We have liftoff!

Black swallowtail lifts off after a nectar snack in the wildflower garden.

Tiny

Like a galleon being boarded by pirates, the body of a ladybug is rocked violently by the movements of the many fire ants dismantling it. One ant clambered up a mast-like wing; while ants on each side tilted the round hull of the little beetle from side to side, until naught was left.

Just one of a million tiny dramas being played out at any moment in the Arkansas Ouachitas.

At the edge

This spider, its tiny body almost doubled over as it clings to the slenderest grass seed head, certainly seems on the edge.

 

Swallowtail

A fast-flying yellow swallowtail stopped long enough to grace our the wildflower garden yesterday. 

Twinkle, twinkle little star … spider

This exotic looking black and white star spider, seemingly up above the world so high, was spinning his web on a beautiful late summer afternoon in the Ouachitas.

Hummingbird moth

I love seeing these clearwing, or hummingbird moths, partly because they don’t come around that often and because of their relatively large-bodied fuzziness. Caught this one on a dark overcast day in the office garden. (Sorry about the too-hot flash.)

2 (8 legs + 8 eyes)

Funnel web spider out of his silken tube, mirrored in a glass window.

You know you’ve driven through the Arkansas Delta when …

… the front of  your vehicle changes color from “Predawn Gray Mica” to “Entomological Hodge Podge.”

Over the edge

White marked tussock caterpillar peers over the edge of the hummingbird feeder into a two-story abyss. We have no idea how he got there. He did leave the hard way, walking off the edge. By the time we got down to the sidewalk — POOF — he had gone.

Pipsqueak

The teeny, weeny grasshopper claimed the coreopsis flower for his own after the painted lady butterfly moved on to its next nectar source. In the earlier photo on the bottom, it almost looks like the grasshopper is ducking while the butterfly feeds.