When my wife asked if I wanted to take a midnight stroll I was delighted. I was even more delighted when we saw a couple of unexpected predators. Not wishing to get into a conflict with the bear, we turned around and headed homeward, frequently looking over our shoulders. On the road home, we saw […]
spiders
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HumBug: A Walk in the Woods
When I looked out today the sun was shining and the bugs were out. I set my computer and camera to acquire a stack of photos of a snail hunting beetle I’d collected on a late night walk, and out the door I went. I managed to identify four different species of butterfly and the […]
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HumBug: A Patch of Daisies
Driving along U.S. Highway 101 lately, you see patches of newly emerging ox-eye daisies (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum). As idyllic as they might seem from a distance, there’s a lot going on up close. This European species was introduced to North America in the 1800s and has become widely naturalized. Although considered an invasive weed by some, their […]
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HumBug: Looks Can be Deceiving
Last week I mentioned a large shiny black bee that visited my rosemary plants. In all my field guides the only large shiny black bees are carpenter bees, genus Xylocopa. Although there was a definite similarity, something wasn’t quite right so I investigated further. With the help of some online friends and resources, I learned […]
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HumBug: Winter Critters
Five years ago I started reporting seeing a small dragonfly in the middle of winter on sunny days, even following frosty nights. Dragonflies usually spend the cold months as larvae in the water. Up until then, none of the other dragonfly enthusiasts were reporting anything at all. I’ve been able to photograph and report this […]
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HumBug: Sailors and Queens in Winter
Winter time is a slow time for bugs. Being cold blooded the chemistry of life that powers them slows down. Many of their life cycles are adapted to spending the short cold days in their sedentary forms as eggs, larvae or pupae. Those that persist as adults mostly hide through the worst of it, emerging […]
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HumBug: Who’s Your Daddy Longlegs?
As soon as the UPS delivered my newest camera lens, I had to go a hunting. Since it’s fall, many insects are gone until next year but there’s always something interesting out there. Today was no exception. Before I even got out the door, I noted a daddy longlegs on my window screen. It only […]
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HumBug: Halloween Romance
You see them nearly everywhere this time of year, the big female cross orb weaver spiders (Araneus diadematus). If you get close you can see the emblem of the cross for which they’re known. As I looked at one particularly large female spider, I noticed another spider with a leg span nearly as large as the lady […]
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Creepy Crawlies
Creepy, Cute and Unusual Looking closely at more crawling critters than most folks, you’d think I’d get used to them. But there is one critter that still holds a Class 4 creep factor for me: the common centipede. If you could cross a spider and a snake, centipedes would be the result. Flexible, fast and […]
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HumBug: Spiders in the House
The month of October, ending in Halloween, is the perfect time to check out our local spider fauna. Many of the largest and showiest species are at their finest at this time of year. With that in mind, I’ve seen quite a few lately. At my house, at least, the common house spider (Parasteatoda tepidariorum) […]
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HumBug: The Girls of Autumn
If spring is the season of butterflies, autumn must be the season of spiders. A short walk across some brushy terrain yielded several dozen spiders of at least half a dozen species. Among spiders, females are often much larger and more conspicuous than the males and, for ones with an annual cycle, this is when […]
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Humbug: That’s One Big Moth
Coming home late from the Fortuna fireworks display on July 3, on a whim, I stopped at the Carlotta Fire hall. To my surprise I got to see a species of moth I photographed for the first time last year. Near the light was a Polyphemus Moth. At 6 inches it has the largest wingspan […]