Album Beetles & Bugs from Janet Brien

275/366: Bug on Mustard Blossoms

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 02:47:47 +0000

The past couple of days I've been sharing a few pictures from a photo walk that Steve and I went on a couple of years down at the Rogue River. We'd started the day up in high altitude and quickly found out it was too windy and cold. But down here near home we found a wonderful place for some neat captures. These bugs are nearly invisible unless you are looking very carefully for them!

Explored on 10/5/16. Highest placement, page 4.

94/366: Visiting Carpet Beetle

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 03:39:15 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

One day about a year ago, I was in my downstairs bathroom when I noticed something tiny moving on the floor. Cooing in anticipation, I dropped down and peered closely at my newest little buddy to confirm my guess. "Arent you adorable!!" I said with a wide grin on my face. Yes, the fashionably dressed 1/8" insect was a Varied Carpet Beetle, and it managed to find its way into our house. Hopelessly lost, it would have been doomed, had Auntie Janet not found the little guy! :)

I grabbed my camera and came back for some show 'n' tell shots, and when I was satisfied, I coaxed him onto a piece of paper and put him on some grass outside.

V is for Vermin Villain

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 19:45:08 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

I watched this beautiful ladybird beetle hunting for breakfast among the dew-covered poppy leaves one morning, and when it paused by a dewdrop, I got some pictures!

My garden has many ladybugs in it and I couldn't be happier, because these predators kill aphids and many other insects that destroy my plants!

More apologies for not being around lately. It has been a lot of work trying to keep ahead of all the animals that are trying to eat my plants, and though I am still keeping ahead of them, this has left me feeling desperate, frustrated, worried, and depressed.

The insects have all but annihilated my dozens of Zinnias which were doing so well. I have them planted in three sections of my garden and they are all just tatters now. I'm fighting back with more and more unfriendly measures as my options are taken away.

The ground squirrels are chewing and digging their way into my gardens and eating entire plants. My dill and basil are gone, and some of my beautiful and lushly growing sunflower plants. It seems that the moment I repair one hole, they've created two more. So, it's all-out war and this makes me very unhappy because I just want them to leave my gardens alone. I get it...they are oases of plants and water, and I knew there would be trouble. But I didn't realize that the ground squirrel population has exploded this year for some reason, and they are making me crazy.

However, that being said, I've got lots of things doing really well, and just wait until I get to the letter "Y"! :D

If Garden Wars isn't enough to keep me busy, there are two colonies of ants attacking our kitchen and we have been trying for about three weeks to get rid of them. They must be under the house, because perimeter ant block has zero effect on them. Whenever we take care of one spot, they find another way in. It's horrible and so annoying, especially when I think I've finally taken care of the last place of entry, and the next morning they are coming in another way. ARGH!!

I've also been busy with work, my book, and other tasks. I have surprisingly little time for my photography, and unfortunately, my zest for sharing the wonderful things I see is severely damaged with all of the frustrating situations going on. I am working on balancing everything so that I can have some happy time with photography on a regular basis! :)

Explored on June 24, 2014. Highest placement, #1.

Itty Bitty Beetle on my Thumb

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 05:10:02 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

This beetle was about the size of a grain of rice and was quite busy crawling all over my finger, making it a challenge to get a reasonable picture! :D

Say Hello to the Alien-Looking Assassin Bug!

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Sun, 06 Oct 2013 04:35:10 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

1 picture above in a note! :)

Some time ago I was heading down the trail from the top of our ridge down to the house when I saw this strange insect on a leaf. When I took this picture, I couldn't actually see how weird it looked until I saw it on my computer! Wow, is that a strange space alien or what?!! :D

I did some looking around and discovered that this is called an Assassin Bug. From Encyclopedia Britannica:

Assassin bug (family Reduviidae), any of about 4,000 species of insects in the true bug order, Heteroptera, that are characterized by a thin, necklike structure connecting the narrow head to the body. They range in size from 10 to 25 mm (0.4 to 1 inch). An assassin bug uses its short, three-segmented beak to suck the body fluids from its victims. A characteristic of this family is that the beak is curved and lies in a groove between the front legs. Although assassin bugs are generally black or dark brown, some species are brightly coloured. Most members of the family live outdoors and prey on other insects. However, some suck blood from vertebrates, including humans, and transmit diseases.

Cucumber Beetle on ?Thyme? Flower

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 03:57:41 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

My friend Robin gave me 4 young plants this spring, and two of them are finally blooming, so I went out to take some pictures of them today. As it turned out, I found a pair of cucumber beetles on the blossoms and those pictures turned out much nicer than the flower pictures did, so I will try again in the next couple of days for better images of the flowers! :)

Another Cucumber Beetle on a ?Thyme? Flower

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 03:57:28 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

By the way, do you know what kind of plant this is? Thyme?

Facts about Cucumber Beetles:

Cucumber beetles are found throughout the United States and southern parts of Canada.

The adult cucumber beetle overwinters under vegetation debris or thick grasses. In areas where winters are quite cold, the cucumber beetle migrates southward to warmer regions. They return to their northern habitats during the spring of each year.

They search for food in nearby fields, eating wood pollen and stems while waiting for the emergence of their favorite crops such as cucumber, bean, and various squash and melon seedlings.

The spotted cucumber beetle will also feast on corn, peas, potatoes, tomatoes, and peanuts among other vegetation.

253/365: "It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project." ~ Napoleon Hill

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 03:53:02 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

4 more pictures above!

Today I didn't have any plans for my Picture of the Day so I just popped outside and started looking around. I think I wasn't as inspired as I could be--the truth is that I was really hungry and that's not the time to be taking pictures--so I took about 30 pictures before I decided to go home and try again after lunch. However, as I was about to walk into the house, I noticed a splotch on a Zinnia leaf and went over to investigate. OH!! One of my favorite insects, a Cucumber Bug! It was crawling around under a leaf, and I managed to get a couple of pictures before it went around to the other side to hide. "Little bug, you cannot hide from me!" And I took a picture of its shadow too! :D

Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American author in the area of the new thought movement who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature. He is widely considered to be one of the great writers on success. His most famous work, Think and Grow Rich (1937), is one of the best-selling books of all time (at the time of Hill's death in 1970, Think and Grow Rich had sold 20 million copies). Hill's works examined the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. He became an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1936. "What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve" is one of Hill's hallmark expressions. How achievement actually occurs, and a formula for it that puts success in reach of the average person, were the focal points of Hill's books. Wikipedia: Napoleon Hill

Black Beetle Close-Up

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 03:10:00 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

I wanted to crop this beetle to 1024 x 1024 so you could get a better look at this lovely fellow! One of the things I'm so happy about is that black insects are not easy to photograph. The details are usually lost or totally blown out where the sun reflects. But in this case, the sun was diffused by an overcast sky and it was hitting him at just the right angle, and he's properly exposed! HAPPY DAY!!! *snoopy dance*

Clumsy Black Beetle Balancing on Wild Grass

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 03:10:12 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

1 more picture above in a note! :)

While I was looking around for the little pink flower I was planning to photograph, I noticed something dark fly down and try to land on...one of the pink flowers I was looking for!! Instead of landing on the little flower, which was small even to this beetle, it crashed into the flower and fell off the other side and into the grass.

With an amused grin, I creeped closer with hopes of taking pictures of it crawling up to the flower. Unfortunately, the beetle was several feet from the flower now, but its antics were great fun to watch! If a beetle could act annoyed, this one was doing a very convincing job! It was trying to fly but kept bumping into grass or stems and getting knocked down again. Then it would try crawling up a stem and fall off because of its fairly large and heavy size.

I could see a fun challenge awaiting me if the beetle could manage to crawl out of the jungle below and afford me a good vantage point for a picture. As you know, I am always practicing to take pictures of fast-moving insects or fleeting opportunities which require quick judgement, fast aiming and steady hands while aiming for that one chance for sharp focus. I watched with baited breath as he finally clambered up a very shaky stem of wild grass with the intentions of flying from the top. As it crawled over the tiny tines of the top of the grass, I got three pictures, and amazingly, I got focus on all of them!! Then he was in the air and off to crash into a flower somewhere else! :D

Of the three pictures I got, two of them were just a big shallow of dof for my liking and the angle wasn't optimal. But when I saw this picture I laughed out loud with a gleeful, "YES!!!" I couldn't have asked for a better outcome! Now, for those of you who are saying to yourself that you'll never get a picture like this, I'm saying the same thing!! So much of getting pictures like this has to do with luck and opportunity, but also lots of practice. Honestly, do what I do: practice every single time you have an chance to chase a bug around. You'll get better and better, and with time, you'll get much calmer and steady with the camera, and your results will improve. You have nothing to lose, and it's a fantastic game to play!! Come on!! SHOW ME YOUR PICTURES!!! :)

Beautiful Cucumber Beetle

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Sat, 24 Aug 2013 22:55:34 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

I have always loved these pretty little beetles. They are about the size of a ladybug, and like to eat plant matter. I have always thought they look like little walking jewelry! :)

From Wiki:
The spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata) is a major agricultural pest insect of North America. In the adult form, it eats and damages leaves of many crops, including cucumbers, soybeans, cotton, beans, and many others. In the larval form, which is known as the southern corn rootworm, it tunnels through the roots of young plants, stunting or killing them. These native pests have a wide range of host plants, but will readily infest a field of crop plants, most notoriously corn.

226/365: "Every kid has a bug period... I never grew out of mine." ~ E. O. Wilson

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 03:29:32 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

3 more pictures in notes above! :)

I just love today's quote! It's so me! :D Honestly, I have been fascinated by nature all my life, and though my interest in tiny creatures waned a bit as an adult, the very moment I picked up a camera that interest came hurtling back and I am delighted when I discover a critter I haven't photographed yet!

Yesterday I shared some pictures of Milkweed seeds, but what you don't know is that I went back an hour or so after taking pictures and gathered up all the seeds that I could find. I would like to plant these seeds in my little garden to have these flowers right under my nose next summer. :) When I brought the seeds inside, I sat and separated the seeds from the fluff, and suddenly I noticed a pretty bug crawling across the table! It just happened to be the very species I've been trying to get pictures of but keep failing at, so I gently coaxed him into a plastic bag with plans to take pictures today! Then, when I sat down again to finish my little seed project, I saw an extremely tiny insect crawling on a seed pod. When I say tiny, I mean "grain-of-rice-tiny"! Noticing how adorable it was, I popped the little guy into the bag too.

Today I was just about to go out to get my pictures for the day when I remembered my little buddies in the bag! I went out and got a grass stem for a stage and went outside with my camera and the bugs and the stem, and together we all had a great time! I finally got good pictures of this bug and I couldn't be happier! :D After I was done, I brought my models back to the Milkweed bushes and put them onto some leaves where they both crawled away!

Edward Osborne "E. O." Wilson (born June 10, 1929) is an American biologist, researcher (sociobiology, biodiversity), theorist (consilience, biophilia), naturalist (conservationist) and author. His biological specialty is myrmecology, the study of ants, on which he is considered to be the world's leading authority. Wilson is known for his scientific career, his role as "the father of sociobiology", his environmental advocacy, and his secular-humanist and deist ideas pertaining to religious and ethical matters. Wikipedia: E. O. Wilson

Explored on August 15, 2013. Highest placement, page 2 (#28).

Small Milkweed Bug Heading Down

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 03:29:24 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

3 more pictures in notes above!

I always thought a "bug" was a generic term for an insect, and this is true. However, did you know that there is a type of insect called a "true bug"? In fact, this beautiful insect is a true bug! So, what is the difference between a "bug" and any other kind of insect? Well, Wiki has a really great page explaining this so let me share this with you:

Wikipedia: True Bug
The true bugs are an order (a group) of insects. Scientists call true bugs the Hemiptera. There are around 80,000 species (different kinds) of true bugs. The word bug by itself can have other meanings.

There are many different kinds of true bugs, some of which are aphids, cicadas, planthoppers, shield bugs, and others. All of these are true bugs. Their size is from 1 mm to over 10 cm. All true bugs have similar mouthparts, which is what characterizes the true bugs (the kind of mouth they have makes a true bug a true bug).

Features of true bugs
The feature that defines the Hemiptera is that they have piercing, sucking mouthparts. They pierce food with their long, tube-like mouth, called a proboscis or a beak. They can not chew. The true bug pumps saliva through this mouth, to partly digest their food. The bug then sucks up the food, which has been turned into a liquid by their saliva.

The name "Hemiptera" is from the Greek language and means hemi (half) and pteron (wing). Many true bugs have half of their front wings hardened and have the other half soft. These wings are called hemelytra (singular hemelytron), because they halfway look like the hard wings (elytra) of beetles. The hind wings are totally soft and are shorter than the front wings.

The antennae of true bugs usually have five segments. The tarsi (foot parts) of the legs have three or less segments.

Small Milkweed Bug Nymph Heading Down

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 03:29:15 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

Would you just LOOK at how CUTE this little guy is?!!! Can you say ADORABLE?!!! AWWWWWW, such a sweetie pie! :) This darling baby, which is only the size of a grain of rice, comes festively dressed in orange with red stripes! And, if you look closely, you can see his internal organs because the sun is shining right through his tiny little body! :D

Did you know that most insects go through dramatic changes as they grow from egg to adult?! In fact, this is one of the reasons its so difficult to identify many insects! (For example, would you have ever guessed that this little guy wasn't an adult already? And would you ever imagine it would change into a bug so completely different in shape, size and pattern?!) Also, many insects have several names because they were assumed to be adults at the stage they were named! If you would like to see a very nice picture showing the life cycle of a Milkweed Bug, here is a link: Aggie Shuttle: Milkweed Bug Life Cycle

Small Milkweed Bug Nymph Heading Up!

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Thu, 15 Aug 2013 03:29:03 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

WOW, CHECK OUT THAT FANCY BULBOUS BUTT!! :D In fact, this Milkweed Bug nymph looks like a crawling orange Christmas tree light with decorative red racing stripes! :D If you look closely, you will noticed a bit of BUTT STUBBLE! :D :D I know, I have WAY TOO MUCH FUN with critters, but gee, this one is soooooooooooooo adorable!!

Prionus Root Borer Beetle Portrait

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 04:49:31 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

Take a look at this guy!! WOW!!! All those prisms in its eyes are easy to see and you know, it was probably really getting tired of me blinding all of its zillions of prisms with my flash! By the way, compound eyes are composed of thousands of photoreceptors which are extremely sensitive to motion and fluctuation in light. (Did you know that spiders--which are also not insects--do not have compound eyes? They have simple eyes called "ocelli")

If you would like to know more about compound eyes, this page was very informative: Compound Eyes

Side View of a Prionus Root Borer Beetle

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 04:49:40 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

Look at the luxurious fur coat underneath this beetle! Isn't it pretty?!! It's very hard to see this hair just by looking--it appears to be velvety instead. I wonder it it is soft or bristley? I wasn't about to touch this guy--it was not too happy about getting flashed by my strobes, and I didn't want to stress it out even more. And well, do you think I would be brave enough to touch this guy?!! ARE YOU KIDDING?!!! :D :D This thing looks like it's straight out of a 50's monster movie!! :D :D

The Enormous Prionus Root Borer Beetle!

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 04:49:50 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

Last night I let the dogs out to do their business before bed, and as I went to close the door, I nearly put my hand on the biggest beetle I've ever seen in my life! [Insert lots of horrified expletives as I leaped back in shock] This guy was literally about 3" in length, and would you just LOOK at those antennae!?!! WOWY ZOWY, HOLY COWY!!! The second I saw it, I ran upstairs to told Steve to come down instantly and look what was on the front door...lol...he creeped over to the door and...[insert more amazed expletives from him :D :D]! While he was staring in amazement, I put the macro flash on my camera and I took pictures! I wanted to have the option of making this my Picture of the Day, so I checked back after midnight, and it was still there! I took more pictures, and this morning it had flown away.

I discovered that this is a Prionus Root Borer, and it's one of the largest beetles in the Western North America (um, no surprise there! :D). These beetles play a very important role in helping to decompose old logs but they also diminish the value of salvage timber with the holes that they burrow into the wood. (Thanks to Leapfrog Art for helping to point me in the right direction on identifying the species!)

If you would like to know more about these huge beetles, I found a very informative page here: Wikipedia: Prionus Root Borer Beetle

Back View of a Red Milkweed Beetle

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 04:09:54 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

HAH! I finally got a view of this beetle's back! Isn't it pretty? If you can believe it, this beetle's carapace appears perfectly smooth with the naked eye, but with a macro lens, it looks like it's covered with velvet! AMAZING!!!

By the way, the two small eyes you see on its head are called ocelli, and are a second pair of simple eyes which detect light and movement. Not all beetles possess these extra eyes, but did you know that spiders have 4 pairs of ocelli, and do not have compound eyes like most insects?

If you would like to know more about ocelli, wiki has a great page here!
Wikipedia: Ocelli

Red Milkweed Beetle on a Stem

nobody@ipernity.com (Janet Brien) — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 04:10:02 +0000

Janet Brien has posted:

What a gorgeous little beetle! I had to laugh because it was playing the game of "Hide Behind the Stem" with me...as I moved around to get a side or back view, it would move around the stem to put the stem between us. I'd try one direction, and then I'd try the other direction...what a dance it was! I think anyone who could have seen me would have died laughing! :D