Most likely a white-banded crab spider (Misumenoides formosipes) with an unidentified hymenoptera. Good luck for the spider, bad luck for the bee. Taken on a shamrock plant that The Girlfriend’s Younger Sprog had obtained this past March. And since she doesn’t like spiders, probably better that she’s at college now…
Author: Al Denelsbeck
Off track
A few years back, I rode with a friend who had a speaking GPS. As we exited the interstate to get gas, the functional female voice said, “Off trail.” But then we turned left onto the overpass and crossed the interstate, provoking the voice to update us with, “On trail… off trail,” with barely a pause in between. Credit for picking up on our brief position above the
Macro photography, part five
I got my timing down the other day, and caught a set of lady beetle eggs as they hatched. The eggs are 1.2mm in length – yes, I have a loupe with a micrometer scale – so the details you’re seeing here are pretty fine. As you can see, the larva are visible through the translucent shells.
Hatching isn’t quick by any stretch, but it can still happen entirely while you’re
Stay true
I came across this image in my stock yesterday and liked the abstract that could be created from a tight crop, especially since I missed prime focus.
Of course you recognized this as the fingers of a ring-tailed lemur, taken while visiting the Duke Lemur Center in Durham, NC. It just goes to show you that even with appropriate subjects, I just can’t do “cute.”
A related story:
It worked, eventually
“O great and glorious spider god dwelling in the web atop the holy cypress, predator of all that it chitiny, please accept this humble offering from a most loyal servant, as evidence of my everlasting devotion, and listen with a kind ear and gracious heart to my fervent prayers, to make that giant sumbitch nature photographer go away…”
But how? Part eight: Getting emotional
Walkabout podcast – But how? Part 8
This is an extension of some thoughts that came up from doing this post, and highlights a sudden realization that I had. While I’m embarrassed that I never tumbled to it before, at least consciously, it’s
More meaningless milestones
… but at least, this gives me the excuse to post something furry.
A year ago, The Girlfriend heard something crying outside the open window one night, which led to the discovery that we had four abandoned, semi-feral kittens hanging around. The capture and taming of them was chronicled here, and
Not my fault this time
In all seriousness, I don’t strictly photograph bugs, and I’m more than happy to do some mammals and cute critters, but I haven’t been coming across many recently. I’ll dig through older slides for something furry pretty soon, I promise.
But even when I tackle the “cuter” bugs, the bare truth is, they’re not always cute. The insects known
Seneca Falls, we have a problem
All right, I admit that title might be a little confusing, since not too many people are familiar with the hamlet of Seneca Falls, New York, but on top of it being only 12 km from where I grew up (which is well worth remembering,) it was the location of the first Convention on Women’s Rights in 1848. We’ve come a long way since then – unfortunately, the direction has become
[Sniff] They grow up so fast!
You might remember the above image from a post earlier this year. It came from April, when several newly-hatched praying mantises, probably Chinese mantises (Tenodera aridifolia sinensis) were found to be inhabiting the azalea bushes that flanked our porch. I was, of course, delighted,