Posts Tagged: flame
Why That Ol' Flame Stakes Out the Back Yard
Sometimes the red flameskimmer dragonfly (Libellula saturata) will let you approach it. Sometimes it's having a bad hair day or a bad predator/prey day or a just-leave-me-alone day and won't let you near it. This one (below) let me approach it. "Hey," I told my new flame, "I'm not going to hurt...
Red flameskimmer dragonfly (Libellula saturata) perches on a bamboo stake. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Hmm, is this my best side? Red flameskimmer dragonfly (Libellula saturata) perching on a bamboo stake. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The red flameskimmer dragonfly (Libellula saturata) tries a new position. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Late afternoon sun sets the red flameskimmer aglow. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Buggy New Year!
It's a buggy new year! One of the fascinating things about beginning the new year is the Entomological Society of America's "World of Insects" calendar. Amazing images of insects (and one spider!) jump out at you. One of my favorites is a black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens, an image captured by...
This photo of a black soldier fly, by Jena Johnson, is "Mr. October" in the ESA calendar. (Photo by Jena Johnson, used with permission)
The ESA calendar cover features this clown grasshopper by Francisco Lopez-Machado of Cali, Colombia. (Photo courtesy of ESA)
"Mr. December" in the ESA calendar is this image of a flameskimmer dragonfly, taken by Kathy Keatley Garvey of UC Davis.
Don't You Just Love Those Dragonflies?
Don't you just love those dragonflies? We watch them circle our fish pond, grab flying insects in mid-air, and then touch down on a bamboo stake in our yard to eat them. Some dragonflies stay for hours; others for what seems like half a second. Some let you walk up to them and touch them. Others...
Red flame skimmer or firecracker skimmer (Libellula saturata). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Variegated meadowhawk (Sympetrum corruptum). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Widow skimmer (Libellula luctuosa). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Red-veined meadowhawk (Sympetrium madidum). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Thankful for Insects
Of the many things I'm thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day, I am thankful for the millions of insects that populate our planet. Scientists have described more than a million species, but there may be 10 million more undescribed. I am thankful for honey bees. There is no more comforting sound on...
A honey bee heading for a tower of jewels, Echium wildpretii. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Western tiger swallowtail on a Mexican sunflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A flame skimmer dragonfly at rest. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Up Close and Personal with a Female Flame Skimmer
What a beauty. But not nearly as striking as her male counterpart. The flame skimmer dragonfly (Libellula saturata) owned a perch on a bamboo stake last Tuesday in residential Davis. Davis resident Gary Zamzow, a dynamite insect photographer (especially bumble bees), pointed his Pentax...
A female flame skimmer. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Female flame skimmer being photographed with the camera of Gary Zamzow. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)