Yes, Katy did it. She’s the one who has been leaving chomp marks in my daisies!
Katydid!
Category: insects
Oh, Hi!
This little mantis has been living on my strawberry plants for a couple of weeks. I found his exoskeleton yesterday hanging from the underside of a leaf, so its good to know he’s doing well enough there to have grown too big for his “skin”. I had to move the strawberry pot to the other side of the patio today, so I hope he continues to thrive in the new location.
Cabbage Butterfly
New Skin
This is the last of the harlequin beetle photos. I finally had to evict them from the garden. The yellow beetle in this photo has recently shed his black and red skin. He’ll be yellow for a few hours then he’ll return to normal harlequin colors.
Little Monster
Oops, I had my ISO cranked up for low light photography yesterday and forgot to reset it today; therefore this picture required some photoshop tweaking (not that there is anything wrong with that). There is still quite a bit of noise in the image, but I’m going with it anyway. So there.
We Meet Again
The mantis isn’t big enough to eat the grasshopper…yet.
Teddy Bear
This is a male valley carpenter bee. I normally only see the all black females here, so this is a rare sighting in my yard. The valley carpenter bee is the biggest bee in California. The females can get really huge. The males are typically not as big; however, they are still fairly imposing. This one was definitely bigger than all the other bees around at the time, and he was clambering all over the escallonia like the bee version of Godzilla, knocking off petals and pollen, and shaking off the ants. The escallonia is like crack for bees, so I’m betting he’ll be back!
Best Exotic Marigold
Actually, I was taking a photo of the tiny bee on the marigold. It’s SO tiny! I thought it was a fly at first. I have no idea what kind of bee this is.
Kaleidoscope Eyes
Can you imagine seeing the world with these eyes? So weird.
A Hitchcock Moment in the Garden
Cue “Psycho” theme.
