The 21st Century Matriarch

The temperature was in the low 70s and sunny during our visit to Springfield Botanical Gardens last week. There were plenty of insects to observe. I used my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) with its optical zoom for insect groupings and photographing a buckeye butterfly that flew out of the meadow onto a dusty patch. There was also a dragonfly a few feet into the meadow that appeared to be enjoying a snack.

Otherwise, I used my phone (Samsung Galaxy S10e) for more extreme macro shots where I could get closer to the subjects. I saw the solder beetles on several different flowers in the natural garden near the Botanical Center building – the very first place I looked to find insects; there were quite a few mating (maybe they overwinter as eggs?). The Monarch butterfly surprised me – landing on a butterfly bush very close to where I was standing. I didn’t have enough room to swing my bridge camera around to photograph it….but I am pleased enough with the results from my phone.

I photographed an adult stink bug then something a had not seen before: a small jewel like insect on a flower that might be a nymph of the green stink bug!

As part of my early spring cleaning recently, I found a stink bug carcass in a storage closet. It could have been there for a long time. it looked a little squashed with the wings visible on one side). And it was missing some pieces – one antenna, 5 of the 6 legs, and an edge of the under abdomen.

A few years ago, we had many more stink bugs inside our house than we’ve seen in the past year. The brown marmorated stink bug is invasive in the US and initially seemed destined to be a bother for the long term but maybe the other bugs (wheel bugs?) and spiders and parasitic wasps that are native have figured out that stink bugs are fit to eat! Or maybe it is just the vagaries of the weather than have caused the population of stink bugs to drop off.

I experimented with the higher resolution clip on lens with my phone. The bug was not flat enough to get the whole field in focus. I was a little surprised by the extra color and texture that showed up with the magnification.