Dragonflies-Butterflies-Moths

There are three stages in the dragonfly life cycle – egg, nymph and the adult dragonfly. Today’s blog features dragonfly nymphs. They look absolutely alien! The eggs are laid in water and the nymphs live in the water only to come up on shore on a suitable day for the adult dragonfly to emerge and unfurls its beautiful translucent wings.  These photos were taken in June alongside a small creek and there were many nymphs on the grass in various stages of emergence.  It was quite fascinating to watch. It looked to be a struggle crawling out of the casing and took quite a while but, after freeing themselves of the nymph casing, the dragonfly would slowly unfurl its wings and then proceed to dry them before taking to flight.

Below: The empty nymph shells stuck to the side of a boathouse.

Enjoy!

~Sharon

I found this moth in my garden last summer. It is called a Polyphemus moth – a member of the silk moth family. It was an unsual find for me so naturally I took the opportunity to photograph it. The body was plump, soft and very “hairy” – about the size of a mouse’s body. The wings spanned about 6″ across.

Next, a macro shot head-on.  You can see how hairy it is in this photos.

Enjoy !

~Sharon

Dragonflies are good right? Yes – they eat those nasty summer pests while flitting about and seem to love sunning themselves. They have beautiful transluscent wings and come in a variety of sizes and colours.  Close up they are not so pretty . . . Today’s blog “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” features some close up photos of dragonflies dining on wasps and flies.

The photo above and photo below is of a Chalk-fronted Corporal.

Below:  Shadow Darner

Below:  Marsh Bluet – a small blue and black damselfly

NOW . . . for the UGLY.   Not really ugly or bad if you have an interest in spiders and such. They are very fascinating creatures if you stop and take a closer look.   This very large spider sighted on a dock.  Unfortunately you cannot get a feel for the size of the spider from the photo but I can tell you it measured about 5″ across from leg to leg. We just refer to them as dock spiders as I have always found them on docks in the midday sun. Most people I know have an aversion to spiders.  They won’t attack you but I do know they can  give a nasty bite and to people who are sensitive to any type of insect bite it can be painful, causing swelling and may require medical intervention.  One person I know of ended up in the hospital on an IV antibiotic drip from a spider bite. That is bad!

I believe this spider is known as the “dark fishing spider” of the family fishing/dock/nursery web spiders.

~Sharon