@tjalamont.bsky.social
Writer & nature photographer, especially macro photography of arthropods. Board member, Desert Tortoise Preserve Committee (conservation nonprofit). Fan of California, Montana, the rest of the planet. Photo website: https://www.tomastlephotography.com/
Double feature with Kenny
That's what the rose petal is for🌹
When you haven’t eaten in almost five months, that first bite of salad is so rewarding 🐢🥗
They do. The Mojave can get quite cold in winter, even below freezing. Desert tortoises actually spend most of their time both winter and summer underground, because their burrows are climate controlled - a cool place to escape the brutal desert heat, and less cold than the surface in winter.
Eddie is up, and once again ruler of all he surveys. (Our other desert tortoise, Bob, is also awake for the season, but prefers not to participate in social media at this time.) #Eddiethetortoise 🐢
Scale bud, Anisocoma acaulis 🌼
A pretty and pretty tiny beetle, smaller than a rice grain, in the Mojave Desert a couple of weeks ago. I think it's a soft-winged flower beetle (family Melyridae).
#BugSky 🐙🌿
Thanks, @entsocamerica.bsky.social!
🐙🌿 #BugSky
Not enough letters for them all - also Michael Rapaport
I’ve had a tough few weeks. So I slump into a chair and start mindlessly flipping channels - when I stumble on “Deep Blue Sea” (aka “Don’t Make Smart Sharks”), the 1999 cinematic masterwork starring LL Cool J, Stellan Skarsgard, Aida Turturro, and, for awhile, Samuel L. Jackson. I feel better. 🦈🧠🦜
Black harvester ant alates (winged reproductive males & females), Mojave Desert. Their emergence was well-synchronized across numerous colonies; on the same day I saw them coming out of nests hundreds of yards (even a few miles) apart. The male is the tiny-headed one, but I don't judge. #BugSky 🐙🌿🐜
Australian Elephant Mosquito (Toxorhynchites speciosus).
A most welcome sight in my garden. The adults don't drink blood at all (they prefer nectar and sap), while the larvae consume other types of mosquitoes!
#insects #invertebrates
Throwback to the time This Thing appeared 👀 (giant mayfly, from 2021)
Photobombing is a constant problem in macrophotography
(Heliolonche pictipennis moth in the Mojave Desert last weekend; green mirid plant bug going "Oh heyyy" in the upper left.) #BugSky 🌿🐙📷
Here is your Saturday Spider 🕷️
(A tiny crab spider waiting for meal delivery on a scale bud flower, Mojave Desert) #BugSky 🐙🌿📷
We are fortunate to have both Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers around all year, but they are particularly active in the winter.
This female Hairy Woodpecker arrived with a few loud PIPS, to forage for snacks on or in the trees!
#Birds #photography #wildlife 🪶
This is not the way
Guess what
Bee butt
A small (under 1 cm., way smaller than a honeybee) male Dufourea sp. bee sleeping in a sun cup (Camissonia campestris) flower in the Mojave Desert last week. Males of many solitary native bees sleep in flowers or use their mandibles to clamp onto thin plant stems. 🐙🌿📷 #BugSky
Hey SoCal folks - on 3/21-22 @mhedin.bsky.social and I are teaching a 2-day macro workshop in Anza-Borrego Desert! We'll have Saturday class time to cover composition, equipment, lighting, etc., then field time Saturday afternoon, blacklighting that night, and reconvene for a morning bug-walk. 📷🐙🌿
Model and mimic: a clever longhorn beetle (Euderces reichei, at right) tries its best to look like a local carpenter ant, Campontous decipiens, as they both feed on a spring dogwood flower. Brackenridge Field Laboratory, Texas.
These pretty, day-flying moths (Heliolonche pictipennis), only about 1 cm. long, are one of my favorite desert spring insects. The only flowers they visit (desert dandelion, desert chicory, or scale bud) close up at night; the moths sleep inside them, which is scientifically adorable. #BugSky 🌿🐙🌼
Yes! I had seen the katydid eggs on a grass stem, and noticed one had a tiny hole in it - I realized what it probably was and kept an eye on it. The next day, the wasps (and one katydid) started hatching.
Eddie and Bob are getting up tomorrow 🐢⏰
The katydid was released in the garden. These particular wasps wouldn’t hurt the katydid itself - they lay their eggs inside katydid eggs.
CORRECTION: ID'd by my bee-friend Krystle Hickman as Dufourea sp.
Was ID'd as a Dufourea sp. (by my bee-friend Krystle Hickman)
Is this desert flower (sun cup, Camissonia sp.) small? Yes, under 2cm. Is this bee (maybe Lasioglossum sp.?) even smaller? Yes, 5-6mm (zoom in!). To get a blue sky background behind a plant under 15cm. tall, did I have to lie sideways on the ground and get sand in my ear? Also yes.
🌿🐙📷🌼 #BugSky
I don't post a lot of flower photos (unless the flower has a bug in it), but I do make exceptions. Here's a close look at the Red Rock Canyon Monkeyflower (Erythranthe rhodopetra; rhodo=red, petra=rock), a rare endemic found only in, you guessed it, Red Rock Canyon State Park in California. 📷🌿🌸
Extreme closeup of tiny dewrops on a faded desert evening primrose flower (Oenothera sp.), Mojave Desert, California. The large flowers start out white and fade to pale pink; wilted blossoms like the one in closeup can be pink or peach.
--this one is seasonal and solitary, with no hive. A lone female mates, digs a burrow in the ground (hence "mining" bee), provisions it with pollen, and lays her eggs. Then she seals up the entrance and never sees her offspring. One of my favorite spring species. Mojave Desert, CA, yesterday. 🌼