Macro

Western thrashing ant attacking insect larva. We arrived at an area of southwest Washington called Long Beach yesterday.   This morning I was out for a quiet walk with my camera; it was equipped with a macro lens and macro lighting system.   It is always fun to explore new places to see what kinds of finds can be discovered.   I had quite a bit of luck as I ended up with half a dozen pictures which I am excited about.   The one above is an example. Thrashing ants feed on a wide variety of foods.   They will take seeds, honeydew from aphids, and small prey items such as this insect larva.   Ants have very strong jaws.   They are capable of subduing smaller insects with relative ease and, when working together, can overpower significantly larger creatures.   They will bring their find back to the nest where it will be fed to larvae, the queen, and shared amongst the adults.   When in “bug mode,” I am scanning the environment for a...

Margined white butterfly on wild dandelion. If you have seen a white butterfly flitting around in your garden, it likely is the cabbage white butterfly.  This European invader has supplanted the native margined white butterfly shown above.  This is actually not the cabbage white butterfly’s fault; it is capable of feeding on a wider variety of plants than the margined.  To complicate matters, the primary food of both is the mustard plant.  Much of the native mustard varieties, which the margined primarily feeds on, has been replaced by invasive European ones.  The cabbage white can eat both plants while the margined white can only eat native species.  If eggs are mistakenly laid on the foreign variety, the growing caterpillars die. According to William Neill, author of Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest , the margined white butterfly used to be common throughout most of mid latitude North America.  I found this one in a very rural area of Wa...

The clodius parnassian butterfly One of my favourite things to do is to stroll about in some natural area with a camera and see what I can discover.  Admittedly, it lacks the rigorous nature of cardio activities which my body would benefit from.  It also has the disadvantage of being a boring spectator sport for anyone who may accompany me on such a quest.  This is why I usually end up doing it alone.  The great thing about it all though is that I am not alone; all about me are marvelous examples of what wonders exist. Yesterday on my walk I came across a butterfly I have never seen before.  It had some remarkable features on it unique to my experience.  The wings were mostly white, unusual for native species, with gray blotchy edges.  It also had a yellow head and black antennae.  It was rather large, although not as big as a swallowtail.  It wasn’t until later that I identified it as a clodius parnassian.  Its scientific name ...

Flower fly near flower Sometimes you get more than you bargained for.   That was my first thought after looking at this image I took today of a flower fly.   I had followed it for a minute or two, waiting for it to land.   I hot a shot or two of it here and there, but nothing which really struck my fancy.   Then it landed on the bud you see t the right.   Slowly, I closed in on the subject, being careful to make small adjustments in my position as I approached.   It landed on the flower; I corrected my focus and released the shutter.   At that moment the fly departed and reversed its position.   I thought I had lost it. Originally, the fly was fully in the shot.   When it backed away from its perch my position hadn’t changed.   This resulted in my capturing only the front half of the insect.   Many flies are only capable of forward motion; flower flies can fly backward almost as well as they can forwards.   That...

Caterpillar of the white lined hawk (sphynx) moth. The white lined hawk moth is modestly common over much of North America.  I have found the adults in BC, Washington, Arizona, and Alberta.  I have only ever seen the caterpillar in Arizona though.  When mature the caterpillars are well over two inches long; they are voracious feeders and feed on quite a variety of plants.  In some situations they may become pests. I shot this with my 80-400 mm zoom lens; it is not particularly great at focusing closely but with the large size of the caterpillar and the cropping which was done using Photoshop I ended up with an acceptable image.  I also like the fact it is nicely framed by its browsing material and how the in-focus head trails off to a mildly out-of-focus body.  The camera I was using at the time was a Nikon D7100; its 24 megapixel sensor allowed the retention of significant details when the image was cropped.  I caught an adult in my back yard ...

Pale Swallowtail Butterfly Late spring is such an awesome time of year for butterflies and moths.  Depending on elevation and latitude, that time of year could move into early summer.  Regardless of when they emerge, the brilliant colours and fluttering tendencies of these lepidopterans are most certainly welcome.  They are at their most picturesque when feeding on flowers.  Their wings often undulate slowly on their perch, and a photographer can capture the beauty of the moment with patience and perseverance. Swallowtails are most easily identified by the pair of slipper-like appendages jutting off the hind wing.  A large butterfly, swallowtails can lose these projections if attacked by a bird or other predator.  I have seen them successfully flying about with over half of one of their hind wings gone.  As an insect, butterflies have four wings, but the fore and hind wings are so seamlessly paired that they appear as one.  Bristles at the f...

A mating pair of Canada thistle bud weevils Many of you know about thistles.  Nasty, spine equipped plants with attractive purple flowers, they are the bane of gardeners and farmers.  Creeping Canada thistle especially, as it will expand aggressively through root propagation and out-compete neighbouring plants.  Every pound of thistle in a farmer's field reduces the crop yield by two pounds.  You can imagine it wouldn't be long before an out-of-control thistle invasion would decimate a farmer's harvest. Enter the Canada thistle bud weevil.  Although not equipped with red capes or flashy chest insignias, they are one of the heroes of thistle control.  Brought in from Europe in the 1960s, these snout beetles (weevils) were introduced as a biological weapon against the herbaceous pest.  Since then they have spread far and wide; I have encountered them in numerous places on my travels.  They are not the best natural tool for controlling thistle ...