Jumping spiders

The largest spider family is Salticidae, the "jumping spiders". They have excellent eyesight and are know for their leaping abilities. Jumping spiders are also my favorite to photograph. They often look right at the camera, they have cute fuzzy pedipalps that they often hold up like "mustaches" and big shiny eyes.

May Flowers!

May flowers!

Buttercup drama

I've been taking pictures of bees visiting the buttercups in my front lawn. I came upon this scene. A crab spider - family Thomisidae - set up shop in a flower, as these spiders often do. It waited for a pollinator to visit the buttercup, then struck. The prey is a Ceratina "small carpenter bee".

Beetles!

Beetles I've found lately

(The first picture is lifted from a previous post, if it looks familiar)

A shiny green tiger beetle hunts in the garden. Cicindela spp. are metallic predatory beetles that prefer sandy or clay soils.

I was clearing away an old pile of firewood. The logs were half buried in the soil and were riddled with beetles and other invertebrates.

These two are "patent-leather beetles" Odontotaenius disjunctus. They and their larvae eat rotting wood and do a good job of breaking down logs into soil. I found at least six of them. They also vibrate their wings along their abdomen when disturbed, making a little squeak.

A beetle larva - smooth and shiny.

Another beetle larva - soft and squishy.

A Xylocopa male waits for a mate

There was a pair of carpenters bees creating a ruckus in the grass. I took a closer look.

The female cleans her face and antennae and sits in the grass resting

A male hovers patiently nearby

And waits.

She flew off and was tackled and pursued.

Bees on flowers

Pollination and stuff.

Purple dead-nettle has rust colored pollen.