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The mystery of the strange beetle larva revisited

Some time ago, I blogged about a strange beetle larva that I had found.  It is clearly the larva of something – probably a beetle.  However, I still have no idea what it is.

Interestingly enough, I have only found this critter in one place – close to one of the ponds near my office.  I have never found one by my house or in any of the parks.  Therefore, my suspicion is that – while obviously not aquatic – whatever this grows up into prefers to be near water.

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The bugs are back in town! (Part II)

I had to finish yesterday’s blog due to a FlickR outage (they host the pictures for the blog), so continuing with the story I was amazed with how many bugs were out.  I picked up the lid on one of the trash cans in the back of our yard and noticed a stink bug.  This is a shot after I had moved it to a leaf.

At first I was rather excited because as I prodded it to move to the leaf I smelled something curious.  Had the stink bug actually fired at me?  After all, it is well known that stink bugs defend themselves through a foul smelling mixture that they spray at potential attackers.  I then heard my neighbor cussing that something he had opened really stunk, which culled the excitement.  A closer sniff of the bug revealed that it was not the stink bug itself.  Perhaps it did spray, but I couldn’t smell it.

I then moved the stink bug to a primrose that I felt was more photogenic.

It didn’t seem enthralled to be there and soon took off.

I let it go, knowing that it certainly will not be the last stink bug I photograph this year.  I always enjoy photographing them due to their bright green color and interesting eyes.  The next time though I think I’ll try finding a leaf that matches the color as close as possible and try some photographs on it.  I’m not sure the strong colors of the flower really helped the shot in this case.

Another interesting episode came with an ant that I found crawling in one of our recycle bins.  It took off when I tried to photograph it and crawled into the bin.  I watched it for a bit until it came to the very edge of the recycle bin and we stared at each other for about a minute.

I’m not sure of the species.  It did not appear to be a carpenter ant, but I didn’t get a good enough shot of the entire body to be able to identify it.

Finally, I did not have too much luck with the flies that day – who were a bit skittish, but I did manage to get one fly.  Interestingly it was wingless – though I’m not sure why.

Why this particular fly did not have wings will have to go in my mystery bin.

The bugs are back in town!

Last weekend we had a nice warm spell and I found it fascinating how some of the usual suspects just popped out of nowhere.  Sometimes I really wonder where many of these insects go when the weather is bad – as when it is cold and wet it is nearly impossible to find many of these and once the weather turns good they are everywhere.

I found this ladybug on one of our outdoor chair covers.  I didn’t feel this was the best place for it so I moved it to one of our rose bushes.

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Some more work on composition

About two weeks ago, temperatures were only a little bit chilly on the weekend so I went out to see what I could find.  I also went out to try to improve my compositions.  It is my goal to not just take identification pictures of insects and other small creatures – but to give them personality and make pleasing shots to look at.

Most of the small critters were hard to find that day, but I did find some interesting things.  This one I found rather cute and it looks almost like the worm is introducing himself!

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Insect Wednesday

Last weekend was a productive weekend for me, photography-wise.  I wandered around my yard looking for interesting subjects and found several, without having to look very hard.  This fly was very gracious to let me get several shots off.

I also learned a new trick.  One thing to make sure to not do when photographing flies is to get in their light.  I played around with this one to see how much it does truly matter.  Sure enough, whenever I stood in its light, the fly took off.  Therefore I approached from a direction such that my lens would not cast a shadow on the fly.

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A Curious Case of Midges

Every winter, approximately at this time, I notice that midges start collecting on our shed outside.  My suspicion is that this is for mating, and that there is something about the shed that the midges like.  Last weekend I decided to see what I could find outside and to no great surprise I found a few midges on our barn.

I didn’t bother photographing them for very long because there weren’t that many of them, I already have a number of photographs of midges, and there weren’t any midges in really great photographic position.

Nevertheless, that didn’t prevent several mysteries from cropping up.

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My Obligatory Owl Butterfly Shot

After reading several books on macro photography, I have come to realize that there is a ‘right of passage’ for all macro photographers.  Simply put, in order to become a macro photographer you must take a closeup shot of an own butterfly.

So, this weekend while at the Pacific Science Center, I decided that I should join the club.

There!  Now I have officially joined the club!  OK, maybe I could have put the ‘eye’ a bit to the right and exposed it a tad bit less, but nonetheless I have not posted my ‘obligatory’ shot so I am officially in the club!

Book Review – For Love of Insects

If you want to photograph insects, it is always a good idea to learn more about them.  For that reason, I have tried to read a book on them whenever I read a photography book.  For those who are curious what the life of an entomologist is truly like, this is the best book I have seen.

This is not a reference book, but is instead more of a collection of stories.  Eisner goes through the major projects he has worked on during his career and how they came about various discoveries.

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The Mystery of the Six Legged Spider

This weekend I took a brief opportunity to look at what I could find outside.  The weather has been cold here and we recently got over a snowstorm, so I wasn’t too optimistic.  In addition, it started raining soon after I got out so I didn’t have much time to take any pictures.

I did manage to find this tiny spider though on my kids’ slide.

This spider was incredibly tiny – requiring 5x magnification from my MP-E 65 to get this shot.  After downloading the shot, I looked through some of my books to attempt to get an ID – but after some investigation I can 100% say I have no idea what type of spider this is.

When my wife looked at the picture, she picked out an obvious mystery.  It only has six legs.

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The mystery of the white lacewing

Very often as I follow the insects and other small creatures in my backyard, I come across a mystery.  These aren’t truly mysteries, as I’m sure someone knows the answer, but in my research I am unable to find an answer as to why things are.

Take for example, this lacewing that I found recently in my backyard.

This lacewing appears to be dead.  It has grown pale white and has some ‘stuff’ on it.  In cases like this, I do not know truly what has happened but I can comment on what I have observed. Continue Reading…