Soon it will be that time of year when flying termites descend by the thousands, chew off their wings and go in search of delicious wood to munch. I took these photos 8 years ago when these fellas got caught in a huge rainstorm that lasted for hours, pinning them by their wings. I woke up to drifts of them in places like these steps up to the garage.
The SOCS prompt for May 24 is “That Time.”
My neighbor came to borrow my drill and on the way back out to let him out of my gate, I chanced upon this insect. It was a very fast mover, but I was able to get one decent shot. Does anyone know what insect it is? It is about 6/16ths of an inch long.
It reminds me of a cow-killer ant but it is much smaller and redder as opposed to the black and orange of the cow-killer ants (which are actually a variety of female wingless wasps) I’ve seen here on my property. It is probably a red velvet ant but has different markings, is brilliant red and much smaller than ones I’ve seen before. Click HERE to see a huge Cow-killer ant I saw a few years ago and to learn more about them..
Having Guests for Dinner
I very nearly missed out on her graceful zigzag gig
beneath my bougainvillea, suspended from a twig.
Behold the nimble spider, spinning out her floss
determined that no insect will turn out to be her loss.
See her web’s tenacity, holding fast her prey—
those delicious visitors who rarely get away.
She sucks out their elixirs with minimal delay,
having guests for dinner every single day.
Incandescent Insect Insomnia
When nature made the glow worm glimmer,
would that she’d installed a dimmer;
for when I put out the light,
what I expect is total night.
When it puts itself in action,
I fear it sets up a distraction.
Little glow worm on the shelf,
please keep your glowing to yourself.
For dVerse Poets Creepies and Crawlies
To read more infested verses, go HERE.
Are you old enough to remember this song? I think the lyrics are both fun and brilliant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dpqfvFd1M0
This rather huge millipede stands out like a many-faceted jewel atop the devastation he has wreaked upon this leaf.
For the AOTD prompt.
jdbphoto
Spider on the ceiling, legs evenly spread round,
I can’t help but wonder what keeps you ceiling-bound.
Have you little suction cups welded to each foot,
and if so, has nature adequately put
each one on this spider far above my bed
so it will not disconnect and land upon my head?
I woke up much earlier than usual today, and after I posted my poem and photos, I went back to bed. I closed my eyes for a short time, then opened them and stared fixedly at the ceiling above the bed. It was not fully light in the room, but in the diffused light from the curtains which form a sort of scrim in the room, I could see a black blotch on the ceiling right above me. Trying to figure out what it was, I scrunched my eyes up and eventually made out lines radiating out from the center. It finally occurred to me that this might be a spider. Further scrunching determined that it was, indeed, a delicate-looking spider perhaps an inch or two in diameter. It hasn’t moved in the half hour or so it has taken for me to write its laudatory poem, locate my camera, arrange for adequate lighting and camera settings, shoot its portrait and to get posted. It will probably still be there tonight. If so, its fame will probably be expanded with another poem. If I remember.
jdbphoto
Best for Last
Just as I’m ready to ingest
the morsel I consider best
and so picked out from all the rest
to be my last bite, savored with zest—
last memory of this gourmet fest—
from north and south and east and west,
descends each winged little pest,
radared in on diabolical quest
as though invited at my behest.
They put my appetite to the test,
settling as though to the nest,
their hairy feet intimately pressed
upon that morsel that I loved best.
I wave my hand over them, lest
they eat too much, then I confess
I guiltily consume the rest.
The prompt today is pest.
This beach companion was fascinated by my Diet Coke. Pedro says this is proof that they actually do slip sugar into diet drinks here.
(Click once on first picture to enlarge photos, then click on right arrow to advance to next picture. When finished, click on X at top left of the page to return to this page.)
He ended up submerged, in spite of my best efforts to dissuade him from taking the icy dip. This called for pouring the coke and corpus onto the sand. In lieu of artificial respiration, I blew on him and from a seemingly comatose state, he came to, crawled away, and in time flew away. I wonder how many watery graves this fellow has escaped.
Hormigas!!!
What are these leaves doing scattered over the terrace just hours after Pasiano swept? I decide to investigate.
Aha! The evidence is pretty clear when I find a chewed-up leaf.
Can you see those razor-sharp incisors about to close around this leaf?
More leaf-cutter compadres ascend my hibiscus, scouting out fodder for the hundreds of ants who will trek here in darkness to strip the bush and carry it away.
The team work is so incredible that I hate to interfere, but if I don’t, there will be no foliage surrounding my house by the time I get home in two months.
As above, the “timberjack” ant saws away on yet another leaf,
I scatter pellets.
By tomorrow, all the pellets will be gone, carried away by these bearer ants–and hopefully, the ants will be gone, too.
Hormigas, by the way, is Spanish for Leafcutter Ants. (I didn’t want to give away the answer before the question was asked.) They are fascinating to watch, with their generals and slaves, double machete-weilding lumberjacks dropping pieces of leaves to the bearers below, tinier slave ants carrying many times their own weight, some ESP that causes swarms of ants to appear to help any ant who needs help over an obstacle or out of a hole. I could watch all day as bush after vine is depleted of leaves and flowers, but then–I’d have no bushes or flowers, so I resort to the little pellets that, carried back to the nest, with luck for me and no luck for the ants, will clear it out. Cruel nature either way.
http://ceenphotography.com/2016/01/13/prompt-stomp-week-14-challenge-things-that-are-small/
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 