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Compare this ladybug to the ones below - do you notice a difference? Native ladybugs I have photographed.  No white collar (pronotum) present. Who doesn't love ladybugs?  You can put a ladybug on a child's finger with no fear of anything bad happening.  Then, it will likely fly off to fight aphids in your garden.  Pretty, gentle, and helpful.  Then along came the Asian ladybug. The Asian ladybug beetle looks a little different from native species.  Native species are generally red, although there are quite a variety of colours.  They are also relatively small, round, and do not have a pronounced white collar or pronotum present.  The Asian variety has such a collar and it often has a distinct "M" shaped mark on it.  The pronotum of native ones are generally black (the above shots show "white" areas that are just reflections off the shell from the macro flash). The Asian ladybug is somewhat invasive.  They compete with native ladybugs for...

I have photographed crab spiders before ( click here ), but those were flower crab spiders.  Those ones sit atop flowers and wait patiently for dinner to come to them.  The one above, a running crab spider, has a different MO but the same agenda.  It waits patiently for a meal to appear and then chases after it with great agility and speed. This kind is very different, both in habit and body shape.  Flower crab spiders tend to have a larger abdomen and are not known for wasting energy chasing after prey.  Their front four legs are longer than the rear four and they work together to form a powerful trap which they overpower susceptible insects with.  Many a bee has been made a meal of by members of this spider family.  Running crab spiders, on the other hand, don't sit atop flowers, don't have two long front pairs of legs, and are often mottled shades of brown.  Neither of these groups uses a web for catching or holding prey; rather, they ambush ...

A vesper sparrow near Winfield, BC. When I saw the bird, I didn't recognize it as anything special.  The markings are rather bland; there was nothing that really stood out like a rufous cap or black throat, and it just sat there, completely ignoring me but not doing anything special either.  Essentially, it was a small, dull, plain bird. When trying to identify a bird I often go through a series of checks.  First, I try to figure out what group it belongs to.  In this case, it was a fair bet that it was a sparrow.  Then I try to identify any special markings that could help in identifying it.  Nothing really, but I did notice a very small chestnut brown shoulder patch.  Was that an eye-ring I saw?  Not sure, it certainly doesn't stand out like they do on some birds.  And I didn't get a good look at the breast, but it looks speckled or something, but less as it descends on the bird. Then I peruse my books to look for something akin to what I p...

Turkey vulture sitting on a fence post on a farm near Winfield, BC. OK, I thought I had seen everything.  However, coming across a vulture sitting atop a fence post was not something to be expected.  Maybe the bird knew something, perhaps its sense of smell told its avian brain that food would soon be available, or maybe it just took the "turkey" part of its name a little too seriously. To give you an idea how unusual this is, I photographed it yesterday and posted it on a Facebook group I belong to and it got 63 likes in just a few hours.  For me, that's a lot.  It's unusual not only because of the pretty pose it displayed, it's also because I was close to it.  The above frame is almost fully what I got in my viewfinder.  I can make a glorious 16x20 print from it, not that I want such an image hanging in my front room looking down at me waiting for Death to visit.  It turns out that turkey vultures and the Grim Reaper are close friends. I photographed...

Metallic green sweat bee on chives flower in Oyama, BC. Both sweat bees and cuckoo wasps boast metallic colours, often blue or green, and are about the same size.  Their habits are very different however as sweat bees are active pollinators while cuckoo wasps parasitize the nests of other Hymenoptera.  I have been pouring over my insect books (yes, I have more than one) and the internet in hopes of figuring out what this.  As far as I can tell, it is a sweat bee because: cuckoo wasps have the ability to curl up in a tight ball while sweat bees don't.  I never saw any evidence that these emerald green beauties have such a talent. sweat bees are avid pollinators and collect the stuff for nests while cuckoo wasps have no such interest in the yellow particles as they are larvae parasatoids. both visit flowers as the adults consume nectar but sweat bees will land on flowers and be more richly engaged with the blooms while cuckoo wasps tend to avoid crawling around on them...

A black ant taking sugary nectar from a peony flower bud. You've heard of this one, right?  Peonies need ants in order to bloom.  No ants, no peony flowers.  Well, that is a myth, and it is completely false.  If you grew peonies without ants being present, the flowers would bloom just fine.  So, what's the deal with ants? It turns out that there is mutualism involved between these gorgeous flowers and the smaller members of the Hymenoptera.  The reason that ants frequent peony flower buds is to collect the sugars and other nutrients present on the growing structure.  So the ants benefit, but what about the plant?  If the blooms are not in danger from ant help, why would it surrender those resources? Protection.  It seems that peonies are in the protection racket. "Hey buddy, if you want to come around here to do your business, you are going to do me a favour, see?  You keep those other bugs away from me and I will provide the goods."...