Shoot First, Ask Questions Later

Shoot it with a camera or your phone, though. Yesterday I once again found myself grateful for having paid attention to something I could have easily dismissed. Nothing bad can ever come from taking a moment to take a second look, and recording that observation whenever possible.

© Gary Larson via Pinterest

As a volunteer expert on social media, I cannot count the times someone has begun their post in an insect identification group with "I don't have an image, but...." I am tempted to start replying "Well, I don't have an answer, but...." I would never do that. I enjoy a good mystery too much, and believe in rewarding curiosity and a desire to learn.

There is still no substitute for a clear image of the creature you would like identified, and increasingly there is no excuse. Smart phones can now take professional-grade images that only dedicated cameras could manage a few minutes ago. You are forgiven if you had other priorities at the time, like eating, being engaged in an important conversation, or in a business meeting, for example.

The situation I am referring to is when you are out observing wild things anyway, and you still decide not to bother recording something. This is a failure I am occasionally guilty of, too, but I am working to rectify it. It gets worse the more you think you know, the more you think you recognize a specimen without close inspection.

A male Variegated Meadowhawk dragonfly

Yesterday I visited the Pueblo Reservoir Wildlife Area west and north of Lake Pueblo State Park in Colorado, thanks to my friend Tim Leppek who has been there many times and knows the area well. As is our custom, we made scant horizontal progress over several hours of walking along the mostly dry basin and channel. Dragonflies were still in abundance, mostly meadowhawks in the genus Sympetrum, as they persist late into autumn.

A male Striped Meadowhawk dragonfly

One dragonfly stood out, its wings shimmering more brightly than the others. I almost dismissed it as a teneral specimen, one that had just recently emerged as an adult, with mature adult pigments yet to manifest themselves. It flew relatively weakly as well, which is also typical of newly-minted adult odonates. I took a picture anyway, in the harsh afternoon sun, then reviewed the image on my camera screen and reacted "what the..??" I looked up from my camera and the crystal phantom was nowhere to be seen.

Fast forward to after I returned home, and began looking in my dragonfly books. There were no obvious photo matches in any of them. The closest approach was a female Bleached Skimmer, Libellula composita, the name alone being most appropriate considering how bright the thing was in the field. Looking online I finally managed to find a couple of images of that species, and that gender, that did match.

The female Bleached Skimmer

The Bleached Skimmer is well known from southeast Colorado, with records from Weld, Kiowa, Prowers, Bent, and Pueblo counties. The first specimen dates to July 11, 1991 in Lincoln County. The one from yesterday may represent the latest date for the species in Colorado, but I'll have to check with all the relevant authorities to know for sure.

Think about what you might be overlooking, and look again. Devote a few pixels to it. Share it. Maybe it is something common and well known in your area. There is no shame in redundancy if that is the case. Eventually, something you spot won't be common or well known, at least in your location, and your observation will be greeted with great appreciation by the scientific community.

Happy Holidays and What Lies Ahead

Work, work, activism. That is what Bug Eric has been up to lately, and mostly what the immediate future holds in store. I just added a new page to this blog, though, and can share with you some upcoming events near and far that you might want to be aware of in 2019. Happy New Year!

Guava Skipper from Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas, demonstrating the "rule of thirds" in photography

My good friend Nancy Miorelli created a wonderful handout on how to take great images of insects and arachnids with your smartphone. You can find that document under the tab above, entitled "Take Great Bug Pics." Many of the tips she gives also apply to photography in general, so please check it out. Nancy is an outstanding science communicator, gifted artist, and tour guide if you ever want to visit her in Ecuador.

Specimens awaiting my attention....

Right now I am busy identifying all manner of arthropods, from insects to spiders to millipedes and woodlice and amphipods from pitfall trap samples taken in Miami, Florida. This is part of a nationwide project funded by a National Science Foundation grant and there are more stakeholders than I can count. Once the results are compiled, I'll let you know the outcome. Meanwhile, what are snails doing in here....

You'll only see the Mexican Bluewing along the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas

The continuing saga of the border wall, especially in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, is a nightmare for those of us who value not only the rights of global citizens to seek asylum from violence and abuse in their countries of origin, but for the wildlife and ecology of this unique region. The National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas has become the center of the storm, both figuratively and literally. I urge you to visit their website to understand what is at stake, and to see updates to the travesty that is unfolding and how you can act to stop it. This has ceased to be about politics and has become a situation of wanton destruction and abuse of power.

A lovely native sweat bee, Agapostemon sp.

Locally, the Mile High Bug Club just announced the formation of a chapter in Denver, Colorado (club headquarters are in Colorado Springs). Mark your calendars for the kickoff, on Sunday, February 10, at 6 PM (to 8 PM), at Highlands Event Center, 3401 W. 29th Ave., Denver, 80211. Chapter founder Ryan Bartlett will be giving a presentation on native bees for your entertainment and education. Watch this blog for announcements of other events, including a behind-the-scenes visit to the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster.

Buprestis langii, a type of jewel beetle

I will be giving a presentation about "Colorful Colorado....Beetles!" for the Aiken Audubon Society at Bear Creek Nature Center in Colorado Springs on Wednesday, March 20, 2019, 7-9 PM. This should be a nice preview for the Mile High Bug Club's annual tiger beetle hunt, which usually takes place in April at Lake Pueblo State Park, dates and times to be announced.

Pleasing Fungus Beetles

Additionally, Denver, Boulder, Ft. Collins, Golden, and Colorado Springs are participating in the 2019 City Nature Challenge. The event is like a bioblitz, with participating individuals taking images of plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms April 26-29, and then uploading the observations to iNaturalist where experts will help identify them, April 30-May 5. The event started several years ago as a challenge between Los Angeles and San Francisco and has now grown to a global scale. Check the website to find out if your city is participating.

Birds are ok....except when they eat the bugs!

The Pikes Peak Birding and Nature Festival will celebrate its fifth anniversary from Friday evening, May 17-Sunday afternoon, May 19. Please consider attending to visit some of our more spectacular natural wonders, view local specialties like Black-billed Magpie,and check out the blacklighting for moths, presented by Mile High Bug Club. MHBC will also have a table at the "Birds and Brews" social event Saturday night, May 18. All field trips will originate in Colorado Springs.

Come "mothing" with Mile High Bug Club© Amanda Accamando

The Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History will be hosting its ever-popular Bug Fair, also the weekend of May 18-19. The museum regularly breaks attendance records with this shindig. I may make an appearance to sign copies of Insects Did it First and the Kaufman field guide, as well as promote Mile High Bug Club to a larger audience. It is well worth the visit despite the crowds. One year I met Dominic Monaghan of Lost fame. You never know who you might run into....

White Peacock butterfly from Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas

I will try and resolve to put up more posts here in 2019 than I did in 2018, but I make no promises. What are your resolutions for the new year? I hope they include continuing to explore, be it a new state, province, or country, or even a local park or your backyard. There are so many discoveries still awaiting us. You might be the one to find something new or shed new light on the familiar.

"Arach" is Back!

One of the things I look forward to each autumn is the annual Flickr event known as "Arachtober". It is a Flickr group which slumbers between November and the following September, but remains a tradition among arachnophiles and macro photographers. There are always mesmerizing images posted from all corners of the globe.

Marbled Orbweaver, Kansas

Arachtober manages to recruit several new participants each year through word of mouth, blogs, and sheer curiosity. Not only spiders, but scorpions, ticks, mites, harvestmen, and all other arachnids are eligible for inclusion. Don't forget the artistry of spider webs, too, whether dew-adorned or dry.

Apache Jumping Spider male, Colorado

The only hard and fast rule of Arachtober is that the images you post to the group must not have appeared on your own Flickr photostream previously. Allowed quantity of images per day varies at the discretion of the group administrator.

Banded Garden Spider female, Colorado

Overall, interest in spiders seems to be increasing among the general public, and arachnids are achieving a much higher profile than ever before. This is great news, for there is still a great deal of work to be done to combat myth, superstition, misinformation, and fear.

Wolf spider, Alopecosa sp., Colorado

Please consider contributing to "Arachtober" on Flickr, or find another way to dedicate some time to sharing your spider observations, questions, or images. There are many groups on Facebook devoted to spiders and their identification, for example; and presumably, the same applies to Instagram. There is much you can contribute to our collective knowledge by doing so. Thank you.

Return of "Arachtober!"

Like your favorite horror movie trilogy, sequel, or whatever, Flickr's group "Arachtober" returns with a vengeance(?) this month. It has become an annual treat for arachnophiles and macro photographers, but perhaps a cruel trick on arachnophobes.

Female Philodromus sp. guarding egg sac

This year's edition has special meaning for me because I have been contracted to write a new field guide to U.S. spiders for Princeton University Press. I am also responsible for furnishing images, despite having a small budget for image acquisition. Preceding authors of Princeton guides have set a high standard for image quality, and I feel an obligation to publish the best photos I can get my hands on.

Web of Labyrinth Spider, Metepeira sp.

Arachtober manages to recruit several new participants each year through word of mouth, blogs, and sheer curiosity. Not only spiders, but scorpions, ticks, mites, harvestmen, and all other arachnids are eligible for inclusion. The only hard and fast rule is that the image you post to the group must not have appeared on your own Flickr photostream previously.

Female Southern Black Widow, Latrodectus mactans

Overall, interest in spiders seems to be increasing among the general public. Judging by the many new groups that have been created on Facebook, turnouts at special exhibits like "Eight-legged Encounters," new blogs, and other indications, arachnids are achieving a much higher profile than ever before. This is great news, for there is still a great deal of work to be done to combat myth, superstition, misinformation, and fear.

Male jumping spider, Hentzia palmarum

Please consider contributing to "Arachtober" on Flickr, or find another way to dedicate some time to sharing your spider observations, questions, or images. There is much you can contribute to our collective knowledge by doing so.

When "Arachtober" Attacks!

October is one of my favorite months, made all the sweeter in the last three years because I have participated in the “Arachtober” group on Flickr.

Many folks who photograph insects and other small animals save the spider images they have accrued over the year to share with the Arachtober pool. This is because one of the few rules of the group is that you post only those images that have not appeared on your Flickr photostream previously. It is worth the wait.

Sometimes, participants forget that there are other arachnids besides spiders: mites, ticks, scorpions, whipscorpions, pseudoscorpions, harvestmen, and others. A few members of the group actually find things like ticks to be too disgusting to embrace even in the artistic sense. A few scorpions and “daddy long-legs” pictures will still manage to appear, though.

The biggest challenge to Arachtober’s popularity this year may be the graphic changes brought to Flickr as a whole by its new owner, Yahoo!. Fewer people view my own photostream any more because of the new format that has rendered Flickr just a shadow of its former clean, aesthetic past. The initial outrage demonstrated by the Flickr faithful has either faded, been completely ignored by Yahoo!, or both. The future of photosharing may be Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram, but mobile devices really don’t do quality images justice.

All the same, I invite you not only to follow Arachtober daily, but to participate as well by sharing your own images of all things eight-legged. Thank you.

Spider Sunday: "Arachtober" is B-a-a-a-a-a-ck!

Just like the sequel to your favorite horror movie, the Flickr group ”Arachtober” is back tomorrow to feature still more “scary” spider, scorpions, solifuges, and other arachnids.

The group gets bigger and better every year as more people register (free and easy), putting up at least one arachnid image per day. The only requirement of note is that you post images that you have not previously added to your own Flickr photo stream.

I have been saving up all my 2012 spider images for just this occasion, though I have used some of them in this blog. Here’s a preview of what I’ll be adding to Arachtober in the coming weeks:

Ground spider, Zelotes sp. (family Gnaphosidae)

Funnel-web weaver, family Agelenidae

Spinybacked Orbweaver, Gasteracantha cancriformis

Western Lynx Spider, Oxyopes scalaris

Thin-legged wolf spider, Pardosa sp.

Jumping spider, Habronattus sp.

I look forward to seeing your images over there as well. There are enough arachnid experts that contribute that we can probably identify any of your “mystery” spiders as well. Good luck!

Spider Sunday: Arachtober, 2011

It seems like only yesterday that I announced the annual Flickr photo group ”Arachtober” at my other blog, Sense of Misplaced. Well, it is that time of year again, and this year’s edition of the online event is poised to be the best ever.

One needs to have a Flickr account to join the Arachtober group. Then, you must be approved by the group administrator, though this is usually only a formality. Right now, group members can only post one image of a spider, scorpion, or other arachnid per day. Later in the month the limit will increase. The images you contribute should not be ones posted to your Flickr page in previous months.

The fact that Arachtober falls in the same month as Halloween is no coincidence, but the goal of Arachtober is to celebrate the diversity, beauty, and positive impact of our arachnid friends. It is a perfect antidote to haunted house cobwebs and scary fake spider decorations.

Once again I encourage all my arthropod-loving photographer friends to share their favorite images with an audience of other arachnophiles. Please see the above link to my original post for more information on the origin of the event. Thank you.

Insect Photography Contests (Hurry!)

I am entering a couple of insect photography contests and I wanted to let the rest of you know about them while there is still time. Not that I want the competition, mind you, but there are some very talented photographers out there and I would love for them to have their images seen more widely, too.

The first one is not really a contest, but the Entomological Society of America produces a calendar every year, and they always solicit images for it. Here are the entry rules. Note that you only have until May 16 to submit images.

The next one I am entering is more local. The “Pollinators in Action” digital photography contest is sponsored by Tohono Chul Park in northwest Tucson, in collaboration with the Pollinator Partnership, Bat Conservation International, and the Tucson Audubon Society. The subjects of the images must be species found within the state of Arizona. The contest is a celebration of National Pollinator Week, June 20-26, 2011. The entry deadline for this one is June 1, 2011.

I know I would enjoy hearing about more such competitions myself, so please share any that you are aware of. Start your own for that matter. Artistic photography goes a long way toward educating people about the value of invertebrates by showing just how beautiful and industrious those creatures are. Good luck!

Caught on the Wing

In the nearly two years I have been taking digital images of insects, I have managed to capture, largely be accident, a few insects in flight. The resulting images reveal that insects are far from fragile, but definitely agile.

For every shot I get of an insect winging its way out of the picture frame, I get at least as many of flower without fly, or rock without wasp, the perches long since vacated by the insects, if that only means by a millisecond. And that happens when I’m trying to capture an image of a stationary insect!

unidentified fly

I can’t imagine trying to capture insects in flight on purpose, but that is exactly what some photographers have been able to do regularly. Stephen Dalton, and English naturalist and photographer, was perhaps the first to successfully document different insects in flight. His book Borne on the Wind (Reader’s Digest Press, 1975) remains a classic. Another Englishman, Dr. John Brakenbury, published Insects in Flight in 1992 (Blandford, a Cassell Imprint). Both men achieved their success under largely controlled circumstances, rather than outdoors in “the wild.” Still, the resulting images are breathtaking, and highly informative about the physics of insect flight.

I’m happy to simply communicate the fact that some insects *can* fly. Many people are unaware that most beetles can fly, so having an image like this one of a blister beetle (Lytta auriculata) taking off is helpful in illustrating that beneath its wing covers a beetle has membranous wings it uses to fly.

Sometimes I can even capture courtship behavior, like between these two Golden Longwing butterflies, Heliconius hecale, native to Central America but performing locally in “Butterfly Magic” at the Tucson Botanical Gardens.

Here, the male is making hovering overtures to a female that is unreceptive. She signals this by essentially mooning him. Yeah, I used to get that a lot, too, dude….

Most of the time, I get images of insects arriving at, or departing from, a flower, or other perch. Here are a few examples:

Eumenes bollii potter waspVilla bee flyAmmophila thread-waisted wasp

Insects are the undisputed evolutionary pioneers of animal flight, so it should come as no surprise that they are masters of aerial maneuvering, speed (at least for their size), and durability. Even the butterflies banging their way around indoor butterfly exhibits are barely slowed down despite what one might consider devastating damage to their wings.

We stand to prosper by continuing research into insect flight. How can a dragonfly manufacture turbulence, something deadly to a fixed-winged aircraft, and then use that turbulence to generate lift? Imagine the possibilities if we could duplicate the intricacies of insect wing movements in our own planes and helicopters. Maybe we, ourselves, could ultimately float like a butterfly….

Sleepy Orange, Eurema nicippe

It's "Arachtober!"

Please check out this post at my "Sense of Misplaced" blog. Thanks!

Flickr Photostream

I admit I might be cheating a little, but today I am re-directing you to my Flickr Photostream for some eye candy. Each of the new images there includes a little bit of information about the creature depicted, and/or the circumstances under which it was imaged. Hope you enjoy. I'll be back soon with additional posts.

"Bee-Bop"

When photographing normally active, fast-moving insects like bees, it often pays to catch them when they pause to groom themselves. On March 1, while retrieving the mail, I discovered this exhausted worker honeybee on the steps of my apartment building. She gave me a great opportunity to get some nice close-ups while she cleaned herself.

Another advantage to shooting images of grooming insects is that the creature often displays features of its anatomy not normally visible when it is simply resting, or going about its regular business of pollinating, eating, mating, or transporting itself. For example, a bee’s abdomen is usually concealed by the wings folded over its back at rest. As she shifted her weight to allow her to rub her hind legs together, this worker revealed her abdominal pattern.

The little dance she was doing was cute and amusing to me, but all business to her. Bees, both social and solitary, easily become gummed up in residual nectar and other floral exudates, or damp soil that adheres to their bodies in the course of excavating a nest burrow. “Setae,” the sensitive body hairs that aid a bee in navigating its environment, must be kept free of such debris in order to function properly.

It might look here like the bee is insulting me by sticking out its “tongue,” but her mouthparts need to be kept clean as well. While bees have chewing mouthparts, they also have highly modified segments, some of them fused into a tongue-like appendage that lets them lap up nectar.

This bee eventually re-energized, and redeemed herself by giving me a respectful salute before flying off to resume pollinating flowers and/or scouting for a new nest site.

Leigh Anne DelRay

I recently met a person so exceptional that she deserves to be featured in both of my blogs, just to make sure you can’t avoid getting to know her. We met via (what else) the Bugguide.net website where she has started submitting images. While she is a certified animal enthusiast, from the feathered and two-legged to the hairy and eight-legged, her passion for life and art is contagious.

Leigh Anne has endured serious tragedy and drama in her life, but you wouldn’t know it from her affectionate, sunny disposition and creative and intuitive personality. She has a way of turning her experiences into a shared tapestry through her evocative photography skills and choice of subjects. Many of her images literally bring me to tears, but Leigh Anne recognizes the power of imagery and uses it to remind us that places, people, and stories are worth knowing, if only briefly.

One of Leigh Anne’s favorite pursuits is hunting meteorites. It has been a real education for me to learn just how popular a “hobby” this is, and the great value, both scientific and monetary, that is attached to “space rocks.” She recently invited me to a party at her employer’s house to watch the television debut of Meteorite Men, featuring her boss, Geoff Notkin, and his teammate Steve Arnold. Who knew Kansas was such a mecca for meteorites? About 30-40 friends of Geoff’s were packed into his living room, riveted to the TV screen, tuned to the Discovery Science Channel. A fun time was had by all, and I thank Leigh Anne for continuing to introduce me to more fascinating people. I’m not the most sociable sort, but she may change that.

Leigh Anne is well-traveled, too, and embraces all that a given location has to offer. While she was in Los Angeles she successfully auditioned as an extra in several films and popular television shows. For example, she was a patient with a broken leg on an episode of ER, and stood in line behind leading man Kevin Costner in the airport scene in the movie Dragonfly (alas she was left on the cutting room floor in that one). That kind of spontaneity speaks to her adventurous nature.

I should really let Leigh Anne’s work speak for itself, so I encourage you to visit her website, Callisto Images, and see if you, too, are not moved by her profound vision, the intimacy of her subjects, and the playfulness that she expresses. Thank you, Leigh Anne, for helping me re-awaken to the depth of life around us, and reminding me to “live in the moment.” Oh, and lest one get the wrong impression, Leigh Anne is with another wonderful gentleman who is a gifted woodworker and a caring, upstanding individual in his own right.

Advantage: Photography

This month I took up digital photography. That may be an overstatement. I know nothing about photography period. I wanted to blog, though, and images help to make a blog visually appealing and successful in attracting a readership. A friend was encouraging, to the point of lending me her PowerShot SD1000, one of the subcompact “Elph” series that Canon puts out. I am amazed by what close-up capabilities the tiny camera has, and how easy it is to take a reasonably good image. I had been collecting insect specimens up until now, but looking at things through a camera lens (or at least the LED screen) has been perhaps even more rewarding.

I got to thinking that there is much more of an advantage to taking images rather than specimens:

• You don’t need permits to take images.
• You can take images of wildlife and people (you can’t “collect” those!).
• Storage of images takes a lot less room than storage of an insect collection.
• It takes less time to prepare an image than a specimen (that may change as I get more sophisticated).
• You can share images (I can’t pin an insect specimen to my blog).
• Photography makes you more observant.
• Images of living organisms are more colorful and robust than faded, withered dead specimens.
• You can record behaviors in a photograph.
• You can record habitat in an image.
• Carpet beetle larvae can’t eat my hard drive.

I decided that while I was enjoying my friend’s camera, I needed to get one of my own. Boy, did I ever get a lot of advice on that decision! Well, I did ask for it. Some photographer friends recommended getting a used, refurbished DSLR and a versatile lens, the equivalent of “old” 35 millimeter cameras. Others endorsed their own tried-and-true equipment of the point and shoot variety. Given my budget restraints, and lack of experience with cameras, I opted for a Canon SX10, a “super zoom” model that gives me the option of manual controls and settings when I get to the point of understanding them.

I highly recommend taking up photography in the digital age. It is easy, fun, as cheap or expensive as you want to make it, and very rewarding. Don’t get me wrong, there is still a need for scientific collecting of actual specimens. I feel I have largely done my share of that for my lifetime, and I now look forward to contributing to the brotherhood of naturalists and biophiles as well as the scientific community.