We have photos from three contributors today. The first photo was conveyed by Gayle Ferguson:
I’ve attached a ‘wildlife’ photo for your website. The photo was taken by a colleague of mine (Phil Battley) out of an office window. His caption is this: “Young female New Zealand falcon [Falco novaseelandiae], Massey University, Palmerston North, NZ. Taken out of an office window!”
Reader Andrée Reno Sanborn sent beetle photos and some notes:
This is a Round-necked Longhorn (Clytus ruricola). June 21, 2016; Northeast Kingdom of Vermont:
As we made our daily bug walk, we found this long-horned beetle (which we first thought was a wasp, injured, cold or drunk) hanging out of a rolled black cherry (Prunus serotina) leaf. My husband carefully detached the leaf for photos. Inside, we found the beetle with aphids and a ladybug grub (Coccinellidae sp.).
The larvae eat rotting hardwood and prefer maple (Acer) (which doesn’t seem to be a problem in our sugar bush, since this was the first one we have found; but on the other hand, we don’t let maple sit and rot). Adults eat flower nectar and pollen.
After chats with real entomologists, we figure this beetle was sipping honeydew, which, of course, is sweet like nectar.
After posing politely, the beetle flew away quite quickly. It seems to have grasshopper-like legs. This is another bug that we need to actively seek out. There is not enough life history information on the Internet. I can find no photos of larvae. I am assuming the bug is not invasive.
From Stephen Barnard, who calls this “One of my ‘Maxfield Parrish’ landscapes”:
The colors! OOOOH!
PCC(E) – Can I send iPhone videos to your email for RWP? Any time range good? iCloud Photo Sharing?
Thanks
Looking at that landscape, you could almost believe in God,almost!
What is it with landscapes and people thinking there is a God? My older relatives send me emails all the time claiming deep and obvious justification for the Creator when viewing details of planet earth, oddly always near Montana.
Anyone, this MaxPerish pic is going on my phone.
Thanks for the photos, Peace. 🙂
All very good.
Andrée, I approve of your bug walks! Always an adventure when looking out for the smaller majority.
🙂
It’s a great life, for sure. And the dog sits and waits patiently. Now that moths are occasionally appearing, she is not insisting we go mothing at night, and points to them for me.
she is NOW insisting. Not not.
What a sky!
I’ll bet the beetle OD’d on the honeydew, Where are the beetle morals police? We can’t have drunken, drugged, delinquent beetles passing out all over the place, especially on errant leaves — this is a scourge on their society. This one definitely needs rehab.
Maxfield Parrish indeed! 🙂
What astonishing colours!
Wow. Nice set of pictures. Love the New Zealand Falcon picture. Very intense. A bit scary to be looked at like that.
There was a lot going on in that leaf. The rear legs do resemble grasshopper legs. The head looks a bit like an ant, at least in profile as in the last beetle picture.
Stephen, it must be a real hardship to live in such a place. Are those colors right out of the camera or has it been enhanced?
It’s an HDR (high dynamic range) photograph combining three photos at +/-.5ev. Otherwise, it’s not manipulated (or not much) and is a pretty accurate representation of what I was seeing with the naked eye, and which cannot be captured in a single exposure.
Thanks for the details!
How cool to see a falcon so close!
I used to have an office window with several flax bushes outside it. My desk was up against the window facing out. (Pre-computer days.) At the right time of year I would have up to 7, but usually 3-4, tuis feeding just a metre away.
At the time I didn’t have a camera and I left before the following season, but I’ll always remember it.
The bug is not drunk just high as a kite on honeydew, funny shot that… enjoyed and thanks.
We have a quite similar beetle here in Europe: Clytus arietis – found one in my kitchen last year.
This one we found is also a wasp mimic. Your C. arietis and our C. ruricola are look-alike cousins. I’d love to learn how the genus spread and diversified. Thank you for commenting: keep a camera with you at all times!
Reblogged this on Winston McGill MD.