Tag Archive | photography

Slender in the grass

‘”Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower, we will grieve not; rather find strength in what remains behind.” -Wordsworth

It seems to me that I have not posted in some time. For various reasons, I have not had much time or energy for photography or blogging recently. I do manage short bursts of inspiration, and I have plans for a few more in-depth posts, but for now I can only offer this gorgeous Tibellus oblongus that I shot the other day while digging for ants.

These slender spiders are members of the Philodromidae, or running crab spiders, and are most at home lying on grasses and slender twigs as ambush predators.

Here is one I photographed this summer showing her hunting prowess.

Their longitudinal stripes help them blend in with the substrate, and they are quite tricky to spot until they move.

I found this individual, as well as one more buried in the soil beneath a clump of tall grass.

I find the lines of these spiders very elegant, and they are definitely pleasing to photograph.

Next time you are out in a grassy meadow, keep an eye out for these cryptic hunters!

Some Arachtober shots and thoughts

Oct28

October is a month for spiders, being the time when many of the species which have grown large on summer’s bounty are settling down to lay eggs, or looking for overwintering sites. For spider photographers, it is like golden hour all month! If you search flickr for “Arachtober” you will find the photographic bounty that macrophotographers have amassed.

This Arachtober, I have not really been applying myself to spider photography, although I have made some dedicated efforts to secure shots of black widow defenses (for Catherine’s invited talk at last weekend’s ESBC conference), or Steatoda males and females, for my friend Chloe Gerak’s award-winning talk at the same conference.

Anyway, here are some shots and thoughts about my Arachtober.

Western black widow throwing silk on Catherine’s finger at Island View Beach.

Catherine gave a great talk on “dangerous spiders” at the ESBC conference, her first 1/2 hour talk. Her t-shirt (thanks Alex Wild!) serves as a great abstract of the talk.

Female Steatoda grossa with a bit of backlight highlighting her web. False black widows around here are not very black!

Chloe after delivering her awesome, award-winning talk entitled “How the false widow finds true love”.

Male and female Steatoda grossa juxtaposed for comparison.

A largish sac spider (Clubionidae) showing the large chelicerae typical of the family.

Putting the light a little behind the spider can help resolve some of the surface details and maintain a bit of mysteriousness at the same time.

More direct light makes for a less moody feel as the sac spider drinks water on a colourful leaf.

Arachtober is also a scary time for spiders. Here is an emesine thread-legged bug I found in a spider retreat, where it was likely feeding on spider eggs.

Fall foliage makes for a wonderful seasonal backdrop for this Hallowe’en spider villain.

Hymenoptera through the day

Jul30

Bombus vosnesenskii, probably the most common bumblebee in Vancouver.

Here are a series of images I shot during the course of a summer day in Vancouver. All are hymenopterans, which, in addition to being tasty, are of course the best insects out there.

A nest I uncovered of Myrmica specioides, a recent introduction on the West Coast.

A big Megachilid.

Myrmica rubra against the sky (bribed with a bit of honey).

I have always wanted to get a shot of one of these chrysidid beauties. I believe it is Pseudomalus auratus.

A gorgeous Philanthus beewolf, showing just how much they really do love flowers.

A queen and workers of Myrmica rubra, the European Fire Ant.

Myrmica rubra tending aphids, a few of which appear to be mummies.

Ammophila wasps at sunset, shot with the 300 mm lens.

Weekend Expedition 54: Burns Bog and Centennial Beach

Jul28

This past weekend, The Spider Crew (Sam Evans, Catherine Scott, Samantha Vibert and Gwylim Blackburn) and I set out to find an elusive and rare gnaphosid in the vast wetness of Burns Bog. Gnaphosa snohomish is supposed to be the only peatland specialist gnaphosid in Canada, and was a great reason to go out to the bog.

Believe it or not, we all piled into Daisy, a 1984 Toyota Tercel on loan from Sofi Hindmarch. Yeah, it’s got a hemi!

Samantha examines some riparian flowers on the walk in.

The Labrador Tea was fragrant and abundant.

The wild blueberries were in full swing!

I liked the way the fern was projected on this skunk cabbage.

In the bog proper, there was evidence of spiders. This belongs to a Hahniid, which Catherine will cover in an upcoming post.

A very odd construction indeed. An egg sac?

Sam managed to find a jumper on some blueberries.

and a crab as well.

Under the trees, in rotted logs, amaurobiids were common.

Interestingly, they seem to show a curious “legs up” posture when blown on. We had seen a similar reaction among Ctenids in Honduras.

An Uloborid with its amazing silk trap set.

A gorgeous linyphiid on her web. Check out her weird epigynum!

Samantha and Catherine consult the primary literature in the field. The article in question is: Bennett, R. G., S. M. Fitzpatrick & J. T. Troubridge. Redescription of the rare ground spider Gnaphosa snohomish (Araneae: Gnaphosidae), an apparent bog specialist endemic to the Puget Sound/Georgia Basin area. J. Ent. Soc. Ont. 137: 13-23.

Our hunt was turning up nothing gnaphbosid like, so we stopped for lunch.

Spidering makes for healthy appetites, especially when goat cheese, hummus tomato and basil are available.

Shortly after lunch, it was evident that the black dog of spidering failure had visited us, so we made a move for our second objective: confirmation of a population of black widows at Centennial Beach in Tsawwassen.

We were shocked at the similarities between this beach and Island View Beach. Each has a shallow bay, a large foreshore protected from high tide, abundant driftwood, sloping fields behind, and a bluff overhanging. The human traffic is a bit more intense at Centennial though.

Rolling over logs, and what did we find?

Black widows! Just look at this absolutely gorgeous overwintered male!

This guy was so spectacular… Almost the size of a young female.

Females with egg sacs and hatchlings were also around.

Here is a youngster near an egg sac.

And a large female with a new egg sac.

We ended the day back in Vancouver with some ice cream. Overall, a good effort, with 1/2 of our objectives met. We will get you next time Gnaphosa snohomish!

First Coelioxys of 2014!

Jun17

I am so excited to have met up with (on Saturday) my favourite little bees, Coelioxys! Something about these streamlined little wonders is just so appealing to me. Of course, they were sleeping in their usual manner on the rainy morning, so I had good opportunities to play with the lighting.

Here is what a cluster of Coelioxys looks like, on a dead flower stalk.

Because of the rain, this one had quite a bit of water accumulated.

Like with the Ammophila yesterday, the water adds something to the already pretty texture.

For this shot and the one at the top, I used some hard light from the rear and to the right to make these droplets shine. The green streak is a plant stem in the background.

This bee is starting to wake, and grooming begins even before detaching her mandibles.

In the midst of waking up…

Now the bee is detached, and looking for a place to groom all this water off.

After a couple swipes with the feet, the thorax is drier.

This pretty little bee had a bit of a drier perch for the night.

Sand Lovers

Jun16

In addition to the bundles of sleeping bees I found at Iona Beach on Saturday, I also encountered some Ammophila wasps. Their name means “Sand Lover” and they are major predators of caterpillars in sandy habitats. They sting their prey precisely to paralyze it, then bury them in dungeons under the sand for their larvae to eat. The wasps I was shooting were resting on various vegetation, especially stiffer dead flowerheads. The rain made for some beautiful texture and reflections.

Most sleeping Hymenoptera I find seem to have a preference for dead vegetation. Perhaps this is less attractive to other animals and makes for a disturbance-free night? In addition, the dead twigs and flowers are often stiffer and don’t blow around as much.

In sleeping mode, these wasps grasp tightly with their mandibles. If you disturb them, they quickly re-grasp the substrate rather than waking and moving.

Here is one on a living plant. I like the way the droplets highlight the smooth abdomen.

It can be a wet business sleeping in the rain. I suppose while they are sleeping they must shut down their grooming responses.

Here is another Sphecid, not Ammophila, but perhaps Isodontia?

Tomorrow I will thrill you with some more sleeping hymenopterans…I have saved the best of them for last!

Sleeping (Colletes) bees!

Jun15

Yesterday was cold and wet at Iona Beach, where I set out for an insect photography walk. The conditions were a bit uncomfortable for me, but it was not raining so much that I could not use my camera. To make up for the wet misery, I found such a lot of cool things that it will take a series of blog posts to cover them all!

This subject came up as I was just leaving the beach, aiming to warm myself up in a hot shower when I glanced down and saw a little cluster of sleeping bees. Looking around on adjacent flowers, I found that there were 5 such clusters! This was too good to pass up, so I buckled down and started shooting despite the cold.

Here are a couple of the other clusters:

I am no expert on solitary bees, so I would love to know what these are. I initially thought they were Halictus, but I am beginning to wonder about that…Whatever they are, they are all males, as they have very hairy faces (most female solitary bees are all business in the front).

Update! These are apparently Colletes males. Thanks to John Ascher for the ID!

Having such still subjects allows some experimentation with lighting and background…

Here they are against the overcast sky. This was a single diffused flash to the upper left of the cluster and a white bounce card held immediately to the right.

Here I have the diffused light to the upper right, and the bounce card behind (with a flash pointed at it) to blow out the background. In hindsight, maybe I should carry two cards!

Here I am using a single diffused light to the upper left, a bounce card to the right, and the background lit with the second flash using the Monster Macro Rig.

Here the setup is similar to the above, except the background is mostly dark and the second light throws hard light to the right and rear.

Sleeping bees are awesome…Now I have yet another search image burned into my brain for when I go out in the mornings and evenings!

As I urge you always, go out and find some sleeping Hymenoptera! They are great subjects for photography!

I mentioned that I had a good photography day at Iona Beach…Here is a hint at what comes next:

Weekend Expedition 49: you don’t have to go far!

May26

This weekend I spent close to home, working on my final thesis tweaks before it goes out to my committee. Instead of going on a proper expedition, I decided to explore our new neighbourhood of Kerrisdale. Right near our house is a largely-disused railway line that has some good habitat, including tall grasses and saplings, so that is where I rambled. In addition to finding the cuckoo wasps on Friday evening, I also saw a bunch of other cool stuff!

At the top of the grasses where I found the chrysidids, I encountered many large sac spiders (Clubionidae). These fearsome-looking spiders all seemed to be feeding on the same thing: Aphids! With these huge chelicerae and fangs, it seems to be a bit of an overkill!

Check out the chelicerae on this girl!

Also interested in aphids, these Myrmica are milking a thriving colony on a sapling. I figure these are Myrmica incompleta, a fairly robust species.

Myrmica are rather fascinating ants, and a genus I am working with. More on this another day.

These ants have quite the herd of aphids!

On a quick trip to Trout Lake (in East Van), I found some little katydid nymphs. These appear to be meadow katydids, a welcome change from the introduced drumming katydids.

A robust dolichopodid (Long-legged Fly) by the side of Trout Lake. They are quick!

Not quick enough for this tiger fly (Coenosia spp.)!

Here is a Coenosia looking regal and dramatic in the sunset.

This golden dung fly (Scathophaga stercoraria) was also looking regal (and probably freshly-eclosed).

Back at the railroad tracks in Kerrisdale, I found these Lasius taking honeydew from a scale insect on an oak sapling.

and some mating Coleophora deauratella (red clover casebearer).

Weekend Expedition 48: Iona and McDonald Beach, Pacific Spirit Park

May12

Ochlerotatus dorsalis, a saltmarsh breeding mosquito, is abundant at both McDonald and Iona Beach. This one was particularly persistent and bit readily on my hand.

This weekend, Catherine and I made a few quick trips around the area to hit some of our favourite haunts. The weather was nice, but after a long week including a move back to the Lower Mainland, we were not up for major exertion. Here are some of the cool things we saw.

An dew-covered weevil at McDonald Beach.

Here is another shot of the Ochlerotatus dorsalis. This light-coloured, day-biting mosquito is super-pretty.

The forest of Pacific Spirit Park was full of harvestmen. They could be found on almost every bush along the trail we walked.

This sac spider posed for at least a few frames before dropping to the ground.

A freshly emerged muscoid fly. You can see the ptilinum poking out from the front of its face (just above teh antennae), which it used to pop the cap off its puparium.

A particularly robust springtail on a fallen leaf.

This damsel bug appears to be feeding on some kind of nematoceran fly.

At Iona Beach, there are oodles of non biting midges (Chironomidae) as there are sewage ponds nearby as well as less-polluted man-made ponds.

A male zebra jumper.

This cuckoo wasp was diligently exploring every nook and cranny in this dead log, looking for a host nest for her eggs.

I love the metallic sheen on these. They are also notable for having a very hard exoskeleton, a trait shared with other nest parasites such as velvet ants (Mutillidae).

This shot is pretty cute!

Osprey are always hunting around the ponds at Iona, and this one made several flybys.

The Yellow headed Blackbird can be found at Iona, one of the only places on the coast where it occurs.

Weekend Expedition 47: Some shots from Island View Beach

May5

Catherine and I spent our last full day on the Island visiting her field site at Island View Beach. The weather was cool with a bit of rain, and it was a good time to explore the driftwood and dunes looking for arthropods.

The Formica obscuripes colony I visited earlier this year was busy and seems to have some reproductives emerging.

These ants are colourful and charismatic.

The winged adults were not flying (yet) but seemed ready to do so when conditions are right.

A dance fly (Empididae) waiting on a grass leaf.

A male Zebra Jumper (Salticus scenicus) scoping around for females. These guys have massive chelicerae!

A soldier among workers of the western subterranean termite, Reticulitermes hesperus.

There were quite a few Dysdera crocata hiding under the logs. Catherine and I learned that these can live up to four years in captivity!

A particularly large and pretty giant house spider, Eratigena duellica.

This tiger crane fly bears some superficial similarity to a male black widow… The same long orange-yellow legs with dark joints anyway.

Another crane fly from head-on.

I do not know what this spider might be, and this is the only shot I got…Any ideas?

Tenebrionids live a long and presumably boring life. This one is feeding on moss, which I guess is good, but not my favourite.

This Phidippus johnsoni was the only other jumper we encountered. The Habronattus were not active.

Of course, the widows were quite abundant as usual. We saw many females, none with egg sacs, and no males…Our search was not extensive though. We were hoping to see some of the large overwintered morph males such as the one I encountered last week.