What strange little insects, that looked like miniature beetles with longish snouts. Turns out, that's more or less the definition of weevils.
These are in the subfamily Baridinae, probably Odontocorynus scutellumalbum. What a mouthful of a name! It may change though, because according to Wiki, "the higher classification of weevils is in a state of flux". I imagine it's an exciting time for entomologists.
Several were feeding on Rudbeckia. Not being familiar with weevils yet, I'd temporarily named the photo files "besbug" as shorthand for black-eyed-susan-bug. It started me thinking, what if people were as interested in insects as in electronics. When showing off your creepy-crawlies, you could tell your friends that you got a really good deal at BestBug.
Anyway, I found another one on a daisy.
I didn't notice until processing the photos back home, that there was something sinister lurking below.
Eek! I think that little weevil is in for a big surprise.
I wish I'd realized the whole picture when I was there. I wonder who came out alive. Who won Best Bug? In hopes of the preservation of local wildflowers, I think I'd have to root for the spider.
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Update:
In case you've got a dark computer screen, let me lighten that last picture up for you.
Eek!
15 comments:
*cringe* That spider looked HUGE! I think I'll put my money on Charlotte!
BTW, I love your pictures! What kind of camera are you using? They are so clear and crisp. Or maybe it's the photographer! :)
That's an amazing picture! I wish I had such good wildlife to photograph. I'm incredibly jealous.
Really very cool!
Great shots. I will always cheer for the spider over a weevil.
GREAT photo! It's so pretty yet somehow so sinister. (even though I'd vote for the spider.)
Katie, sometimes I use my Nikon D200, but these were taken with my husband's little Sony Cybershot.
Jen, it's always funny to me how much more I see in the pictures, once I get them home!
Pablo, only if you're not the weevil I guess. :)
NCMW, yeah me too.
Lynne, thanks! I wonder if the weevil met his end shortly after this.
Thank you for the kind words!
Enjoy your blog. Just wondering what you think of this article about ginseng:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=35809
I live in a bordering county north of you, and I remember my paternal grandfather walking his 80 acres and looking for wild 'sang.' He found quite a bit. Seems there's now a thriving Chinese market for it!
Amazing pictures of these guy!
Yikes! My hair is standing on end after seeing that HUGE spider!
Love the "bestbug" idea!!
What you are doing on your blog astounds! Gorgeous, fascinating, fun, amusing, entertaining, educational, and packed with science, technology, and art for the phobic (especially the science part)!
Reading this article brought you to mind. Enjoy and thank you!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/garden/03farmers.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
CS, that was interesting. There is not a lot of wild ginseng left around here because of over-harvesting. I thin it would take at least 10 years (if you planted in the woods) to get to the point where you could harvest the plants. I went with a 'sang harvester one year while he was collecting... it was fascinating!
Tom, thanks!
Kerri, somehow I don't think it would go over big in the US. :)
Thanks Tamar! I loved their sink. :)
The spider/bug picture is marvelous. I been reading your blog for a while and love your nature pictures and the use of both common and Latin names for animals/bugs/flowers/etc. And I should have mentioned before how much I liked your June 4 photo of the two girls in the stream. Very evocative of girlhood. Lovely work.
Thanks very much, Diane!
Go spider go! I wonder what kind he was? I get crab spiders on my flowers, but your spider looks much bigger. (Of course, my perspective is only two-dimensional from here.)
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