You Call This, Complete Metamorphosis?

Crumby takes great pride in, plus enjoys his status as, an average amateur entomologist. But once in a great while something comes along that shakes Crumby’s average self-appreciation. Like this little vermin(Labioderma clivicollis).

Espying this little vermin for the first time Crumby said out loud to himself. Hey, this must be a leaf beetle larva. That’s because this vermin has plenty of leaf beetle gestaldt. But hold it! Leaf beetles larva should not resemble adult leaf beetles this much. It’s not fair. You call this, complete metamorphosis?

Apparently, several different ones of the leaf beetles do, however, do this. The famous Colorado potato beetle is another example.

Look what they do when you spook or torture them in captivity. How pitiful is that?

Fatty’s Green Lynx Spider Babies Fixing to Depart

Crumby checks up on Fatty and her babies daily. Yet we have not reported on progress in this venue for a while. Turns out, Fatty’s babies mostly departed yesterday. This picture shows them on a day of departure. Later, many of these tiny vermin climbed up to the top leaf of the Maximilian sunflower plant and let the wind take them to who knows where. Today, at this very nonce, only a very few are still in the nest with Fatty still on guard.


Interestingly, the day before the major departure day, this medium-sized wasp actually got inside the web. Don't know this wasp and only have vague opinions on it. Also, don’t know what it was doing in Fatty's nest besides checking things out, but Fatty didn’t get after it. Fatty was on the other side of the flower stalk, maybe unaware of the intruder.

Mustache Pete

Once upon a time, all the moths and muths were lined up receiving presents from the WG. (The blessed WG is also known in these parts as the White Goddess). But the WG didn’t just hand out any old presents. No. Course She didn’t. Instead. the WG gave the different lepidopterans the present each desired the most. Guess what Agriphila vulgivagllea wanted for its present? Just maybe the greatest mustache, ever!

Ye Don’t See This Ever Day - Alcathoe pepsioides

Yepper. It’s time to play, YE DON’T SEE THIS EVER DAY, DO YE?

Crumby has had some good luck with the Sesiidae this fall. Here is the latest representative of that interesting moth or muth family to present itself at the CB. You may appreciate that Pepsis may have adopted this color scheme. However, Pepsis behavior is certainly nothing like the laid back or laconic behavior of this particular moth or muth. It posed and posed and posed some more. The nectar source is, of course, verb virgin.

Liliputian Vermin Invade Orgone Box

Here's a tip for all you happy orgone box owners. Eschew snacking or taking meals in your box. Like sometimes Crumby has Rayetta serve him supper in his orgone box.

Oops. OK. Let’s start over. It’s not true that Rayetta would ever serve Crumby supper in his orgone box unless maybe Crumby was dying, and then only once, a last meal request type situation.

All righty. Maybe you, an average corn lover, were enjoying a whopping serving of delicious Jim Dandy grits in bed. But you boiled up too many grits. But then you wore yourself out dining, and couldn’t finish off all your grits. But like we are discussing, you were worn out by then, so instead of taking your bowl of grits to the kitchen, you shoved the grits under the bed and forgot about them.

Where did all these dang tiny beetles come from? And what are they a-doin’ in the dang bedroom? No. No. No. It is a sign. I’m a goner. These beetles have come to escort poor old Crumby to his final resting place in Fairy Land. Uh. I may need to look at these under the microscope.

Whew! That was close. These are not your usual death-watch beetles. These are alternatively, merely drugstore beetles Stegobium paniceum. All righty! Crumby put 11 lively beetles in a pill jar last night. This morning when Crumby looked in the jar there was only one beetle left, and it was deceased. So if you need to keep these beetles as pets, make sure to screw the lid to the pill bottle on tight.

Macro Photography Bloopers

How stupid is this topic? How stupid are bloopers? Are Booblicans taken seriously?

First off, this green weezille is minding its own business when suddenly a honey bee sits on the duda. How rude is that?





Then, far scarier, Crumby is fixing to take a picture of the progress made by a particular caterpillar. It is a caterpillar of the genus Cucullia feeding on the achenes of Heterotheca latifolia. Crumby has photographic evidence of the duda devouring achenes but will not present that evidence here due to contingency issues. Yes. Crumby knows.

But the dang spider bit the dern caterpillar. This shows the caterpillar recoiling from the spider attack. Mercy! Crumby saw this live, through the optical viewfinder of the E 330. Goodness! Fortunately this terrible image is now blurred for posterity. However, Crumby also has a photo of the spider wrapping up the miserable caterpillar while the caterpillar was still wriggling. Mercy on that one!

Meantime, perhaps the greatest of all the Japanese camera companies is fixing to start up a double, instant rebate program. Crumby, operating with outmoded , second-rate equipment with zero practical options for upgrades may not be able to resist that siren song for long. Yet no hurry. The double instant rebate program lasts until January 8. Crumby wonders if possibly the greatest of all Japanese camera companies will raise the prices on all the eligible lenses like they did on the 7D camera when it got a rebate. Jeez Louise, Hirohito!

The Buttcrack Tree (Sung to the tune of The Hanging Tree)

Oh Ray went searching for a tree.
The name of the tree is the buttcrack tree.
The buttcrack tree, the buttcrack tree, the buttcrack tree.

The buttcrack tree is eluding me.
Now where the heck can that tree be?
The buttcrack tree, the buttcrack tree, the buttcrack tree.




And how can I tell a buttcrack tree
from all the other trees that I may see?
The buttcrack tree, the buttcrack tree, the buttcrack tree.

Just look for the fruits on the buttcrack tree.
When you find a fruit you’ll know that it be,
the buttcrack tree, the buttcrack tree, the buttcrack tree.

Another Episode of: Why Aint They Ever Where?

Excuse the title. Crumby’s ignorant ancestors cohabitate in Crumby’s noggin with normal Crumby. Once in a while they get to come out in the venue vernacular.

This is apparently a Dolba hyloeus caterpillar. It has eaten all the top leaves off the Ilex decidua and has now assumed the projectile vomiting posture characteristic of those who dare to dine on vomitoria leaves. Or, it may have assumed this posture to appear tough, sexy or to disguise itself. Whatever?


The real question is, since these obviously eat yaupon leaves, and yaupon is everywhere, why aint they ever where? Yes. Why aint they ever where you look for them on the yaupon? No telling.

A Hackberry Emperor Caterpillar Hogs Packing Peanut

In these parts, hackberry emperors are plenty common. But an average amateur entomologist may never know how common unless that duda (a Druid term indicating the twain usual humanoid sexes) sets up a banana feeder. Once you give them bananas, they swarm down out of the trees like crazy.

All that is true, but what about the caterpillars. We have never had a caterpillar of the hackberry emperor persuasion come to the feeder. No. Nor has anyone here ever espied one of the particular kind of caterpillars we are now discussing. That is, until Ray found one at work day before yesterday.

Where Ray works, there are even more hackberry emperors than there are at the CB. So Ray has, for decades, been on the lookout for hackberry emperor caterpillars at work. At last, after a long and hard search that spanned decades, Ray finally espied one of these elusive caterpillars.

However, Ray could not get any pictures of this caterpillar in its natural state or life-like haunts. So here it is posed on a packing peanut. After having its picture took, Ray restored this caterpillar to the work bench, knowing it would crawl to the underside of the work bench and resume whatever activity it had been performing before Ray espied it and put it on the packing peanut.

Scorpionflies Take Bone from Dog

How sad. A poor little dog toted this bone all the way from the cemetery or maybe the farmer’s market. But as soon as she turned her back on her bone, these scorpionflies (Panorpa nuptialis) landed on it. Now they have the little dog's bone. And bones are no good to dogs once the scorpionflies fornicate on those bones. Make no mistake either. Scorpionflies do fornincate on bones. Even human or humanoid bones.

Crumby counted seven scorpionflies in the backyard, only half trying. What a Samuin this is fixing to be.

Big News: Weevils Infest Malvastrum aurantiacum at CB

Some of our most important crops, like cotton and okra, are members of the swell plant family, Malvaceae. What would we do without cotton? Mercy! Polyester undears! What would we do without okra? Especially in Okrahoma.

The boll weevil afflicts cotton. The weevils we are discussing presently afflict the Malvastrum aurantiacum. See. This weevil looks somewhat like a tiny boll weevil. Let’s see. The petals are about 15mm so you may be able to cipher out the length of these particular weevils.

The Grasshopper Can Fly and Eat Grass

No wonder the grasshopper has historically been contemptuous of the hard-working ant. Why should I work hard? I can fly and eat grass.

That daring-do, devil-may-care attitude typifies your average grasshopper. But just because those grasshoppers are flippant, doesn’t mean they need to flip Crumby off.

Just because you think you can fly
Just because you think you eat grass
Just because you think you got shovels
That let you dig holes with your ass

Just because you think you spit out tobacco
Just because you faunch all day long

Well I’m tellin’ you, I’ll get a picture of you,
Because, just because.

What inspired the above, particular doggerel? Easy that. Yesterday Crumby espied a band-winged grasshopper out in the east pasture. Hold it! Crumby thought. I don’t have any documentation for band-winged grasshoppers. Stop! Wait! Let me take your picture!

But alas. The band-winged grasshopper we are presently discussing flew off directly over the neighbor’s fence, headed east, not stopping for shit. Crumby was only able to espy that it displayed an orange wing.

Frustrated, Crumby decided to go out looking for band-winged grasshoppers in the terrible wilderness that abuts the CB on every side. Yes. That’s what Crumby decided after a long, fruitless search for more band-winged grasshoppers at the CB proper.

Off Crumby journeyed. The trip was long and hard. Are we there yet? But finally, after many adventures, Crumby at last espied a band-winged grasshopper. Not one of the orange ones. But this here yellow-winged (not shown) one with a blue tibia. Arphia simplex

How come you don’t come on over to the CB so I can document you properly? Crumby asked the grasshopper.

Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. What’s the CB to me? I can fly and eat grass.

CB Records First Ever Leucospidae

Crumby was out, minding his own business as usual. Yet his keen observational skill was turned outwards and towards the morning glory fruits. For whatever reason, Hymenopterans are even more keenly interested in morning glory fruits than Crumby. Which is why Crumby was interested in the morning glory fruits in the first place, the dang wasps were fooling around on the morning glory fruits.

What’s wrong with this dang wasp? Crumby thought out loud. Is it deformed?

Mercy! Check out that anal region. Something important goes on in that area for sure. But who knows what? Apparently, few, if any, know what. Goodness!

Crumby is not fixing to show any more pictures of this particular parasitic wasp. That’s because Crumby is saving all the rest of the pictures of this one for himself. They’re like jail bait car wash photos for average entomologists. Mercy! Check out that ovipositor.

Hint. This one may mimic Euodynerus.

Fatty’s Babies

Fatty’s babies have emerged from the egg sac. They have, as depicted here, been out for two days. They have a head start on the other green lynx babies. Those babies are still in their egg sacs.

Fatty is right there, out of focus on the left. Crumby feels like she has not eaten in many days except maybe for one honey bee. Or, she may have killed the honey bee because it got too close to the egg sac. Notice how Fatty has strung protective strands of webbing around the nest.

Snoutbean Buddy

Few welcome the least snoutbean (Rhynchosia minima) to their yards. That’s because, left alone, it is a super aggressive weed that likes to cover up your fancy (maybe ecologically inert) hummingbird shrubs or bushes. But at the CB, at least for this year, we decided to leave the snoutbeans to the WG or White Goddess. Predictably, the snoutbeans have done well. The phrase commonly employed in reports by environmental consultants to explain why they didn’t go somewhere, impenetrable thicket, comes to mind.

Nevertheless, as everyone knows, snoutbean vegetation is consumed by larval white-striped longtails. The larger megachiles cut nest plugs from the leaves. Megalatomus nymphs suck on the fruits. And, as it turns out, a tiny bee is the main pollinator, at least at the CB. A tiny hoover fly may also participate, buzz pollinating, but we have no picture of that particular hoover fly yet.

Here’s the bee we are presently discussing. Looks a little like a Heriades, what with the nice brown rings on the abdomen.





This second pictures exposes these little bees as Megachilinae. But which genus? Progress. But not enough, progress.

Frustration Here, Progress There

The theme at the CB for this week is frustration versus progress. It’s a Druid dichotomy. You choose, frustration or progress. But life, like a good Druid dichotomy is seldom that simple. No.

Frustrated by slow progress with the dern bees, Crumby is making good progress with the dang grasshoppers. Grasshoppers are much easier. Consider that grasshoppers are easy to catch. Often, an average naturalist/photographer may hold the camera in one hand while photographing a grasshopper in the other hand. Like in this example. Eventually Crumby may figure out what kind of grasshopper this is. At this nonce he favors Dichromorpha viridis. Behavioral note: Grasshoppers in the hand try to look cute. This one is also intimating, Pwease don’t eat me, Mr. Cwumby.

Like today though, Crumby suddenly figured out two old CB grasshopper pictures. This is from the winter of 2007, taken with the semi-trusty C5060WZ. For years it’s been on file as “ huge grasshopper”. But now it’s Schistocerca nitens.






This goofy grasshopper was previously featured thusly on this venue. It’s Mermiria bivittata. Can you say, ta-ta?

Great Frustration

A great frustration for Crumby is identifying loose bees to the lowest possible taxa from photos. So when Crumby finds a dead bee, yippee! This particular bee is dead or paralyzed. Crumby found her on a Maximilian sunflower blossom. She was inert, stricken down perhaps by spider poison or perhaps a heart attack. The only other vermin present on the blossom was a Oncerometopus nigriclavus. Hmm. Perhaps this bee is a victim of gas warfare.

Whatever got her, Crumby has her now. If she revives, Crumby shall set her free. But until that time, Crumby is fixing to take pictures of this bee through the microscope.

Well now. Crumby is in possession of a good many line drawings. A common characteristic of those line drawings is that they depict the wing venation of a bee tribe, genera, subgroup or whatnot. From comparing this bee to those line drawings, Crumby was able to figure out that none of the line drawings corresponded to his bee.

Great! For a while Crumby expressed his frustration by cursing in Pig Latin. For example, sucker in Pig Latin is, as everyone knows, uckersa. God is odga. Now you know God’s secret name. Odga! That’s pronounced with a long a.

OK. All this cussing is getting me nowhere. Hold it. Besides just two submarginal cells, this bee features a curved basal vein. Maybe it’s one of those odd Halictids with just the two submarginal cells.

Hark! All that spelled , Crumby now feels like this bee is a Dufourea, a genus not represented on the Brackenridge bee list. Goodness!

Crumby Spells Out Loud about Camera Gear

Many may know that typing out your thoughts may be good therapy. It’s like, if you can’t explain something orally, you don’t know what you’re talking about and you are probably a stupid Booblican or Schweinhundt. Well. The same is super true when it comes to actually spelling this or that thought or feeling out. You may be happily typing along. But when you read what you have typed or spelled, it doesn’t make any sense, even to you, the author. Well. You may argue. This could possibly make sense to somebody, at some time. But the truth is, it does not make sense, period. It’s just more drivel flowing down hill into the sea or ocean known as the Sea of Drivel or Drivel Ocean. OK!

That spelled, periodically, Crumby needs to reassure himself about his cameras. Not easy when your brand of Japanese camera is the Olympus brand. That’s because Olympus is like second- tier or second-rate when it comes to recreational optics. Like, would you buy an Olympus binocular? Maybe, if you are an ignorant Schweinhundt, you would.

Consider this. Nikon makes tons of binoculars. Most of those binoculars are at least as bad as the Olympus offerings. But a very few of them are much better. With the better ones, you can easily and happily espy birds from dawn to dusk. Hark! Crumby knew these many facts when he purchased Olympus cameras. But he wasn’t thinking. Or, somehow, Crumby didn’t say to himself, Nikon makes a tiny few really swell bins. I bet the same applies to the cameras. No. Crumby must have been afflicted by temporary dyslexia when it came to his camera purchases.

One time, Ray, Crumby’s bosom companion, got a swell deal on some cowboy boots. Those wondrous cowboy boots actually had silver dollars for decoration. Yippee! Somehow the manufacturer had figured out how to flatten these two silver dollars. Like probably the manufacturer put those dollars on a train track and let the train run over them. Then though, the manufacturer figured out how to glue those silver dollars on the side of the cowboy boots just below where you apply your finger digits when you pull your boots on.

So how cool is that? You have cowboy boots with smushed silver dollars glued on. Only thing is, for the general public to get to admire your boots, you need to wear shorts or tuck you britches or chaps into the top of your boots. Which, of course, is exactly what Ray did, wear shorts with his cowboy boots.

I can tell you, that get-up used to drive Red crazy. Because, a bunch of Red’s old pals, like Dr. Swineherd, would kid Red about the sissy hand working for him, meaning my bosom companion, Ray. Also, Rayetta, Ray’s sister, was practically mortified that Ray would go out in public wearing that outfit. Then too, when Ray informed Rayetta that he looked better in shorts than she did, Rayetta got extra pissed off.

Now Rayetta was aware that Ray puts great stock in the opinions of Karl the Tracker Druid. And Rayetta is close pals with Karl’s third or fourth wife, Mary the Virgin. So Rayetta says, Mary, do you think you could get Karl to talk Ray out of those boots? And Mary says, All righty Rayetta, for the sake of our long friendship and because Ray looks ridiculous, and because Ray looking ridiculous is a possible burden on everyone except maybe the Crumby Ovate, Ray’s bosom companion, I shall attempt to persuade Karl to visit with Ray about those boots. (I don’t know why everyone figured I was OK with Ray’s boots. What I couldn’t figure out was why the blessed WG gave Ray those boots and I didn’t get any).

Well, there you have it, comparable situations, Ray’s boots and Crumby’ cameras. How are they comparable? Easy that, Ray wore his boots out, despite all the sneers and good advice. And Crumby is bound to do the same with his cameras, wear them out.

Mercy! The day when Crumby’s camera gear may be plumb wore out may be approaching. Last Saturday the lock wheel on Crumby’s flash unit cracked. Too much man-power applied? Apparently. Now that puppy is taped. Mercy!

Crumby has decided that macro photography in natural light is about 80% bullshit. That is, around 80%, likely more, of the pictures you take need flash. That’s why, Crumby’s now busted and taped flash is socked onto the hot shoe regularly. Bug pictures need plenty of flash.

Now here’s a fact you hardly ever hear stated. It’s a rarity for ears. If you have a long macro lens, chances are you can focus on a bug or vermin maybe a fraction of a cubit in front of your camera. This is called the working distance between you and your vermin. But also, that same working distance may allow your shoe mounted flash to illuminate your vermin. Yippee! No goofy macro flashes and cumbersome brackets. That’s why Crumby recommends long macro lenses. For example, Sigma 150mm is really 300mm on Crumby’s camera. Not quite 1-1 with flash, but close. For short lenses though, you need the macro flashes and cumbersome brackets.

Todays’ featured vermin are the long sought after tortoise or turtle beetles. Long and perilous has been the miserable and forlorn search for these particular beetles. Yet just as the stygian darkness was about to envelope Crumby for eternity, the kindly and friendly WG blessed or allowed Crumby to espy not one, but two of these curious beetles or vermin.

Charidotella sexpuntata on Ipomopsis trichocarpa; break it down, sex-punc-tata. What a great specific name!








Plagiometriona clavata on Solanum americanum sometimes now known as S. ptycanthum.

More Moths (Muths) in the Bathroom

Last night Crumby went out to gaze upon the stars, hoping that the fine weather would equate to better than usual seeing. It didn’t. The light pollution trumped the good weather. Yet Crumby had fun anyway. The pets spooked some rats. One rat tried to escape by climbing into a wheel barrow. That was fun.

Also, Crumby went around with the flashlight, checking the tall goldenrods for vermin. Oh yes. There were plenty of moths going to the flowers. But the crab spiders, emboldened perhaps by the want or paucity of spider wasps, were cavorting everywhere. Yes. They were active, hanging on threads, walking about, not merely hunkered down as they are during the day. No wonder there is a fearful toll of moths dead on the flowers at dawn or as Ogma rises. No wonder the moths flee into the various restrooms for safety.

You may know yourself that if you just want to study moths without expending much effort, what could be better or easier than leaving the lights on in the restroom with your doors and windows to the outside open. That’s way better than going off into the woods with a lantern and a sheet. Hector Protector! Why, with a lantern and a sheet you could get mistook for the KKK. Then where would ye be?

OK. Enough palaver or bullshit. Here are three more pictures of potty moths possibly identified to species.

These here muths in alphabetical order are:

Anticarsia gemmatis - The larvae of this one most likely eats snoutbeans at the CB. My goodness! Gross! Somebody obviously needs to mop up the pee in this particular restroom.




Costaconvexa centrostrigera - The larve of this one supposedly eats Polygonums. Not much of that great plant family at the CB.





Desmia maculalis - The larvae of this one eats the mustang grapes.

Some Serious Ecology

The CB is home to grass carrier wasps (Isodontia spp.). One of the littler Isodontia species has built a nest between the sliding glass door and the screen door, yet partly also inside the sliding glass door, which has some holes in its frame. Crumby only just found all this out even though he had observed a grass carrier wasp going in a hole in the sliding glass door. It’s like you need to connect the dots. Wasp goes in hole in door. Mass quantities of grass gets stuck between the doors. A big ball of grass falls out of doors when you move the screen door. The grass ball is full of tree crickets. Lots of tree crickets.

Oops! Sorry about that my grass-carrying wasp friends. Uh. Your crickets have fallen down. But you can just put them back once you get your nest fixed. Sorry!

Yet Crumby decided to take some pictures of the tree crickets. After all, you don’t normally see tree crickets everyday unless you happen to be a grass carrier wasp of the genus Isodontia. This cricket may be merely paralyzed. Something chewed its antennae off.

But to identify a tree cricket to species you need to look at the spots on its twain basal antennae segments, that is the basal segment and penultimate basal segment. Here’s a picture of that taken with the microscope. See! Serious ecology.

Psittacidae Numbers Double at CB

Yesterday, Crumby was outside fixing to take pictures of bugs when he heard an unfamiliar whistle. From on high the ethereal notes of that whistle, chirp or squawk descended upon Crumby’s straining, earthbound ears. What the heck?

Hurriedly, Crumby raced into the CB. He needed to change camera lenses from the Sigma 150mm to the Olympus 70-300mm zoom. The Olympus 70-300mm zoom has this interesting characteristic. It won’t autofocus on a bird. Especially when the bird we are discussing is sitting on a wire. But it has the longest reach of any of Crumby’s lenses.

Crumby, thus, had to manually focus this important documentation record or photograph. Fortunately for Crumby, the rosy-faced lovebird (Agapornis roseicallis), if that’s what it actually is, sat still long enough for Crumby to get in 10-12 shots. Out of that many pictures, this one was the best focused. It’s way harder to manually focus telephoto versus macro.

Praise the Goddess! We now have two parrots documented for the CB. However, to be honest, this particular documentation photo is not precisely at the CB. But it counts because this identical parrot was in a tree at the CB shortly before it flew over to the perch here depicted..

For the many who, like Crumby until recently, are totally ignorant regarding the great lovebird genus, Agapornis, Crumby shall now recount much of what he has recently learned of lovebirds. They are little, not much bigger than an English or house sparrow or maybe a house finch. Some of their call notes seem vireo like. Not the chirpy, shrub-inhabiting vireo voices, but the tree vireo voices or maybe similar to a tanager voice. Lovebirds are sometimes kept as pets by the cruel, ignorant and lowdown. This one must have escaped.

New Episode - Moths (muths) that Occur in Restooms

Many have queried, Crumby, which are the essential camera ingredients for high quality restroom macro photography? Well. Those restrooms, especially the public ones, may be poorly lit. Yes they are. Consequently, you need to expose those stygian cracks and crevices where the sun never shines for what they are or what they may contain or hide. So a good flash is important, maybe essential. Crumby prefers an on-board flash that synchronizes with just about any shutter speed. But if you have to get an out-board flash, for heaven’s sake, get a smaller, more discrete one. Second, you may need to zoom in for a closer look. For that, you need a zoom lens. The more magnification, the better. And, your camera needs to close focus down to a Mere Cubit. For the many who don’t know, a Mere Cubit is only about 1/3rd of a regular Cubit. A tilt-flip lcd for focus is also nice.

The sadly outdated C5060 WZ has all the meritorious characteristics. Plus it is fairly little or indiscrete in appearance. That’s why Crumby never goes to the restroom, bathroom or comfort station without his trusty C 5060 WZ. WZ stands for wide zoom. Great for fatter subjects.

OK. Enough of all this average or common bullshit. Let’s now look at an actual picture of a real insect taken in its restroom habitat. This insect is the Indian meal moth (Plodia interpunctella) of the Pyralidae. The Indian meal moth larvae may be why you keep the rice in the refrigerator instead of the cupboard. It also eats oatmeal, Betty Crocker gingerbread mix, corn meal, grits and all manner of boxed cereal.

Jeez Louise! There you go to the cupboard. You pull out the economy box of Jim Dandy grits, open it up and a bunch of these dern moths fly out. And there’s worms in the grits. You have to pick the worms out of the grits and cook them separately. Because, the dang grits need to be boiled longer than the worms do. Meantime, the moths that flew out of the grits box have all headed down to the bathroom.

Whilst Waiting Patiently

Crumby has only espied this particular beetle Sphaenotecus bivittata on its larval host plant Eysenhardtia texana, previously. Yet here one is on tall goldenrod. The CB kidneywood may be late, forcing the beetles to nectar elsewhere.

Photographing these beetles is hard work because the antennae are excessively long. Soon as you get one antenna in focus, the alternative antenna is out of state.

Do the Hokey Pokey?

This wasp may be doing the hokey pokey. That’s its left foot.

Insect photography is a great hobby because even when there are few insects around, like in the winter, an average photographer or entomologist can still have plenty of fun fixing to identify all the bugs he or she took pictures of during the warm season. That’s precisely what Crumby has in mind here. Later, in the dead winter, when Crumby is frail from want of a little Vitamin D, he shall fix to figure out the lowest possible taxon of this particular wasp.

Patterns in Nature 2

If you go off on a trip, chances are you get one shot at this or that. Correct. You can’t necessarily go back the next day to try again. But if you stay in your yard, chances are you shall get multiple shots or opportunities at this or that. It’s like a pattern Crumby has observed.

Well-a-day. At this nonce the CB is pleased to have a good many blue damselflies. These particular damselflies helicopter around the low vegetation, spooking tiny vermin. Crumby espied one catch a small moth or muth. Like dragonflies, damselflies are messy eaters. They chew with their mouths open. Ugh. Plus it got moth or muth scales all over its nasty little blue face.

But the point of all this is to determine what pattern contains both the depicted and the previously depicted. Crumby, perhaps guided in his feelings by the blessed WG, believes, the depicted and the previously depicted are the same species, Enallagma civile. That’s mostly because they act just alike and are simultaneously present at the CB together at this very nonce. One thing Crumby appreciates about the damselflies that turn up at the CB; they show a strong sense of temporal separation.

What kind of bluet is that? It’s a civil bluet.

Patterns in Nature

As everyone, except for a few billion simpletons, knows, Druids study patterns. It is, in fact, the hard work of your average Druid to study a pattern or two for his or her whole life or at least for thirty years, whichever comes first. But then what happens? Do Druids retire from studying patterns?

No. They don’t. That’s because patterning becomes habitual behavior for your average elderly Druid.

Take this damselfly for example. Look closely at the black markings on its abdominal segments. Can you too see a pattern? Yes. Often patterns are repeated. That’s because the blessed WG, starting out, had a finite bunch of patterns to work with. So She says, Hmm, I shall stick this one between his legs and stick the same one on that one like this.

That’s what She did, all righty. And that’s why this damselfly’s back has a bunch of skinny, old black weenies with balls attached. It’s another example of the WG’s sense of humor. However, the color pattern on the dorsal abdominal segments of this damselfly is not totally helping Crumby determine its identity.

A Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) in Her Web

There are a great many honey bees at the CB right now. And plenty of predators are out to eat the honey bees. So when Crumby espied this spider web, he was not surprised to espy three mummied up honey bees in the web. Hold it, Crumby thought. This could be another opportunity for me to practice wide angle, close up photography.

Trouble is, Crumby does not have a wide angle lens that focuses especially close. But he does have the Olympus 14-54 version 1. So that’s what Crumby employed. Can everyone find all the wrappings? Actually, they're not bees, they're hobbits.




Here’s a different lady garden spider. This one’s much bigger. She never wraps victims up. No. She eats them or sucks them dry right away. Then she drops them. Crumby reckons she just has the web to rest on. Up above the web are two egg cases. Crumby must photograph those some time.

Dos and Don’ts of Stepladders for Macro Photography

During a rainy or wet year you may notice that many of the dern plants in your yard grow too dang tall. Then, if you happen to be a short person like the Druid Ovate, Crumby, your altitude could be insufficient for photographing the vermin that are fixing to get on many of your flowers. Yet why should you have to endure that? All you require is a stepladder for macro photography.

Here is an example of a stepladder coming in handy. This step ladder is positioned next to a bunch of tall goldenrod. Crumby can stand on the second rung of this particular stepladder while resting his elbows on the top rung. Then, in that position Crumby is not only elevated above the bees or whatever, he can brace his arms on the stepladder. That’s two dos.


Here’s an example of a don’t. Those Maximilian sunflower blossoms in the back are like ten feet up in the air. To photograph bees or such on those, Crumby would need to climb up the stepladder to the penultimate rung at least. Bad idea!

Here’s another don’t. Most hymenopterans are docile creatures that only wish to follow the gilded rule; Let’s have peace and prosperity in our time for all. However, southern yellow jackets are similar to the most ruthless capitalist running dog you ever met. They will sting your dumb ass mercilessly no matter how high up the stepladder you go. So be sure you are setting your stepladder up in a yellow jacket free area. Mercy!

Corona de Christo Plus Honey Bee

Goodness gracious sakes alive, alive-O! At the CB, diurnally, the honey bees outnumber all the rest of the Hymenopterans put together. Yet we have no honey bee hives. That means the honey bees are all commuting to work.

Here's one on Corona de Christo. Does this mean that Jesus has a bee in his bonnet?

What were these parts like without honey bees? Man! Looking around there are so many honey bees one has to wonder if they displaced a lot of native hymenopterans. Crumby surmises not many since the honey bees are such human commensals. But a few, fer sure. Talk about an unprovable hypothesis.