catselbow

catselbow, 1 day ago to photography

A beautiful crane fly, hanging inside a sunlit bush. (This is who I was trying to photograph when I took the picture of the syrphid fly I posted yesterday. I recommend sticking your head under a bush occasionally. There's a whole other world in there.)

#cranefly #diptera #insects #arthropods #photography

futurebird, 2 days ago to random

It could be worse... cicadas could be as loud as my cat and they could all sing a song of suffering and injustice all day long:
"RAaaaAAHngh"
"Mrawahnagh"
"Angoororghragh"
"NraaAahrahah"

catselbow, 2 days ago to photography

A wasp-mimicking syrphid fly pauses to have a drink from a drop of water and have a biiiiig stretch.

#fly #flies #syrphidae #diptera #insects #arthropods #photography

Alice, 4 days ago to random

Please tell me I’m not the only one who's completely creeped out by the name "Skinwalker" Ranch.

futurebird, 4 days ago to random

Fact of the Day: A single mature Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony could have more individual members than there were early modern humans in Europe just before the last glacial maximum.

catselbow, 5 days ago to photography

A little harvestman sits at the center of a fiddlehead's spiral, like a minotaur at the center of a maze.

#ferns #harvestman #opiliones #arthropods #photography

catselbow, 11 days ago to Flowers

I love this little bee's hypnotic eyes. What is she thinking?

#bees #hymenoptera #flowers #pollinators #photography

catselbow, 17 days ago to random

A mantis egg case, ready to release hordes of cute baby mantises when the weather gets warmer. These particular valiant warriors will defend a blueberry bush against insect invaders.

#mantis #insects #potography

catselbow, 20 days ago to Flowers

The pawpaw blooms have started to open. The ants seem to like them. I always find a few hanging around the flowers.

#pawpaw #flowers #plants #bloomscrolling #photography #ants #hymenoptera #insects

catselbow, 24 days ago to Flowers

Yellow cat-face or buttercup? You decide, but it has nice whiskers either way.

#flowers #buttercups #photography #bloomscrolling

catselbow, 25 days ago to Flowers

#SilentSunday #flowers #plants #buttercups #photography

catselbow, 26 days ago to Flowers

Blossoms of purple deadnettle (Lamium purpureum), looking like muppets saying "Wocka wocka!"

#flowers #plants #photography #bloomscrolling

futurebird, 27 days ago to random

52 percent of Americans don't believe that polls are accurate.

This feels like the kind of fact that should just implode like a mini-blackhole.

catselbow, 28 days ago to photography

A little sweat bee on a forearm. I just like the shapes of the colors in this picture.

#bees #hymenoptera #insects #arthropods #sunshine #photography

catselbow, 1 month ago to random

Another couple of pictures of beaver-works. This is just one small part , showing a side channel that was dry land a year or so ago.

#beavers #wetlands

A beaver dam across a small, muddy body of water. the dam is a long ridge of jumbled sticks that extends from the right edge of the photo across to grassy island. On the far side of the dam, water laps at the top of the pile. The nearby water is a foot or so lower. Running into the picture from the right, we can just see a thin wire with an orange cylinder on it. The wire runs to a leaning metal post partway along the length of the dam, on the side of the dam near us, and then turns a corner and runs through several yellow insulators on smaller posts, back off of the right edge of the photo. This is a corner of an electric fence for keeping cattle out of the water, but it looks like the water has risen beyond the fenceline.

catselbow, 1 month ago to random

The beavers are hard at work! It's a little sad to see them taking down big trees, but they're making a nice wetland.

#beavers #wetlands

purplepadma, 1 month ago to random

Never seen so many colanders on social media

catselbow, 1 month ago to Plants

A pawpaw bud (Asimina triloba), just starting to open. The petals are green at first, but when the flowers open they turn dark purple, almost black.

#plants #trees #flowers #photography

catselbow, 1 month ago to photography

A lovely blister beetle my wife spotted resting on a picnic table in our back yard.

#beetle #coleoptera #insects #arthropods #photography

catselbow, 1 month ago to photography

A little fly (Scathophaga?) who kept me company for a long time yesterday. It makes me very happy when a little creature like this deigns to hang out with me. I had to take the pictures with my left (non-dominant) hand because he was perched on my right hand, which made it difficult.

I've had trouble taking pictures lately. I don't know if the problem is my eyes, my hands, my imagination, or my patience.

#fly #flies #diptera #insects #arthropods #photography

The same fly as in the previous picture, now seen from the side. Now we see his sturdy amber-colored femurs, bristling with dark spikes that help him hold onto struggling prey. Under his wing, at the back of his thorax, we see the white, thin-handled club of his haltere, all that's left of what was once a second pair of wings. Across his back, black bristles sweep backward in graceful arcs.
The same fly seen from the side, now bathing. With his front feet he's gently cleaning his extended mouthparts.

futurebird, 1 month ago to random

Whenever complementing someone's pet I like to use the category that includes their pet along with ants.

Pet Bees "adorable hymenopterans!"
Pet Beetle "what a lovely insect"
Pet Crab "what a cute arthropod"
Pet dog "Such a charming bilaterian!"

catselbow, 1 month ago to random

From this article in Nature:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00930-y

"When a long-term memory forms, some brain cells experience a rush of electrical activity so strong that it snaps their DNA. Then, an inflammatory response kicks in, repairing this damage and helping to cement the memory, a study in mice shows."

(There are so many metaphors in this, just waiting for us to harvest them.)

futurebird, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

There was a fern, on an island, deep in the Tethys Sea. The fern lived only on that one small island... and the whole landmass now, every scrap of evidence is beneath the Himalayas, cooking into unrecognizable granite.

catselbow, 3 months ago to Plants

Some pictures of dried goldenrod seed heads in winter.

#plants #winter #photography

A closer view of the cluster, showing us more details of the flowers, which look like tiny asters spray-painted metallic gold. Among them, the seeds look a little like dandelion seeds, with a capsule and a parachute of filaments.
An even closer view of a flower, like a little sun in a crowded, dusty star cluster.
A single seed on a fingertip. The seed is tiny. Its elongated brown cigar-shaped capsule has tall ridges along its length. From one end sprouts a cluster of long white hairs, making a parachute.