I can't resist bugs (+ herps + quiz answer & winners + bb gets a name)

It is not my GOAL to constantly take and share photos of bugs.

crab spider on zinnia

Esp. bugs on flowers.

crab spider crop

tiny flight toward cleome

But, it just keeps happening...

tidy flyer

a  honey of a tummy

another TINY crab spider, on cleome bud

itty-bitty crab spider Eric Eaton (@bugeric) ID'd for me

bee dip

 Of course, there are other things in the garden that I like...

Sierran treefrog (Pseudacris sierra)

and wandering around the property,

young, beautiful Pacific gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer catenifer)

morning, noon, and night...

one of our local black-tailed jackrabbits (Lepus californicus)

but, I keep coming back to the bugs.

Guess we'll all just have to suffer.

[By the way: if you wanna see photos sooner or more frequently, you could follow me on twitter @biobabbler,  or if you want photos & less blather, check out my tumblr account xoxo]

****************

Quiz Winners!!!

Sue and Diana Studer NAILED it.
You two have my never ending respect. =)

WOO-HOO!!!

The word was: haconechloa.

Pronounced hawk-in-uh-cloh-uh,
rhymes with walk in the snow, duh.

It's a deciduous perennial grass used in gardening/landscaping, native to Japan.

Photo by and (c)2006 Derek Ramsey. Location credit to the Chanticleer Garden.
Obtained via Wikipedia.

I'd heard it listening to the Good Enough Gardening podcast.
I listen to them over & over;
they keep me company as I putter in the garden
or do chores in the house.

Apparently, that word got in, and required explanation.


So, enough about the GENIUSES who got it right:
now, for the GENIUSES who guessed wildly.

I'd HEARTILY encourage you to read the
MYRIAD, super entertaining guesses you creative people came up with.

*happy sigh*

Love when y'all go there. =) You rock.


Thanks EVERYONE for participating
and just generally being your cool selves.

xoxobb

p.s. Navel Gazing: I now call myself Samantha Biobabbler on twitter, 'cause why not have SOME real name, right? I'm not really anonymous for any particular reason, so, there ya go.

Ka POW! Bush katydid nymph ROCKS the fashion world

I THINK it is a bush katydid nymph, at least...

Either way, this creature was WORKIN' it

in our garden, this a.m., on a Coreopsis flower.

First thing in the morning?

You've gotta respect that.

xobb

(It's Macro Monday, baby.)

Super stylish spined assassin bug on Coreopsis

Actually figured out what this puppy is--hooray!

Spined assassin bug, Pselliopus spinicollis.

So pretty and sparkly-looking w/all those light bands on the legs & wing edges.

And in this pose you can see the tiny front feet, a bit.

It moved very slowly, apparently they hang out at flowers, etc.,

to find and grab prey w/their forearms, sort of mantid style,

so sayeth (more or less) California Insects by Jerry A. Powell and Charles L. Hogue.

And this weekend while at the San Francisco Ferry Building farmer's market,

I asked a flower vendor what some flowers were, and she said Coreopsis.

So now I know what all the flowers are that I've been posting.

FYI, there's a bug that looks a lot like this one,

the western corsair, that, according to Powell and Hogue,

has a bite that is more painful that most other bugs around.

My motto: When in doubt, photograph, and politely back slowly away. =)

xoxobb

flowers & bugs quickie

Am working. But here are some cuties fm. the garden. Enjoy!

Crab spider casting a shadow.

I can't get OVER the degree to which it matches the flower. ROCKS!

Kinda blurry, but cool little wolf-y spider?

Don't know WHAT this is, but shot it 'cause looked like a mosquito

(in person, now I see GIANT eyes) that was methodically stabbing

the tiny flower tubes for nectar (I presume).

Seen this moth on these flowers 2 separate days,

so clearly loves them. Notice TINY yellow on antennae tips,

nice work coordinating w/the flower.

I. love. bugs.

xoxobb

wildlife commute, t-peas & backyard bloomers

Morning commuters

Evening traffic

In the above, the bobcat was eyeing my 2 white hens.
Needless to say, I changed its mind re: what to eat.

Next time I saw it (about 1 hr later), it had other prey in mind. Yay!

Kitty (-like).

Not kitty-like. Giant eye-spots!

And off he goes!

Gorgeous. Can you imagine looking THAT GOOD naked?!? Wow.


T-pea

Gently plunked handfuls of been-soaking-3-days
sugar snap peas into the garden, yesterday.

This crop is nerve-wracking.

Everybody & their uncle LOVES to eat baby peas.

So, I covered the peas w/dirt, dried pine needles, dusty weeds,  

rusty chicken wire, and brainwaves of protection.

Hoping maybe 2 dozen baby pea plants survive to clamber skyward.

ALSO hoping that, like the last time I made a legume t-pea,

said cone-o'-plant will host a bird nest!


Backyard wildflowers

 Baby blue-eyes (Nemophila menziesii) are a favorite native wildflower of mine.
Jepson eFlora says that "Nemo·phila" derives from Greek for "woodland-loving."
How sweet.

 I love the tiny stamen (= white filaments + dark anthers*) shadows.

The above bugs ADORE these flowers.

Now go back up to the 1st flower shot.
See? Take your eye back a few inches & that bug is WAY hard to see.
Petals save lives.**

Okay. I owed you an update.
Busy this time of year.
Going out today and tomorrow and maybe tomorrow and def. next weekend.
As in outside.

Hope to see you out there!!
Please feel free to share any outings you've had or will have;
I think it all inspires people to get out more.

xoxobb

*omg, a botanical mystery novel title: Dark Anthers. You heard it here, first! It's MINE.
** a botanically or bicycle-y themed safety message. Pedals or petals save lives. Also mine. =)

lunch, courtesy of ma nature and a seed catalogue...

 

Note the pollen ALL over this pup. Gorgeous thing, though.

Washed lettuce wrapped in thin, cotton kitchen towel.

Then I go outside (learned this the hard way)

and make like a windmill, SWINGING my arm in a circle,

water SPRAYS all over, and lettuce dries.

Major bonus: NO storage space required for this 

salad swinging technique. Nor plastic.

 Clean and dry. Isn't that all we really want? =)

Lunch. Usually has goat cheese, but out, today. Still tasty!

So, little bitta garden, some organic action, some exercise, pretty colors,

it's all good.

And what did you have for lunch, yesterday?

xoxobb

ps posting from the road, so we'll see how often this haps. xoxo

wow. If aphids ever did you wrong...

 
Got this from Curbstone Valley Farm's post on the (I think) beautiful syrphid flies. They are friends to organic gardens as their larvae dearly love to eat aphids. For example:



Not bad, for a creature with no arms...

=)

biobabbler