Wednesday, June 23, 2010

A visit from the "queen" and pretty little leafhoppers

Ok, NOW you can classify me as crazy! Yesterday I noticed a couple of paper wasps building a nest just outside my front door. It was fascinating to watch them fly back and forth with gobs of chewed up wood pulp in their mouths. The queen was quite a bit larger than the worker, who was probably her daughter. How nice to have some help around the house! :) I stood on a stepstool and didn't make any quick movements as I zoomed in on them from a foot away with my macro lens. I noticed there was an egg in each cell, mom wasn't wasting any time getting started on her new brood of helpers! I also got a movie clip of her building the nest and laying an egg!

Unfortunately, as much as I hate to kill an insect (excluding mosquitoes and flies!), we had to destroy the nest, it would be too dangerous to have by the front door! We found another nest being build up under one of the window shutters on the carport too.

Last night was kind of a slow moth night, but I made an interesting new discovery! I noticed some tiny (3mm) black and white striped insects bouncing around on the reflector of the black light. So, I put them into a petri dish and zoomed in on them with my macro lens. I was amazed at what I saw, they were so pretty! These shots are very tightly cropped.So, keep your eyes open, you never know what you might see!

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