Hard to judge the size of this beast
until you have something to compare it to.
For Lens-Artists Challenge #312: A Sense of Scale
To Scale, for Lens Artists Challenge #312
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Category Archives: insects of mexico
Missed Opportunity: Last on the Card, May 31, 2024
This morning I noticed these leaves on the pedestals on either side of the door that leads from the street to my front garden, but it wasn’t until Paciano arrived that I noticed the 3 inch wide trail of leaf parts that extended almost the entire distance across my lot from the pedestals to the kitchen door and then mysteriously stopped! It was solid stone the entire way and there was no hole in site that might have led into their underground abode. Why would they have stopped there and why so many different segments–so many that they formed a solid carpet? If it had been a rain, it would have washed the leaves away or at least disarranged them. These tiny segments, much smalled than the leaves pictured above, formed an absolutely straight and orderly pathway almmost entired covered with green. It indicated that thousands of ants had set down their burdens at exactly the same time and left. What could have caused this? In my 23 years of observing leafcutter ant behavior, I had never seen it before.
But, an equal mystery is why in the world didn’t I take a photo?
And..how strange. As I was getting ready to post this blog, I saw a movement on my arm and you guessed it…it was an ant! Not a leafcutter, however.
Two other posts on leafcutter ants:
For Bushboy’s Last on the Card Prompt
Nature Photo Challenge: Patterns
A different variety of butterfly visits in a cycle every year.
Ah, that Amazon Jungle trip..and exotic new bugs!
A visitor by my kitchen door. Gorgeous little guest.
Probably my alltime favorite, captured on a soda straw at my favorite beach resturant in La Manzanilla
Pretty, but painful!
Do you see a caterpillar in this photo or just the stamen of a flower?
I got a bit carried away, initially intending to only post photos of caterpillars with interesting patterns, but then a few butterflies flew in followed by beetles and bees and wasps and pretty soon I had a crowd. I’ve been fascinated by the incredible number of insects there are in Mexico. I believe all of these beautiful creatures were photographed in my own yard except for the fifth one of the huge hopper on the hand which was photographed in the rainforest in Peru. So, here they are, Denzil!!! Thanks for the prompt
Midweek Monochrome #117
What Bug is This?
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..
The Rest of the Story. . . . A Scorpion Adventure
Since I’d just had the house fumigated less than two weeks ago, I was distressed to walk into the bathroom and discover a scorpion on the floor! Please click on the photos below to see and read about the rest of the story.
I quickly stomped on it with my shoe, but realized it was a soft rubber sole so stepped on it again, then ground it into the tile.
Looking down on wiping up.
That although this is what I thought I had seen,
this is what I had actually stomped on.
Six on Saturday: Subtropical Garden Shots
I moved from Boulder Creek, California to San Juan Cosala, Mexico fourteen years ago, trading one beautiful spot on Earth for another one.
For Six on Saturday
Rain Beetles
The rain has brought out three new varieties of large beetles that I’ve never seen before. Can anyone identify them? Click on photos to enlarge.
Millipede: Animal of the Day, Sept 17, 2019
This rather huge millipede stands out like a many-faceted jewel atop the devastation he has wreaked upon this leaf.
For the AOTD prompt.
Moving House
Moving House.
Did you notice that ring on the top of the storage space to the right of my poinsettia photos? If so, you might have been curious about what it was. Not just a ring of dirt from where I moved the pot. This is what was going on! It reminds me of humans evacuating a hospital before a hurricane or after a disaster. And yes, I did feel a bit guilty. But it looks like their backup plan worked just fine. (Click on the first photo to enlarge photos and read captions.)
Whe I returned from two months at the beach, I was amazed to find poinsettias blooming even more profusely than they had bloomed in december. Notice the ring on the top of the bodega to the right of the flowers?
It was partially soil from the bottom of the pot, but it was also hundreds of tiny ants
hurrying to move their eggs to safer ground.
Obviously, the bottom of the pot had been their nursery.
Now they moved in orderly twos
and ones,
every upwards.
following the line of the window edge
A few did not avoid the trap of a spider web.
But eventually, all had relocated in the light sconce above. When I went out six hours later, all was still. Not a sign of a tiny ant or egg, until I turned over the pot from the location I had moved it to. About 50 of the ants had re-relocated back to their former home. When I turned the pot sideways, they scurried around like mad, grabbing their assigned eggs and making off again. Hurriedly, I set the pot back down again. No time for a photo this time.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 