An ant coaxes a small drop of honeydew from a treehopper. This is a form of mutualism, with the ants protecting the treehoppers and their nymphs from predators while receiving honeydew, the sugary by-product of feeding on plant sap.
Ant getting honeydew from a keeled treehopper (Entylia carinata) #insects #macrophotography
A jagged ambush bug hangs on to its prey, a bee about the same size as the ambush bug itself, or a little bigger.
An ambush bug has its rostrum (it's long, sharp, mouth part) extended into the blossom of a mountain mint flower.
The Jagged Ambush Bug: Ambush predator (pic 1) and also a nectar drinker (pic 2)
#insects #macrophotography
A small juvenile crab spider crawling up the side of a jagged ambush bug, holding perfectly still and apparently ignoring the spider. I've seen ambush bugs eat all sorts of arachnids so that spider was playing with fire.
Brave little crab spider crawling on a jagged ambush bug (sitting in pearly everlasting flowers). #insects #spiders
A bumblebee and a beetle (Macrosiagon limbata, a species of wedge-shaped beetle) share a cluster of mountain mint blossoms.
My mountain mint has some of the most numerous and diverse visitors in my yard's plantings.
#insects #plantnative
Lacewing larva hunting among pearly everlasting flowers (Anaphalis margaritacea) #insects #macrophotography
The appropriately named Long-necked seed bug (Myodocha serripes). #insects #macrophotography
Monarch butterfly on swamp milkweed flowers #insects #butterflies
Hidden in white fuzz on a plant stem, a white planthopper nymph sits mostly hidden. One of its eyes and some of the body markings are visible through the fuzz. The fuzz is a waxy cotton-like material produced by the nymph.
Early instar planthopper nymph - some sort of flatid planthopper. I couldn't really tell for sure when I photographed this what I was photographing, I just had my suspicions. #insects #macrophotography
Female parasitoid wedge-shaped beetle (Macrosiagon limbata) laying eggs in mountain mint #insects #macrophotography
A furry bumblebee in flight from one bee balm flower to the next.
On the move! Bumblebee working our bee balm patch.
#insects #bees
Red squirrel in the clover
#squirrels
Milkweed Leaf Beetle (Labidomera clivicollis), beautiful new regular resident on our property.
#insects #macrophotography
Face-on view of Tetraopes tetrophthalmus (common name: Red Milkweed Beele), whose Genus and species name means "four-eyed four-eyes" more or less. It's antennae completely bifurcate the eyes into two parts each.
Four-eyes
Red milkweed beetle (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus)
#insects #macrophotography
Small ant on a butterfly weed flower.
#insects #macrophotography
Close-up of a widow skimmer dragonfly perched on a chain-link fence.
Widow skimmer (Libellula luctuosa)
#insects #dragonflies
A honeybee (Apis mellifera) caught in midflight while it chooses a spot to land among a cluster of milkweed blossoms.
Milkweed pollen is contained in waxy little packets called pollinia. They commonly get caught on the feet of bees and other insects that feed on milkweed nectar.
Honeybee with milkweed pollen slippers #insects #macrophotography
A zebra jumping spider (Salticus scenicus, top) holds onto and feasts on a much larger moth, on a rough vertical surface.
Saw a weird looking moth on the side of my house and took a closer look.
Zebra Jumping Spider feasting on a Labrador Carpet Moth.
#jumpingspiders #spiders
A mating pair of milkweed leaf beetles facing the camera.
I saw a lot more of these Milkweed Leaf Beetles (Labidomera clivicollis) in my yard this season. Here's a couple of them helping to ensure I see even more in the future. #insects #macrophotography
Harvestman (member of order Opiliones), AKA Daddy Longlegs in some parts of the world, including mine while growing up.
That's a lot of legs. #macrophotography
Close-up of tendrils and small leaves of a squash plant
Graceful garden tendrils
Sometimes I just gotta shake my head and mutter "Bugs...bugs are weird."
Center of an early season Echinacea flower. #macrophotography
Hoverfly on fleabane - little fly, little flower. #insects #macrophotography
A spider in its web, its long front legs extended and held tightly together, and its shorter rear legs held against its abdomen. It's abdomen has two distinctive "knobs" or "horns", and it front legs have a feathery texture about two-thirds of the way down. Its tiny black eyes are just visible on its mostly hidden head.
Cribellate orb weaver (Uloborus sp.) #spiders
They can do a good job of looking like a bit of debris stuck in their web, but you get up close and they're fancy little spiders.
I bounced off the book at least twice. Something finally synced up the third (fourth?) time, and damn it was worth it.
A closeup of a jumping spider covering its eyes (in the process of grooming itself).
A closeup of a jumping spider, seeming to peer out over a pedipalp (in the process of grooming itself).
Peekaboo! spider.
Dimorphic jumping spider (female). #spiders
I assumed you were doing some sort of weird bit, read the story to get the real info, and holy crap.
