insects

insects are weird and I love being able to see and observe their world once again. They are literally the building blocks of the natural world around us. Most of today they were hidden, but when the afternoon sunshine came out, so did they.

This is the face of a killer, not as scary as a spider, but to an aphid much worse. This lacewing could be a wild born insect, but this early in the year it could just as easily be biological control from some rose gardener buying from a organics catalogue. It looks very different that the fragile pale green lacewings I see in the summer.

I found this insect resting on my doorframe. An online entomologist identified it as an aphid, which surprised me. It is highly magnified; about .25mm long.

Down in the Albuquerque bosque I found this phoebe hunting mosquito near a stagnant pool. The mosquitos down in the south valley can form impressively large swarms until municipal spray programs knock down their numbers.

In Corrales, the spiders dominate at night until the summer heat allows the ants to gain the upper hand and chase them off. Already the ant lions are laying down tracks and setting up ambushes in the soft dirt for the ant scouts that will be leading armies of night time foragers that will come with the heat.

This insect is the domestic honey bee, which along with the silkworm is an exclusively farmed insect, protected and nurtured I've the cold months in hives. This one is catching a quick drink before returning to the hive.

Last post I talked a little about salinization of soils. This picture is from Sanchez farms open space in the south valley, where acidic city runoff water is allowed to flow through fields. As the water evaporates from the marshy soil, it leaves behind alkaline precipitates (chalk dust) until the monsoons can dilute the soils again.