Posts Tagged: prey
How Magical Are the Dragonflies
How magical are the dragonflies. They zig-zag through the pollinator garden, a perfect portrait of...
This is a male flameskimmer, Libellula saturata, photographed in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of a firecracker red flameskimmer, Libellula saturata. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Dinner time! A red flameskimmer, Libellula saturata, munches on a bee, probably a longhorned bee, Melissodes agilis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The Crab Spider and the Bee
It was a good day for a crab spider. It was NOT a good day for a honey bee. It's early evening...
A crab spider has just ambushed a honey bee on a bluebeard blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The crab spider can turn colors from white to yellow or yellow to white This one is yellow, awaiting prey on a blanketflower, Gallardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Western Tiger Swallowtails: Not All Are 'Picture Perfect'
It was "hit and miss." The predators hit, and they missed. Oh sure, they took a chunk out of...
A Western tiger swallowtail nectaring on a butterfly bush. Note that it is missing part of its tail. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This Western tiger swallowtail, nectaring on verbena, is missing part of its forewing. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A newly eclosed Western tiger swallowtail, structures all intact. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
What's for Dinner? How About a Green Bottle Fly?
What's for dinner? A crab spider, camouflaged in our lavender patch, didn't catch a honey bee, a...
A crab spider dines on a green bottle fly in a lavender patch in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The crab spider is camouflaged, but its prey, a green bottle fly with its familiar metallic blue-green coloring, isn't. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Henrietta and the Drone Fly: The Predator and the Prey
Henrietta, our Stagmomantis limbata praying mantis, perches on a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia). She...
Henrietta, our Stagmomantis limbata praying mantis, lies in wait on a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia.) (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A drone fly (syrphid) lands on the blossom as a hungry praying mantis watches intently. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
One quick move and praying mantis has dinner. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The spiked forelegs hold the prey in place. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
It's eat and be eaten in the garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Henrietta the praying mantis polishes off the last of the fly but a wing is visible evidence of what happened. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)