An interesting little spider!

About 1.5cm long, legs included.

Metellina (sp)

                                          One of the Long-jawed Orb Weavers (Tetragnathidae) 

Possibly species:  curtisi

I found it outside stretched out on my screen door this morning where it stayed for this photo..

The two pedipalps indicate it's sex

The feral house hive has grown

This has grown a lot in the last couple of weeks!  It may be time to keep an eye out for when it swarms. That or cut it out & hive it. More will move in as usual.
This was in Feb.with the Flir one looking at the outside wall.
I'm able to take different heat/color patterns.

Taken Feb. 11th

                             The night shots don't have the outlines from the regular camera.

This was taken Feb.15th

The next shots were taken today. April 7th

The comb is over six feet long now.

I can cut the drywall from inside in a small closet, but it will be a little cramped and the house will probably have a lot of bees flying around for a while which won't bother me, but the wife & dog may complain. :-).

Little yellow crab spider in a Tulip

Eating a little bee. (not a honey bee) hand focus stacked for DOF.

Because of the camouflage, it's much better enlarged!

So click on it!
Or for a really large view,
On this link!

Birds & Bees enjoying themselves

Diving in!  Click on for big!

While I was shooting the bees I looked up & saw the blue birds & shot them with the same lens. Love that Nikkor 200mm macro lens!

The swarm trap that survived winter

Had a pleasant surprise when I got the Jeep running again with a new battery. The Swarm trap is still full of bees.
Granted winter was mild here, but it rained constantly. These bees loaded up on the blackberries last year and are doing well. I left it up as I had enough to do and thought it might be interesting to see if they would survive without my interference or feeding. I checked it off and on with the Flir one & it always showed a good heat signature. One of my hives is weak & if it doesn't make it that's where these ladies are going. It's hung on an oak in a somewhat sheltered place with late morning sun when it makes it over the hill to the East. The entrance is to the North, but the winds come up my valley to the North so I guess they didn't mind. There is a small piece of 1/4" screen over the entrance hole to keep varmints & birds out. It holds six deep frames & I used one old brood comb & some old empty frames.

Lots of pollen coming in.

Very very small (tiny) Pteromalid wasp

Pteromalid wasp on a very small Daisy!

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)

No Taxon ("Parasitica" (parasitic Apocrita))

Superfamily Chalcidoidea (Chalcid Wasps)

Family Pteromalidae (Pteromalids)

Parasites on a wide variety of hosts.

Some are hyperparasitoids

This means they can be parasitic on parasites. Sometimes it pays to be the little guy.

As usual, click to make larger

Hover fly on another daisy for scale

Visited son in Florida

Shot bugs and things that eat them.!

Please click on one to see detail

Great Southern White (Ascis monuste) Laying eggs.

Grumpy, the Southern toad

Brown Anole (invasive)

Giant Katydid nymph on my son's arm (about 3-4mm)

Brown Anole

Orchard spider (eating a very very small bug)

 orange-barred sulphur (Phoebis philea

 orange-barred sulphur (Phoebis philea

Zebra Longwing  (Heliconius charitonius)

Great Southern White

(Ascia monuste)