Hello Friends! Tonight’s Feature Image is titled “Crescent Butterfly 72821” and is available for purchase by clicking the thumbnail and reaching out to me on the contact page.
Softly the little Crescent Butterfly comes to rest on the leaf. She doesn’t pump her wings or crawl about looking for a bloom to sip from. She simply rests from a day’s work. She’s probably covered untold miles laying eggs and sipping nectar but at the end of her day she’ll simply rest up and gather all her energy for the next round of important work. And I too am ready for a moment of recouping. The dream world awaits my presence tonight.
Good night friends and be blessed throughout your days.
Announcement 2.0
For those who have been following me on Facebook and know of the struggle content providers have to get circulation from big tech I’ve been recommending for people to adopt MeWe as a social media platform. One of the problems I’ve run into on MeWe is that people don’t know how to navigate the platform. So to help with that I’ve created a permanent page on my website as a basic Basic Beginner’s Guide To MeWe I’ve tried to anticipate all basic questions there and You can bookmark the page to have as a reference and if you have any questions or suggestions don’t hesitate to contact me. I do still have a day job and I help admin several pages on both platforms so replies might be a little slow but I will answer you.
We also have the Lloyd’s Lens Photography Discussion Group on MeWe that is set up as a fully functional community. There you’ll not only be able to see and connect with me but you can also make your own posts and interact with each other.
Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!
To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.
If you’re enjoying my blog and don’t want to miss a post then you can sign up for email alerts on my website.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplyuse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Clicking on the photo takes you tohttps://www.zazzle.com/lloydslensphotos?rf=238248269630914251Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographerThank you again for your support of my page!♥️
Hello Friends! Tonight’s Feature Image is titled “Near The Queen’s Heart 72721” and is available for purchase by clicking the thumbnail and reaching out to me on the contact page.
Hardly a summer goes by that I don’t notice the tiny little bee-like hoverfly trying to land on me without being seen. Other times they’ll float in mid air about an inch or so above my skin as if waiting for clearance to land. They’re interested in my salt of course. Like butterflies they need salt to reproduce and humans in the Southern sun tend to have a treasure trove of salt available in their sweat. I normally allow them to get what they need. As a child I was pretty scared of bees and the hoverfly was just another bee to me until Mt grandfather pointed out that it’s just a fly without a sting and you could see its little red tongue licking like a dog. The comparison to a puppy and trust in my grandfather was enough to calm my fears and I became fascinated with the hoverfly. Like the Tachinid flies these little guys are beneficial flies. But they’re not Tachinid flies. They’re in the Syrphid fly family. As adults the hoverflies sip nectar and transfer pollen. And while they don’t carry the payload of a bee they make up the difference by visiting more flowers per flight. Some hoverflies are also predators in the maggot stage and feed on the larvae of aphids while others assist in composting. The rattailed maggot is a type of hoverfly that has a built-in snorkel and is found in the messy end of the barnyard for obvious reasons.
But back to pollination. There’s actually not a lot of research being done on the hoverfly as a pollinator. It’s known that a Chinese variety is the main pollinator of the slipper orchid in Southwest China which leads me to think that our own pink lady’s slipper orchid may have a similar relationship with our native hoverfly. If anyone knows this for sure drop a comment below. The hoverfly is a generalist when it comes to pollination. In tonight’s Feature Image it was found on Queen Anne’s Lace right next to the Belvosia Borealis fly that I covered last night. There’s actually about six thousand species of hoverfly in the world that act as pollinators in their adult stage and I’m not sure which specific hoverfly I have here but I do know that they make me smile when I see them.
Good night friends and be blessed throughout your days.
Announcement 2.0
For those who have been following me on Facebook and know of the struggle content providers have to get circulation from big tech I’ve been recommending for people to adopt MeWe as a social media platform. One of the problems I’ve run into on MeWe is that people don’t know how to navigate the platform. So to help with that I’ve created a permanent page on my website as a basic Basic Beginner’s Guide To MeWe I’ve tried to anticipate all basic questions there and You can bookmark the page to have as a reference and if you have any questions or suggestions don’t hesitate to contact me. I do still have a day job and I help admin several pages on both platforms so replies might be a little slow but I will answer you.
We also have the Lloyd’s Lens Photography Discussion Group on MeWe that is set up as a fully functional community. There you’ll not only be able to see and connect with me but you can also make your own posts and interact with each other.
Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!
To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.
If you’re enjoying my blog and don’t want to miss a post then you can sign up for email alerts on my website.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplyuse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Clicking on the photo takes you tohttps://www.zazzle.com/lloydslensphotos?rf=238248269630914251Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographerThank you again for your support of my page!♥️
Hello Friends! Tonight’s Feature Image is titled “Belvosia Borealis 72621a”. I realize that it would be a very special person who would want photos of a fly as home decor. However, there are those who might be educators that want a photo for a classroom etc. All photos found on my website are my original work unless otherwise specified and are available for purchase by clicking the thumbnail and reaching out to me on the contact page.
The highland delta at Muddlety Creek always seems to offer interesting subjects to photograph. And even though I’m reluctant to actually take a camera onto the water this is one place that I might consider it if I had the right boat. But I digress. As I cautiously work my way around the edge of the swamp the slow lumbering flight pattern of a large fly catches my attention. Now a lot of my photo sessions start with my spotting “target of opportunity” and calibrating my eye by taking a few practice shots. I have a good macro lens for insects and the like but experience has taught me that in order for that to work the subject has to be comfortable with my sticking the lens in its face. Most insects flee long before you can get that close so I use the long lens and turn the session into a tiny safari. (This also helps keep your shadow out of the shot.) I snapped a few pictures and noticed that this particular fly was a tacinid. It’s not a biting fly like a horse fly or a black fly. It’s not a house fly or a blow fly. This fly is a free form of pest control and a friend of gardeners. It proved to be “Belvosia Borealis”. And it’s currently pollinating Queen Anne’s Lace which is a type of wild carrot. But that’s really just a side benefit. Tacinid flies are parsitoid flies. That is, like the Great Golden Digger Wasp in last night’s post they start life as a parasite on pest insects.
Image titled “Belvosia Borealis 72621b”.
To be honest I couldn’t find a whole lot of details about which specific pests are controlled by this specific species of Tachinid. There are a lot of individual species and it’s common for each species to target a specific handful of hosts. As a group Tachinid flies help control pests like tomatoe hornworm, gypsy moth, tent caterpillar (AKA army worms) and even squash bugs and Japanese Beetles. The Tachinid flies require a living host to reproduce and it’s not really pleasant but in doing so they can help prevent millions of dollars in crop loss each year. The additional benefit is that instead of a build up of toxic chemicals in the food chain you basically have a biological robot that kills pests, pollenates certain crops and is safe for the birds and fish to consume.
Image Titled “Belvosia Borealis 72621c”. You can see that this fly wants to make you think it’s a bee.
This Belvosia fly has yellow stripes like a bee and if you look closely at the first two images it has blue eyes. I thought that it might just be reflecting the sky but in other online pictures this seems to be the same in all of them. As far as flies go it almost looks like a cartoon fly. Another feature of Tachinid flies is that spiked hairdo. Multiple sources make reference to it being the “Punk Rock Fly”.
In closing I’ll suggest that when you see this one don’t reach for the swatter but instead let it go and and rid your garden of the real pests.
Good night friends and be blessed throughout your days.
Announcement 2.0
For those who have been following me on Facebook and know of the struggle content providers have to get circulation from big tech I’ve been recommending for people to adopt MeWe as a social media platform. One of the problems I’ve run into on MeWe is that people don’t know how to navigate the platform. So to help with that I’ve created a permanent page on my website as a basic Basic Beginner’s Guide To MeWe I’ve tried to anticipate all basic questions there and You can bookmark the page to have as a reference and if you have any questions or suggestions don’t hesitate to contact me. I do still have a day job and I help admin several pages on both platforms so replies might be a little slow but I will answer you.
We also have the Lloyd’s Lens Photography Discussion Group on MeWe that is set up as a fully functional community. There you’ll not only be able to see and connect with me but you can also make your own posts and interact with each other.
Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!
To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.
If you’re enjoying my blog and don’t want to miss a post then you can sign up for email alerts on my website.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplyuse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Clicking on the photo takes you tohttps://www.zazzle.com/lloydslensphotos?rf=238248269630914251Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographerThank you again for your support of my page!♥️
Hello Friends! Tonight’s Feature Image is titled “Great Golden Digger 724121a” and is available for purchase by clicking the thumbnail and reaching out to me on the contact page.
The marshlands of Muddlety Creek are alive with tiny wings as the cloud softened light spreads through the landscape. And what better place to find the swamp milkweed than a swamp? Although we normally associate milkweed with the Monarch and Viceroy Butterflies it’s sweet effervescence draws in many pollinators. To most of us the idea of a wasp being beneficial can seem a little strange at first. We tend to imagine the paper wasp that builds its nest on our houses and develops an attitude problem as it gets “broody” throughout the summer. But that’s actually not the majority of wasp species. And especially not true for the Great Golden Digger Wasp. In fact the male Golden Digger doesn’t even have a stinger. They do get a little territorial and will bluff you if you pressure them but in general this species is pretty passive.
Image Titled “Great Golden Digger Wasp 72421b” and is available for purchase by clicking the thumbnail and reaching out to me on the contact page.
For the most part this wasp would rather spend the day sipping nectar. The Golden Digger Wasp has fur which is pretty unique among wasps and actually improves the chances of carrying pollen between flowers. However, unlike honeybees and solitary bees she doesn’t feed pollen or nectar to her babies. Instead she’ll feed them crickets and katydids. As the name implies she digs several holes and then goes on the hunt for crickets and katydids. The female is the only one that has a sting and it’s a special neurotoxin that paralyzes her prey. She’ll actually use her antenna like tentacles to help carry the paralyzed insect back to a hole. But before she can drag the victim into her tunnel she has to inspect the tunnel and make sure that it’s a perfect nursery for her baby. In fact science has discovered that she’s a little OCD about this. In experiments scientists discovered that if they moved her paralyzed victim while she’s in the tunnel that she’ll drag it back to the place where she left it and start her inspection all over again. In each experiment with different female Digger Wasps they never failed to start over in this way.
Image Titled “Great Golden Digger Wasp 72421c” and is available for purchase by clicking the thumbnail and reaching out to me on the contact page.
Everything has to be perfect because once she lays a single egg on her prey she closes the tunnel and never returns. In this way the Great Golden Digger Wasp both pollinates the plants and controls the pests that damage them. So when you see the Great Golden Digger Wasp don’t reach for the spray. They’re actually making the world a better place for us.
Good night friends and be blessed throughout your days.
Announcement 2.0
For those who have been following me on Facebook and know of the struggle content providers have to get circulation from big tech I’ve been recommending for people to adopt MeWe as a social media platform. One of the problems I’ve run into on MeWe is that people don’t know how to navigate the platform. So to help with that I’ve created a permanent page on my website as a basic Basic Beginner’s Guide To MeWe I’ve tried to anticipate all basic questions there and You can bookmark the page to have as a reference and if you have any questions or suggestions don’t hesitate to contact me. I do still have a day job and I help admin several pages on both platforms so replies might be a little slow but I will answer you.
We also have the Lloyd’s Lens Photography Discussion Group on MeWe that is set up as a fully functional community. There you’ll not only be able to see and connect with me but you can also make your own posts and interact with each other.
Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!
To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.
If you’re enjoying my blog and don’t want to miss a post then you can sign up for email alerts on my website.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplyuse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Clicking on the photo takes you tohttps://www.zazzle.com/lloydslensphotos?rf=238248269630914251Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographerThank you again for your support of my page!♥️
Hello Friends! Tonight’s Feature Image is titled “Ruby Meadowhawk 72021a” and is available for purchase by clicking the thumbnail and reaching out to me on the contact page.
The red dragonfly sits carefully on his perch scanning for the flight pattern of his prey. His sharp eyes are genetically tuned for certain movements and he can see in almost a full circle. His powerful wings are like loaded springs waiting for the pull of a trigger. The mosquito rises up from the water’s surface and the dragonfly feels his feet leave the leaf as his wings engage the humid air. From his perspective the world seems to be in slow motion. The blink of a human eye is three hundred milliseconds but the dragonfly’s reaction time is only fifty milliseconds as he closes in on his prey. The mosquito seems to be frozen in time as the dragonfly maneuvers through the reeds. In truth, I had my camera in burst mode and the dragonfly completely vanished between frames. Yes, they’re that fast. It’s said by scientists that a dragonfly can fly at sixty miles per hour. And my observation is that they can go from zero to sixty in less than a second. While hunting they can even fly upside down in order to catch those nasty mosquitos. By comparison, a hummingbird flies at thirty miles per hour and can only reach sixty miles per hour by diving straight down while flapping their wings as hard as they can. ( Which is something hummingbirds do as part of their mating ritual. ) But I suppose that twice the number of wings means twice the speed. Much like hummingbirds dragonflies incorporate their whole body into their aerobatics. By changing the angle of their body they change the traction that their wings generate and can even turn around 360° in mid flight. Engineers are actually studying how dragonflies maneuve in order to create more efficient drones. In terms of scale speed a human being would pass out from the G forces that a dragonfly produces while just hunting. Even though I didn’t catch it on camera that sudden stop when the dragonfly returned to his favorite perch was as equally impressive as the flight.
The appearance of the dragonflies marks the midsummer page of my natural calendar and while I enjoy all of the varieties of dragonflies I think that the red ones are my favorite.
Good night friends and be blessed throughout your days.
Announcement 2.0
For those who have been following me on Facebook and know of the struggle content providers have to get circulation from big tech I’ve been recommending for people to adopt MeWe as a social media platform. One of the problems I’ve run into on MeWe is that people don’t know how to navigate the platform. So to help with that I’ve created a permanent page on my website as a basic Basic Beginner’s Guide To MeWe I’ve tried to anticipate all basic questions there and You can bookmark the page to have as a reference and if you have any questions or suggestions don’t hesitate to contact me. I do still have a day job and I help admin several pages on both platforms so replies might be a little slow but I will answer you.
We also have the Lloyd’s Lens Photography Discussion Group on MeWe that is set up as a fully functional community. There you’ll not only be able to see and connect with me but you can also make your own posts and interact with each other.
Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!
To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.
If you’re enjoying my blog and don’t want to miss a post then you can sign up for email alerts on my website.
I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplyuse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.
Clicking on the photo takes you tohttps://www.zazzle.com/lloydslensphotos?rf=238248269630914251Lastly, all of the photos and writings are my original work unless otherwise specified and are not to be copied or reproduced without expressed written permission from the photographerThank you again for your support of my page!♥️
LLOYD'S LENS PHOTOGRAPHY LLC 