jialiar's photostream Pro User

Something different for today. I don't like to flip my reverse lens around a lot, especially given the cleanliness of my sensor right now, but I couldn't help my self watching this little guy cross the asphalt in between Mauserts Pond and the swamp(?) as I was heading back after a macro shoot (I think it was mostly Sitticus pubescens that day. The claws and beak are not quite as intimidating as they will be when it grows it up. They still look pretty handy. :o)

This is kind of how I'm feeling. I was a writing a post on my Wordpress site and when I went to save it, all my new writing was gone. I should have known better, and I already wrote about my lost writing on my site, but I guess I needed to vent some more.

And I should note, in fairness to this Efferia sp., the stab in the back pictured here was actually a very welcomed and beneficial thing as the deer flies were buzzing around me on that day. I thought I had scared the robber fly off as it left its resting spot on the split rail fence and buzzed by my ear. To my delight it landed back on the rail with one of these pesty deer flies. Picked it right out of the air. I thought I scared it off again, off its meal, but it came back with another deer fly! Robbers are the best. :o)

Ribbit.

Froggie on a palm or scrub palm frond in Florida in March/April 2013. Minding its own business when I came along and disturbed its quiet meditation.

Might post a bug later today. Insomnia got me, so gotta make it through the day. This was a quick one (I don't feel compelled to look up taxon for frogs (but I might later anyway)).

Well, I guess some people call them vinegar flies, too. I can't remember exactly how big these are, but they are pretty small. I was digging in the archives and found this handsome devil and thought I'd throw it out there for flickr.

Photographing some insects requires much effort for few results. This Cicindela sp of tiger beetle (subfamily Cicindelinae) proved to be one of those insects. The beetles were puttering around on the little sandy beach of Mauserts Pond in Clarksburg. There was a lot of lurching and crawling on my stomach without ever getting close enough to fire off a shot before one would inevitably fly off. On top of that I was not keen on getting sand in my pockets and especially in my camera/lens. But I kept at it, and between two visits in two days, I got three sets of photos of four beetles (two were mating which hopefully I will post one of those soon).

To my further disappointment I didn't get a "face" shot. Didn't get close to one. But hey. I will take what I can get.

A final note, I thought this was the Oblique-lined Tiger Beetle, Cicindela tranqueberica, but on further inspection of BugGuide.net, it looks like it is more likely Cicindela repanda, the Bronzed Tiger Beetle (a.k.a. the Shore Tiger Beetle, which makes sense). BugGuide also notes it is the only known tiger beetle to eat fruit.