One of the many interesting insects I snapped for the first time last year was this hoverfly. It’s a whopper and if you don’t know your hoverflies from your hornets, rather scary. This critter is designed to mimic the European Hornet, and it does a good job! Apparently this one is a male. Yes, I can now sex hoverflies – is there no end to the fairly useless and geeky things I am learning through photography?
Just revelling in the ruffles of a ranunculus.
Regular readers will know that I have been following the antics of some speckled bush cricket nymphs in my garden. From cute first hatchling through inquisitive early instar stages to greedy adolescence and approaching adulthood. And what do I get as a reward for bringing them fame and adulation? Plants with holes! I counted at least 25 of the devils out there yesterday, nibbling away at my carefully nurtured dahlias. Have they no gratitude? The youth of today (sigh)! So a suitably more sinister image of one of the little monsters today. And now I have a dilemma…
Whoever struggles with monsters might watch that he does not thereby become a monster. And when you stare into an abyss for a long time, the abyss also stares into you.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil (1886)
Weevils enjoying a little recreational rodeo.
“Do you come here often?”
“Only in the mating season.”
Spike Milligan, The Goon Show
An aphid caught in a web awaits its doom.
Dar’st thou die?
The sense of death is most in apprehension;
And the poor beetle that we tread upon
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies.
William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, III.i
You may have noticed that my blog tends to feature minibeasts. But rarely will you find a spider, because I am quite simply scared stiff of them. I know, pathetic. But perhaps I wouldn’t mind them so much if they all looked like this one. This is a common crab spider, misumena vatia. They hang out on flowers in gardens in southern England. They are clever, because I have noticed that they favour the more scented blooms, maximising the chance of some hapless insect happening by. They come in white or yellow, which I much prefer to brown or black. But they still have too many legs.
One question I am often asked is how I manage to spot all the bugs I shoot. It really is just a matter of training your eye. The more you start to look for the smaller creatures around you, the more you start to find them.
One way to train your eye is to find a small area of vegetation, say one square metre, and see how many insects you can find and photograph. You will be surprised after a little while just how many are there.
All of the shots in today’s post were taken in one clump of weeds by the Wey Navigation towpath. The photo shoot took about 15 minutes in total. In fact, I found several other insects in the same clump.
Why not give it a try and share the results on your blog and/or in comments here?
My Internet is down and I am blogging on 3G, which is expensive, so please forgive me if I am a little slow in replying or visiting your blogs until the pesky thing is fixed.
A male damselfly holds onto the female after mating to prevent other males from inseminating her. Taken in my garden this week.
Dimply damsel, sweetly smiling,
All caressing, none beguiling,
Bud of beauty, fairly blowing,
Every charm to nature owing.
Ambrose Philips, ‘To Miss Margaret Pultenay’ (1727)
Focused Moments 