project at the MS or PhD level, Zethus spinipes is certainly available.  

 

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Day 232: Spacewalk

 Backyard Nature, Geometry and Nature, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Aug 202014
 

I ventured out to Piney Woods Church Road this afternoon after an intense thunderstorm.  The air was delightfully cool, and thunder still rumbled overhead.  I found great delight, as I often do, in photographing droplets of water.  I was delighted to discover this one water droplet with a tiny spider, a few millimeters across, just below it, clinging to a slender thread.  I was reminded of an astronaut on a space walk above our blue-green sphere.

 

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Day 231: Intimations of Autumn

 Backyard Nature, Native Plants, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  2 Responses »
Aug 192014
 

Under gray skies and light drizzle, I made my way down Piney Woods Church Road this morning.  I noticed quite a few leaves, and small pine branches, that had fallen overnight, including this stunning sassafras leaf. It reminds me that autumn is approaching, although a heat wave is due to strike us first, with temperatures in the mid-90s for the next week or so.  I much prefer the crisp blue-sky days of mid-fall.

 

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