Readers’ wildlife photos

Regular Mark Sturtevant has sent us a passel of insect and spider photos. Mark’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge his pictures by clicking on them.

I come with another set of pictures of arthropods. Mostly orb-weaver spiders, actually. The pictures were taken in various parks near where I live, which is in Michigan.

Let’s begin with the large bee shown in the first two pictures. I was rather puzzled about the identity of this bee. Although it resembles a bumble bee, it turns out to be a male Eastern Carpenter Bee, Xylocopa virginica. I don’t recall ever seeing a male foraging at flowers, but I do see them hovering around nest entrances. The females are commonly seen out foraging, and are easily recognized by their shiny black abdomen and large all-black head. Female carpenter bees are well known for boring large holes into soft wood, which they provision with pollen for their young in a series of stacked cells. In preparing for this post, I learned that these bees are often not solitary (I thought they were!), but instead the can form small social groups where their duties depend on their age which can be up to three years. Older females are dominant and they perform all duties and most of the egg laying. Younger females do less provisioning and egg laying while tending to guard the nest entrance, and the youngest females pretty much just eat provisions and provide no services. Although I carry multiple degrees in Entomology (it’s a long story), this hobby and posting in WEIT has taught me a lot about the lives of insects.

Now we move on to orb-weaver spiders. There are many species in my area, and many members of this group stay hidden near their web by day. Some of them are cussedly hard to tell apart, but I do believe the first one is a Shamrock Orbweaver, Araneus trifolium. There are two other very similar species, but I rely on differences in the leg banding and markings under the abdomen to suggest this ID.

Next up is a Furrow Orbweaver, Larinioides cornutus. These common spiders are specialists in concealment since by day they usually stay in a tightly woven hide-away in a curled leaf.

The next two pictures are of Spotted Orbweavers, Neoscona crucifera. The first one really really impressed me since it managed to catch a large cicada.

The large and colorful garden spiders, or Argiopes, are always a favorite. These will sit out in the center of their web during the day. Although the other orb-weavers may be found anywhere, the Argiopes seem more patchy in distribution now-a-days, with only certain areas where they are common. The species shown here is the Banded Garden Spider, Argiope trifasciata.

Moving away from spiders, the next picture shows a Great Spreadwing Damselfly, Archilestes grandis, which is the largest damselfly in the U.S. That is not to say that it’s a large insect, but it is the size of a smallish dragonfly and so it is way bigger than all other damsels in the U.S. The linked picture will show you. This is originally a species from the southern portion of the country, but it has moved farther north and they are now common in a certain park near Ann Arbor. I go to this park every year or two with the specific goal of photographing this insect and of course whatever else may show up.

Bringing up the rear are pictures of grasshoppers. First is a mating pair of Differential Grasshoppers (Melanoplus differentialis). It was a little surprising that they could be coaxed onto my finger for this picture.

Some time ago I came across an internet meme that pointed out an amusing pareidolia with a grasshopper, which was that its sternum bore what looks like a lion face with sunglasses. I recognized that the species was a member of the spur-throated subfamily, Melanoplinae (See? My entomology degrees are useful), and the Differential ‘hopper and many other local species belong in it. So the last picture is of two spur-throated grasshoppers, and they each have the feline pattern. The one on the left is the Differential Grasshopper, and the right one is a Red-legged Grasshopper (M. femurrubrum). I expect that Jerry will especially like this last bit! [JAC: Cat faces!]

In closing, on occasion I am asked about the equipment that I use for photography. That really does not matter, although these pictures were generally taken with an old and very worn Canon crop sensor body (t5i), which is cheap these days, and a nice macro lens (Canon 100mm, f/2.8L), but there are less expensive macro lenses that are just as good or even better. If anyone would like to try this form of photography, however, I would suggest that they look into OM system cameras. OM cameras (formerly Olympus) have features that make them especially effective at macrophotography, and if I had a way to do it all over again I would not think twice about switching to that brand. Also, for what you get I believe they tend to be cheaper than other camera models. But it is hard to go wrong with cameras, and you can easily modify a regular lens to be used as a macro lens. What really matters, more than the choice of camera, is the diffuser on the external flash. That is a whole other subject that can take a lot of discussion. I lie awake at night worrying about whether my diffuser could be better.