| Animals and Insects The following pictures are a few interesting photos I took of animals, insects, and reptiles. I hope you enjoy! |
| I thought this series of photos was pretty special! It was approximately 1:00 AM in the morning when I spotted this cicada escaping from his larva casing. As a kid I always found the empty casings on houses, trees, sheds, etc., but I had never actually watched the transformation before. It was really amazing! |
| To the left is a Texas spiny lizard. It has been living on the side of a structure for the past year. |
| The above photos of are what I believe is called a "Goliath Beetle". The one on the left is a Male, and the two on the right represent a female. I collected these in the Burnet Texas area, which is part of the Central Texas Hill Country. I found these specimens within a one week period, and in 6 years in the area, have not seen any other examples of this beetle. |
| Pretty cool caterpillar don't you think ? |
| To the left you see a yellow jacket feeding on a large tomato worm. Every evening when I harvest vegetables from my organic garden, I am careful to examine the plants for any signs of infestations or disease. Periodically I have found tomato worms on my tomato plants, and my solution to this problem is that I simply remove them by hand and kill them. On this particular evening I noticed several yellow jackets flying in and out of one of my tomato plants. Of course my first thought was that they were building a nest inside the plant, so I took a closer look so I could remove it before it became a problem. To my surprise, upon looking into the area where the yellow jackets where going I saw what you are seeing in the photograph. There was a large tomato worm hanging underneath a leaf, and the worm had a large hole in his side. The yellow jackets were flying back and forth removing large chunks of the worm and carrying it off. Mother nature never fails to surprise me. When everything is in harmony, mother nature has her own set of checks and balances. |
| If you look to the right, you will see the Monster Grub Worms I found in my garden a couple of years ago. You can read the whole story on my gardening page if you like. You can also click on the grub worm photos to enlarge them for a better look. |