These large and interesting Lycidae beetles (Lycus fernandezi) were abundant in south eastern Arizona a few weeks ago. Constantly flying between flowers and moist sand they were making for easy photography targets. I thought to myself “here is a great opportunity to catch a beetle taking off!”. Wait for it… Wait for it… Crap….
Whoops, it’s almost Tuesday! Above is Schinia ligeae (Noctuidae) resting on its host plant Xylorhiza tortifolia, the Mojave Aster. I photographed this about three weeks ago outside the town of Big Pine, California. The asters were thick in the valleys below the snow capped Sierra, and the moths were abundant. Somehow these medium-sized Schinia get away with…
Like so many other urban animals, the Mission Blue Butterfly (Plebejus icarioides missionensis) is one that is gravely imperiled. This small blue lives in tiny fragments of habitat alongside multi-million dollar development in and around the San Francisco Bay. A century ago this butterfly was already starting to decline, with hundreds of acres of beautiful…
Everyone is familiar with the famous death’s head hawkmoth, but I think it’s a shame we have popularized such a grim character. Above is a much more cheery Neotropical Arctiinae from French Guiana that looks like it’s sporting a clown face. Sadly this isn’t my photograph, but you should take a moment to explore…
A few weeks ago I was invited to join a Berkeley entomology class out in the field for the weekend. Our destination was the Blue Oak Ranch Reserve; one of the newest reserves to the University of California system located just outside of San Jose on Mount Hamilton (map below). It was a joint spider and…
Better be careful of what you do while out in the countryside. Farms can be dangerous places, especially if you’re a photographer. Proposed legislation in Florida, titled simply “farms”, is attempting to make photography or drawings in, on or of a farm without explicit written consent a first degree FELONY (up to 30 years in prison)….
[cetsEmbedGmap src=http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=33.393039,-118.416824&spn=0.359452,0.715485&t=h&z=11 width=600 height=330 marginwidth=0 marginheight=0 frameborder=0 scrolling=auto] Tomorrow morning I’m off for a 10 day collecting trip down to Catalina Island. I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to join Dr. Jerry Powell of UC Berkeley on a moth survey, and this will be my first time to any of the islands. The Channel Islands…
Oops, looks like I missed my first ‘blogoversary’! Monday the 21st was the one year turning point for my blog; and I’m incredibly happy to have spent the last year sharing some of my ramblings with all of you. I’ve somewhat lost track of how many hits I’ve had since I moved everything…
Alex Wild posted a few days ago about the “freelensing” photography technique. You can get some really cool results, especially with creating the illusion of miniatures – but so far I haven’t been brave enough to give it a shot (no pun intended). I came across this impressive compilation of Haitian images on NPR today…
News in from India, a butterfly photographer has been kidnapped. A local park official who was visiting the north eastern province Arunachal Pradesh was taken at night by a gang of armed youth-rebels. Efforts to find him have been hampered by the weather and remote terrain. India has recently become one of the most difficult…