Excellent exuvia (photo quiz answer) & spring haps (bugs, lizards, birds & cats)

So, ANSWER TO THE Phriday Photo Quiz, which asked what this is:

It's a robber fly (Asilidae) pupa exuvia.

Most likely subfamily Laphriinae.

Got the answer from the ever-on-target Ted C. MacRae 

(of beetlesinthebush.wordpress.com & @tcmacrae on the twit).

He's a ROCK star! =)

I LOVE robber flies--they're like the fighter pilots of the bug world.

Found this one last week resting on our gutter.

If you've never seen them in action, it is NO JOKE

when a robber fly is on the hunt. Wow.

According to the California Robber Flies page,

California is where robber flies have speciated LIKE MAD:

386 species in California, 170 endemics (only found in CA).

The author describes California as "the nuclear blast zone of robber diversity."

For much better photos of these impressive & diverse animals,

check out their Robber Fly home page. So cool.

WINNERS of PHRIDAY PHOTO QUIZ

As ever, there were MANY great guesses,

many guessing cicada and sundry other inverts.

Thank you to EVERYONE for your thoughts & words.

I always learn from you. =)

1. Most Precise & Accurate: Ted C MacRae

for

NAILING it via twitter

(which was great 'cause I didn't know, yet).

HE is the one who suggested robber fly

AND the subfamily (via twitter) & it's CLEARLY a match.

2. Accurate Yet Adorably Vague: Sarah

for

"some sort of bug-related empty shell thingy."

Exactly what I thought! =)

3. Most Profound: Imperfect & Tense

for

"Or possibly the personification of the spirit of a small rooster."

Deep thinker, that one...

4. Best Pun: Susannah Anderson

for

"Just another crazy BCer after doing the winter challenge."

Presumably they are shells of their former selves, after voluntary flash-freezing.

Other Spring Bio Haps

Found this beauty embedded in a carrot flower.

Spied her in my Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada.

At the SAME time, I got the answer from Andy Warren (@AndyBugGuy)

who is SO generous with his bug IDs for hapless bug enthusiasts such as moi.

A female dimorphic flower longhorn beetle (Anastrangalia laetifica).

The males are all black, so this is clearly a female.

Speaking of lady bugs, here's a ladybird beetle (a.k.a. ladybug) pupa post-rain:

turning into an adult, right there on the iris blade.

It's about as big as my pinky nail.

Zooming in I noticed a little TINY guy on the back, left spot:

I love how the scale of nature keeps going up or down,

whether or not we can perceive or comprehend it.

Is my garden dead?

This turkey vulture cast a wary eye over my garden this weekend...

These birds are already big.

Wingspan is between 5' 7" and 5' 10".

Then they do this, and freak my hen out completely.

VERY Dracula in its silent, dark power... =)

But, really, it's just sunning itself on a cool morning.

Watching the Watchers

Every now & then, when I see this:

or this

I follow their gaze to see what they're staring at.

And sometimes am rewarded by things like this:

An apparently preggers (gravid) female greater brown skink (Plestiodon "gilberti" gilberti),

so sayeth California herps

and the laudable Hugh of Rock Paper Lizard fame.

Man knows his herps.

A real treat to see her, and gladly my hen didn't spy her.

I've seen a hen-killed skink before, and it's not pretty. =(

It SERIOUSLY takes a village to figure out what just a FEW of the things living here are.

THANK YOU to all who help ID stuff,

or just share an appreciation for the myriad things

that live on this amazing planet.

=)

xoxobb

Night...

is only ONE of the MANY times our kitty is invisible.

The only reason you can see him

is that my Nikon INSISTED on using the flash.

Here in person, he's just an area where all light is absorbed.

If you see NOTHING, not even reflected light,

don't walk into it or sit on it,

as it's probably our cat.

A warm & fuzzy black hole.

He's also much quieter than our colored-for-daytime grey tabby.

I think it's part of the whole ninja gig.

He

is

night

silence

stealth

Professional killer.

Sweet kitty.

'Long as I'm bigger than 'im.

=)

xoxobb

(thus Day 18 of @just_go_do_it's 30 day photo challenge = DONE)

The Stranger

Was supposed to take a photograph of a (presumably human?) stranger, yesterday,

for the photo challenge, but I didn't see one.

Work at the house, & no one darkened our door, yesterday.

So, how 'bout this charming creature, from a few days ago?

We've not been formally introduced.

This spotted towhee was on the back porch during the cold snap,

when snow covered almost everything,

and our porch sported birdseed.

It was a rare treat--this is a pretty people-shy bird.

Since the snow melted, most of the birds have abandoned our porch,

save the ever present dark-eyed juncos, and the occasional western scrub jay.

The spotted towhee is among the missing.

*sigh*

Perhaps I should have called after them, "Don't be a stranger!"

I fling birdseed onto the back porch, and the towhee ignores it.

It doesn't want to be my friend.

I can't blame it.

After all, I have cats.

Professional killers in my house.

Clearly a character flaw.

Smart bird.

xoxobb

why pets can lower your blood pressure (esp. on tax day)

They do things like this... =)

Doesn't that make the cold letter of the law

just a little bit warm and fuzzy?

=)

Good kitties.

xoxobb

3 flavors of Hallowe'en ... mWA HA HA!

Last Friday, the sight of this tarantula* caused me to

leap up from the couch with a gasp, mid-conversation,

dash for my camera,

and run out the door.

I'm polite, like that.

=)

Gorgeous New England Pie pumpkin I offed 2 weeks ago.

Yes, it's pretty, but the ghoulish part is the stab marks you might see,

and the beads of sweat it's producing as I heat up the oven

and eye it in a way that makes it very uncomfortable...

It is no longer with us.

And last, for good luck,

our coal black cat,

frequently visible only as the places you don't see light,

even when he's in bright sunshine.

"Bear" calls him the singularity,

as in what lies at the center of a black hole.

And if a black hole isn't dark like Halloween,

I don't know what is.

=)

Happy Halloween!!!!

xoxoxooxbb

*Probably a male in the genus Aphonopelma, Family Theraphosidae, native tarantulas in California, per nature.berkeley.edu. "Males are often seen wandering in search of females in the fall." Check!

again, an abandoned crop perseveres...

 

Varied hues are (if I remember correctly) due to a packet of mixed carrot types. Great for short-attention-span, color-greedy gardeners, in particular. =) Whomever that might include... these were tucked deep inside a corn forest.

Note how, despite the strong, clear lighting,
it takes a while to see the cat.

Genius cryptic design...

xobb

1st bean harvest (!), sleepy bees, and snuggly cats

 

First bean harvest of the year. Yay!!

 The bean teepee has turned into a bean jungle.

I've got beans in 2 other places, too.

Sleepy Bombus (yellow-faced bee, B. vosnesenskii, per my

previous bee ID adventure) warming in the sun

on pole bean leaves.
(This one's pretty sharp, so good for zooming...)

Another sleepy bee clinging to bean leaf, nicely hidden.

This one started grooming by the time I left,

apparently warming up. =)

My sophisticated bean basket.

Typically, I cradle the harvest in whatever shirt I'm wearing.

I was making fun of myself for doing this,
and my friend, who's an organic farmer,
said she does the same thing. Hooray! A professional.

Beans are sticky!

 Bowl o' beans = new smell for kitty.

Typically the kitties like to use them as chew toys.

The above cat selected one to his liking,

and being aware of this proclivity, I supplied our black,

napping kitty with his own, too,
laying it next to him on the cushion.

However, it's since been obscured by something stripey...

 Maybe the beans taste better warmed.

=)

bb

hazards of being a biologist and a foodie...

 
... just now I was listening to a food show and looking at biology blogs.

Right as I was staring at a big picture of a spider, Lynn Rosetto Casper says "Slice those babies up, fry 'em and eat 'em."

Before I knew it, the image of slabs of giant spiders plopping into a hot, oiled cast iron pan appears in my head.

oog...

And it's not even 7 a.m.


Hm, and now I've passed it on to you.

So... to make up for it, here's shots of TINY tiny turtles, one of which is 2 inches long and looks like a circular saw. SO CUTE!!!

=)

New Camera

And, FYI, I've tested our new little Nikon Coolpix (a.k.a. camera much easier to have with me in the field than my Nikon D50), and it seems to work like a charm.

The very first photo our camera takes: Scout on bb's lap.

Our little black kitty which the camera did NOT see to focus upon in the 1st 2 shots. A DARK cat. The 2nd attempt to focus, the camera put up a grid of rectangles to indicate the focused area, divided into two columns of three rectangles, and every rectangle EXCEPT the one on Bucky was highlighted.

He's our little invisible/silent assassin ninja kitty. =)

I like that picture 'cause he looks like a muppet.

So, this means I may be able to take some shots in the field next week and get them to you BEFORE the memory card for my cell phone (so many steps to get those photos OUT Of my phone!) arrives in the mail. =)

UPDATE on Mother Nature is Trying to Kill Me

There's a tiny chance of rain and I'm praying it happens: was again attacked by nature at the end of last week and again only got home thanks to allergy pills and nearly lethal amounts of coffee.

Eyes were FREAKY puffy and red yesterday morning, frightening poor Bear.

Spent yesterday getting symptoms to go away, staring out the window spaced out on allergy pills. AND washing my field clothes to get rid of the pollen.

I'm MUCH better today, tho' still scratching at red dots on wrists, some of which were from dropping to the ground to catch/rescue a small lizard and thus impaling my wrists on a bed of thistle... Oops. =)

Garden Update

K.

I have TODAY ONLY to plant ALL my garden plants

(tomatoes, peppers, basil).

Check out how CRAZY tall that one tomato plant got. Jeepers!

The rest of my garden will appear via seeds at a later date.

Just to freak you out (as it does me), a reminder:

bb's garden SEVEN DAYS AGO.

So, wish me luck! =)

You know, if you feel like it.

I've recently decided I don't like bossy blogs or tweets ("follow this person" "vote for my kitty in this photo contest" "put ur right foot in, put ur right foot out, put ur right foot in, and shake it all about").

For some reason my reflexive response to these is always  is "No!"

Even if it's "Go here and click on the SAVE ME button to become immortal, perfectly healthy for all time, and infinitely powerful and good."

No!

Maybe because I was the baby; kinda resistant to being bossed around.

  

=)

ANYhow, what's going on in your neck of the woods?

Any cool gardening/nature haps?

=)

xoxobb

P.S. Since I'm in true confession mode, I CANNOT take Facebook quizzes (which is a good thing) 'cause frequently the grammar is SO BAD it makes my head hurt. I'm sure if I was a bigger person, I could get past it, but I'm not really motivated to spend more time on Fb anyhow... How 'bout you? Any of your electronic media buttons getting pushed?

must forgive but you cannot miss this

 
if you don't tweet (or follow me) & I don't know you personally, there is a CHANCE you've missed this and you cannot.

This is what the internet is for.

bb

tabby cat keeps alligator in line...

 
Amazing.



bb

preview of garden update...

 

LOVE this picture of our kitty. I also love that the shadow of the veggies is like a kitty profile. Didn't notice that until I was processing the pictures. Garden update later. Have pressing deadlines. Happy Friday!

=)

cat safety message...

  
...from Hyperbole and a half (made me weep with laughter--still wiped out from it):

Allie Brosh / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

I think this is the fastest I ever "follow"-ed a blog; a RIOT.

(phew)

And a good ab workout.

(whoof!)

biobabbler

P.S. and how genius is the blog title?