Like probably most kids I was not particularly fond of spiders, wasps and other insects that bite or sting. But the more time I spend hiking and photographing insects and wild flowers, the more I have come to appreciate them. As with most things in nature, so long as you are respectful and do not antagonize them, they really have no interest in bothering you at all. I have grown quite comfortable getting close enough to take photos like these. All of these creatures have good eyesight and they definitely notice you, but so far I have not been even so much as buzzed by a bee or wasp while taking its photograph.
Speaking of wasps, this is a Potter Wasp. Their incredibly thin waist just does not look like it should be able to hold the front and back halves together. Potter Wasps are solitary, they do not typically form colonies. Adults feed on nectar as this one is doing.Another Potter Wasp with it’s characteristically thin waist. While the adults may feed on nectar, their larvae feed on other insects like caterpillars which the adults paralyze and lay their eggs in. Sounds pretty brutal, but that’s just how nature rolls.Another type of wasp is the Paper Wasp. Unlike Potter Wasps, these are social and work together to build nests. Each cell in a nest like this one will house one larvae. Paper Wasps can be very aggressive when they feel like their nest is being threatened. Each wasp can sting multiple times and they will pursue those who anger them.Then of course you have one of my personal favorites, the Crab spider. Ambush predators with an amazing ability to blend into their flower.I guess I am becoming attuned to spotting insects that ambush other insects. This guy caught my attention quite easily. First time I’ve ever noticed one of them, it was just down the trail from the Crab spider eating a Hoverfly pictured above. It was not difficult to ID and it turns out to be a Jagged Ambush Bug, of the family known as Assassin Bugs! They are pretty much literally the bug equivalent to the Crab spider. Like Crab spiders they are able to change their color to blend in with their flower of choice, and they simply wait motionless for something to wander within reach of those pop-eye like front claws. Then just like a Crab spider it lunges, grabs its prey and delivers a paralyzing bite.
I never get tired of discovering new things while out hiking and photographing in the Dunes.
A marsh is a great place to be in the summer, so long as you don’t mind the humidity and biting/stinging insects swarming all over the place. Personally I am not a fan of the humidity but it is more than worth tolerating in order to enjoy the biting/stinging insects and the plants they feed off of, like the Canada Lilys pictured above. All photos are from a recent hike on the Great Marsh trail in the Indiana Dunes National Park.
Queen Anne’s Lace has a very photogenic structure to it’s flower. It pays to explore it from multiple perspectives, head on being one of my favorites due its symmetries.When Queen Anne’s Lace is in full bloom it has a tiny red flower in the very center. This little spot of red is one of the features which distinguish it from the very similar Poison Sumac, which is quite a nasty plant. Placing the camera almost level with the flower and setting a fast aperture allows you to create a narrow band where the image is in focus.Although this trail has plenty of hard biting Deer Flys, this Flower Fly just slurps up nectar from wild flowers. Look close at the head (you can click on the image to view it full size) and you can see the extended proboscis which appears like a long snout.This beetle has beautiful metallic greens and blues, complemented by a splash of red.Here we see 5 caterpillar or maybe moth larvae munching on this leaf. I have no idea if these are considered to be good caterpillars or destructive ones.Something you will find in abundance in a marsh are Slugs. Tall grasses and reeds abound in marshes, including the horsetail that surround the puffy seed head of some other plant.While there are certainly lots of stingy things in marshes, the big old Bumble Bee is not one of them. They have no stinger. They are also incredibly difficult to photograph because they are in constant motion. Even when feeding on a flower they are in a constant state of frantic motion. Maybe they are just on a permanent sugar high from all that nectar they drink.And finally, we have a genuine stingy type. Wasps appear scary, but as long as you are not bothering them they have no interest in stinging you. They only use their stingers for hunting and self-defense.
