Mögliche künftige Blog-Header

When I'm taking pictures of bugs, I'm always thinking about shots that might look good on my blog header. Nevermind that I can barely manage to update the actual content on a regular basis. I still want it to look good. And I get tired of even my favorite header pictures after a while. I have several potential shots in my file. Here are the 2 most recent:

Möglicherweise werden Sie nicht sehen, diese auf bis zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt in der Zukunft.

Outtakes

Diese sind nichts, was ich habe nicht gesehen, ein paar Mal vorbei, und ich habe wohl bessere Bilder gepostet, aber, eh ...

Monarch

Distelfalter

Green Luchs Essen eine Biene

König des Stammes

Nachsaison Obst-Käfer kann immer noch hier und dort zu finden.

Gleiche Spinne, verschiedene Tage. Dennoch gibt es aus der letzten Woche dazu. Ich denke, sie wird es bleiben, solange gibt es Blumen, Insekten anziehen für sie zu essen.

Cute little bugger

Nicht sicher, welche der beiden Ansichten, wie ich besser.
Nicht sicher, welche Art von Hemiptera this guy is auch nicht, aber er mit seiner speckly, dicken Körper und seinen dicken gelben Flügel Pads's cute.

Zeit für ein wenig (bug) Geschlecht

Kleine Wolfsmilch Bugs, doin 'it auf beiden Seiten eine Samenschote.

Fliegen, Paarung im Flug!

Bagrada hilaris, eine kleine kornbohrer Schädling, der vor kurzem eingewandert sind hier aus Afrika, tun ihr Bestes, um ihre Bevölkerung auf das Arboretum explodieren. Ich sah viele Paarung Paare.

Weeping walls, hanging gardens

The vertical canyon walls of Zion Canyon are wet with water that constantly drips down from little streams at the top of the mountains.
This moist, slimy environment supports hanging gardens of ferns and other delicate plants.






The wet walls are also the home of the tiny Zion Snail, which when I learned of its existence,
I made a special effort to find. Unfortunately, none of my pictures of it came out very well.
This was the best one.




This little leafhopper was just getting his feet wet.

Fine tune focus

I'm still getting the feel for this new camera. My success is still largely hit and miss. (That's probably why I blew out my old camera in less than 3 years, because I take so many dud pictures for every good one.)
These came out pretty good. I was able to focus on a very narrow field.

Sometimes, you're the harlequin bug,

Sometimes you're the skin.

A selection of arboretum bugs from today

A nice shield bug


Katydid nymph



Tiny gray bird nymph



Harlequin cluster


Spotted cucumber beetle



Looper

A resting bee.

A handsome fly.

When I was looking over these photos on my computer, they looked too grainy. Then I looked at my camera settings, and I think I had the ISO set too high. I still have a few things to learn about my new camera.

♪ Getting to know you ♪

(as sung to my new camera)

Even though it's very similar to my old camera, it's still different. A little more sensitive, perhaps. Or maybe I still have to find the best settings for my point-and-shoot bug macros. But I'm finding my way. Here are some of my better shots from yesterday.


I love this picture, not just because it's pretty sharp for how little the spider is, but because this is the first time I've ever captured the big beautiful eyes of a jumping spider.


As I was focusing on this little thing, I wasn't even sure it was a bug until I took the picture. The legs were so skinny, I could not see them with my eyes, even with my glasses!

This spider's abdomen was about the size of a sesame seed.

Last bug photo for a while?

My camera is on the fritz. That's bad news!

The good news is now I'm going to get a new camera. But I need to figure out what kind to get first. That might take a while.

Tiny bugs

This has to be the tiniest baby katydid I've ever seen. That's a miniature rose it's eating. The flower is only slightly bigger across than, say, an Oreo cookie. His antennae were blowing in the breeze.


These are the same kind of little red bugs as the ones I hatched the other day. Notice how round their little bellies are after a day or so of feeding.

Coming of age

Still pale and vulnerable, a freshly molted Harlequin bug rests beside its old exoskeleton.

When the new skin has hardened, it will look like this.

Broken twig porch moth

Because that's what I thought it was at first. A little piece of broken twig lying on the threshold of my front door.

It had bark on the outside, and you could see the wood in the jagged, broken part.


But if you look carefully, you can also see legs.



And a cute little face.

I looked on BugGuide to ID it, but there's too many zillions of moths and I got tired of looking. So for now, it's the Broken Twig Moth.

Nature walk this morning

This magnificent snail was crossing our path. I have never been on that trail early enough in the day to see these snails when they're not asleep. Until today :)











There were a lot of these black beetles in one area. Many were paired up and "spooning" like these two.


The single ones were diggin' around in the soil. I think this was the tailings of a gopher mound.