I saw this dragonfly zooming back and forth above the anchialine pool at the south end of Kiholo Beach Park.
Posted in response to Becky’s October Squares challenge theme of ‘Past Squares – Blue.’ See more responses here.
Dragonfly above a pool
Category Archives: Animals
A spiky passion vine butterfly caterpillar
This is a caterpillar with a message and the message is ‘Back off.’ This is illustrated by the orange and black coloring and black spikes, which in this case conveys that these caterpillars are poisonous. Fortunately, I wasn’t hungry at the time so no harm done. Passion vine butterfly caterpillars, on the other hand, seem to be permanently hungry. Whenever I see them they’re munching leaves like old time video game characters.
Posted in response to Becky’s October Squares challenge theme of ‘Past Squares – Spiky.’ See more responses here.
Alright, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.
The current Friendly Friday challenge theme is ‘Close ups and Macros.’ See more responses here. Here’s a selection of some little creatures up close and personal.
A bee on a clover flower. 
A wandering glider dragonfly rests on a stalk. 
A female Hawaiian garden spider on her web. 
A grasshopper (Schistocerca nitens) sunning itself. 
Run for your life, it’s a giant African land snail! 
Guess who’s coming to dinner?
Fiery skipper butterfly on aptenias
I often see fiery skipper butterflies on what I know as ice plants. I thought the different color flowers were just variations within the plant but, while they’re members of the same family (Aizoaceae), they’re different plants. At the top is an Aptenia haeckeliana with its yellow flower. To the left is an Aptenia cordifolia with a magenta flower.
It’s a different butterfly on the two flowers, but both are fiery skippers.
Black witch moth
I found this black witch moth on the lawn and took the opportunity to get a few photos of its gorgeous patterns and coloring.
Kou flower and mango beetle
A mango beetle checks out a bright orange Kou (Cordia subcordata) flower.
Whitecrossed seed bug
I was doing some cleanup work outside, when I noticed this bug on my hand. I headed in to where my camera was and the bug stayed in place the whole way. I got the camera organized and took a few photos before it finally flew off.
I knew I’d seen one of these before, but couldn’t remember where or what it was. A quick search revealed that this is a whitecrossed seed bug (Neacoryphus bicrucis), a resident of fields and meadows.
My previous sighting had occurred after a hike on Mauna Loa. It was on a water bottle I’d left in the cooler in my truck while I hiked. I suspect that one had inadvertently taken a day trip with me and was probably stunned to find itself at 11,000 feet, surrounded by barren lava!
Tangerine flowers
A while back I posted a photo (here) of one of the heavily-laden tangerine trees in the yard. I noted that in my eight years living here I’d never seen a flower on the tree despite its prolific production of fruit.
However, last week, when I was up on a ladder harvesting the last of the current crop of fruit, I finally saw the flowers in the top photo. Then, when I’d knocked the last of the fruit down, I saw (bottom photo) one tangerine had a bit of branch still attached which bore, not only a flower, but also a leaf bearing a cluster of butterfly eggs.
I still don’t know how I’ve missed seeing these flowers before. They’re small, but not minuscule, and they have a lovely scent. While I wouldn’t expect to see flowers on higher branches, the lowest branches are at eye level and below. And I still haven’t seen bees and butterflies around the trees, though the eggs clearly show they do visit.
Graham's Island 