Here are some more bug pictures I took this Spring.

Large Red Ant


A Snail in the Hand......

That ant gives me the heebie~jeebie's!!!!
Being on your hand and not biting you!!!
They hurt when they nip!

Wow, nice closeups Thorny!! I'm with Weezie.. sure wouldn't want that ant to take a nip!

Meg

The ant was VERY well behaved and quite friendly! Had i been further South among the Fire Ants I would not have DARED attempt that picture, . As a small boy visiting my grandparents in Louisiana I wandered into a Fire Ants nest a couple of times. I NEVER TRIED IT AGAIN!!!

I love the blending of colors and swirl patterns between my skin and the snail shell on the second picture.

Oh! I wish I could get that good a close-up with my camera, Thornius. Those pictures are great! We have a big-assed spider living outside my kitchen window and my husband feeds him. lol. (Flies that enter the house uninvited which is all of them.) The other day I was watching my hummingbirds at the feeder through the window while he was watching the spider wrap up a fly for later. Then he said, "Life doesn't get any better than this, eh Suzy?" lol. It is interesting to watch nature at work though, isn't it.

Thought I'd share a couple of other pix with you here. This one is some kind of bee. It's my first bug close-up.


And this one is called a Painted Lady. Apparently they migrate all the way up here for some reason. I had so many flying around me for awhile there, I thought I was Snow White. lol She does looks a little ragged around the edges after her trip though, but who knew they had knees???


~Suzy~

Yes, we have Painted Ladys here in Tennessee, too. I am primarily a birdwatcher and photographer, but this year have gotten interested in photographing all manners of natural phenomena. I especially enjoy insects and flowers. Here is one of my spiders taken on a FRIEND"S hand, LOL:

Jumping Spider

Suzy,
Here's one of OUR Painted Ladys. They are pretty much identical to your Canadian ones, eh?

Painted Lady

What character that spider has.

I am going to have to try to get a pic of a Mantis on one of the kids hands. That look with the bugs on top is great.

I Love That Spider! lol. What a face! Looks a little like Santa without the red hat. Now I'm really curious to see the face on ours close up. I bet he's not nearly so interesting.

Thornius, our Painted Ladies actually fly up here from the States (as far as I understand) so I don't think we can claim them as our own. It was even in the news when they arrived. lol. I'm honoured to have them holiday here in my backyard though.

Triss, I'm smiling away about you saying you'll "try to get a pic of a Mantis on one of the KIDS hands". lolol! My 18-yr-old son would pee his pants if I forced him to pose for a shot like that! He's a bit of a weenie when it comes bugs.

that wee lil word TRY is in my sentence LOL. I have no idea if any of them will let me or not. But if I were to take a guess on who it would be, I'd day Lys. My only girl is a brave one!

I picked up a full grown Mantis once. It ripped bloody 1/2 inch gash in the web of my thumb!! DON"T hold one for a picture!!!!

Well, I'm off to try to get a picture of the Perseid Meteor Shower....(If I can). I got pictures of fireworks and lightning bugs, so maybe I'll be able to.

I'm not surprised to hear what that mantis did to your thumb, Thornius. After all, considering how the females take their mates heads off after ummm..., well you know. lol :rolleyes:

Hope your meteor shower pix turn out! Looking forward to seeing them.

*ouch* on the thumb Thorny!! I am loving all these photos tho. Well, except that spider in the hand. That kinda creeped me out. Ok, they are neat to photograph & all, but to HOLD IT? I'm glad it wasn't you holding that one..lol.


Meg

Oh gosh Thorny, how awful. SO far ours are friendly. I picked up one so the kids could see it and let it walk around my hand, but it went pretty quickly back to the plants. I am not a big bug holder, so that was ok with me. I will not let the kids hold them though. I dont want them scared of bugs nor do I want them hurt.

No luck on the meteors. Didn't even see one.

That is too bad. I only saw a few last night but it was too cloudy this morning to see any at all.

Triss,

I have Touch-Me-Nots, too. They are one of my favorite flowers. I love the way the seed pods explode and scatter the seed, so after the first planting, you never have to plant them again. It is not surprising rocks are scarce in Nebraska, that area was water-carried and wind-blown glacial deposits from the last Ice Age. Wind doesn't do a very good job of transporting rocks. We, in Tennessee, on the other hand, are solid rock, starting about 10 feet down and extending to the center of the Earth. The first 10 feest is quite fertile soil.....if you get all the rocks out of it. Oh, YES! We have fossils, too......

Well the kids would love fossils. Patrick gets to search for them when he visits my mom in Utah and always has great stories about their finds.

Speaking of Touch-Me-Nots, I just was outside harvesting seeds. I love them, but do not want them in the area they are in right now. Though I know I will get some which is ok. I do have a perfect area for them and will be scattering the seeds there for next year and then letting them self seed.

It was great for the kids cuz I carefully pulled the rips pods off the plant by its stem right into a flat platic container. Brought them up to the porch and with the kids watching gave them a little squeeze. The kids giggled with delight each time the seeds popped all over the container. I only exploded a few in the garden as I was pulling the ripe ones.

Here is a picture I took about 3 hours ago. As best as I can determine it is a tiny butterfly called a Crossline Skipper. Not being familiar with Butterfly Taxonomy I wasn't sure what to look for in......AW HECK! Let's just say he is adorable and let it go at that!

Crossline Skipper

WOW...I love the spider pic! He had a "Winston Churchill" kinda look to me

The Skipper is adorable too

Another great pic Thorny. What kinds of camera do you use and what is the greatest zoom. Just love the detail you get!

I use an Olympus D-580 Zoom. It's an inexpensive point-and-shoot digtal with a 3X optical zoom. it is 4 megapixel and can be bought for about $300.00. I would LOVE a Canon EOS Rebel XT SLR camera with a good telephoto lense, but I don't have $2,000.00 extra to spend right now so I go with what I can afford.

POKEMON!!! DIGIMON RULES!!!

Oh I want that cannon as well, but like you it is well outta my price range.

LOL@Thornius

G-Mom

Here is Today's (August 13th) Butterfly picture. As near as I can narrow it down I believe it is a Black Swallowtail. And, yes, it was taken on the exact same bush as the Tiger Swallowtail picture I took earlier.

Black Swallowtail

Gardenmom I have about 7000 games literally, stored on my computer including ALL of the Nintendo games ever made. My favorite games are the Final Fantasy series and Monster Rancher.