While I was at the Queen’s Bath in Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, I saw this striking roseate skimmer dragonfly looping back and forth above the water. It’s an introduced species and this one is, I think, a male.
Category Archives: Animals
Cast a giant shadow
This rusty millipede cast a giant shadow as it wandered back and forth on a dirt track. Every so often the strong, blustery wind would blow it over like a many-legged tumbleweed.
Demon kitten?
While out walking, I saw three, probably feral, kittens by the side of the road. When they saw me, they promptly rushed into the tall grasses bordering the road. I waited a while and this ghostly kitten duly reemerged, sat down, and fixed me in its icy blue stare.
I took a few photos and went to turn off my camera, but it wouldn’t respond. Instead, the screen broke into a display of blue flashes. I had to pop the battery out to end the show. When I put the battery in again and turned the camera on, it worked fine. I looked back at the kitten. It hadn’t moved, still staring.
A glitch in the electronics? Or something more sinister? Hmm.
Sphecid wasp
I saw this creature on a wall being eyed by a gold dust day gecko as a possible meal. Eventually the gecko thought better of it, which is probably just as well. This is a sphecid wasp and they can pack a sting, though they aren’t aggressive.
From searches on whatsthatbug.com and bugguide.net, it appears that this sphecid is in the genus Prionyx, probably P. fervens.
Milking time
Cows are rounded up for milking on one of the Big Island’s two remaining dairy farms. These days most cowboys, called paniolos in Hawaii, do their work on four-wheelers, though horses are still sometimes used.
Variable lady beetles
A pair of variable lady beetles mating on the underside of a leaf on a passion flower vine.
Naio
Naio (Myoporum sandwicense) used to grow in great abundance in Hawaii, but now is much less common. It has some similarities to true sandalwood and was passed off as the latter without much success, leading to it’s other names of false sandalwood or, less sympathetically, bastard sandalwood.
This small tree was found growing on the lower slopes of Mauna Kea.
Potted gecko
A gold dust day gecko peers out from behind a flowerpot.
Graham's Island 