Sunday, June 29, 2008

Landscape, with bug

Milkweed seems to be one of the big happening places for the local insects, so when I spotted a few plants on my way home from work yesterday, I pulled over for a closer look. Mainly, I was hoping to find a monarch caterpillar, though I would have settled (with some trepidation), for a tarantula hawk, an immense black wasp which has a fondness for milkweed, though its main diet is. . .well, what it sounds like a tarantula hawk should eat. Whether I was too early or too late, or whether milkweed is just not "in" this year, there was little to see beyond the plant itself and a few languid representatives of Oncopeltus fasciatus. Oncopeltus fasciatus is a mouthful to say, and I have no idea what it means, but it is somewhat more original than "large milkweed bug" which is what they are in straightforward English.



Below: a large milkweed bug in its natural habitat.






4 comments:

Anonymous said...

A NICE SHOT! How could you see (find?) the bug was there.. you're really talented to find (recognize?) small small bugs and take good pics!

angelsprings

Molly said...

You are very kind. But I must tell you, today I am excited because over this week I took a whole bunch of pictures that are NOT of bugs!!! :-)

Anonymous said...

Ookay. I thought you recognize bugs easily because you can hear them calling you or something... - like "Molly I'm here! Take picts of me!!"... But maybe not.. :)

angelspings

Molly said...

Ha ha! Don't give the bugs any ideas--they're distracting enough already!