I am getting my Friday 5 post up a bit late today, but there’s a reason! I knew I was going out today and was going to have an opportunity to take some photos, so I was hoping I’d get enough bug photos to post them here. And I did! My husband had surgery early last week and I’ve been trying to spend my mornings with him each day as he recovers. He wanted to get out of the house for a while for the first time since he got home, so we went to the zoo and made our way through it very slowly. Because we were really taking it easy, I had a lot of time to wander around and climb through bushes and whatnot looking for bugs. Here’s some of what I came across on a beautiful, cool, spring day in southern Arizona!
Carpenter Bee
Carpenter bee (Xylacopa varipuncta) male - I think
I’ve seen a lot of the big, black carpenter bees that are all over Arizona, but today was the first time I’d ever seen these! I believe this is Xylacopa varipuncta, the valley carpenter bee. Apparently these are sexually dimorphic, with orange-brown males and black females. That would make this one a male – and a beautiful male to boot! Hope I see more of these in the future because I loved them. There were 15 or 20 of them sucking nectar out of palo verde tree flowers and they were really fun to watch!
Lacewing Larva
Lacewing larva
This is another thing I’ve never actually seen! Somehow I’ve managed to miss out on some great insects in my life and this is one of them. Lacewings belong to the order Neuroptera and have the long, pointed mouthparts typical of the larvae of the order. They use those mouthparts to pierce prey insects, inject them with chemicals, and then eat them. This little guy was chasing thrips, which were so small they barely seemed worth eating, but apparently they were tasty because the lacewing was actively hunting them the whole time I watched.
Flame Skimmer
Flame Skimmer (Libellula saturata) male
I’ve loved the same part of the zoo in my city as long as I can remember, a pond with a water wheel, lots of ducks, and flamingos. As a kid I loved the water wheel and the grinding stones that went along with it, but now I like that area of the zoo because that’s where the dragonflies are! Today I saw two dragonfly species and three damselflies, but I only got a good photo of the flame skimmer. These are incredibly common in southern Arizona, but I love the colors on this species (Libellula saturata) so I never get sick of seeing them.
Leafcutter Bee
Leafcutter bee (Megachile sp. pehaps?)
I saw this bee flying around and thought it looked enormous! Thankfully moments later it landed inches from me so I was able to get a good look at it. What I thought was a gigantic bee turned out to be a rather average bee carrying a big piece of leaf. A leafcutter! This bee was surely carrying this leaf fragment back to line her nest before she laid some eggs. Adorable!
Aphids
Aphids
I am in love with these bright yellow aphids! I always find them on toxic plants and these were no exception – oleander. Apart from their incredible color, I also like them for an odd twitchy behavior they do. I usually find them with their mouthparts inserted into the plant, but their whole bodies stick up into the air. Then they swing their bodies in a 360° arc about their mouthparts every 10-20 seconds. They don’t synchronize the behavior, so there’s always one or more swinging around by the mouthparts in a group. It’s really odd, but fascinating too! Someday I’m going to figure out why they do it. If anyone happens to know, please leave a comment!
All in all, a great day! Got to spend time with my husband out of the house, watched and photographed some great insects (and some of my other favorite animals such as capybaras, tapirs, and otters), and got some work done too. Not a bad way to spend a day!
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The Dragonfly Woman 
WAH that’s a great day of insect visitations! Happy Friday!
Thanks! It was a great day!
I hope your husband is recovering well. You found some nice stuff! I haven’t been at the zoo in ages, but I’ve seen the first yellow Valley Carpenter Bee males on Campus this year. Hard to photograph! Now spring is really picking up – Yesterday I got photos of 4 spider, 4 beetles 3 ant spp. and a red and green cockoo wasp – all new for my photo collection and all within an hour before sunset at a little dried out pond in Marana. Oh, and an Alkali Grasshopper. So yes, great days for bug enthousiasts in Tucson.
Nice! It does seem like it’s shaping up to be a good bug season. I’ve found some great things that I’ve never seen before in the last few months. Always exciting to discover something new!
Are your new photos on Flickr? I really need to look through all your photos there sometime… You’ve got so many!
I feel there is something instilled in each of us as we are being created as a baby. I grew up in the backwoods of southern VA. I was given the gift of compassion for all animals. I had an insect cemetery under the oak tree in our back yard.I would come across dead insects and I would put them, if small enough, into the shells of the nuts off the oak tree as a little coffin, bury them and say a prayer. I buried many butterflies, ants, June bugs, name it, I buried it. To this day, I cannot kill any insect. They all have a purpose here on earth and I just cannot kill these insects! Everybody thinks I am crazy and they give me a hard time, but I just continue my love for all living animals. I rescue English Bulldogs, pick up roadkill and bury it, if the poor creature is not demolished by whoever ran over it, Once a mama possum and her eight babies were strewn on the highway and I turned around, pulled over, and began the process of removing the remains. Somehow, in my trunk, I had a box, a spade and gloves! I put them into the box and as I was about finished my duty, a man came out to me from his home and said he had never seen anyone do as I was doing. He was so kind and I just told him, it is a shame that people just keep running over these creatures until there is only a stain left on the road. On my way to work each day, I call the animal removal to report creatures killed on the road. I told the lady there was a rabbit in the middle of the road and she remarked, “he just did not make it across in time”, and yes, she was right, he did not make it across in time….btw, I have a big beautiful tattoo of a dragonfly on my tummy!! I love your site! Thanks for your enthusiasm for the creatures! Debi
Thanks for sharing your story! And I love that you have a dragonfly tattoo. If I can ever get up the nerve to actually do it, I intend to get one myself – on my back though.