I read an interesting article about the dangers that are facing insects.
You will see a male Banded Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa caffra), and he is a very good pollinator (7 shots). Then I will also show you a Green Tree Locust (Cyrtacanthacris tatarica) (3 shots).
Unfortunately, I cannot use the link of the scientific study in the post, as I don't know how safe it is and normally I only stick to Wikipedia. In this case, climate change, habitat destruction, lack of greenbelts, and damaging of the ecosystems have eroded the insect populations, with some species going extinct. Flowers and crops need pollination, mostly by insects, and if the insect numbers have declined or certain insects die off, then we are looking at worrying figures around food stability.
And not only this, as we quite often hear in the news on our radio that poachers were arrested for the stealing of plants and abalone, and the poachers are also responsible for the serious decline in numbers of our rhinoceros. Killing such a magnificent animal, only for stripping off its horn. How can we make a difference as ordinary people? Firstly, limited the use of pesticides on the lawns and in gardens, choose to support entities that care for the environment when selecting food and other products, create green spaces on your property if you can as this provides feeding and safe spaces for the insects as they pass through.
This guy came flying in and I just knew that he was going to land on the Jasmine flowers.
I was desperate to show you his face, and I got a few shots of it.
Can you believe that we were at a meeting at a charity that we support, and when I saw the Carpenter Bee, I simply had to put my mug of coffee down to take up my camera and to get the shots from my seat at the table.
Now here is something else posing for me.
I got this locust on another occasion as he was busy climbing up the reed.
So, I leant over, gently grabbed the top of the reed and twisted it to show you his full body.
As I pushed the reed back to its original position, the locust seemed to cling for all his worth on the reed, and so I left him in peace.
I often post insects to show the importance of them in the ecosystem, and this was yet another occasion to try and make people aware of the dangers of losing all of the insects. Someone said that if the last bee dies, a chain reaction will start to take place, until each next section of the ecosystem will start to die off, and that will be bad news for our human existence. Not only that, but I also find many insects to have wonderful designs, and I think here of the dragonfly, as they are really beautiful.
Such is life.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos and words by Zac Smith. No AI and Photoshop. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
Until next time. Shalom!