Too cool, part 20: Stop it, you’re creeping me out


Lyssomanes viridis, known to those of us who do not speak dead languages as the magnolia green jumping spider, is a lovely translucent green spider that wouldn’t hurt a fly um, is harmless to anything larger than a honyebee and is undeserving of any arachnophobic reactions. Until you get close. Really, really close.

Because, while all jumping spiders have the same equipment, on the magnolia read more

… be true

This is largely a continuation of an earlier post, where I went in too close to a particular species of spider, and I’m going to do it again. It’s all legal if I provide a warning.

I went down to the river yesterday, because I hadn’t been there in a while and I wanted to see how autumn colors were progressing – the river is one of the better locations close by to see a wide read more

Doing the fartsy thing


No, the title does not mean last night was burrito night – it just means that, since I don’t do the artsy thing, this must be something else.

In the past several days, my right arm has been bothering me due largely to wielding the camera and flash bracket one-handed, often in awkward positions, but also from several demanding chores. I’ve been trying to let it heal, but that means read more

Dropout

There’s another gout of photos coming shortly, but this one needed to stand on its own.

This morning was rather humid, and in chasing pics among the dew I came across this suspended drop. My initial images indicated I should take a closer look, and thus, we can now see the unfortunate nucleus of the droplet. Some species of flying ant had been captured by a spider, probably not too long ago, read more

Could be worse


I know, even more arthropods, but that’s how it goes.

I’ve been keeping an eye on an Argiope spider in the dog fennel plants, probably a juvenile A. aurantia, sometimes known as a black-and-yellow argiope, or garden spider. These are the ones that grow fairly large, up to 8cm or more in leg spread, that throw orb webs with a white zigzag in the center across tall weeds read more

Not what I envisioned


I had an idea this evening as I was doing a routine check on my resident photo subjects, and returned to pursue it when the moon was the right height, but couldn’t bring the reality close enough to my imagination. The grey spot in the background is a waxing gibbous moon in the sky, rendered into a pentagon by using a macro lens with a five-bladed aperture – this is what read more

It’s a jungle out there


A few days back, I began finding a solitary jagged ambush bug nymph (genus Phymata) on the dog fennel plants. I was pleased, because there’s something about these little predators that’s appealing, and not just to me The Girlfriend likes them too, solely based on their appearance. I don’t find many of them – my last round of decent read more

Getting there

I’m starting with an image largely unrelated to the post topic, simply because I like it better. I did get a few dewy morning photos of the plant I’m about to mention, but this one’s much stronger, and it does illustrate the conditions nicely. Just don’t call it art.

In the attempt to get nice natural settings for subjects like hummingbirds (who are raiding the feeders madly read more

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