Today we have a collection of insect and spider photos from regular Mark Sturtevant. His captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
Here is a short set of spider and insect pictures from a couple of summers ago. All were taken near where I live (eastern Michigan). The spider in the first picture is a broad-faced sac spider (Trachelas tranquillus) that was in the backyard. Its meal is a species of cobweb spider (family Theridiidae).
Next are pictures of nursery web spiders (Dolomedes tenebrosus), one of our largest spiders. The first two pictures were of a spider that startled me while I was lifting up dead tree bark. When getting up close with a lens, one can fortunately rely on their strong desire to NOT jump when spooked. The last picture is a wide-angle macro view of a gravid female.
The next pictures show a strange and cryptic moth called the dark-spotted palthis, Palthis angulalis. These images were focus stacked from several hand-held pictures.
The rather gaudy caterpillar shown here is the larva of the red-spotted purple butterfly (Limenitis arthemis), and the picture below that is the adult of this species.
Next up are insect eggs. I don’t know what these are, but they look like stink bug eggs. When they hatch, the circular lids on top pop open and the nymphs will emerge together.
To close, here is is a Chinese mantis nymph (Tenodera sinensis), which posed very nicely, resulting in one of my favorite pictures of the season.
The last three each took my breath away, especially the Mantis!
Those stink bug eggs look like they will pop open and jump straight onto John Hurt’s face.
Gorgeous, thanks for sharing! That mantis is my favorite of course. Wow.
Your mantis looks as if it has taken Quentin Crisp’s advice to heart on posing: “Act as if someone has just spoken your name.”
Beautiful Photos as always! Of course, I love the spiders, as usual, but wow, that mantis pose is truly exceptional!
As usual, very expertly done. That palthis is remarkable. And that mantis! Killer.
Excellent and amazing work as always, Mark. Thanks!
Great stuff as always Mark. Love the spiders