Rural Argiope

Same spider, a couple days after a rain storm. Her abdomen was far smaller (perhaps my original comments had her on some sort of abs and glutes workout) but she was feasting on a yellow jacket in her newly remade web. There's slight decoration there, but not particularly noteworthy.

Now This is a Real Woman

Remember a post or so ago (ok, like twelve posts ago) in Argiope, I said "she" and "gal" when referring to a spider. I'm an idiot. Maybe it was all the talk about papilla that had me make the mistake. Now this, this looks like a real woman. I put in a number of abdomen shots for those of you who appreciate that sort of thing.




She was busy eating and the mini-thisles her web was anchored to made a head shot difficult. I tested a strand of her web after a large (two inch) grasshopper jumped and bounced off a few strands of her web. I pulled the strand with my fingernail and could "twang" it. Wow. Now that's a web. I think I'll go back today and see if I can get a few more shots. Note in the first shot you can see a strand of silk connecting her to the web by her spinnerettes.

BIG Spider

I really need to start carrying measuring tape. Maybe it wouldn't have mattered as this fellow wasn't very interested in holding still, perhaps because it was daylight and Rowan, Jasmine and I looked frightening. I saw him clearly, from about eight feet away (he was that big), moving off the path of a nearby open space into the bordering scrub.

I'm guessing it's a wolf spider and the cephalothorax and abdomen together measured about an inch and a half. It never ran, but didn't want to hang out much to Rowan's disappointment. He was suitably impressed by its size though and the tale of seeing it was almost as good as being able to hold and/or take it home.

This is the first time I've seen one in the wild, and I didn't expect to see it at three in the afternoon. The Butterfly Pavilion has one or more on display if you want to see one up close but behind glass.

Boston Jellyfilsh

This jellyfish lives at the Boston Aquarium. Seems nice for the aquatic set, but it was stunningly crowded for the humans. I lasted about thirty minutes before feeling nauseated from the press of bodies.

Dragons Eggs

Our dragonfly pond is ideal in many ways, even for the younger set.

Grisly Discovery

I found this while walking along the side of our house. I was surpised by just how large the eye sockets were. I don't know much about birds, but we have a significant population of house finches and sparrows around our house and I suspect there's a nest somewhere on the roof or rain gutter.

Stink Bug in the Larder

I really like the color scheme of this bug.

Jumping Spider Appetizer

I followed this spider around for a few minutes and was rewarded with a catch. The amazing part was that I was shooting continuously and I somehow missed the leaf hopper. One minute the spider was empty ... pedipalped, the next he was eating.

Plume Moth

I took a few shots with a large depth of field, dorsal shots, but they were boring. I like how airplane-ish they look -- or rather, I like how plume moth-ish airplanes look.

Willow, Lilac and Dragonfly

Here's another one of my backyard dragonflies.

Little Bee Fly on Sunny Sun Flower

I like how these little flies buzz so loudly.

Silver Dragon

Another dragonfly, I've been finding them hanging around the Chinese Lilac bushes in the early evening looking for dinner, I suppose. I need to look up this species.

Argiope

As common as these spiders are in the books I read, this was the first time I'd seen one in my yard. (A while back I saw a much larger, related species in Roxborough State Park. That one was probably four times the size of this quarter inch one.) This gal was easier photographed from the ventral view because that pretty mottled green background is made of my very prickly blackberry vines. I got a couple dorsal shots, but shed a little blood to do so.

The round nodule on the posterior consist of spinnerettes, anus and anal papilla (according to http://webs.lander.edu/rsfox/invertebrates/argiope.html) . I am a somewhat sheltered girl (I will ignore the snickers I hear from certain readers), so I had to look up the word papilla. Weird.

There's some of the web decoration that Argiope is known for. I hadn't realized that there was so much discussion on the matter of purpose in decorating the web.

Scuttle Zoom

Tiny and fast across the vast expanse of sidewalk.

Red Meadowhawk

Back in Colorado, the first thing I did was visit my dragonfly pond.

Pointy-Eyed Mantid

This little fella was very tiny and more of a hopper. I only noticed it becasue it didn't move like the grasshopper I thought it was at first sight.

When I got close, I realised it wasn't a European mantid nymph because of the eye shape. I submitted it to the BugGuide under Yersinops, a Larimer County Bug Hound found a similar mantid, but as I mentioned in my submission, I thought it might be a ground Litaneutria minor (Scudder) which I read about in Bagging Big Bugs p 59 by Cranshaw and Kondratieff.

Moth on Screen

This little moth seems to be raising its skirt to show a little lacy slip.

Drinking Upside-Down

Looks Like Colorado

But no, this is my mom's Chinese Lilac in Marshfield and a Massachusettes Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly.

Hover Fly Butt

I like hover flies.