…if this creeps anyone out.
I found two of these disgustingly fascinating grubs while pulling up old tomato plants today. I found out that they’re European Chafer beetle larvae. The beetle itself isn’t horrible looking, but these larvae are something else. Their bodies are kind of translucent, which makes some of their interior parts visible. :-O
The fiery skippers have been loving these violas lately. I have a habit of collecting near dead plants from the neighborhood 99 cent store and trying to bring them back to life. These violas are my latest rescue.
Fiery Skipper
And
Forty
I think this is the same little guy I discovered on one of my tomato plants earlier this month – he has unusual markings. Today I noticed him when he lunged at a skipper butterfly that was feeding on an escallonia blossom. He didn’t catch it, and I was glad I didn’t have to witness a skipper death. I wouldn’t mind so much if he’d catch a cabbage butterfly though – I’m tired of dealing with their voracious offspring. =)
Another survivor from the “Summer of the Wasps.” I think this one might be looking for a spot to lay her egg case.
It looks like someone took a bite out of her wing.
Glad to see a mantis in the garden today. I was concerned that the wasps had gotten all of them.
My Instagram account doing double duty.
Summer will be over soon and all the interesting insects will be gone, so here’s another jumping spider while they’re still around.
My cat Bones found a very cool looking bug today. It’s a fig beetle (or junebug), which I don’t recall ever seeing around here before. The focus in this photo is a little funky – I’m generally not squeamish about insects, but I wasn’t charmed by this one’s repeated attempts to jump on my face. Its wing appeared to be damaged, so it kept spastically hopping around trying to fly, which resulted in a lot of not-quite-in-focus shots. I was greatly amused by its “fork antennae” though. 🙂
