Praying mantises hatching.

This hatching happened last July near my front walk. It's the second time I've been lucky enough to spot an egg case hatching. I've never seen the event from start to finish so I don't know how long it took for all those itty bitty mantises to crawl out of the tiny hole in the bottom of the pod, drop or crawl into that big mass, then either drop to the ground and walk or climb away. But it didn't take long. Each one of those "bananas" hanging from the bunch was about an inch or less long. A perfect little mantis ready to fend for itself. I wonder how many of them survived? 

Bad close-up. Next year I hope to get better shots.

 

Now I have two more egg cases, safely (I hope) on my front porch, and ready to hatch in the summer.

 

Praying mantises being born

Every year praying mantises build their nests around my front yard. I've been watching this nest for 2 months and finally saw the birth. What looks like a huge bunch of bananas are hundreds of tiny babies. They crawl out of itty bitty holes in the nest and using, apparently, some web-like material hang together until each one crawls over the others and finds his or her way off to a big life of eating mosquitoes and other bugs. In a few months the big ones will be peeking in my front window taunting my cats.

Yellow jackets? I think so.

I've had yellow jacket nests before and I just leave them alone. Here's what the USDA says about them:
Yellow Jacket: Yellow jacket wasps (Vespula) are often mistaken for bees. Indeed, some folks call them “meat bees”, but they are in fact social wasps related to hornets and only distantly related to bees. Yellow jackets may on occasion visit flowers (or your water-melon slice) for sugar, but unlike bees, yellow jackets are carnivorous, eating insects, carrion and picnic fare. Hence, they have no brushes or pollen baskets for carrying pollen. They are relatively hairless. Their nests are made of paper, not wax, typically built in shallow underground cavities. In only a few instances are they thought to be pollinators. Like honeybees and bumble bees, yellow jackets have a potent sting. 

Seems odd to have such an active nest appear when the weather has turned coldish, but maybe it was out there hiding from me all summer in my not-well-attended-to back garden.

My milkweed is home to some pretty but unknown (to me) insects. I saw a single Monarch butterfly this summer. One is better than none.

A praying mantis.

 

 

 

Some kind of moth caterpillar? Found on a dying heuchera leaf on my deck.

Critters in my yard and nearby.

I know that the caterpillar became a black swallowtail butterfly and that Lucy likes studying the praying mantis outside the front window. But what is (are?) that (those?) flying insect(s) on my leg? It (they?) landed while Doug and I were canoeing around the local reservoir recently. They landed, flew away, returned, flew away, returned, on and on. If it's a them they spent a long, long time hooked up like that. And I mean hooked up in the sense that it's used most often these days. 

(Top) Swallowtail butterfly caterpillar--welcome. (Bottom) Hornworm--not welcome. (White creatures) Parasitic larvae cocoons--good. Thanks Icebear.

What are all those white things on the bottom worm? Aphids? And I wonder if the top worm is just a younger version of the bottom worm? They feasted on my tomato leaves. Not sure if they go for the fruit too but I picked some pretty gnarly looking tomatoes today. Someone, other than the groundhogs and rabbits, has been enjoying my crop.

High up in my magnolia tree. Wasp nest?

I discovered the "digital macro" setting on my camera!

Pretty! I wonder what he is?

A very cold moth on the front door at midnight.

Spring is here.