Posts in Category: insect
Ebony Jewelwing
These might be the earliest Ebony Jewelwings I have ever seen in Maine…and I saw them far from the streams where I have seen them in the past. These were along the Eastern Trail…a bicycle and walking trail that will eventually run the length of Maine…and, as part of the Atlantic Greenway, from Florida north. The section from Kennebunk to Biddeford runs along over an existing natural gas pipeline so all they had to do was build a bike and pedestrian bridge over I95. It has been done for several years now. The Jewelwings were fluttering over the trail as I rode my ebike along, and I got stopped in time to track them into the nearby forest for these photos. I find Ebony Jewelwings fascinating…not in the least because of how the color of the metallic body parts changes so radically as the light changes. These, in this light, were showing almost no green. They were an electric blue. Sony RX10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr.
Pelecinid Wasp is strange all over!
Pelecinid Wasp, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Maine
It has been at least a year, and it may have been two, since I encountered a Pelecinid Wasp. My first sighting was at Emmons Preserve in Kennebunkport. This one came from Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area. I was surprised to see it fly across the path in front of me and land in a small birch at the edge of the forest…but there is no mistaking this very strange bug with its extended abdomen trailing out behind a body with such small wings that it seems totally impossible that the thing could fly. The long abdomen is used to inject eggs into scarab beetle larvae while they are still underground. Close up, the hind legs feature strange bulges, which have no apparent use. Stranger still, almost all Pelecinid Wasps seen or collected in North America are females. Males, with a shorter, swollen abdomen, only account for 4% of sightings. It is possible that female wasps develop from unfertilized eggs…and that would make them very strange indeed, as insects just do not do that. But then, if that is case…why are there any males at all? Strange. The Pelecinid is strange all over.
Sony HX90V at about 1400mm equivalent field of view (using Clear Image digital Zoom). 1/250th @ ISO 400 @ f6.4. Processed in Lightroom.
Chinese Mantis
We always called these “Praying Mantis” when I was growing up. A little research this morning tells me that we have two species in New England…European and Chinese, both introduced, and both common. The large size of the bug and length of the antennas (antenni?) make this Chinese. We found it in the lower meadows at Laudholm Farm on Saturday. It flew in right in front of me and landed. The flight is highly distinctive and surprisingly unlike the bug when it lands. My wife did not see it land and could not find it, even though she believed me (I think) when I said it was there. 🙂
Sony HX400V at just over 1000mm equivalent field of view. ISO 200 @ 1/250th @ f6.3. Program with -1/3EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Life Bug!
Since beginning to photograph dragonflies seriously a few years ago, I have become much more aware of all insects…wasps, bees, and beetles will catch my eye and bring the camera into play. I am sure I have seen many new bugs in the past year, but most were wasps and bees and beetles that I might have looked at hundreds of times in the past and never given a second look. This bug however stopped me in my tracks. Not only had I never seen it…I had never seen anything remotely like it! Life Bug for sure.
Taken at Emmons Preserve in Kennebunkport ME.
It turns out it is an American Pelecinid, a wasp relative, and a female at that. Though females are apparently fairly common in late summer across a range that stretches from Central America up into Canada, males (with shorter abdomen) are so rare that it is assumed they are not needed for reproduction (which begs the question: why are there any males at all?). That ferocious looking abdomen is in fact pretty harmless…no sting…and the bug itself is not aggressive. No bother at all unless you are a scarab grub larve, in which case you could become a unwilling host to Pelecinid eggs.
Sony HX400V at 2400mm equivalent field of view. ISO 80 @ 1/250th @ f6.3. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Yellow-jacket on Lantana
You do not see a lot of Lantana growing in Maine. It is a plant I associate with the Southwest and southern California where it is popular in Gardens for its bold color and for its attractiveness to butterflies. At the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens they had it growing in huge planters which I assume they move inside during the winter. I stopped for a macro of the flowers. The Yellow-jacket (Common Wasp) is a bonus.
Sony Alpha NEX 3N with ZEISS Touit 50mm f2.8 macro. ISO 200 @ 1/320th @ f11. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Anyone who appreciates macros would have to love this lens!
Bee for Thursday
I mentioned in an earlier post that there were more insects at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens on our visit Monday than I had seen before…especially bees…and especially Bumble Bees. They were everywhere. After a few shots with one in the frame, I began to collect them on different flowers.
Sony Alpha NEX 3N with the ZEISS Touit 50mm macro. ISO 200 @ 1/160th @ f10. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Hoverfly in Grass Pink Orchid
Last Thursday I attended a program on dragonflies and butterflies at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farm in Wells, Maine. We netted a few interesting moths and butterflies…including a Snowberry Clearwing Moth…and after the program I wandered down to the boardwalk through the mini-bog that my wife Carol discovered earlier this summer. I had gotten good photos of the Grass Pink Orchids there earlier in the week, but I wanted to try for better shots of the Pink Pagonia, the other common bog orchid in Southern Maine. Still I could not resist a few more shots of Grass Pink…especially when I caught this Hoverfly visiting. There seem to be several species of Hoverfly here in Southern Maine…or else the species is very variable in size. I see all sizes, from very tiny (smaller than this one), to big brutes that over in openings and over trails in the forest 2/3rs the size of a Bumble Bee.
Sony Alpha NEX 5T with the ZEISS Touit 50mm f2.8 macro. Aperture preferred at f11 for depth of field. 1/250th @ ISO 100. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Cropped slightly for scale and composition.
Rose Chafer Beetle
The Rose Chafer Beetle is no friend to those who treasure roses. They travel in packs and can decimate a cultivated Rose Bush in a matter of hours. Taken on its own merits, however, it is a rather handsome creature, in that very other way that insects have. This specimen was one of several working over a Multiflora Rose in the overgrown fields at Laudholm Farm on Saturday. As you can see from the photo the Rose Chafer is interesting, among other things, for having a carpeted caprice. It’s whole upper shell is covered with fine hair.
Sony NEX 3N with ZEISS Touit 50mm f2.8 macro. ISO 200 @ 1/250th @ f14. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Cropped on the left for composition.
Little Green Metalic Bee in Heaven!
I think this flower is just Spider Wort. I found it growing at Galveston State Park yesterday morning. I had my screw-on macro lens attached to the 16-50mm zoom on the Sony NEX 3NL and was taking some Wildflower shots in general before I noticed the tiny Metalic Bee working the blue flowers.
Camera as above. ISO 200 @ 1/250th @ f8. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Red-bordered Pixie
Though the best known US colony of Red-bordered Pixie butterflies might be next to the Burger King in Edinberg Texas, I came across a few at the National Butterfly Center. One was an orange-fringed and very worn specimen, but two were full reds, and appeared quite fresh. This one was tucked back in the foliage high in a small tree. Not the best light but it is such a spectacular bug!
Pixies are Metalmarks though they appear quite atypical for the family. They are only found in South Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley floodplain. Finding the few I found at the NBC was one of the highlights of my visit to the gardens…one of the highlights of my visit to the Valley in fact.
Canon SX50HS in Program with – 1/3rd EV exposure compensation and iContrast. 1800mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.