My Nerdish Side Comes Out
Dragonfly
It occurs to me that an awful lot of what happens in a garden involves insects and spiders. Because of that I have spent an unusual amount of time watching and photographing them this month.
If you’d like to see a gallery of the results of this please take a look at Insect Portraits.
I find that observing behavior is as fascinating whether it’s children playing in a park or dueling insects on my broccoli plants. Creating environmental portraits in both situations is a challenge I’ve always been prepared to take on. Both require some patience, a little knowledge and good light – just like gardening.
5 Responses to “My Nerdish Side Comes Out”
again, the black and white shots come out looking incredibly rich!
one tiny correction that i discovered this morning while reading “the strange lives of familiar insects”. the wasps are not actually eating the cabbage worms, but much like a bird, chewing it up so they can bring the mush back to their larvae waiting in the paper nests. apparently whenever they go after other insects, this is what they are doing. maybe you knew, but i hadn’t realized this.
You are right about that, Jesse! Thanks for the correction. I had read that about the wasps but not knowing which types of wasps some of these are I defaulted to “eating” in the description. My Audubon insect book notes that some wasps and hornets “…perhaps eat other insects. Larva feeds on insects pre-chewed by adults.” All I know for sure is that these guys continue to patrol my garden and keep it pretty much clean of insects that want to eat my plants.
that is one of the big benefits edwin teale says about them…. also i have to remember that this book was written in 1962. there are a few things i have read in it that i know to be incorrect these days. or many things that he claims were not understood then, are more understood now. so perhaps this applies in this case.
You got my curiosity up by referencing Edwin Teale. I did a search and boy, is there a lot of interesting stuff about him!