Either side of my head are ears and to the front my eyes, the nose however plays a slightly less important task to what i use it for during my most intimate moments alone with nature.

It’s around about this time of year, that my senses are woken to a new variety of life out there beyond the realms of obvious in your faceness. Whilst most people rush around either riding, running or walking oblivious past the little things we share the world with.
New life in it’s many wonderful forms appear from their many hiding places to develop into a part of the circle of life.
A simple blade of grass could be eaten by a rabbit which in turn may feed a fox, a hawk a man yet the humble bunny also provides for other less known beasties. A rabbits dung will feed the off spring and creature few people will see before stepping on. I once lay in the dirt and watched one of these magnificent dung beetles at work and marvelled at it’s simple life.
And close up i saw them as even more amazing. I give to you the mighty Minotaur beetle.

Not all beetles live off poo, others have a taste a little more understandable, they eat flowers. As i walked across the cliff tops in Dorset, amongst the swaying grass were single flower head’s, where a much more destructive and ravenous beetle feasted on the petals. I was stunned by the quantity of these beetles up here and at the rate they gorge themselves. But it wasn’t just the rate of eating that was stunning, the beautiful metallic green/bronze shell was also just amazing.
The Rose Chafer.

Party animals and in action

Then there’s the flies and butterflies that come to the flower to feed directly on, or to feed on the feeders themselves.

Sometime a mixture.

If creatures weren’t drinking, eating or being eaten, they were doing what animals do best.
They were at it on the ground.

On dead flowers.

On live flowers.

Even at the dinner table.

We share a world with the beautiful.

The vulgar.

and even the loopy.

Much like people they’re all different, whether fat, or funny faced.

They all play an important role in the existence and survival of mankind and have been a very important in my own survival..

Keep your eye’s open peeps, if you blink you’ll miss it.

there is something about that moth…..

why do you feel it is boring, love a bit of nature. Thanks for the pics

Not boring at all!! I read somewhere that beetles are on the up.

Perhaps i feel it all a bit geeky.

Most people on here are all were middle class snobs so thought nobody would be particularly interested in bugs as they can’t reflect their wealth of penis size. 😉

some nice people on here sharki I think.

There are infact loads Kev.

Some fat, some funny faced, just like bugs.. 🙂

nowt wrong with a fat purple bug eh!

I can’t recall ever seeing a fat purple bug before. 😕

anyway, I love yer pics and info:)

I’ve got a stinking cold & have had a crap day at work. This cheered me up. Thanks.

good that sharki.
i love a big scary beetle…………send shiver down my back….bbbrrrrr 😉

beetles remind me of something i read (Carlos Castaneda me thinks) about a man watching a beetle at work and of how obsessed the beetle is with its task, being totally oblivious to the man watching it ever so closely, the man being within an inch of the beetle but not even in its universe, makes you wonder who / what else is in ours watching us……..

mushroom tea anyone?

I love the yellow soles on this guy’s feet! Groovy shoes.

Very true Querty.

I was reading up on study of digger wasps and found this interesting (for me)result.

The wasp would drop a paralyzed insect near the opening of the nest. Before taking provisions into the nest, the Sphex first inspects the nest, leaving the prey outside. During the inspection, an experimenter can move the prey a few inches away from the opening. When the Sphex emerges from the nest ready to drag in the prey, it finds the prey missing. The Sphex quickly locates the moved prey, but now its behavioral “program” has been reset. After dragging the prey back to the opening of the nest, once again the Sphex is compelled to inspect the nest, so the prey is again dropped and left outside during another stereotypical inspection of the nest. This iteration can be repeated again and again, with the Sphex never seeming to notice what is going on, never able to escape from its programmed sequence of behaviors.

Daft sods.

Bigjim. It was like the beetles version of Ibiza up on Exmoor when i took that pic..There were at it everywhere.

Great photos there, what camera are you using to get the closeups?
I find it quite interesting to watch spiders at work spinning webs and catching prey.

Thanks for these pics, sharki; one of the loveliest, randomest and most intriguing threads I’ve seen a while.

Also: that’s a read I want to check out, cheers qwerty.

The Minotaur was taken using a Sony Cybershot, DSCrunoverwithacar

All the others where with the Fuji S200HD in one or the other macro settings.

And thanks all for the comments.

Lovely pics, sharki, and nice text. The Hawk Moth is exquisite, truly one of the most beautiful creatures we have in this country. During the summer I love going up on the chalk downs and looking at the orchids and insects and birds that live there. One humid threatening summer afternoon the swifts were flying so low above my head I could hear their wings cutting through the air with a hissing sound, and see their eyes, and beaks agape as they screamed. Unforgettable.

I’d rather look at pics and watch programs on insects rather than animals. Ants and wasps are the best IMO.

Lovely thread.
My Grandpa was an entomologist, so I was brought up amongst butterflies and moths. Often going into some woods before dark and setting up his moth traps. Then the excitement of morning when we rushed to the eggboxs to see what beauty had made its home for the night.

Cheers.

On the subject of birds and the sounds they make as they’re flying i had a Peregrine pass me by sounding like a jet plane. It was diving maybe full chat after something whilst i was in the Minack Theatre at the time.

I very nearly soiled myself.:)

As i said in my book, “…man tries to create beauty but nature is the true master…”
Butterflies and caterpillars seem to do it so well.

fab pics and not geeky at all to pass on info about something you are obviously passionate about, i like to think i observe a bit of nature whilst out and about, but have not seen, let alone observed some of these species. I will be keeping a much keener eye out from now on, thanks for the heads up.

Lovely pics, lovely thread. 😀

Great pics! can i ask what lens you use, as i’ve tried to get a few insect pics and just can’t get that close up (unless you have cropped the original).

I should have read the entire thread before i asked.

You don’t need any fancy camera honest
IIRC non of these were taken with anything other than a simple compact digi camera

Liking your cockchafer 😳 mrovershoot

Fixed lens on a Bridge camera.
Macro setting or super macro depending on what can use given the location, either way it means i need to be virtually on the little critters, which for the flutterblys is really hard work.

Some species are easier than others so i learnt and when the blues or Adonis land they often have their wings closed, still the under sides are just as splendid.

Slightly cropped for composure.

how good is this thread? nice one guys.

My old man took this on a 3mp Olympus compact – not perfect, I know, but I like it….

Beautiful pictures of nature doing what nature does best, eating and shagging…

Not the best pics (2mp camera phone a few years ago). Took them in the Gorges du Tarn.

Gotta love the Dragon flies too eh?
As for those Nymphs looking critters, lovely.

Approximately, there are 30,000 cells making up the compound eyes of Dragonflies.

The lace like wings are just fantastic too, whether from the delicate veined Dragonflies, or the more textured and vibrant coloured demoiselle damselflies

it’s not the camera, it’s the photographer that makes the picture. Top thread!

sharki – Member

Liking your cockchafer 😳 mrovershoot

Thanks Sharki, he was in our garden as was Mr Dragonfly in pic 2
Pic 1 was taken @ Dartington Hall in Devon on a very cold but sunny morning in November

Sadly the Ricoh Caplio RR30 that I used for most of the shots died in a Lakeland river incident 🙁 it might have only been 3.2MP but it did macro down to 1cm with perfect focus!

Same Dartington, different sort of cold in July last year. 😉

I cannot think why i have no cockchafer photos, when is saw loads somewhere last year..Really looking forward to this summers bug fest.

Nice pics! Bugs are cool. Can I share too?

Please do Jemima.

I’m envious of your wood ant pic, it’s a lovely capture.

Best thread. EVER. Thank you.

Inverts and bugs 🙂 Can’t beat them. We have to have a few spids too 🙂 Here are a few on mine

One of my favourite spiders, C.calpeiana, an angry male after I have de-mited him. Not very happy about it at the time but will be better.

And a tree frog

Cool photos. I don’t think that beetle is “vulgar” though. A word more suited to these babies

(picked off my dog last year)