I took this photo with my NEW MACRO LENS on a weekend trip to Copper Breaks State Park, in Quanah, Texas. This Tiger Beetle (the best I can guess on ID is that it may be one of the subgenus, Cicindelidia, or American Tiger Beetles) won my heart with his bold approach – almost walked right into my lens cover! When I spotted him (her?) on the sandy path, I dropped to the ground to photograph him at eye level. Over the course of 20 minutes, this individual went about his business, working his way closer and closer to me. He proved that the minimum focusing distance is less than Nikon’s listed 12 inches. I would say he got within 6-8 inches of my lens. I love this guy! Read the rest of this entry »

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No matter how little room there seems to be for luxuries like free time, I can always find a moment to marvel at Nature’s remarkable flair for color. I hope you’ll take 10 seconds to enjoy with me.

It is my great and humble pleasure to host this August, 2010 edition of Circus of the Spineless! August is certainly a time when invertebrates, especially insects and arachnids, take center-stage. Largely undaunted by summertime heat, these numerous and variable species are out and about, in all of their spineless splendor.  These creatures play a major role in the food chain for other animal species, so it should come as no surprise that summertime is a veritable smorgasbord for insectivores. Though we all love our spineless brethren (why else would we be here?), we usually don’t think of them as food for ourselves. At least I don’t. Eeewwww.

Do you?

Ok, if you HAD to look at insects and their spineless ilk as food, what would your menu look like? Would it resemble the menus of birds, herps, mammals – even other insects?

While you ponder your own personal spineless “specials,” I’ll go ahead and play hostess to this playful presentation of this month’s contributions to Circus of the Spineless!

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ENTERTAINMENT & AMBIANCE

No meal is consumed in a vacuum, so it seems fitting to set the mood with a little entertainment. Today’s performers are brought to us by Mike Bok of Arthropoda. His jumping spiders will have you laughing and smiling – you simply must follow his link to the videos set to music.

APPETIZERS

• Fried Ants» Lightly seasoned with a blend of dried southwestern herbs, fried to perfection. Chef: Roberta Gibson of Wild About Ants. From Roberta’s personal recipe, “Do Ants Drink Water?“
• Roasted Dragonflies» Oven-roasted dragonflies served with honey-mustard dipping sauce. Chef: Joan Knapp of Anybody Seen My Focus?. Recipe from Joan’s life list, “Dragonfly: Halloween Pennant (Celithemis eponina).”
• Worm Soup» A light broth soup featuring delicate horsetail worms and diced hosts from which they emerged. Chef: Joy K of The Little House in the Not-So-Big-Woods. Recipe is Joy’s own creation, “Squirm.”
• Spineless Surprise» Bowl of mixed smoked arthropods including insects and arachnids. This Icelandic recipe, “Other Icelandic Animals,” is brought to you by Chef Matthew Wills of Backyard and Beyond.
• Hover-fly Hummus» Chick-pea hummus blended with these delightfully deceitful bee-mimics. Served with your choice of white or wheat pita bread, hot and fresh from our ovens. Chef : David Winter of The Atavism. Recipe, “Sunday Spineless – Love and deception in Vancouver.“

CIRCUS SPECIALTIES

• Nematode Soup» Fresh from the Gulf Coast, steeped in natural petroleum crude. Served with a healthy side of social commentary. Chef: Dr. Holly Bik, from her visit to Deep Sea News. Recipe, “Invisible But Not Forgotten.”
• Honeybee Croquets» Baked mixture of whole honey bees, flower petals, sunflower seeds, honey, and pollen. Served with a wedge of dried honeycomb. Chef: Melliferax of Melliferax. Recipe, a Swedish favorite, “Honeybee Trivia: Queens.”
• Pasta & Click Beetles» Wheat pasta tossed with sauteed Click Beetles, blanketed in our white wine asiago cheese sauce. Garnished with a Really Pretty Click Beetle. Chef: Dragonflywoman of The Dragonfly Woman. Recipe, “Click! Click! Click!” from Arizona’s historical archives.
• Spider Spring Rolls» Small green spiders and roasted red bell peppers with sticky rice , rolled in Agapanthus leaves. Chef: David Winter of The Atavism. Recipe, “Sunday Spineless – A Missed Opportunity,” from his home town in New Zealand.
• Amphipod Jambalaya» Classic Cajun jambalaya featuring Amphipods, sometimes mistaken for shrimp, prawns, or other crustaceans. Stock is rich with media sensationalism. Chef: Zen Faulkes of NeuroDojo. Recipe, “Drugs in the water affecting crustaceans’ precious bodily fluids?“
• Ambush Bug and Butterfly Salad Sandwich» On toasted rye bread, served with a dill pickle. Another favorite receipe, “It’s a trap!“,  from Chef Mike Bok, of Arthropoda.
• Boxelder Bug and Venus Flytrap Enchiladas» Venus Flytrap heads, complete with captured insects and attendant Boxelder Bugs. Mixed with rice and three cheeses, topped with tomatillo sauce. Chef: Mike Bezner of Slugyard. Recipe made with ingredients from his own backyard, “Venus Flytrap Helping a Boxelder Bug.”
• Bell Pepper stuffed with Aged Scarab Beetle» Yellow bell pepper, stuffed with aged Scarab Beetles and polenta. Chef: Susanah of Wanderin’ Weeta. Recipe, “Ancient Mystery Beetle,” from an antique cookbook.
• Cicada Shishkabobs» Annual and periodic cicadas skewered with cherry tomatoes, onion, and pineapple. Grilled over an open flame and served with a baked potato. Chef: Matthew Wills of Backyard and Beyond. Recipe, “Cicadas, Part I,” from his new cookbook, Grillin’ It, Cicada-style!
• Praying Mantis Quesadillas» Two home-made flour tortillas loaded with Praying Mantises, onion, and cheese. Pan-fried in olive oil until slightly crisp. Served with pico de gallo and guacamole. Another masterpiece by Chef Zen Faulkes of NeuroDojo. Recipe “Life and death and sex choices in mantids.“

DESERT

• Glazed Dragonflies» Honey-glazed dragonflies dusted in our special blend of powdered sugar and local pollen. Chef: Jill Wussow of Count Your Chicken! We’re Taking Over! Her own secret recipe, “Early Morning Ode.”
• Fresh Honeycomb» Flown in direct from Berlin. This Beekeepers’ Special, “Hooked on Bees – 1,”  is brought to you by Kerstin, a filmmaker at More than Honey.

AFTER-HOURS NIGHT-CAP

For those of you who have something a little racy in mind, Chef Hectocotyli of hectocotyli has something for you. Must be 18 or older to imbibe!

• Take a Shot» “A deep sea squid’s parting money shot to the world“

NOT-SO-SPINELESS

For those of you who prefer something a little less spineless, Katie of Tripbase has provided us with her selection of the “6 Most Unusual Sea Creatures in the world.”

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I hope you have enjoyed browsing the menu!

Next month’s Circus of the Spineless will be hosted by Hectocotyli, so be sure to get your submissions to him by the end of August!

What can you do in 95 minutes?

Run errands. Go out to eat. Watch a TV show or two. Play a game of cards or even Scrabble.

or…

Do a load of laundry. Clean the kitchen AND the bathroom. Run to the grocery store.

or…

Go outside and walk around with your camera. Don’t have 95 minutes? I’ll share mine. I took these photos around my home between 5:34pm and 7:09pm. 95 minutes well spent!

Read the rest of this entry »

I have never in my life seen such a tiny, beautiful moth! I saw this gem fluttering around several potted Hummingbird Mint/Hyssop plants (Agastache sp. cultivar).  I had rushed over to water the plants, which were (still are) waiting patiently for me to plant them in my front landscape beds.  This image is cropped at 100%, so to give you an idea of this moth’s diminutive size, here’s the full-frame: Read the rest of this entry »

What looks just like a caterpillar, but isn’t? Sawfly larvae. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen my very first Elm Sawfly larvae (Cimbex americana). I couldn’t help but notice this bright white caterpillar munching on this dark green Elm leaf. I thought I was going to have an awesome entry for The Moth and Me, but sadly, no. When I took a look at this picture, I noticed that I had not seen a caterpillar head quite like this before…usually it is hard to tell where the head is. And if a caterpillar’s head is obvious, it seems like there is never such a prominent eye.

Turns out that this is one of the distinctions between sawfly larvae and caterpillars. Also, caterpillars usually have only 4 pairs of “prolegs,” while sawfly larvae usually have at least five (like this one).¹

Want to see what this super-cool, moonlight-white larvae becomes? Read the rest of this entry »

As a naturalist who has a fondness for birds, I tend to look at the world with long-ranging gazes. I carry a big honkin’ lens on my camera so that I can get shots of small birds in distant places. On weekend mornings, my favorite way to spend the first hour is with a cup of coffee and binoculars, sitting by one of my favorite windows, watching the birds and squirrels.

My precious-as-gold “outside time” has been severely limited of late, so I’ve taken full advantage of my own gardens around my home to get my nature fix.  My limited time outdoors prompted me to “go light” and only take my short lens (18-55mm, f 3.5-5.6). Perfect time to look around for something to contribute to An Inordinate Fondness (AIF), the blog carnival dedicated to beetles. Those “dang beetles” who have evaded my camera for months, have caused me to mumble incoherently to myself every time I step outside. Thank you very much, Ted (Ted MacRae, founder of AIF).

I offer this preamble as a backdrop for the announcement of an important discovery: my Macro Vision.  It was almost an epiphany, truly sublime. With a little time and a mission, I began crawling around the edge of my pond on my knees, camera in-hand.  At first, it was hard for me to focus on anything directly in front of me. I had to force myself to look at 12 inches instead of 12 feet. When I was finally able to to lock in at a 12-18 inch range…bang! I started seeing things in big, bold colors, and previously unnoticed microcosms opened up in 3-D.

The following images are presented in full-frame, or nearly so, followed by cropped images zoomed in at 100%. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…my Macro Vision!

Look! This Syrphid Fly (probably Toxomerus geminatus) has a fine pattern of black and gold to rival the most ornately gilded furniture. And that wildflower – the color!

Read the rest of this entry »

At first, I thought a windblown leaf was caught in a spiderweb. Plausible, right? This is the screen over a window off my back patio. I can’t say for sure, but I think that this “leaf” may have been there a full day before I took a closer look. Maybe the joke is on me…and I just don’t know a moth-head when I see one. Read the rest of this entry »

I have the distinct honor of hosting this second edition of An Inordinate Fondness, the blog carnival devoted to beetles. Everyone from scientists and academics, to budding naturalists and bloggers has something to say about beetles. To many people around the world, the word, “beetle,” conjures up images of the music band, “The Beatles.” The Beatles chose their name as a tribute to Buddy Holly and his band, “The Crickets.” The band members went through several iterations before settling on The Beatles, very much liking the musical tie-in achieved by simply changing one “e” to an “a.”

As I see it, AIF could easily adapt the term for  the band’s well-known fan hysteria, “Beatlemania,” to its own purpose. What better way to describe our admiration for this often beautiful, always fascinating Order of insects? Did you catch that? I said Order! An entire Order in our taxonomic classification system, as in Order THEN Family THEN Genus THEN Species. That’s a lot of beetles! And a lot of beetlemaniacs (I mean that in the dearest of ways, and count myself among them).

In my enthusiasm to support Ted and his new beetle carnival, I inadvertently volunteered to host both AIF and IATB on the same day. Oops. I called in reinforcements to help out with this musical-themed AIF from my partner in crime, AJ. You will notice a distinct difference in style with marked irreverence – enjoy if you dare! I might add that I do not know anyone who loves music as much as AJ, so you are in for a double-treat!

Now it is time for the real stars of the show to take the stage! AJ, take it away… Read the rest of this entry »