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James Freyr

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Location: West Tennessee

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posted 5 years ago

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Here's a pic of a little jumping spider feasting on a stink bug which was not having a good time and trying to crawl away. The little spider kept moving as I tried to get close to take a picture, probably thinking I wanted his meal. I told the jumping spider not to worry and thanked him for his catch.

jumping-spider-eating-stink-bug.jpg

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Amy Arnett

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Location: Nara, Japan. Zone 8-ish

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posted 5 years ago

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Boom-chicca-wow-wow!

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M. Phelps

Posts: 311

posted 5 years ago

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molted exoskelton on banana plant

Ryan M Miller

pollinator

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Location: Dayton, Ohio

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posted 4 years ago

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It looks like this thread hasn't been active for a while, but I just wanted to share some images of monarch caterpillars I've taken this year. My neighbors have been growing milkweed so I've been seeing the caterpillars a lot more frequently this year.

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Small monarch butterfly Caterpillar at Huffman Prairie

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Mandrake...takes on and holds the influence
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or evil, are stirred up through it...
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Ryan M Miller

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posted 4 years ago

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I have some more insect photographs from earlier this year. Since milkweed tends to attract oleander aphids (Aphis nerii), it also attracts ladybugs. Unfortunately, oleander aphids are not native to North America and the ladybugs I do find tend to be Japanese ladybugs. This is obvious by the prominent black "M" on the thorax.

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Ryan M Miller

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Location: Dayton, Ohio

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posted 4 years ago

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Monarch caterpillars aren't the only caterpillar that likes to feed on milkweed. I found these tussock moth caterpillars on my neighbor's milkweed plants as well.

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tussock moth caterpillars on my neighbor's milkweed plants

T Melville

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Posts: 993

Location: SW Missouri • zone 6 • ~1400' elevation

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posted 4 years ago

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First time I ever found one of these. Looks like monarch to me, but my wife doesn't think we get those here. Guess it must be one of the look-alikes.

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James Freyr

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posted 2 years ago

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I snapped this pic yesterday of a wasp carrying a small caterpillar. It's a heavy load for him and he was struggling to stay aloft. I'm going to hazard a guess that the wasps intention it to lay eggs on or in the little caterpillar.

wasp-with-caterpillar.jpeg

"Study books and observe nature; if they do not agree, throw away the books." ~ William A. Albrecht

Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

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Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

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posted 3 years ago

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Not the most useful, but I love it for it's grotesque beauty and what it represents. This is a violet oil beetle.

Oil beetles are the cuckoos of the insect world. As babies they hang around in flowers and hitch rides on bees back to their nests. They then steal the food from the bees. Having oil beetles is therefore a sign of a healthy bee population. The 1 1/2 inch adults are only seen in Scotland for a few weeks in April/May. The abdomens of the females swell to a ridiculous size as they eat grass and other plants before breeding and dying. They can't fly.

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Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

Posts: 9452

Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

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posted 2 years ago

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I'm seeing more dragonflies this year again. They're usually darting about, but occasionally I find them sunning themselves in the grass.

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greg mosser

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Location: the mountains of western nc

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posted 2 years ago

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i admit, some of these have been used in other threads!

those lappet moth caterpillars had just completely defoliated the young grafted american persimon they're on. little rascals.

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there are three lappet moth caterpillars hiding in plain sight in this pic

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cluster of treehoppers on a young orchard tree

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cordywasp.jpg

a paper wasp that was killed by fungus, probably a cordyceps species

May Lotito

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Posts: 1904

Location: Zone 6b

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posted 2 years ago

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Perfect camouflage. Do you see the black swallowtail chrysalis mimicking a balsam seedpod?

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Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

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Hester Winterbourne

Posts: 502

Location: West Midlands UK (zone 8b) Rainfall 26"

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posted 2 years ago

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I noticed I put up a photo of a hornet mimic hoverfly three years ago, so here is a real hornet I met in my mothers garden... About the size of a large queen wasp, but lots of chestnut brown about it. Took absolutely no notice of me, but bickered amongst themselves a fair bit if one approached a flower another was feeding from!

hornet.jpg

Christine Circe

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Posts: 1340

Location: Zone 8A

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posted 2 years ago

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Look at this guy who was outside of the classroom at WL

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greg mosser

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posted 2 years ago

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i’d love a pic of its back, but that last one is probably a buprestid beetle, or ‘metallic wood boring beetle’.

Christine Circe

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posted 2 years ago

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Oh I wish I had a photo of its back as well, sadly I don't...it looked similar to a boring beetle but it's shell was hard and the same grey color as it's body

greg mosser

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posted 2 years ago

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yeah, the whole family is called metallic, even though many aren’t.

Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

Posts: 9452

Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

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posted 1 year ago

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I was excited to see this beetle in one of my water terraces. Sadly it is not good news for the tadpoles. I think this is a female great diving beetle which are highly carnivorous!
I've never seen one before and was impressed by its size - about 1 inch long :) I suspect this one may just have hatched, or maybe it has just arrived - they fly to colonise new ponds.

waterbeetle.jpg

Dytiscus marginalis: Great diving beetle

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