A spiders wet web

Oh what a wet web a spider spins, when a spider spins before the morning fog.  This was the scene in the woods of Mandeville early Sunday morning when a foggy morning misted the spider webs throughout the woods.  Little droplets lined the sinewy threads of the web.

Dragonfly -- loading up on heat

This dragonfly was enjoying sunning on a trunk of what had been a bush but was not in the greenish water of Bogue Falaya Park in Covington, LA.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Wasp -- diving down for nectar

This flower didn't make it easy for this wasp to get his noon-time nectar.  He had to climb down through the grove of stamen to find his treasure.  He spent about a minute or two wandering in the tops of the grove, then slowly worked his way around and down to a tasty meal.  All the while, he was doing the flower's work for it -- getting pollen all over his body.

wasp, flowers

Powered by ScribeFire.

Bee and wasp -- fighting it out in pistil dual

Our protagonist on the right, the bee.  Was enjoying his romp in the pollen on this afternoon where I just happened to be shooting a picture of this flower.   It was only seconds later that our antagonist, the wasp on the right, flitted into this pollen patch.  Both the bee (on the right)  and the wasp (on the left), kept their distance and didn't seem too distracted with having to share their nectar neighborhood.  But soon, the bee got jealous and buzzed a little to close to the wasp's side. 

That's when the pistil fight commenced --each making menacing passes at each others' stamens.   The wasp's jabs were obvious more threatening and the bee eventually backed off -- remembering that discretion is the better part of valor. He zoomed off to another flower in the neighborhood where he quickly took back up the task of pollen powdering in pursuit of nectar.

--steve buser

bee, wasp, flower

Powered by ScribeFire.

Bitty Bee Bib Needed

Someone needs to invent a Bee bib.  If you going to stick your face down into a flower, you're going to get pollen all over the fine hairs on your back.  This bee at the Nature Center in Mandeville demonstrates the problem.  What we need is a volunteer inventor ( I doubt if there is any money to be made) .  Any takes?
--steve buser

Bees, Mandeville, Louisiana

Powered by ScribeFire.

I don't like the looks of him

Hey, I agree with you. Totally. You're right. I shouldn't even expect you to be here still.

But, just hear me out okay? Please?

I do agree with you.

I agree that I have posted too many of these creatures lately. I know it can get boring to see the same old dragonflies just sitting there posing.

But I only show you this one to ask you this question -- Is this guy making fun of me?

Seriously, is he?

Because if he is I will walk back over there and beat the bushes, every last one of them until I find him and all his brother and alll. and I will... Okay. Okay. Let me go.

Okay, I'm okay, I'm settled down. I just don't like his ilk making fun of me. I'm sensitive about that kind of thing.
I'm okay. I'm sure. He's probably dead by now anyway. Lockjaw, I hope.
--steve buser

Dragonfly, New Orleans, Louisiana

Powered by ScribeFire.

Pray tell, what did you say?

I read on the Audubon Park twitter the other day that a Praying Mantis is the only insect with one ear. It made me think of this shot, but it took me a while to find it.
I guess that means Praying Mantis teenagers are extra hard of hearing.
--steve buser

Praying Mantis, insects

Powered by ScribeFire.

Live in the moment

I read in in an Audubon Zoo twitter that dragonflies only live 24 hours.   Talk about live for today!

@AudubonZoo -- A dragonfly lives only 24 hours. Make the most of today...
--steve buser

Audubon Zoo, Dragonfly

Powered by ScribeFire.

Standing watch with bated beak

A lady Purple Martin and her man stand guard out side their multi-unit apartment dwelling. There was a lot of traffic in and out of the place this weekend. The lady (the light colored one) has a tempting morsel in her mouth for her young one, but she is either waiting her turn or standing guard as required in the lease agreement.
--steve buser

Purple Martin, New Orleans, Louisiana
Powered by ScribeFire.

Bee bums

You know what I am going to say before I even say it. Don't you? Sure, you do.

Seems like if you invite bees and butterflies into your flower, they would take a little pride and keep the place clean. I mean after all, just cleaning the pollen they spilled on this Easter Lilly would go a long way toward keeping the flower respectable looking.

You know, I am glad we got that off our chest. Thank you.

--steve buser

pollen, bees, butterflies, lillies
Powered by ScribeFire.

Bee ready

Probiscus at the ready, this bee prepares to dig in for a delicious syrupy nectar delight.
--steve buser

bee, probiscus, flowers, Mandeville, Louisiana, nectar
Powered by ScribeFire.

Bees battle for flower power

Summertime and the living is busy. This is not as tranquil a scene as it looks. This bee and a friend were sampling the nectar on these flowers, working steadily through the bouquet (this is at Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge in New Orleans East) when a would be claim hopper buzzed in.

Our antagonist thought that he would have the bouquet to himself and buzzed around the other two trying to scare them away from what he now consider his nectar neighborhood. I had to switch lenses to even have a hope for a shot, but the buzzing fight continued.

I started shooting off rapid fire -- my only hope at catching a shot with this buzzing battle going on as our protagonist here just tried to get some nurturing nectar. I never did get a shot of our claim hopper -- he eventually flew off. I think he was probably a bumble bee and our floral friend above and his petal partner seem to be carpenter bees.

--steve buser

Nectar sucker

This photo of a Painted Lady butterfly is dedicated to Abraham Lincoln at Brookville Daily Photo for his amazing butterfly, birds, and lots of other animals and insect photos. The photo is from my brother-in-law, Tommy Melton's "meadow" in Slidell, the eastern suburb of New Orleans.

This fellow was quite elusive, until he landed on this flower which must have been filled with nectar. You can see his proboscis -- sucking tube for nectar -- pointing out and down from his head into the flower. His two antennae which help him smell for nectar and other things in the environment are clearly visible pointing up from his head.

You can see two of his legs and probably assume he has two more on the other side. He does, but like all insects the butterfly has 6 legs. Two of these are usually very hairy and held up close to his body. You can see one of those hairy leg hanging down on the other side by his head. Butterflies use all of their legs for smelling what they are alighting on.

Green stinger

With the help of a brave assistant, I was able to capture this photo of a stinging caterpillar which was hanging at eye-level with me, about 2 feet away. I grabbed Linda's camera and started shooting. Her camera does a decent job of macro photos but it was a challenge with the tiny stingers on this guy. See the picture below for a more detailed shot of the stingers.

In the picture below he is just finishing up one-half of the leaf -- the leaf is coming out at you in a plane straight out from the center of his head. He has his mandibles one on either side of the leaf as he chomps down. The hand-looking thing holding onto the leaf is his thoracic legs for holding food.

If you look very. closely at the ends of the green spines, you will see black and white stingers -- if you've ever been stung by one of these guys, you will definitely keep your distance in the future

Lagniappe -- I posted a picture on Pixel Eyed that shows the identifying characteristic of these caterpillars -- a red and white stripe running down both sides which you can just barely see on the left top of this guy.

-- steve buser