bugs

This will not be a post about spiders. I like spiders. Too many people want to learn about spiders to crush them. Most spider information sites are extermination companies looking to convince people to eradicate them.

If you kill spiders, you will just evolve sneakier spiders....think about it.

this is my first tiger swallowtail. Normally I would never touch a butterfly, but this one was damaged after being hit by a car. Hopefully it survived after I moved it off the roadway.

Corralea has many species of ant, thankfully. Anyone who has watched "Antman" from Marvel knows there is a wide variety of ant abilities. Most ant colonies are out scouting the neighborhood for food sources right now. This ant genus has a heart shaped abdomen, usually lives in trees.

This ant is some sort of myrmicine ant. A large and diverse tribe.

This one is likely a bicolored harvester ant. They can be very hard tomphotogeaph in macro because they never hold still.

This harvester nest shows the endless collection of elm seeds the harvester ants are bringing back to the nest this time of year.

this is probably a seed bug nymph. A baby about the size of a full stop. Their appearance heralds the end of the seed bug invasion some houses with tree canopy have likely been suffering

this seed bug is found in elms. Later in the year other, bright red seed bugs explode in mating frenzies.

I was fortunate to spot this little guy. A winged aphid, pear of rose bushes everywhere. They reproduce by cloning themselves and give birth to direct young (no eggs). Very few measures other than constant vigilance will ever slow them down. A true force of nature.

Aphid have a friend in ants which milk them for honeydew much like raising cows for milk. Continuing the analogy, this bright ladybug is a wolf. Looking to steal livestock before the farmer notices the cows are home. This insect uses many tricks to evade an ants vigilance.

this colorful beetle is some sort of wood boring beetle.Identification is still uncertain. 

Up in the tree leaves a silent, slow army of caterpillars has begun to grow. These insects still have the traditional six legs of an insect, and also a row of "pseudo-legs". They avoid predators like ants by throwing themselves into the air and dangling from a thin thread until the threat passes. This often mean they will land on passing humans, like me. They will grow pretty impressively in size by the fall.

The natural enemy of many caterpillars is a wasp, that uses a caterpillar to be a living ladder for their own young. Different species have many different strategies for this.

some of the best flowers that come out are from the cactus family. This showy specimen is a strawberry hedgehog cactus. The prickly pear flowers will be out shortly.

Flowers of other species are hardier than short lived cactus flowers, like this common morning glory vine.

Many flowers are tiny, and have no fragrant to humans. They still do a great job though.

many trees treat flowers as serious business, pumping out many flowers in tight, closely controlled clusters.

the pollinators can be specialists, generalists, or freeloaders. But whatever gets the job done, from the flower's point of view.

this is a screenshot a friend sent me of a large spider. This sort of picture gets far more attention on the social media than is warranted. It is not a tarantula, that is all.