I took these photographs on Piney Woods Church Road four mornings ago, after a dense fog had blanketed all the spiderwebs with dew. The cattle pastures were covered with webs, and many more were strung along the barbed-wire fences along the roadside.
Late last night, a male Reddish-Brown Stag Beetle (Lucanus capreolus) visited me on our back porch, doubtless attracted to the light. This stunning beetle, easily two inches in length, sports quite impressive pincers. Nonetheless, the beetle is a vegetarian, feeding on tree sap. The pincers are for challenging rival males. Interestingly enough, the female of the species also sports a set of pincers, though smaller than the male’s.
Today’s whimsical photograph features a horse and rider ornament atop a mailbox along Piney Woods Church Road — the same black mailbox covered with lichens that was featured back on Day 102.
On my walk this afternoon, I wandered into a neighbor’s yard and began photographing butterflies on his blooming lantana, phlox, and butterfly bush. I noticed a lovely long-legged fly (Condylostylus sp.), less than 1/4 inch in length, perched on the edge of a phlox leaf. I am not able to identify if precisely, but I am comforted by the fact that two different insect identification books on my shelf both comment that the different species of Condylostylus (of which there are over 40) can only be distinguished by a specialist. If I am correct as to its genus, at least (as the shape of its wings, red color of its eyes, and length of its legs indicate), then this fly is actually brilliant metallic blue or green in color, and only appears coppery in this photograph because of sunlight reflecting off its body.
It was a frightfully hot afternoon, and I had little anticipation of encountering anything wonderful or mysterious on my walk. I felt the pressure of a frantic day, having spent hours before my walk preparing a talk for Monday, and facing the prospect of several hours afterward tutoring online. Still, I was surprised to find a new bloom — or, rather, a new bloom for July. The Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) partway down Piney Woods Church Road was flowering again. It is the third set of blossoms on that particular wisteria for this year. Like last time, though, there was only a single raceme of blossoms — the rest of the plant was merely leaves and seedpods. Still, I am impressed with the determination of this invasive flower. Like human beings, Chinese wisteria is a weed species. Like us, it seems capable of being fertile and having sex (in its case, the floral variety) many times in one year. It is a trait I might expect of a hybrid cultivar purchased from a greenhouse, but not from a vine growing in the wild along the roadside.
Still, the flower is so delicate, so pretty, with such cloyingly sweet perfume, that I am nearly seduced by its charms, and almost willing to forgive its flowering out of season….
Slender horse hairs on a barbed wire fence along an empty pasture are transfigured in the evening sunlight. Oh, how I relish those golden hours at day’s end, when spotlights of of angled sunlight illumine fragments I pass along my path down Piney Woods Church Road! There is such wonder then.
It was another splendidly foggy early morning as I made my way toward Piney Woods Church Road, but by glancing at he brighter patch of cloud hiding the Sun, I could tell that the fog would soon burn off. I took quite a few fogscape shots before becoming entranced, yet again, by dew-covered spiderwebs. This is my favorite of them all, one that I photographed with my zoom lens last time around. This time, I found a cattle feed bin, stood on that in the roadway, and was able to take quite a few macro images. There are two webs here: an elegant orb web, and a patternless assemblage of threads. The two are separate, yet connected. Was there only one spider involved in this dual creation? Looking at it, I cannot help but be reminded of diagrams out of cosmology or even science fiction; this particular photograph makes me think of parallel universes: one highly ordered, one highly chaotic.
For the past few days, I have been roaming Piney Woods Church Road, seeing few four-legged creatures of any kind — even the flies seem to have grown scarce. Often I would hear the katydids and other musical insects calling high up in the trees, and I would wish that one would make itself visible so that I could take a few photographs. I am delighted to say that a True Katydid (Pterophylla camellifolia) appeared this very day, resting placidly on a white oak leaf near eye level. I took quite a few photographs — these are my favorite four, beginning with the one I will designate the “official” photo for Day 205. Is it my imagination, or does she (I can tell this is a female from her flat, curved ovipositor on her back end) appear a bit upset that a photographer is getting in her face? I tried to disrupt her as little as possible, though I admit that I took another collection of photos on my return walk — all of my favorite images are from that later set.
I was wandering Piney Woods Church Road late this afternoon, feeling somewhat empty inside despite the sunny skies, not in search of anything in particular (or anything peculiar), when I saw these lovely clouds. What on first inspection looks like a single tall cloud resolved itself into two clusters of clouds when viewed from a slightly different angle, a little further down the road.
I glimpsed this brilliant red Eastern Velvet Ant (Dasymutilla occidentalis) hurriedly making its way across the pine needles scattered along the edge of Piney Church Road. She (the males actually have wings) scarcely paused on her travels, but thanks to the wonders of high shutter speeds, I was able to catch her in this image. I do admit that her velvety fur almost begs one to touch it. Almost. Fortunately, knowledge of this flightless wasp’s other common name, “cow killer ant” is enough to remind me of her potent venom. This beautiful but dangerous femme fatale is worthy of a song, one that might begin, “She wore red velvet….”
