I love all the different colors and wing patterns.
This beauty is a Damselfly, not a dragonfly.
It is indeed an eat and be eaten world.
Praying mantis usually show up in the fall. This year is no exception. I can only hope she lays an egg case in my yard.
This interesting guy is a Hydrophilidae, a diving beetle also known as a water scavenger beetle. I found it in my little wading pond one morning. He is just under three inches long.
The red-belted bumblebee is one of my favorites. They are very calm and don't mind being stroked with a gentle finger.
I have a large number of Green Metallic Sweat Bees in my yard. Seriously good looking bee.
This was a first for me. It is a giant Ichneumonidae wasp. They paralyze spiders, dig a hole in the ground, put the spider in and lay an egg on it. Instant food for the larva. The wasp in this photo is over two inches long. Her ovipositor is over three inches long. It is long enough that is goes out of the photo in the upper left.
This has been a banner year for Monarch butterflies. It is fun to see them flourishing after the decline in their numbers for the last decade.
I've been learning a lot about butterflies this year. It is good to have field guides. This is a Pale Swallowtail.
This is in the Fritillary butterfly family.
During one of my birding trips I found a huge mud puddle that was covered with butterflies, from tiny skippers and several of these Black Admirals...
to the big yellow Swallowtails. ..
and a mass of White Sulfur Butterflies.
Often called a hummingbird moth, this is really a White-lined Sphinx. It is one of the main reasons I let thistle grow in my yard.
Now you've had a quick trip through some of my favorite insects that I've seen over the last couple months. Hope you have been out there admiring the six-footed wonders in your own yard.
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