An insect thread...

[Blue_In_AK]

We have hundreds of these in our garden this year, more than I ever remember seeing before. In fact, there are four of them here in my office right now that flew in the window. Can I see bugs from your neck of the woods?

[Immad2]

1. This wasp drop in front of me while I was on a photo excursion.

Dining Wasp

[Blue_In_AK]

2. Eww, what's that he's eating? Gross....

[Immad2]

3. A caterpillar.

[mike_c]

23. thats Polistes, the paper wasp...

...and it's a female. She'll provision the developing young in the nest with that tasty ball-o-caterpillar she's masticating.

[intheflow]

4. Is that a mayfly or a damselfly?

I get them confused. My sister-in-law calls them "needles" and is scared to death of them. I think they're absolutely beautiful.

Personlly, I'm beign visited by many, many dragonflies lately. On my travels in the last two weeks, I've seen red ones (in Texas), white ones (Texas and Massachusetts), and blue ones (visiting me for the first time since I've lived here in my Colorado apartment). Obviously those dragonflies were doing their patriotic duty visiting me knowing I didn't get a chance to see any fireworks over the holiday. :P

This is just some run-of-the mill dragonfly in my family's Massachusetts garden. It's not as flashy as the red, white, or blue ones, but it was the only one willing to pose for me.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. That's a beautiful dragonfly.

I have a soft spot in my heart for dragonflies -- they were my late mother's favorite collectibles. As for mine, I'm not exactly sure what it is, but, as I said, we've got tons of them this year. I love their black and turquoise stripes.

[GOPFighter]

6. Big-ass Moth

Antheraea polyphemus

5-6" wingspan! Two weeks ago we had about 20 of these overnighting under the porch lights.

[Blue_In_AK]

7. Whoa, that guy's impressive...

I really like his antennae.

[Algomas]

10. I saw one of those when I was a kid, living in Ontario...

It was late and I had snuck out of the house to get high with my buddies and look for mischief.
Thanks for the photo, now I am sure it wasn't a hallucination!

[GOPFighter]

11. LOL! Sometimes...

...reality is scarier than hallucinations - 'specially when it comes to bugs!

[intheflow]

20. That's pretty dang impressive!

And just a little scary! :hide:

[Ms. Toad]

54. Younger cousin of "big-ass moth"

(Sphinx moth)

I found him in the garden this evening, took his picture, and was going to include him in a "my real hot days of summer" thread (since I didn't really find my typical summer thrills until after the challenge). I think he belongs here. He's about 4" long.

[Blue_In_AK]

56. He looks like he could put away a few cabbages

or tomatoes.

[Ms. Toad]

57. Tomatoes...

But I let him go, since he's just devouring the volunteers, and he eats far less than the groundhog that devoured the beans, peppers, peas, zucchini, and cucumbers.

[Blue_In_AK]

58. A few years ago I used to have moose

devouring my greens, but we put up a good high fence, and now all we have to worry about is cutworms, cabbage maggots and slugs, none of which were too bad this year. We lucked out.

[RC]

8. This guy landed at my feet last night.

[regnaD kciN]

9. What, you want a photo of my computer?

Can I see bugs from your neck of the woods?

After all, I live near Microsoft, and not too far away from Intel, so I guess they're local!

;-)

[GOPFighter]

12. Evidently that is a damselfly

According to the Internet. I don't see many around our neck of the woods (maybe because I haven't been looking).

[noamnety]

13. bugs!

[MissHoneychurch]

15. what the heck is that?????????

it really looks good but what is it???

[noamnety]

16. It's damsel flies

During mating season, the blue ones balance on the necks of the brown ones if they're hanging out on the water. They were on a piece of trash floating in our stream. I think it's like being chivalrous, like carrying a woman across a puddle. :)

[Blue_In_AK]

17. No sex threads, remember? :-)

[noamnety]

18. Hey, now

I don't think they're actually doing it there. That's more like wining and dining, and expectations of how the womenfolk in their species are treated.

Mods - please move to Women's Issues forum. ;)

[mike_c]

22. more like, they've already done it....

This is mate guarding-- the male stays clasped on after mating until the female lays her eggs. Damselflies have some crazy sperm competition that occurs if females mate multiple times, so males guard them to prevent re-mating until she lays her eggs.

[noamnety]

28. Ah, I should have figured that

That certainly does sound more like how the world works.

"I'm going to make sure you don't fool around on me, even if I have to physically SIT on you to make you stay home."

[mike_c]

21. just the opposite, actually-- the males are the ones...

...well, on top.

[NV Whino]

14. Here's a handsome fellow who stopped by the other day

[Mutley]

19. Just this guy who you've seen already.

He's a little bigger and has turned green!

[GOPFighter]

25. What have you named him?

:rofl:

[Mutley]

26. Nothing yet.

I should name him, though, since I guess he is a permanent guest of mine!

[Richard Steele]

24. Here's 2 of my better macro insect pics:

The WASP who started a nest on my porch this spring:



And a baby grasshopper from 2 years ago:

[Jamison]

27. Here's a bumblebee

I shot him at the Botanical gardens here in St. Louis.

[F.Gordon]

29. That's all I have

I really don't go looking for insects. And I curse GOPFighters name everytime I point the camera at another friggin' flower. :)



I'm not really a big fan of "bugs" but I have to say that there are some really amazing photos in this thread.

:thumbsup:

[RagingInMiami]

30. Here's a Miami dragonfly

[Maestro]

31. All great shots!

Makes me want to get a good zoon lens!

[Blue_In_AK]

32. I got up on mine with one of those little macro attachments.

I was very stealthy.

[The Straight Story]

33. do spiders count? Here are 2

[kliljedahl]

34. Spiders aren't insects

But they're cool anyway. Nice shots.


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[intheflow]

36. That first shot made my skin crawl!

Spiders reproducing... bleeeeeeeeeech!

But the second spider has beautiful markings, though. Nice shots all around. :)

[kliljedahl]

35. Here's a GIF I converted to Flash for my website

Keith’s Barbeque Central

[intheflow]

37. Exactly what is eating what?

Is that a venus fly trap in action?

[kliljedahl]

38. That's a 17 year locust emerging from its shell

It had emerged from the ground and started climbing up a tree. I kept pulling it off & moving it down. Apparently it thought it had reached the top of the tree. The sequence begins right after the shell split open & it came out. I took about 10 photos over a 4 hour segment as its shell hardened, wings emerged, spread to full size & it flew away.



Keith’s Barbeque Central

[intheflow]

39. Wow! Way cool!

Now that I know what it is, I'm truly impressed!

How do you make a gif out of a sequence of photos? I would love to play with that idea!

[kliljedahl]

40. I use the Ulead GIF animator

It's now a free program that a lot of people here at DU use. It came bundled with their PhotoImpact software that I use mostly for photo processing. There are a lot of GIF animation programs out there. Not too hard to do after a little practice.


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[MissHoneychurch]

41. bee on sunflower

[jhain]

42. this is beautiful and yes....

here in South Jersey I an inundated with the beauties this Summer!
HUge, too!
Yesterday, for a minute, I thought I was watching swallows swooping over the garden-! It was hunmdreds of 'dragon flies'.!

[F.Gordon]

43. I finally have a "bug" to contribute

Are you happy now?
:shrug:

Now I can go back to shooting cemeteries and masoleums... dark depressing images. :P

[kliljedahl]

44. Would've been cooler if

She was eating the head of her mate.

[F.Gordon]

45. Oh. Sure. Burst my bubble......

I finally come up with a "bug" shot and this is the gratitude I get. :)

:hi:

No mate in sight...... must have already been consumed.

[kliljedahl]

46. Great shot, just joking

SHEESH

[F.Gordon]

47. I know you were....

notice my little "smile" and "wave".

Sometimes I can be a bit too cynical in my replies. My wife calls it "selective communication that only I(me) can understand".
:crazy:

[kliljedahl]

48. I knew that too, I'm not nearly as dumb as I look.

[F.Gordon]

50. I knew that you knew that I knew

I just forgot what the hell we were discussing.

[kliljedahl]

51. I have no idea, but it's been fun

& kept this kicked.

[Blue_In_AK]

49. Good one, F., and she does look rather full and satisfied... n/t

[Ms. Toad]

55. Really cool...

I can almost imagine it has a personality!

[Mutley]

52. I have another one that I took today.

I call him the Stegosaurus Caterpillar.

[Blue_In_AK]

53. Very nice, Mutley

It's amazing how they can hang upside down like that.