Super Fly

ImageAugust 3, 2014 Timothy Price13 Comments

Moth Buzz

July 30, 2014 Timothy Price13 Comments

The hummingbird moth seems to flutter its wings in slightly different patterns from the ghost images of its buzzing wings.

Curled Cosmos

July 25, 2014 Timothy Price12 Comments

Sun Scorpion Saturday

July 19, 2014July 19, 2014 Timothy Price38 Comments

Better known as a Camel Spider, the Sun Scorpion seems to be something between a spider and scorpion, but it’s neither. They are solpugids, of which there are 50 species in the southwestern US. This one was in the catio and about 1 1/2 inches long, but they commonly reach 6 inches in length and can supposedly run at speeds up to 10 mph. They eat insects, small lizards, beetles and scorpions that they catch and kill with their jaws, as they are non-venomous.

A blue damselfly landed close to me, and I noticed it was eating an ant when I got it in focus under my macro lens.

Forty Legged Shower Mate

July 9, 2014 Timothy Price17 Comments

This six inch long centipede which may be everything that nightmares are made of scurried out of the drain when I got in the shower this morning. But I think the art was me, completely naked, doing macro shots of a wet centipede in the bathtub. Since he couldn’t scurry around as much because he was wet, he made defensive gestures by raising his rear prongs into striking position as I got the lens close to him. After I finished photographing him, I scooped him up and put him outside where he can find roly poly bugs and other pests to eat.

In Coming

July 5, 2014 Timothy Price15 Comments

Giant hornet buzzing in on a chitalpa.

Dragonfly with a Mohawk

July 2, 2014July 2, 2014 Timothy Price27 Comments

I hadn’t seen this dragonfly before. If you think dragonflies are six legged sissies, fluttering about like four winged fairies — think again. This one’s sporting a bleached mohawk and yellow tattoos. He’s one bad dude of a dragonfly who stood his ground against a macro lens.

Digital Cricket

June 27, 2014June 27, 2014 Timothy Price22 Comments

DSCF0714 — Is that a cricket I see on the computer cable?

DSCF0715 — Ah Hem! Paparazzi! That cricket is getting awfully close to the USB port on your computer.

DSCF0716 — COME ON YOU STUPID PHOTOGRAPHER! There’s a cricket on the cable and it’s getting AWAY!

Note: Leo is mistaken. It was a ~~leaf hopper~~ katydid exploring my computer. Insect identification has never been one of Leo’s (or my) strengths.

Night Fury

June 24, 2014 Timothy Price13 Comments

I call this black dragonfly a “Night Fury” because I had been trying to get a photo of it for over a week — it had not let me get close enough to it until I climbed into the bamboo patch just before sundown and waited for it to land close enough to focus on it. The other two dragonflies in this series were very cooperative, as usual, but the Night Fury refused to land anywhere in the open outside the bamboo patch.