Saturday, September 01, 2007

Four Portraits Plus an Insect Circle

When the moth settled down on my keyboard space bar, it was picture taking time! One of several recent insect portraits, tho this has not been a really good year for bugs. I've offered a lot of bright flowers -- enough to keep a very proprietary hummer happy -- but I've only seen a couple of butterflies most of this summer. One, a white guy with a couple of spots, and the other a yellow swallow tail. Neither has parked long enough for this slow-on-the- uptake photographer to fetch the camera.

However, I did get some advice from Box Elder on how to take macro shots with my PowerShot, which I tried out on my favorite neighborhood ant nest. Almost, but not quite.

My shortage of insects has included caterpillars. No woolly bears, for instance, at least at Chez GrannyJ; the housekeeper who takes care of Mom's apartment mentioned that she has two big mulberry trees over in PV that have been decimated by woolly bears. However, I did come across this pretty green fellow (above) while out walking. He was dining on a four o'clock.

I also discovered these curious insectoid rings on a ceiling in my utility room. Data, anyone?

Here's the exception to the shortage. I always have plenty of grasshoppers. The picture above shows the reason why. And for the really kinky, there are 2000+ more like it at insect porn, a Flickr site.

Later, a Circus Note: I should have mentioned earlier that my post about the mysterious critters that turned out to be box elder bugs got a mention at the Circus of the Spineless, along with a lot of other interesting insect sites. BTW, the Naturalist Notebook, which hosted the Circus, has a number of interesting nature sites worth looking at.

Further PS: I hear today is International Rock Flipping Day. Idea is that you turn over a rock (avoiding known rattlesnake havens and the like) and photograph who and/or what was living there. Let Via Negativa know your results.

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:02 AM

    I hate to say it, mamasan, but those "insectoid rings" look more like mold or fungus to me.

    Have you been getting spammed? I suddenly see word verification is turned on...

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  2. No -- but I was shown to a site that had been totally taken over by porn artists. So, better safe than... presuming that such a simple item would stop a real hacker.

    And, no, I don't think they are fungoid ... I'm pretty sure they are critters of some sort.

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  3. Anonymous2:35 AM

    My, what an erotic picture, that last one with the two grasshoppers making out.
    In Germany that would be censored.

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  4. I found the ants just moved too fast for the macro!
    Thanks for the link.

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  5. Oh yes, re Nea's site and the comment verification. Apparently she'd deliberately deleted her blog (seems an odd thing to do but each to their own), and that was what took over the space! By which time we'd all got all paranoid and started putting on comment verification! I guess it does save possible trouble...

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  6. love that naughty grasshopper pic! I'll bet she fell madly in love with his briliant colors!

    maybe spider nests on the ceiling?

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  7. Olivia -- actually, my most favorite grasshopper picture is one my late husband took of the critter munching out on a morning glory flower as he stared at you.

    Lucy -- You can always wait for cooler weather to slow down the antz! And thanks for explaining the take-overs; it happened to another of my blog friends who closed his site. Maybe, then, the word verification is overkill.

    Brain -- the big Q: how do you tell he from she?

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  8. Hi! This is a nice surprise to find your blog as I was initially attracted by the title which I had assumed was a political joke about our John Prescott ("Two Jags" to the media who tease him for being minister for transport, urging us to reduce our carbon use and having access to two prestigious fuel guzzlers!)Your pix are better!

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  9. Welcome, Sue -- your John Prescott clutters up lots of my searches for material about my hometown, so perhaps I should do some sort of joke, but that would be work, wouldn't it? Thanks for visiting and come again...

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