Friday, June 16, 2017

June 16, 2017: Tetragnatha and a dragonfly:


I saw an orange blob and looked more carefully and saw a Tetragnatha elongata mounting a recently captured dragonfly.  I watched and was quite surprised to see how she managed her breakfast.  She decapitated the dragonfly, wrapped it, hung it from her perch (above) and then used the attached silk to raise the dragonfly to her breakfast table.

Here is Tetragnatha after decapitating the dragonfly.  You can see the dragonfly eye attached below the abdomen.

Wrapping the dragonfly for transport


Raising the dragonfly 


Attaching the dragonfly to a grape vine stem.


Pulling the dragonfly up


More raising the dragonfly


Silk strands for pulling the dragonfly up to her perch


More management (wrapping?) the dragonfly


Slowly pulling the dragonfly to her perch


Raising the dragonfly


Attaching the dragonfly to her perch -  later for breakfast


Wednesday, June 14, 2017

June 14, 2017: Around the lake - flowers and spiders

A morning around Walden Lake - and a few surprises: Nymph and newly emerged dragonfly, many Tetragnatha (male and female), water hyacinth, honeyball and a delicate mushroom


















Friday, June 2, 2017

June 2, 2017: Sandhill Crane family

Sandhill Crane  - mom, dad and chick.   Detailed text to follow