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A-bug-hunt I did go ~DUW~

Lil Stinkpot

Lucky Greenhorn
I went to a local lake to see how it is, and to check out the local wildlife. The first thing I found out was that the fishing was fine, if you liked mercury. It is the #1 worst mercury polluted lake in the world. Oh, yay! For quite a while the only buggies I found was a small, unidentified true bug that wanted to sample the local Lil. It got flicked for it's efforts. A little further down the path I found some pretty non-native snails in the thistles. What wouldn't I do to get a decent close-up? Apparently traipsing through yellow thistles and tumbles weeds wasn't on that list, so traipsing I did, getting prickled all the way. Sadly, all the snails I found were dead. I should go back to Baylands, I know of places where the snails group up by the ton. Literally. After I snapped this pictures I pocketed this shell. For non-natives, they sure are pretty.



Next I found a nearly mature grasshopper, a prettily marked tan one. It jumped into the yellow thistles (ugh, agaiiiin?), and even obligingly turned around to face the camera when I gently pulled the stem back to get better access. Unfortunately, my hand blitzed and let go of the stem, catapulting the grasshopper into the next county. Oh, bugger.

After that, the bug pickings were pretty slim again until I happened on a very spidery stand of cat tails. There were three or four different species, all I haven't seen before. I'll ID them later, when I feel like it. This is also when the camera started seriously malfunctioning, and would not go into proper macro mode. I'd set it to macro, and it would flat out refuse to focus close up, choosing to focus on the background way out in the distance every time. I was getting pretty frustrated, and chose to familiarize myself with the (rather clunky) manual focus mode. I need more practice, but would rather go get the stupid thing fix.

These two were on the same leaf. Femme fatale and her unwitting male prey? Only time will tell, and I wasn't sticking around to see.





More spidery goodness, in no particular order.










This one had some dinner hanging in the pantry.






This is the only picture I have of this guy. I *NEED* to get that camera serviced.




A really cleverly disguised molting tent.




ID compliments of Mach: red gum lerp psyllids.








Burrow. Tarantula, maybe? I sure wasn't about to dig it up to find out.




Is it Halloween time yet? Very nice, for being offhand, manually focused shots. The web ones were above my head, arm's length out. I went through dozens of waste shots to get these few. I love digital!








My favorite.




Not pictured: When I got in the truck to go home, after I pulled the sun shade from the window to roll it up I noticed something large, yellow and fuzzy trundling up my shirt, inches away from my chin. Eeeek! It was a rather disoriented looking yellow jacket. I suppose she got trapped in the truck after blundering in through a cracked window, and got stuck between the sun shade and the windshield. I was getting rather agitated, not looking forward to imminent envenomation, and opened the door, preparing to make a break for it and flick the vespid off my shirt, or take the shirt off..... As soon as the door opened, however, she took the initiative and buzzed off on her own, and disappeared. Dignity relatively unscathed, I straightened my shirt, closed the door, and drove off.
 
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I forgot one. Here's a parasitic wasp checking out a freshly laid egg ball.

 
very nice Katie! thanks for sharing with us!
 
Conical white things are red gum lerp psyllids
 
Pretty cool pictures, thanks for sharing !
By the way, what is your sweet dory ?
 
very, very cool KT
 
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Quite a few different orb weavers you found there. Considering the venue (all those vertical plant stems), not too surprising. :)
 
  • #10
Yeah, they do seem fond of those cat tails. I'll be back another time, once I get my camera cooperating again. I have it talking to me again now, focusing on my finger instead of the far wall; I'll take it out front later and have a more detailed chat.
 
  • #11
Oh, im sorry :( Me and my stupid questions !
 
  • #13
I found another neat spider today. They're about the only things that stay put in the gusty afternoon wind we've been having.

This one is absolutely stunning.



 
  • #14
I hate spiders..... But cool pics!
 
  • #15
I'm trying to get more buggaroos, but the afternoon wind keeps them down and hidden.
 
  • #16
Very cool shots, and very cool arthropods there too :)
 
  • #17
The green one is a green lynx spider. Thanks to mason for the ID. The black ones are tentatively Argiope spiders. All the pictures I find are very colorful, but the body shape is about right. The red blurry ones are long jawed orb weavers. I'm seeing a pattern here. LOL! All orb weavers.


I'll be out in a very arthropod rich area tomorrow and Sunday. I'll try to take a few moments to shoot a bug or two (with the camera!), wind willing.
 
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