To celebrate the dog days of summer and the plethora of summer insects likely vexing you, this week I challenge you to share images of insects. Spiders are OK, too, but they are arachnids with 8 legs. Add dogs too, if you wish!
My post title comes from the song, Dog and Butterfly, sung by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, one of my all-time favorite songs and bands. Listen while you scroll though the beautiful bugs 😊
The original image of Brodie sniffing the ice plant flower, was reimagined to add the butterfly. Hence “Dog and Butterfly.”
Butterflies and Moths
“Butterflies are like angels’ kisses sent from heaven.” —Malia Kirk
Moths
“Nature is always lavish of her gifts even to the most insignificant forms. The butterflies and moths are richly dowered in this respect.” – Annie Besant
Beetles
Some people are deathly afraid of beetles. This one could be a reason why.
And then many are drawn to the tiny, pretty, ladybeetle (or ladybug). And why not, what’s not to love?
“Hurt no living thing: Ladybird, nor butterfly, nor moth with dusty wing…”
~ Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)
Wings and Stingers
Dragonflies and bees that is! We know why bees exist as pollinators for our flora.
Wasps help pollinate as well as hunt caterpillars and flies. This tiny paper wasp is sipping water from a tiny ceramic flower in my garden.
“The flower doesn’t dream of the bee. It blossoms and the bee comes.” – Mark Nepo
Are you aware of how useful dragonflies are?
Isn’t it lovely how they love to “perch” on my garden posts? They fly back and forth to the same post over several days., likely hunting mosquitos.
“Dragonflies possess natural “superpowers” that make them earth’s most successful aerial hunters, boasting a hunting success rate of up to 95%. They can eat over 40 mosquitos a day.” SOURCE
“I love to see the sunshine on the wings of the Dragonflies… there is magic in it.”― Ama H. Vanniarachchy
I have shared this previously but it’s worth sharing again. Years ago at the Sacramento Delta, while hubby was out windsurfing, I sat in the shade out of the wind. Playing out over an hour behind me on a log, was this:
I watched, utterly amazed as it slowly and deftly emerged from its nymph shell. Note, this series of images was taken with my Lumix FZ300 camera.
Speaking of wings, sometimes a winged insect becomes lunch for a nest of hungry baby birds. This moth was good-sized compared to this small Say’s Phoebe flycatcher.
Papa Phoebe is shown here in an illustrative watercolor design I am using from my original photos for my children’s book. Talented self-publisher Marsha Ingrao is helping me as we get it ready for publication, hopefully by this Fall.
“My work is driven by the idea that visual storytelling and images have the power to change the world.” – Alice Aedy, Documentary Filmmaker
Sharing for Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday and Lens-Artists Edit an Image.
Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders
The Sunday Stills weekly-themed photo challenge is simple to join. You have all week to share and link your post. Please use your own original images, whether new or from your archives. Your original images reimagined with AI tools in post-editing are also welcome.
- Remember to title your blog post a little differently from mine.
- Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
- Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
- Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so that other participants can read your post.
- I also recommend adding your post’s URL to the comments.
If you are participating in the photo challenge, I look forward to seeing how you interpret this week’s theme! Creativity is encouraged, so please share your own photographs (old or new), poems, original short stories, and music inspired by the theme.
Let’s go to the BEACH next week as we explore National Beach Day.
“Bugs are not going to inherit the earth. They own it now. So we might as well make peace with the landlord.” – Thomas Eisner
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