Eat Prey Love

I haven't posted nature photos for a good long while.  After I figured out the macro setting on the point & shoot and established a totally organic garden and suburban ecosystem, I joyfully documented the bugs in my yard.  But after a while, the images didn't seem like anything new.  I think because I am a human it is difficult for me to perceive the differences that distinguish one individual paper wasp (for instance) from another.

But things happen in the world of bugs.  The whole circle of life unfolds every season among the flowers.  Sometimes I see it.  Warning:  if you are disturbed by the gritty reality of nature, you might not care for these pictures.  

mating mantids; the female has eaten the head of the male

preying mantis eating a monarch butterfly

green lynx spider guarding egg sac soon after laying eggs  

newly hatched green lynx spiders

Daily Bug

I'm not really sure it's a Carolina Mantis. Some kind of praying mantis, of course, but having seen honey bees snatched out of life by those jaw-like forelegs, I hesitate to call it praying. That's the yin and yang of the food chain; one creature's demise is another creature's sustenance.

I like the way the background turned out. I needed to make something that the green mantis would show up against, something amorphous but interesting enough to draw the mantis's attention in the direction away from the viewer.

I may take a break from bugs for a little while; there's some two- and four-legged creatures I'm wanting to paint.

In My Own Backyard

Today the paint-out location was my backyard. It was a beautiful day. I'm pleased with my painting. This is the view looking beyond the yard to the north. It's uncanny how much it really looks like this. It was very interesting and fun to see other painters' takes on my yard. I'm kicking myself for not taking photographs.

Life on the moon? I thought that's what it looks like. Really, I just very desperately need to clear out the porch light.

Finally here's green lynx spider with its egg sack. Life is wonderful. I have fallen a bit behind on the Christmas preparations.

Milkweed Bug

This is an interesting study in bug identification. I used to think these were harlequin bugs. Because I knew there was such a thing, and I thought these looked somehow very harlequin-like. But then I learned that harlequin bugs were something else. So I went to some lengths to identify these based on their appearance. I tentatively determined they were box elder bugs. But they aren't. They're closely related, but I don't have box elder, and these guys live in and on the milkweed. I could have just googled "red black bug milkweed." Or not even googled "milkweed bug." My son just called them f*** bugs, because of their very pronounced reproductive drive. This happens to be the same sort of bug that's on the cover of the Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America.

Ladybugs

The bug series is progressing slowly. I would say I have about half as many paintings as I want. I just don't paint as much at home as I'd like; mostly I putter around on the computer, and work up guilt about all the things I'm not doing. Painting is just one little piece of what I'm not doing. I do have plenty of insect photographs to choose from, and my knowledge of insect life is expanding. This, you may have been clever enough to notice, is two views of the same bug. I made it (her, them?) redder in color, but was true to the spots. I was once bitten by a ladybug. It hurt a little, and disillusioned me a little more.

Grasshopper

Do you hear your own heartbeat? Do you hear the grasshopper which is at your feet? -- quote from Kung Fu, a television show I absolutely ate up when I was a kid. And I find grasshoppers quite special too.

Portrait of a Spider

Orbweaver, family Araneidae
Identification courtesy of What's That Bug? The name, orbweaver, comes from the beautiful circular (not spherical) web, which you can't see because it's in shadow. And because I didn't paint it. Some years ago, I spoke to a physician who specialized in the treatment of wounds. I can't recall her name, but she worked at Arcadia Methodist. She said spiders got a bad rap; many, probably most, of the skin irritations people assume are spider bites are not. I felt I should pass that along.

Roman snail

I didn't know they were called Roman snails either - those large lung-breathing, hermaphroditic, edible snails. That's too much information, isn't it? I don't have these in my yard, although there were plenty of them where I used to live just a mile away. I photographed this snail and many more at a gas station in Ventura after the rain. I wasn't sure snails were bugs. I deferred to one of my favorite web references: what's that bug? I think bug, just bug, isn't really a very specific scientific term. Apparently it can refer to insects, spiders, mollusks, flu viruses, and computer problems. Small annoyances.

I've always kind of liked snails. They can play hell with a garden, but they don't move suddenly or have any sharp edges. Their shells are rather beautiful and interesting to paint