Orb weaver spiders have been taking over our backyard. Yesterday one created their signature oval web between the house and a bush, blocking sideyard access. We left it alone all day, and this morning it was broken and he was gone. Such is the life of a spider.

The photo is actually of another one that’s made its home near our garbage cans. He’s been there a while now. What amuses me is that the spider is actually positioned with it’s head pointed towards the ground…but if you flip the image (which I did), his mandibles etc. look like a face. Arms raised, he’s coming to get you! Hahaha

The other thing I like about the photo is the spinnerets on its behind are very noticeable. Lastly, don’t forget this is a macro crop, they are nowhere near giant sized or anything. ;)

It’s raining. Which of course means pictures.

I need a waterproof camera. But I guess a baggie held on by twine and rubberbands works in the meantime.

Another minor “complaint” about this new version of WordPress … I don’t like the photo uploader menu anymore, either. Sigh.

They’re actually a lot more black in color, not this grey/blueish. He was in dark shadow and I used the built-in flash to fill it, which caused his dark color to wash out, or something.

Hoverfly hanging around our rose bush. As usual, these are crops. The full-frame pics or slight edge crops are actually ok at 8×11 printed size, but if I resized it down to 450px webpage size, the fly becomes minuscule. So the webpage gets massive crop versions. :P

I still refuse to use a tripod most of the time. Besides…with insects in the wild, they wouldn’t sit still for tripod framing anyway.

This is a ladybug pupa hanging ‘upside down’ from it’s anchor point on the fence. I like the image because one, it’s funky looking, and two, it’s not the typical top-down shot of ladybug larva. Apparently, they’re not black/orange on their underside. :)

This ladybug had recently “hatched” from it’s pupa shell and was still gathering its energy.

On the backyard fence underneath a sappy tree, there are currently a lot of ladybug larvae running around, eating aphids and eventually turning into pupae so they can become ladybugs. As I was watching them scurry over the fence boards, I was witness to an adult ladybug catching an aphid…and a second later, an impudent larva waltzed right up and tried to snatch it away. There was a bit of a tug-of-war for the tasty morsel. After several seconds, the larva lost his grip, gave up, and the adult ladybug continued her meal in peace.

Neither of these are sharply in focus - they wouldn’t stay still long enough! But I’m posting them mostly because I wanted to say…holy crow, these guys are big! They must be an inch or inch and a half long? I know friends have quickly stepped aside when they see one coming - big and scarily black to boot. But I imagine like most insects this one is fairly harmless. They’re fairly common in the fields and yards around here. Not as common as regular bees or anything, but you’ll see them often enough if you’re looking.