Bugs at NAPWC

A curious jumping spider

She ain't ugly, shes my model. Spiders are all around us and in this dengue infested third world, we need more of them to kill mosquitoes.

There are some viviparous flies, which bring forth 2,000 young. These in a little time would fill the air, and like clouds intercept the rays of the sun, unless they were devoured by birds, spiders, and many other animals. 

— Carolus Linnaeus

Oeconomia Naturae, The Oeconomy of Nature. Trans Benjamin Stillingfleet, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Natural History

A protective mommy spider

Fangs 

The Curious Case of the Lynx Spider

The female Green Lynx Spider shows great parental care, protecting her eggs and later, when the egg sac hatches, guarding her young until the spiderlings can fend for themselves. Each egg sac contains 25 to 600 bright orange eggs, with an average of 200 eggs. The post-embryo remains in the egg sac, requiring 11 to 16 days to hatch.

Aptly named for their bright green body color and capability of running very fast, then jumping on its prey like a cat, Lynx Spiders are found on tall grass blades, meadows of wildflowers, especially on the heads of wild buckwheat. 

Lynx Spiders do not use a web to capture its prey. They are an effective—indiscriminate—predators of insects. The Green Lynx Spider preys on beneficial bugs like butterflies, honeybees, pollinating flies wasps and other nectaring insects, including many that are larger than itself. Yet, the Green Lynx Spider is of interest because of its potential use in agricultural pest management and is considered an important predator of crop-damaging insects such as harmful caterpillars.

The spider can be easily be identified by the very long spines on their legs and their eye setting. Their abdomen is like a pencil ending in a point. The size of these spiders is between 4 and 10 mm

Although their eyesight is not as good as that of the jumping spiders they can see their prey from a distance of up to 10 centimeters. They have two large front eyes besides a smaller pair, two on the side of their head and two large ones looking above and backward giving them an almost 360 degree view

Although Green Lynx Spiders aggressively attack its insect prey, they very seldom bite humans. Females can and will bite in defense, especially when guarding egg sacs. However, their bite is generally asymptomatic, only slightly painful, with a little inflammation. They are considered medically harmless.

Yum

Mantissa

A nymph enjoying a kiddie meal 

This is a mantis. Two or more of these insects are called mantids. The word "mantis" comes from the Greek word meaning prophet. Mantids have a sensitive compound eye on each side of their head that can detect movement up to 60 feet away and allows them to estimate distances accurately.They are the only insects that can turn their heads a full 180 degrees, and some species can turn almost 300 degrees without moving the rest of their bodies. For most people it's still pretty novel to see a praying mantis up close, and they are strangely beautiful even as they are really odd-looking. If you happen to see one while it's hunting, it's an unforgettable sight.

A head turner! They are the only insects that can turn their heads a full 180 degrees, and some species can turn almost 300 degrees without moving the rest of their bodies. 

They eat all kinds of bugs even their siblings

An interesting fact regarding this insect is that, while they are mating, the female praying mantis eats the males head. No one knows for sure why, but it could be that protein from male body helps the eggs develop.

The praying mantis is actually more closely related to the cockroach than to grasshoppers!

In most mantids there is one ear in a form of a small slit near the legs and has two eardrums and tuned to25-60 kHz, which allows them to hear the ultrasonic sounds of bats as they near so they can dodge them quickly.

In Turkish and Arab cultures, the praying mantis is considered to be pointing to their religious center, Mecca.

In French culture, the praying mantis can supposedly guide a lost child home.
 In China, roasted praying mantis eggs were eaten to treat bedwetting!

 

 

Some Gems I Found Last Weekend

“The way a child discovers the world constantly replicates the way science began. You start to notice what's around you, and you get very curious about how things work. How things interrelate. It's as simple as seeing a bug that intrigues you. You want to know where it goes at night; who its friends are; what it eats.” -David Cronenberg

Enjoy!

A furry moth

A damselfly not at all distressed.

My playground in a droplet

Crouching Spider and the Hidden Dragon (fly)

Spotted yet again by my nephew Kyle sitting on the right side view mirror. Spider sense told this lil fella to move up the roof so I can take a better picture

From the roof  it settled on the windshield wheres theres some catchlight.

Just like in badminton and scuba diving, I have made so many friends from the wonderful world of photography. The gifted photographers are usually the silent yet friendly type, eager to share tips and techniques without sounding like a know-it-all because their words are supported by their incredible works or art. And there are those who flaunt their long lenses and love to techno blabber about F stops, 12 or 14 Bit RAW files, ready to start a Canon vs. Nikon holy war but their pictures are simply no good.

I also made a few CLOSE friends lately, and they have been modelling for me for 3 weekends now. Say hello to Michelle the jumping spider and Zhang the Dragonfly. Now these two darlings  know that they are being photographed and they don't seem to mind my presence at all and in fact, they are getting better in giving me angles and by now, they know for sure the entire concept of making love to the camera.

I just hope they wont be eaten by a bird.

When we were kids, my brother and I would catch these dragonflies by the tail and throw them in the freezer for 5 minutes or so. We would eventually take our poor frozen captives out and thaw them with a flashlight (the long, stainless steel ones) and watch them move again. More often than not, they don't.

Our experiment did not progress outside dragonflies =)
There would be times when we would forget about putting one in the freezer only to be discovered by my mom a few days after, puzzled why the dragonfly ended up inside.

Flight Of The Hoverfly

The Hoverfly Eristalinus Megacephalus Click me to see my large Head  Understanding the physics of the hoverfly in flight could lead to advances in engineering and aerospace technology, especially in the area of developing so-called ‘smart’ or deformable wing designs for aircraft such as micro air vehicles. -- Adrian Thomas, Oxford University  Have you seen this guy move from points A to B, leaf to leaf and flower to flower? The hoverfly, especially this one ( Eristalinus punctulatus ) is one of my favorite subjects because they just FLY so well-- its like watching a computer generated inter galactic alien spaceship, dodge away puny heat-seeking missiles from Earth. During my bug shoots, I am the heat seeking missile clumsily zeroing-in on these aerobats. It's incredible how it can hover up, down, left, right and fly 'in corners" as though tracing a square pattern. Its wings are versatile and flexible it can twist through 45 degrees 300 times every second. Click me so you can see my spotted eyes  Click me so I can land on your nose  Another amazing factoid about hoverflies is that many species prey upon pest insects, including aphids and leafhoppers that spread diseases  and  destroy plants by munching and chomping on them. They are seen as a bio-controler; nature's own live pesticide effectively reducing the levels of destructive critters saving farmers and award winning gardeners a lot of money. Green thumbs use companion plants in their gardens like buckwheat, parsley and chamomile to lure these winged wonders to serve and protect plants and blossoms. So yes, yes, yes, that's a lot of good for the environment and to the advancement of aerospace technology.

Four Pairs of Eyes and Legs Plus Four Distinct Color Ranges

Click me to make me pop out of the screen

There are days when you hunt high and low for interesting buggies but no matter where you look, you end up with zero. But just as when I was about to give up, this little jumping spidey was spotted sitting on top of my car. It's an unusual hunting ground for this little fella who by nature is curious and inquisitive.

Because of their eyes, fur and fangs, jumping spiders are a staple for macro photographers. The four pairs of eyes are so unique, they're capable of seeing tetrachromatic colors. They can see four distinct color ranges instead of three that most humans live with.

Amazing amazing amazing. No wonder thats the adjective Marvel comics used for Spider-Man.

If you want to live and thrive, let the spider run alive.  ~American Quaker Saying