Catching up is taking a lot longer than anticipated, but a lot of that has to do with being busy with other things, among them updating the materials for the photo students, who come first (well, no, The Girlfriend comes first, but the students are still ahead of the blog.) I’ve also tried to space out the photos with a couple of critical-thinking posts, but the flow
Tag: Phymata
Monday color 11
In honor of number eleven and its obvious connection to the movie This is Spinal Tap, we have this bright portrait of an ambush bug, genus Phymata, because… well… actually, I can’t make any connection between them at all. Nevertheless, it is a colorful insect, and much the same might be said for the characters in that movie so, hey, maybe I can make a connection after all!
Ambush
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
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
Just a pic
Gotta take a break from kittens…
Oh, you want to know just how big my subject really is? Okay, then:
Hiding in plain sight
Right alongside our front walk sits a cluster of flowers that I planted from seed to assist with hummingbird photography – I’d rather have shots at natural-looking flowers than feeders. Unable to find either plants or seed for varieties I knew were hummingbird attractors, I grabbed a bag of “bird and butterfly mix,” which wasn’t an ideal choice –
It’s a trap!
I was actually on the phone when I spotted this, and rudely begged off the call to go get my camera. Or at least, it might have been considered rude if I wasn’t conversing with another nature photographer instead, I was encouraged not to waste time ;-)
Jagged ambush bugs (genus Phymata) are common throughout the US, but most people have no idea what they are, or look like. The flower
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