Here are some insect findings from this week.
The first sighting is the Eastern tiger swallowtail aka Papilio glaucus.
There were a few on these purple flowers posing nicely. The trick for photographing butterflies is to go out early in the morning when they are still a bit cold.
They are more sluggish from the cold morning and won't be flying away instantly. Plus they are hungry after sleeping all night so they don't care if you get close for photos. During the day when the sun heats them up they will take off while you are far away as they are fully warmed up.
Now for some bees. The honeybees were excited about this garlic plant.
Many different sized bumble bees were swarming these flowers too. You can see two different bumble bees here. The one in the foreground is huge and the one in the back is a smaller species of bumble bee.
This big guy was also a bit cold from the morning. Bumble bees are quite easy to photograph as they are really quite blind, hence their name bumble as they tend to run into thing quite often and they don't scare easily.
Now for some Cicadas. These guys really look like aliens when they molt their final larval stage.
At this time they are quite vulnerable. Their shells are completely soft and they have to expand their wings at this stage. I saw this on an evening walk when the sun was still out.
By the time I returned here at the end of the walk the cicada managed to leave its shell and expand its wings.
Now it just has to let the air harden its exoskeleton. Next year will be a cicada year here for the 12 year cicadas. This guy is just an annual cicada. When the 12 year cicadas emerge there are thousands covering every tree and their sound is almost deafening. All the birds and animals that eat insects are completely bloated eating so many cicadas.
That's all for now, thanks for looking :-)
