This enlargement of an insect covered in artistically created camo was crawling on my leg. It or its friend dropped down from a white mulberry tree later and bit me. I thought I’d been able to ID it last year but now I can’t find it. I’m afraid I reacted too quickly to being bitten to figure out if the stick thing in lower left is a leg or a camo stick thing.
Another road warrior! This magical flower was felled from the top of a very tall tulip tree by a hungry caterpillar.
What could be more wonderful than lilacs and ladybugs in bloom?!
Here are Japanese andromeda blossoms and an admirer at the end of February at Tudor Place in DC. The photographer was yet another admirer! I still can’t figure out whether to call them winter flowers or spring flowers…
Where else would a bee be but at Tudor Place, DC where spring comes early in February? I had no idea! My mouth fell open at the sight! It was definitely a banner year for this early bloomer. The fortunate tree and the gleeful bees took advantage of a shocking break from winter as temperatures hit the 80s. We stood there amazed, in a late February snowfall of pink petals.
As I stared at the sweet gum ball, trying to figure out how to draw it, I could suddenly hear dozens of screaming baby birds! All those mouths would be a mother bird’s nightmare!
I never dreamed of anything as lovely as a dogwood hung with frozen spiderweb chandeliers melting in this morning’s advection fog!
Weird black bug with a furry red square on its back/abdomen has been enlarged A LOT. It is a Lady bug larva!!!!! Really!!!!!
The Asian lady beetle (AKA Asian Lady Bug) larva resembles a small, spiny alligator with a blue-black body and two rows of small, orange to reddish spots on its back. Newly hatched, they are about 1/8 inch long and grow to about 0.5 inches.
When fully grown, the Asian lady beetle larva molts into a pupa then transforms itself into an adult beetle. The pupa is usually attached to a leaf or other substrate near an aphid colony. The pupa is orange with black spots and similar in size and shape to the adult.
Magnolia leaf creatures carved by bugs!
The last of the zinnias are feeding the last of the bumblebees at end of October! Thank you, zinnias!
carriestaples 