Posts Tagged: prey
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)
Insect Wedding Photography-- Or How a Tired Ol' Male Proved He Wasn't
You're heard these idioms: The early bird gets the worm First come, first...
A newly eclosed female Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) hanging from her empty chrysalis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A tired old male, his wings tattered and torn, is the first to arrive. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The action at the "altar": the newly eclosed female Gulf Fritillary and the tired old male. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Two Gulf Fritillary butterflies become one. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)