Catfaced Spider

The first time I saw one of these spiders on a watering can, I did the creeped out shudder.  Yikes this is one ugly bug!  But of course, it was a great subject to photograph! Needing to know it’s name, I did a search online and discovered that this is a catfaced spider.  You can’t really see the reason for the name from this angle, but it does appear to have the face of a cat on it’s big bulbos back area.  None of my original photos of the first catfaced spider turned out well, as the spider stayed in the shadows and the lighting was bad. This was the case with most of the others I found outside.  Then one day I was coming home from droping my son off at school when I noticed this one on the face of the house, in the early morning light.  It was much bigger than the other catfaced spiders I had previously found, and the light was perfect.  I took quite a few pictures while it hung out. I am looking forward to someday having a better lens for photographing insects. I would like to capture more detail.

This photo shows off the spider’s striped legs and the nice brown color of it’s body. 

While I would still come unglued at the seams if the thing were crawling on me, I am not so freaked out now when I look at these guys.  It’s not a poisonous spider and I am happy to have them living outside in my yard. I think it’s cool that photography causes me to learn more about nature and to have a better appreciation for wildlife.

Monarch Butterfly

The Viceroy Butterfly (Limenitis archippus) is a North American butterfly with a range from the Northwest Territories along the eastern edges of the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada mountains, southwards into central Mexico. I photographed this one in the Katherine Albertson Park in Boise Idaho.

Its wings feature an orange and black pattern, and over most of its range it is a Müllerian mimic with the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus). The viceroy’s wingspan is between 53 and 81 mm.  It can be distinguished from the Monarch by its smaller size and the postmedian black line that runs across the veins on the hindwing.   It was originally believed that the Viceroy was a Batesian mimic of the three other species, and presumed edible or only mildly unpalatable to predators, but this has since proven not to be true.

The caterpillar feeds on trees in the willow family, including willows (Salix), and poplars and cottonwoods (Populus). The caterpillars sequester the salicylic acid in their bodies, which makes them bitter, and upsets predators’ stomachs. As further protection, the caterpillars, as well as their chrysalis stage, resemble bird droppings. Adults are strictly diurnal, flying preferentially in the late morning and early afternoon. I was able to photograph this butterfly in the early morning.  It spend a good deal of time warming itself on the rails of a bridge, before it flew to the leaves. 

Iridescent Beetle

I have been busy and have fallen behind in posting any new images. Now that it is cold outside and I am spending most of my time indoors, I thought I should catch up on posting some of the fun pictures I took over the summer. How about this little guy, what a bug!  The dogbane beetle (species Chrysochus auratus), member of the insect subfamily Eumolpinae of the leaf beetle family Chrysomelidae (order Coleoptera). One of the most intriguing characteristics of the dogbane beetle is the kaleidoscope of brilliant colors. The beetles’ iridescence is produced by special body structures and light. The surface of the body parts of this beetle is made up of stacks of tiny, slanting plates, under which is a pigment. Some light rays reflect from the surface of the plates, and other light rays reflect from the pigment underneath. At different angles, the light reflects at different speeds, causing interference that result in our seeing different colors that shine. They appear to go from blue to green in color.

These beetles are not a pest threat to crops. The young larvae reside underground, where they eat the roots of dogbane and milkweed. When they mature into adult beetles, they climb up the plant to the leaves, which they then consume. The larvae feed only on the roots of these two plants; therefore, this insect is fairly common along roadsides, in pastures, and grassy filter strips in fields where these plants grow.

In the Boise area, summer is the time of year to stop, look, and appreciate a beautiful insect that does no harm.

Sunflower Bee

I had to share this fascinating little bee. There are two sizes on the sunflowers, I don’t know if this is two different types of bee or a gender difference, or what, but the large bee was climbing on top of the smaller bee quite often.  Also the large bee flies around to the various blossoms while the smaller bee stays put.  The large bee is about half the size of a normal honeybee.  These bees have two  larger yellow legs, one on either side of their body, that resemble the petals from the sunflower!  It’s incredible to me to see how plant specific insects track down the unique plant they seek.  How do they know where to locate sunflowers like this? Nature is so amazing! I’ve inset a zoomed in image so you can see the legs.