Category Archives: Insect Behavior
08.10.2022 Our friend the Robber Fly
They seem to be mean little guys. They eat other insects including flies. But, aside from being part of the balance Nature supports, they also keep pests under control. Robber Fly-Efferia aestuans male with Striped Deer Fly-Chrysops vittatus. The image … Continue reading
08.08.2022 The night time is the right time
For making more wasps apparently. Actually this was evening so not quite dark yet. Thread-waisted Wasps-Ammophila sp. These two were flying all over the boneset patch in tandem. Here you get a good look at just how “thread-waisted” these wasps … Continue reading
08.03.2022 Wasp Wednesday
Two Ichneumonid wasps from the yard. Great Golden Digger Wasp-Sphex ichneumoneus. The digger moniker comes from their habit of nesting in the ground and laying an egg in each cell then leaving an orthopteran (grasshopper, locust, katydid, etc) in there for … Continue reading
07.24.2022 Today I learned a new behavior and the word for it.
While photographing in the yard Friday afternoon, I noticed a Goldenrod Crab spider with it’s bumblebee prey and made several photographs. (Note, this is not Nature at its prettiest but all part of the grand scheme of things.) Through the … Continue reading
07.18.2022 Sweet Bee
I’ve admired the metallic sweat bees a few of you have posed recently. I wish that was what I am sharing today, but alas the only sweat bees in the yard recently have been these Furrow Bees. Sweat Bee-Furrow Bee-Halictus … Continue reading
07.16.2022 Small Saturday
Sorry. I just can’t come up with something more clever. I saw one of these caterpillars on a daisy fleabane a few weeks ago but it was rolled tight atop the flower and didn’t make for a good image. But … Continue reading
07.11.2022 Flower Longhorn Beetle
I didn’t cruise the yard much yesterday but while taking our dehumidifier water out to the rain barrel I noticed a beetle on one of our Queen Anne’s Lace plants. That merited running back into the house hoping that it … Continue reading
07.06.2022 Swamp Spreadwing Damselfly
Each time I find a new odonata lately it seems to be one of a large number from a new mass eclosing. There were dozens of these all along the roadside at Moosehorn Pond last Friday morning. Swamp Spreadwing-Lestes vigilax … Continue reading
07.05.2022 “I’m available”
Cabbage White butterflies-Pieris rapae are mostly in constant motion. But they do alight on flowers at times and as I was checking out our milkweed in the front yard I noticed this female land on one of our geraniums. As … Continue reading
07.03.2022 Fooled me once…
When I visited one of our daisy fleabanes I saw this fly with its iridescent wings and thought it was a hoverfly. But once I got the shot and looked closer I saw that it wasn’t. BugGuide told me that … Continue reading
Stephen Gingold Nature Photography Blog 