Spider webs and other things they do with silk

Posted on 2013/06/13 by birds n' bugs

Everyone knows the iconic image of an orb weaver spiders web. Like this one from a golden silk orb weaver.
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But not all spiders spin webs like that. For example, here is a jumping spider I found this morning. It doesn’t use a web at all except for nesting. It just jumps it’s prey and bites. On the right is a Green Lynx spider. It spins an anchor line when it jumps it’s prey but it doesn’t spin a web. It’s green color makes it hard to see in foliage but, this one decided to catch a few rays.
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Another use for silk is to create a nest. Here is a leaf bending spider which has tied a couple of leaves together and hidden itself inside. I managed to tease it out for a less obscured shot.
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Finally, an orchard spider which has spun a chaotic mess of a web and a really tiny crab spider which attack flying insects.
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The first picture here was taken with my old Nikon D50 and 70-200mm VR zoom with a TC-17E II teleconverter. All the others were taken today with the Nikon V1, 30-110mm zoom and a Leitz ELPRO VI closeup lens.

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Yellow Crowned Night Herons – the babies are up

Posted on 2013/06/08 by birds n' bugs

With a respite in our rainy weather from TS Andrea I walked over to the Yellow Crowned Night Heron nests where the mama’s were playing peekaboo with me. Today I found four babies who were finally able to stand and were walking around in the branches of the Black Olive tree. One of them was still hiding in the lower nest but even it’s head could be seen in the tree. The weigh of them was opening up the normally dense foliage.
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While I was watching them, they were keeping a close and curious eye on me.
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My favorite shot of the morning went back to the peeking images I had been getting of the mothers. This time though, it was the lower baby.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: The sign says …

Posted on 2013/06/06 by birds n' bugs

The sign basically says NO FISHING but plenty of folks down at the park seem to completely ignore the admonition.
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Odonata – Dragonflies and Damselflies

Posted on 2013/06/06 by birds n' bugs

The moist days bring the dragonflies out as all of their small insect prey hatches. I see quite a few of them on walks now. Particularly along the mangroves. Here are a few shots from the last few days. The first is a straight on portrait of one of the more patient ones.
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Now, a couple more of the same species.
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These shots are of one called a Carolina Saddlebags because of the color patches at the base of the wings. I usually see these perched very high in the brush but, the low cut mangroves along the seawall in Ponce Park made it possible to get closer.
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And now, a couple of damselflies. These are smaller than the dragonfly and usually a bit more skittish. You can tell them apart by the eye placement too. The damselfly has it’s eyes on the sides of the head while the Dragonfly has them on the front and they are nearly joined.
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Yellow Crowned Night Heron – playing peekaboo again

Posted on 2013/06/01 by birds n' bugs

There is a black olive tree on one of my morning walk routes that had two Yellow Crowned Night Heron nests in it. We had a pretty hefty windstorm the other day so I went that way to check on things. It’s hard to see the nests because the black olive is a tree with very dense foliage. You can see the Heron looking at you as you try to find a way to get a shot as the breeze moves the leaves. You can almost always find the eye peeking at you. Here are a couple of shots of how I manage to see them now. Once the eggs are hatched though there will be a lot more activity around the nest as they feed the young so I hope get better shots.
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A Hairstreak Butterfly

Posted on 2013/05/31 by birds n' bugs

I found this fellow in the Punta Gorda History Park. It’s a Grey Hairstreak. These have a bit of a disguise. The ends of the wing have little extensions that flutter about in the breeze. It almost look like there is a head with eyes and antenna at the back of the butterfly. This one is in good condition but I often see them with the fake antenna and part of the wing missing. It would appear that this is the result of a predator grabbing the wrong part for a meal. As usual, just click for a larger view.
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Crablike Orb Weaver – Gasteracantha cancriformis

Posted on 2013/05/29 by birds n' bugs

These are interesting little spiders because they look like a crab. Generally small they spin their geometric webs in the mangroves and wait for lunch to arrive. They generally sit in the middle of the web and I sometimes think they should really be called flowerlike Orb Weavers because they are about the size and coloring of a lot of the mangrove flowers. But, the shell and spines make them look crablike up close.
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As you can see, the top of the spider is colorful while the bottom is almost completely black. This final shot shows one with lunch.
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Upate on the debris carrying bug

Posted on 2013/05/26 by birds n' bugs

As I said, I posted the images of the bug which had disguised itself with debris. I posted it at bugguide.net as an ID request at 4:53PM and at 4:55PM there was a response with a link to similar images and where you could find out more.

Turns out it was a green lacewing Chrysopidae. When it grows up, it’s going to look like this.
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and it came from eggs that looked like this.

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The Sea Grape – Coccoloba uvifera

Posted on 2013/05/26 by birds n' bugs

Sea Grape is a common plant in Florida. We like it and it is as common as pinewoods and palmtrees. In Punta Gorda we even have an art gallery named after it. It can be grown as a tree or a bush and some folks used it for hedging. It has dense foliage of large circular leaves. The small waxy flowers appear on stalks which later become the ‘grape’ clusters I could see the blooms getting denser today and they were attacting a lot of bees. You can see the size of the flower in comparison to this bee.

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I notice that there were also some small black ants climbing all over it. I took a couple of shots and when I looked at them on the screen for review I noticed something else in one picture. At first it looked like a dead blossom that was out of focus but, I zoomed in a bit closer and decided it was something else. I went back for another shot, in focus this time, and discovered that it had moved.

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Hmmm, a small hairy insect that covers itself in debris as a disguise. This one is definitely going off to bugguide.net for identification.

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Long-legged Flies – Dolichopodidae

Posted on 2013/05/25 by birds n' bugs

These flies are very, very common all over the world. There are about 7000 different species so, I have no idea which these particular flies are from. I do know that I see them often but they are difficult to photograph. They are only about 2-3mm in length and they are very, very quick. If it’s relatively cool they are less active but most of the time they don’t sit still long enough to get their picture taken. Yesterday evening, I was out walking around the yard with the Nikon V1 and Leitz ELPRO VIa. I discovered that with the flash and short working distance it was difficult to get them standing still. I did get some unusual in flight shots though.
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In the one on the left, the flash has made for some dazzling diffraction on the wings and the one on the right shows motion blur from ambient light. It also shows that the fly leaps into the air backwards. Here are a few others that show them stationary. Most of these were taken with a D300 and 105mm Micro-Nikkor which allows for be to shoot from further away and less likely to frighten them off.
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