Tiny Little Life

This mantis is a beauty.
I found it under a street light, where it regarded me with a noticeable lack of fear while I snapped pictures.
It was about the length of my middle finger.

It was still enough that I could take pictures with the necessary 1.3″ shutter and not worry about it […]

Today, this Prionyx wasp made a halfhearted attempt at burying this grasshopper. Read on for many, many pictures.

You might have noticed that this grasshopper’s antenna seem a bit shorter than usual. Also, it seems to be far from any grass and in no hurry to go anywhere. It’s just sitting.

That’s probably because […]

This field cricket was reclining on my backpack.

The Panasonic Lumix’s CCD just can’t match Canon’s. Of course, the prices reflect that in reverse.
More sweet shots of greenbottle flies and bumblebees after the break.

Lily with bumblebee.

Bumblebee in lily.

I judge the quality of a camera by how well it can pick up the details of greenbottle flies.

Note the wings, hairs, and dimples on […]

This dung fly was sitting around my compost bin. No surprises there, I guess.
Shots like this make me realize how crappy my camera’s CCD is.

The antennae on this moth are really cool. Found near a mountain stream on the Appalachian Trail.

This is probably my best shot of a bee yet. It was in full sunlight and didn’t mind me taking an extreme closeup. Oddly, I was on a boat about a half mile from shore.

Found this camel cricket at a friend’s house, living in the dark in a small square hole covered by a piece of plywood in the backyard.

This bee was making no attempt to visit every single flower on this plant. It just took a random walk around and flew off.

“AAAgh, my back … it’s so itchy!”

This is the largest daring jumping spider I’ve ever seen, and in the time between when I first spotted it and when I got the picture, it managed to catch an even larger Katydid.
This is a fresh kill you’re looking at.