Maybe if I stay very still...

Not many insects out after the first frost but I did find this wonderful Katydid pretending to be invisible. Actually it did a pretty good job of it.

Syrphid

Syrphid 2
Originally uploaded by pdecell

Got this wonderful syrphid at the Ernie Miller Nature Center in Olathe KS. on Saturday. Click on the picture to see larger images.

A Bug Date

Two assassin bugs doing what they do best-namely combining dinner with a little love making. The female is on the bottom. Here they are feeding on a caterpillar larvae (Datana , Notodontidae) and the black head of the larva is just below the male's head. It is not at all clear if one one is eating, or maybe I should say drinking, or if they are sharing. I am not sure what bug etiquette is for these situations.



Click on the picture to go to my Flickr stream.

For more context see this post:

http://theforcethat.blogspot.com/2008/08/be-careful-what-you-wish-for.html

and the flickr discussion of this photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pdecell/2815411198/

Speaking of sex education...

...or at least the bee part. Yesterday I went to Prairie Park in Lawrence for some picture taking. But it was so humid I lasted about two hours. Probably going out at noon was not the best idea. The worst part was not the heat but just keeping the sweat away long enough to focus. At any rate this is a nice shot of a female bumble bee top and her male suitor.



Originally they were coupled and I will leave it to the reader's anthropomorphic imagination to guess what she might be thinking or "saying"-aside from maybe "buzz off."

After the Storm

Last night we had more violent weather in Kansas featuring everything from tornadoes to escaped elephants. To quote from the Lawrence Journal World:

"The elephants, part of a traveling circus in WaKeeney, were apparently frightened by the storm and wandered through the town after breaking loose, said Trego County Sheriff Richard Schneider.

One elephant wandered into a resident’s backyard less than a mile from the Trego County Fairgrounds and was blocked off by fire trucks until its trainers could coax it onto a truck, Schneider said.

“I guess it got tired of walking around,” he said.

The second elephant was tranquilized in another resident’s backyard, coaxed into a truck and taken back to the circus, which was already packing up to head to the next town, Schneider said.

There were no reports of damage from the elephants..."

This morning, no elephants but a snail tasting the calm:

Hungry Baby

This newly hatched mantid was one of many on my Viburnum yesterday.